Thread by @Kokilaparvathi

Today, another work died, struck by a fallen excavator attachment.

Worker lives matter. Poor lives matter. Immigrant lives matter. If we believe this, how will we protect them?

The state and its capitalists have blatantly, unapologetically decided that their lives don't, in fact, matter. Their deaths at worksites and on our roads are not a function of oversight, blind spots, improper training, carelessness or insufficient resources.

Our economy, policies and laws are designed to kill workers. Let us be clear that our government *willfully* included an exception in the Road Traffic Act that makes it an accomplice to every injury and death that a worker suffers because he was forced to ride in a goods vehicle.

This law kills workers. Parliament weighed the lives of poor, immigrant bodies against company profits and decided that company profits matter more.

This state, and these corporations, will not protect workers' lives. They will *never* choose to protect workers' lives. Definitely not if we ask nicely. We have been asking nicely for over 20 years, to no effect.

There is no cost to this government or these companies for maintaining the status quo, because we have not awakened to our power to make oppression and injustice costly to them.

We (as individuals or as small groups) keep turning to them, rather than to each other, to find a way out of this. But they have NO reason to enact the changes we seek. It is not in their interests. It is in our interest as people, so it is us who must find a way.

Migrant workers are disenfranchised from unions, and cannot easily organise to make demands. If they refuse to board the lorries, or refuse to work in unsafe conditions, they will be fired and repatriated, or imprisoned, then repatriated.

There is an infinite supply of other poor, immigrant, desperate bodies that can take their place, so they have no leverage, these companies have nothing to lose.

Singaporean workers too, are disenfranchised from independent unions, but the risks to them of standing up and speaking up are far less.

Can Singaporean workers in these companies that use good vehicles to transport migrant workers and/or have unsafe work conditions stand in solidarity with these more vulnerable workers?

Can they refuse to work until these practices change? That would be a tremendously powerful act of solidarity.

Many think these acts of courage and collective power unimaginable in Singapore, but we must imagine the unimaginable to end unimaginable injustices that have become routine, mundane.

Because truly, it is this violence and murder against poor, immigrant bodies that should be unimaginable, not standing in solidarity with them.

What will it cost us? Jobs, perhaps? Maybe a fine, some time in prison, depending on what actions we take? Can we gently and lovingly learn and practice how to bear these costs? Can we come up with strategies to mitigate these costs?

Can we come together in large enough numbers - perhaps 70-80% of the workers in a company - that it will become harder for them to punish us for speaking up?

Can we practice this coming together, rather than accepting the ways in which our employers and the government alienate us from each other, insisting that we relate only to them, as subordinates who comply?

Can we build communities of abundance and mutual aid who will make these costs less heavy to bear?

If we believe these lives matter, it is us who must find a way. And we will, if we stay with the questions for long enough, if they keep us up at night, if we despair and that despair leads to new ways of seeing,

if we start imagining unfiltered, uncensored possibilities with those around us. We must imagine wild, brave, impractical, absurd ways to transform these conditions,

because there is no other way out of this extremely sophisticated, entrenched system of power and abuse that we have accepted for far too long.

It will take more than the voice of some outspoken people, more than advocacy by individual activists or organisations.

I believe it will take collective action by the people - that is what our governnment and capitalists fear the most, and therefore go to all lengths to exterminate.

If we find that our current strategies are not working - have not worked for decades - we must be honest enough to look for other ways. We cannot take comfort in that we are "doing small things that will add up",

because people are dying every day and history has taught us that small things may not add up unless we have a concerted, deliberate strategy around making them add up, gather power and become a resounding force that oppressors cannot look away from.

Can we bear another 20 years without change? I hope not. I hope it becomes unbearable for more of us.