"Foreign" Competition?
What Competition?

Feb 2, 2004

On the same assembly line in Warren, Michigan, that produces DaimlerChrysler’s Dodge Ram and Dodge Dakota pick-up trucks, Mitsubishi Motors will build a pick-up next year.

Chrysler endlessly cites "foreign competition" as a reason that workers have to give up round after round of wage, job, and benefit cuts–so isn’t it a little strange that it would build a Japanese brand on its own assembly line?

Not only will DaimlerChrysler build the "competing" Japanese company’s "competing" pick-up; Chrysler will provide the Dodge Dakota pick-up vehicle platform on which Mitsubishi Motors can build its truck. Daimler will also provide Mitsubishi Motors with six other vehicle platforms in the next few years.

This is incomprehensible only to those who have swallowed the various corporate lies about the supposed threats of "foreign competition."

What competition?

DaimlerChrysler (DCX for short), for example, an international corporation based in Germany, owns the Chrysler Group based in the United States. It owns a controlling interest of 37% in Mitsubishi Motors, and previously owned a 43% controlling interest in Mitsubishi’s Fuso heavy truck division. In January, DCX bought an additional 22% of Mitsubishi Fuso and hinted at its intention to soon provide an extra multi-million-dollar investment in Mitsubishi Motors. DCX also has ten% of Hyundai in its investment portfolio.

And where does this German-U.S.-Japanese corporation get the money to buy up more and more shares of more and more companies around the world?

From the profits made by keeping its German, U.S., and Japanese workers from being paid what their labor is worth!