Factory Diary 2025.3.3
I am at a building materials manufacturing plant, and today is my first day at this factory. My previous job was as a clerk at a snack shop. Due to moving, I haven’t worked for a while since leaving the snack shop. Mainly, I have a strong petty bourgeois mindset, wanting to enjoy parasitic comfort in my current room, watching videos of pornography and indulging in pleasures instead of looking for a job, working, and transforming myself through labor. (But actually, I moved away from the city center to get closer to the industrial proletariat.) In the end, I still decided to come to the factory to reform myself.
First of all, this factory officially operates an eight-hour workday, but in reality, many workshops work about 12 hours a day, with an hourly wage of 24 yuan, and they also withhold a month’s wages.
The site here is very dirty, noisy, with dust and construction waste all over the floor, and tangled wires everywhere. Even the water dispenser for workers is rusty and dusty.
Above the workers’ heads, besides the asbestos tiles that shield from the wind and sun, there are old gantry cranes. The workers stand under these cranes, operating them while moving steel coils weighing several tons with hooks.
Most of the workers here are older, many over forty or fifty, and the total number is not large. I asked the team leader, and there are about 80 people. In the morning, HR gave me safety training (which was more of a formality), and I signed the labor contract. After that, I received work clothes and was told to go to the cafeteria for a meal.
From the above information, we can see that the labor law in Zhongxiu is practically a scrap of paper. Even in such a small factory with over 80 people, the law is not strictly enforced.
Firstly, according to the relevant provisions of the Labor Law of the People’s Republic of China, any work exceeding eight hours is considered overtime, and the employer should pay 1.5 times the regular wage. However, the HR person clearly told me that even after eight hours, they still calculate at 24 yuan per hour.
Regarding the work environment, I don’t know if the dust exceeds standards or if fire safety measures are in place. Just from the first glance when entering the factory, seeing workers operating gantry cranes and walking under lifted heavy objects, I knew this already violated Zhongxiu’s laws on construction safety. I remember there are clear regulations that no one is allowed to stand under gantry cranes, and non-operational personnel are strictly forbidden to enter the crane operation area.
The factory’s practices blatantly trample on labor laws and workers’ safety. If I needed to file a labor arbitration or report safety issues, I might only need to take a few photos to prove these two points, which could be enough to get the government to penalize them.
I don’t know if this factory is too bold or has connections with the local government. In the midst of a severe Nazi economic crisis, the most ridiculous thing is that this factory openly displays these “illegal operations”. When the HR person took me on a tour and interview, they confidently told me, “We operate legally here, and labor law is to protect both the factory and the workers.” It’s a blatant lie. Labor law is fundamentally an insult to workers. During the socialist era, workers in factories didn’t need labor laws to protect their rights. They could rely on their own strength. Moreover, they said that labor law protects both workers and factories. But if workers really used labor law to file complaints, would all of them succeed? Could they truly safeguard their basic rights? Such claims are very much in line with the Confucian view promoted by the Zhongxiu government—moderate, impartial.
At noon, a relatively young worker came with me. While we were eating, an older worker saw that we looked young and knew we must be new. He advised us, “You better not stay here. The work is hard and tiring, the environment is dirty, noisy, and only people in their forties and fifties work here. You young people shouldn’t suffer here; go somewhere else.” I wanted to ask this experienced worker more, but he was in a hurry to smoke and rest, so he left first.
After hearing what the experienced worker said, the young worker and I looked at each other and smiled awkwardly. Although we didn’t know what would happen in this factory, it was clear that it wouldn’t be easy.
After lunch, we talked together. I learned that this worker came from Anhui and had worked at another factory before. Coincidentally, I also worked at that factory. After a brief conversation, we were assigned to different places to work.
I was doing heavy physical labor, initially assigned to work related to electric welding arcs. But I couldn’t weld, so I helped the older workers move things and do miscellaneous tasks. The work involved using a gantry crane to lift two long, silver-colored steel plates and place them on a fixed frame.
Then, between these two plates, a few shorter rectangular steel plates were inserted, and then welded together with electric welding, forming a large silver ladder-like structure. These steel plates are quite heavy, at least 1.5 meters long, and require two workers to flip and carry. I considered myself relatively strong, but due to lack of technical skills and overconfidence in my strength, I exerted too much force when working with an older worker. One of the silver steel plates suddenly popped off the support frame and hit my ring finger. I had been working for less than ten minutes and was already injured. Even now, as I write this diary, I still feel a dull pain in the second joint of my ring finger, with little strength.
