Factory Diary: Working at a plastic products factory in a southern city (Updated to 2025.5.29)

It has been about three months since I last wrote a factory diary, so here I will roughly describe what has happened during this time. After the last episode of demanding wages ended, I took a break, but during this period I did not persist in ideological struggle, nor did I take advantage of the favorable conditions of not wasting time on wage labor to study Marxism or do something meaningful for the association and forum. Instead, I indulged myself in pleasure, listened heavily to virtual singer music, and was deeply addicted to the spiritual opium of the bourgeoisie, unable to extricate myself. However, the forum members did not give up on helping me because of my self-indulgence; on the contrary, they repeatedly persuaded and taught me to follow the Marxist path. But because I still could not let go of the virtual singers, I was afraid to make a revolutionary decision, and subjectively used counter-revolutionary ideological struggle, occasionally influenced by revolutionary thoughts arising from practice and the help of others. Eventually, I had a major conflict with everyone but still did not completely turn to the counter-revolutionary path. Listening to the advice of forum members, I found another factory and re-entered wage labor.

However, by this time my thinking had regressed significantly compared to the beginning of the month. At first, I still thought about writing something, to restart a factory diary. But because I devoted a large amount of time entirely to spiritual opium, my mental state worsened and I thought less and less. Meanwhile, since this factory is a foreign-funded factory and the workstation I was assigned to was relatively freer and easier compared to others, I further relaxed my ideological struggle during this process, completely letting myself go. I listened to virtual singers whenever I wanted, paid no attention to the association’s activities, and only occasionally thought of the organization when my living conditions worsened, browsing the forum messages.

But good times did not last. I thought I could maintain this state, keeping myself out of the bourgeoisie and proletariat struggle, but reality soon taught me a lesson. At my workplace, there was a formal worker scab with extremely arrogant and corrupt, reactionary thoughts. I could not stand his bullying of other workers and had conflicts and arguments with him. This person had been overbearing for many years, and seeing me fight him felt deeply humiliated, so he launched furious verbal abuse and physical provocations against me. I immediately fought back. Seeing that this tactic could not make me submit, he used the excuse that my counterattack caused him physical injury to try to get the Nazi police involved to make me compensate him. However, since his injury was almost zero and had little effect on his body, the Nazi police did not intervene and instead mediated based on the Confucian principle of harmony. The scab was discouraged but still harbored evil intentions. He went to the hospital to get a so-called mild concussion certificate and demanded the police administratively detain me. The Nazi police found the evidence insufficient and called me to ask if I wanted to participate in mediation or let him go to court. I knew the scab was unreasonable and that the Nazi court itself was ineffective, so I chose to let the scab pursue litigation. Seeing he still could not make me submit, he became furious and forcibly dragged me during his off-work hours to the public security bureau for mediation. After I argued my case, the scab lost patience and assaulted me. Eventually, the factory feared the conflict between me and the scab would affect production and suspended both of us.

During this period, with the help of the forum, I still persisted in struggle, wanting to punish the scab with administrative detention. Under the Nazi police’s coercion and inducement, I repeatedly refused mediation. To force me to accept mediation, the Nazi police even locked me in a so-called study room, forced me to make so-called statements, and restricted my personal freedom for a day.

However, during this time, I still did not persist in ideological struggle and maintained a petty-bourgeois lifestyle, indulging in spiritual opium all day. With the organization’s help, my ideological state occasionally improved, but the overall trend was still deteriorating. Ultimately, during this relaxed period of suspension, I completely abandoned the Marxist position, forgot my historical mission and emotional ties with the working class, the forum’s help, and hatred of capitalist oppression. I chose to go to the opposite side, broke with everyone for a time, severed relations, and became a shameful scab.

After this, I compromised and surrendered, reconciled with the scab, and accepted compensation. Upon learning this, the factory immediately and unreasonably fired me (and also fired the scab). Afterward, I fought in the factory, exposing the factory’s rude dismissal of workers and protection of scabs. But because I had long been addicted to spiritual opium and did not follow the Marxist path of uniting workers during my time at the factory, it had little effect and I was even imprisoned by the Nazi police (locked in the study room for about eight or nine hours). After being released, I completely let myself follow a petty-bourgeois right-wing spontaneous path, indulging in spiritual opium all day, using high-end headphones, not participating in labor, and living parasitically lying flat in a youth hostel.

After about two months, I squandered all my money and finally had to return to wage labor. Meanwhile, the emptiness and decadence in life always caused me conflicting feelings, often feeling that life could not continue this way. So from time to time, I returned to the forum to check in, say a few words, and rarely participate in some activities.

undefined

14 Likes

How should I put it, I’ve had a lot of experience, but virtual singers are really harmful.

5 Likes

No, after being treated like this by the dog police, you still listen to virtual singers.

