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Communist Collectivity Makes Life Worth Living

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May Day in Seattle

SEATTLE, WA -- Boeing commercial president Ray Conner droned on about the virtues of productivity to 83,000 workers at crew meetings across the division. Sarcastic “Heil Hitler!” salutes were the preferred reaction.
Right off he made excuses for the measly bonuses of engineers and machinists. He didn’t even mention the $9 billion in tax breaks the state gives aerospace factories, while 20,000 Washington Boeing subcontractor workers make between $10 and $15/hour.
Two weeks later we learned that first-level managers got bonuses of 12.5% of their annual salary, second-level 17.5% and third-level 22.5%. CEO McNerney got a bonus upwards of $14 million.
This won’t happen in communism. Everyone will be taken care of equally regardless of their work situation -- there will be no money and no salaries.
We won’t need productivity-obsessed managers. The working class will be masters of production. The party’s job will be to mobilize workers worldwide to provide the necessities of life. Boeing workers will be part of that collective struggle. We’ll bring in more workers if we need to produce more.

It’s Not Just Boeing
Anacortes oil refinery workers went on strike at the same time we learned about the bosses’ bonuses. Fires and explosions killed five Anacortas workers in 2010 and six in 1998. Oil companies find it more profitable to work 12-hour shifts, two weeks at a time, than to hire more workers and replace antiquated plants. Some U.S. refineries are 90 years old.
This was too much for one second-shift worker. “It’s horrible how profit-driven the U.S. has become,” he complained to a friend who was passing out the party’s communist solidarity leaflet.
“What do you mean ‘become’?” asked another rhetorically.
Capitalist values permeate society when we produce for sale and profit. When money is the measure of value, it warps our thinking. Our whole concept of value changes if we produce for use.
“These bosses don’t value workers’ lives,” interrupted the second-shifter. “Did you hear about the hostage in Nigeria?”
Rebels had captured a 71-year old schoolteacher from the U.S. They demanded a $300,000 ransom.
The school’s insurance company refused to pay. They said her earning potential was not worth $300,000 because she was old and a teacher.
“I bet if she was an oil company executive or McNerney they would pay.”

Young Communists Learned How To Value Life
In a communist future, children will see their parents and their friends working for the benefit of us all as soon as they are able to understand such things. Their learning will revolve around such collective labor.
Consider Vera, an 18-year old youth league leader of a recently collectivized village in 1920’s Soviet Russia. She asked the author Maurice Hindus what was the objective of girls like her in the U.S.
“Themselves,” he answered.
“Have they nothing outside themselves to live for, something for the society, something for the masses?” she questioned unbelievingly, “Don’t they miss a social purpose?”
“Apparently not.”
“How strange!”
The U.S. is great in industrial development, but “culturally she is not far advanced,” Vera and her friends decided at a youth meeting the next day. [1]
Maurice Hindus got it wrong. Examples like this of collective labor have stirred millions around the world including many in the U.S. 
Not only had leading the drive to collectivize labor in this village given Vera different values, but also a different view of the essence of human nature. Communist collectivity will do that.

[1] Red Bread by Maurice Hindus

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