Society is in a constant state of conflict due to people competing for limited resources. This competition leads to the formation of dominant groups or the oppressor, and subordinate groups or the oppressed. ¹

The oppressor is usually the minority group and the oppressed is the majority. The oppressor owns the mode and the means of production and the oppressed owns only the labor; the opposition of interests lead to the gain of one party at the expense of the other.

• Mode of production - the way a society is organized to produce goods and services (ex: factories, lands, etc.). This will also identify what relations of production will be established in the society. (ex: landowners-peasant, businessmen-workers, etc.). ²

• Means of production - physical and non-financial inputs in production (ex: money, tools, etc.).

BASE & SUPERSTRUCTURE

In society, according to Marx, there is the base and superstructure. The base is the underlying economic foundation and the part on which other parts of society rest and depend—superstructure.¹ In superstructure this is where you can find the society’s norms, laws, religion, and other societal institutions.¹ In short, the base determines the superstructure. The elite or the ruling class who hold the base has capacity to control the superstructure to further oppress the working class.³ Thus, maintaining the inequality through the established social and economic institution.³ However, Marx also believed that due to the worsening condition of the working class, a collective consciousness would bring inequality to light, causing a revolt to happen, and this is where evolution of society became possible.³

The use of capital is highly maximized to gain power in order to maintain the dominance of the bourgeoisie.³ On the other hand, the proletarians have little control over the economic system since they do not own any capital. This means that their worth can be devalued over time. Despite these negativities, Marx believed that with the worsening conditions of the working class, a collective consciousness would bring inequality to light which can spark a revolution.³ This will result in communism that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership where the workers hold the means and the mode of production. ⁴

A word coined by Filipino laborers which is a short locution for the phrase “end of contract.”⁶ It is the termination of a worker’s fixed short-term employment. ⁷

Although this is strictly prohibited, the capitalists managed to continue this using the Labor Code Article 128; stating endo becomes legal if the company already has its regularized employees.⁸ In simple terms, they have the capacity to accommodate contractual workers as long as they have regularized employees.

This condition is used by the capitalists in hiring employees on a limited time to avoid the cost of benefits duly required, due to the law that orders them to give the laborers’ privileges and benefits after six months as they become regular employees. ⁶

Analyzing the concept of endo, since the workers have nothing but labor, and they need to accommodate resources, they have no choice but to take the job and sign the contract. Every worker has the need to accumulate means in order to live. Moreover, as the workers increase, the more profit that the capitalists gain--the higher the number of workers, the more labor unpaid or being ‘exploited’. Thus, it gives more power to the capitalist to maintain its position of being the oppressor and the workers being the oppressed. Note that this system takes place at the ‘base’.

Capitalists also use ‘endo’ to further exploit workers by giving them a short-term employment which will provide them more benefits than cost. There will be no laborer’s privileges and benefits since they will only last for 5 months. This is possible to perpetuate using the law (superstructure) that legalizes endo at some point.