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
Feb 9, 2009
The jobs report is going from disastrous to catastrophic. Almost four million jobs have been cut in the last year–according to official statistics, which hide more than they reveal.
The real figures are much more horrifying. Today, nearly 28 million people who want to work are either without a job or forced to work at severely reduced hours. That comes to one out of every six people in the work force, affecting a very large part of the population. Almost everyone in the working class has a relative or friend out of work. It truly is a catastrophe–a social catastrophe.
“The sweep of the losses, the extent of them and the speed are depressionlike, and by that I mean like the 1930s.” That is the opinion of the chief economist for Decision Economics, an economic forecasting firm.
Worried about its “bottom line,” every company cuts jobs and uses various schemes to cut wages. The capitalists–pushing to get more work out of fewer workers and to replace higher paid workers with lower paid ones–created this recession. Today, stepping up job cuts, they are turning their recession into a depression.
And government is making the situation worse. Almost every state in the country has instituted a hiring freeze–which is only another way to say they cut jobs. Eight states, including California and Maryland, imposed mandatory days off without pay. Others are threatening to do the same thing–as are a dozen or more big cities.
Who can buy a car or a house when they lose a job? Who will take a chance on buying–when their wages are cut today or when they know they can lose their job tomorrow? Car sales tumble, housing has crashed, big-ticket items gather dust in warehouses. And the vicious circle keeps turning.
And why? All so a small minority of the population can go on accumulating wealth.
In three years time, from 2005 to 2007, the 500 biggest companies in the country racked up a profit of 2.4 trillion dollars, just by themselves. 2.4 TRILLION! And they gave every bit of it away to their stockholders–every bit, plus an extra 200 billion they borrowed to put extra icing on top of the cake! Absurd. But that’s how capitalism runs.
In 2007, CEO’s of the 350 biggest companies on average made off with 12.3 million dollars each. Shameful!
And it’s worse, yet! The big Wall Street banks, most of which got tax money in the bailout, just gave away 18.4 billion dollars to their top executives.
What arrogance–they make off with tens of billions of dollars in our tax money, only to rapidly pay out 18.4 billion of it to their executives.
Those parasites caused the crisis–let them pay its cost. Let them put the wealth they stole back into society.
The politicians pretend the crisis is intractable, that there is no easy way to resolve it.
And that’s a lie!
Yes, private industry isn’t doing it, BUT government could put everyone who wants a job to work, at decent wages. There’s more than enough that needs to be done.
Companies won’t run full production, BUT government could forbid them to cut workers. Companies cut hours of work, BUT government could require them to keep paying every worker the same weekly wage as before.
If companies don’t co-operate, government could take the factories and offices out of the hands of their owners, put them to work in the interests of the whole society. Government could take over the banks, using them to organize production again.
Don’t tell us there is nothing that can be done. Face this truth: the Republicans and Democrats will never do it.
The will to change the way society runs, to make it serve the interests of everyone, has to come from the working class. Working people create all of society’s wealth. We have numbers, forces, strength. That gives the working class the possibility to pull ourselves and the rest of society out of this abyss.
Feb 9, 2009
On the morning of January 26, Ervin and Ana Lupoe and their five children, ages between two and eight, were found shot to death in the family’s home in Wilmington, near Los Angeles. A few days before, Kaiser hospital in West L.A. had fired the couple, both medical technicians, for forging a supervisor’s signature on a childcare application. Apparently, the Lupoes were trying to get subsidized childcare by showing their income lower than it was.
The Lupoes had a mortgage debt of over $600,000 on a house that is now worth less than $400,000. And police found a bounced check for $15,000, made out to the IRS, in the Lupoes’ home.
Economic pressures, exacerbated by the ongoing economic crisis, played a part in this tragedy. And it was probably not for the first time. This was the fifth mass death of a family by murder or suicide in Southern California within a year.
Feb 9, 2009
The California courts backed up Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut state workers’ pay. Starting on February 6, every worker will have to take two days off every month without pay.
This is almost a 10% pay cut for 238,000 state employees. The days off will also affect public programs. Unemployment claims processing will be slowed, for example, at a time when California’s official unemployment rate has reached 9.3% and continues to go up.
The judge said he was aware that his decision could have devastating consequences for some workers. Yet, he called the furlough “reasonable and necessary under the circumstances.”
Some workers–and their families–will be devastated, and that’s reasonable?? Is this judge out of his mind? No, he is just siding with the politicians and bosses who are trying to make the workers pay the huge cost of the economic crisis the bosses created.
