Production is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an “army of unemployed” almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable market, the production of consumers' goods is restricted, and great hardship is the consequence. Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I mentioned before.

Harry DeBoer wrote this pamphlet in 1987 to inspire a new generation of trade union activists with the militant traditions of US labour’s past. As a young man he worked in the Minneapolis coal yards and became caught up and radicalised in the Minneapolis ‘teamster rebellion’ of 1934. As he makes clear, this was a model strike, and it was led by Marxists. (See our review of ‘Teamster Rebellion’ by Farrell Dobbs, another Trotskyist and strike leader.)