STRASBOURG, July 31 — In what bosses in France hope will be a trend-setting decision, workers at GM’s automatic transmission plant here approved a 10% cut in wages and benefits in return for keeping their jobs. The two-month struggle with GM illustrates the nightmare of life under capitalism.

In late September, 2008, when GM went bust, its Strasbourg plant was turned over to Motor Liquidation Company, a hollow shell charged with finding a buyer. Deals with VW, Mercedes and Weichai fell through. In June, GM offered to buy back the plant for one symbolic euro, on condition that the 1,150 autoworkers take the 10% cut and that all unions sign the three-year contract. GM promised to keep all workers on the payroll for the life of the contract. (265,000 jobs were lost in France in 2009, including 168,000 industrial jobs.)

The largest union at the plant, the CFDT, urged accepting GM’s terms as “the lesser evil.” It was backed by two smaller unions, the CFTC and FO, and by the Socialist Party. The second-largest union, the CGT, backed by the “Communist” Party, opposed the sellout.

On July 16, 200 workers struck to protest the give-back, which includes a two-year wage freeze and voids a previous agreement establishing the 35-hour work week at the plant. But one week later, faced with a GM ultimatum to accept or see their jobs shipped to Mexico, 70% of the 950 workers participating in a non-binding secret ballot referendum accepted the deal.

That same day, management organized some workers to hold CGT union stewards hostage for several hours, threatening to kill them if they did not sign the contract. On July 27, the CGT announced it was filing charges against the assailants.

But on July 28, the CGT signed a separate deal with GM, promising not to challenge the new contract in the courts for the next three years. GM allowed the CGT to save face and did not force the union to sign the contract. Today GM announced it was going ahead with the purchase, which will take two months to finalize.

Everyone knows the Strasbourg workers have gained nothing in giving in to GM’s blackmail. In 2007, the Continental Tire factory workers in Clairoix agreed to return to a 40-hour week in exchange for a management promise not to close the factory. Today, it is closed.

Firstly, the bitter defeat for the GM workers demonstrates that a lack of unity plays into the bosses’ hands. Secondly, it shows that the best our class can obtain under capitalism is rotten compromises. In both cases, the remedy is to unite around communist leadership to organize for a revolution that will put our class in power

While the Obama Administration babbles about a supposed “economic recovery” over 33 million U.S. workers are still looking for non-existent jobs. There is only one job for every six jobless workers. The unemployment rate is really 21.6% according to ShadowStats.org which includes short- and long-term discouraged workers and underemployed workers, dwarfing the “official” 9.5% unemployment rate.

Many economists are calling this current “above-normal” level of unemployment the “new normal.” The Atlantic’s Don Peck says this could be the beginning of a “lost decade.” It will fundamentally transform a whole generation, as families fall apart, neighborhoods fall into turmoil and young workers see their lifespan significantly shortened due to the effects of continuous unemployment.

With over 8.4 million jobs lost in this economic depression, it’s become increasingly clear that recovery for many workers will be impossible. In order to provide jobs for the 1.5 million people joining the labor force each year and to return to the “normal” 5% unemployment rate in five years, the economy would have to create 250,000 jobs a month.

Then, to reach a “recovery” in two years that jumps to over 600,000 new jobs every month. In the last 20 years there has not been one monthly average job growth of 250,000. In fact, since 1989 the average has been 91,000 a month, far short of what capitalism needs for a “normal” recovery.

Now, as of July 30, 108 banks have failed this year alone, a pace exceeding the 140 bank failures in 2009. The collapse of the housing market is actually accelerating, with a record one million home foreclosures predicted for 2010. Bank of America hopes to be able to foreclose on 45,000 homes per month by December. And consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of total economic activity, continues to fall far short of expectations.

In short, the “recovery myth” is a political cover for an economic depression that is continually worsening. The current crisis U.S. unemployment levels are unlikely to ever decline, and may very well increase in coming years.

Workers Sped Up, Earn Less; Bosses Sit On $1.8 Trillion

The fear of unemployment and layoffs has allowed U.S. companies to speed up workers while cutting pay. Today workers are working 10% fewer hours while production remains at pre-cutback levels. This means they’re working a lot harder for a lot less. Consequently non-financial companies are sitting on $1.8 trillion and are still refusing to hire new workers.

The NY Times praised German “recovery,” quoting a German economist that, “Fear of unemployment made workers more willing to accept concessions.” By “resisting a rise in wages” German capitalists have profited handsomely, a victory for capitalism says the Times.

