FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, August 24 – “What do we want? Justice!” This was the cry of eighty hotel workers, union activists and community members who held a short march and rally here today. But the signs and speakers provided by UNITE HERE Local 11 treacherously called for “labor peace.” They’re mainly concerned with a new hotel that Kimpton is developing in a historic city-owned YWCA building. Most of the marchers took communist leaflets and some also gladly took Red Flag. Excerpts from the leaflet follow:
Some describe our goal as “labor justice” but surely that means more than management neutrality in a unionization campaign. It must mean more than $15/hour five years from now, when even $30,000/year (the average income of hotel workers in Pasadena today) is not a living wage here.
“Labor justice” should mean ending exploitation. Trade unions at best negotiate the terms of exploitation. They don’t and can’t fight to end it.
Exploitation is the core of the capitalist market economy.
Workers must sell their labor power at the market rate (“prevailing wages”) so they and their families can live. They are wage-slaves. Capitalists buy that labor power and put it to work creating goods and services that they can sell at market rates. They profit because the value added by the workers’ labor is greater than the cost of that labor.
In 2014, for example, the InterContinental Hotels Group (which bought Kimpton in late 2014) reported $651 million in net income with 7,797 employees. That works out to about $84,000 profit PER EMPLOYEE for the year.
Our broader perspective must include the fight to end capitalism! But even that’s not broad enough. We need a vision of what that “something better” is.
How we can build a world where the working class collectively shares the fruits of our labor. A society without poverty or privilege, where the masses plan and carry out all work to meet human needs sustainably. Where society is organized around comradely relationships, not the marketplace.
You might call that “labor justice” but a better name for it is “communism.”
Too often we hide the broader perspective fearing it will “turn people off” or because “it’s not time.” But the global crisis of capitalism is making it impossible for the masses to live in the old way. We see it in the affordability crisis driving our neighbors out of Pasadena and in the massive waves of refugees trying to cross borders into the US and Europe.
People are looking for alternatives. That’s why Bernie Sanders is popular – and why the Islamic State finds recruits. Now is exactly the time to discuss, develop and disseminate a communist vision that can inspire many to fight for a real solution.
Will there be hotels in communist society? Sure! We’ll encourage people to travel widely to build strong comradely ties around our world without borders. They’ll need places to stay – for free and without luxury. But they won’t be pampered – they can cook and clean up after themselves!
Nobody will make beds or bus tables all day. Everyone will learn many skills and do different types of work. Nobody will live better or worse than anyone else. We won’t need unions to confront “management” because workers themselves will run all of society.
If these ideas appeal to you, please contact the International Communist Workers’ Party