Last issue, a Washington DC Metro transit worker, a member of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689 representing over 10,000 workers, shared her thoughts about building a revolutionary movement in her workplace as a communist, shop steward, and union executive board member for many years. This section concludes her story about the battle against the bosses and the union misleaders.
Communist organizing at Metro
Since the 1970s, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been militant organizers in Local 689. We led a week-long wildcat strike in 1978 that closed down the entire city. The issue that motivated the strike was the bosses’ refusal to pay cost-of-living raises required by the collective bargaining agreement. But the anger of the mainly Black working-class transit workers was deeper because of the abuse dealt out by management. The strike was partially successful – we got the raise! – and the Party gained respect among the other workers. Still, the effort to build a revolutionary party did not take hold among the workers.
Since then, we have won many reform battles and helped push the conversation within our union towards the left. We led fights against the criminal background check that blocked the hiring of formerly incarcerated workers. We led teach-ins and anti-war contingents in protests in DC. We organized many rallies outside of Metro headquarters around proposed cuts to our benefits, contracting out, and proposed fare increases on our riders. While these struggles have improved lives and raised class consciousness to some degree, we are still facing the same attacks we have confronted for the past 50 years.
Even when these reform efforts are successful, the bosses are always primed to take back any concessions they have made. Right now they are trying to go after our pension--after already taking back retiree health insurance for workers hired after 2010. The deepening economic crisis of capitalism means that the struggle will intensify in the coming years.
But who will lead and move our fellow workers to arevolutionary solution? Not the ATU 689 union leadership!
Failures of the union leadership and their reformism
In Loudoun County, Virginia, we struck for a better contract for commuter bus operators. We picketed for two months in the middle of winter. The union leadership relied on the County Executive to “find” funding for the transit contractor to meet our demands and end the strike. Such wishful thinking! When this “friend of labor” abandoned us, the union maneuvered to end the strike instead of “upping the ante.” We communists pushed to spread the strike to other transit workers, public-school teachers, and others. But the union leadership said no. The workers on the picket line wanted to keep striking, but the union leadership insisted that a “suspension” of the strike was the best strategy. PLP Metro members were unable to counter that losing strategy and workers went back to work without a contract, losing the strike.
Similarly, our union led a strike in Prince George’s County, Maryland against a contractor operating the paratransit service. The workers struck for two weeks, at the end of which they got a subpar contract. Many workers wanted to continue the strike, but at the union leadership’s urging, voted to accept the contract. The contract was somewhat better than it would have been without a strike but was still not a real improvement to the quality of life for those workers. As communists on the picket line, we tried but were not able to win the majority of workers to continue the strike in the face of the union leadership’s opposition. This, despite the agreement of most workers that much more was needed in the contract to keep up with inflation and secure enough benefits to be able to retire.
Gaslit by the KKK-Metro management team-up
Workers often look beyond basic bread and butter contract issues. Seven years ago, the KKK planned to hold a demonstration in downtown DC. The Klan members planned to take a special Metro train from Virginia into the city for their rally. We held an emergency meeting at the union hall to decide how to stop these racists. In an electric atmosphere, train operators declared that we should shut down the train in the middle of the tunnel. Others said to have a sick out to prevent any operator from being forced to drive the train. The General Manager (GM) of Metro – the top boss -- said that the Metro system would not provide a train for the racists and the union leadership believed him! Since when do we believe the lying bosses? The KKK boarded a boss-provided Metro train and were safely taken downtown for their rally that was opposed by thousands.
These three examples show how union leaders can undermine the militancy of the working class by channeling them towards limited change and then blunting that if the struggle gets sharper. We need unions to fight collectively against the bosses, but the union is ultimately a reform organization that props up capitalism. Our union leaders spend thousands of dollars of union dues supporting politicians and nothing on building a fighting organization that can beat the bosses.
PLP grows
Based on my 12 years of organizing at Metro, I know that workers can be won to the analysis that a disciplined communist party is necessary to abolish capitalism. As a result of our Party’s engagement in hundreds of struggles large and small, we have been able to swell the ranks of our Party group at Metro. The bosses have much to fear over the long run from our organizing work in the industrial working class!
While the fight for revolution seems improbable in day-to-day struggle, history shows that revolutions can be propelled forward by major crises of the capitalist system and win. Communist revolutions can change the world, abolish capitalism, and create a world of creativity, equality and collectivity that meets the needs of all workers.