But the unemployment lifting capitalist profits is deadly for workers. The average life-span of a worker losing a job at 30 is reduced by 1½ years when compared with those who’ve never lost their job. As CHALLENGE has repeatedly noted from a 1971 Congressional report, a 1.4% rise in unemployment leads to 30,000 deaths over the following five years. A 3% increase in unemployment raises the suicide rate by 4.5%.

The racism that causes black and Latino workers to be the first fired and last hired makes them especially vulnerable to deadly unemployment. Black and Latino workers suffer unemployment rates twice that of white workers. This is a direct result of racist hiring practices designed to keep workers’ divided and wages down.

Capitalists Unconcerned With Recovery for Workers

When economists talk about returning unemployment rates to the “normal” 5%, that means still over eight million workers on the streets! Capitalists are incapable of providing full employment. Only communism can transform work from a mechanism for the profit of the few into a liberating force for the world’s working class.

For capitalists, workers’ lives are always secondary to profits. To escape the evils of unemployment and its deadly side effects, the whole capitalist system must be destroyed. This begins with fighting the bosses’ plan to build their recovery on the backs of the working class. Employed and unemployed workers must unite to fight layoffs, evictions and foreclosures and racist bosses’ imperialist wars. Ultimately unemployed workers, as all workers, must be won to join PLP and organize to replace the profit system with a communist society free of bosses, profits, racism and war. J

On October 2, Reject The Bosses Elections and Fight for Communist Revolution

Under the guise of launching a movement for jobs, the agents of the  Rockefeller wing of the capitalist ruling class in the mass movement are organizing a mass demonstration on October 2 in Washington, D.C. to channel workers’ anger into working for Democratic Party candidates in the upcoming Congressional elections. Its goal: keep workers’ anger against racist unemployment under the tight control of the union misleaders and the NAACP and slap down the bosses’ rivals in the racist Tea Party.

We must not think that the Rockefeller-led bosses are “lesser evils” compared to the Tea Party fascists. Actually, the Rockefeller wing, which tends to look towards the longer-term interests of the imperialist system as a whole, will strengthen its ability to impose fascism and wage wars far better than the amateur fascists in the Tea Party.

Initiated by Local 1199 of the SEIU and the NAACP, the October 2 “March for Jobs, Justice, and Peace” has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO leadership, possibly ensuring a massive turnout. The build-up to this event is an important opportunity for PL’s revolutionary communists to deepen their ties in the mass organizations being recruited for this demonstration. We will expose the bosses and their agents in the workers’ movement and fight for a revolutionary path instead of an electoral one.

The fight against racist unemployment must be a priority for revolutionaries. We should never side with one group of bosses against another — they will always serve their own interests, not ours. The current economic crisis has demonstrated yet again that capitalism can never serve us, and must be destroyed by communist revolution so that we workers can organize society to meet the needs of our class on an international basis. Join us on October 2 to expose the misleaders and build for workers’ revolution worldwide!

Harriet Rosen, a life-long supporter of PLP from its earliest days, died on August 8 at 86. She was married to Milt Rosen, one of the original organizers of our Party. Her son sent the following remembrance to CHALLENGE.

I want to thank the Party for the huge help you’ve all given me since I moved my parents to Los Angeles in 2004. This support really shows the true meaning of what it means to be a comrade. Only the working class can care for each other like this; the bosses would rather suck us dry and then leave us to die once we’re no longer profitable to them.

My mom and dad were married in 1946; he was 20, she 22. My dad became active in communist politics right after the war; my mom had left leanings. One night, she and a girlfriend decided to attend a left-wing political meeting “to look for interesting men.” My dad gave a speech at the meeting and she was obviously impressed. She was then dating Harry Bulova, heir to the Bulova Watch fortune. But my mother gave up a possible life of wealth to marry a guy dedicated to overthrowing the capitalist class.

After they were married, they lived in Brooklyn for a while. Then the Communist Party sent my dad to Buffalo, NY, to organize in factories there. Times were hard; I recall eating a lot of army surplus cheese. I do remember they made many friends in Buffalo, becoming very close to Morty and Phyllis Scheer, Helen and Teddy Schwartz and Paul and Jo Sporn. There were many others but these are the ones I recall because I was friendly with their children. My parents stayed life-long friends with these three couples and, as you know, my dad went on to form PL with these people.

