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Boeing: No More Games of Musical Chairs Mobilize for Communist Revolution

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SEATTLE, WA — IAM Local C ousted its current president in October. The past president John Lopez, along with a new slate of administrative candidates, won in what has been nicknamed “a game of musical chairs.”
Local C is one of four union locals that make up IAM District 751, the Boeing’s blue-collar union in the Seattle area. Each Local contains employees with particular job titles. 
Under communism, Local C will not exist because workers will not be divided by the jobs they do. Machinists will be engineers; everyone will take turns performing multiple tasks in the factory. We will end the chasm between mental and manual labor.
Lopez attacked the losing candidate who stood next to Boeing Commercial Airplanes boss Ray Conner at the August ground breaking ceremony for the new 777X wing plant in Everett.
In a short speech that day, the losing local president said that although he hadn’t supported the contract extension narrowly passed in January,  the union had to live with the outcome and move on.
The contract extension set up a de facto no-strike regime until 2024. It eliminated defined pensions and attacked a whole new generation of workers.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold
Lopez put on a more militant front, but union elections and changes in union leadership do not negate the laws of capitalism. The International, the company, and the federal and state government all plotted to railroad this contract extension through. 
The inevitable crisis of overproduction when China’s commercial jet production comes on line in the next decade forced their hand. Too many manufacturers will be chasing too few customers, forcing prices down below what it currently costs to produce jets.
Commercial Airplanes Chief Ray Conner admitted that the order backlog is made up of planes sold at prices 50% cheaper than it costs the company to produce them. Boeing had to sew up orders before the Chinese start producing commercial jets.
“We no longer can get a premium for our reputation and quality,” he admitted. “It’s all about cost.”(Read: attacking the workers.)

Don’t Tell Us What We Already Know, Tell Us If Communism Will Work
Local C has nearly 6,000 members. Only 800+  voted. Most who voted were appointed shop stewards and paid union bureaucrats. An even lower percent voted in the District president elections some months back.
The trade union idea of fighting for a fair share under this capitalist crisis becomes more and more irrelevant. That’s what Boeing union members are telling us with such los election turnouts.
While the union tries futilely to convince us it is still relevant, about a dozen Boeing workers have attended ICWP’s bi-monthly expanded meetings. We discuss how communism can fundamentally change society and our lives.
Crises of overproduction will become an historical relic when we produce for our needs, not for the bosses’ profits.
Production for need will allow us to re-design factories into educational and cultural centers. We won’t allow the world’s billion industrial workers to waste their human potential slaving away for the capitalist’s profit.
The battle against international Capital will no longer be hamstrung by capitalist illusions embodied in trade unionism. So not only will Local C no longer exist, but also the whole union apparatus will no longer hamper our struggle.
Decisions will not rely on elections and the palace politics that accompany them. The working class will decide based on consensus arising out of mass political struggle initiated by our Party.
Mobilizing the masses for communism means the end of exploitation for profit, hence no contracts to define that exploitation.
Rather than dwell on the futile voting game, we need to mobilize masses for communist revolution.

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