Recently, Boeing employees, members of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM), voted overwhelmingly to not only turn down a terrible union-backed tentative agreement, but go out on strike. These workers are showing they are willing to fight for more and are tired of being forced to cut corners on production, putting the public in danger to maximize profits for Boeing’s executives. If cutting corners wasn’t bad enough, Boeing’s leadership has focused on continuing to supply weapons to Israel supporting its genocidal campaign on Palestine. Boeing needs to stop making weapons for genocide and start fixing their planes.
Even prior to — and perhaps in anticipation of — the strike, reports show Boeing had been using overtime to unsafely ramp up production, pushing partially built planes through the assembly line in order to have them completed by scabs at a later date if needed. One would think that with a history of the commercial passenger planes literally falling out of the sky — such as the Max 737 jets crashing in 2018 and 2019 — or doors falling off planes mid-flight, Boeing executives would want to avoid cutting corners on production. But executives continue to put profits over safety. Workers have rightfully brought their concerns to the public, but they have been criminalized and targeted by Boeing’s leadership. Additionally, a number of individuals who have come forward as whistleblowers with concerns conveniently died after doing so, leading to fewer details being shared with the public.
Boeing, the only U.S. aircraft producer, focuses on cramming more and more people into planes and cutting corners even if it means a decrease in safety for those traveling. At the same time, companies like Boeing are given huge government subsidies by capitalist politicians claiming they will benefit the public, but instead we see executives pushing workers to maximize profits at the expense of public safety.
But maybe Boeing is working to fix these issues, right? Maybe they are trying to “trim the fat” and “streamline” production to both maximize profits and benefit the public? Wrong: While Boeing cuts corners, it also exports products for killing and destruction. Boeing is the world’s fourth largest arms manufacturer and is currently a key piece in assisting Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestine. In October 2023, Boeing even expedited a shipment of 1,800 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) and 1,000 Small Diameter Bombs to Israel to be used in its campaign against Palestine. Boeing is willing to rush arms to Israel for a genocide, but not willing to improve planes so they stop falling out of the sky and killing people.
These type of shipments have continued throughout the genocide. Boeing’s munitions were used by Israel in May to kill 45 people in the Rafah tent massacre and another 33 people, including 9 children, during the UN school massacre in June. Earlier this year, Boeing JDAMs were used to kill 43 people in a home, including 19 children. And it’s not just the recent genocide: Boeing has supplied aircraft and munitions to the Zionist military since Israel’s founding in 1948.
These dynamics are unsurprising under an economic system in which the maximization of profit is always the most important. During their fourth quarter earnings call this January, Chief Financial Officer Brian West stated that Boeing’s revenue was $22 billion, a 10 percent increase year-over-year, $6.7 billion of which came from defense contracts. Boeing invests in genocide because it makes them more money then actually fixing planes and focusing on public safety would.
And because this is so important, the company needs to find whatever ways possible to portray itself in a better light. So while it enables genocide instead of investing in workers and public safety, the company engages in pink-washing funding pride parades in cities like St. Louis, Missouri. Could Boeing’s next public relation’s ploy be adding pride flags to the next missiles they sell to Israel to kill Palestinian children?
But what if workers controlled Boeing? Certainly, workers would not cut corners on domestic aircraft as they watched planes fall out of the sky, all so the heads of a company, along with its wealthy shareholders, can buy themselves another yacht or property. If Boeing were nationalized under workers’ control, would the working class choose to dedicate funding and research into producing more machines of death to kill innocent kids around the globe? Of course not.
At the same time, the technology and the facilities owned by Boeing used for war could be converted into factories that work to improve the public transportation systems, encouraging the use of less polluting means of transportation as climate crisis intensifies around the globe.
We need to take over Boeing, and similar companies, and run them for ourselves. We must not let the capitalists make the poor and working class around the globe die while they continue to make profits at all of our expense.
