the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
May 6, 2024
SpaceX rocket company, owned by Elon Musk, is relying more and more on using Vandenberg Space Force Base, a federal property north of Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, California, to launch its rockets. A California state agency agreed to allow SpaceX to launch six rockets a year from the base over the California coastline, mostly with private commercial payloads, meaning not military satellites. Now, Musk is demanding permission to launch 36 rockets each year and has boasted of plans to launch 50 or even 100 rockets yearly. All with massive help from the U.S. facilities and personnel stationed on the base. It’s a huge subsidy from taxpayers to one billionaire.
Musk might claim he is a visionary “disruptor” who “thinks big” and “gets things done.” But in fact, he relies on the traditional roles of government and business in the capitalist system: the government, and especially the military, exists to help fat cats like him get richer.