LOS ANGELES--"Union reps here are telling us that we messed up when we rejected the MTA proposal. They say we can't expect anything better, maybe something worse. They are demoralizing us. They are nothing but crooks," said a Division 10 operator.

Another operator at Division 15 reported, "MTA is saying that that is their final offer. Take it or leave it. And the word is out that union leadership is instructing local union officials to avoid a strike at any cost."

MTA workers are between a rock (MTA) and a hard place (the union).

Surrender, however, is not an option and many operators are ready to fight. The burning questions of the day are: What should we fight for and under whose leadership?

Our so-called union leaders are no option. We pay them over $5 million a year to "work" for us but they do MTA's bidding. Money corrupts and they are corrupted to the core. But, the problem is more than money and corruption.

The problem is their trade union ideology. As firm believers in capitalism, they try to accomplish the impossible: reform it to meet our needs. They preach anti-communism, abiding by the capitalists' laws, and "fighting" for change through the bosses' electoral charade. Their ideology justifies, legalizes, and perpetuates our wage slavery.

We need communist ideology, and we need to take things into our own hands. As Karl Marx the founder of scientific communism wrote, "The emancipation of the working class must be the act of the workers themselves." We and only we can break the chains of our wage slavery!

For that we need to fight for communist state power

MTA and the capitalists can impose their wage slavery on us because they own the means of production (factories, fields, mines, etc.), and they have state power: they own and control the media, courts, politicians, police and military.

To break our chains we must destroy their repressive state apparatus and replace it with workers' communist state power. We will then collectively own the means of production, and we will plan, produce, and distribute the fruits of our labor to satisfy the needs of the international working class.

The fight for state power is primarily an ideological struggle

The bosses' poisonous ideologies of anti-communism, racism, sexism, nationalism, patriotism, and individualism divide us and blind us to revolutionary communism.

To be victorious, we must wage a fierce ideological and practical struggle to defeat them and replace them with working class ideologies: anti-racism, anti-sexism, and communist internationalism and collectivity.

Red Flag is crucial to this struggle. We need to read, support, write for and distribute it massively to make communist ideology dominant among our co-workers, family and friends in other industrial jobs, in the armed forces and among the youth.

Political strikes against capitalism and for communism: crucial weapons in this ideological struggle

Trade union strikes – fighting for bread and butter issues – are losers. They keep us prisoners on the unending treadmill of reformism.

We need political strikes against capitalism that put forward communist revolution as the only way to end wage slavery, and build a world without bosses, their money, exploitation, racism, sexism, borders, and imperialist wars.

For this we must defeat our own anti-communism and anti-working class ideas. It means having confidence that masses of workers can be won to communism.

We should start with MTA workers. About 750 read Red Flag regularly. We can increase this figure tremendously by taking one or more extra papers to struggle with co-workers to read.

Union hacks and bosses say no strike: we say wildcat against capitalism!

Let's follow the inspiring example of 220,000 South African metallurgical workers who defied their union hacks and continued their month-long  strike.

Our strike must be a wildcat strike with no support from the union. Thus, the support of the masses is crucial. This means organizing mass demonstrations where most of our passengers live and work: in downtown Los Angeles and South Central.

It means calling on our youth in high schools and colleges to organize walkouts to support and join our actions. It means calling on our friends and family in the military to refuse to be used against us.

 "By organizing a strike against capitalism and for communism, you'll inspire workers here and all over world," said a Red Flag distributor to another Division 10 operator.

"That's what I'm talking about," answered the operator, taking two Red Flags.

July, 2014 – Hundreds march in NYCity against the racist police murder of a black worker, Eric Garner, arrested for selling loose cigarettes. Garner was a well-known peacemaker in his Staten Island neighborhood. Racist cop Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold and he died minutes later as EMTs looked on. Attacks like these should be met by political strikes against the capitalist system that spawns deadly racism. Garner's mother and sister are drivers for NYC Metro. Instead of following reformist leaders like former snitch Al Sharpton, transit and other industrial workers everywhere must give communist leadership to the angry masses.

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