I thought that if I had been in the service industry before, I would never have experienced such labor. If I had been hit like this by a nail technician or a bourgeois customer with long nails, I would have broken my nails and quit. But I didn’t give up. I have experienced worse working environments and more serious injuries. Once, while using a drill in a basement, the drill hit my chin, and my colleagues could smell the blood on my face. I also hit a fire pipe in an electronics factory, opening a cut on my head. But none of these were as bad as this, and they made me develop a personality that is not afraid of pain or hardship. I have a good friend who once praised me, saying one of my strengths is being willing to endure hardship and toil. I have done many tough jobs and can endure them. But he also noticed my weakness: I am very fond of bourgeois spiritual opium. During my long parasitic life as a student, I developed bad habits like watching videos, looking at pornography, and masturbation. I still indulge in these bourgeois spiritual opiums, and I haven’t really quit. Violence and pornographic thoughts are quite serious.
He strongly encourages me to participate in factory labor and communicate with workers to reform myself. I also hope to record my experiences and ideological changes in this factory diary. I want to share it with everyone, hoping to inspire more people to participate in labor reform and interact more with industrial workers—understanding their lives, working and living with them. Completely transforming myself into a proletariat is also what I plan to do next.
Just looking at it, so much blood and it must hurt a lot, but it’s definitely not because I’m not afraid of these injuries.
It feels like I’m almost in that state now, getting a small injury makes me call out in my heart for half a day and repeat over and over next time I’ll be careful, next time I’ll be careful. I know other industries are definitely super dangerous, but just from your description, it’s still too shocking. No one would want to get injured because of these, but reducing injuries is also an inevitable part of the meaning of labor for workers.
Factory Diary March 4
There is a young worker in this position. When I first came here, I only met him briefly. He should be about the same age as me, but he might have just entered society (later I learned that he started working at 13, always on factory sites and construction sites, living with his father, so he can also be considered an “old worker”) . He gives off a bit of a small bourgeois student vibe. I initially wanted to learn about his life, so I asked him what games he played. But as soon as he heard I used to play games too, he got excited and said, “Do you play 三国杀 (Three Kingdoms Kill)? Do you play 崩坏 (Honkai), 铁道 (Railway)? I tell you, I also play 原神 (Genshin Impact), I have really good luck, blah blah.” I was just like “…”
I replied, “I do play games, but I don’t anymore because I spent a lot of money on it and realized that no matter how much I invest, it’s meaningless. I advise you not to recharge anymore, play less.”
When he found out I wasn’t interested in games, he started talking about history. He’s very interested in this area. He told me that even after leaving school, he has been studying history, not only through physical books but also through a lot of internet folk science materials and history science videos. However, during our conversation, I found it a bit nauseating. At first, he was talking about how Sima’s family suppressed the history of the Three Rebellions in Huainan. I wasn’t very familiar with this history, so I could only listen. But his explanations were really over the top, to the point that he stopped paying attention to his work. He was helping another master craftsman by supporting the workpiece to prevent welding misalignment. This made the master craftsman quite dissatisfied, but he couldn’t really vent his frustration. To continue talking with him, I gave up idling nearby (because usually, they just need two people for this work, I could rest while waiting for the other master craftsman to finish welding, then clean slag and paint) and helped the master craftsman with him.
Later, I could confirm that his content was becoming more vulgar, such as claiming Zhao Yun was the weakest among the Five Tiger Generals because he had the lowest official rank. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, being generals of cavalry, were more powerful.
He kept telling me about the disgusting deeds of big landlords during the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, like Shi Hu and Liu Ziye, talking about their massacres of laborers and abuse of civil and military officials. While describing their reactionary deeds, he would ask me, “Aren’t I awesome?” as if showing off his knowledge and also bragging about how impressive their deeds were. He detailed their actions very specifically, which made me feel very disgusted.
There were also many classic folk science statements, like everyone’s heart is selfish, conflicts are inevitable, history will keep repeating itself, etc. My mind was about to explode; the folk science index was too high.
This is the result of petty bourgeoisie wandering and struggling under capitalism, only being subconsciously seduced by the ideology and spiritual opium of the bourgeoisie, and also helping to spread these vulgar folk science views and the bourgeoisie’s second-dimensional spiritual opium. If I hadn’t studied Marxism and talked with him, I might also be influenced by him and accept these things.
As the saying goes, the spontaneous path is the path of capitalism!
At this point, I realized I couldn’t let him keep talking freely; such an exchange was ineffective. Under his aimless folk science arguments, I couldn’t promote Marxism to him. My approach was to respond when he spouted these folk science statements by saying, “These people are disgusting, they are beasts. Don’t you think they are disgusting?” directly questioning him, then asking him to stop because I felt very uncomfortable. The purpose of this was to stop his typical folk science rhetoric and steer the conversation toward the historical knowledge and dialectical materialist views of Marxism that I knew.
