I caught a brief moment of Donald Trump talking about trade and things in between his main issue which is where Barak Obama was born. Trump, like so many of them when they want to win workers' votes, appeals to nationalist sentiment not simply advocating protectionist measures but launching in to a personal tirade against US capitalism's competitors. Talking to anti-Union bigot, Michael Savage earlier this year he said that Americans "no longer make things" and ranted on CNN that China, "is stealing all our jobs" and "making all our products." This nationalist rhetoric might win him some votes from workers whose jobs have been exported and who, maybe genuinely, but mistakenly, believe that the the crisis in US society can be solved within the framework of the nation state, by retreating behind national borders and defending US capitalists; basically, the Team Concept. Trump is advocating a 25% tax on products that come into the United States.
What would Donald Trump know about making anything? He has never done any productive work. And his talk of 25% tariffs on imported goods terrifies his class brethren who are involved in the production of goods through their ownership of the means of producing these goods; the machinery and workers' Labor power. They are aware that their overseas competitors will retaliate as they did after Smoot Hawley and the world economy today is far more integrated than it was when the 1929 crash hit. The Smoot hawley tariffs exacerbated the depression and hastened the road to war. After the steeper decline in 1937, it was the war production that dragged US capitalism out of the quagmire.
It is not simply the exports of jobs though that is the culprit. Increased productivity plays a role.University of Michigan economist Mark Perry says that "On a per employee basis, manufacturing output per worker increased by more than 50%, from $182,000 in 2000 to $278,000 [in 2010.]" Manufacturing is a smaller part of the US economy in relation to services because it is far more productive than it once was.
Protectionism and free trade are capitalist solutions to the inherent tendency of this system of production to overproduce, to produce more than workers can buy back. This was the cause of the great depression of 1929. Neither of these can solve this problem and both are disastrous for workers as there is no such thing as free or fair trade in a capitalist system and we live in a world economy like it or not. The term "Full Spectrum Dominance", that US capitalism adopted during a few euphoric years after the collapse of Stalinism doesn't exactly ring of egalitarianism and fairness does it. In our system of production, the means of production is in private hands and set in to motion for the profit of these private individual(s). Profit has its source in the unpaid Labor of the working class, we are paid less than the value we produce so there is always a tendency to surplus. Capitalism overcomes this with expansion; it's what drove the invasions in to the markets of the world and it can overcome it temporarily with credit.
China has been a bright spot for GM where it is the market leader but there is already the danger of overproduction in China. There are numerous foreign car producers there but the Chinese domestic industry is also a competitor and as China develops, like all market based economies, it wants' its own auto industry and will favor its development. Dong Yang, vice president of the Chinese Association of manufacturers has warned auto producers to be "cautious" of overproduction and to be "prudent when planning to expand production capacity." The first three quarters of 2010 saw a 50% increase in domestic auto sales over 2009. The problem is, the market has a mind of its own at times doesn't it, prudence be damned.
The recent strikes that brought some wage gains and the massive cash reserves of the Chinese government might well allow the bureaucracy to increase wages and suck up some of the excess production but that has limits; basically there are too many auto plants in the world. Global auto companies don't go to China to raise wages and already, some manufacturers, like the electronics firm, Foxconn are looking for more profitable locales where workers come cheaper.
Disasters like the Japanese earthquake, nuclear meltdown and the increase in oil prices has slowed Chinese auto production somewhat from a 30% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 8% this year as has government efforts to restrict new car sales to ease congestion and pollution. So no matter which way they turn, the market whips them. GM's shares have fallen 18% since the beginning of January says Business Week which doesn't bode well for the company. The taxpayer bought 61% of GM after the crash and still owns 33% of the company although its still privately run. GM shares are down to $31, which are $2 below its IPO price says BW. Meanwhile, the government needs to get $53 a share to break even. It's not looking good. Selling them at a loss would be "politically hard" for the administrations says one GM spokesperson which means that it will anger the taxpayer further hurting folks at election time increasing the possibility of social unrest and most likely both.
Rather than choose between these two market solutions to the problem of overproduction which is caused by private ownership of the productive forces, the situation cries out for public ownership and a rational democratic socialist plan of production world wide. There are global Unions and cross border links between Unions already. But we can never seriously build on these if we join with wasters like Donald Trump or sections of the capitalist class that want their profits protected against their rivals using jobs as the carrot for our support.
All that means is that we join with our bosses in their competition with other bosses for global market share. It simply says that that we lay off the other guy which drives them to join their bosses and all workers lose in this race to the bottom. Apart from that, a significant percentage of US companies' profits come from overseas sales, if workers overseas lose their jobs who will buy these products? It just shifts the layoffs around. We cannot build the solidarity and cross border actions needed to solve the crisis of employment and wages with this strategy. An injury to one is an injury to all as the slogan rightly proclaims. It means "all" workers regardless of nationality or locale, or color or religion or gender It was not meant to include Donald Trump or Warren Buffet.
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