Feb 9, 2009
In the last 3 months, more than 500 people across the country caught salmonella poisoning from contaminated peanut products.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists traced the epidemic to a peanut-processing plant in Georgia, owned by Peanut Corporation of America. Records showed that contamination occurred as early as 2007–but the plant had not been cleaned as required.
How did the company cover up for so long? The company was not required to release its tests to the Georgia state inspectors. In fact, when the FDA wanted to do something–after the scandal broke–it used a bioterrorism law to pry the records out of the company’s hands!
Yes, when public health is left locked in private hands, bioterrorism is a word that fits.
Feb 9, 2009
The politicians pretend the war in Iraq is winding down–just give it a few more years.
The 4.5 million Iraqis who have been displaced because of the war don’t believe it. Only five% of those displaced have made the effort to return home over the past year.
Nor do casualty figures show an end to this war.
A British organization which counts casualties from English language press reports shows that just as many Iraqis were killed between 2006 and 2008 as were killed in the three years before that.
That would put the overall number of deaths since the war began at about 1.3 million, extrapolated from the most accurate household survey, last carried out in 2006.
Figures released by Iraqi officials confirm that estimate. They say there are over a million war widows and five million orphans. That does not even include the number of women and children killed, which again puts the figure at well over a million.
4.5 million people unable to return to their homes, 1.3 million dead, more than a million widowed, 5 million orphaned.
U.S. military and politicians ask for just a little more time to pursue their war in Iraq–another two years or so. Well, the Iraqis don’t have time. The U.S. should get out now!
Feb 9, 2009
Tom Daschle got in trouble for nonpayment of taxes, and had to step down as the Health and Human Services nominee. But the REAL scandal is how he made millions of dollars after he left the Senate.
In the past two years, Daschle was paid $220,000 for speeches he gave to groups like America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Health Industry Distributors Association. He also became an advisor to the firm Alston and Bird, which lobbies Congress on behalf of the health care industry. The firm made over 16 million dollars in the three years he’s worked for them. He was their advisor on health care issues.
The U.S. health care system is rotten BECAUSE it’s in the hands of private corporations making profits by charging through the nose. It ranks far below other countries with state-run health care for ALL their citizens. The health care industry in this country has a vested interest in keeping things exactly as they are.
And THIS is the guy Obama thinks was the best suited to head the agency overseeing that industry?! What does that say about this administration’s plans to “reform” health care in this country?
Feb 9, 2009
Already, three Obama appointees have gotten in trouble for unpaid taxes.
If this has already happened with people who were thoroughly vetted, picked over with a fine-tooth comb because of their appointment, how many MORE like them are there–in Congress, in the Senate, and in the halls of the White House–people who were never vetted?
These folks seem to figure they don’t have to follow the rules they set for the rest of us. Even after being caught with unpaid taxes, Timothy Geithner, the new Treasury Secretary, had a 20% penalty waived by the IRS. Tom Daschle and Nancy Killifer, Obama’s choice to oversee spending reform, paid no penalties either.
Next time the IRS calls on you, try claiming the “Geithner waiver” and see how far that gets you!
Feb 9, 2009
Top Democrats and Republicans in the Senate fashioned a stimulus plan "compromise" that looks a lot like an attack.
The new bill cut 110 billion dollars out of the plan, including:
Other changes that were rejected included 25 billion in public works spending, including highway construction, public transit, and water and sewage construction.
These are all areas that would have led directly to job creation, or would have aided people hard hit by the crisis. But they were things that Republicans AND Democrats agreed to cut before the final version will be voted on in the Senate. Sure, Obama publicly said he wasn’t pleased with the cuts–but behind closed doors, Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, negotiated on the deal whole-heartedly!
Obama and the Democrats first said they needed to include all sorts of corporate tax breaks to get Republican support. Then they said they needed to cuts out funds for social programs and public works to get Republican support. They keep saying they need some Republican support for the bill to pass. Why? There are 58 Democrats in the Senate. George Bush had a smaller Republican majority than Obama has now–and sometimes had a Republican minority in the Senate–and STILL got his whole program passed!
This is only what can be seen now, before the bill passes and all the details are released. But it’s already clear that, for all their talk about creating a stimulus plan that would help those of us who are hurting, the Congress and the White House are much more concerned with giving money to the folks at the top.
Feb 9, 2009
In the space of a few weeks, three people froze to death in the greater Detroit area.