Then, when he made statements about historical concepts like historical cycle theory or human selfishness, I explained to him about primitive society, communal ownership, production relations, social existence determining social consciousness, and other more accessible viewpoints.
For example, he has a serious hero-centric and palace intrigue view of history, believing history is written by victors. He said, “It’s like in the court, where political coups and conspiracies are things ordinary people like us don’t know or control.”
I told him, “History is created by the working people. Even emperors from various dynasties can’t command economic laws. This is a matter of objective facts. Even if scholars (Confucian dogs) distort history in official records, it can’t change that. (I feel I lack specific examples here, but my theoretical level is too low to think of any.)”
He also has serious biases against legalist figures and peasant uprisings in history, like the classic view that Cao Cao was a villain. He thinks Cao Cao was talented and a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty in the early days, but he killed too many people.
I told him, “Cao Cao actually played a progressive role in history; he’s not a villain.” He said, “I know Cao Cao unified the north, but he also sacked cities. Didn’t he gather a large number of Yellow Turban rebels as his soldiers?”
I replied, “How is that possible? The Yellow Turban army weren’t bandits; they were peasants. Peasants aren’t hooligans; how could they commit massacres and city burnings? Peasant uprisings have historically promoted social progress. If it weren’t for these peasants, overthrowing the landlord regime of the Han, allowing figures like Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and Liu Bei to rise and develop their talents and expand their influence, wouldn’t that be impossible?”
But he said, “That’s because peasants are bad. Because they come from peasants, peasant uprisings, these oppressed people, once they have weapons and power, will inevitably do bad things, burn and loot in cities. Their uprising is just for themselves, to fill their stomachs. They are all so poor. I tell you, Shi Hu used to be your slave.”
Hearing this, I was almost angry, and I said emotionally, “What are peasant uprisings? What specific philosophical ideas and political demands did they propose? For example, Tianxian (Heavenly Heaven) is dead, Huangtian (Yellow Heaven) is to be established. Tianxian refers to the political system of landlord exploitation, and Huangtian is the oppressed farmers’ hope to establish a peasant uprising regime, where everyone is equal, self-reliant, and lives happily according to their free will, creating a heaven on earth. From this perspective, peasants are not morally corrupt thugs; they wouldn’t do such city-burning things. Even if you don’t consider these political demands, and say they just want to fill their stomachs, so what? Mao Zedong once said in the Xiangjiang commentary that the biggest thing in the world is eating. Peasant uprisings defending their right to survive—what’s wrong with that? The things they did, like seizing granaries and setting up food and wine on the roadside for oppressed peasants to take freely, were to fill their stomachs. Therefore, peasant uprisings are completely justified. The Yellow Turban was not a bandit; peasants wouldn’t do city-burning or mass killing.”
At this point, although he was still somewhat unconvinced and did not accept my views, he couldn’t effectively counter them. So he stammered, “I mean, for the Han Dynasty at that time, the Yellow Turbans were definitely bandits.”
I realized he was starting to patch his own views, so I said, “For the big landlords and aristocrats of the Han Dynasty, of course, the Yellow Turbans were bandits. So, should your stance also be on the side of the exploiting class?”
Then he said, “I think history is a cycle. Every dynasty has its prosperity and decline, but ultimately, it all ends in demise. The current system of exploitation will never disappear because of human nature; human nature is inherently greedy. Even leaders of peasant uprisings, like Li Mi or Zhu Yuanzhang, after gaining power and wealth, turned bad and betrayed the uprising, right?”
To counter his so-called theory of historical cycles and human nature, I said, “Social consciousness is determined by social existence. I told him that Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Mi are just accidental, exceptional cases in history. In primitive society, there was no private property; as the saying goes, governance without orders is known, weapons are not raised, and kings are not above ordinary members. At that time, people’s hearts did not have selfishness; they helped each other and had no concept of private property.
Because at that time, social productivity was low, there was no private property, and everyone had to unite and struggle against nature to expand their living space and produce resources, or they wouldn’t survive. That was a matriarchal society, where women, responsible for gathering and planting, produced much more food and material than men. Men, although stronger, mostly relied on hunting for food, but their productivity was low, and they lacked good tools, so they couldn’t surpass the food provided by women. Therefore, women were more respected than men. In summary, in that society, there was no slavery, feudalism, or capitalism where people exploit others. These private property systems were never innate but developed later as productivity increased, and matriarchal clans turned into patriarchal societies. In tribes, some people gained more private property through social status or other conditions, enslaving others. This led to slavery, from public ownership to private ownership.
