man

i was reading a lefty rag when i saw an article entitled "an insider's view of the boeing strike." 27,000 boeing workers struck for 57 days in september and october. the article says "workers won a number of concessions from management." i read the concessions, and nowhere was it stated that "workers will no longer have to produce products that will be used to kill people in war." the left, by focusing so strongly on the labor movement, forgets that it is in the best interests of humanity that some american jobs be eliminated. isn't this the same left that wants to see a drastic reduction of the military budget and an end to our imperial wars? how do we oppose these wars and then support the workers who make the products that are used to fight them? is this not similar to the "support the troops" bullshit we have been hearing for years? the people of the world need the american left to fight the system, not to organize the workers of raytheon, ge, and boeing for more overtime pay. would the world have been a better place in the 1930's if the germans who made munitions had been paid better than they were? would this have helped the millions of people who died from the products that these members of the "working class" made? and aren't the iraqis and afghanis that we are killing members of the "working class?" does it help them that boeing management has promised to "protect 5,000 parts delivery and facilities maintenance workers from layoffs."

if we are going to oppose war, we can't support a war economy. the men and women who work for these factories are a part of the war machine. however, they also have skills that could be beneficial to a peace based economy. we should support these workers in their efforts to quit these war related jobs, and to start machinist collectives that do work for the good of humanity. there is much that needs to be built, constructed, and produced. we are in desperate need of libraries, health clinics, schools, public transit, parks, roads, levees, and sane urban planning. there is much that a skilled machinist could do.

now, this is what the left should do in regards to military contractors like boeing.

agitate for their closure. in the short term, agitate for them to be taxed like crazy. build the anti-war movement. call for a massive reduction in the military budget. call for, and help to create, an alternative peace economy that attempts to build up the world, not to destroy it. call for progressive workers to do progressive work, or at least apolitical work, and to leave these occupations to those who are pro-war. remember that no one in today's world cares about how much german factory workers made in the 1930's. remember that supporting the labor movement means supporting the workers throughout the world, which includes the millions of working poor our labor movement has helped to kill. remember that during slave times, overseers were also members of the working class.

there is a lot of work that needs to be done. making sure that guys who make things that kill people have job security shouldn't be high on our to do list.