As the ruling-class owned CDC announced that Covid-19 infections only require a five-day quarantine instead of 10, workers worldwide can see that this decision is profit driven (see editorial, page 2).
Following their conversation with the Delta airlines CEO, the CDC reinforced that cashing in on overpriced airline seats was more important than the lives of the workers who are now being required to return to work, sick, exhausted, and infectious to their fellow class sisters and brothers.
In the face of exploitation, these humorous memes all shed light on one thing: because of our class position and the experience of exploitation, our class can see through the lies that ruling class bosses throw at us. With struggle and conversation, these memes can be an opportunity to develop class consciousness and unity among our co-workers, friends, classmates, and family.
To put it bluntly in the words of Malcolm X, truth is on the side of the oppressed.
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Letter
CDC: criminal, diseased, capitalist
This is not the first time the CDC has implemented violent recommendations in favor of the bosses and their profits. In the summer of 2021, while Covid-19 cases were at a record-low since the beginning of the pandemic, the CDC carelessly recommended that vaccinated individuals not be required to wear masks while in public spaces even though vaccinated people could still contract and spread the virus to others regardless of vaccination status. All to create more profits in the bosses’ economy. Of course, cases skyrocketed nationwide by the end of the summer.
This latest surge comes as healthcare workers across the board continue to battle racist and sexist staffing shortages, burnout, and overflows of hospital admissions. Although health care under capitalism has always essentially been about profit, the pandemic has truly laid bare how inadequate and ill-prepared the system really is.
We as workers keep each other safe. The CDC is not the epitome of scientific knowledge. In fact, their scientific pursuit is inherently tied to the profiteering of U.S. imperialism. They’re a tool of the capitalist state that does not fundamentally care if workers live or die.
This is why Progressive Labor Party needs you! As we continue to build a base with more scientists and healthcare workers, we can better understand science from a materialist-communist lens and organize to destroy capitalism’s racist violence.
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Letter
Sickening working conditions
How would you feel if you were forced to work involuntary overtime for a different city agency after you worked a full work week at your regular job? Well that is the reality that I faced after having Covid-19, being vaccinated, and returning to work.
I am a bit of a trouble maker so when I was asked if I had done the required 10 hours of weekly overtime I said “no, working my regular hours is all I can do with my family responsibilities.”
I felt that my coworkers and I were being tricked into doing work we hadn’t been hired to do. When I asked to see written documentation of requirements for overtime, there was no response. When I called my union reps, I also got no response.
Bosses try to trick us every day to force us to do more work. If we are doing two different jobs we should get two paychecks or better still, hire a second worker to do the extra work. I look forward to reading and sharing how others in the Progressive Labor Party and their friends are confronting similar attempts by bosses to use Covid-19 conditions to increase workloads. Here in my office, my co-workers and I need to sit down and plan on how we can fight this.
