the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jul 22, 2002
No reason for us to pay for it
Almost seven trillion dollars have gone down the drain since the price of stocks began to go down back in March 2000–so say Wall Street analysts. Trillion–not million, not billion, but trillion! Seven trillion!
Those seven trillion weren’t real.
If seven trillion could be lost like that, it’s because prices on these markets were driven up, year after year, simply by speculation. The financiers pushed a big buying binge, trying to convince everyone that there was gold to be made out of nothing–all that was necessary was to buy and sell, and then buy and sell again. For some years, no one seemed to notice that there was nothing real behind all this financial activity. It was no more substantial than a giant soap bubble.
Without new money pumping in, financial bubbles burst. And the money began to run out in March 2000, over two years ago. That’s why, for example, there was such a push two years ago to privatize Social Security. Wall Street, having devoured most other large sources of money, was looking around for a new calf to slaughter. Even today, there are still scoundrels who dare say that Social Security’s trust fund–which has never run out, never gone bankrupt, never collapsed, never crashed–needs to be “saved” by being handed over to Wall Street! No, Wall Street was trying to save itself, at the expense of the retirement money of every person in this country–just like Enron and WorldCom sought to save their executives’ hides by playing fast and loose with their employees’ retirement money.
In any case, Wall Street’s bubble seems to have burst. And not just because of Enron and WorldCom. Not even because recent revelations–about Bush’s dealings with Harken, and Cheney’s dealings with Halliburton–show that the very top of the political establishment is as corrupt as they come. The bubble burst because it was stretched too big, filled with too much air.
The question now is what happens to the working class.
What is the main goal of every capitalist company? It’s certainly not to provide goods and services for the population. Nor is it to create jobs. Their primary aim, their reason for sticking around is to enrich their stockholders–particularly the big stockholders–the ones who own millions of shares. This is who really counts in the capitalist scheme of things.
So–a financial bubble seems to be bursting. What does that change in the real world? If the working class were in control of the economy, it would mean nothing, absolutely nothing. The people who needed to eat yesterday still need to eat today. The ones who needed a car or a house or clothes or books for their children or even maybe a new refrigerator still need those things. And the people who produce them still need to work. That’s enough to make an economy run.
If it’s messed up today, it’s because the capitalists try to use it for the purpose of turning a profit, no matter what they have to do to get that profit.
All those thieves and scoundrels who played so fast and loose with the whole economy, diverting money away from production into the rarefied air of speculation–they would never think of paying for the problems they created. They will be looking for ways to make us pay.
NO! It’s their mess, let them pay for it! If money is needed, let them cough it up. Take six or eight of their fancy homes away from them. Put them to work. And if they won’t work like everyone else, chuck them aside.
Jul 22, 2002
When George W. Bush sold Harken Energy stock just before its price collapsed, it raised the question of insider trading, not to mention dirty dealing to inflate the stock price. Big questions remain about that deal, but it is well known that Bush went on to bigger things with the money from that sale.
He invested $606,000 as part of a syndicate buying the Texas Rangers baseball team in 1989. When the syndicate sold the team to Tom Hicks of Utimco nine years later, each member was supposed to get three times their share. For Bush that would have meant almost two million dollars–a nice rate of return.
However, the other investors decided that Bush–then governor of Texas–would get about 15 million dollars. What’s a little twelve million dollar gift between friends, especially when the friend was then governor of the state?
And who is Tom Hicks of Utimco that he could afford to pay a price so high that everyone in baseball questioned it? Hicks worked for the University of Texas with its large endowment fund. Under Governor Bush, the University of Texas funds were, as George put it, “privatized.” Nine billion dollars went into an investment fund managed by Tom Hicks.
Nine billion is a lot of money, and what made things even better was that it was no longer under scrutiny by the university auditors–thanks to rules also changed by none other than Governor Bush. Some of the investments Hicks made went into private funds which benefitted ... major Republican Party donors. What a surprise! But the really big investment was the Hicks’ purchase of the Texas Rangers which benefitted ... Governor Bush and his partners.