My mom loved to entertain. She always had many people over and was always cooking. She was a great cook and got pleasure from preparing food for friends. She always prepared holiday feasts, filling the house with friends and relatives. When she was young, her family was very poor and at times went hungry. I believe this is one reason she enjoyed cooking these delicious meals. She was extremely hospitable. We always had people staying at our house.

My mom came from a dirt-poor family. Her
father was a pharmacist who gave medications away for free to poor people. She had one sister and two brothers. Her fondest childhood memories were of the family going to Rockaway Beach in the spring when it was still deserted and staying through the summer in a rented bungalow (more like a dilapidated shack).

Later, when my parents moved back from Buffalo to NYC (I was five and my sister was an infant), they had no place to stay so we headed right out to Rockaway and rented a cheap bungalow. Returning to Rockaway had huge sentimental value for Harriet because of her childhood memories. I think she liked the desolate nature of the beach and the camaraderie she felt with other friends who were renting there.

It was rough because it was deserted in the spring and my dad was away a lot, organizing PL. But my mom hung in there, supporting him while he built the Party. We returned every summer to Rockaway for at least eight years. I can recall many people staying with us and my mom always cooking and being extremely supportive of the folks visiting us there where my dad had many meetings.

My mom loved the Atlantic Coast. She grew up along the water and later my parents would often vacation with their friends at Montauk. When she’d visit me in LA, she’d always go on about how she preferred the Atlantic Coast because the beaches were wider and the landscape more rugged with dunes, etc.

My mom was the quintessential New Yorker. Few people knew she was a double Math/Physics major at Brooklyn College in the early 1940’s. There weren’t many women taking those subjects then (I believe she was the first such female, double major at BC). Unfortunately, her mom made her drop out of college to go to work.

For many years she was a salesgirl at woman’s clothing stores in Manhattan and also a millinery buyer. When my sister and I were older, she returned to college and got a degree in Art History from Brooklyn College and a Master’s in Library Science from Pratt Institute. For many years she worked as a librarian at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library where she became close friends with many of her co-workers.

She was a very loving mother, always helping me with my problems in school. I often got into trouble and she always took my side. When Sam Scheer and I were hit by a car in Cape Cod, Mass., she was the one comforting us on the plane when they flew us back to NYC. While we were in the hospital for five months, she took the train almost daily from Brooklyn up to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

My mom was a great person. She was smart, kind and very supportive of the struggle to build a world where all people are respected and treated with dignity. She loved cooking, art and was expert in doing the NY Times crossword puzzle (except the sports questions…the only ones I knew).

She loved to take us to the museum (albeit, my dad and I would sometimes give her a hard time about the modern art). She liked Picasso, partly because of his left-wing views. She had a great sense of humor and loved old Italian movies like “The Bicycle Thief” as well as some of the Italian comedies. She was also a caring grandmother to my sister’s kids and my daughter. I’m glad she was able to spend so much time at my sister’s place watching her grandkids grow up.

It was very sad for me to watch her mind whither away. The diseases which proliferate unchecked in this society are horrible. We’re forced to watch our loved ones die of illnesses that could be cured or at least dealt with more humanely, if we had a society that truly cared for people, not profits.

I’ll always remember my mom as a kind, generous and supportive person. Thanks again to the Party for all your help. 

Lena Minkovskaya Caref was born on October 10, 1925 in Gomel, Belarus, the Soviet Union. She considered herself one of “Stalin’s children,” because as she often stated, “When I was growing up there was no crime, school was free, medical care was free, transportation was free, food was cheap, and people were all very happy with each other even if they had to work hard for what they had.” She remained a fervent communist her entire life.

 At the age of 11, she lost her mother and helped her father care for her younger brothers. At 15 she joined the defense against the western-sponsored German fascist invasion. She was first a welder’s helper building an oil pipeline in Georgia and then worked in a hand grenade factory in Belarus. After the war, she and her husband Jacob left the Soviet Union for Poland, where they learned that his entire family was murdered by the Nazis, most in the gas ovens of Auschwitz. Leaving behind her beloved Soviet Union, she and Jacob made their way to a displaced person’s camp in Marktredwitz, Germany where her oldest son was born.

Lena moved to Chicago in March 1949 after many attempts to leave Germany – the U.S. government limited Jewish immigration until forced to change by world pressure. Lena worked in many different jobs as a drill press operator at Bell and Howell and an LPN in hospitals and nursing homes. She joined, led and fought in many protests against the Viet Nam war and racism and within her residence.

As a loving grandmother, she cared for her four children, ten grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren.