There is no better example of the wasteful and destructive nature of capitalism, of the so-called free market, than the recent collapse of General Motors. After the auto executives had their politicians in Washington drop $50 billion of our money in to their laps on condition that they slash thousands of jobs, the vultures swoop in to make more money out of the clean up.
It should be obvious to anyone that the “slimming down” (a nice term the capitalist press uses to describe the destruction) leaves empty workshops; machines idle and factories empty. But the Wall Street Journal’s series, USA INC, The State of Capitalism, reveals the depth of this destruction.
The bosses’ bankruptcy courts were used to facilitate GM’s sale of its parts that would keep the profits rolling while, as the WSJ puts it, “GM abandoned its worst pieces in Chapter 11 purgatory.”
For the capitalist class “Worst pieces” is anything, or anyone, that doesn’t assist them in their quest for surplus value and profit. It has nothing to do with what is socially useful or not. In the garbage heap that the bottom feeders will sift through is: “200 properties, 5000 assembly line robots. 200 miles of conveyor belts and a golf complex.” The two GM’s, what some call the old and the new GM’s, are a result of the government’s deal that gave them taxpayer funds and rushed them through bankruptcy. The worst pieces are in the hands of professional bankruptcy administrators headed by Al Koch; Koch like all of the players solving this crisis for working people, is part of the same crowd the caused it. The official name for “old” GM is Motor’s Liquidation Co.
The Journal points out that old GM, or more accurately, the bargain basement sale aspect of the deal, contains 50 million square feet of unwanted factory space that equals about “…25 empire state buildings.”
I was reading the other day about Nevada; in particular Las Vegas, and how the storm drains below that city are home to swarms of homeless people, sick people, drug addicts, (you known there’ll be many veterans in this category) and even children.
This problem is not “rushed” through the social equivalent of chapter 11. Solving this problem is money out, not profit in, so it is ignored, the victims demonized and blamed for their own predicament. Meanwhile, the “new” bosses of the “old GM”, bring their investor friends in to the bargain basement containing a century of stored up Labor power in the form of buildings, technical innovation and such, and offer it to them for a song.
Those lining up to feed at the trough make the characters lining up to apply for a slot in Hedley Lamar’s Posse in Blazing Saddles look like saints.
Among the group is a construction company owner who hopes to get his hands on an empty factory the size of the Pentagon for one-fifth the price of a new one, $20 a square foot. Another is a real estate developer and yet another an investment banker. The journal points out that there has been some success. Motors Liquidation sold GM’s truck operations office complex in Pontiac to the group headed by the construction company head and they plan to use it as a movie studio---just what we need in these times. Other bargain hunters include the William Morris, talent agency that is run by none other than Ari Emmanuel, the brother of White House chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel.
There is also the environmental impact of the plants that are now abandoned. The one in Massena NY was built, not surprisingly, next to an Indian reservation and has been polluting the local drinking water with industrial sludge since the fifties says a lawyer for the tribe.
The thugs that are supposedly cleaning this mess up are the same people that caused it; they are interested only in making profit, not the social needs of individuals or our communities.
When the real estate developer walks through the factory he is thinking only of how much and at what rate can he increase capital investment
As workers we understand that these people are rotten. We understand that they let people die who can’t afford to pay or let people sleep in sewers rather than provide homes. We know that they’ll slaughter people for control over resources like oil no whether they be men women or children; everything is collateral damage when it comes to profit.
While we understand this, it is not enough. They are driven to see the world this way because they are capitalists. For them they seek, as Marx explained, not use value, but exchange value. They do not set production in to motion in order to create products that have use value. It matters not to them whether they use their capital to create cars or shoes. Marx once described the role of the owners of capital and buyers of Labor Power in this way:
“a schoolmaster is a productive labourer when, in addition to belabouring the heads of his scholars, he works like a horse to enrich the school proprietor. That the latter has laid out his capital in a teaching factory, instead of in a sausage factory, does not alter the relation.”
One of the bargain hunters says that their goal is to “purchase some of GM’s unwanted properties and lease them out for new uses.” The group includes others who want to “help revive Michigan’s downtrodden economy” But we must always remember that this depends on one thing….the enrichment of the proprietor.
Imagine what working people would do with this mass of social wealth built by working people over a century. Could we not use 5000 robots in some way or another for socially useful production? Are they not potential Labor saving devices? The massive amount of space alone could be used as cultural centers, youth and senior centers.
The sheer waste of resources in a so-called free market economy is staggering, not to mention the death and misery, poverty and environmental destruction that come in its wake. Working people would make different choices. The collective ownership of what we collectively produce as well as the means by which we produce it; this is an essential goal for us if we are to build a better future.
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