In private ownership, some people became morally corrupt. To avoid productive labor and to accumulate more private property, slave owners made slaves work for them. Over time, they became greedier, wanting more slaves and more private property… So, human nature is not innate but becomes selfish because of the private property system that fosters such tendencies.”
At first, during our conversation, he kept his hands behind his back, looking at me with a raised nose, as if expecting me to admire his knowledge after he finished sharing his life’s learning. But after this exchange, his worldview seemed to be somewhat shaken, and he had to lower his proud head to think.
Finally, we finished work at 8 o’clock, still discussing some historical questions. He even invited me to sit in his car to save me a little walk. On the way, he said to me, “Actually, I think peasant uprisings are quite good ideas.”
I have to say, chatting with this worker was quite enjoyable. Although his petty bourgeois ideas are serious, he is still a person who can be persuaded. During the debate, I also realized that my theoretical knowledge is still lacking. He brought up many specific folk science historical facts, some names or events I had never heard of, which is because I usually don’t pay enough attention to theoretical study or historical knowledge, which limits my ability to effectively refute his vulgar folk science views and better promote Marxism.
I used to think that studying these theories was tedious and troublesome, and I wondered if they would be useful in future revolutionary work. Maybe not? Now I see these theories are very important and will definitely be used in revolutionary work. If I hadn’t studied a little, with only a half-baked level, I would have been speechless when facing this worker, unable to instill Marxist ideas. Also, during this process, we talked about our life experiences, family backgrounds, and other topics that we can continue to discuss later.
The record of the original poster is very valuable, clearly showing how workers are deceived by the ruling class. Heroic historical narrative makes workers see issues from the perspective of the exploitative class, and the cyclical view of history erases workers’ awareness of their struggle (there is also a popular nihilism, which uses the vulgar theory that the universe will eventually destroy itself to diminish people’s sense of rebellion), while human selfishness rationalizes exploitation. But deception does not eliminate pain; as long as correct ideas are used to guide, workers can unleash great revolutionary potential. The final ideological transformation of the worker comrade towards the peasant uprising is very moving, making me feel that Marxists’ work is like a magnet rubbing against an iron block, forging a more united and solid alliance of the proletariat.
In fact, here we can talk about today’s revisionist China. The central government repeatedly emphasizes opening up the two-child or even three-child policy, but the birth and fertility rate remains very low, and the population is still in negative growth. Ultimately, it is because China’s wages are generally lower than the costs required for labor reproduction (including the clothing, food, housing, and transportation of workers themselves, training costs for labor skills, and the expenses for nurturing the next generation of workers). This can be said: even if Confucian pigs order to have ten children, it would be useless. Another point is that the current economy is sluggish; it seems that the Chinese government is confident, with various stimulus policies and measures to stabilize and improve, but in reality, all industries are in decline, and many small and medium-sized enterprises and the petty bourgeoisie are going bankrupt.
Indeed, I can take this opportunity to steer the topic towards modern middle repairs, do political disclosures, or perhaps I haven’t been paying enough attention to the news and haven’t thought of anything useful for a moment.
Thank you, but I feel that what you said somewhat exaggerates the effect of my communication with him. Actually, it hasn’t been that quick. This worker only finished speaking today. He thinks that peasant uprisings are good, but they are unrealistic to achieve. There’s no problem with this statement, but he says the reason is because farmers are poorly equipped and lack discipline. For example, he said that Huang Chao’s 50,000 troops couldn’t defeat the imperial border troops of 5,000. I asked, ‘Why?’ He replied, ‘Because farmers lack discipline and organization, while border troops are all elite, so naturally they can’t win.’ (I won’t go into detail here now, or there won’t be anything left for the next part. The specific conversation content, etc., I will update later. To give a hint, there are also other exchanges with ‘workers’, and the bigger ones are still to come.) This shows that the bourgeois vulgar historical views formed under long-term spontaneous guidance by this worker cannot be changed in a few words. Moreover, his acceptance of bourgeois historical views indicates that his petty-bourgeois ideology in his worldview is very serious, which can also be seen from his playing those two-dimensional games. Therefore, a person’s worldview formed over a long period cannot be changed without long-term perseverance, arduous labor in the proletariat, and study of Marxist theory. Lenin told us that we must insist on educating the workers and masses, propagating Marxist knowledge and viewpoints to them. For this person as well, we must persist in a protracted struggle, and later understand his living conditions and life experiences, and establish a relationship like friendship with him. Only then is there a possibility to continue transforming him.