In Sumpter Township, a 67-year-old man was found frozen to death in his truck. He had been living in his truck because the heat, electricity and water had been shut off in his house.
In Bay City, a 93-year-old man froze to death in his home after the city-owned power company had restricted his electricity use because of an unpaid bill. Ice was found in the kitchen sink.
And in Detroit, a 56-year-old man was found frozen in ice in the basement of an abandoned warehouse owned by billionaire Matty Moroun.
In Detroit alone, it’s estimated that 19,000 people–two% of the population–are homeless. In this bitter winter, how many have just disappeared?
These are the casualties of a capitalist system that throws millions into poverty–while others sit on billions of dollars.
Feb 9, 2009
After the success of January 29, it is necessary to continue and build the mobilization. Two and a half million demonstrators took to the streets, according to the unions. Even the police said there were more than a million. Those who went on strike returned from the demonstrations with their morale high.
In Paris, the demonstration–300,000 according to the organizers and 65,000 according to the police–took hours to go from one side of the city to the other. The ranks of marchers overflowed onto the sidewalks and often into adjacent streets. The innumerable banners showed teachers and public sector workers side by side with large numbers from businesses big or small. The CGT (union federation) was notable for its large turnout. And in its midst were many groups of protesters shouting out slogans against the bosses and the government.
Anger and a sense of injustice dominated these demonstrations, as well as the awareness that in order to go further, it was necessary to go “all together.”
The new Labor Minister, Brice Hortefeux, conceded the day was “the expression of unrest” regarding the crisis.
But it isn’t only unrest, it’s discontent and anger–not at the crisis, but against the bosses and the government. Against the increasing layoffs. Against low wages, against job insecurity, against this government which finds billions to pour into the pockets of the bankers and industrial bosses, all of which aggravates the situation of the workers.
Workers responded in large numbers to the call of the unions for January 29. However, we cannot think that one single day, even a successful one, will make the government and the big bosses retreat.
So what comes next? If union leaders had acted on their responsibilities, they would have immediately announced a follow-up, a new day of strikes and demonstrations.
Instead they decided to wait to see what President Sarkozy has to say.
So what are union leaders waiting for?
This government and this president aren’t there to help workers get their heads above water. They are there, spouting lies, to push the policy demanded by the big bosses, which is to save business profits, to increase the bourgeoisie’s income, to rob the workers still more.
The workers of Guadeloupe have just made a demonstration that even to be heard they had to block the island’s economy.
The union leadership here pleads that it takes time to “build a movement” like that of January 29! That’s the very reason, no matter what day is picked for the next demonstration, that it needs to be announced quickly. Then militants and the most determined workers can prepare for it.
It’s up to the union leadership to set the date. Let them be aware: If, focused on negotiations alone, they don’t do their job, they don’t set a schedule for mobilization with established dates, struggles will break out and spread without them, from the rank and file.
It’s indispensable that we defend ourselves against our exploiters and their servants in the government. We have the forces to do it.
Feb 9, 2009
After two weeks of general strike, the workers of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France, have engaged in a struggle to improve their situation.
The general strike began on January 20. This strike was prepared and launched by the LKP collective, made up of 49 organizations. They include the UGTG, CGTG, CTU, FO and CFDT unions, political organizations including the Communist Party, Combat Ouvrier, Guadeloupe National Alliance, UPLG among others, as well as cultural associations that are very popular in Guadeloupe, including Akiyo, Kamodjaka and Voukoum.
The strike has shut down all the big enterprises. In the smaller firms, like certain insurance companies or the BNP (bank), a number of white-collar workers went back to work. Only the bank employees of BFC in the CGTG are on total and permanent strike. In other establishments, some go on strike one day and go to work another.
The two great superstores, Carrefour in Abymes and Carrefour in Baie-Mahault, are closed due to the strike. The workers of EDF (Electricity of France) are on strike and carry out rotating power cuts. The same thing is happening with General Water.
The hospital workers, who can strike only with difficulty, set up a tent in front of the Central Hospital of Pointe-à-Pitre (the capital) and rallied there after doing what they must for the sick. They joined the demonstrations in large numbers, and come to meetings.
The journalists and broadcasters of RFO have also joined the general strike. The programs are interrupted, but the strikers decided to transmit the negotiations on television.
The entire industrial zone of Jarry, which includes hundreds of little businesses and almost 8,000 workers, is almost dead, thanks to the strikers.
