04/14/2024

Attack Workers’ Rights with Gig Jobs!

 Fascists in the U.S. attack ideologies such as critical race theory, diversity, sexual orientation, …, in order to split the working class and hinder our ability to fight back. But this is only a tactic. At its core, fascism is always about a business plan.

The fascist Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is the playbook

Across the board, rights that working people fought and died for since the 1880s — the eight-hour day, a legal minimum wage, and protections against child labor — are back on the ballot in many states. This onslaught is outlined in Project 2025, which calls for ending racial, gender and sexual orientation equality in employment and for putting children to work in factories.

Using the gig economy to attack workers’ rights

The pro-fascist corporate legislative center, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) wants to increase gig work, “Increasing barriers to independent contractor status would deprive millions the flexibility and entrepreneurial opportunity available through innovations such as the ‘gig’ economy”. https://inthesetimes.com/article/alec-american-legislative-exchange-council-labor-unions-politics

The plan is to use gig jobs to abolish healthcare benefits, overtime benefits, and pension commitments. We must then work multiple gig jobs just to survive.

We have had enough!

From the UAW victory to Amazon and Starbucks victories to the strikes of workers in the film industry, labor in the US has risen up against the gig economy.

But we are not just confronting a bunch of evil-minded CEOs! This is capitalism in the 21st century, where digital technology and automation is eliminating jobs in every branch of industry. The only thing worse than being exploited on the job is not having a job to be exploited in! The gig economy is the road to the bottom.

The Fight for a Better Life

Fascism has launched a battle for political power in order to shape our lives in new oppressive ways. The fight is on between fascist forces and the new generations where victory will be when we the people secure the political power to live our lives as full human beings.

“Workers being displaced by the market are becoming a revolutionary class, because we have no stake in the system and cannot survive without confronting it. We need food, housing, education, and healthcare. We need an opportunity to contribute to society and to help save the planet. We need freedom from police terror, mass incarceration, and gender oppression. We fight for a government that takes care of people first.

“Ultimately this requires public ownership of the means to create wealth – the land, infrastructure, and technology – and distribution according to need. The fight for basic needs propels every other social struggle because none of society’s social, moral, or ecological problems can be solved as long as the private property system exists.” (League Program)

New debates require new answers!

Let’s talk!

“As people struggle to survive war, climate catastrophe, poverty, and pandemic, a new fascist state form is arising to crush us – the naked rule of corporate power.” ..”The battle is a class struggle because the ruling class is the enemy of humanity and the earth itself.” from the League Program

The Voices of the League series of articles are intended to encourage a dialogue with developing revolutionaries.  We highlight issues of the day and areas of special interest to new revolutionaries to provide an action guide.  Please make your thoughts known by commenting at the end of the article.

Program of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America:

https://lrna.org/lrna-program/