So who is this savior of the industrial working class in the US? His name is Ron Bloom. Ron has great working class credentials Business Week seems to think having spent his youth on Jewish kibbutz style summer camps. He also boycotted groups in support of the UFW. Way to go, Ron.
US manufacturing as a percentage of GDP has fallen from 28% in 1953 to 11 percent now. This is not entirely the export of jobs of course. In 1953, the Korean War was on and the productive forces of the US’s former allies as well as enemies in the Second World War were still recovering. The US had about 52% of world trade in this period. But as the economies of Japan and Germany in particular, modernized in the post war era, the competition between nations states in the world market intensified.
With increased globalization we have seen a shift of manufacturing to Mexico and now Asia. The rise of China since the 1980’s has played a significant role here. But in the struggle for cheaper Labor power, and especially in the light of recent strikes in China led by independent Unions groups that have raised wages, some manufacturers are moving yet again to cheaper climes like Vietnam. US and British capitalists want to manage the word’s capital better, not invest it in expensive high waged factories in Europe or the US when the world is awash in capacity as it is.
Obama’s savior of the working class wasn’t too long for grape boycott and kibbutz style living. He went on to work in Wall Street for the firm Lazard and had his own investment firm. He “…..helped industrialist Wilbur Ross save US Steel and President Barack Obama bail out General Motors”. Says BW. He worked for numerous Unions including SEIU but according to his bio in Wikipedia, left the Unions for Wall Street because they suffered from a “lack of business knowledge”.
This important figure in the Democratic Party is a respected solver of problems for the capitalist class, always able to “….balance the realities of business with the need for jobs” . Hmmm! What are the most important “realities” of business I wonder? Profit perhaps?
Another important Democrat, Steven Rattner also praises Bloom, “Even when he worked at Lazard Bloom embraced “worker capitalism” says Rattner. “Most people took their Harvard MBA’s and went off to try to save manufacturing and save workers” Rattner concludes. “Worker capitalism” an interesting concept. Can we all be capitalists, buyers of Labor power and not sellers of it? How would that work?
“While he’s a true union guy, he’s realistic.” Says the Billionaire industrialist Wilbur Ross. There’s that word again, “realistic”. Wilbur Ross was praised recently in capitalist circles for his activities in the aftermath of the crash described in Forbes I think it was, as:
“….bottom-fishing in mortgages and mortgage companies. Ross has served under U.S. President Bill Clinton on the board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund, and later, under New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the Mayor's privatization advisor.”
Ouch! Ross is a vulture in other words, one might even say a ponce. Well, the Democrat’s savior for the US blue collar worker receiving praise from people like that should give us a clue about the intentions of the Obama administration shouldn’t it? Bloom's strategy is the Team Concept. Have workers help US capitalists compete with their foreign rivals in their struggle for profit and market share. It's a disaster for us as we compete with workers in other countries for who can work cheaper, faster and with the least impediments to profit taking.
With friends like Bloom, who needs enemies?
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