FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!International Communist Workers Party |
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LOS ANGELES, CA, US--MTA workers, like Boeing workers
and millions of workers worldwide, are rising up against capitalism's
attacks on their living standards.
More than 500 MTA mechanics and service attendants
showed up on November 5 for a vote, authorizing their ATU
Local 1277 officials to call a strike if necessary. Many of these
workers are mad at MTA and their treacherous union officials.
Some are mad at, and are questioning, capitalism.
Many are looking for radical alternatives, but don't yet see
communist revolution as the only alternative to end the bosses'
racist, sexist attacks forever. Many, however, are open to our
communist ideas. More than 250 gladly took Red Flag.
The following brief report of the union meeting shows that
many workers have no confidence in union officials, their legalistic
tactics or their reliance on the bosses' politicians.
Bosses' politicians and laws: chains to keep us forever
wage slaves
James Lindsay, president of the local, started the meeting by
asking for a yes or no vote to sanction two workers who were
"caught" trying to organize another union, with a six month
union suspension.
A worker quickly rose to speak against this because "it denies
the workers the right to change leaders, if these are not doing
their job." When asked if those workers wouldn't have to pay
union dues for six months, Lindsay said they would still have
to. Many workers laughed sarcastically. No vote was taken.
Lindsay started the discussion on the confidence vote by talking
about how bad things were and that "we have some good
things like medical coverage, "suggesting we keep quiet and accept things as they
are.
One worker quickly reminded him that 2 or 3
contracts ago we paid only $6 a month for medical
coverage. Now it is $80 per month and it will increase.
Another worker angrily said, "I don't understand
why you leaders continue to rely on politicians
(Democrats and Republicans), and on the
mass media when we know that they are all against
us." He suggested the union organize militant
wildcat strikes to catch MTA by surprise.
Lindsay replied that it wasn't possible because
the union must respect certain laws and follow the
legal process of getting the Mayor's OK for a
strike.
Questioning the leadership's passivity and complete
reliance on legality, many workers suggested
rallies in front of MTA headquarters, work slowdowns,
rolling strikes, sickouts, etc. Lindsay
stressed that some contract clauses made such actions
illegal and if carried out, even the "union
could cease to exist."
Capitalist laws enslave us: Only communist
revolution can liberate us
Many workers, as we can see, want to break out
of the bosses' legality and reliance on their politicians:
96% voted to authorize a strike. To get the
unions to be more militant, they either want to
change the leadership or the union itself.
A retired MTA mechanic even told a comrade
distributing Red Flag at that meeting, "If you want
to overthrow capitalism, you first have to get rid
of the union leaders."
He meant electing militant officials. We don't
think that is the way to go. We are not against
unions because they supposedly try to defend
workers' interests. We are against them because
their only goal is to reform capitalism.
Thus, workers fight, sacrifice and die for reforms
which are eventually taken back by the capitalists.
This is especially true in times of crisis like
now, where worldwide workers are losing gains
won generations ago. Trade unionism is a neverending
struggle.
Trade unionism's politics prevent workers from
seeing that only communist revolution can end this
struggle, destroying the capitalists and their wage
slavery, and building a different society based on
workers needs, not profits.
The bosses' electoral charade is also another big
obstacle preventing workers from seeing the need
for revolution. But, as the meeting shows, some
workers are questioning both the limits of trade
unionism and electoral politics.
ICWP and its newspaper Red Flag will continue
hammering at both obstacles with complete
confidence that many MTA workers and others
will reject both and join the fight for communism.
WASHINGTON STATE, US—Last
Thursday, over five hundred Boeing
workers shouted down District 751 president
Wroblewski. A couple of hundred
new hires came to their first meeting to
help.
"Go out there and tell them this thing's
gotta go down," we demanded as Wroblewski
tried to weasel out of taking a position
on the proposed contract extension.
The company threatens to move the new
777X plane somewhere else if we don't
accept it.
The extension demands: no strike
through 2024; end defined pensions by
2016; a 1% wage "increase" every two
years, then every three years; medical
payments to go up to as much as
$409/month plus co-pays and deductibles.
