Communist Collective Production Key to End Racism here ♦ Boeing Workers Fight Racist War Propaganda here ♦
Seattle, March 2021. Demonstration against Anti-Asian Racism
Corporate “Diversity” Circus Won’t Do the Job: Communist Collective Production Is Key to Ending Racism
SEATTLE (US) — At the current rate, it will take Blacks in the United States 95 years to reach workforce parity at Boeing. Scores of Boeing workers greeted this news with disdainful laughter.
Then the floodgates opened. Black, Latinx, Asian and white workers poured out their anger about racist and sexist abuse they had experienced or witnessed.
A Black comrade, C, bitterly recounted how a supervisor and some racist white workers tried to get rid of him.
He and a white comrade discussed how collective production would lay the basis for ending racist culture. The discussion centered on how capitalism must pit worker against worker to increase profits.
In contrast, communism relies on cooperation to produce for our collective needs. The whole society, not just production, will be built on communist relationships. We build such relationships in the Party and among our base now.
C and other comrades expect there to be fewer racist workers in communism, and more workers dedicated to fighting racism and sexism. The struggle continues in the Party to see how communist relationships will lead to an end of racism on a massive scale.
Illusions Lost
Huge arguments about racism and xenophobia spread throughout the plants last year. ICWP organized dozens to fight for communist solutions among their fellow workers. Crew meetings were split asunder as the Party’s base squared off (sometimes literally) against fascist forces.
Boeing executives thought to placate angry workers by setting up a diversity taskforce. It was supposed to reveal a timetable for when enough Black workers would be hired to create a workforce mirroring the surrounding population. “Well, now we know. That’s never going to happen!” said C.
Aerospace workers continue to be deeply affected by last summer’s mass uprisings in the streets. Racism, sexism and xenophobia are still hot topics among the tens of thousands laid off. The debate has widened to include, for example, the toxic brew of anti-Asian hate and the sexist fetishization of Asian women.
Useless Reports
Boeing also promised a report on workforce diversity. We finally saw it.
It showed the possibility of Latinx employees reaching numbers on par with their representation in the population as even less likely than the abysmal prospects for Black workers. Also, women in production and maintenance jobs represent less than 14% of the workforce.
Boeing executives are shameless. They say the company is on par with others in the industry. Racism reigns supreme throughout the whole capitalist workforce. For example, aerospace subcontractors are virtual sweatshops, paying their workers next to nothing. They overwhelmingly employ Black, Latinx and women workers.
Boeing’s public relations (PR) department made sure the US media featured the firing of 65 employees for “racist, discriminatory and hateful conduct” when this appalling report was released. “Hateful conduct” includes yelling and swearing at your immediate boss no matter what the justification.
South Carolina Plant: Racist Hellhole
The PR department also tried to bury the fact that Boeing is right now being sued for racial discrimination. A federal case in South Carolina charges that Black workers “face retaliation and a hostile work environment.” They are “routinely assigned to a building with hazardous work conditions.” Nooses and other racist threats are regular occurrences.
South Carolina has a large Black population. Even here, Boeing has not hired many Black workers. Racist divisions and super-exploitation have resulted in wages about two-thirds lower for all South Carolina employees than those in Washington state.
All this as the company continues to lay off tens of thousands. Subcontractors are going out of business, leading to hundreds of thousands more jobs lost.
Overcoming What Holds Us Back
C and other comrades still hesitate to jump into the work of the collective with both feet. Our comrades see the vastly expanded potential for communist recruitments. Nonetheless, there is still doubt that the party can take advantage of it and expand its influence.
Three new Boeing comrades joined the ICWP over the last year and a half. Each in their own way has greatly helped expand our work. They have circulated the paper at work, at a high school where one volunteers, among relatives, and at mass demonstrations. Some have written inspiring articles. All have contributed comments to the paper. There is no shortage of debates with their friends over the merits of communism.
In the next article, we will focus on the actions our collective must take to fully incorporate these new comrades, recruit more comrades and expand our influence.
Boeing Workers Fight Company’s Anti-Chinese Racism. Only Communism Will End Racism and Imperialism
US, June 21—The recent meeting of the G7 (US, Canada and five European countries) agreed to pause their years-long trade war in aerospace. US rulers called this another example of western unity to counter the threat posed by China. Actually, the agreement reflected not strength but the weakness of the US, of Boeing, and of the Machinists’ Union (IAM).
The anti-Chinese narrative no longer rings true to vast sections of workers. Neither do the other racist, imperialist stories the bosses use to shore up their system. Still, expect the capitalist media to push this storyline aggressively, particularly among key industrial workers capable of war production.
The myth of an invincible US empire, home of justice and freedom, no longer carries the same punch it used to. The capitalists know it. Across the world, hundreds of millions have fought over the last few years to expose racism and almost every other capitalist fairy tale.
The central question now is how comrades can take advantage of this opportunity to build an International Communist Workers’ Party large enough to mobilize masses for communist revolution.
Boeing Worried, Union Supports Racist War Propaganda
Boeing has been the aggressor in World Trade Organization litigation to punish Airbus for EU subsidies. Its effort came to a whimpering end on June 15, with nothing to show for seventeen years in court. Meanwhile, Airbus has delivered twice as many jets as Boeing so far this year.
In a side deal, the US and Europe will pressure China over similar subsidies. But it’s unlikely that Germany—Europe’s biggest economic power—will actively participate. China is scheduled to start delivery of its own competing aircraft by the end of the year.
This side deal worries the Boeing CEO. He warned that Boeing won’t be able to ramp up 737 Max production next year if China refuses to accept its planes. Without Chinese deliveries, Boeing is in peril. If its commercial division can’t recover, the US government will have to subsidize it to the tune of $$billions. Just what the US bosses accuse China of doing!
Massive layoffs of Boeing workers continue. The IAM is no match for this capitalist crisis. To divert attention from the union’s impotence, the IAM Boeing local President praised efforts to coordinate with the EU to challenge China’s trade practices. He asserted this would stop production from shifting to China.
The IAM has used this racist anti-Chinese distraction for over twenty years. When communists and our friends organized to stop Boeing from using Seattle prison labor, IAM leaders tried to shift the blame to Chinese “forced labor.” They never mentioned the racist super-exploitation of immigrant Chinese labor, which built the US trans-continental railroad, or the racist massacres of Chinese people in most major west coast cities.
When the International IAM was finally forced to come out against US prison labor, their opposition was only rhetorical. Back then, Boeing communists did not fully appreciate how reformist trade unionism is irrevocably connected to the company’s capitalist agenda.
Over the last year, ICWP comrades have been able to mobilize even more Boeing workers to counter the anti-Chinese narrative. Now we must consolidate this advance by convincing more workers to join party collectives.
Today, we fight for directly for communism: the only way to end racist prison labor, wage slavery, trade wars and imperialist wars.
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