On March 11, a massive 9.0-magnitude quake hit Northeast Japan on the east coast of Honshu, the country’s largest island, which, combined with the 33-foot waves of the tsunami it created, killed 4,100 people and ignited hundreds of fires. In the disaster’s wake, entire villages, ports and even schools vanished. Some were evacuation sites for local residents situated on the coasts.
The tsunami hit Miyagi and Iwate prefectures the hardest, obliterating everything in its path, causing the highest death tolls, which could exceed 10,000. The quake’s magnitude has led to frequent aftershocks, including a 6.0 quake on March 15 that hit Shizuoka, extending over the entire Kantou (Eastern) region.
Additionally, the quake disabled the cooling mechanisms of Japan’s oldest nuclear power plant, sparking a meltdown that has forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands in the surrounding area and causing widespread fear that is being spread by the mainstream media on a 24-hour basis.
While there has been some criticism of the warning systems that gave residents little time to evacuate, most mainstream media sources in the U.S. and elsewhere emphasized Japan’s preparedness for such disasters and have praised the rapidity of rescues, evacuations and recovery efforts. As the world’s third largest economy, Japan has taken significant steps to safeguard its vulnerability against such disasters through fortification in infrastructure and the training, beginning in kindergarten, on how to react to earthquakes and other disasters. Workers in all areas hold weekly practice drills.
Workers Most Vulnerable, Suffer the Most
The protection and preparedness against such disasters, however, is more evident in the capitalist centers like Tokyo or Sendai (the largest city in the Northeastern region, which suffered significant damage), but become lax moving toward the outer regions where the damage and loss of life was the most substantial. This is because most of the residents of these areas — like the small village of Saito in Miyagi prefecture which was totally wiped out — are predominantly working-class families: factory workers, farmers and fishermen/women, and the elderly who built homes there which are the most vulnerable to such catastrophic events. Moreover, tens of thousands of jobs will disappear, further intensifying the exploitation of the working class.
This factor connects the loss of life here to the earthquake in Haiti, or to the 2004 tsunami, which killed hundreds of thousands of local residents on the coastal regions of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, among other areas, where they are forced to live in conditions unprotected by disasters.
The responsibility and culpability of the national governments in such catastrophes cannot be overlooked, their responsibility is inherently part of the overall picture of capitalism’s failure to plan for social need globally, which in this case works on a number of levels.
Firstly, while loss of life in Japan’s catastrophe is horrific, it is minimal when compared to Haiti’s quake, where the death toll exceeded 200,000, or in the 2004 tsunami, with over 300,000 deaths. Thus, under capitalism some populations are “worth” more than others, according to the hierarchy of profit: as the world’s third largest economy, Japan has a vested interest in protecting itself and its workers from such events, albeit minimally, while in “unprofitable” places like Haiti, Sri Lanka, or even the 9th Ward of New Orleans, there is no room for such planning.
This also reveals the inherent racist dimension of capitalist planning: as a “developed” capitalist country, there is much less racism directed at Japan, emphasized on CNN and other mainstream outlets in their current coverage. Furthermore, most of the discussion on NHK (Nippon Housou Koukai), the largest Japanese news broadcasting system, and on international news is the threat of a nuclear disaster, which is unfolding by the minute.
NHK has been broadcasting the levels of radiations that may leak, with some emphasis on directing the blame both at Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s administration and at Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) which owns the Fukushima plant. The latter has been cited continuously for violations and is outdated in terms of equipment and meltdown-controlling mechanisms.
Corporate Profits vs. Communist Planning
The meltdown is symbolic of how corporate interests are the priority under capitalism (TEPCO being one of the most profitable corporations, according to the Nikkei stock index), and how planning and the running of such facilities is done poorly. Under communism such events could be minimized or eliminated, since workers would have a social and critical awareness of how to operate nuclear plants properly, for the benefit of the social need, rather than according to the drive for maximum profits.
Finally, the disaster is already being played out through the lens of inter-imperialist rivalry. Obama reacted to the crisis by pledging “support” for Japan, including a significant aid package that most likely will entail the re-evaluation of Japanese-U.S. political and economic relations. U.S. rulers want to use Japan as a buffer against the rise of China. This means increasing the pre-existing tensions between Japan and China over control of the undeveloped gas fields in the South China Sea, as well as the power to exploit the mineral-rich islands that have sparked recent disputes. This provoked pro-nationalist protests in both countries.