1 Like

Come to participate in activities more and join the discussions more

2025.5.29
Today is the day to move into the factory dormitory. Originally, I could have moved in earlier in the morning, but because I’ve been slacking off recently and my mindset has been getting worse, I indulged in pleasure all day and only reluctantly moved into the new dormitory in the evening.
The new dormitory is somewhat better than my original one, but not by much. The hygiene environment is a bit better, but this has little to do with the dormitory itself, as it relies on the workers’ self-discipline to maintain it. There are almost no power outlets in the dormitory; only some beds have outlets, which causes some inconvenience for the workers’ daily lives. The overall space in the dormitory is cramped, and many times workers have to figure out ways to arrange their luggage and clothes themselves. Besides that, there is only a narrow aisle between the iron bunk beds on both sides.
The factory dormitory is surrounded by a university’s student dormitories, though I don’t know if it’s undergraduate or vocational. At night, there are often strange noises around the dormitory: sometimes the sound of dragging suitcases scraping over rough cement, sometimes inexplicable shouting, and sometimes the sound of metal clashing.
The dormitory’s toilet is designed very oddly, with a narrow space. There is a squat toilet in the middle and a sink beside it, but no place to stand while showering. Workers have to be careful not to accidentally fall into the toilet while washing.
A few days ago, when the agency took me to tour the factory, I didn’t really understand the labor intensity and thought it wasn’t high. But workers who have been working in the factory for two months told me the labor intensity is not low. Many times, the machines are not allowed to stop, and workers can only swap shifts with each other to eat, taking turns to have their meals.

7 Likes

So how much did the scab pay you? Did you use that money to do nothing and live parasitically for two months? What were you doing during this period? Where did you live?

1 Like

Lost ten thousand; the money was spent on purchasing high-end headphones, and another part of the salary was all spent while just lying around in a youth hostel. During this time, I was constantly listening to virtual singers and playing games, watching pornography and online novels, and so on…

10 Likes

Is this how you spend money?

Uh, after abandoning Marxism, one indulges in luxury without restraint and no longer considers right or wrong, so…

2 Likes

2025.5.30
This morning I went to complete the onboarding process. Because my life was quite chaotic yesterday—I indulged all day—I forgot to make a copy of my ID card. There was no choice but to see how the agency would react when I got there.
After arriving at the factory at 8:20, the agency started leading us through some basic procedures and signing various binding contracts. The vast majority of the contract content violates Nazi labor laws, such as wage deductions if the required working hours are not met, a 300 yuan deduction for voluntary resignation, and the company hiring employees before medical examination results are available. If problems arise later in the medical check, the employee can be directly dismissed. There is also a 100 yuan deposit for work uniforms, but even if the uniform is returned normally, only 80 yuan is refunded. Their reasoning is that the factory does not allow workers to bring their own water cups and must use those provided by the factory. Once a cup is used by a worker, it cannot be reclaimed. At the same time, the collection and cleaning of uniforms also incur costs, so part of the deposit must be deducted from workers. It’s truly ridiculous that the bourgeoisie impose strict rules on workers and yet require workers to pay to support them. In short, the vast majority are blatant violations of workers’ rights.
I believe many workers somewhat know that what the agency is doing violates labor laws and is wrong. But on one hand, due to the soaring Nazi unemployment rate and the economic crisis causing insufficient work, the reserve army of labor has grown unprecedentedly. On the other hand, as a social-imperialist country, Nazi labor laws are essentially empty words and mostly fail to protect even the minimum rights of workers. So workers are forced to accept these reactionary regulations.
In old China, reactionary landlords exploited peasants’ illiteracy to coerce them into signing contracts of servitude, seizing their land and children. In today’s China, reactionary capitalists exploit workers’ lack of legal knowledge, the huge reserve army of labor, and the police to coerce Chinese workers into signing another form of servitude contract.
After signing the servitude contract, the agency began collecting our facial data for clocking in and meal attendance, arrogantly stating that if you don’t clock in, you won’t get paid.
In reality, attendance is not about accurately calculating wages. In today’s old China, attendance is used as an excuse to withhold and deduct wages. When workers demand immediate wage settlement, they lie that attendance cannot be calculated immediately. When workers forget to clock in due to fatigue, they use the excuse that workers have no proof of labor to withhold wages.
Then the agency led us to receive work uniforms. The factory uniforms are somewhat absurd: a hairnet on the head, a hat over the hairnet, and then a cap on the cleanroom suit. The upper body wears both factory clothes and cleanroom clothes; the lower body only needs factory pants.
Next was the so-called safety training, which was just for show. The bourgeois safety training content is also very reactionary, saying that factory accidents are caused by workers operating machines without permission or trying to operate unfamiliar machines, leading to disasters—it’s self-inflicted. But in reality, most of the time, workers do this just to facilitate their production activities in capitalist society and alleviate the pain caused by capitalist production. (If workers fully followed bourgeois formalistic rules, many inconveniences would arise in daily work, and production targets could not be met, so the bourgeoisie forces workers to violate their own formalistic rules.) In socialist society, in the workers’ state, the working class often participates in machine maintenance, design, and modification, and there are very few so-called work injury accidents, revealing the hypocrisy and shamelessness of the bourgeoisie.
Then we were led to the workshop to work. My job was sorting plastic lids like yogurt lids, checking for dirt or glue from spoons. After sorting a certain amount, the lids were put into cylindrical plastic bags, tied up, and placed in boxes. After enough quantity was collected, the boxes were packed. Although it is not heavy physical labor, like an assembly line, sometimes people cannot stop, and there is little rest time or opportunity.
During work, an older brother treated me kindly, patiently teaching me and telling me I didn’t have to stand all the time and could sit while working. Many workers here appear to be middle-aged, and overall their mental outlook is relatively healthy.

12 Likes

Why hasn’t it been updated?

jqr, what about the reply you promised? Several days have passed.

I have also been messed with. Now that the college entrance exam results are out, people have become corrupt. I haven’t really engaged in ideological struggle anymore.