Communism Will Get Us All Moving
LOS ANGELES, USAāāItās nice to see you. How have you been?ā asked the Red Flag distributor to an MTA bus operator getting off her shift.
āNot so good, I hurt my hand helping a wheelchair passenger onto the bus. My hand got pinned by the wheelchair. The doctor is still evaluating my injury. I hope it hasnāt caused permanent damage. I need surgery but MTA denied my claim,ā she answered.
āIām so sorry to hear that. Wheelchair-related accidents seem common. Another driver told me that manually operating the W-wheelchair lift injured his shoulder. The hydraulic system wasnāt working,ā said the comrade.
āTell me about it! Recently it happened to me. It didnāt work on my bus either. I did it manually three times. It was really hard,ā added the operator.
A retired bus operator explained, āMTAās normal procedure is to deny operatorsā claims, especially
if they have no lawyer. However, if the mechanism was cleaned and lubricated daily, this problem wouldnāt exist. Also, installing a winch by the fare box would enable operators to raise the lift without getting into health-hazardous positions when done manually.ā
āWhy isnāt the hydraulic lift cleaned and lubricated daily?ā
āBecause,ā continued the retired operator, āmanagement does it to save money, pitting drivers and mechanics against each other. They make both responsible for the inspection but donāt allocate enough time for either to do an adequate job.ā
Undoubtedly, many drivers and mechanics have tons of ideas about how to make things easier, safer and more pleasant for drivers and passengers. But, MTA and its capitalist masters are not interested in this.
If they were, they would replace the 263 million cars, clogging US roads and streets, with a good, safe massive transportation system. This would greatly improve the physical and mental wellbeing of over 222 million drivers, especially bus operators.
It would, however, eliminate the huge profits of oil, automobile, tire, and construction companies. āProfits before people,ā is the capitalistsā logic and they wonāt act against their logic.
āFor them, we are not human beingsā¦ we are just a number,ā said a driver at a different division. Another driver from yet another division commented, āWe are just wage slaves carrying wage slaves from their homes to the plantation and then back to their homes.ā
They are totally rightā and no reform can ever change this. Wage slavery robs our humanity. To gain it back and develop to our fullest human potential we must destroy wage slavery and money, the chain that binds us to the capitalists. Only communism can do this.
Transporting people and goods is a social need which we will plan and implement collectively. Helping those in need to get on or off the transporting vehicle will be done collectively. The attitude
on the buses or trains will be āWeāre all here together helping each other get on and off to get where we need to go.ā
Communism will develop a massive multi-faceted system with lots of different kinds of transportation to meet peopleās different needs.
Operators of mass transit will be able to show the care, love and appreciation of their passengers that they would like to, but that capitalism prevents them from doing. We will develop better ways to transport everyoneāespecially people using wheel chairs.
With no wage slavery or money to dictate how we live and die or how we relate to each other, we will be able to fully develop the communist social relationships that will allow us to treat each other with respect, dignity and love. Like our ancestors did for tens of thousands of years in pre-class communism – on a higher level.