Submitted by d4rk moderator in Filipino

As another missed payday for 800,000 federal workers approaches at the end of this week, the warring factions of the American ruling class are no closer to settling the 32-day partial government shutdown.

For workers who are being used as pawns in the political standoff, the toll continues to mount.

Among low-wage Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) workers, sickouts continued to escalate, as a growing number of airport screeners are unable, or unwilling, to make it into work. TSA officials announced that 10 percent of its luggage screeners nationwide called out of work Sunday, the first time since the shutdown began that the rate has reached double digits. In a statement, the agency admitted that “many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.”

Statistics are not available for sickouts at other agencies where approximately 500,000 federal employees are being forced to work without pay indefinitely. However, with over three quarters of the US workforce living paycheck to paycheck, the ranks of those unable to afford even transportation to work are undoubtedly swelling.

At the Internal Revenue Service, which initiated the recall of 46,000 employees last week to process tax returns, workers reported low turnout in offices around the country. Many came to work only to request to be placed back on furlough status due to financial hardship. Those forced to work suffer a double blow. They not only receive no paycheck, they are also ineligible for unemployment benefits and unable to seek other work.

In response to forced, unpaid labor, the federal trade unions have refused to even discuss the possibility of collective action, leaving workers to fend for themselves.

According to the US Department of Labor, nearly 25,000 federal workers filed unemployment claims during the first two weeks of the shutdown. The latest statistics released nationally, which cover only through to the week ending January 5, show a doubling of new claims in the New Year. The number is expected to grow significantly as the shutdown continues.

As another month passes by with a partial government shutdown, with all of this carnage, what should the US Federal Government do to end it? One, nothing. The Democrats are doing the lest to bring the government back, however, in its absence, it has the power to foment revolution. It can do this by having communes that counteract the government go ahead & do what they must. Anarchist Communes within the states could then help through a trade network with other Communes to Confederalize. In this way, we can try the Revolution many workers have already died for

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Ant wrote

Downvoted out of annoyance at how you sticky most of your new posts despite there being nothing special about them so far as I can tell

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chaos wrote

They're also linking to a Trotskyist rag that defends rape.

https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/1xc0sv/wswsorg_has_been_blacklisted/

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n_n wrote (edited )

Wow, I wasn't aware of that and also shared that site before. It should be blacklisted in Raddle as well.

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ziq wrote (edited )

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n_n wrote

I'm going to delete all the post in which I shared that site. It's disgusting.

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ziq wrote

Too bad we can't delete wsws from the internet for associating socialism with this creepy shit.

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