Only Communism Can End Exploitation and Imperialist Wars
SAN DIEGO, USA—Many workers understand that capitalism is a racket. Workers do all the work and the capitalists pay us only a part of the value our work creates. They keep the rest for themselves as profit.
It is easy to lose sight of just how much the bosses rip us off. NASSCO and BAE Systems, two shipyards in San Diego, are good examples. Both are divisions of giant corporations (NASSCO is owned by General Dynamics) that do most of their business selling to the US and UK military and their allies, including Saudi Arabia.
General Dynamics reported a profit of $ 4.177 billion before taxes in 2017, but that wasn’t all of it. They also paid $ 43 million to five top executives, mostly in company stock. Those payments weren’t wages, but a share of the profits. The rate of profit on the capital invested works out to 23%! The company bragged that an investment made in their stock in 2012 would produce more than triple the original value by 2017 if dividends were reinvested.
Since General Dynamics has 98,800 workers, the profit per worker was $ 42,700 per worker in 2017. That means that the value that workers created that was NOT paid for by the company (surplus value) was nearly as large as the wages that many workers were actually paid!
BAE Systems was a little less successful in exploiting its workforce. Their profits were $ 3.043 billion, plus $14.1 million for the top execs. They employed 83,200 workers, for an average of $ 33,173 of unpaid value per worker.
Last month the US Congress approved a huge increase in military spending, including 14 new Navy ships, and a new aircraft carrier. Some of these ships will be built in San Diego and both NASSCO and BAE will be hiring. Workers need these jobs but like any job, signing up means being exploited, since much of our work is unpaid.
Building ships can be an important benefit for humanity, and under communism it will be. Under capitalism, however, all work is organized to benefit the capitalists. Even jobs like health care or teaching have to be done to make a profit or prepare workers to be used to make profits.
War industry workers live under an extra contradiction: most of us don’t want wars or threats of war, but that is what the bosses will use our work for. The US is building a bigger Navy to confront rising capitalist powers, especially China, that want a bigger slice of capitalist profits. China, India and other rising powers are building up their navies, too.
None of this military buildup aims to protect the masses anywhere, even in the country where it was built. The US plan for a 350-ship navy is to make it easier to project its military power over the whole earth. The only reason for US Navy ships to sail the Persian Gulf or the South China Sea is to control those places (especially their oil) and protect the investments and profits of US big business. Over the last decade thousands of civilians have been killed by US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, many by bombers and missiles from Navy ships.
So, what do we do about it? We have to recognize that capitalism can’t be fixed. Capitalists exploit workers and fight to maintain profits. It is the nature of the beast. Trade unionism, elections, trade deals, peace treaties and compromises can’t change it. Our only choice is to organize communist revolution and bring about a whole new situation. Unlike socialism in Russia and China, that still had exploitation, inequality, money, nations and international conflict, communism is organized around everyone working and sharing what they make to meet everyone’s needs.
Communism can’t be won without revolution, that is, revolutionary war to destroy capitalism. But it will produce a future where all the ships are designed and built to serve the working class. They won’t fight in greedy battles between capitalists that kill masses of workers.
ICWP recognizes that industrial workers are the key force is this communist movement. We are already distributing over 200 copies of every issue of Red Flag to shipyard workers. Young revolutionaries should get jobs in the shipyards and other industries to mobilize workers for communism. As a BAE worker told us recently, “Something’s got to change.” The change we need is communism. Join us and make it happen.
WORK IN A SHIPYARD? TELL US WHAT YOU THINK OR WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT ICWP. TALK TO A RED FLAG DISTRIBUTOR OR CONTACT ICWP@AnonymousSpeech.com
November 1972, San Diego—An anti-racist mutiny aboard the US Constellation rocks the US Navy. Hundreds of black sailors and a handful of white supporters stage a sit-in to protest racist discipline policies and less-than-honorable discharges. The leaders have been meeting for two months. Some had been reading communist papers they’d received in Long Beach.
Anti-war feelings were running high among sailors. These included young black sailors from cities recently shaken by urban rebellions. Shipboard arson and sabotage were increasingly common. The Constellation was the ship involved in the 1964 Tonkin Gulf incident, instigated by the US to justify escalation of its war on Vietnam.
We have much to learn today from the rebellion on the Constellation! It shows the need and opportunity to organize in the military to turn the guns against the imperialists for communist revolution.