Covid Letters

The racist conditions of transit
In this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, I want to describe what NYC MTA maintainers are facing at our worksite. In our section, there are over 200 workers. The majority are Black immigrants from the Caribbean, and some other immigrants from Eastern Europe.
In the middle of this pandemic where social distancing has been recommended, the superintendent bosses continued to call meetings daily, which cram over 200 of us into a room. Two months ago, a worker started coughing and they called him into the supervisor's office that sent him to a medical facility for testing. After a period of 10 days, we learned that our co-worker was diagnosed positive with coronavirus. Two other workers who were feeling sick in the shop also later tested positive, as well. Ironically, one of the supervisors who came in contact in the office with the first worker, also got the virus.
Since then, our crew of maintenance workers has basically been on their own. We never see any union shop stewards at the worksite. Many supervisors don't even show up. Subsequently, many other workers in our shop have become ill and confirmed to be infected with the virus. One worker told me he was positive and that he had already passed the virus on to his wife and daughter. The saddest and most difficult news for me was learning that one of our crew died from Covid-19. He was a really good guy and we had always looked out for each other when we worked the track together. After that, we really don't know how many of us have gotten sick and who won't make it. Many of us feel that our shop is a death trap.
We at the MTA are facing life-threatening conditions.  At the Long Island Railroad (LIRR), a worker tested positive and they closed the entire shop to make sure everyone else was okay before it was safe to go back. Due to racism we get inferior treatment to our brothers and sisters at the LIRR.  It has become clear that the MTA union leadership will not protect us.  
Rank and file MTA maintainers need to start organizing together to fight back now. Ultimately, we will need to get rid of this entire racist profit system if we want a world that is safe for us and our families.
*****
Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing
During the Covid 19 Pandemic, the majority of our working students lost their jobs, news comes that City University of New York (CUNY) will address the issue of “food insecurity” for the approximately 1500 students  at community colleges who need help. But when the bosses at CUNY and the state appear to help, watch out, because it’s sure to disappoint. The liberal misleaders in the City Council tried to look like heros by awarding $400 million to expand the CUNY food pantry services to students facing financial need.
However, a closer look at the eligibility criteria revealed that students without satisfactory GPA requirement, who have less than 9 credits, or who are in graduate programs do not qualify for the food pantry. In 2019, the GAO ( Government Accountability Office) released a report about food insecurity in the U.S. According to the report “millions of college students may be going hungry. Knowing this, you can add this sham CUNY food pantry to the long list of attacks on students
Another glaring example of this was when Governor Cuomo offered up the Excelsior Program in 2017, promising there would be” free tuition”, but soon it became clear that the vast majority of our students were ineligible despite demonstrating significant financial need.
This shows that when the bosses offer any kind of assistance it always has racist and fascist conditions attached. So while CUNY will decide “who qualifies “ to eat, we must do the most and the best we can under these circumstances.
This semester, our student club was planning to show the documentary Hungry to Learn on our campuses. We were making plans to unite with other campuses to fight back around different campaigns.
 Progressive Labor Party college students and professors are continuing to reach out to our friends, to discuss the ideas in CHALLENGE. We’ve been doing everything from making our own masks for each other, to joining the Free CUNY movement, and volunteering to help where we can–but most importantly we want to share in this crucial moment that if we don’t kill capitalism it will continue to kill us.
*****
Send a communist care package
Many workers in the U.S. and other countries are being forced to go back to work in the middle of a pandemic, so the almighty engine of the capitalist economy can keep running. More often than not, we are being forced back into service jobs, often overcrowded, with little to any protective equipment to keep us minimally safe from a contagious and deadly virus.
It is overwhelmingly lower-income service workers, especially Black and Latin workers, who are being thrown into these racist and potentially fatal working conditions. Grocery store workers, retail and food service workers, transit and healthcare workers—many times working without any masks or gloves and coming in close proximity to hundreds if not thousands of other workers every shift.
Many workers have refused to let the bosses endanger their lives, and have boldly staged walkouts and strikes; lessons we should all try to learn from and build upon. In our own modest way, comrades in Progressive Labor Party have been finding ways to spread our revolutionary communist ideas to our working-class peers while showing immediate solidarity.
For example, other workers have donated masks and gloves to our collective, which we have in turn used to create “communist care packages” for other workers. We put the gloves in Ziploc bags (the masks are pre-packaged) and we staple custom Party fliers and CHALLENGE to the packaging. We hope to offer basic material assistance to workers on the front lines while we simultaneously offer the type of political ideas that will destroy the capitalist conditions that fuel this crisis.
It is encouraging to see how we as a Party and the working class in general are adapting to this crisis as it unfolds, and pushing the struggle forward. Even in this dangerous and uncertain period, I remain inspired by the capacity of our class to struggle to create a better world.
*****
The Midway Four resist bosses’ racist orders
I have been retired for a couple of years but have been maintaining ties with my friends and former coworkers at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). Recently, four car servicers were given a direct order to clean a train that was contaminated with the coronavirus by a coworker. The Midway Four (as they’ve now come to be known) refused to clean the train, stating that they did not have the proper equipment or training. The manager said to clean it or go home - so they walked out and went home! Hundreds of bus and train operators, mechanics, trackmen, and janitors have since become aware of the example they have set and support for the initial walkout has grown.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic the union has lied to us about how many coworkers have tested positive, but through Facebook and phone calls members are letting each other know as much as we can. The next day, when union officials met with the managers and the Midway Four, one of the union officials announced that they had tested positive for Covid-19. All of the managers who were in that room went home with pay and into quarantine. The union officials closed the office, said it would be deep cleaned and they too went into quarantine with pay. BUT the Midway Four were not allowed to go into quarantine with pay and the union has not stepped up to help them.
In a potentially deadly situation like this, the union hacks are showing more of their true colors as workers are being forced to risk their lives. This creates an opportunity for Progressive Labor Party. We continue to sell CHALLENGE and pass out leaflets to transit workers here in Chicago. The struggle over communist ideas is growing here.
*****
How can 16 million jobless become 32 million?
The phony calculators are at it again. The New York Times (4/4) reported government unemployment figures over a 3-week period in March at 16.6 million. But that omits tens of millions of others out of work and/or seeking work.
Previously the Times had reported “the true number of people newly out of work may be much larger.” It further reported that since March 28 “it’s likely that an additional four million people have lost their jobs. The unemployment offices are so overloaded with claimants and understaffed due to clerks being laid off that millions can’t even file. How many? At least several million? In addition, there are at least five million who the Times calls “hidden unemployed,” that is, those part-timers who sought but could not find full-time jobs.
Yet there are still other uncounted millions of high school and college graduates who are first-time jobseekers and are hard-pressed to find jobs amid millions being laid off but are not counted as unemployed. And finally, there are those classified as “independent contractors”—like Uber and Lyft drivers—who are ineligible for unemployment benefits, not part of the unemployment figures, “job-losers” whom the Times estimates at 1.5 million. So if one adds all that up, it at least doubles those 16.6 million now out of work. How come? That’s capitalism.
*****