Bush likes to call himself “the education president.” Apparently what he means is taking education endowment funds and turning them over to his pals for profit.
That’s how they do good business under Bush. Today, he talks of making business executives more accountable–now we see what he means.
Jul 22, 2002
Vice President Dick Cheney has emerged from his hidden retreat to be at the center of the year’s two biggest news stories: the “war against terrorism” and the corporate accounting scandal.
Halliburton, the company Cheney headed from 1995 to 2000, has been sued for falsifying its records and so cheating its investors. Like many other companies, Halliburton, under Cheney, was wheeling and dealing. It got big government contracts with lots of room for fudging the books. One of Halliburton’s subsidiaries provided logistical support for the military in the Balkans, where it has chalked up over a billion dollars in sales. The General Accounting Office found that it flew in plywood at $85.98 a sheet that it could have bought for $14.06 a sheet.
But now, with Cheney sitting in the vice-president’s chair, it has much bigger possibilities. It’s enrolled in the “war against terrorism.” The company has a 10-year contract with no set costs to provide all kinds of support at the Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan, from running the dining room to handling fuel and producing power. The Army admits that the costs will run from 10 to 20% higher on this base than if the Army did the work itself.
It also had the contract to build 600 detention cells in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba for 300 million dollars. The workers, brought in from the Philippines and India, are estimated to cost 23 million dollars. So there is plenty of room for profit.
If the people suing Cheney aren’t careful, he might get George to declare war on them–and then get Halliburton a contract to build the bases to carry it out.
Jul 22, 2002
Harvey Pitt, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission recently pledged to aggressively enforce the regulations and laws against corruption in corporate financing and accounting. Pitt is a lawyer who previously represented some of the same corrupt corporations, accounting firms, stock brokerages and exchanges.
But don’t worry. Pitt says that after August 3, one year from the date he became SEC chairman, he will no longer have to step aside from investigations involving his former legal clients. He promises to be merciless in his prosecution of wrongdoing.
It’s like the fox promising to guard the chicken coop–at a time when dead chickens are already lying all over the place.
Jul 22, 2002
In the middle of July, with Bush’s dirty business deals once again attracting attention, he proposed a new measure designed, he said, to root out “terrorists.” He wants postal and other delivery workers, as well as gas, electric and phone service workers, and any one else who regularly goes into your home “to be on the alert, and report anything suspicious to the FBI or local police.”
But what makes you or your home “suspicious”?
A retired phone worker in California recently found out when the FBI visited him. They told him he had been overheard saying:“Bush has nothing to be proud of. He is a servant of the big oil companies and his only interest in the Middle East is oil.”
Apparently, criticizing Bush puts you way high up on the “suspicious character” list!
Jul 22, 2002
Some Congressional leaders want to question the Bush administration on its war plans for Iraq. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee said it plans hearings right away. The House International Relations Committee wants to question the administration after the summer break.
But a White House spokesman said no one from the administration is likely to appear before Congress.
Maybe someone told Bush about the French king, Louis XIV, who said “The state–that’s me!” Apparently, Bush liked the sound of it so much, he adopted it for his own motto. Someone forgot to tell him that the reign of Louis XIV ended almost three centuries ago.
Jul 22, 2002
On July 3, Andrew Weybright, a 23-year-old firefighter, died while going through training exercises with the fire department in Frederick County, about 50 miles from Baltimore.
Two days later the Maryland state medical examiner ruled heat exhaustion the cause of his death. It was hot that day–in the high 90s and with a Red Alert, to warn people of the smog and humidity.
Weybright’s case drew attention because he was young and had just passed a Fire Department physical–apparently he was in good physical condition.
But what about the others bothered by the heat? Baltimore City health officials admitted two weeks later that at least 25 people have died this summer from the hot weather, compounded by the high level of air pollution. Most of the people were older people, some with health problems but not all, who live in poor or working class neighborhoods. And in every case mentioned, these people do NOT have air conditioning.
