Transit workers expose cheating CTA, deserve a worker-run system

CHICAGO, February 23—Members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined with Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) workers for a multiracial “Hour of Power” rally today at the 95 Street transit station to protest the sellout union leaders. These misleaders work hand in hand with the transit bosses, helping them stay in control. Transit, when run in the interest of profit, can never function to sustain the working-class necessities. PLP members call for communism, working-class power, where transit workers will not only keep move the city but also steer the world.
Commuters and drivers passing by honked their horns in support while we held signs and picketed the bus/rail terminal, denouncing the union misleaders. Workers from Locals 241 and 308 who drive the buses and the trains in Chicago are spreading the word on how they have been shut out of negotiations for a new contract with the city.
Speakers on the bullhorn demanded hazard pay, sanitized facilities and vehicles, two-person crews, more full-time jobs and job security, paid sick time for all employees, and member control of their unions. These demands are ripe for struggle class where workers and communists can push the limits of these reforms to fight the whole system.
Workers were receptive to PLP members who distributed 50 copies of CHALLENGE while helping lead chants against racism, for worker unity, and for communist revolution.
Under capitalism, especially one in decline like the U.S.’s, public transit operations are chronically underfunded to the point of physical collapse. They routinely put workers in mortal danger. Their role is to shuttle us to and from our jobs in order to make profits for this racist profit system.
Communist control of transportation means always having the proper resources and safety protocols in place to protect our class. Smashing the bosses’ state dictatorship and erecting a working-class dictatorship through an international PLP is the only route that will guarantee safe mass transit.
CTA and union attack – Workers unite, fight back
CTA is the second largest transit system in the country, and has a mostly Black workforce. Whenever there are contract negotiations, the bosses attack the workers in an effort to keep wages down and to try to turn public sentiment against them. By failing to address dangers during the pandemic, the racist CTA bosses and their union hacks are responsible for at least eight deaths and 900 workers having contracted the Covid-19 virus (Chicago Sun-Times, 12/20/20).
The union misleadership has worked for decades to alienate transit workers from meetings and contract discussions. Although boasting 3,000  members, it is rare to have 50  workers attend a general meeting. Now, in a period of virtual calls, worker input about job conditions has become even more limited.
In spite of these attempts to shut them out, workers have bravely pushed back against the racist working conditions. Many have organized meetings to address concerns, defying CTA and the union’s attempts to retaliate against them for doing so (see CHALLENGE letters, 4/16/20). PLP have supported these efforts to build multiracial, rank-and-file solidarity as the way for our class to grasp our potential power outside the limits of the bosses’ institutions.
A route to workers’ power
The power of a militant and united transit workforce can hardly be understated. If more workers were to reject both the bosses and their collaborating unions and organize on behalf of our class interest, we could shut both the rails and the roads down and bring the capitalist system to its knees. As conditions become evermore untenable and communist ideas grip our class, this level of class struggle will rise again.
But in PLP, we’re not just about shutting the profit system down; we’re about wiping it out entirely. A worker-run communist society would make our class’s needs as the determining factor of all decisions. With that, we will rebuild and expand mass transit in a way that meets our collective needs and that operates in the most environmentally healthy ways possible.
The finance capital wing of the U.S. ruling class is more and more worried about their worldwide imperialist empire. Represented by President Joe Biden, they are ramping up their calls to rebuild a failing U.S. infrastructure (see editorial, page 2), but only to better prepare their country and the working class for future imperialist war.
PLP calls on workers to reject both wings of the U.S. bosses and fight for a future where our power and safety always comes first. That’s communism. Join us!