Portland DSA May Day 2020 Statement
May Day, 2020 — Portland DSA calls on the working people of Portland to use the COVID-19 crisis to organize in their workplaces and in their neighborhoods against capitalism.
Before COVID-19, this country was in a crisis. Supposedly low unemployment numbers and a record stock market disguised the harsh conditions of the working class in the United States. Low wage workers with no health insurance faced massive medical and student debts, tying them to the workforce but with no chance for upward mobility. Landlords got rich by raising rents while working people, unable to afford the rent any longer, were forced to live on the streets or in their cars. The chronically unemployed were disregarded by official government counts, while gig workers struggled to balance part-time jobs and the indignities (denied rights) of “contractor” status. Mass incarceration was weaponized to control the black working class, while undocumented status was similarly deployed against immigrant laborers to deny them wages and government benefits. All of this occurred while the economy was booming. This was normal.
Enter COVID-19, a novel virus that is sweeping through the globe and has killed a quarter of a million people. We have seen it kill those who are immunocompromised and those who are healthy. It has caused strokes in teenagers. It has neurological and hepatological side effects that we are only beginning to learn about. We do not yet know if there is immunity after infection. We do not know its long term side effects. We are trying to prevent it from mutating by reducing the amount of infected people. And we are staying home as much as possible in order to save lives. We have made massive changes to our way of living and done so for good reason. Because of that, millions of people have become unemployed. And because our government has never had the funding or the will to help working people in emergencies, many states are running out of the money that will keep the working class housed and alive.
Afraid of economic fallout and unwilling to do what is right, governors across the nation are “reopening” their economies so they can kick people off of unemployment and force them back to work. After barely two months of social distancing, it is clear that the ruling class of this country is unable to survive without exploiting the working class for profit. The ruling class of this nation is forcing the working class to be exposed to a disease so that they can continue to live in luxury. Grocery, logistics, and healthcare workers have already experienced this brutality of capitalism, where they are tasked with holding up the foundation of our society while facing the risk of death and receiving poverty wages. Many of our essential workers don’t have health insurance. Many of them have already died.
The Federal government’s response has been to funnel millions of dollars into private business, while handing the average worker enough money to pay their landlords and their debt collectors. States like Oregon have an unemployment system designed to keep people from receiving benefits, rather than helping them to receive them. Unemployment claims now a month old have gone unprocessed while the food at home is dwindling and the money is running out.
There is an answer to this crisis: organize. It is time for working people to organize ourselves, the vast majority of the United States, and unite as a class. It is time for us to say no to those who force us into wage slavery under penalty of poverty and houselessness. It is time for us to stop collaborating with the bosses, the owners of capital and property, the elitist ruling class, and the politicians of both parties that do their bidding. It is time for us to call them what they are: our enemies.
We have seen unprecedented organizing during this crisis. We have seen workers in Amazon warehouses rise up against Jeff Bezos. We have seen renters organize their complexes to strike against paying rent to landlords. We have seen prison decarceration advocates pressure the state to release prisoners from the COVID death traps they must live in. We will not see the end of this organizing soon. So long as the ruling class continues to oppress the working class, so long as our interests remain irreconcilable, the fight continues.
You can join in this fight right now. Join Portland DSA and you can learn how to organize your neighbors. Attend our upcoming webinar and you can learn how to assemble a team of leaders in your workplace. Watch our live discussions on the colonial and imperial basis for American capitalism, and the occupation the US supports in Palestine. Join our unemployed workers caucus and help us make demands of the state. Join our Resiliency working group as we plan mutual aid projects that keep our community safe. Now is the time to fight back. Now is the time to join with your brothers, sisters, and non-binary comrades, to free ourselves from the enduring grip of global capital. We have nothing to lose but our chains. Join us now.