We can be sure that these were not wealthy people who died of the heat. No, it is always poorer people who cannot afford air conditioning on their low wages or pensions or Social Security.
The heat is not a new problem in Baltimore, nor in many many other cities. In 1993, for example, 118 people died in a heat wave in Philadelphia. In 1995, more than 400 died in a heat wave in Chicago. Every summer, there’s a very good likelihood that cities like Baltimore will get not only hot–but very hot. This could be prepared for.
Like heat in winter, air conditioning in summer should be available for all. It’s a necessity in this society, but it’s kept from those who need it only by capitalist greed.
Jul 22, 2002
Two recent brutal events show that nothing is settled in Afghanistan.
The first of these events was the July 1st massacre, when an American plane bombed four villages of the province of Uruzgan in the center of the country, killing 48 people and wounding 117. The U.S. generals first spoke about the presence of anti-aircraft batteries in these villages, then of Al Qaeda forces, but eventually had to backtrack, and finally spoke of “deficiencies” in the their intelligence. They announced that an “investigation” was going to be diligently carried out. But this didn’t resuscitate the dead, who joined thousands of other victims of the state terrorism that Bush has directed against the Afghan population.
In any case, this massacre showed one thing: the war against Afghanistan is still going on and it continues to kill–even if the U.S. media barely reports on it any more.
The second event occurred on July 6th in the midst of the capital Kabul, when Hadji Qadir, one the of the five vice presidents of the provisional government, was assassinated. He was the second dignitary of the regime established by the United States to be assassinated. The Air Minister, Abdul Rahman, was killed in the Bagram airport last February.
Just like the assassination of Abdul Rahman, no group took responsibility for killing Hadji Qadir. But there is no doubt what these two assassinations signify: There are rival opposing factions struggling for power, even if they pretend to co-exist peacefully inside a regime imposed and maintained by the crushing military superiority of the U.S.
Abdul Rahman was an old member of the fundamentalist party Jamiat-e-Islami who rallied to the clan of the ex-king Zahir Shah. After his assassination, the head of the secret service and other high dignitaries of Jamiat (which dominates the current regime) were accused of being involved in the affair. But an inquiry into the matter went no further, doubtlessly to preserve the fragile equilibrium between rival factions which share power.
Hadji Qadir undoubtedly had overshadowed most of these people.
He was the right arm of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the Hezb-e-Islami party, whose rivalry with Jamiat led to the civil war which bloodied the country from 1992 to 1996. Hezb-e-Islami was eventually dropped by its old American protectors, but it nevertheless had remained a force, in particular among the Pashtun ethnic group, the most important of the Afghan minorities.
Hadji Qadir was also the sole Pashtun representative controlling a district (the province of Nagarhar around Jelalabad); and he had many troops in a government where the Pashtun are represented only by men like President Hamid Karzai, who owe their place much more to the links they developed in exile with the American leaders than to their real influence in the population.
It doesn’t much matter who assassinated Hadji Qadir–any number of factions could have done it. Men in the Jamiat hierarchy certainly didn’t want their enemy of yesterday to be in the corridors of power, especially since he was able to maintain a certain independence despite the near monopoly of Jamiat over military affairs. At the same time, many Pashtun war lords looked askance at the hardly disguised pretension of Hadji Qadir to speak in the name of all Pashtuns. Some commentators even suggested that Hamid Karzai tried to get Hadji Qadir to join his government in June as a way to isolate him from his territory in order to better eliminate him.
What was interesting is that reports of the assassination also revealed Hadji Qadir had been one of the biggest drug traffickers in the country–supplementary proof, if it was necessary, that Bush could care less about the kind of allies he chose to lead the country to what he called “democracy.”
“Democracy”! The fact is the Afghan population continues to live in terror, facing both American bombs and rivalries between fundamentalist war lords.