Additionally, with Japan’s ongoing economic woes deepening as a result of the current crisis, there has been discussion of the “disaster capitalism” model, which would allow multi-national corporations to privatize the disaster areas and rebuild according to the priority of profit, as is occurring in New Orleans, Argentina and elsewhere.
Capitalism, Liberal Reformists, Phony ‘Communists’ No Saviors
Capitalism always works to the detriment of workers everywhere. Workers in Japan, who have been brainwashed by anti-communism, need to recognize that capitalism will not save them from such disasters, nor will the false hopes of the reformist parties like the Democratic Party of Japan, or fake leftists like the Japanese “Communist” Party, which are the most vocally critical of the recent catastrophe.
All workers need to recognize that a system based on profit will ultimately fail to provide the necessary means to rebuild the world, and in fact has been the systemic cause of the devastation and after-effects of environmental disasters. We must unite to build the internationalism and solidarity of communism, creating a global community of workers who can run the world without capitalist bosses!J
Nuke Plant Built on World’s Hottest Quake Spot
Japan’s heavy reliance on nuclear power is the by-product of decisions made by Japan’s ruling class over the past four decades. Its 54 nuclear plants account for 30% of current power generation, projected to rise to 50% by 2030 as more plants are built.
In 1973, when an oil embargo hit the OPEC countries, staggering the world economy and particularly Japan, nuclear power made up only a small fraction of Japan’s energy supply.
As the World Nuclear Alliance notes on its website, “Japan was dependent on fossil fuel imports, particularly oil from the Middle East (oil fuelled 66 percent of the electricity in 1974). This geographical and commodity vulnerability became critical due to the oil shock in 1973. Re-evaluation of domestic energy policy resulted in diversification and, in particular, a major nuclear construction program. A high priority was given to reducing the country’s dependence on oil imports.”
The placement of dozens of nuclear power plants above the planet’s most active geological fault zone (called “the ring of fire,” the site of 90% of the world’s earthquakes) — and in one of the world’s most densely populated regions — could be considered insane. But amid the capitalist world’s imperialist rivalry, it was imperative for the Japanese bourgeoisie to secure an adequate domestic energy supply, since the country has little oil and gas and insufficient coal.
Moreover, the Japanese ruling class had previous experiences with energy crises well before 1973. As far back as World War II, one of the major driving forces behind Japanese imperialism’s decision to launch preemptive war against the U.S. was the Roosevelt administration’s embargo of U.S. supplies of fuel and scrap metal in retaliation for the Japanese invasion ofChina.
Despite the admitted technological prowess of Japan — the world leader in adapting construction methods to earthquake-proofing its buildings, as well as its high degree of preparedness of the population — this natural disaster has laid bare not only tectonic fault lines, but social ones.
The profit system is incapable of ensuring the safety, health and well-being of workers, even in a country as “advanced” as Japan. Only the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a world based on workers’ rule can guarantee a misery-free future for the working class.
Japan Quake: Rail Union Raps Bosses’ System of Profits First, Workers Last
JAPAN, March 24 — The reaction of Japan’s capitalist government to the disaster unfolding in that country reflects the horrors of a system that puts profits before workers, a fact that has spurred Japan’s rail union into mass protests.
While the ensuing controversy over the possibility of a nuclear disaster continues to unfold, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) has confirmed that 27,000 people are dead or missing following the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Northeast Japan on March 11. The situation has become dire for over 200,000 living in temporary shelters (mostly in school gymnasiums) with limited access to hot meals, fresh water, adequate hygienic utilities or medicine, amid outbreaks of influenza and other contagious diseases. All this particularly affects the elderly who comprise a large percentage of the evacuee population.
NHK reports that many hospitals have had to move patients into shelters, which has also increased the risk of disease and death to those already housed there.
The most immediate threat is the continual decline of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which the Japanese government and the operators of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Corporation, (TEPCO) have been unable to control. A significant amount of radioactive material has leaked from the plant and into soil and drinking water within a large radius which has forced restrictions on local produce. NHK website reports, “Efforts to cool the plants are being hampered by the leakage of highly radioactive materials” which have forced rescue operators to abandon some of the reactors.
Shell Game Downplays Profit
System’s Role
As local officials, the Japanese government and TEPCO play the blame shell game among each other about the possibility of a nuclear disaster little has been said about the system which has produced the problem in the first place: capitalism.
