The following statement was issued by the Faurecia Gladstone Rank-and-File Safety Committee, which was formed last year by auto parts workers in Columbus, Indiana to oppose unsafe working conditions during the pandemic. To join or build a rank-and-file safety committee at your own workplace, contact the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter at autoworkers@wsws.org.
Brothers and sisters:
The Faurecia Gladstone Rank-and-File Safety Committee opposes the bipartisan efforts to bury the January 6 coup attempt by Donald Trump. We demand a full public congressional investigation, as well as the arrest and prosecution of all those responsible for planning, carrying out and providing political cover for the attempt to overthrow the Constitution! We must prepare for political general strike action against these fatal threats to our democratic rights!
Why are there no charges against all the criminals who planned and carried out the attack on our nation’s capital? Why are there no hearings and public investigations of the widespread conspiracies involved? Every day there are new indications of the breadth and depth of involvement of powerful figures in the Republican Party, the Defense Department and police departments from coast to coast. But nothing of consequence is being done to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Until almost the day of the fascist assault, Senator Mitch McConnell provided Trump’s coup plot with a political pretext by promoting bogus claims of ballot fraud. He now proposes to postpone the impeachment until February to give Trump’s lawyers “time to prepare.”
And from Biden and the Democrats, we hear no objection. They are desperate to prevent us, the workers, from seeing the criminals in our midst. More than the fascist right, they fear the independent mobilization of the working class.
Who are the conspirators? The congresswoman from Colorado who gave a tour to the mob the day before the insurrection. The Pentagon brass that ordered the National Guard to stand down. They seem to want to provoke another civil war. They must be exposed before the working class.
The conspiracy to overthrow the Constitution cannot be separated from the conspiracy to sacrifice human lives for private profit. Last year US billionaires raked in over $1 trillion even as 400,000 Americans died. Elon Musk, who raked in over $150 billion, is working with the military to build a “cybertruck.” Jeff Bezos, who took in some $80 billion during the pandemic, made billions in contracts with the CIA for cloud computing services. And the government is giving them trillions of dollars and giving the working class chicken feed.
Every day we come to work we enter a cesspool of COVID-19 and place ourselves and our families in danger. Most jobs are not essential production. The Democrats and Republicans are pumping billions into the profits of the pandemic profiteers instead of handing workers a paycheck so they can stay home, stay safe and take care of their families.
Faurecia pushes herd immunity, encouraging the spread. They put on a show about wearing masks and social distancing. But that is just PR. On the shop floor, the rules go out the window. They have used the pandemic to lay off more than 250 workers. They have cut costs imposing overtime to push up production. These companies are making billions of dollars at our expense. They are spreading the virus like wildfire and killing their employees.
People are fearful they are going to lose their houses, their cars, everything. There is immense anger among workers over these conditions. The profiteers are fearful their party is over—the working class is banding together. They are doing all they can to stop the working class. This is what was really behind Trump’s coup attempt.
The time has come to join forces. Take a stand! We are appealing to our co-workers in the South Plant in Columbus, at Louisville and Fort Wayne. Join us and build the national network of rank-and-file safety committees.
The way forward for workers is to form rank-and-file safety committees in every workplace, as part of our growing national network, which includes representatives from auto plants, school districts and Amazon warehouses from around the country. Join the fight today!