Jul 22, 2002
On July 2, a German Boeing and a Russian Tupolev collided in flight over the German-Swiss border, leaving 71 dead. The number would have been much higher if the Boeing hadn’t been a cargo plane without passengers.
In the days immediately after the crash, the controllers mentioned pilot error; insufficient knowledge of English (the international language of flight) by the Russian team; too slow a reaction to the orders from the control tower; or an electronic equipment failure in the anti-collision system.
The rescuers, however, found the black box, which gives flight data; and the final conversations between the cockpit and the ground have undercut these “explanations.” So the officials have now turned to blaming the Swiss air traffic controllers. One of them is so shocked he can’t testify, but no matter, this clears their employer, Skyguide, a private air control company. Nonetheless, everything indicates that this company and its mode of functioning played an enormous role in this tragedy.
The night of the crash, the software of the Swiss air control system was being serviced, but there was no back-up system to take its place. In countries where air control is privatized, there is only one air navigation system. In countries where it is not privatized, there are usually two systems for support. But that would cost money, and Skyguide runs first for profit. So the controller was not able to warn the two planes until 50 seconds before the crash because he was working manually and by telephone. And the telephone of the air traffic control tower in Zurich was also being serviced, so it wasn’t working. So the air traffic controllers on the German side, who were following these aircraft, were not able to warn anyone of the imminent catastrophe.
According to the current official story, there was only a single controller at his post when the collision happened because the other was taking a coffee break. This is the kind of half-truth, which, in reality, is a lie. According to the other air traffic controllers, the Swiss controllers are supposed to take such breaks. The rules make them take regular breaks during their shift, in order to lessen the tensions of being responsible for dozens of airplanes and the lives of their passengers. If there were not enough people on duty during that shift, it is first and foremost the responsibility of Skyguide, which has a reputation in the world of air traffic controllers for shaving what it spends on personnel and equipment.
Just one week before this crash, the Swiss Federal Bureau of Inquiry, reporting on a much earlier accident in 1998, had criticized the quality of the radar system used by Skyguide. Of course, the bureau had not forced Skyguide to increase its security because this would have affected the shareholders’ dividends.
Jul 22, 2002
The last G8 summit of the eight most powerful countries in the world, which was held near Calgary, in Canada, was supposedly devoted to Africa. Four African heads of state (South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal) were invited for the first time to plead their case in support of the "New Partnership for the development of Africa.” This project, according to those who conceived it, would cost 64 billion dollars for investment each year.
In fact, the problems facing Africa were hardly at the center of the discussions. These were overshadowed by the focus on the so-called “fight against terrorism” and the conflict in the Middle East. This could be seen in the amount of money pledged at the conference: 20 billion dollars to this so-called “war on terrorism;” one billion to development of Africa–in the form of debt reduction. This reduction is a joke compared to the total debt of the continent of Africa!
As for everything else at the summit, it was just talk and declarations as usual. The socalled decision to devote half of the public development aid to Africa carried no guarantees. The European countries declared they were going to increase their aid to all countries, among them Africa, from this year through 2006. Today, the total amount of aid given by the European countries represents only 1/3 of one% of their gross national product; and that of the United States represents only 1/10 of one% of the gross national product. And this aid has been decreasing each year. Even if all the countries kept to their promises, this won’t make up for the decrease over recent years.
Even more to the point, public aid for development is ridiculously low compared to the immediate and urgent needs for just health and education in Africa and the rest of the Third World. And the money that is given as aid to a country rarely benefits the poorest people in the most need. Finally, the most aid goes to the countries judged to be the most “interesting,” that is, those in Africa which are labeled “useful” by the international experts for the economic and political interest of imperialism. Concretely, this usually means those African countries that produce oil and other natural mineral resources, to the benefit of the high profits of the multinational corporations.
