WASHINGTON, DC, May 17—As the deadline to sign a new contract loomed on April 27, members of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) largest union rallied outside a meeting of the agency’s board to protest management’s failure to bargain in good faith and its aggressive attacks on worker rights.With an initial force of 200 picketers that swelled to 500 before the rally ended, Local 689 members, and two other unions that lent their support, chanted demands for respect and fair treatment while joining hands and surrounding the block-long building. Bold chants of “Whats do we want, respect!  When do we want it, now! If we don’t get it we’ll shut this system down” rang out.
WMATA wants to revoke numerous worker gains made in past bargaining agreements, freeze wages, and reduce medical benefits: all in the name of cost savings, most likely at the behest of company’s financial advisor and the man who brought Detroit to its knees as its emergency manager, Kevyn Orr.
The most outrageous WMATA proposal is to abolish the defined benefit retirement plan. This plan has been in existence since 1945, when the union struck against the private transit company that predated WMATA, Capital Transit, and forced the bosses to establish it. WMATA wants to place all new employees in a 401(k), which will drain and ultimately bankrupt the existing pension fund because there would be a steady decline of contributions to the defined benefit plan as older workers retire. This risky scheme could leave workers with nothing to live on in retirement and potentially rob them of the hard-earned money they put in: Investing giant Vanguard has reported declines in 401(k) market returns as well as the average value of 401(k) holdings.
The prospect of workers facing financial disaster in old age are high. Compounding the ordinary risk of market investment is the likelihood of a secondary recession that has followed every major recession in America (like the Great Recession of 2007-09), and which we can expect to experience. That means Local 689’s pension fund may soon be in real trouble. The implementation of this proposal spells disaster for current and future retirees, and, possibly, the survival of the union.
Already, new hires of Local 689 members will not receive medical benefits in retirement. According to a 2015 Fidelity Investment report, “. . . a couple, both aged 65 and retiring this year, can now expect to spend an estimated $240,000 on health care throughout retirement,” an 11 percent increase over the previous year and up 29 percent from 2005. This increase in medical costs far outpaces annual cost of living expenses, for which Local 689 retirees receive increases when active members do. Because health benefits are such an expense to WMATA, management is now pushing to increase worker premium contributions. The effects of such a blow from this major unionized company will echo throughout transit systems and many other unionized companies in the Mid-Atlantic region, and possibly throughout the nation. Active members may respond by using their medical benefits less often, which could lead to more than usual health adversities they may face upon retirement. Add to this the already existing health plan exemptions, and we may be leading into a national health crisis.
These draconian cost saving strategies have been designed by the US’s most well-known financial advisors, Kevyn Duane Orr, part-time “strategic executive adviser” to WMATA. WMATA paid a fee of $1.75 million dollars for two years of service to legal juggernaut Jones Day, where Orr heads the Washington DC branch. The details of this contract have yet to be released, so any additional hidden fees or bonuses may not be disclosed in the near future. The media ignores this payout, as well as the $2.9 million that WMATA spent to retain the two consulting firms, McKinsey & Co and Ernst & Young, which were hired to reform WMATA’s management and financial practices. Instead, the media attacks workers as overpaid and incompetent, trying to divide the riding public from the workers.
The proposed cutbacks thus far have been in discrete identifiable expenses that may prove to be short term solutions at best. Management’s number one agenda item has been to curtail labor and benefit costs, yet very little attention has been given to operational issues that reflect management error and incompetence. One Local 689 member lamented with exasperation, “I had a brief correspondence with the Chief Operations Officer [James Leader] detailing the number of managers and possible malfeasance in my department.”  He continued, “I even sent him a letter addressed to Mr. Weidefeld [the General Manager], but he never followed through.”  By ignoring workers’ efforts to improve the safety and functioning of the transit system, WMATA management is endangering the public and undercutting the viability of public transportation in the Washington, D.C. region.
In the words of Zachary M. Shrag, author of The Great Society Subway, “great fires inspire rebuilding.”  The recent series of safety lapses in the transit system due to management incompetence­—some resulting in death and injury—and the barrage of attacks from the General Manager Weidefeld and local politicians may be the accelerant that Local 689 needs to reinvigorate and reaffirm its members and their responsibility to the labor movement. Workers united have the power to change all things that harm their well-being and that of others. That unity will require knowledge that our membership to learn the specific history of Local 689, of the global labor movement, and of the revolutionary political leadership that can defeat the global and local capitalists, and then develop the right fightback strategy. As the anti-Apartheid leader Steve Biko declared, “The greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Armed instead with new revolutionary knowledge, and developing new dedicated selfless leadership, Local 689 will gain the power to  defend their rights and help preserve the liberties of the working class.

Newark, NJ, May 9—“Ho ho, hey hey, Carimer is here to stay!”  “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!”  So chanted a multiracial crowd of 300 students, union members, church leaders, and community fighters in support of Carimer Andujar, a 21-year-old student at Rutgers University at risk of deportation.
Carimer had been summoned to appear at a hearing at the Federal Building before ICE (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency) that might have resulted in her detainment and deportation.  At the age of 4, Carimer immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic along with her sister and mother, who was fleeing from domestic abuse.  Though Carimer is in the Obama-era DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), she was still vulnerable to being deported.