The Wall Street Journal (3/21) said the management of a nuclear meltdown was delayed to preserve “long-term investment” interests in the plants, a decision that clearly reveals the sickness of the profit-making system in which business interest is always put first, despite the possibility of mass destruction and loss of human life.
The parallel between the Japanese governments’ delayed response and capital interests is reiterated in statements by Yonekura Hiromasa, chairman of Nippon-Keidanren (Japan Business Federation). He praised the Japanese nuclear authorities, saying, “Japanese nuclear plants are tough enough to resist the greatest earthquake in a thousand years. It’s wonderful. Japanese nuclear agencies should be proud of it….The accident is going to be overcome. I’m not of the opinion that Japanese nuclear policy is coming to a corner.”
Additionally, Japan’s big banks have diverted billions of Yen to the re-financing of TEPCO, a decision sanctified by the Japanese government. The latter has also provided billions for rebuilding capitalist institutions most affected by the earthquake, rather than allotting them for building sufficient temporary housing and hospital facilities and sending adequate food, water and medicine to affected areas and shelters. This exactly mirrors the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, the Pakistan floods and basically anywhere profit is put far ahead of workers’ needs.
‘A man-made tragedy’
The Japanese Railway Workers’ union, Doro-Chiba, which has been the most critical of capitalism’s role in the current crisis, sharply condemned Yonekura’s statement and the insufficiency of the government’s response: “The reality before us is by no means a natural disaster but [is a] man-made tragedy, caused by a neo-liberal offensive on the basis of a capitalist market economy. Its real essence is nakedly exposed day by day.”
The Doro-Chiba also led a March 20 protest in Tokyo “to denounce the deceitful policy of the government and to demand disclosure of the facts on the whole development concerning the disaster.” This was to be followed by a national day of mobilization against war on March 27.
This anti-capitalist stance of Doro-Chiba needs to reverberate across Japan and the world. The international working class must fight the sickness of the profit system revamping itself in the wake of the disasters in Japan, Haiti, Southeast Asia, New Orleans — the list goes on. We need to organize workers everywhere to destroy capitalism and run the world for the benefit of all, not the select few!J
U.S. Rulers’ War Machine Outdoes Any Quake
On March 9, 1945, “100,000 to 200,00 men, women and children died…when the U.S. Air Force doused Tokyo with jellied gasoline; all told, in the months before Hiroshima, [conventional] bombs killed up to 500,000…Japanese…and left 13 million homeless.” (U.S. News & World Report, 7/13/95)
By June 1945, U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay complained there was nothing left to bomb in Japanese cities except “garbage can targets.”
Afterwards, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey noted, “Certainly…Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bomb had not been dropped.” (“Japan’s Struggle to End the War”)
The L.A. Times agreed: “The hard truth is that the atomic bombings were unnecessary.” (8/5/05) President Harry Truman’s diary referred to a decoded Japanese cable indicating Japan was about to surrender unconditionally, as the “Japanese Emperor [was] asking for peace.”
Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur also agreed, the former later writing that “Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary” (“Mandate for Change”) and MacArthur also believed that A-bombing Japan was “completely unnecessary from a military point of view.” (James Clayton, “The Years of MacArthur, 1941-1945, Vol. II”)
Yet, as most historians agree, Truman went ahead and dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima killing upwards of 150,000 civilians — three days before the Soviet Union had pledged to enter the war against Japan — as a “warning” to the Soviets that the U.S. had this hugely destructive weapon. And, to emphasize the “warning,” dropped still another one on Nagasaki three days later, killing perhaps another 100,000, as the Soviets entered Manchuria.
Secy. of State James Byrnes told A-Bomb Project scientist Leo Szilard, “Our…demonstrating the bomb would make Russia more manageable in Europe.” (Leo Szilard; “A Personal History of the Atomic Bomb”) So the U.S. “warning” to the Soviets killed a quarter million Japanese civilians.
Any doubt that U.S. rulers are the world’s most vicious terrorists?
- Information
War Over Oil Looms: Saudi Arabia, Not Libya, Main Prize for U.S. Rulers
- Information
- 17 March 2011 674 hits
No matter what course of action U.S. rulers may take in Libya, their main focus is on energy’s grand prize, Saudi Arabia and the greater Persian Gulf region. As important as Libya’s 46-billion-barrel reserves are, threats to far richer sources preoccupy Obama and the oil-fueled imperialists he serves.
