FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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LOS ANGELES— “There won’t be a strike. We came to an agreement. We got a wage increase and our medical coverage will stay the same. The majority accepted it,” explained a janitor.
The new contract will give all janitors (Area 1, 2 & 3) a wage increase of 70¢ per hour the first year, 65¢ the second, and 55¢ the third and fourth years, for a total increase of $2.45 an hour over four years.
“We didn’t go to the May Day March because our contract expired that day. We spent the whole weekend preparing for the strike. We know that we have to fight in the streets for the contracts,” another janitor explained to us.
Indeed, in Los Angeles this is a characteristic almost exclusive to the janitors. When they negotiate a labor contract, they organize mass demonstrations in the whole area. They let the bosses, the politicians and the working class know that they are fighting.
We in the International Communist Workers’ Party admire and very much respect the fighting spirit, the energy and commitment to the struggle of these men and women workers.
We appreciate the friendly reception that they always offer us when we participate in their marches. Red Flag is always welcome. Thousands of them gladly receive it. Our discussions are always pleasant, respectful and comradely.
When we distribute our newspaper, we explain to the workers: “Our struggle is for a communist world, without borders, money or exploiting bosses. A world where we will collectively plan what to produce, produce it and share it according to each one’s need. No one will be the servant of anyone.”
We always have conversations like these:
“It sounds great, but can we live without money? Will it be possible?” asks a janitor.
“Yes, it’s possible,” interrupts another janitor. She takes a Red Flag and adds, “Our ancestors lived like that for centuries before the Spaniards came.”
“Yes it’s true. With the exception of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas, which were exploitive class societies, the majority of them lived in pre-class communism. We want to go back to that—to their communist social and productive relations—but at a higher level using science and technology,” we explain, supporting the janitor.
Approaching another group we say, “Let’s fight to bury the bosses and their capitalist system with a communist revolution. We will end wage slavery and we won’t have to fight every four years for a contract that chains us to them.”
“It’s true,” affirms one.
“We can live without bosses,” says another.
“We do everything. What do they do? Nothing. Get rich off our sweat!” adds a third worker.
They all take Red Flag. All of this happens while they wait to board the buses that will take them to the march.
We continue distributing Red Flag.
“Listen, I heard what you said and I have also read it in your newspaper. You say that the union struggle is in vain, that it leads nowhere. I think that is bad. It discourages the people,” observes another janitor.
“Yes, we maintain that trade unionism is a dead end for our class. It negotiates the terms of our wage slavery but can’t and won’t break the chains that tie us to the capitalists. The labor contract justifies and legalizes our slavery. Only communist revolution can end it.”
This new contract shows that we communists are right. Unionism keeps our class busy trying to reform capitalism, while blinding us to the need for communist revolution.
The achievements are at best temporary. Sometimes they only appear to be achievements. The janitors’ wage increase is one of those.
When the old contract ended, the janitors in Area One made $15 an hour, or only 56% of a very minimal “living wage” for a family of two adults and two children. If inflation remains steady, by 2020 those janitors would still make only 59% of a “living wage.”
Obviously most households in Los Angeles need more than one wage earner to make a bare subsistence wage. The capitalists see to it that we never get much more than this.
With the union struggle sometimes we can temporarily achieve a higher wage than bare subsistence. But in the end, the capitalists relentlessly lower our wages to or below it.
That’s why we call on the thousands of janitors, who sympathize with our communist ideas, to join us in the fight for a communist world.