The bourgeoisie in these African countries take public funds for their own benefit, when it is not used for the benefit of the multinationals. Imperialism uses this money as a means to corrupt local officials, heads of state, ministers and others who can serve its interests. Thus the requirement by the G8 for these countries to have "good government" in order to receive aid is nothing but total hypocrisy! As the African dictator Omar Bongo, the "friend of France,” put it bluntly: "For there to be someone corrupt, there must be a corrupter!"
Africa has been abandoned by the big powers of the world for everything except what is considered necessary for the making of profits. The multinationals are interested only in those things that can increase their riches. It doesn’t matter if half of the population of the continent lives on less than one dollar a day, without access to drinkable water, electricity, health care or education.
The hard reality is that there is only the pillage of Western and Equatorial Africa by the western European and American oil companies, and the rape of the natural minerals in the socalled Democratic Republic of the Congo, which today is left dismantled and carved up. The speculation over agricultural products on the stock markets in New York, London and Paris has ruined the small growers of coffee and cocoa in the Ivory Coast. Not to mention that the government subsidies given in the U.S. to cotton producers have reduced to ruin the small African producers who are without the same means.
The International Monetary Fund recently took action in the name of free trade and commerce: it dismantled an organization which negotiated for the little African producers on the world market. Under these conditions, only ruin is assured. Many millions of West Africans will directly see their standard of living once again under attack because of the speculation in the rich countries.
There is no need to look far and wide to find the reasons for underdevelopment and for the poverty. Africa is sinking further because of capitalism’s hold on it. And those sitting at the table of the G8 summit represent capitalism’s interests.
Jul 22, 2002
U.S. and British warplanes, continuing their bombings of Iraq, apparently killed five civilians and wounded 17 last week in the southern part of the country.
The U.S. military denied they had hit civilians, claiming they were shot at. This is, of course, the same U.S. military that just last month had to admit they killed 40 Afghan civilians at a wedding. In that case, they also claimed they were shot at.
Lately, the U.S. government has been publicly announcing its plans for another war against Iraq, including details to the media about its military intentions. Bush makes it seem he’s only just considering a war. In fact, as this latest bombing shows, a war has been going on against the people of Iraq ever since January 15 of 1991.
At least a million and a half, if not many more, have already died in that war–directly by bombs or indirectly by the U.S. embargo aimed at starving out Iraq.
Jul 22, 2002
Drug maker Johnson & Johnson is facing a criminal investigation at its Puerto Rican factory, which makes Eprex. Eprex is a drug taken to increase the red blood cells in people on kidney dialysis or in people with anemia due to chemotherapy.
The Eprex from the Puerto Rican factory is sold in Europe, where concern is growing because 141 Eprex users have developed aplasia. These patients were taking Eprex to increase their red blood cells. Instead, it seems to have destroyed their red blood cells, leaving some with the possibility of needing blood transfusions for the rest of their lives. In other words, a drug designed to improve their situation seems to have made it worse.
However, the investigation in Puerto Rico does not stem from these incidents of aplasia, for which health authorities have no explanation as yet. It comes from a lawsuit filed by a worker dismissed from the Puerto Rican plant after working there 10 years. In his lawsuit, the worker has documented more than 100 incidents of the company ordering workers to falsify records. Hector Arce, the fired worker, was one of the people ordered to falsify records.
Eprex is a big seller for Johnson & Johnson and Amgen, its original developer, bringing in more than five billion dollars a year for the two companies. It is one of the best-selling drugs in the world. These cases of aplasia have only appeared in the last few years and only in the version of the drug sold in Europe.
But the problems began to appear after Johnson & Johnson made some changes in manufacturing. Nobody knows at this point whether those changes are causing a reaction in patients that is the opposite of what it ought to be. But it has led to one death.
So what has the manufacturer done to solve these problems? Well, they certainly claimed there was “no connection” between the illnesses of Eprex users and the firing of a worker who was about to talk to the FDA about possible manufacturing violations. But companies always claim they are innocent until proven otherwise.
