Today we visited a Zona Franca, or Free Trade Zone in Santiago. A Free Trade Zone is a gated compound of factories that produce for a number of multinational corporations and are exempt from import, export, and income taxes, as well as some environmental regulations. The particular factory that we visited was the Swedish Match Dominicana factory that was producing cigars that would be sold as Game, White Owl, Garcia y Vega, and other brands. The factory had a sickeningly sweet smell (due to the tobacco flavoring) that left several of us feeling ill after having been there only a few hours. At this time, the factory employs 861 people and produces 190 products. The factory’s minimum wage is $1.36 per hour which is 35% higher than the nation’s minimum wage of $1,566 PD per 44 hour week, which is $44.70. The Zona Franca exemplifies Marx’s belief that under capitalism workers are alienated from what they produce. Because of the factory’s location in the FTZ, its products are exported mostly to the US, where workers never see the price for which they are sold, or to whom, nor do consumers see the conditions under which they are produced and by whom.
Later in the afternoon we were able to see a very different manner of production when we were able to purchase crafts from One Réspe’s craft workshop. We stood in the room in which they were made, and knew who had made them. Not only that, but the profits went to support One Réspe’s work with community schools and HIV patients.
Contributed by Hannah
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