Beixi's work experience

free discussion
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I previously mentioned in my self-introduction that I wanted to write a post about working part-time, and now I will describe my working life.

I got in through connections; there is an uncle at the factory who is a friend of my parents. First, let me talk about the factory I work in. This factory mainly processes pipes. I do the most basic work, which is pipe cutting, similar to parcel sorting but lighter. Sometimes I have to move pipes weighing ten or twenty jin (Chinese weight unit), and for heavier ones, I use a crane. Due to long periods of staying at home indulging in pleasure and lack of exercise, plus irregular eating and sleeping habits, my body became very weak. So, in the first two months, I worked for a week and rested for a week. In the third month, I started working full-time (occasionally taking leave), but no overtime at night. From the fourth month, I worked overtime on Saturdays, and from the fifth month, I worked overtime at night (also took some leave during this period, but my bourgeois habits had a strong influence on me). I ran away in the fifth month.

First, let me talk about the working hours for regular employees: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 8-12, 13:30-17:30, 18:00-20:00; no overtime on Wednesday and Saturday nights.

Next, about the working environment: many workers operate in ways that do not comply with safety regulations, especially the master who trains me. It’s more like playing while working than actual work. I often see him perform some high-risk operations, and surprisingly, nothing has gone wrong so far. The noise and dust inside are also very outrageous. When the weather is good and sunlight shines into the factory, you can see iron shavings and dust in the air. Before I wore proper protective gear like masks, my nose was black from digging out boogers. Also, the protective supplies issued by the factory are useless; their protective effect is minimal in such a hazardous environment. Luckily, my position is far from welding and painting, which could damage health. Despite doing such exhausting work, the full attendance salary for a month for a regular worker is only five or six thousand yuan (after social security deductions). My position is relatively easy. The drinking water for workers in the factory is also very poor. I heard from that uncle that they draw water directly from a nearby river ditch, boil it, and then use it. The food there is not very good (the meat is not good), but at least better than school food.

The quality of the workers in the factory is also hard to judge. I only worked there for two months before they wanted to take me to prostitute, drink, and get massages. Everyone I interacted with near my position seemed to behave the same—either talking about sex or half-mentioning eating, drinking, gambling.

Additionally, I want to mention some incidents that my uncle told me about in the factory. One incident was when a worker was hit in the brow by a hook while operating a crane, and he had to pay out of pocket to sew up over ten stitches. He took three days off and then returned to work. The boss didn’t know, and even after my uncle reported it, the response was, “If you don’t follow safety regulations, it’s none of my business.”

My work in the factory gradually changed my living habits. I used to be often late for work, but later I started to follow the factory’s schedule. At first, I needed to rest often, but gradually I could work for an hour and a half straight without drinking water. That’s all for now; I will add more details if I remember.

Continuing, I want to discuss some ongoing issues since I started working: 1. Masturbation, once a week. I remember a book published during the Cultural Revolution called “Adolescent Hygiene” that explained this issue in detail but did not analyze its social, historical, and class roots. 2. Watching videos (often miscellaneous ones), listening to novels (mainly bourgeois love stories). I like bourgeois love novels because I am introverted and don’t like communicating much, so I have fewer friends and less interaction, and I rarely discuss my inner thoughts. The characters’ intimacy and openness in these novels somewhat reflect my spiritual needs, so I listen to them. However, in bourgeois love novels, women are usually in a weak position; authors often depict women as “easily overwhelmed by emotions,” “soft and weak,” “confused over small matters,” and easily manipulated by men. 3. Watching pornography (about ten times in five months, mostly short clips, only when I masturbate). The reason I want to watch is because I still have thoughts of wanting to control women and to oppress women sexually.

That’s all I can think of for now. If any friends have questions or criticisms, please feel free to ask.

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It should have been copied and pasted directly from somewhere; I suggest reformatting it, as it’s not very convenient to read right now.

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Actually, after graduating from high school, I also participated in a summer job involving express delivery sorting. I worked for an afternoon, maybe only four or five hours a day, but it was very hard work. Every time I finished, I was drenched in sweat, especially during the summer in the south. At that time, it was still 20 years ago, and perhaps our local economy was relatively good. The factory workers didn’t have a strong desire to fight, and the atmosphere was quite harmonious and relaxed, even though the work was quite laborious. So, at that time, it didn’t have a big impact on my ideological outlook. But I think, as my first labor practice in life, it cultivated in me a good quality that I think is acceptable: no matter whether I am happy with the work or whether I like it, I will try my best to do it well. I won’t slack off, and I don’t want to trouble or burden my colleagues. Since I have started, I must do every detail to the best of my ability. I feel that if I am perfunctory, not serious, or not setting a good example at work, my colleagues and coworkers won’t listen to what I say or believe in me.