In how many other cases have drug users been the victims of drugs not tested sufficiently or manufactured under less than sanitary conditions? The example of HRT, estrogen pills, has just made the news. But it was hardly the first drug to harm those it was supposed to help.
Johnson & Johnson worries when its stock price goes down, due to news like the problems with Eprex. But it doesn’t worry enough to shut down the plant and find out what is wrong–because that would cost them money.
Jul 22, 2002
For more than 30 years, American doctors have urged women reaching menopause to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Supposedly, HRT resulted in stronger bones, fewer strokes and fewer heart attacks. Now, however, a study done by the country’s main research institute, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been called off three years early. Not only did HRT not meet its claims, it actually produced significantly more strokes, heart attacks and blood clots; and more cases of invasive breast cancer than found in women who didn’t take HRT.
In 1966, Dr. Robert Wilson wrote a book and began enthusiastically recommending estrogen pills to women all over the country. He presented menopause as a “disaster” which could be overcome by estrogen-replacement pills, which would keep women young and healthy and attractive. But who paid for Dr. Wilson’s book and his foundation and lectures to women all over the country? None other than Wyeth, the main drug company manufacturing these HRT pills.
Studies from the early 1970s already showed that estrogen (the main component of HRT pills) increased women’s risks of uterine and breast cancer. So the drug companies created pills that combined estrogen with progestin. Then they encouraged new studies–by hospitals and universities which gave the drug companies the evidence they wanted. The evidence was seemingly so favorable, Wyeth later asked the FDA to approve calling its estrogen pills a preventative measure against heart disease.
But these studies done of women taking estrogen or estrogen with progestin were not exactly scientific. Most were small studies, comparing women taking the HRT pills to those who didn’t. But those women taking the pills came from the wealthier layers of the population or had good medical insurance. They tended to be healthier than the general female population to start with. When these healthier women turned out to have stronger bones, lower cholesterol and fewer heart attacks or strokes, these conditions were attributed to the hormone replacement pills. But there had been no random studies done of all women, which would be the only way to prove whether the pills actually gave the benefits claimed for HRT pills.
The long-term study of HRT begun by the NIH in 1993 raised doubts by 2000. The main part of this study was called off on July 9th. The women in it were told to stop taking the pills. It is very unusual for a national health study to be called off. Some doctors began to call their patients to tell them to stop HRT as well.
After the NIH announcement, Wyeth’s stock fell 24%. So what? Will Wyeth be indicted for making a product which not only didn’t do what it promised, but did the opposite? Will it ever be called to account?
Of course not. Wyeth, and all other drug manufacturers whose studies prove exactly what they want them to prove, will simply find new drugs to push at us profitably.
And the medical establishment–which has long urged half the population practically across the board to take HRT pills based on very small studies–will it ever be called to account? Or what about the government agencies meant to oversee the drug companies. Or the researchers who did the studies Wyeth wanted, researchers who supposedly do only objective scientific research.
The truth is that all these people bear responsibility for thousands of cancers, strokes, heart attacks and deaths. Don’t expect them to answer for it in a society where profit calls the tune.
Jul 22, 2002
On July 19 the government announced the recall of 19 million pounds of ground beef produced by the ConAgra Company’s Greeley, Colorado plant because of E. coli contamination. This was after 19 people were reported to have fallen seriously ill in six states ranging from Michigan to California. Undoubtedly, many dozens, if not hundreds or thousands more, were affected by the meat.
E. coli is a bacteria in the intestines of cows. If it escapes during meat processing the bacteria can result in diarrhea and lead to kidney failure. It can kill the very young and very old–and make other people quite sick.
The company and the United States Department of Agriculture were very slow to react to this contamination danger. In May the company was warned that the Greeley plant had shipped out contaminated meat. Finally at the end of June, it recalled a very small amount of the contaminated meat. But it still continued to produce and distribute contaminated meat for 11 more days. It wasn’t until July 19 that ConAgra recalled 19million pounds, long after the meat had been processed, sold, eaten and made how many other people ill.