The truck drivers are also on strike. There is no public transit. And besides, no gas stations are open. The workers are on strike, allies for the moment with the managers of the service stations. Workers object to the opening of new automated service stations that use credit cards and self service. The managers don’t want it due to the competition and the workers don’t want it either, because it could mean laying off the attendants and store employees. In Guadeloupe there are still attendants who pump gas for drivers and that work is done by hundreds of young workers.
The teachers are also on strike. The high schools and universities are closed. In the University of the Antilles-Guyana, the teachers and workers created a strike committee. Exams have been put off to a later date.
City workers are on strike, all of them in Abymes, the biggest city of Guadeloupe, or partially in other places. In Goyave, the strike of city workers included everyone for several weeks, well before the beginning of the general strike. In many towns, the offices are shut.
In all the big enterprises, the workers massively renewed the strike each day in general assemblies, declaring that they won’t go back to work while their immediate demands aren’t satisfied. In other enterprises without general assemblies, there are hundreds of workers who rally in front of the Mutual building in Pointe-à-Pitre, voting to renew the strike by a voice vote at the request of representatives of the collective.
Around the island the days seem like Sundays: the streets and roads are almost deserted and everything is shut.
The force of the ongoing movement is indisputable. Several demonstrations put thousands of people into the street (up to 20,000 on certain days, and on January 30 there were between 30,000 and 50,000 demonstrators, about a tenth of the entire population of the island.) The permanent presence of hundreds of people each day around the headquarters of the LKP, the maintenance of the strike in many big centers of employment (retail centers, the Jarry industrial zone, public services, gas stations, etc.) shows that this movement is well rooted in the working class.
The majority of the organizations making up the LKP continue to call for the strike and to fight. After 15 days of strike, everything rests on the tenacity of the workers. A great meeting was called for February 3, in front of the Mutual building.
The LKP maintains its 18 demands. In a leaflet of February 2, it demands the increase of 200 euros, the immediate lowering of the price of gasoline, water, electricity, public transit and basic necessities. On the freezing of rents, Minister Jégo publicly said he was for it. The LKP also demands the end of taxes on fertilizer, herbicides, seeds, cattle feed and diesel fuel. And to aid the fishermen, it demands an end to special taxes affecting them.
The general strike and the popular movement have already had positive effects in different areas.
Negotiations that had seemed impossible in various areas have already produced results.
Of course, we still don’t have a complete account of everything. But the climate created by the mobilization has, to some degree, modified the relation of forces between the bosses and the workers. The big sticking point is the increase in wages, which, in the end, will only cost the bosses 70 euros since the State will give them 130 euros! But this demand still isn’t won, for the bosses of Guadeloupe, made up of the white Béké capitalists (the direct descendants of the old slave owners) and the black medium and small sized bosses who move in their shadow, are voracious, tenacious and warlike.
The struggle of the Guadeloupean workers continues. And as Jean-Marie Nomertin of the CGTG said: "We have already gained something essential in the present struggle, which is confidence in ourselves. We have seen that in our ranks exist men, women and youth totally ready to fight in order that things change in Guadeloupe. We can’t change our material and moral conditions of existence in one fight. But we can fight up to the end in the current movement to snatch the maximum number of demands and, it could happen if there is more force, more consciousness, more militants and then more organizational capacity. Then we will demand still more than this time, to arrive at true changes in our lives."
On February 5, the workers of Martinique are also going to have a general strike, putting forth the demand of a wage of 300 euros for everyone. Many workers wish that this strike continue by means of a vote every day.
Feb 9, 2009
The Guadeloupean strikers’ collective demanded that negotiations take place with all those who represent political and social power in Guadeloupe. They referred to the prefect (sort of like a governor), the presidents of regional and local councils, all the members of parliament, the employers association, the hotel bosses, and representatives of small business.
At the start these different parties wanted to have separate negotiations, according to their own interests. The collective outright refused to negotiate that way. After two or three days of equivocation, these representatives of local and national power ended up accepting, forced into it by the size of the mobilization.
The tone was established at the beginning of second round of negotiations on January 25. The strikers arrived a full two hours late. When someone raised it, the strikers explained the route was long because the police kept stopping them–unlike the bosses and officials who were able to arrive without any problem!
Raising the strikers’ demands, Nomertin, the head of the CGTG union, said, “We want a 200 Euro a month raise ($260). The strike will continue until this demand is won, as well as the establishment of the local minimum wage based on the real cost of living in Guadeloupe, where prices are higher than in France.”
