WASHINGTON, D.C., January 27 — Tonight Metro bosses held public hearings, asking the public to comment on whether the transit system should raise fares, reduce service, or transfer funds from the maintenance budget into operations. Some choice! All of these actions would harm workers and intensify racism.
PLP’ers testifying at the hearing condemned the “choice,” demanding no cuts in service, no fare increase, and no attacks on workers, calling instead for a mass militant movement led by labor to fight for proper funding (from the bosses who have made billions from the transit system). Another person declared that these cuts were fundamentally racist because of their disproportional impact on black and Latino workers. But today’s capitalist system in crisis is unlikely to respond favorably even to the most militant actions of workers, making a revolutionary organization critical to the future.
The former president of the Metro workers’ union condemned the Metro Board as the worst ever, putting the deaths of two track workers the day before squarely at the feet of the Metro Board. These deaths were not accidents, but negligent homicide by Metro because of their forced overtime and failure to deploy flag people. Metro has systematically ignored the many safety problems that workers have brought to their attention because correcting them would cost money. Workers’ lives aren’t worth spit to the bosses.
Within 48 hours of the public hearing, the Metro Board raised fares, declaring that the testimony of the public favored that option. What liars! And exactly what we’ve come to expect from capitalism.
Which way forward? Many Metro workers read CHALLENGE and are beginning to understand the need to build a stronger PLP organization at Metro that targets the entire system of capitalism. As Obama’s wars grow and a fascist police state becomes more and more apparent, revolutionary action against the racist system of capitalism becomes ever more urgent. Workers, riders: fight back with slow-downs and strikes, with the goal of fighting for workers’ power — communism. Take up the red flag of revolution as we battle back against every attack from the bosses!