FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!International Communist Workers Party |
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SEATTLE— “We were more than ready to talk back. If we had ropes, he’d be hanging from the rafters,” said a young Boeing Machinist after a general meeting with the big boss. “He [the boss] just doesn’t know it!”
“Can I quote you on that?” asked a comrade. “Go right ahead!”
An older machine operator added: “I think I was brainwashed for three quarters of my life. I used to think when the big boss spoke or the newspaper printed it, it was true. Now I know it’s all bull.”
They were responding to the bosses’ pitch to increase productivity. Workers weren’t buying it, especially after they found out that Boeing CEO Jim McNerney had outlined his plan for the company last week at a South Carolina investors’ conference.
Productivity Profits Produce Penniless Workers
McNerney chairs President Obama’s council on exports. He plans to increase profits by squeezing suppliers and cutting jobs across the company. He made it clear that suppliers that don’t agree to cut their prices as contracts are renewed will find themselves on the outside.
“If a certain group is not working with us…they’ll be on the no-fly list. They’ll not be allowed to bid on new programs with Boeing,” said McNerney.
Suppliers will be forced to cut subcontractor workers’ wages below their already-abysmal levels, while doubling down on harassment to speed-up production. Black, latino/a, and immigrant workers from around the world make up large sections of the subcontractor workforce. McNerney dubbed this increase in racist exploitation “Partnering for Success.”
Nor is he limiting the impoverishment to subcontractor workers. “Now that we have internal competition [between plants in South Carolina and Washington State] we are going to get much better [labor] deals,” McNerney vowed.
Boeing Workers Call It “The BangladeshPlan”
Wal-Mart, H&M, Sears and all the other big garment retailers exert their dominance over Bangladeshi garment bosses by demanding lower and lower production costs. Boeing does the same with its suppliers in southern California, Texas, and South Carolina.
But Bangladeshi capitalists are not innocent. They meet these demands by literally killing thousands with life-destroying working conditions and starvation wages. That’s what McNerney has in mind with his “no-fly lists.”
These attacks dominated the Q & A discussion at the Seattle meeting. “Why would we workers buy into your plan?” was the general sentiment that some expressed aloud.
“Otherwise we can do nothing. I really worry about this company 25 years from now. Look at Auto, they came back!” the big boss whined.
“Yeah, look at Auto! They’re working for a third of the wages!”
Another worker gave a speech about how the US is dedicated to make a few grotesquely wealthy, while bleeding the rest of us. Still another demonstrated that the bosses’ productivity boost was meant to insure big profits so the company can continue to spend $billions on low-wage South Carolina assembly plants.
Boeing Bosses Follow the Only Path Open to
Capitalists
Each company and industry has particular features, but all enterprises must bend to the laws of motion of capitalism. Capitalist businesses must maximize their profits to survive.
Imperialist exploitation has become an indispensable way for huge firms to maximize their rate of return. Last November, for example, Boeing hosted a conference for suppliers on outsourcing to Mexico.
Boeing’s ever-increasing global supply chain is the inevitable result of this imperialism, the final stage of capitalism. It mirrors the pattern of US manufacturing in general: cutting and outsourcing jobs to low-wage regions or countries.
The only way to abolish these laws is with communist revolution. Communism produces for the needs of our class, not for profits. Every aspect of production will change to advance the goal of mobilizing the masses for communism.
We don’t advocate passivity. We want action, but not according to the bosses’ rules. Let’s give these bosses something to really worry about.
Let’s mobilize to take production out of their bloody, profit-soaked hands, and transform it to serve the needs of the masses.
Let’s increase the circulation of Red Flag and bring this struggle onto the shop floor and into union meetings.
Let’s mobilize the masses for communism.
LOS ANGELES, May 24—Hundreds of garment workers cheered a communist rally in front of the Jean Mart factory, in support of the Bangladeshi workers. We have been coming to this factory regularly and distributing close to 300 Red Flags each time.
A dozen workers, students, and teachers and workers with Red Flag, signs and a bullhorn in hand set up in front of the factory entrance.
“We are here not only to denounce the murder of our Bangladeshi sisters and brothers but also to denounce capitalism as a murderous system worldwide,” said one speaker.
Many workers took pictures and even recorded the rally with their phones. Groups eagerly lined up for the paper. Four hundred took copies in all.
“We need a system free of exploitation, a system where we workers do not work to make a boss or a group of bosses rich. We need communism, where the factories, the machinery, the land and all of the means of production will be under our control,” said another speaker.
“Man this was a great rally,” said a student, and then added “I was surprised at how many workers took Red Flag.”
“The workers were very excited,” said a worker who participated in the rally at a forum that night. “Some gave me their names and phone numbers.”
All in all, this rally was a small example of the international communist solidarity we must continue build worldwide.
El Salvador—I and other ICWP comrades went to the May Day demonstration in the capital on a bus with a group of "socialists."
When we marched, we came face to face with workers, youth and students who, like us, yearn for communism.
This experience has strengthened my commitment to ICWP. We distributed all the Red Flags we had—280 copies.
"Hey, take this communist newspaper. You'll like it," I told them. "This is the manifesto of the working class."
I met a woman worker, about 30 years old and offered her our manifesto, Mobilize the Masses for Communism. (MMC). She took it without apprehension. We talked about how the capitalist system and its servants give us news every day through their corrupt press and that we have to counter it with our communist literature.
"We, the ICWP, with Red Flag, are in the factories and where ever else workers are exploited by the bosses," I said.
"That's good," she answered; "but we should tell workers that through the production of commodities, bosses and even governments make profits."
At that moment, a young university student came up to me. "Take it," I told him, "This is the communist newspaper, our solution; and here is our address."
"Thanks, give me two—no, you better give me three," he said.
We finished distributing Red Flag and MMC without any apparent military interference. But there was opposition by some members of the government/ FMLN who oppose any communist presence.
The armed struggle I lived through began with communist doctrine in the 1970's. These ideas helped the guerrilla leaders to motivate us, and we followed them. Now they reject communist ideas and those of us who fight for them. I understand why: today these former guerrilla leaders have ambitions to become capitalists through their ALBA businesses.
The war is on! We communists in ICWP are fighting face to face against capitalism, socialism and imperialist wars for profit.
Forward! We will not lose heart!
--Worker in El Salvador