Bosses' newsletter attacks workers )
Much like the wider class society it is part of, UA is divided into antagonistic groups. The bosses paper over this with talk about “mission” and the “UA Community.” But these are the bosses’ self-serving concepts. They are meant to make you forget your own interests are quite different from those of the bosses. (At a higher level, the same is true of the talk of “the nation,” “the economy,” citizens, etc.)
With sole control over the “press” within UA, the bosses use this “impartial” language to tear into workers. Look at the latest UA system news release. They tell us, for instance, that “the negotiations begin against a backdrop of consistent yet constrained state financial stability.” That’s the message of bosses and states everywhere: “for the good of everyone [read: we in charge], don’t ask for more.”
They add, “the atmosphere in Juneau during the last few legislative sessions has made clear that there is limited appetite for significant increases to UA’s state appropriation.” As if we care! Administrators, that’s your fucking problem. You’re paid two or three or eight times as much as some employees. Isn’t that because you solve really big problems? That’s what you keep telling us.
Which brings us to a pair of tangential points.
We don’t care what the legislature says. We’re not asking those demagogues and crooks what their appetite is, we’re telling them what ours is. This isn’t a negotiation, it’s an expropriation!
At the same time we know that the capitalist state stands behind all exploiters. (For a particularly blatant example, see last week’s news that the Canadian state forbade a rail strike.) That’s why struggles in the workplace must be a mere prelude to the struggle for political power. As Bordiga said in Seize Power or Seize the Factory, “it would be better if these endless and useless adventures [factory occupations] that are daily exhausting the working masses were all channeled, merged and organised into one great, comprehensive upsurge aimed directly at the heart [the state] of the enemy bourgeoisie.” We’re not there yet – but someday!