USA, September 21 – The US Postal Service (USPS) is a bone of contention in the political drama between Republicans and Democrats. They’re fighting over whether to help a financially struggling post office guarantee on-time delivery of millions of mail-in ballots and mail-in votes for the November elections.
The postal service is now seen, more than ever, as a critical institution during this time of pandemic and a presidential election. It’s important for the bosses to continue their perpetual show of their most symbolic event of democracy, voting.
Amidst the pandemic, people might be afraid to go vote in person, so millions might rather vote by mail. Democrats want to give the USPS billions of dollars in loans and grants so it can continue operations, but Republicans refuse to do it. Democrats call this an attack to democracy, while Republicans claim that large-scale voting by mail would be a catastrophic fraud.
Voting is how capitalists legitimize their rule over the working class. So, every four years, they put on their show and do the impossible to make sure workers vote.
“Most postal workers don’t vote,” said a mail carrier. “They are more concerned about financial stability. They worry a lot about talk of privatization, especially younger workers. We talk about how it’s based on profits.”
“Private” or “Public,” the Post Office Is Big Business
The post office has been struggling to pay its bills for many years. It does not receive government funds like all other government agencies. Instead, it supports itself with the sale of postage, products and services.
But the Internet caused a drop of over 50% in mail volume, especially first-class mail, the highest revenue generator. The post office has been losing billions of dollars, especially since the 2008 economic crisis.
A 2006 congressional mandate forced the post office to create a $72 billion fund to pay for retiree health benefits 75 years into the future and made it worse. Now the post office can’t afford to pay employees all the extra hours of overtime needed to process and deliver millions of ballots.
For many years, politicians have been trying to privatize the post office, calling it “obsolete” and “unnecessary.” Trump called it “a joke”. But companies like UPS would like to buy the post office. As a private business with unregulated prices, it could generate billions of dollars in annual profits.
Trump’s new postmaster general, Louis Dejoy, is a big Republican Party donor. Since June he’s made radical changes that deeply affect efficiency. He said they were necessary to “save” it from financial collapse. Some of those changes have been halted temporarily until after the election, due to congressional pressure.
Throughout the history of the USPS, big businesses and corporations have benefited the most. They use it to collect debt from the working class and to send intimidation letters if you default on your debt. They use it to cheaply advertise, sell and send merchandise around the country.
As we fight for a communist world one of our main objectives after the revolution will be to set up a good distribution network. We’ll need to deliver food, medicine and other supplies where they might be scarce or cannot be produced. It will certainly not be like a capitalist post office because there will be nothing to sell, advertise or collect. Only under a communist society will we have a delivery system that works for and by the working class.
In communism we won’t “vote” about who gets shelter, health care or food. In communism it’s criminal to argue about something that fundamental the way Congress argues about it today. Communism will be totally different. The masses are going to make decisions. They are closer to the reality of what’s needed.
There won’t be parties like Democrats and Republicans scrambling for power to rule over the masses. The International Communist Workers’ Party will be the organizing apparatus that enables the masses to run the world ourselves.
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