Communism Is a Life-and-Death Issue
SEATTLE (USA), August 4 — Paul Njoroge lost his wife, three children and mother-in-law in the second crash of a Boeing 737 MAX, in Ethiopia on March 10. His whole family was wiped out. “I can’t get it out of my mind,” he confessed.
In blistering testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Njoroge said Boeing blamed “foreign pilots” to avoid grounding the plane after the first crash in October of 2018. Boeing’s insinuation of pilot error allowed it to keep flying the plane—and led directly to the death of his family.
In a Boeing plant here, from the very beginning, comrades of the International Communist Workers’ Party have fought against this racist and xenophobic company excuse. Over the last few months, our members and friends have not let a single comment like this on the shop floor go unchallenged. Often, these struggles have led to longer discussions about communism and joining the party.
Now, racism and xenophobia have emerged again, but in a different form. Various media outlets “exposed” that the company transferred crucial software to an off-shore sub-contractor paying $9/hour. A typical Boeing software engineer in the US averages over $40/hour.
This information was revealed at a particularly sensitive time. Boeing was already planning to eliminate 1000 inspectors in a drive for more profits. Thousands of Puget Sound engineers have been fired.
It’s likely to get much worse. Production slowed after the grounding. It may stop altogether. Hiring has been frozen in a number of areas.
During a webcast, CEO Muilenburg was asked if there will be layoffs. “We care about our people,” was his answer.
“In other words, there’s going to be lots of layoffs,” concluded a machinist.
Collective Labor Is the Answer
These low-paid subcontracted software programmers and engineers were purposely isolated from the production floor. Their only connection was through management. That made it easier for profit-hungry executives to dictate shortcuts that turned out to be deadly.
At the same time, the bosses faced a lot of pushback from experienced engineers in the Seattle area who questioned the airworthiness of the MAX. Where possible, shop floor workers alerted them to what turned out to be fatal flaws, such as the tendency of the angle-of-attack sensors to give false readings.
In the end, those that made the final decisions ignored the collective experience of engineers and production workers. In fact, collective experience was considered an impediment to maximizing profits. “Everything you haven’t done is easy,” was how one engineer characterized the bosses’ arrogance.
In communism, those that do the work will make the decisions. Work centers will be built around collective labor and collective decision making.
The separation between engineers and shop workers will quickly be ended. Our plan is to merge mental and manual labor.
We will no longer need the parasitic bureaucracy that supports profit and exploitation, including managers, executives and capitalist finance officials. And no more racist and xenophobic excuses!
As the recent crashes that cost 346 lives show, communist revolution is already a life-and-death issue.