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
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
Mar 3, 2025
For years the Phenix Lumber mill in Phenix, Alabama was the deadliest workplace in America, measured by injuries per worker. Although the sawmill never employed more than 50 workers at a time, 28 workers experienced horrible injuries in the last 15 years, including three gruesome deaths. In one fatality, only 23 pounds of a worker’s body was recovered from a machine.
This lethal workplace is owned by the richest capitalist family in eastern Alabama, who also built subdivisions and owned a local bank. A state forestry board member said they “taught me the art of making money.”
Meanwhile the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been toothless since its creation in 1971. OSHA is unable to shut down or compel change at workplaces with repeated willful fatal safety violations by management. OSHA regulators issued the sawmill more than 180 citations since 2003, but it was like throwing paper in the wind. Only when the town caught the company illegally stealing water from a hydrant did anything change.
The government has never been a friend or protector of working people.