Carimer is a founder and current president of a campus organization called “UndocuRutgers,” a support group for students with DACA status; her being summoned before ICE was widely interpreted as an attempt at political intimidation.  But Carimer contacted the faculty union, the AAUP (American Association of University Professors).  The union spearheaded a spirited rally to defend Carimer outside the Federal office where the ICE hearing was held.  She rejoined the crowd after 2.5 hours and a five minute hearing, telling them that no further action was being taken in her case.  She thanked the crowd warmly for their support, saying that had they not been present the case might have turned out very differently.
The rally displayed both strengths and limitations.  
On the plus side: (1) The militancy of the crowd at the rally exemplified what “sanctuary” has to mean at this time.  While lots of cities and university campuses have designated themselves as “sanctuary” zones (that is safe areas for people in danger of deportation), this doesn’t necessarily mean anything when push comes to shove.  Rutgers President Robert Barchi, for instance, made a big deal of declaring Rutgers a “sanctuary” campus soon after the 2016 election, but he did not lift a finger to defend Carimer.  It was up to students and workers to take up her cause.  (2) The multiracial make-up of the crowd, and its rejection of racist immigrant-baiting, constitutes the kind of defense that is needed in these increasingly perilous times, when the ruling class is vigorously promoting racism and US nationalism.  (3) Some of the speakers were pretty radical!  One pastor of a church with many Indonesian members who have been detained and deported declared, “I am a man of God and am not supposed to hate anyone.  But I HATE the government symbolized by that [Federal] building!” (4) Members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) distributed some 150 leaflets and copies of Challenge newspaper to the crowd.
On the negative side: (1) Only the PLP leaflet connected the attack on Carimer and the wave of attacks on undocumented immigrants with the larger crisis of capitalism and the designs of U.S. imperialism. PL’ers need to get more deeply involved in these pro sanctuary organizations and fight for a revolutionary, class based analysis that explains that it’s “the whole damn system” and a better world is possible.
 (2) While a few speakers alluded to the millions of deportations that occurred under the Obama regime—“This situation is nothing new”—in general the Democratic Party (DP) got a free pass by the organizers of the rally.  A number of prominent DP politicians sent their warm wishes to Carimer, even though they have done nothing to combat the wave of state terrorism against predominantly immigrant communities in New Jersey.
(3) Even the most militant speakers embraced U.S. nationalism, proclaiming the multiculturalist credo that immigrants have always “contributed” to “America” and are the source of its “greatness.” This kind of seemingly progressive patriotism is a sure loser for the working class.
So self critically, we need more PL members more deeply involved in the organizations that are defending NJ’s undocumented population from racist attacks.  We were not able to have a PLP speaker at this rally though we did speak at a small May Day rally on the Rutgers campus the week before. We were able to expose the hypocrisy of President Barchi’s inaction around and explained the need to abolish the capitalist system that is at the core of all social injustices.  But we need to get our revolutionary ideas out more often and in more places. We need to be more deeply involved in various NJ immigrants’ rights organizations; including those defending DACA youth. At the Federal building rally, PL was present only in our leaflets and newspapers. Our revolutionary class analysis would have made a big difference and would have been well received. You have to be in it to win it!

CHICAGO, IL— “What struck me about this movie – and don’t get me wrong, there is tons of good information about how they invented the whole ‘war on drugs’ thing just so they could lock people up and turn us into modern-day slaves – but still I was struck by how every inmate you saw in this film was black. I guess a lot of what we see on TV and movies shows that picture, but I remember looking around in prison and thinking, ‘Hey, where did all these white dudes come from?’”
This comment came from a young, Black worker at a screening of Thirteenth, a documentary about mass incarceration and racism in the United States. This young man worked for the Worker’s Center for Racial Justice and, like about a third of Black men, had spent time behind bars before becoming a labor organizer. His critique of Thirteenth was a refreshing relief from the “white skin privilege” ideas that are all too common at university sponsored mass events like this.
Mass Incarceration Is a Class Issue
In the audience of about 50 people were some members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). Working in various organizations we get used to hearing all sorts of reformist political ideas, often promoting identity politics of some sort. Though a little surprising, it was good to hear someone state so clearly that, like racism and sexism, mass incarceration is a class issue.
More clearly than giving a long, political analysis, this young man nailed it with a key observation from his own life. It helped that he was a long time friend of several PLP comrades. He may not have noticed this skewed editing in the film had he not had a multiracial group of friends, many PLP members. It helped that he was engaged in demonstrations with us in Ferguson as well as rough-and-tumble debates about Black Nationalism in friends’ kitchens over the years. Having what was probably the sharpest political point raised by this friend also helped PL’ers as we struggle for revolutionary communist ideas inside the organization that put on the screening. Whether we argue for multiracial unity over identity politics or for the need to use violent means if we ever want to end capitalism, our ideas are more respected in the midst of a serious and consistent fight against racism.
Organizing for reforms is hard work and can be very frustrating. Some comrades think that the “progressives” in many organizations will never be revolutionaries. They are stuck on the roller coaster of reform, they are too religious or they are too committed to capitalist ideas. Being a serious communist means not giving in to those anti-worker ideas. What makes us so special? We all believed a lot of the same capitalist hype until we were exposed to the Party’s ideas repeatedly over time by people who we respected. So our job is to be active in these reform organizations, to earn respect as we struggle together for some improvements in our lives. But, at the same time, we do not hide our communist politics. We explain that a better world is not only possible, but is necessary for the working class. Agreement may not come quickly, but the struggle continues!