Friday, January 9, 2009

under capitalism things are getting worse.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had an article on the retail sector in the US. It projected thata staggering 73,000 stores will close in the next six months. This will be a holocaust of jobs lost. How will the people who lose their jobs pay their mortgage and make ends meet? The financial crisis was just the beginning. We are now in for the other shoe to drop. The collapse of demand and the closure of retails outlets and the loss of jobs in this sector. And this in turn will make the financial crisis even worse. 

But that is not all. The same paper explains that auto making capacity in the world is now one third more than the market can bear. That is the auto plants that already exist can make one third more autos than people can buy. It will not only be a holocaust in the retail sector but there will be a holocaust in the industrial production sector also. From the US, to China, to Japan, to Europe, the auto industry and auto workers jobs and related jobs will be hit. 

The labour leaders stand paralyzed before this oncoming catastrophe. Their refusal to lead is a crime. They should be organizing in the workplaces and communities to take on and defeat the capitalist offensive that is coming. Every retail outlet, every industrial plant, every workplace that threatens to close, should be occupied and held. Then on this basis they should be nationalized under workers' control and management and production carried on, whether of the same products or of others that are needed. 

Capitalism is failing more and more every day. It has forfeited the right to exist. The capitalist class has forfeited the right to rule. The labour leaders have forfeited the right to control the unions. We the working class must organize for the socialist alternative. End capitalism which is destroying the planet. For a democratic socialist federation of the world. 

Sean.

1 comment:

Raising Havana said...

It's madness. I'm in construction and just learned that most of our crew are now part-time. There seems to be no work out there. One carpenters/drywall local in our area has 1800 members with 452 journeymen out of work and another 92 apprentices out of work. What a waste of human potential, sitting at home. In the Financial Times they said that December was the worst month for the jump in unemployment in 59 years.