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
Feb 21, 2011
Blue Cross is moving workers from Southfield to the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. No account was taken of the needs of the people who will move. This is the same Blue Cross that ripped people, many of whom lived in Detroit, out from their downtown office to work out in Southfield. Now the same company is changing its mind and moving them back. How many workers had moved to make it easier to get to work?
It is not just the company that makes moves like this difficult, but everything about the apparatus of this society. There is no public transportation that would make the commute easier–it is neither frequent, convenient, nor affordable.
The workday is not just when we are at the workplace. It also includes how much time we have to waste on foolishness like commuting. We need an 8-hour day, and that includes everything: the time it takes to get here, the time to get home, and the time getting out of crowded parking structures.
Certainly the increases that have occurred in the productivity of labor could mean that we could work fewer hours, with not only no cut in pay, but even a pay increase.