The level of euphoria on both issues reflects how deeply depressed the US capitalist class has been of late. The economy is a mess, the political system is broken, their stooges in the Arab world are under fire or have been deposed. The Egyptians won't support the horrific siege of Gaza anymore that the Israeli's and US have orchestrated; good news has been long time coming.
The Bin Laden thing will dissipate pretty quickly as he was pretty much a nonentity and the Arab workers have shown how much of a failure the methods of the Islamists and a disgruntled middle class are. But the manufacturing issue is more important and long lasting.
It is important to reflect on the incredible productivity advances that have been made over the years. Just think of what e mail has done for efficiency or containerized shipping. US manufacturing has seen a 41% decline in employment yet has maintained its share of national output; that's an incredible advance of the productive forces. The increase in the productivity of Labor would easily allow a 25 hour workweek and employment for all; but not in a capitalist system of production.
The BW article* makes some of the same points the Financial Times did yesterday about this study, rising wages in China, lower wages here and that phrase that workers should always look out for, an "increasingly flexible US workforce." This doesn't mean that we exercise more and are much more limber than our predecessors. I think you know that. Business Week says these conditions make us "willing to accept non-Union wages and benefits." They always use this term, "willing". Bolivian children are "willing" to work in mines for next to nothing. Bangladeshi women are "willing" to work in factories 14 hours a day for peanuts. Mexican immigrant Labor is "willing" to work in California fields etc. etc. The fact that more than one million Mexican farmers were driven off the land by NAFTA is an often ignored little detail; the market at work. A more accurate term would be "coercion" and "workplace terrorism"; that's what makes workers more "willing".
The BW article also points out that Chinese wage raises are complicating things for them making not only the US but Mexico more attractive. "Mexico also will benefit as Chinese wage advantage declines." the new study states. Think about this statement. It confirms so simply that there are class interests at work in society. First, they refer to a "wage advantage" that the Chinese have. Well, they can't be talking about the Chinese workers. From the workers' point of view some of the lowest wage rates in the world can hardly be an advantage. If the price of your Labor power was at the bottom of the global heap, how could that be a good thing? And how do Mexican workers benefit? It could mean that the price of their Labor power falls a notch down the ladder below the Chinese but in Mexico's case, the proximity to the US lowers costs also.
In both cases it is the owner of capital that benefits. The benefits accrue to the capitalist not the worker. The capitalist argument to that will be that they will provide a job if workers will accept lower wages, that's the benefit---work or no work---scraping a meager existence or scraping out a more meager existence.
Business week, in a desperate effort to cheer up the US capitalist class paints a rosy future where factory workers in the US are super skilled workers all reading blue prints, operating sophisticated machinery and deciding who gets to be on the Team. The bosses are not stupid. They recognize that through teamwork they can exploit the knowledge that we have about production because we do the work. They create these teams that increase profits and cause workers to savage each other to keep productivity high and isolate Union minded folk. "At other jobs I've had it was just a paycheck" says one such team member, "Here you actually feel like you have a say-so. Out of all the places I've worked, I'd say this is by far the best one" He likes the sense of "empowerment at the non-Union plant" writes BW.
I can accept this as the boss is tapping in to the knowledge workers have about the production process and allowing a limited amount of freedom as part of the "team", plus, we are using mental Labor power more. But it is a phony teamwork, not a collective teamwork because they still own our Labor power and direct it and they also own capital and allocate it, and, they own the final product and the profits. We are on a team where we never get a hold of the ball.
"They aren't going to keep you if you aren't making them money" says another worker in a training program that BW reports on in Wisconsin. Wisconsin will need a training program for all those unemployed teachers and public sector workers.
The great, vibrant private sector needs government help to set up training programs for manufacturing employers. It received as much as $11 trillion in public support to bail it out of the mess it got itself in in 2007 that is still not passed.
It makes me wonder. if Labor creates all wealth, why should capitalists get any share of the profits.
* The Case for Making it in the USA: BW 5-9-11
No comments:
Post a Comment