May Day 2022 Speech
Below is the text from my April 30th, May Day 2022 Speech at the PLP Rally at 35th and King Drive.
Greetings from the hells of the public transportation sector. I am a maintainer of CTA trains. A union steward. A survivor of Covid-19. An honored guest of the PLP—an organization that boldly supports grass-roots action for revolutionary change in this cruel world.
My coworkers are suffering from decades of abuse and erosion of our pension and FT jobs.
Contract after contract, we lose and lose. Like many of you who work in union and non-union jobs, we are beaten into a demoralized pulp and being told this is the price we must pay for a free market.
Think about that!
Free market: Two words “free” and “market.” Let’s break it down to its lowest common denominator:
No market is free! But slavery is!
This almighty FREE Market is about squeezing the most work out of human beings—with the least amount of investment and the least sharing of the fruits for their labor.
To ensure maximum control and maximum profit, this Free Market uses deceptive ideas to make the people believe they have a choice—and a voice.
It is like my poor coworkers who are in PT jobs at the second largest public transportation agency in the nation.
They are abused and used as pawns against the Full Time workers whose jobs are the legacy of mass strikes and bloodshed right here in Chicago.
Our sellout union presidents hug and help our bosses punish us when we cru out for justice.
We have Flagmen working around 600 Volts DC third rails and Customer Service Assistants who are being given 40 hours a week, but still have horrible PT benefits.
Our employer and our union presidents agreed to this, dragged us through two years of secret meetings and then threatened us with fear about arbitration to convince us to vote yes.
We have Black, Latino, Asian and white ex-felons who are being tricked by managers and cruel union bosses to work with blinding, skin burning chemicals. When we complain, we are told to obey and be happy!
They mistreat these human beings as if they are slaves and savage beasts who need to be grateful for a “Second Chance.”
But it is barely a Second Chance when you can barely pay the rent or get punished for getting sick!
Crime is festering in our society because the free market, just in time economics and profits over people is beat in to us by the billionaire bloodsuckers and the politicians.
Worker productivity is the highest it has ever been in US history.
But we still don’t have enough money for jobs, housing, education, healthcare and infrastructure in every community?
Perpetual part time jobs are rotting away the soul of the CTA and all other companies.
We must organize our neighborhoods, workplaces and schools to take control from the billionaire bloodsuckers of the poor. No longer can we put faith in voting and suffering until the next election cycle.
These lying politicians are owned by the scum who poison the planet and bomb nations into oblivion.
They make laws that keep us scared and dependent on them. They make contracts with our unions that have no-strike agreements.
When unrighteous laws choke the life and ambition for justice from the people, the righteous people are duty-bound to disobey and crush those laws!
History is full with examples if you open your eyes! From general strikes that shut down entire cities to defiant Black passengers who sat in the front of the bus in the 1960’s, you can see what is possible!
Fight back sisters and brothers. Join your voices with those who care like you! Cast off fear of failure, unemployment and death!
Our enemies are more afraid of us than you are of them!
If you haven’t done so already, pledge to organize your community, job or school to fight for dignity and to take power from those who torment us. If you are already in the struggle, renew your pledge.
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