Starting pay will not be raised. Incredibly,
new hires will get less than the state
minimum wage by the end of the contract.
It will take 16 years (instead of the current
6) to get to the maximum.
A young worker told an older mechanic,
"I can't live in a system based on
extortion."
"That's why I am a revolutionary," he
answered.
"Me too!" she said.
A worker who is active in the union
said, "Everything you guys said in the last
four months has come true," as he read
the Red Flag article predicting that Boeing's
growing attacks on subcontractor
workers would soon turn against Boeing
workers themselves. They are. He took a
bunch of leaflets to pass out in the factory.
Big-screen TVs endlessly repeating
Boeing Commercial President Ray Conner's
praise of the contract extension
greeted many of us Monday morning. It
was like a scene out of Orwell's 1984 in
the factory: Big Brother admonishing you
to toe the company line from on high.
The ICWP also greeted workers with
the following leaflet. We were much better
received.
No Extortion:
Take Back What
is Ours!
This contract extension is extortion.
Extortion is the Boeing bosses' modus
operandi. It's all legal and normal under
capitalism. We must find a way to end
this blackmail, once and for all.
If this last week has shown us anything, it is
that trade unionism and votes are no match for
the capitalists' power. Indeed, the unions and
contract votes have become central to this shakedown.
To reject extortion, we have to reject the
capitalist system that breeds it.
At last Thursday's union meeting, recent hires
spoke eloquently about how they had experienced
extortive threats to their jobs in the factories
and mills in which they had worked before
coming to Boeing. They—like the other hundreds
at that meeting, and thousands in the plants—
condemned Wroblewski for dithering and bringing
this contract to a vote.
We have responded with marches through the
plants, banging and posting ripped-up contracts
in plants. Those traitorous union officials that
came to "explain" the contract were often sent
packing. But even if we vote this "piece of crap"
down —as now seems likely — the logic of trade
union negotiations means that another "piece of
crap" contract cannot be far behind.
Labor Contracts Aren't Worth
The Paper They're Printed On
A contract doesn't destroy the chains of
exploitation: it only defines the shape of
those chains. As the worldwide capitalist
economic crisis continues, they don't even
do that.
This is the second time the union has
collaborated with the company in secret to
sharpen the attack on us even when we had
a contract. We can expect more of the
same.
There is, however, something these contract
extensions do try to guarantee: a no-strike
regime!
The International forced this vote. Contract extensions
like these promote their "national security
re-industrial" plan. They aim to plead with
the bosses to keep unions, which they say can secure
passive, non-striking, cheap labor under the
tyranny of these contracts. Obviously, this means
security for the bosses' profits and capacity to
wage war on their competitors, but the opposite
for us.
We Deserve Better
Better contracts won't do the trick; we deserve
something better than contracts. We
built the planes. Our labor paid for all the
plants and machinery, the fancy corporate offices,
huge executive bonuses and deluxe retirement
packages. Whose factory is this
anyway?
We are subject to this extortion because
the bosses have legally stolen all this from
us. As a result, we have to sell our labor to
these thieves to survive. We can't get or keep
a job unless we give into greater and greater
exploitation.
Capitalism organizes production for sale and
profit. If we organize production for the needs of
our class, all this exploitation and blackmail goes
away. Exploitive jobs cease to exist; we work for
the good of our class.
Communist production replaces competition
for profits with collective labor. We can welcome
helping hands, not fight over the scraps the
bosses throw us.
Millions are on the move around the world,
breaking the restraints of capitalism and contracts.
Masses of workers have met the power of
capital head on from South Africa to Brazil, from
the Mid-East to Europe. They haven't asked their
union "leaders" if it was ok.
Extortion is baked into this system. Join us in
mobilizing for communist production throughout
the world based on our collective labor and
needs, where those that do the work decide where
and what we produce. Help us expand the network
of Red Flag readers and distributers in the
plants.
We'll end this extortion when these networks
mobilize to take back the means of production,
which our labor built and which should be ours.