How can this happen in a country which has known about the serious dangers of contaminated meat for almost a century, as well as how to inspect meat so as to prevent contamination?
Quite simply, there was no inspection.
Inspection has always been lax, but over the past 15 years it’s gotten worse. During the 1990s, the Department of Agriculture got rid of 1,400 meat inspectors, and eventually stopped inspection of individual carcases, giving in to the pressure of meat packing companies that wanted to operate plants so fast that it was impossible to inspect individual carcases. Today the government carries out only 7,000 random inspections of hamburger a year in the whole country.
The current law lets each company decide what safety program should exist in its plants–and when to recall meat, and how much. Just as ConAgra did, companies delay the recall as long as possible, and try to hide the problem, so people don’t even know why they got sick.
Who could imagine a worse arrangement than the companies needing inspection doing it themselves?
Jul 22, 2002
Through the year 2000 Ford Motor Company had record-breaking profits. But in 2001, they had a loss. With this excuse they are demanding that costs must be cut. They claim the cost cutting will come from overhead, that is, management, etc. In fact, as every Ford worker knows, Ford always is looking for ways to cut out jobs and speed up work.
Ford’s Chief Financial Officer Allan Gilmour told a Detroit newspaper last week, “We’re not here to change targets, we’re here to change our execution–or to have some, if that doesn’t work.” When bosses talk about execution, it is not themselves they plan to shoot. If any executives lose their jobs, they will get “golden” handshakes, full of money or stock, when they leave. Bosses’ planned cuts always mean getting rid of jobs, whether in the office or on the production line.
Last year, Ford’s excuse for cutting was that it had lost money. But the company announced a profit this year, so it now says it must cut costs because it wants to make more money, more record-breaking profits. It wants to earn seven billion dollars before taxes in 2005!
Just about two years ago, Chrysler was singing the same song, pretending to lose hundreds of millions each quarter. This year, it’s making profits. That doesn’t mean Chrysler won’t be back asking workers to help them cut millions of dollars in expenses.
We cannot trust the bosses’ excuses or their accounting records. We cannot trust anything they say to us or to the media. What we can be sure of is what they tell each other: profits and more profits–no matter who they have to execute!
What we can trust is our own sense of what’s possible and what’s not. No worker should ever have to work at a pace that wears him or her out.
Jul 22, 2002
How would you like to work and not get paid for all the hours? Then don’t go to work for Wal-Mart.
According to lawsuits filed in a number of states, Wal-Mart “cheats” workers out of at least hundreds of millions of dollars in pay every year. A recent court case in Texas found at least one hour of unpaid work a week by workers being forced to work through their 15 minute breaks. Over four years time, the company underpaid 150 million dollars–just in Texas. In order to settle a suit in Colorado, Wal-Mart paid 50 million dollars to 69,000 workers it worked off the clock
Wal-Mart was shown to have locked the door after workers punched out, forcing them to work one or two unpaid hours straightening up the store. Workers testified this went on in California, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Washington.
The company also deleted workers’ timecard records to remove hours over 40 a week. Four payroll workers said that managers had them delete hours worked to avoid paying overtime. Dorothy English, an assistant in a Wal-Mart payroll department testified in a Louisiana court that when workers worked through breaks and had over 40 hours in a week her manager ordered her to edit the timecard in the computer. If workers complained right away they got their hours, “But if people waited too long, you didn’t get it. If you snooze, you lose.”
Wal-Mart says it has a strong policy against off the clock work, which is stated in the handbook given to every worker. But what it says and what it does are two different things.
Of course, the biggest cheating Wal-Mart does is what it pays workers when it does pay them. Most Wal-Mart employees earn less than $8.50 an hour. Many earn the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. That’s how Sam Walton turned himself into a billionaire and turned Wal-Mart into the largest retail chain in the country.
And this is the capitalist who talks about “an honest day’s work”!