I am very looking forward to your update. Because I haven’t gone among the workers yet, naturally I regard you as an advanced learning model, so I don’t exaggerate; compared to me, you are much more effective. Moreover, even if the attitude change of this worker is not much, as long as I compare it with relatives and friends who have been propagandized with Marxist ideas by me, such a change is also quite remarkable (most male elders can’t argue and have to uphold their authority as heads of the family, female elders generally think that politics and philosophy in the broad sense are noise, my peers are also addicted to games, anime, and so on, either talking about human selfishness or nihilism, or just verbally praising Marxism and believing it has no possibility of realization, some have even turned to religion. So this worker’s attitude change moved me very much, this is a achievement I have never made)
Written very well, with genuine emotion, detailed and vivid. Keep going and stay persistent! Be sure to stay safe, there’s no need to rush when working. You’ve actually been injured so many times.
Thank you for your support, I will keep going, but I am currently busy with many things. It’s impossible to update immediately, please understand. Regarding the injury, it was mainly because I am not good at learning from the experienced masters when doing work. I like to act impulsively on my own, which often leads to suffering. This is also a manifestation of my petty-bourgeois mentality — being passionate and impulsive. I tend to get impatient and angry easily, so I need to reflect more.
3.7
Today, I separated from that worker who loves to talk about pseudoscience (he’s from Henan, surname Shen, so let’s call him Xiao Shen), who works in a different place. My management here isn’t strict, and there aren’t many supervisors patrolling regularly. Our factory is divided into four areas: the first area includes the office building, canteen, and parking lot, which are all connected and just a few hundred meters from the main production factory. The second area is the actual production workshop, where concrete and rebar materials are produced. One side has machines for bending twisted rebar according to set patterns.
The other side has assembly lines for producing concrete and fixing rebar together. Because concrete materials are used, this workshop produces an enormous amount of dust. Sweeping the floor just stirs up clouds of dust. Anyone working here without a mask is guaranteed to get lung disease. Yet, the factory doesn’t provide masks for free; workers have to bring their own. A few days ago, some new workers asked the team leader for masks, but he said they could only get them after working three days—completely unreasonable. A wholesale mask costs only a few cents, but if they develop pneumoconiosis here, it could cost millions.
The factory cares little about workers’ health.
The second workshop is where Xiao Shen and I used to work. It is responsible for welding the large silver rectangular “ladders” I mentioned in my first diary. Compared to the first workshop, this one is more spacious and has less dust, but working here is more tiring because it involves heavier physical labor. After the welders finish, we have to scrape off the slag from the welds using steel sheets and bars, then apply anti-rust paint. During this process, you place these large ladders on workbenches on both sides, scraping slag from every angle and painting them. I have to flip these ladders around, and some older master welders can’t turn them over easily. Usually, two people are needed to help. The smell of the paint is very strong; even wearing a mask all day, my nose still smells it, and I feel like my lungs are almost full of paint fumes.
The third workshop is where I am working now. It has many lathes and machine tools, mainly producing small-sized building materials of shorter lengths. However, there are very few workers here, usually only three or four.
Today, I worked with two veteran workers—one local (Xing Ren) and one from the Northeast (Xing Pi). One is responsible for adjusting the machines, and the other for packing the steel cut from the lathes. I stand in front of them, pulling out the waste from the lathe. Since our stations are quite far apart, I feel a bit annoyed because I can’t communicate or promote myself among the workers. So whenever I get a chance, I go to the back to help them pack and chat with them. While trying to learn about their pasts and communicate, the situation unexpectedly developed in a way I didn’t anticipate.
We three were resting, and Master Ren and Master Pi suddenly started talking among themselves, leaving me aside. They seemed to be discussing something that made Master Ren very excited. He spoke loudly and with exaggerated expressions, looking very happy. The local worker asked Northeast Master, “Is the group I gave you still there?” then opened the WeChat group chat and played videos. I asked what they were watching. I felt that the local worker seemed overly excited, which was strange because I also have a long history of engaging in delinquent activities and watching pornographic videos and masturbating. My first guess was that they might be watching porn, but I thought, as workers in a factory, it shouldn’t be that vulgar. Maybe I was overthinking?
However, Master Pi didn’t tell me directly; instead, he asked me, “Do you have a girlfriend?” I said, “No.” He replied, “Then just solve it yourself in your bed.” I was stunned; I couldn’t believe it was actually developing as I feared. When we reached this point, Master Ren opened the group chat named “Beautiful Women Group,” which contained many people sharing pornographic videos and clips. I could only see the covers, but based on my past experience, some of these videos were not professionally shot with actors but involved women who were drunk or drugged, unconscious, and then filmed during sexual acts.
