Vol. 78/No. 9      March 10, 2014

In this issue and in recent weeks the Militant has reported on a spate of industrial “accidents” — from an explosion in an Iowa fertilizer warehouse to a chemical leak that poisoned the water supply in West Virginia. These man-made disasters resulting from the bosses’ profit drive pose the need for workers to take steps to defend themselves and their class as a whole.

Our fight to defend life and limb on the job is completely intertwined with efforts of workers and the labor movement to battle the bosses’ contamination of the food we eat; dangerous manufacture and transport of goods we need; and damage to the earth, water and air we breathe.

All these evils are the products of the lawful workings of capitalism, which seeks profit at all costs, the danger to workers and surrounding communities be damned.

Workers need to fight to impose workers control over line speed, production processes, material handling and all aspects of production where we work. At the same time we demand the bosses open their books to expose their “business secrets” — the things they do and ways they collude to maximize profits at our expense and their despoiling of the environment.

Along this road, we need to back workers’ struggles to organize unions and to use union power to defend ourselves, mobilize solidarity with other workers’ battles, and join social struggles to defend workers’ allies on the land.
 
 
Related articles:
From Iowa to W.Va., profit drive threatens land and labor
What’s behind vote against UAW at Tenn. auto plant?
Australia construction workers walk out over co-worker’s death
 
 
 
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