The author is a 23-year-old worker in South Central Los Angeles and is a member of the PSL.
I currently work for a high-end department store, filling online orders. I don’t have a car, so I have about a two hour commute on two buses. I get to work at 7:00 a.m., three hours before the store opens. My job is to find the items ordered online, and to ship them out.
After two years of working there I have finally qualified for a retirement and dental plan, yet I might have to reject the retirement plan because I do not earn enough, and too much money would be taken out of my paycheck.
Even though they offer a health insurance plan, it is too expensive and the company is not willing to offer a plan that is affordable to its employees.
After taking more responsibilities I asked my supervisor for a raise, telling him I was only earning $10 per hour [now the Calif. minimum wage]. As I told him this he acted as though he did not believe that I earn that little.
He “promised” to ask the people on top to give me a raise.
After months of waiting and asking, I didn’t get a raise, but instead got an “Employee Who Made It Happen Award” from my boss. I knew exactly what the meaning of the award was—it was to make me feel as though the company “cared about my contribution”, so I should shut up and stop asking for a raise. To make matters worse, my boss made me come in on my day off just to get the award!
Even after earning an associate’s degree, something that is supposed to get you good pay in this country, my wages have stayed the same. The responsibilities keep piling up but the pay doesn’t change; this is what capitalism does to us workers. The bosses demand more work yet are unwilling to pay us more, not because they do not have the funds but because it is more profitable for them to pay us less.
I’m a part-time worker, yet I almost pull full-time hours, especially during the holidays. As many of us workers know, having part-timers is more profitable for the capitalists because it means less benefits for us.
After three years of going to community college I was able to transfer to Cal State Long Beach. Yet because education is so expensive under this system, I had to keep on working. After work I would have to take a three hour commute to school to attend night classes, getting home by 11:00pm. This left very little time to study and sleep as I would have to wake up early for work.
I eventually was faced with the decision to either work to make ends meet for me and my family or to go to school.
I chose to work, taking time off from school as I was unable to keep up. We’re taught this is the land of opportunities, yet our choices are so limited.
Why I joined the PSL
During the economic crisis of 2008, my dad lost his job and economic instability for our family of six followed.
He found a new job but it didn’t pay much. The house we were renting in Echo Park was bought by a company. We couldn’t afford the new rent so we had no choice but to move. My family and I moved back to our hometown in South Central.
Throughout these years my anger just grew. The feeling of impotence was unbearable. I saw how capitalism didn’t care about us workers. I saw how the media, owned by corporations, did not start paying attention to the oppressed until the rich started feeling the recession. It was as though the working class, those struggling to feed their families, didn’t exist until the government was forced to start talking about us.
This is where my class consciousness starting coming in. I realized that America was a class society. Equal opportunity is a lie.
After my family moved, my dad got sick and could no longer work. My mom started cleaning houses to help support the family, yet regardless of how many hours my mother, my two siblings and I worked, we couldn’t make ends meet.
There are times I remember my mother searching her bag to see if she had enough money to buy a snack. I’ve seen her scramble for change to see if she has enough money to take the bus. I saw my parents stand in bread lines because they couldn’t afford to buy groceries. I grew tired of seeing my mother’s face of desperation when she didn’t have enough money for the rent.
I realized that this government didn’t care about us.
The politicians only showed up when elections were near.
They made false promises. I still remember that in the 2008 election Obama came to Los Angeles Trade Tech College to speak to the youth who lived in South LA, mostly Latinos and African Americans. Once he got elected, he never came back. Now when he comes to LA he goes to the University of Southern California [an expensive private school].
I realized that the capitalist system didn’t work for us.
I knew that it was only good to make people feel ashamed when they didn’t make it to the top, even though it was built for it to be this way. The corporations are never blamed.
It has been us, the working class, who helped those in power get rich. It has been our hard work and sweat that makes this country what it is, yet we get nothing. We only get cuts to social services, education, healthcare and public transportation.
But as workers we know the CEOs who sit in their office are unable to do our jobs. Many times at work we have visits from those in higher positions, regional managers etc., and many times those in charge do not even know the everyday functions that we do in order to keep their business afloat.
I joined the PSL because I was no longer satisfied with just voting every four years or listening to my supervisor talk about how hard he “tried” to get me a raise. I had to take action. I could no longer stand on the sidelines. I knew if I wanted things to change I had to do something. I wanted a better life for my family, for my community and for my people.
The PSL stands with those who have lost their voices, with the working class, with the victims of capitalism. I joined because I know no change will come from above, it will come from the working class.