Since only the three of us were present, Master Ren opened a video to watch, and he and Master Pi laughed heartily. I wondered whether I should have resisted or condemned them at that moment, to show my stance, but I froze. I found I couldn’t say a word; my mind was blank. I am also full of filthy thoughts and have serious pornographic ideas. When they opened the group chat, I even felt a bit tempted to watch. But I thought I shouldn’t do that, so I turned my body away, pretending to be scared, but actually afraid of exposing my true thoughts.
I said, “Why are you watching this publicly? It scares me.” The local worker mocked me, saying, “Oh, come on, you’re even afraid? Don’t you think about this too?” He hit the nail on the head, and I didn’t dare say anything more.
At this moment, I tried to think rationally. I couldn’t be angry at their behavior; it was essentially surrendering to my own pornographic thoughts. If that’s the case, how can I effectively promote Marxism among workers? Wouldn’t that ruin the reputation of Marxists? So I planned to adjust my mindset and organize my words. First, I would criticize myself, admit I wanted to watch but knew it was wrong and oppressive to women. Then I would talk about the impact of openly sharing such videos if other women saw them. I would use this logic to reason with them.
After calming down, I continued chatting with them during work breaks. I didn’t start by criticizing myself or lecturing them but first understood their situation.
I didn’t directly tell them about my own thoughts because I also found it strange; these two workers seemed a bit different. The Northeast worker wore a gold watch worth over 4,000 yuan, a birthday gift from his son, and he said he liked such things, having changed several times. His family’s financial situation seemed better than that of ordinary poor workers. I told him this was not good, but he said, “What’s the big deal? Which man in the world doesn’t chase women?” That made me a little angry because I know many men who are morally upright, care about others’ lives, and don’t indulge in pornography. My friend is like that. He says such things just to continue indulging in pornography and find excuses for his vile desires.
I also asked about the other local worker who shared porn videos publicly. I found out he is a demolition household! He works here in the morning and in the evening, he goes “looking for women” (probably brothels), as the Northeast master subtly mentioned. He said, “That local guy knows where to find (prostitutes) around here. His family is a demolition household. He’s quite wealthy, supporting several families.” These demolition households are bought off by the government’s renovation policies; after their houses are demolished, they receive a large compensation that doesn’t match their original property. They are cultivated into loyal tools of the government. They own land and houses, collect land and house rent, and can earn tens of thousands a year just lying around—modern-day wealthy farmers.
Considering his previous behavior of watching porn, I no longer find it strange. This scoundrel came to work here for some purpose, but his influence among workers is entirely negative because, besides regular workers, there are some newly bankrupt petty bourgeoisie or workers with strong petty bourgeois ideas. For example, Xiao Shen, who came from petty bourgeois student background into the workforce. Such people are easily influenced by bourgeois spiritual opium.
And this scoundrel openly shares porn, brags about how he makes money, how many mistresses he has, and who has asked him for such porn groups (not just the worker surnamed Pi, but others from different posts also ask him for such resources). He is essentially propagating bourgeois ideas and spiritual opium among workers, lowering their moral standards, dividing the unity of the working class, with extremely harmful effects. Such a person cannot be resolved through good communication because this conflict is no longer just within the same class; he generally aligns with the middle-revision government. After thinking all this through, I felt humiliated. As someone who studied Marxism and has undergone some transformation as a petty bourgeois, I was actually manipulated by him in this place.
So, when writing this diary, I realize that class struggle can really test a person. The revolutionary work now gives me very specific needs. If I want to eliminate the bad impression he has among workers and be able to scold him when he acts like this next time, I must first overcome bourgeois thoughts in my mind, stop watching videos, indulging in lust, and all the bourgeois ideas behind it. I must thoroughly become a morally noble, consistent proletarian. And this is the revolution—an essential requirement for us petty bourgeois. If I can’t solve this problem, then I can’t achieve a thorough revolution.
Indeed, such people should be exposed and fought against. Also, the worker wearing a gold watch seems to have a financial condition that is not typical of ordinary workers; after all, a watch worth thousands of yuan is not something most people can casually buy. In fact, it is also a process of clarifying people’s class position and ideological situation during the struggle. Only after understanding these can one decide what kind of action to take next.
Such safety issues cannot be compromised!
According to the “Mandatory National Standard” GB39800.1-2020 of the Zhongxiu government, the factory must provide dust masks, and both formal workers and temporary labor dispatch workers are entitled to receive them. Although this is just a superficial gesture of revisionism, when fighting against capitalists, you can use the national standard to counter their own “factory rules.”
