Teamsters UPS Strike

The Hosea Hudson Club CPUSA extends comradely greetings and our warmest congratulations to the workers of the Teamsters Union who stood united against James P. Kelly (CEO, United Parcel Service) and his union-busting, profiteering pals at UPS.

The CPUSA supports all workers' struggles against monopoly capital, and we place particular emphasis on industries that manufacture and distribute essential materials. UPS, with 80 percent of the nation's package distribution market is what we call a "point of production" company. The Teamsters demonstrated that workers in key manufacture and distribution industries are in the most vital position to take workers' initiatives against capital, with the most profound effect. No activity in our recent history was more important to the irreconcilable struggle between those who must sell their labor power and those private individuals who appropriate the surplus value created by those workers.

We have noted the "containment" strategy of post-strike media coverage . . . . "it's a victory for the union now, but it will prove the exception to the rule in the new economy." Excuse us, Capitalism is not a new economy! And the corporate sycophants in the media will see, as the revived labor movement progresses, just who and what is relevant.

The Hosea Hudson Club CPUSA reminds readers that wages, hours, benefits, pensions, and job security are only facets of a struggle between those who must sell their labor power, and those who profit from this bondage. Without a transformation of society that returns control of the means of production to workers in the form of social property, our other victories are temporary.

Strikes are rehearsals for revolution, Lenin said. Communists do not believe those who produce should have a "share." We believe they should run things, and the sooner the better, because the noise in this "vigorous economy" is the death rattle of capitalism's contradictions.