Capitalist Production Model Fails —Time for Communist Collective Production
Boeing, Seattle, 2013
PUGET SOUND (USA), October 1— “Time to get up and start talking about Boeing,” demanded a Boeing friend who called from work, waking up a retired comrade. Half of our friend’s crew had been laid off. Even though he is still employed, there is no work for him to do.
Capitalist production models can no longer even pretend to serve the needs of the working class. We must prepare for a communist revolution in production and in society at large. That’s the only way our collective needs can be met.
During the chat, our friend started joking about how the company is going to “move him to China.” Chinese aerospace firms will launch their equivalent of the narrow-body 737 MAX next year, making the future of Boeing’s plane precarious.
Airlines have cancelled over a thousand 737 MAX orders. Other jet models have also been canceled and delayed. Many of the delayed planes will never be delivered. For the first time in the company’s history, Boeing forecasts significantly fewer deliveries in the next decade than in the previous one: 2,200 less.
Meanwhile, Boeing layoffs are accelerating. Tens of thousands have already lost their jobs. Subcontractors have shed hundreds of thousands of workers. Major suppliers, like California’s Impresa Aerospace, have gone bankrupt. What is left of widebody 787 production is being shifted to lower-wage South Carolina, leaving the vast Everett, WA plant near empty.
The MAX isn’t the only plane with dangerous flaws. In the last few months, hazardous manufacturing errors have occurred in the South Carolina and Salt Lake City 787 factories.
The military’s air tanker has also been pulled from service because of defects. Nevertheless, the Pentagon is paying Boeing more than the contract requires at this stage of production. These advance payments—along with the federal government’s manipulation of the bond market—are keeping the company afloat. And executives wealthy!
Airbus is also laying off, but they are doing marginally better. In the first nine months of this year, Airbus delivered 341 planes compared to only 87 for Boeing. Neither of these figures approaches the nearly 2,000 combined total a couple of years ago.
All around the world, the capitalists are spending trillion$ of our stolen labor to save their production facilities—particularly those related to war production. We should have no illusions that any of this capital will be spent for our benefit.
In fact, the bosses have escalated their attacks. The global industrial job losses are devastating.
Racist Attacks Spark Recruitment, Consolidation
At this time, one of the biggest political weapons the bosses use against industrial workers is racism. The capitalists use racism, along with sexism and nationalism, to super-exploit and divide workers. The inevitable wars perpetrated by desperate imperialists will surely compound the horrendous suffering.
For example, the wages are two-thirds lower in South Carolina because of a history of racist divisions and super-exploitation. These divisions have made it harder to fight racist speed-up, which not only hurts employees but contributes to the many manufacturing errors in these southern factories.
The constant barrage of racism at work fueled the Party’s efforts to bring workers to anti-racist demonstrations throughout the city. Black Boeing workers were the first to respond. Two joined the party, including one who helped organize a feeder march of 400 high school students to one of the first big BLM marches.
Our modest collective’s orbit extends to scores of Red Flag readers, including friends, family, students at local high schools and co-workers. These co-workers are either working, recently laid off or forced into retirement.
Red Flag Gives Workers an International Class Outlook
Boeing Red Flag readers are often motivated to fight budding fascism throughout the world. “It looks bad for Boeing workers,” commented a recently retired friend after reading the paper. “But this stuff [about racist-sexist atrocities in US Immigration concentration camp] is even more important.” He saw the parallels to NAZI Germany. He also appreciated the part about U.S. eugenics history.
The Boeing crisis is part and parcel of the general crisis of capitalism. Cries for returning to “normal” capitalist exploitation are misleading. Now more than ever, the answer is to produce for the needs of the working class, not the profits of the capitalists. We’re talking about communist collective production. And that requires a communist revolution.
Boeing workers must join their international brothers and sisters in the ICWP and help build industrial workers’ collectives everywhere. Our Boeing friend’s humor has its place, but only communist organizers will end this tragedy.
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