So, instead of the people creating a new forward-looking system, elements of the old ruling class impose a reactionary regime over them. Society's inner mechanism would be unchanged. Civil rights are already embodied in the basic law of the land, The Constitution. But those in authority have flouted it. We are demanding that the capitalists live up to their own laws and their own pious boasts.
Reforms are political .
Petitions for reforms are made of the political state. But demands for higher wages and improved working conditions are demands we workers make to our capitalist exploiters. These demands are backed up by the tacit or explicit threat of economic action. The experience of organizing to demand improvements in our working situation makes us stronger and more focused. It squares with what must become our ultimate goal, organizing to take the whole fruits of our labor, past, present and future .