Another farce in Washington as the Auto execs return

The auto bosses are back in Congress today in act two of the farce intended to make it easier for their friends in Congress to give them working people's money. Instead of flying there in corporate jets there is even talk of these thugs taking ground transport and Ron Gettlefinger, the UAW president and one of their accomplices is boasting that he will be flying commercial.

Ford CEO Alan Mullaly tells Congress he will work for $1 a year. This type of media trick is supposed to fool workers in to believing that the CEO's will sacrifice for the common good. But Mulally got $28 million for four months on the job in 2006 and that came on top of some $7 million Boeing paid him for eight months work. Part of the pay package at Ford was a $7 million "hiring bonus". He also gets to take his family on the company jet and receives housing subsidies. And this as Ford jobs were eliminated and workers made huge sacrifices. Who cares if he earns a dollar a year? We're not stupid.

Ford told Congress that the company will also sell its five corporate aircraft and cancel all management bonuses. This charade is being performed due to the pressure the capitalist politicians in the Republic and Democratic parties are feeling from an angry populace.
Helping in this con game is the UAW president Ron Gettelfinger.

The only difference between the auto execs, their political representatives and other sections of the capitalist class is the level of retrenchment they are demanding from the big three. Bailout or loan, it doesn't matter, workers will suffer.

Congress and the auto execs are all in it together. The crisis in auto is one of overcapacity. The global auto industry produces too much and workers cannot buy back what we make, in auto or any other industry.

The reason for this is that industry is privately owned and only a portion of the value that workers produce is paid back to us in wages; this is the cause of the present crisis and the ongoing cyclical crisis in the market economy, it cannot be prevented except by the ownership and management of the commanding heights of the economy by working people and a rational planned system of production.

Alan Ulally and the other CEO's insult us with their offers of taking a pay cut to a dollar a year; they've stashed away hundreds of billions accumulated on the back of Labor as they simultaneously attacked wages, benefits and jobs with the help of the UAW leadership.

We must reject the notion that Congress and its politicians of the two capitalist parties represent "all" Amercians. They will defend the interests of their class and the market. Our goal must be to build an independent working class movement domestically and internationally that can manage society and the resources that our Labor creates in a way that is in harmony with nature and meets our genuine needs not those manufactured by Madison Avenue or Hollywood.