As of March 11, dictator Qaddafi was brutally retaking key oil towns from the rebels, indiscriminately slaughtering civilians and his opponents. Leading senators — Democrat Kerry, Independent Lieberman, and Republican McCain — have called for a “no-fly zone” entailing U.S. bombardment of Libyan planes, air defenses, and runways. But, on that very day, March 11, Obama sent war boss Robert Gates to embattled Bahrain, on the Persian Gulf — not to Libya’s U.S.-backed neighbors Tunisia or Egypt.
Bahrain houses the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which polices the globally-crucial oil exports of U.S. protectorates Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, U.S.-occupied Iraq and U.S. enemy Iran.
Kenneth Pollack, a Gulf expert having worked at the CIA, the National Security Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Brookings Institution, wrote a book in 2002, “The Case for Invading Iraq.” Now he has written: “It is not clear that... Libya is enough of a national interest to justify...long-term military and diplomatic commitment. Just within the Middle East, there are countries of far greater importance to the United States that may well need us to invest those resources there to make sure they turn out right.” (Brookings website, 3/09/11)
Iraq, following two U.S. invasions and sanctions that killed over two million, has, for now, “turned out right” for Exxon Mobil. Consequently, the latter now enjoys access to Iraq’s West Qurna oil field, one of the world’s biggest.
U.S. Rulers, Exxon-Mobil, Won Big in Iraq War, But Could Lose All in Saudi Destabilization
Stratfor, an outfit that provides geostrategic analysis to U.S. corporations, explained Gates’s travel plans on its website (3/9): “Unlike Libya, where the effects are primarily internal, the events in Bahrain clearly involve Saudi, Iranian and U.S. interests....Bahrain is the focal point of a struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran for control of the western littoral [shoreline regions] of the Persian Gulf ....[Saudi] destabilization would change the regional balance of power and the way the world works.”
In other words, upheavals in Saudi Arabia — home to more oil than any other country in the world — could end the biggest racket in the history of imperialism. Exxon Mobil, Saudi Arabia’s biggest customer and investor, today controls the lion’s share of the kingdom’s production. Through Exxon and its U.S. and British allies — Chevron, BP and Shell — entire nations are beholden to U.S. rulers’ terms for the supply of capitalism’s lifeblood.
Obama, Pentagon Boss Gates Oppose Only Those Wars Not in the Rulers’ ‘National Interest’
Obama’s “Defense” Secretary Gates opposes a “no-fly zone” in Libya only because it detracts from his imperialist masters’ larger need to secure the Middle East. Note his February 25 warning to West Point that any future war secretary advising a U.S. president to send a large land army into Asia, the Middle East or Africa, “should have his head examined.” Colonel Gian Gentile, an active-duty military fellow at the ultra-imperialist, Rockefeller-led Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), translated:
“The secretary is suggesting that, if a future secretary of defense advises an American president to send a significant land force into a foreign country to do nation building, the analysis has to show that that kind of effort... is worth the costs.... because it will be a costly and long-term endeavor.” (CFR website, 3/2/11) Gates, hardly a pacifist, rewords Gen. Colin Powell’s “Doctrine” which clearly specified that indispensable, imperialist goals (like securing Saudi Arabia) require overwhelming U.S. military force.
The workers and youth rebelling against fascist dictators in North Africa and the Mideast have put their lives on the line in battling the police and the armies. They have struck in demanding jobs and freedom from poverty. They deserve the support of workers worldwide.
But for the working class, two deadly misunderstandings are woven into this upsurge. First is thinking that it represents “liberation.” Without militant, class-based, communist revolution, one gang of exploiters will replace another in every country involved. Secondly is the assumption that any temporary reluctance of U.S. rulers to deploy deadly force shows “peaceful” intentions. In reality, U.S. imperialism’s continuing existence depends on control of Mideast oil. Obama & Co. and their successors will fight for it to their last bullet and to the last drop of workers’ blood.
It is up to the working class, and especially to communists, to mobilize our forces wherever we are — in shops, unions, schools, within the military, in churches and community organizations — to turn the class struggle against the ruling capitalists into a fight that goes beyond the immediate one for reforms. The rulers hold state power and always can, and do, take back these reforms. Their goal of maximum profits — and their system’s inevitable crises which produce mass unemployment, racist exploitation and imperialist war — drives them to demand these give-backs from the working class.
