Two Americas
01-13-2009, 02:26 AM
The present situation cries out for an international worker’s movement
by Richard Mellor
AFSCME Local 444 retired
Capitalism is experiencing its worst crisis in years and is being pulled from the swamp by a massive infusion of public funds. But the worst is not over and more layoffs and attacks on workers are ahead. Assisting in this rescue of a corrupt system are the worker's leaders but even their help may not hold back the growing tide of resistance that could develop as consciousness catches up with events.
The capitalist class is in turmoil. They had hoped that the crisis in the financial sector would remain in the financial sector and they could return to their plunder in a stable environment. In the first half of 2008 “There seemed to be a hoarding of Labor amid the expectation of a rebound in the economy”, writes Business Week. But the spreading of the crisis to the rest of the economy is gaining pace and workers have been thrown out on the street in increasing numbers. “Human cost rises as gloom deepens”, reports the Financial Times as another half a million US workers lost their jobs in December. Some economists, the report adds, fear that the job losses in December will be greater than the 533,000 lost in November, the biggest drop since 1974.
More layoffs are on the way. The US auto industry will have to close at least 12 of their 53 factories over the next few years according to industry experts, which will mean thousands of jobs lost. Business Week makes the point that the global auto bosses “…indulged in a global orgy of factory-building in recent years…” that has led to an excess of supply over demand of some 34 million vehicles.
An orgy implies an activity of excess and indulgence, so they had an excessive capital expenditure in a particular industry, much like the orgy in the finance sector which has been described in the pages of the big business press as a “sumptuous feast”. But for autoworkers here in the US, there has been no sumptuous feast. There has been an excess of a different kind, of job losses and brutal attacks on wages and working conditions; an orgy of insecurity, fear and betrayal. The cause of this retrenchment is overproduction/overcapacity as auto, like all industry in an economy where the dominant means of production are in private hands, produces more cars than can be sold. Workers are paid less in wages than the total value of the goods we produce and at some point this contradiction is felt with a vengeance as production comes to a halt.
In China, overcapacity/overproduction is rampant, but for the meantime industry retrenchment is less severe. This situation exists not because the bosses are more humane as Chinese workers are grossly exploited. It is because, as Business Week explains, it is “much easier to furlough workers and rehire them when things pick up”.
...
"We cannot build solidarity this way"
At the root of the crisis is private ownership of the means of production and the overproduction/overcapacity that flows from this. Both free trade and protectionism are two capitalist solutions to this inherent and insoluble contradiction of their system.
While it appears to be a solution it is not, and for workers to fall prey to this trend and get suckered in to it will mean disaster. It pits workers internationally against each other. It forces workers to unite with their bosses in order to drive other workers in to ruin. It might just as well be workers in Wisconsin undermining workers in Florida. The same competition occurs between states. I live in California. There is a “buy Californian” trend too. We cannot build solidarity this way.
Protectionism divides workers. It pits us against one another for the right to a job and a decent life dragging us all downwards. We cannot build international solidarity and strengthen our forces in the struggle against the capitalist offensive if we adopt the policies of our enemies and refuse to challenge the market and the system of social organization we call capitalism.
"Chinese workers are our class brothers and sisters"
The Chinese workers are our class brothers and sisters and are indispensable allies in this struggle. Due to the extreme censuring of the US media many US workers are unaware of the thousands of protests that take place in China on a regular basis; under a dictatorship. The strategists of capital watch this, they are afraid of it. “Chinese workers have learned that collective protest is effective” says Jerome Cohen and academic who is considered a China expert.
There is a global auto or transportation industry. Most major industries are global, employing workers of many nationalities. The power of the international working class is immense and solidarity and unity in action throughout the world is absolutely crucial if we are to protect all our jobs and all our futures and the future of our children. I will go even further, the future of humanity and the planet itself.
"The official leaders are an obstacle to our freedom."
The official leaders of the workers’ organizations will not use their power to build an international working class movement as they are wedded to the market and the capitalist economy; they are an obstacle to our freedom and will not move in our direction without massive pressure from below. Even when they are forced to do so, without a socialist alternative they will act to temper and soften any movement of the working class that threatens the rule of capital.
The alternative to competition, plunder and the anarchy of the market is the transfer of ownership of the productive forces from a small group of individuals to the workers ourselves. Oppositionists within the US auto industry and UAW should attempt to build links with non Union autoworkers in the US (as some of them are doing) as well as auto workers throughout the world. Committees of autoworkers should be formed within the auto plants and the plants should be occupied in order to keep them open. Such a development within the US and Canada would be an inspiration to workers throughout the world.
