Burn Wage Slavery

QUEENS, NYC—At a film showing of Burn! a woman Emergency Medical Technician announced that TransCare had shut down and laid off nearly 2,000 EMTs, paramedics, dispatchers and others.
The workers received no warning and were told they were not getting paid for the last week they worked. To add insult to injury, many learned that the paychecks they received three weeks ago had bounced!
Lynn Tilton, owner of TransCare, will continue be a millionaire while capitalism burns workers’ livelihoods. The TransCare workers have no union and because they received no warning about the coming mass layoffs, were not prepared to take collective action. They began to scramble and do the little they could to protect themselves: file for unemployment benefits, file complaints with the Attorney General over the lack of notice, and contact lawyers about a suit against the company.
However, our TransCare comrade had another idea—organize workers to protest in front of the company’s office in lower Manhattan. So we decided to call a rally for two days later, write a flyer, post it on Facebook and contact as many TransCare workers as we knew.
Capitalism Burns Workers
Burn! depicts a revolution of slaves in the Caribbean during the 19th century. We realized that as the film Burn! perfectly illustrates wage slavery is a brutal system of exploitation, and like chattel slavery it only serves the interest of the capitalist class. We decided the rally would offer us many advantages in bringing our fight to the forefront but total eradication of wage slavery will only come to fruition under a communist system, moreover a communist system led by the PLP. This led to our talking about marching on May Day (Saturday, April 30)—the only true workers’ day where workers affirm their connection in the struggle for a world without racism, sexism and other forms of capitalist exploitation.
PLP fights with TransCare Workers
The first rally PLP organized drew only six workers and two supporters. Four days later, we had another rally, this time with a dozen workers and five supporters, including members of the CUNY faculty and staff union. Another rally is planned for next week.
Under capitalism, any company can shut down and throw their workers out onto the streets. So while we fight for back pay, we also need to explain to TransCare workers, and to CUNY students and professors, that we need to take state power.
Power will in the hands of working people women and men, who will carry out the task of using the wealth we create to provide everyone with the things we need: housing, health care, jobs that make use of our talents and interests, international cooperation of workers without wars and national borders, and the elimination of racism and sexism. March on May Day!