Only a communist revolution that smashes the bosses’ state power and their racist system altogether, creating a society run by and for our class — which produces all value — can free us from the misery of the profit system.
- Information
PL’ers Back Wisconsin Workers Expose ‘Recall’ Fraud
- Information
- 17 March 2011 572 hits
MADISON, WI., March 12 — Today over 100,000 workers descended on the capitol here to protest the bill introduced by Republican Governor Scott Walker and passed by the State Legislature, removing collective bargaining rights for public employees, including teachers.
Fourteen Democratic Party Senators hiding out in Illinois to forestall the bill’s passage failed miserably because Walker maneuvered to pass the bill without them. However, flanked by bagpipe-playing musicians, flags and Jessie Jackson, they returned today to Madison welcomed as heroes: “Thank you Fabulous 14, thank you!”
Our PLP contingent was there to bring our message of communist revolution and working-class solidarity. We distributed 500 CHALLENGES and 1,500 leaflets.
Our first speaker announced on our bullhorn that we’d come from Indiana and Chicago and this received a huge “Yeah!” He thanked all the workers for their courageous stance against these latest anti-working-class attacks. He also noted that they are occurring in Indiana and Chicago as well and that we need to strike against this assault.
Then, referring to one of the popular chants of the day — “recall Walker, recall Walker!” he declared, “Recalling Walker will not work but smashing capitalism will.”
The next speaker encouraged workers to read CHALLENGE and the Party’s leaflet “Middle-Class Dream??? Or Working Class Power!!!” It reported that while the Madison-area Central Labor Council had voted for a General Strike, the AFL-CIO and its top dog Trumka had turned workers’ militant mass anger into a passive recall petition limited to the voting booth. The union leaders have sold out our class and will continue to do so.
The “middle-class dream” that union leaders and politicians want us to buy into has been a nightmare for most black and Latino workers due to the racist nature of capitalism. The former auto capitals of Detroit, Flint and Milwaukee have unemployment rates exceeding 50%! Among young black males it’s around 75%. “It’s not Walker it’s capitalism!” said the speaker. “These attacks have been coming fast and steady under the Democrats too.” Obama’s bailout of the auto industry put many more workers on the unemployment lines while the auto bosses are now reaping huge profits.
‘Thanks for keeping it real…’
Several workers stopped and took our literature. One AFSCME member told us he was looking for a job because he was about to be laid off. He said that when he told his union leader we needed to prepare for a strike the union “leader” replied, “No, that’s not what we need to do.” Another worker listened to our speeches for several minutes, took literature and gave one of our comrades a hug, saying, “Thank you all for coming and keeping it real.”
There was much opposition to our line, too. The push for recall had definitely replaced the call for a general strike. Reliance on Democratic Party politicians has replaced the power of the workers and students who early on had occupied the State Capitol and shut down the schools. In essence, today’s rally became a dangerous “get-out-the-vote-for-the-Democratic-Party” event.
However, we should have brought many more comrades and friends with us. One Party friend contacted us because she knew if anyone was going to Madison we would be. But, self critically, we should have called her. We marched and hung out the whole day together, talking about communism and why only in a communist society could we share the fruits of our labors, without racism, poverty or imperialist oil wars. While she’s still not ready to join, after today she’s much closer.
Other comrades who went got valuable practice in putting forward communist ideas to workers who otherwise would not be exposed to them. Only the Party was championing the working-class to take state power.
While we call for a general strike to shut down the entire system and unite the working class, still this is just a tactical move. The only long-run strategy we can follow is winning millions of workers to fight for communist revolution.
We agreed that our political offensive must be recruiting and developing more comrades through this struggle in Wisconsin. We’ve formed a committee to organize visits to contacts we made in Madison and to plan regular trips there. We also want to have some Madison workers speak at our Chicago May Day dinner.
However this struggle in Wisconsin turns out, we have everything to win by seizing this opportunity to build the Party. The struggle for state power and the building of a communist society is not a mere dream for the international working class.
NEW YORK CITY, March 12 — The Political Science club on our campus has provided a glimpse of the force that young workers and students can become in leading the struggle for change. These students are providing leadership in the multi-racial, working-class struggle against our school’s administration, against the racist budget-cutters on the CUNY Board of Trustees and in the New York City and State governments. Communist ideas are not only present, but in a leading position.
