Workers' living conditions are rapidly deteriorating around the world. Wages are
stagnant, while the cost of necessities such as food, electricity, and housingcontinues to rise. Despite this, the average worker is far more productive thanever before, often at the expense of their health and well-being. ---- And as ourcircumstances deteriorate, the rich get richer. The likes of this currenttransfer of wealth from workers to the rich has not been seen since the 1930s.Every day, companies announce record profits. Then, in the next breath, they tellus that they couldn't afford to raise wages or improve working conditions. ----These two elements are inextricably linked. Profits are made from both our labourand our poverty. Ever-increasing profits for the bosses means worseningdestitution for us. The current inflationary and economic downturn has nothing todo with a "wage-price spiral," as ruling-class media outlets would have usbelieve. Capitalism, with its constant need for profit and inability to avoidcrisis, is the true culprit, as it always is.A blatant admission of class warfare recently made headlines, with reports of aleaked Bank Of America memo expressing hope that worker power deteriorates thatread, "By the end of next year, we hope the ratio of job openings to unemployedis down to the more normal highs of the last business cycle." In other words, theBank of America wants the working class to compete for fewer jobs and lower wages.The propaganda machine of the wealthy faithfully defended the contents of thememo, stating that workers must temporarily suffer to prevent an even more severeeconomic slump.To "correct" the increasing wages that are driving up inflationary expenses, moreof us must go hungry in the dole line. What is a slight decrease in bargainingpower when measured against a twice-in-a-generation economic downturn?Many at the top are concerned about workers' current bargaining power, despite ageneral lack of worker organisation. While they understand that a recession meansless revenue for them, they are more concerned about losing control over theiremployees and are banking on a recession to bring them back in line.According to the CEO of Douglas Emmett Inc, a commercial real estate corporation,a recession could be "good" for their industry "if it comes with a level ofunemployment that puts employers back in the driver seat and allows them to getall their employees back into the office."In an anonymous survey, a Texas CEO echoed this view expressed throughout thecorporate world, saying, "Inflationary wage pressure is making it hard to hirefor the long term. I suspect the workforce pulls its head out of its rear when acorrection or recession makes jobs scarce and people start to feel the pain orfear of not providing for their family and loved ones - assuming the governmentdoesn't jump back into the fight and pay them to do nothing again. A great lessonyou taught the workforce, politicians!"Capitalism is defined at its core by the conflict of interests between workersand owners. What is beneficial to us is detrimental to them. In the short term,our interests are shorter hours, higher pay, and better working conditions,whereas their interests are longer hours, lower pay, and little to noregulations. Their interest is in preserving capitalism while ours is inconstructing socialism.We take a pay cut, while they get a raise. They benefit from our sacrifice. Wedie for the economy but never reap its benefits. They claim to take risks, but wepay the price.Our interests are incompatible, and the capitalist class is well aware of this.We're not all "in this together."We only need to look at the capitalists' and their media representatives'reaction to the recent wave of strikes and labour activity in the UK to see thatthe capitalists' greatest fear isn't war, famine, or climate collapse. Thecapitalist class's worst nightmare is a well-organized, powerful working classthat can fight for its interests.It's pointless to be offended by the leaked Bank of America memo or to appeal tothe ruling class' morals - they're acting in the interests of their class, and weneed to act in ours. You're in a class war, and these executives are well awarethat they have the means to cause poverty and misery at their disposal, andthey're willing to use them.In order to achieve their goals, the ruling class has been shown time and timeagain throughout history to resort to violence and even murder. They want thingsto get worse for us; let's do the opposite this time and make it worse for thepeople who caused this catastrophe.https://www.acmeanjin.org/articles/the-rich-need-you-to-suffer_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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