Standing with Amazon, Boeing Workers here ♦ Communist Ideas Win Workers to Reject Reform here ♦
Standing with Amazon, Boeing Workers: Building Forces for Communist Revolution
SEATTLE (USA), April 15— Some friends suggested that this May Day, the ICWP should celebrate the recent union victory at Amazon.
Thousands voted for the first union at Amazon, despite the company’s vicious, racist attacks on union organizers. Mainly they want better working conditions and more pay. Since then, workers at fifty other Amazon warehouses have started union campaigns.
Despite the brave organizing drive, comrades and friends wondered if this kind of trade union campaign can develop the forces we need for communist revolution.
In recent years, the ICWP Boeing collective has fought against the separation of families at the US border, mobilized against racism inside and outside the plants, and more. Workers halted production as hundreds debated communist solutions, among other things. Some Boeing workers became advocates for the whole working class instead of limiting their struggles to reforms within the factory. The Boeing union obstructed our efforts every step of the way.
Comrades talked with an Amazon subcontracted delivery worker, who hopes for a local union campaign. He was very interested in these stories of union betrayals and communist organizing in and outside the plants. For the first time, he is examining his relationship to the international working class.
Current Crisis at Boeing
Boeing’s current crisis mirrors the general crisis of U.S. imperialism. Boeing plans to attack our class to salvage what’s left of the US ruling class’s imperialist ambitions.
The Boeing Board has no credible way to end its three-year crisis in commercial production. The company has lost a billion dollars on the Dreamliner in recent months because of manufacturing flaws. The Federal Aviation Agency required Boeing to install additional safety features on the MAX 10 this year when it authorized the resumption of production. Executives are already lobbying for an extension. The list goes on. Boeing has laid off at least 30,000 workers and is still nearly $60 billion in debt.
Aerospace “experts” wanted Boeing to sell the last profitable section of the company: the Defense, Space and Security Division. They want to spin it off as a stand-alone company. The Board of Directors has remained silent.
If that happens, most of the company debt will be foisted onto the commercial division. But even amid this crisis, CEO Calhoun pulled in an estimated $21 million.
The bottom line: Boeing will sacrifice pensions and jobs of commercial workers to save U.S. imperialism’s war production.
A retired Boeing worker remembered what happened to Michigan (US) auto workers during the 2008 recession. He worked in various industries there. He fears that the attack on auto and steel workers then will pale before the attack on Boeing workers if the spin-off occurs.
He expects secret negotiations between the company and the union over the 2024 contract. In the past, these secret negotiations resulted in massive cuts. This time will be worse. The whole Seattle area will be devastated, not just the Boeing workers and retirees.
A Glimpse of a Communist Future
What should communists aim for in a situation like this? In Russia a century ago, the first battle of the revolutionary civil war took place outside Petrograd. Workers there displayed supreme heroism and political devotion to the cause of proletarian revolution.
In the factories, production of war materiel for the revolution went on day and night. The contribution of factory workers did not end at the factory gates. For example, over five hundred workers from the Putilov Works and fifty carpenters rushed to the trenches with their tools.
These workers also brought weapons hot off the assembly lines and trained revolutionary soldiers how to use them. They repaired vehicles and weapons on the front lines. Masses of factory workers from all over the city did the same.
Building a communist base in the factories really means unleashing a politically motivated working class that matches the feats of the Petrograd industrial workers. The working class cannot free itself from the yoke of capitalism by limiting itself to economic or reform demands.
Capitalist bosses rely on wage slavery to force us into submission. Communist workers act based on political commitment, not out of fear of losing their jobs. Mobilized by the ICWP, we can accomplish what seems impossible. By focusing our struggles on the needs of the international working class – not on unions– we will build the forces necessary for communist revolution.
Communist Ideas Win Workers to Reject Reform, March on May Day
SEATTLE (USA), April 1— “Next time we will have to start the discussion earlier. There is so much more to talk about, and this was very interesting,” said a friend at the end of our pre-May Day dinner.
It was the first time since the pandemic began that many of us could have an in-person collective discussion with so many comrades and friends. They wanted to hear about what to fight for and if we could win. The discussion focused on the differences between communism, capitalism, socialism, and fascism. It was effective in moving many of the participants closer to the ideas of ICWP and to understanding why only communism can free the working class from wage slavery.
We watched a video of last year’s May Day produced by comrades in El Salvador. A comrade asked, “What political ideas should the ICWP raise at this year’s May Day marches?”
A friend commented, “We had a victory today. The New York Amazon warehouse voted to unionize.” A comrade replied by recounting her own experience trying to unionize at Metropolitan Life in San Francisco (US). Workers spent many months getting enough cards signed to have a union vote. It looked like the union would win. But the night before the election, the union pulled out. Union misleaders no longer wanted to organize those workers because they feared communist leadership.
Another comrade described experiences at Boeing where the union tried to block communist-led campaigns against racism and xenophobia.
These examples led to an in-depth discussion of revolution versus reform, and whether reform can ever win for the working class. Almost everyone spoke up. Some comrades said that what workers think and do about Ukraine, Black Lives Matter, the separation of families at borders, sexism, communist ideology, etc. is what will win them to revolution, not reform demands.
Everyone who spoke agreed that capitalism is a horror. But some thought that socialism might be a step towards communism. One comrade used an analogy to explain why we must get rid of any vestige of capitalism, including socialism (which maintains the wage system). If you don’t dig out weeds by the roots, they will only come back. This is what happened in Russia and China. Their intent was to fight for workers’ power, but because they thought socialism was a necessary precursor to communism, the weeds of capitalism returned in full force.
There were many questions about fascism: “What is the prime example of fascism? Did Black people always live under fascism?” One comrade said, “One sign is extra-legal paramilitary violence, like the Proud Boys in the US.” A second Boeing worker and a construction worker chimed in: “It is a police state, Jim Crow laws. Many Black workers around the world have always lived under fascism, like apartheid in South Africa.”
These discussions were not academic. These workers and friends view this knowledge as important for their lives. As they make decisions about participating with us, they want to understand communism and the role of the party.
One friend commented, “I’m glad we have a month to prepare for May Day. It gives us time to put these ideas in an accessible form.” We will ask her to help create our signs. That will be an opportunity to discuss all these questions further.
Many friends who came to the potluck, motivated by their increased understanding of communism and our party, said they will join us on May Day. Our collective plans to follow up with all of them, not only about May Day, but about participating in party collectives and joining ICWP. These conversations and the actions which follow them will help our party grow into the mass party necessary to fight for and win a communist world.