Working Fer The Man

Class Struggle ignited by the Greed of the Verizon Bosses

Blistering hot weather and fiery class struggle ignited by the greed of the Verizon bosses – hey that’s summer like it ought to be.  Whenever workers engage the rulers and corporate “elite” in a battle for their livelihood the sweet smell of solidarity rises in the air, and we can forget some of our petty differences – at least while the strike is on.

Strikers march for jobs at 540 Broad St. Newark, NJ

Make no mistake the Verizon strike is not just a strike about jobs, wages, benefits and working conditions at the multi billion dollar telecom behemoth.   The fate of the entire US working class/middle class will be on the line as well.

“We’re fighting for the last of what resembles the middle class,” said one worker on the picket line at 650 Market St in Newark, NJ. “Without this fight what we’re going to have are rich and poor.”

Bosses have become emboldened as their terrorist tactics both here in the US and all around the world have increased over the last ten years. The US ruling class – corporate, financial, government and “intellectual” – is the by far the most dangerous terrorist organization ever known to the planet. With wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places fought by drones and high tech weapons of mass destruction the potential for carnage may not be limitless, but it approaches that awesome proportion.

The US financial sector unleashed a reign of terror with the so called “housing bubble” that enriched the banksters but has bankrupted much of the world economy.  They need a way to finance their new adventures and pay for the current wars. Since they don’t want to spend their own money, they are squeezing and going to continue to squeeze every cent they can from the working class. The attacks in Wisconsin, New Jersey and now at Verizon are mere tips on the proverbial iceberg.

Verizon has made $19.5 billion over the last four years.  The company paid no federal tax in 2010 and received a $1 billion tax rebate. And don’t believe the bilge they’re spewing about the difference in profitability between wire line and wireless networks.  There are not two separate networks.  When someone makes a call on their cell phone it travels from the phone to a cell tower.  The cell tower is hooked into the wire line network by various forms of high capacity circuits, both copper and fiber.  The call then travels to a local central office and through a traditional path to get to another central office somewhere else in the world. High capacity lines connect that central office with another cell tower which sends the wireless signal to another cell phone.   Only the phone to the cell tower part of the call is wireless.  Verizon and all the moron telecom analysts on TV and the Web are full of crap, or maybe they just don’t want the public to know that union workers at Verizon maintain the network that creates the profit at VZW.

All Verizon cares about is paying it blood sucking executives. (The top five have made $258 million over the last four years.)  And dishing out dividends to the big time Wall Street stockholders.

“If the company was going to give money back to the customers, I’d be OK with taking some cuts,” another striker said. “But the money they take from us will only benefit them.”

Students support Verizon Strkers

The good news is that other workers are already expressing solidarity.  At the Verizon building at 540 Broad St in Newark a spontaneous cheer rose up from the strikers as a group of high school students and a teacher from Newark came out to join the picket line.

Another group of workers from Essex County legal services spent a good portion of their lunch hour walking the line and leading some chants.

The working class with all of our calluses, scars and divisions is the only force mighty enough to stop the terrorist onslaught of the blood sucking capitalist vampires.  Join the struggle! Dare to win!