The most recent club activities highlight both the international character of class struggle in the fight against capitalism as well as the need for workers and students to engage in both theoretical discussion and practice. The first event was a teach-in, entitled ‚”Youth Movement Rising”. Three professors covered the events in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the student protests and rebellions in Europe and the role of U.S. foreign policy in all of these places. Unlike in the bosses’ media which stresses the fight for democracy and freedom, the speakers focused on the class struggle, including the fight against racist unemployment and increases in food prices.
The final speaker was a student leader who enthusiastically linked the uprisings around the world to the situation in New York. He noted students’ protests against budget cuts, against tuition increases, how we have held solidarity events for students in Haiti (including another teach-in last year). And he stressed the need to do more: for more students, teachers and workers to stand up against the attacks that the bosses launch at us.
Afterwards, the discussion reflected the communist-led nature of the event. One student asked if what we are seeing is a fulfillment of Marx’s prediction that the underclass would rise up to defeat the bourgeoisie.
But these students walk the walk‚ as well as talk the talk. Our cafeteria is being renovated and a new service provider is being brought in. Many students are happy with this change because the old food service was terrible, with very few healthy options (U.S. urban areas have the highest rates of obesity and Type II diabetes). In the process, however, the nine long-time employees, all union members (in UNITE-HERE), and all black and Latino were laid off.
This racist attack did not go unnoticed by the Political Science club, which joined the professors’ union, the cafeteria workers and other students for a campus rally. About 70 people rallied and chanted, “Union workers are under attack! What do we do? Stand up, fight back!” We also witnessed the utter fear that bosses (be they big CEOs or our relatively small-time administrators) have of a united, militant working class.
Our rally begin in front of the cafeteria, but we quickly moved to the administration building. You should have seen their faces! Every single security guard on campus was there to stop us. They even called some NYPD pigs to help them out. This time we were not ready to challenge the cops and enter the building, so we rallied for 10 minutes in front and then returned to the cafeteria.
This struggle is not over and the Political Science club is committed to taking part and providing young leadership. The club is getting bigger, with more and more students attending meetings. PLP’ers are there, with CHALLENGE in hand, trying to consistently fight for a vision of a communist future. The club’s focus will likely turn back to the budget cuts and the further tuition increases that are coming, but whatever the issue, the Political Science club will be ready to fight.
- Information
D.C. Metro PL’ers: Mass Struggle Needed vs. Arbitration Loser
- Information
- 17 March 2011 678 hits
WASHINGTON, D.C. March 10, 2011 — Over 150 bus drivers and other Metro workers picketed outside the bosses’ headquarters today to demand that management withdraw its appeal to federal court of the arbitration award and agree to the contract that provides a 3% annual pay raise while cutting back on benefits.
Workers have been without a contract for three years! Anger is boiling over at the bus garages. What part of “binding arbitration” do the bosses not understand? What they do understand is that they are backed by the power of the government and can probably get away with whatever the working class lets them.
Arbitration Is A Loser for Workers
Arbitration is a win-win situation for the bosses. Invariably, the arbitration will force workers to accept less than they demand, forcing them to take the losses. That’s why the bosses have the gall to try to renege on a contract that is already a give-back contract for the workers! That’s why smashing the bosses and their government through a revolution to establish workers’ power and communism is the only permanent way to solve our problems. And why flexing our collective muscles in this contract dispute through mass action is the only way to have any hope of stopping the bosses’ attack today.
The union leadership has a different plan, though. At today’s rally, after meekly moving workers away from the entrance to the building at the request of the Metro cops, they passed out postcards to send to various politicians in the jurisdictions served by Metro to encourage them to support the union. What nonsense! Only the threat of a strike — most likely illegal — will make them pay attention. The politicians are all in the bosses’ pocket.
PLP’ers have distributed well over 600 CHALLENGE’s to Metro workers over the last few months at special union meetings and at the garages, while Metro PLP’ers have fought hard in the garages and at union meetings for a more militant approach that would show an understanding of how capitalism works to systematically exploit workers. The ideas of anti-racist class consciousness are being debated and discussed by Metro workers more and more, which may help to win many angry workers away from cynicism.
Over the next 90 days, the court will issue a final decision, and then we shall see how robust the mass struggle can be at Metro in today’s climate. At the same time, several additional Metro workers have stepped forward to work with the PLP, so whatever happens in the coming three months, the communist presence at Metro will continue to grow.
