Racist bosses ride roughshod over transit workers’ health 
Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 9:30AM
Challenge_DesafĂ­o

The capitalist world is crumbling. Workers everywhere are witnessing this typically, insidious “boss move.” The billionaire capitalists wait and continue accumulating billions until the deaths of workers affect their profits. This is true of the transit system in New York City. Capitalism is the real disease. Workers’ power with communist revolution is the only cure.
The ruling class is enforcing fascism through surveillance and racist police terror and murder against mostly Black workers. A transit worker said, "they told us we're essential workers, now get back to work." Under capitalism workers’ labor is essential, but workers’ lives are never essential. Under communism, not only will workers’ labor and health be essential, but as we learn to run all aspects of society, all our abilities and talents will be developed to the fullest. That’s the world the Progressive Labor Party fights for!
  Only communist organizing can defeat kapitalist killers
Meanwhile, in New York City the death of predominantly Black transit workers has surpassed 100, more than the deaths of cops and firefighters combined. Many workers have been told to work without the proper PPE (personal protective equipment). These numbers are actually much higher. Many workers have posted on social media the deaths of their beloved coworkers that are not mentioned by the bosses or the Transportation Workers Union (TWU).
Progressive Labor Party members have been reaching out to coworkers to provide any help that may be needed as well as discussing on-the-job issues and the world situation. On the job we need a safe work environment for ourselves, and a safe riding environment for workers to get to their jobs. As far as the world goes, we need the working class to run it. That’s communism and that means revolution. This whole damn capitalist system has to go.
 The transit union leaders or misleaders are doing very little. They want compensation for the families of the victims of the virus, and for hazard pay. That’s it.  Governor Andrew Cuomo wants the federal government to pay for hazard pay. He’s just passing the buck to President Donald Trump. Meanwhile the transit bosses save money from the deaths of veteran workers who were hired on better pensions. They will be replaced by lower-paid workers, if they are replaced at all.
 United workers can halt means of production and
transportation
Transit is an essential part of the economy. It’s a huge concentration of workers who, with the right leadership can shut this system down like they did in NYC back in 2005, bringing the bosses to their knees. It was transit workers who initially blew the whistle on how dirty the subways are, putting pressure on the bosses and politicians to do something. But instead of shutting down transit for a complete cleaning of trains and stations, the bosses’ response was chaotic and weak. They removed the homeless from the trains from 1-5 AM every 24 hours and used underpaid contract workers to do the cleaning. There aren't enough workers to do the work, so they will clean the main stations like Times Square or Grand Central, but ignore local stations, which is pointless. The way capitalism works it will also be racist, as the stations poorly cleaned will be in Black or Latin neighborhoods. This is just another political move by the bosses, and their politicians so they can say they did something to protect the workers.
Profits created the unsanitary and unsafe conditions that caused this disease. A profit-driven health care system left us unprepared for this disease. And chaotic, capitalist competition has led to an ineffective response to this disease. The high death tolls are the product of capitalism. Capitalism is the pandemic. Capitalism is the real killer. All over the world, the working class is under the same attack by capitalist vermin.
 Crisis calls for class struggle and communism
 But there is a silver lining. The brutality of capitalism has become clearer to many workers.
In Haiti the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is leading workers to pressure the rulers to provide proper masks and sanitation. The Party in Chicago joined workers in a caravan supporting imprisoned workers, distributing masks and CHALLENGE to arm them with communist ideas. The Party from Mexico to New York City continues to fight for their students, by making sure they still have an education. All over the world workers are fighting back.
But capitalism cannot be reformed; it works only for the capitalist rulers. We need a world where workers are in charge because we are the ones who create what we need! A world that is free from racism, sexism, imperialism, and poverty. A world run by and for the working class. That world is called communism.
But this world that communists fight for will not come from the voting box. It will not come from liberal politicians. It will not come from Fascists Liberals Barack Obama or Bernie Sanders. You will not feel the Bern. The bosses must feel our feet, as we revolt and take state power. Only then will everyone have health, education, shelter and food. Only then will the next pandemic be fought because workers’ lives matter. Join the Progressive Labor Party!

Article originally appeared on The Revolutionary Communist Progressive Labor Party (http://www.plparchive.org/).
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