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这个想法其实是不对的。工人在工厂里上班是受剥削的，干得再多再好，实际上也不会增加工资，反而是付出了更多的劳动力，白让资本家多剥削了一些。而且从工资的实质上来看，资本家只是支付了工人的劳动力价值或价格，却剥削走了工人的劳动创造出来的剩余价值，本来就不是十足的工资。因此在资本主义工厂里上班，根本就没有必要尽心尽力，而是应该尽可能的磨洋工。
尽心尽力去给资本家干活不仅没有好处，反而坏处很多。前面说到工资不变的情况下，你提供给资本家的劳动力越多，那么你的劳动力价值就越低。由于劳动力商品也是按照社会必要劳动时间计算其价值，当资本家利用个别价值低的劳动力，他就会取得更多的剩余价值。这也是为什么资本家及其走狗要千方百计地提高工人的劳动效率，恨不得拿鞭子抽工人多干活。你干活干得越卖力，提供给资本家的劳动力越多，就越使资本家可以减少他在雇佣工人上的花费，进而减少就业工人的数量。简单来说就是，如果你一个人能顶两个人干活，那就会使另一个工人失业，而资本家是不可能付给你两倍的工钱；就算付两倍工钱，但你劳动力再生产所需要的物质资料也只是一个人的量，资本家还是赚的，而另一个工人却陷入了失业。而且失业的人越多，资本家越能利用这种劳动力供过于求的情况压低在业工人的工资，他说“你不干，有的是人干”。这也是为什么工人在资本主义社会下是“越努力，越贫困”。给资本家用心干活，其实是当工贼。
虽然工人会觉得干活利落的人比较聪明，但工人是更讨厌任劳任怨的奴才的。如果有机会，应该教工友如何摸鱼怠工。只有减少了给资本家提供的劳动力数量，才有可能逼迫资本家提高工资。靠努力干活是不能得到工友赏识的，只有斗争才行。

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This view is super-classist. Under capitalist wage labor, the products of labor all belong to the capitalists, and the result of labor is to create more surplus value for the bourgeoisie. The more effort and dedication you put into your work, the more surplus value you create for the bourgeoisie, and with this surplus value, the bourgeoisie can better dominate the workers.
Moreover, if you do everything well and one person can do the work of two, then this standard will become the standard that capitalists require from other workers. This will instead increase the labor intensity of other workers, and for such people, workers will only dislike them, thinking they are on the side of the capitalists.
How to gain workers’ trust? Becoming a “skilled worker” alone cannot gain workers’ trust. Saying that working for the boss is creating surplus value to be exploited, and then working desperately, is a behavior that is inconsistent and will only make people feel speechless. Only by studying Marxism, explaining to workers using Marxist theory, addressing their doubts and social phenomena, and fighting against the bourgeoisie in practice can one gain the trust of workers.
I don’t know if you’ve seen JQR’s factory struggle posts; it’s clear that only through such struggle experiences can people earn trust.

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If you are very meticulous and efficient in your hired labor, then you are effectively working for capitalists. Other workers won’t look up to you or gain any benefits just because you do good work. Capitalists are always the greediest and stingiest; if they see that you can generate more surplus value within a certain time, they will think hiring a worker like you is better than hiring multiple slower workers, thus firing your slower colleagues or forcing them to improve their efficiency. This leads to increasingly high labor efficiency requirements, many middle-aged and elderly workers cannot find jobs, and more young workers age prematurely and die due to heavy employment. Most workers understand this logic, unless it’s the children of capitalists experiencing life or some traitorous workers. So, working well for capitalists will make more workers see you as a traitor and avoid contact. If you do everything to the best, as you suggest, it will cause the store manager, customers, and delivery riders to criticize the worker Sun Yuehua, who recently committed suicide, because increasing labor efficiency results in more workers being fired during probation without wages. Capitalists think that workers who work slower than you are, and this prevents the recent truck driver strike from expanding, because people like you drive large trucks to deliver packages that haven’t arrived yet. Their strikes are less impactful on the bourgeoisie because traitorous workers are working desperately. The Korean medical strike is also because traitorous workers are replacing striking medical staff, which makes the Korean government so arrogant. If the factory is full of people like you, comrades promoting communism in the factory will be quickly fired due to the high labor intensity, making propaganda difficult to carry out. Therefore, if you are meticulous and diligent in employment, it will only make progressive workers dislike you, and you will only gain praise from traitorous workers and capitalists, leading workers to suffer even deeper capitalist exploitation and oppression.

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I have also fallen into this kind of logic. In fact, if you participate in employment with this mindset, then you can only exist among workers as a strikebreaker, doing the tasks assigned by capitalists to the best of your ability. This means you will inevitably increase your labor efficiency, and even one person’s work can match that of two people (just an analogy). If capitalists see this behavior, they will be overjoyed. On one hand, they will regard you as an excellent employee and demand other workers to improve their efficiency like you, using you as a new standard for hiring. This implies that you will be excluded by other workers at work, creating unemployment. At the same time, as your labor efficiency improves, your wages for the same amount of work will decrease, and capitalists will assign you more tasks, making you more exhausted and suffering. Ultimately, this kind of thinking will also become your moral code. When you encounter passive or negligent work, objectively undermining the workers producing for the capitalists, you will inevitably judge and attack them with your own worldview of “doing things,” standing on the side of the capitalists against the workers’ resistance to the capitalists.
In a class society, morality also needs to be class-conscious. Diligence and responsibility in socialism mean sacrificing oneself for others and contributing to the collective, which we promote. However, in capitalist society, if we unconditionally treat employment with the so-called “diligence and responsibility,” it can only serve the interests of the bourgeoisie, maintain the bourgeois social order and morality, and oppose the masses.