"A global conference of auto workers should be called."
A global conference of auto workers should be called that can plan and initiate such an offensive with the goal of taking under public ownership the auto industry and the production of transportation. This strategy should be raised as a means of transforming all the dominant industries in to industries for the production of society’s needs as opposed to the production of profit for a handful of individuals. In the course of such activity the building of a mass workers party is an important component.
There is no doubt this is a daunting task and there is no guarantee of success. The success of anything depends on the strength of our forces, the militancy of our action and the validity of our ideas.
"No ruling class yields its position in society voluntarily"
The capitalist class rules society. They control the manufacture of the necessities of life. They also control the manufacture of ideas, and one prominent idea they manufacture and distribute is that capitalism is the only way society can be structured; they are the rightful and only force that can govern.
But in the last analysis, ideas have a material base. Our consciousness is a product of our existence not the other way round. And we should consider something. In our family and our personal lives when we have occasion to be presented with a situation where we have three children in our care and only two items that they desire, pieces of candy say. What do we do? We cut the two pieces in to three equal parts or we don’t bring them out because we know it w
ill cause division and strife. To do the opposite is the method of the capitalist class, it’s how they rule by dividing an opponent with the power to crush them.
So we make the right decisions every day in our personal lives. We have an incredibly powerful instinct to be fair and to exhibit kindness to others; we are predominantly collective creatures as we have learned that this is the way to survive and prosper. But we are also capable of great cruelty. Human nature is not a static thing and is determined by objective conditions. Capitalism rewards individualism and selfish self-worship and punishes kindness and class solidarity.
Nothing is easy and nothing is guaranteed. But one important step in the right direction is recognizing that the so-called free market is not the end of civilization and that the capitalist class has forfeited its right to rule. Workers are the majority in society, it is workers that make, build and distribute the necessities of life. If we are to survive we have to overcome the belief in our own minds that we cannot collectively control that process and change the way the world works. The only thing constant is change. But no ruling class yields its position in society voluntarily. We have to step to the plate-----the future of the planet depends on it.
international worker’s movement (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/11/18561574.php)
by Richard Mellor
AFSCME Local 444 retired
Capitalism is experiencing its worst crisis in years and is being pulled from the swamp by a massive infusion of public funds. But the worst is not over and more layoffs and attacks on workers are ahead. Assisting in this rescue of a corrupt system are the worker's leaders but even their help may not hold back the growing tide of resistance that could develop as consciousness catches up with events.
The capitalist class is in turmoil. They had hoped that the crisis in the financial sector would remain in the financial sector and they could return to their plunder in a stable environment. In the first half of 2008 “There seemed to be a hoarding of Labor amid the expectation of a rebound in the economy”, writes Business Week. But the spreading of the crisis to the rest of the economy is gaining pace and workers have been thrown out on the street in increasing numbers. “Human cost rises as gloom deepens”, reports the Financial Times as another half a million US workers lost their jobs in December. Some economists, the report adds, fear that the job losses in December will be greater than the 533,000 lost in November, the biggest drop since 1974.
More layoffs are on the way. The US auto industry will have to close at least 12 of their 53 factories over the next few years according to industry experts, which will mean thousands of jobs lost. Business Week makes the point that the global auto bosses “…indulged in a global orgy of factory-building in recent years…” that has led to an excess of supply over demand of some 34 million vehicles.
An orgy implies an activity of excess and indulgence, so they had an excessive capital expenditure in a particular industry, much like the orgy in the finance sector which has been described in the pages of the big business press as a “sumptuous feast”. But for autoworkers here in the US, there has been no sumptuous feast. There has been an excess of a different kind, of job losses and brutal attacks on wages and working conditions; an orgy of insecurity, fear and betrayal. The cause of this retrenchment is overproduction/overcapacity as auto, like all industry in an economy where the dominant means of production are in private hands, produces more cars than can be sold. Workers are paid less in wages than the total value of the goods we produce and at some point this contradiction is felt with a vengeance as production comes to a halt.
In China, overcapacity/overproduction is rampant, but for the meantime industry retrenchment is less severe. This situation exists not because the bosses are more humane as Chinese workers are grossly exploited. It is because, as Business Week explains, it is “much easier to furlough workers and rehire them when things pick up”.