The two union reps of the UGTG and the CGTG talked forcefully, applauded by the hundreds of strikers massed outside. There were loudspeakers outside so everyone could hear. And the radio and TV stations broadcast the debates. Apparently journalists and technicians of the broadcasting company were also on strike, but agreed to report the meetings so that everyone could follow all the negotiations....
Speakers from the strikers’ collective denounced the methods of the bosses, their way of reaping all sorts of public subsidies, of enriching themselves off the backs of the workers here and of going to open up businesses in countries where the wages are lower, where social protection doesn’t exist or is very weak, like in the Dominican Republic, Dominica or even Mayotte.
Fleming of the Guadeloupean Communist Party added, “You bosses speak of wages as a social charge. Wages represent a part of the work of the workers and they demand a better division of the riches–a little less for you, a little more for the workers.”
The regional council representative quibbled that a wage increase wasn’t the only way to raise purchasing power. Prices could also be lowered, especially by lowering various taxes. You would think the bosses asked him to convince the striking workers not to demand a wage increase. The strikers reacted to his arguments with scorn.
The thousands of people who followed this “debate-negotiation” were very satisfied to see their reps denouncing vigorously the crimes of the bosses and of capitalism, denouncing the inexplicable profit margins on products, that go far beyond anything justified by the shipping costs between Europe and Guadeloupe. They were happy to see the denunciation of the bosses’ appetite for subsidies and their many tax breaks and how they refused to improve workers’ wages. The signs of encouragement and support for the strike grew in the poor population!
Other “negotiations” are planned in the days to come.
Feb 9, 2009
Leonard Peltier, a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) falsely imprisoned since 1977, was severely beaten on January 13 by a gang of inmates. This resulted when authorities transferred him to the Canaan Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania.
Peltier was sentenced to two life terms after two FBI agents were killed on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. FBI agents had attacked leaders of AIM. When the AIM leaders attempted to defend themselves, the agents were shot.
Since the trial, evidence exonerating Peltier came to light. The prosecution withheld ballistic test results that proved the fatal bullets could not have come from the gun tied to Peltier.
Nonetheless, the FBI has vowed that Peltier will never come out of prison alive. Apparently they are doing everything possible to make sure of that–literally! Once before, the government attempted to have him assassinated–offering another Indian inmate named Standing Deer his release in exchange for killing Peltier. Instead, Standing Deer exposed the plot–only to be murdered himself.
After his most recent beating, supporters of Peltier mounted a campaign, which won his return to the prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He was welcomed back with a hero’s welcome and his fellow inmates there have vowed to ensure his safety. That’s exactly why the government transferred him–because he had support in Lewisburg.
Peltier is now asking to be released to the custody of the Turtle Mountain Indian nation on the grounds prison officials cannot ensure his safety. In fact, they endanger his life. His release is long overdue.
Feb 9, 2009
ExxonMobil and Chevron, two of the largest oil companies in the world, had profits of 45 billion and 24 billion dollars respectively in 2008. That total of 69 billion dollars is the same amount as all the money the U.S. government spent on education for the entire country last year.
Exxon and Chevron took in a total of 130 billion dollars in revenue–as much money during 2008 as all the revenues of the state of Florida.
And what do these companies propose to do with these enormous amounts of money taken from our pockets? In 2008, Exxon handed over 32 billion dollars to buy back shares of their stock, enriching their largest investors.
And this is only what these parasites admitted making in a year when they and their friends have plunged the whole world into a catastrophe!
Feb 9, 2009
You’d never know 2008 was a horrible year on Wall Street, where top executives awarded themselves 18 billion dollars in bonuses. That’s only for those paying income taxes to New York. The state’s comptroller, who issued the report, said the payout will be even higher when stock options are figured in.
Are these bonuses for “good” performance? Wall Street thinks so. These guys served the entire capitalist system very well. To bring in more wealth to the banks and rich investors, they pushed the big companies to cut jobs. They put millions of people at risk for losing their homes. They played fast and loose with funds from pensions, 401(k)s, and money market funds.
The vultures who helped create the economic crisis made everyone else pay for it. And got rewarded for it!
Feb 9, 2009
At the end of January, a strike with demonstrations broke out on 20 sites around Britain, involving more than 15,000 skilled workers. These workers renovate or maintain building sites, power plants, refineries, etc.
Jobs like these have been disappearing due to the crisis for more than a year. This strike was the first mobilization against the rise in unemployment. Unfortunately, the leaders of Unite and the GMB unions, who led the movement acted in a completely chauvinistic way. Their slogan, launched some months ago by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, was “British jobs for British workers!”
