I think "Communist" is essentially a code word for "Labor Union"

[Magda Hassan]

Seriously though. The whole relationship of workers to owners is quite clear. It is the owner of capital/business who desires to maximise profits (for them selves). Profit is the surplus value. This is the difference between what the worker is paid and what the item made/service provided by the worker is sold for. Only the worker can make this surplus value. No worker, no labor, no surplus. In a truly equitable and just society the worker would receive the full value of their labour. They would be paid for what they produced in full. If the worker is a co-operative (or family business) member this profit is distributed amongst the co-op (or family) members. But if, as is usual in a capitalist society, s/he works for a private company or organisation this surplus value is kept by the owners. It is 'magically' transmuted into the private property of the owner of the business and kept by them as decreed permissible by the (capitalist) laws of land. Just as owning slaves was okay in law in slave owning times. It is labor stolen from the workers. Hence Proudhon's quote "Property is theft". Business owners know this and workers know this. Even if only on an intuitive level not academically (if interested read Marx Das Kapital heavy going in parts but very worthwhile). Ways an owner can maximise profits are reduction of capital costs and/or increase in production. A worker can do both by being paid less than others doing the same work (less capital cost - labor being a cost of production so go to China/Mexico where it is cheaper-race to the bottom) and they can be required to work more for the same money (increased production) Make 100 widgets and hour instead of 75 widgets an hour but the hourly wage for the worker/producer remains the same. Effectively a pay cut for the worker but a 25% increase in profit for the owner. That is why business are forever wanting workers to make 'sacrifices'. Work harder, increase productivity, longer hours, less conditions, go with out wage rises etc. which all lead to increased profits. Trade unions want their members to get a bigger slice of the surplus value created by their members (and workers in general). Most unions for some reason are even okay about keeping capitalism but just want a bigger slice of the profit pie. Business hates organised labor of any kind because it threatens their profits. So anything they can do to divide workers from each other they do - confidentiallity clauses, restriction of union activities etc. See how much more difficult it is everywhere for workers now that the USSR and East European states have had a counter revolution? Divide and conquer. Break workers, communities and nations up into little individual atomised components and do what you want. Keep the strategy of tension happening. Don't let things settle long enough for people to connect and talk and compare and most importantly organise and build an alternative. Keep the homeless moving on. Keep the workers heads down. Keep them exausted and frightened. Fascism is a business wet dream. Capitalism will always lead to fascism without a united working class to resist it.