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You say that doing your best is a “good quality,” but actually, this kind of statement is incorrect. In a capitalist society, workers working for capitalists are exploited for surplus value, and the diligence of the working class only pushes them deeper into poverty. Working desperately for capitalists, striving for perfection, and doing your best will only lead capitalists to regard such “labor models” as examples, demand that other workers also reach this standard, or even directly dismiss workers who fail to satisfy them. As more and more people put in such “efforts to do their job well,” workers will become increasingly exhausted, and capitalists will earn more and more. Is this behavior in line with the proletariat’s stance? Take piecework jobs as an example: because capitalists use bonuses to deceive workers, turning RMB into a whip to beat the workers, forcing workers to work at full capacity while constantly lowering prices, extending working hours, etc., this results in workers experiencing greater work intensity but earning less and facing worse working conditions. Workers are not living better as the capitalist lies suggest; instead, the pockets of capitalists are truly swelling. We advocate for slacking off during work to study theory, participate in organizational activities, and also persuade other workers not to sell their labor to capitalists. If conditions permit, we should try to recover as much of our surplus value as possible through various means.
You say

[quote=“ascend, post:3, topic:855”] I feel that if I am careless, inattentive, and do not set a good example at work, my colleagues and fellow workers won’t listen to what I say or believe in my words. [/quote]
Actually, this is also a mistaken view. It is a misconception to judge a person’s worth based on their labor ability among workers. This is also a detachment from the laboring masses. Among some workers around me, they have long been enslaved by capitalists, fully aware that if they don’t work for the capitalists, they can’t survive, but capitalists do everything possible to prevent them from getting overtime pay, even making excuses for fines. In such circumstances, more people see those who dare to speak out and fight against unfair rules and regulations as role models, while those who bow and scrape, diligently working for capitalists, are often looked down upon. Most workers can see clearly whether a person’s behavior truly aligns with the interests of the working class. For example, if others gain recognition from capitalists while they have to learn to be “role models,” increase labor intensity, and become more exhausted just to make a living—would they respect, recognize, or praise this “role model”? Certainly not.
There are indeed some people with mistaken views, believing that since capitalists give them work, they should work hard; otherwise, they are “unjustified” or “out of order,” and they are in the wrong. But this is entirely because they haven’t recognized the essence of the capitalist employment system as exploitation. No matter how glamorous the capitalist’s words are, they cannot hide the ultimate outcome: workers suffer from illness, fatigue, and poverty, while surplus value has long been secretly appropriated by capitalists. If you study political economy seriously, you can analyze right and wrong using Marxism, understanding what behaviors truly serve the interests of the proletariat and what behaviors betray the working class and side with the capitalists—traitorous actions. That’s why we say: “Revolution is not a crime; rebellion is justified!”
Work is to slack off; going to work is to slack off.
When someone desperately wants you to work and demands that you do your best, you should understand their ideological stance and see if they are a traitor within the working class standing on the side of the capitalists. During work, you should promote Marxism as much as possible, influence more people to slack off, and resist the capitalists. This is also the responsibility we bear as participants in wage labor.

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The rules, regulations, and SOPs in factories are tools used by capitalists to control and oppress workers, using various cumbersome rules to extend working hours and increase labor intensity. Workers naturally know how to avoid dangers during the labor process and also know how to find ways to struggle against capitalists.

Sitting down to rest and drinking water are not a big deal. When tired, you should rest; when thirsty, go drink water. The harder you work for capitalists, the more money they make, and the more you are exploited. Moreover, the work is endless. Capitalists buy the right to use your labor power and will try to extract as much labor as possible during this period to create surplus value for themselves.

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Byesi has been up to lately

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Homebody

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Specifically, what do you do every day?

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On a daily basis, I live a small bourgeois-style free and relaxed life, and I do read books, but I read them as I please.

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Fighting against petit bourgeois思想 (petit bourgeois思想) and lifestyle is a long-term task for me, although I live freely and casually. But I at least ensure eight hours of sleep each day, cook a meal, and do laundry. Sometimes I do some cleaning like mopping and sweeping (once or twice a week). Besides that, these days I also read books, such as Engels’ Anti-Dühring. Just in the preface, some terms and issues I can’t understand. To understand these requires a lot of effort from me. I’ll take it slowly. Seizing the day and night is still beyond my reach right now.

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“On the Anti-Du Lin Theory” Lecture Notes Beijing Normal University Philosophy Department Philosophy Continuing Education Class Teaching Group 1976.pdf (11.7 MB)
“On the Anti-Du Lin Theory” Introduction Summary Glossary 1971.pdf (7.8 MB)
“On the Anti-Du Lin Theory” Shallow Talk Part 1 1975.pdf (8.0 MB)
“On the Anti-Du Lin Theory” Shallow Talk Part 2 1975.pdf (8.8 MB)