Moreover, the effective duration of a mask may only be two or three hours (depending on the amount of particles), and one per day might not be enough. But I haven’t seen any specific regulation in the so-called national standard that mandates timely replacement!
Watching porn in public places, especially in front of outsiders, is enough to see how these two workers are utterly indifferent to morality and how deeply rooted their misogynistic thoughts are. Because they show no respect for women at all, it can also be foreseen that the women in their families are likely viewed as tools or slaves. Especially this sentence:
It’s equivalent to saying that women are born prostitutes and should be used by men. In fact, this also reflects the logic imposed by bourgeois ideology, because the bourgeoisie owns the labor of the proletariat, so their ideology promotes the survival of the fittest and elitism, with the ultimate goal of justifying their robberies. In gender relations, this manifests as the view that women are subordinate to men (the reverse is also true, generally showing that the dominant party controls the weaker one), and women become oppressed and oppressed in society.
The poster’s actions are very enlightening; if it were me, I would probably be reckless and hit a wall. Specific problems should be analyzed specifically; preliminary investigation is indeed necessary to understand the workers’ thoughts, assess the possibility of reform, and then formulate specific reform plans.
Factory Diary April 28
In the afternoon, I talked with Master Luo, who is guiding me, and learned something incredible: most of the workers I know in this factory have visited prostitutes!!!
Master Luo is from Henan and has been very helpful to me. He is patient when teaching me how to work. At first, when my labor skills were not proficient, I caused him some trouble. But he never scolded or blamed me. He also never looked down on me or avoided talking to me because I was a newcomer. He is quite knowledgeable and often follows international news. Initially, I learned a job called “flipping boards” from him, which involves operating a machine to arrange the fired cement boards in order and then cutting off the excess edges. He said this job is tough because the dust generated is too much. If you do it for a long time, it can cause lung problems. He said that someone like me, an older person whose children are grown, can handle this job, but a young guy like me, who still has time ahead, should avoid it. Later, he even took the initiative to tell our team leader about this and requested to transfer me to a more suitable position. He also taught me where to slack off and check my phone. I have a good impression of him and am willing to help him with odd jobs and chat with him.
That day, we talked about the current situation in China. He believes China is going to war. He bluntly said China is not doing well. China always boasts about its military spending and new weapons, but it still can’t beat the US. China’s system superiority is just hype. I agreed with him, saying that Chinese workers’ wages are the lowest in Asia, and China cannot even achieve food self-sufficiency. The soybean self-sufficiency rate is only 46%. China has to import from Brazil, which is a US colony. If war breaks out and the US stops food imports to China, no one knows what will happen. He said if war breaks out, he will go abroad. He has researched worker待遇 (treatment) abroad and how to go abroad in detail—how to find agents, where to go, he has thought it all through. He also said that foreign workers can strike, but Chinese workers cannot. Foreign workers use strikes to demand wage increases, but China does not allow this. I said China is fascist, not allowing people democracy or freedom, not even the right to speak. In Japan, there are political activities like protests supporting Palestine. He said he knew about this. He follows the Israel-Palestine issue. He also suggested that since I am young, I should go abroad, and Japan is the best choice. Japan has many suicides due to pressure, but for us Chinese, it would be nothing. On this matter, I told him about class struggle abroad and the miners’ strike in Harlan County, USA. I reasoned that although foreign workers have better conditions than Chinese workers, that is because they fought for it with their lives. If they strike, and you don’t join them, you would be sabotaging their movement. Would you do that? At this, my master was silent and did not answer directly. I wanted to continue, but he started talking about something he was interested in: “Speaking of prostitution, it’s legal in Japan. Here in China, if you get caught, you get fined or jailed.” Then I said, “I think prostitution is immoral.” I told him about when I operated a crane and a master wanted to take me to a prostitute, but I refused. Those girls are not born willing to do this; most are forced, some are deceived or sold." He said, “Ah, this kind of thing makes money fast and feels good. Isn’t that normal? Look at Old Fu next to us (he is a scab manager who worked in Guangdong for 8 years and has a terrible reputation among young workers). Half of his monthly salary (he makes 6500 yuan now, used to be 7000) is spent on this. He specifically looks for girls in their twenties, paying 800 yuan each time. And he refuses to use condoms; if they want to use condoms, he won’t do it. He’d rather pay an extra 200 yuan for no condom.” I was like “???” My master said, “What’s so surprising? You’re still young. When you grow up, you’ll go too. I’ll tell you, many in this factory have gone.” I asked, “Many? What about Ma Ge, Lao Qiao, Lao Fu?” My master said, “Almost none haven’t gone. I go occasionally. Xiao Ma and the others go a lot.” Especially Old Fu is outrageous. My master also said he buys Chinese medicine and makes medicinal wine to last longer. I was shocked. Damn. Now I understand why when I gave a speech in the cafeteria, they didn’t stand up to speak. It turns out there are these interests involved. Life is tough in this factory, but thinking they can oppress women makes them throw everything else aside. Later, I asked Master Luo, “What if a girl gets pregnant?” He answered, “Just take precautions. Besides, pregnancy is their business. You just enjoy yourself.” After hearing this, I had a new understanding of my coworkers. They often joke about sex, and I thought it was just jokes or some sexual thoughts, but this situation exceeded my expectations in both number of people and frequency.
