"Welcome back," said a balloon that flew proudly and defiantly, tied to the tool box of the MTA mechanic who had been suspended.

Many mechanics came to greet him. Between taking pictures and cracking jokes they showed a comradely attitude of solidarity. This euphoria  came in part from having realized that for lack of a deeper communist political understanding we did not show enough solidarity with our class brother to defend him collectively from MTA's racist attack.

Self-critically, we didn't see why he couldn't go along with the program and instead was so determined in defending the position of inspecting the buses properly and not as the bosses wanted. We knew, however, that the position he defended was correct.

The bosses claim that the safety of the passengers is our highest goal, but reality is different. They want the buses in the streets, not in the repair shops. We have gotten used to accepting this bosses' farce. We inspect the buses and ignore certain flaws: less work for us and fewer buses in repair.

We could have defied the bosses and done the right thing. But the majority of us know that to confront them individually brings repression, suspension from work, and firings. Under this pressure, we also submit ideologically to the bosses' organizations, like their political parties or unions, whose main objective is to keep us enslaved forever.

Due to this mechanic's struggle and the political campaign waged by Red Flag to defend him, MTA started a re-education campaign for mechanic inspectors throughout the company.  When this campaign got to the division of the suspended mechanic, some mechanics spoke up. "For putting into practice what you are teaching, a co-worker got suspended. If what you are teaching is true, then MTA has to change its attitude," they told the instructor on several occasions.

And  that happened. The next day the supervisor met with the mechanic inspectors and told us that in the future it was up to our discretion to road-test the buses on the streets when we thought it convenient, that they wouldn't bother us during work hours and the only thing they asked was for us to have the inspection reports ready by 1 pm.

This  would not have been possible without the leadership of ICWP through Red Flag. Our communist analysis always supported this co-worker under attack. We criticized his shortcomings and misunderstandings with his co-workers. But we said that these trifles should not divide us because communist unity and solidarity are needed to destroy capitalism.

This is a clear example of how communists and the working class must confront the bosses' attacks. We should never forget that we are locked in a class war with them. In wars, there are no demands, only goals.

Our goals as the working class are to advance the communist understanding of the masses, to forge their unity and recruit them to the Party. As our forces grow, we can advance this class war to the stage of armed struggle for state power.

We did not demand anything from MTA. We made a communist political analysis showing capitalism's inhumane nature. This sharpened the struggle between communist ideas and capitalist ideas. It has led to the communist political growth of this worker and many of us in this division and throughout MTA. Confidence in Red Flag and consequently in ICWP has also grown tremendously. This is our real victory!

The MTA bosses were forced to make concessions because they tremble before the advance of communist ideas among the workers. They think that by doing this they will calm the workers down and then Red Flag won't have anything to write to politicize the masses.

But they are wrong; capitalism cannot stop exploiting and attacking us, and we cannot stop struggling to abolish its wage slavery. In fact, the bosses began attacking another mechanic immediately, wanting to discipline him for not finding anything wrong on a bus. They sent him for re-training.

This war will not end until we get rid of the capitalists and their racist wage slavery. In a communist society, workers' safety and well-being will be the most important thing. Let's hasten that day by reading, distributing, writing for and contributing economically to Red Flag. Our final short-term and long-term victory lies in joining and building ICWP.

LOS ANGELES, CA. "What do you know about the contract? Are we going on strike?" asked an MTA bus operator.

"They are not saying much," answered the Red Flag distributor. "They might give you all the same wage increase the mechanics got. Then, there might be no strike."

"That [raise] is not enough given the work we do. Besides, we will still continue to be wage slaves," answered the bus operator.

"I agree with you. No amount of money could ever change that, only a communist revolution can," added Red Flag.

"We only work to pay the bills. We are nothing but wage slaves," repeated the operator.

"That is why we need a different world – one with good mass transportation…250 million cars off the streets in the US alone. Millions trained to operate buses and trains. We need a world without wage slavery. That is why you should join us!" said the Red Flag distributor.

The operator smiled and drove off with her copy of Red Flag.

This operator is expressing her dissatisfaction with capitalism and her longing for a different system. Many MTA operators are expressing the same longing in different ways. Some are turning to Red Flag as hundreds read and help distribute it. Others think their aspirations can be achieved by decertifying the union (UTU) or replacing the union hacks with honest leaders.

Two recent decertification attempts have failed. The latest one would have the operators leave the UTU and join the ATU. But, the ATU is as treacherous as the UTU. So is the whole US labor movement. Choosing any union is cutting one's own throat.

Replacing the current crop of union officials with honest, militant and dedicated leaders won't cut it either. Communists in ICWP don't want union leadership positions because it  would still make no difference.

The problem is capitalism. No matter how "good" a contract is, we are still  wage slaves.  The contract only justifies and legalizes our enslavement. We need to abolish wage slavery with a communist revolution to destroy capitalism.

Unions, however, perpetuate capitalism. They strive to reform it to meet our needs. They preach respect for and obedience to the bosses' laws, and that change comes through the bosses' electoral farce. Thus, trade union ideology diverts us from revolution.

"The bosses suck our blood," an MTA operator once said, "The unions only try to limit the size of the syringe and how much blood they extract from us."

Our task, however, is to destroy these blood suckers and their racist, sexist, inhumane system. That requires mobilizing the masses for communism and waging a protracted armed struggle to build communism worldwide.

Only communism can give us the creative, socially useful fulfilling work we need. Work makes us human. Capitalism's jobs dehumanize us.

Even US bosses realize this. The New York Times (6/1/14) wrote an article titled "Why You Hate Work." Referring to a worldwide 2013 Gallup survey of white-collar employees, it concluded that "around the world, across 142 countries, the proportion of employees who feel engaged at work is just 13 percent. For most of us, in short, work is a depleting, dispiriting experience, and in some obvious ways is getting worse."

The bosses are concerned because "the willingness of employees to voluntarily expend extra efforts" is lacking. This impacts their profits: the life-blood of capitalism.

But, where the bosses see danger, we see opportunity. Billions of workers in all job categories who are disgusted with capitalism's dehumanizing wage slavery can and will be won to be the driving force of revolution.

So can and will be hundreds of MTA drivers, mechanics and service attendants who read and distribute Red Flag. Let us organize a political strike against capitalism to consolidate and advance the movement that will put an end to our wage slavery.

June 3—Monday morning a mass sick-out of Muni (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority) workers began. Half of the 2,200 workers did not come to work, leaving two-thirds of the buses, cable cars and trains out of service and passengers facing over one hour delays. The sick-out continued on Tuesday and Wednesday as we went to press.

The sick-out was provoked by a contract "offer" by Muni requiring workers to pay for their own pensions, making the 7.5% contribution which in the past was paid by Muni, , while "offering" them a possible wage increase of up to 11.2% over two years.This would mean a pay cut of over $1/hour. Ninety percent of the workers rejected the contract in a vote last Friday.  Their action, despite the no-strike clause in their contract, shows that workers can break the bosses' contracts and laws. The workers can and need to fight to destroy capitalism.

Even though Muni workers are among the US's highest-paid transit workers, they are still wage slaves chained to the capitalists and subject to growing attacks like workers everywhere.  We need to mobilize massively for communism, where we won't be wage slaves and we won't need to rely on a pension. We will all work and contribute our whole lives and have our needs met collectively—without bosses, wage slavery, or money.

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