The following letter is a testimony given by a comrade in support of the Securing Wages Against Theft (SWEAT) bill at a New York State legislative hearing. Annually billions of dollars are stolen from workers in New York City alone. Loopholes in the state rulers’ laws make it easy for bosses to ruthlessly steal from workers and hide their assets in such a way that makes it nearly impossible for workers to recover their stolen wages. Antiracist organizers are fighting for a lien law that freezes criminal bosses’ assets.

If won, the SWEAT law may give workers the tools to recover their stolen wages, but it will never change the fact that capitalism is a criminal system and exploitation is its bedrock. All waged work under capitalism is exploitation. Profits are extracted from the necessary unpaid labor time of workers, and wage theft only  deepens this contradiction. The Wage theft epidemic we’re currently experiencing is a symptom of a system that is spiraling further into crisis.Ultimately, workers must fight for a communist revolution  to put an end to this racist super exploitation.

 The SWEAT bill is currently under attack by a powerful restaurant boss lobby called the Hospitality Alliance courtesy of its liberal fascist lackeys in Albany. Workers plan to protest Melba Wilson, a Black celebrity restaurant owner who fronts the racist Hospitality Alliance, later this month. Please look out for an article on this fightback in the next coming issues of CHALLENGE.

I'm speaking on behalf of Women Against Racist Violence (WARV) a multiracial collective of young people, organizing to address the racist violence that women experience daily in forms such as the 24 hour workdays, wage theft, and displacement.I'd like to share our perspective on wage theft along with a personal anecdote.

In my early 20s I worked at a bar where I was promised cash payments at the end of each night. After eight hours of work, the manager tells me that he can only pay me if I get male customers to buy a certain amount of drinks. I noticed that many of the girls around me were roped into this line of work, to accept being groped by drunken men out of necessity. Many had children or were undocumented. I walked out of there with $5 for a metrocard. I can't describe how violated and worthless I felt that night.

It was only years later till I began organizing with the Sweat Coalition and also with home attendants, hearing about their harrowing stories of wage theft that I was able to make sense of what me and many of my colleagues endured.

Every year bosses steal billions from workers and our state turns a blind eye and their zero response leads many to believe that wage theft is a victimless crime and that bosses can freely get away with stealing from workers. What's the use of calling  wage theft or a crime if it goes unpunished?

Part of the problem lies in how our perspective on what constitutes a crime sometimes ends up trivializing the issue. It doesn't capture the suffering and generational aftershocks that this crime causes. Wage theft destroys worker's lives, their families, and their communities. I think we need to start calling wage theft what it is: racist violence.

Let me break it down if you think this is hyperbole. Every paycheck that is stolen from a worker is a step closer to starvation and homelessness. What is this if not violence? Every paycheck stolen from a woman is a step closer to staying in an abusive relationship to survive. What is this if not violence? Every paycheck stolen is a step closer to a worker landing in prison for committing a crime out of desperation.

In the South Bronx, one of the poorest congressional districts in the United States, where many of the home attendants I work with live and where wage stealing agencies operate — every 13 hours stolen from a home attendant each year means money deprived from them and their families, impacting their ability to afford education, housing and other necessities. This traps our kids and communities in a cycle of  racist violence of poverty.

Perhaps this is why I'm so infuriated today. Wage theft continues unabated because politicians are too immobilized by bloodsucking sweatshop bosses to end this violence. They've been duped by unethical and shameful organizations like Hospitality Alliance, against their better judgment, to believe lies about how workers will abuse SWEAT and file false claims.

In the era of #metoo we're told to believe all victims of abuse, that is unless they've had their wages stolen and dare to speak out.

Shame on Hospitality Alliance for using their Black celebrity president as cover for their racist crimes. If politicians have a shred of integrity they'd stop listening to Hospitality Alliance, and pass SWEAT and be part of the solution to violence rather than an obstacle.