For the past three months, under the pretext of fighting unemployment, they have led the demand that contractors hire only British workers, instead of hiring workers who come from the European continent.
This scandalous policy of the unions plays the bosses’ game. It turns the workers against each other and poisons the atmosphere in their ranks, instead of uniting them to impose the same conditions for all workers. It also plays the game of the far right scum who used these slogans at the site of the picket lines.
This reactionary policy has been the policy of the union apparatuses since the beginning of the crisis. These leaders stand out in their silence. They had no other response when workers were threatened by massive layoffs and needed a perspective of how to respond to the blows of the bosses. These union leaders, along with the bosses, beg for subsidies from the government to “save British industry.” By diverting the anger of the construction workers into anti-foreign chauvinism, the union leaders pursue the same policy. They pretend to do something without touching the wealth accumulated by British capital.
It was clear the bosses had nothing to fear from this movement. But the speed with which the strike spread–and the fact that it involved workers from different companies and industries–shows that workers can break out of the straitjacket imposed by labor laws.
But if a fight is to serve the interests of the working class, it must take on the workers’ true enemies, the bosses and their government. It must unite the ranks of the workers in struggle, instead of dividing them as the union leaders are trying to do in the current movement.
Feb 9, 2009
On February 17, GM, Ford and Chrysler are supposed to report to Congress that the leaders of the UAW have agreed to help push the brutal concessions demanded by Bush in the loan agreement, backed up by the House of Representatives, and reinforced by Barack Obama’s call for worker sacrifices.
For years, the auto workers were the front line troops of the working class. When the working class moved forward, they were often at the head of the fights, pulling others after them. Their fights established the so-called “middle class” standard of living not only for auto workers, but for many others. This “middle class” standard of living was not given to anyone–it was won in struggles, many of them carried out in more difficult times than today.
It’s no accident that the whole Congress, along with the Bush and the Obama Administrations, lined up in a campaign to demand sacrifices from auto workers.
And it’s not an accident that the media beat the drums for bankruptcy.
It’s a political campaign, aimed at brainwashing the auto workers, trying to make them think they have no choice but to surrender.
This is a test of force, pitting the auto companies, backed up by all the forces of government and the media, against the auto workers.
And it is a preview of what every company intends to do to every worker. The attack being waged today is for nothing less than deciding who will pay the cost of the crisis.
Despite all the job cuts among auto workers, the 160,000 workers at Ford, GM and Chrysler still represent a stronghold of the working class, even today.
It’s obvious auto workers cannot depend on Gettelfinger and other top UAW leaders, who have already given away the horse before the barn door was open. But auto workers have shown before that they could gather together the strength that is in their numbers, and use their forces.
If the campaign against them succeeds, if the auto workers give in without even a hint of a fight coming from their ranks, it will be a setback for all workers. It’s important that workers who understand what is at stake try to organize resistance.
Feb 9, 2009
More workers are showing they won’t be brainwashed into going along with the attacks.
Last December, Republic Window workers in Chicago sat-in and took over their plant when the boss closed it and lied to them, that he had no money to pay what they were owed. In ten days’ time, they had their money.
In early February, two UAW locals voted NO against further concessions. In Macomb County, Michigan, county workers rejected a package of wage, pension and health-care cuts. And New Process Gear workers in Dewitt, New York, were told they had to take wage cuts down to a $16-$13 range–or else Magna International, the owner, would close the plant. After a four-hour meeting the workers voted 76% NO MORE CUTS, regardless!
Are these the early signs of a working class that is getting ready to fight back? It’s time!
Feb 9, 2009
American Axle bosses in Detroit have just announced they want MORE concessions from their Detroit workforce. These latest threats come less than a year after American Axle workers in Detroit, Three Rivers, Michigan, and a couple of plants in New York, voted, most of them reluctantly, to accept a concessions contract that gutted wages, pensions, and health care.
At the time the workers were told that this was the best that could be expected if they were to keep their jobs. And workers at the Three Rivers plant took even bigger wage cuts over the threat of their plant closing.
Now the American Axle bosses are using the lower wages of the workers at the Three Rivers, Michigan plant, to threaten workers at the Detroit plant.
What’s next if they get away with this latest attack? Demand that the Three Rivers workers give up more in order to compete with the Detroit workforce?!
This vicious cycle of concessions will not stop until workers refuse to give up any more.