"What gets me is the [U.S.] politicians," joked a machinist. "They get up on their high horse declaring that in democratic America we don't spy on our own people."
Then a few days later: "Oops! We do spy on our own people."
Then we talked solutions, mostly versions of what we've read in the bosses' press.
"The problem is the NSA has become more powerful than the CIA," said another worker.
"Are you kidding me? What difference would it make if the CIA ran the surveillance programs? Bureaucracies are organized to serve the interests of the ruling class. no matter what the form they serve the bosses."
"You're probably right," conceded our friend. "even if these things are set up with good intentions, people mess it up."
Then it got serious. "no, it's not the people, it's the system. You can't expect anything different until you have a communist revolution – particularly now that capitalism is in this crisis," argued a comrade.
"now we've gotten into the different philosophies we have, between capitalism and communism," disagreed our friend, not ready to take the leap.

Illusions in Reforming Capitalism Play on Cynicism
The bosses never tire of telling us people can't be trusted. According to capitalist logic we need laws to rein in human nature. The separation of powers among the three branches (the presidency, the Congress and the courts) of the US government is also supposed to provide a check on untrustworthy humans.
Trying to justify NSA snooping, Obama whined that if you can't trust the executive, the laws passed by Congress and the edicts of the (secret) court, "Then we have a problem."
We do have a problem and it's called capitalism. no laws, no checks and balances can stop the bosses from attacking us.
The Roman empire also set up an elaborate spying network as their empire crumbled. The elites stole the wealth created from the slave society for themselves and only them. They became increasingly leery of a disenchanted public, even among the free commoners.
It's hard not to make an analogy to U.S. imperialism, notwithstanding the different particulars of capitalist exploitation. It's gotten so bad that the bosses' government is spending $billions trying to develop technology to spy on the spies who spy on the rest of us. You just can't find enough good little nazis like you used to!
Communists trust the masses, as the bosses can never do. Mobilizing the masses for communism is a winning strategy for the working class.
security is a class question. In a communist society, technology will be less important than the active participation of millions in building and securing our new society, free of exploitation and oppression and those that would sabotage it. We will be fighting for our collective needs, not to secure the bosses' profits. Collectivity is stronger than the best computer surveillance the bosses can buy.

Taking the Leap
A third Machinist was furious after reading the front-page article in Red Flag (6/6) the same day we debated the bosses' spying programs. "You guys exposed the company's productivity scheme and global capitalism, but our union won't do squat about it," he said, handing back the paper. "And that's not just because of bad leadership. The logic of trade unionism is that we can reform capitalism to somewhat meet our needs. That's impossible. We need a revolution. Only a revolutionary communist organization can build for that."
"Yeah, we need a revolution," he agreed. "How long will it take?"
"I got no crystal ball, but circulating this paper [Red Flag] won't hurt!"
"give me back that paper, I want to show it to another guy."
The bosses want us to believe they are invincible. It's true that we must take our enemy into account tactically, but we will defeat them strategically.
Principled struggle with disenchanted fellow workers like the new Red Flag distributer produces modest advances today, particularly as the crisis forces the bosses to resort to greater repression.
Unbreakable personal and political ties in the workplace are the tactical answer to the billions the bosses spend spying on us. strategically, mobilization for communism will be built on these advances.