“The entire accusation against the workers is that they indulge in pleasure without restraint, lack foresight, and do not comply with the existing social order; that they cannot sacrifice immediate pleasure for longer-term benefits. But what is so surprising about this? A class that has endured hard labor but receives only minimal rewards and physical pleasures—can they not blindly and greedily throw themselves into these pleasures? Since no one cares about the education of this class, since their fate is subject to all kinds of chance events, and since their lives are precarious, what reason or interest do they have to become foresighted people, to live a ‘steady and solid’ life, and to sacrifice present pleasures for future ones? And these future pleasures are unreliable for those who are always in a turbulent and insecure situation. For a class that endures all the harms of the existing social order but cannot enjoy even its slightest benefits, for a class that is only met with hostility by the current social system, can we still demand that they respect this social order? That would be too much! But as long as this social order exists, the working class cannot avoid it, and if individual workers rise up against this social order, the greatest disaster will befall them. Thus, the social order makes it almost impossible for workers to have family life. In a messy, filthy room, unfit even for a nightclub, with broken furniture, often leaking when it rains, without heating, poorly ventilated, and overcrowded, family happiness is impossible. The husband works all day, the wife and older children often do the same; everyone is in different places, only meeting in the morning and evening. Moreover, they are frequently tempted by spirits—what kind of family life can there be under such circumstances? Yet workers cannot leave their families; they must live at home, which leads to endless family disputes and quarrels, affecting not only the couple but especially their children in extremely harmful ways. Neglecting all family duties, especially duties to children, is too common among British workers, and this is mainly fostered by the modern social system. For children who grow up like weeds in such a corrupt environment—their parents often being part of it—can we hope that they will become morally upright people in the future? The ambitious bourgeoisie’s demands on workers are truly naive!” - Friedrich Engels, “The Condition of the Working Class in England”
Also from this article, just before the previous paragraph: “Apart from alcoholism, another major vice of many British workers is debauchery. Since this class is left unattended and lacks the proper means to enjoy their freedom, the emergence of this vice is inevitable, an iron law. The bourgeoisie only leaves them these two forms of pleasure, while imposing a large amount of heavy labor and suffering on them. As a result, workers, wanting to get something out of life, concentrate all their passion on these two pleasures, indulging in them excessively and extremely. If people are placed in conditions fit only for beasts, then they have no other path but to either rise up in rebellion or truly become beasts. Moreover, the bourgeoisie themselves, even some of their respectable figures, directly promote prostitution, don’t they? Among the 40,000 prostitutes filling the streets of London every night, how many survive thanks to the morally upright bourgeoisie! How many of them should thank their first seducer—the capitalist—for having to sell their bodies to every passerby to avoid starving! The bourgeoisie has the least right to blame workers for debauchery, isn’t this obvious?”
In fact, the occurrence of this situation further reflects the depth of the bourgeoisie’s oppression of the proletariat. For workers and women oppressed into prostitution, only by helping them engage in ideological struggle, overthrow the bourgeois rule, and establish a socialist government can this disgusting situation truly be eliminated.
I have now been away from this factory for a long time, and I have also lost contact with this worker for a long time. But as far as I understand, his salary is not really something he can control himself, because his family requires him to hand over the money to his mother. Then he receives 200 yuan weekly as living expenses, which is sometimes not enough for him. He can only come to me to receive the money. I have also told him that he is now an adult and should manage his own salary and live independently, but he feels that although he is under his mother’s control, it also allows his parents to continue taking care of him after he becomes an adult, and he doesn’t have to worry about family affairs, so he doesn’t care. I can also continue to write about my interactions with him later, including an incident where we had a conflict regarding women’s issues.
I’m not quite sure; he mainly said it was spent on food expenses, but he also did top up a few hundred yuan for the game himself.