As previous posts have pointed out, Chinese workers are raising their heads in a serious attempt to lift the heel of the bureaucracy and the global corporations off their necks. In recent weeks they have won major concessions from the employers and the state bureaucracy. It is important for us not to forget that these actions are being taken under the watchful eye of a repressive state apparatus and dictatorial regime.
The success of the recent strikes in auto will not go unnoticed by Chinese workers throughout the country. In fact, US workers need to pay particular attention as we are bombarded with this idea that we are the freest of the free, yet we are all afraid of the consequences were we to take similar action.
Honda has reported that sales fell for the second consecutive month due to the strikes as all its rivals made gains; sales fell 2.7% in June and 10.3% in May. As an example, GM sales rose 23.2% in June compared to 2009. At the Guangqi plant in southern China sales fell 23.9% in June compared to June 2009.
The strikes forced Honda to raise salaries by 20-30%.
I was on the picket lines during the British miner's strike in 1984/5 and it was interesting staying with a family up there. Most of the workers had government housing, what was better known over there as council houses. The fear of losing their home (shelter) just wasn't the same as it is here in the US. Here, it is a major obstacle to worker's taking action. We are free, you see, we are so in debt to the moneylenders (British workers even more so now since Thatcher and Reagan broke the miner's strike with help from the leaders of the TUC.) that we will be homeless if a strike isn't settled post haste.
David Harvey mentioned in the video that we put on the blog a few days ago that the US bosses recognized that workers with mortgages around their necks for 30 years don't go on strike. This is why the mortgage interest tax write off exists at all, it increases home ownership which is not home ownership at all really but indebtedness. It strengthens their control over us.
I see that in Russia the government is engaging in a fairly rapid program of home ownership for its citizens. Investors will get a good deal and Russians will increase their debt levels, become more insecure and at the mercy of moneylenders. The Russian oligarchs, former KGB thugs handed state property by Gorbachev, have learned from the US, maybe the Chinese will too but the US situation regarding home ownership will not be replicated in these economies.
With the foreclosure crisis in the US, who wants that model with its ever present insecurity and massive homelessness? The US economy is in a mess, slower growth is expected but with interests rates at zero there is not much room for manoeuvre. The alternative is stimulus either through the state (printing/borrowing) or the Federal Reserve instituting a new buying spree, purchasing mortgage securities, or both. Taxes will have to be raised (A VAT is already being discussed) along with further cuts in public spending and wages. The country is in massive debt.
I would be foolish to predict when, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will see some major explosions in the US ahead as the economy worsens or a double dip recession occurs. Europe is another case for another time.
It's important to listen to the "experts" now and then, Nouriel Roubini and Ian Bremmer pointed out in yesterday's Financial Times: "The slow and painful deleveraging of balance sheets and income challenged households, financial institutions and governments will continue."
Brace yourselves for an interesting ride folks. It's not just capital that has been globalized, Labor has too.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." Einstein
No comments:
Post a Comment