...
"We cannot build solidarity this way"
At the root of the crisis is private ownership of the means of production and the overproduction/overcapacity that flows from this. Both free trade and protectionism are two capitalist solutions to this inherent and insoluble contradiction of their system.
While it appears to be a solution it is not, and for workers to fall prey to this trend and get suckered in to it will mean disaster. It pits workers internationally against each other. It forces workers to unite with their bosses in order to drive other workers in to ruin. It might just as well be workers in Wisconsin undermining workers in Florida. The same competition occurs between states. I live in California. There is a “buy Californian” trend too. We cannot build solidarity this way.
Protectionism divides workers. It pits us against one another for the right to a job and a decent life dragging us all downwards. We cannot build international solidarity and strengthen our forces in the struggle against the capitalist offensive if we adopt the policies of our enemies and refuse to challenge the market and the system of social organization we call capitalism.
"Chinese workers are our class brothers and sisters"
The Chinese workers are our class brothers and sisters and are indispensable allies in this struggle. Due to the extreme censuring of the US media many US workers are unaware of the thousands of protests that take place in China on a regular basis; under a dictatorship. The strategists of capital watch this, they are afraid of it. “Chinese workers have learned that collective protest is effective” says Jerome Cohen and academic who is considered a China expert.
There is a global auto or transportation industry. Most major industries are global, employing workers of many nationalities. The power of the international working class is immense and solidarity and unity in action throughout the world is absolutely crucial if we are to protect all our jobs and all our futures and the future of our children. I will go even further, the future of humanity and the planet itself.
"The official leaders are an obstacle to our freedom."
The official leaders of the workers’ organizations will not use their power to build an international working class movement as they are wedded to the market and the capitalist economy; they are an obstacle to our freedom and will not move in our direction without massive pressure from below. Even when they are forced to do so, without a socialist alternative they will act to temper and soften any movement of the working class that threatens the rule of capital.
The alternative to competition, plunder and the anarchy of the market is the transfer of ownership of the productive forces from a small group of individuals to the workers ourselves. Oppositionists within the US auto industry and UAW should attempt to build links with non Union autoworkers in the US (as some of them are doing) as well as auto workers throughout the world. Committees of autoworkers should be formed within the auto plants and the plants should be occupied in order to keep them open. Such a development within the US and Canada would be an inspiration to workers throughout the world.
"A global conference of auto workers should be called."
A global conference of auto workers should be called that can plan and initiate such an offensive with the goal of taking under public ownership the auto industry and the production of transportation. This strategy should be raised as a means of transforming all the dominant industries in to industries for the production of society’s needs as opposed to the production of profit for a handful of individuals. In the course of such activity the building of a mass workers party is an important component.
There is no doubt this is a daunting task and there is no guarantee of success. The success of anything depends on the strength of our forces, the militancy of our action and the validity of our ideas.
"No ruling class yields its position in society voluntarily"
The capitalist class rules society. They control the manufacture of the necessities of life. They also control the manufacture of ideas, and one prominent idea they manufacture and distribute is that capitalism is the only way society can be structured; they are the rightful and only force that can govern.
But in the last analysis, ideas have a material base. Our consciousness is a product of our existence not the other way round. And we should consider something. In our family and our personal lives when we have occasion to be presented with a situation where we have three children in our care and only two items that they desire, pieces of candy say. What do we do? We cut the two pieces in to three equal parts or we don’t bring them out because we know it w
ill cause division and strife. To do the opposite is the method of the capitalist class, it’s how they rule by dividing an opponent with the power to crush them.
So we make the right decisions every day in our personal lives. We have an incredibly powerful instinct to be fair and to exhibit kindness to others; we are predominantly collective creatures as we have learned that this is the way to survive and prosper. But we are also capable of great cruelty. Human nature is not a static thing and is determined by objective conditions. Capitalism rewards individualism and selfish self-worship and punishes kindness and class solidarity.
Nothing is easy and nothing is guaranteed. But one important step in the right direction is recognizing that the so-called free market is not the end of civilization and that the capitalist class has forfeited its right to rule. Workers are the majority in society, it is workers that make, build and distribute the necessities of life. If we are to survive we have to overcome the belief in our own minds that we cannot collectively control that process and change the way the world works. The only thing constant is change. But no ruling class yields its position in society voluntarily. We have to step to the plate-----the future of the planet depends on it.
international worker’s movement (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/11/18561574.php)