The Big Three reaped the short-term profits now they want us to clean up the long-term mess.
Questions for Dean Baker and Robert Borosage...
How come the Canadian government is kicking in three-billion dollars for this Big Three bailout when this is not a Canadian problem?
More important, who cares about the profits of the auto industry except to the extent that these profits are the result of unpaid labor and represent the theft of wealth?
You completely ignore the little fact that the Big Three took those profits they accumulated off the backs of U.S. and Canadian workers in North America; and, like all good capitalists do, they went in quest of cheap labor and natural resources over-seas... you seem to forget that they took the profits with them.
Here is a letter I sent to someone who sent me a letter crying that tax-payers should bailout the Big Three lest these companies going broke create misery for the people of Detroit:
Jane,
You wrote:
Mr. Maki,
I don't know who you are or why you are writing me, but as much as I may agree in principle to much of what you said, living in Detroit and seeing the suffering of working families might jar your ideology a bit. The failure of this "bailout" is utterly anti-union and the suffering here in Detroit will be enormous.
Jane Cassady
bhturtle@aol.com
YES, WE DID!
I received this… written and distributed by you:
From: BHTURTLE
Sent: 12/11/2008 6:28:45 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: HELP!
Michigan's Gov, Jennifer Granholm, just went on TV to ask everyone in Michigan to contact people in other states who have Republican senators and ask you to call your senator's office immediately and let them know you want them to approve Big 3 help without the sudden union busting amendment these hypocrites just tacked on. It apparently was fine to give their ultra-rich friends billions in the financial sector without strings, but now they want auto workers to take HUGE concessions to get any $ for the companies. It's just outrageous. I am sending this to people in Michigan as well, so you can contact your friends also. The worst senators so far in this is Shelby (Alabama), Kyl (AZ), McConnell (KY) and actually just about every other Republican. Please pass this on to your friends also. It may happen as soon as tonight.
All you have to do is google your senator, or go to the US senate website if you can't remember the name...use the # to call (You'll either get some staff person or a voice mail, and also send an email if you can. ). All you have to say is that you want your senator to support Bridge loans to the Auto companies without the anti-union, anti-worker amendment.
Thanks everyone,
Jane
Jane Cassady
bhturtle@aol.com
YES, WE DID!
I am writing you because your call for support of this fiasco and boondoggle reached my desk--- as you obviously intended your call for support of the auto bailout to be distributed widely.
When you distribute such material it is kind of arrogant of you to assume that people with contrary views will not state their opinions in response to you.
You say you don’t know me. So what? What does knowing me have to do with what I sent you? You were not concerned that your cry for this bailout and tears for the demise of the auto industry and loss of three million jobs would reach those like me who you do not know.
However, now we are somewhat acquainted; so, allow me to speak frankly with you.
I think if auto workers and their union leaders acting under the guise of their union are going to mobilize behind a scheme initiated by their employers in a way that drags the rest of us in we all have a right to express our views.
Who am I?
I work with casino workers trying to organize in the Indian Gaming Industry. I am constantly chasing UAW members out of these casinos. Apparently the UAW has no sympathy, empathy nor concern for solidarity with other workers struggling for justice.
I requested of Ron Gettelfinger that he instruct Nadine Nossal--- the UAW’s lead lobbyist in Lansing, Michigan--- to “vigorously oppose” the Gun Lake Casino “Compact;” another “Compact” that will send another two-thousand workers in the Indian Gaming Industry into smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state, federal or tribal labor laws who will join some two-million other workers employed under the same Draconian conditions at over 450 such casino ventures strung out across the United States. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger did nothing as far as acting on my request to him… now he expects the entire nation to respond in support of turning billions of tax-payer dollars over to a pack of crooks and exploiters who mis-managed their industry into oblivion as they raked in tremendous profits. Where are these billions of dollars in profits generated over the last one-hundred years… this wealth has not disappeared into thin air. Those who have adamantly opposed little children getting free lunches in school and have pushed pan-handlers off the streets into prison cells and turned their backs on the hungry and homeless are now begging for billions of dollars in handouts from tax-payers.
Since Ron Gettelfinger and Nadine Nossal have no concern for the plight of casino workers I couldn’t care less if the auto workers see their standard of living brought down to the level of casino workers in the Indian Gaming Industry... then we will all be in the same sinking boat.
Don’t expect us to pay for something the UAW will not support for us. Don’t cry to me about the future of auto workers in Detroit when Ron Gettelfinger has not demonstrated any concern for the plight of their sisters and brothers in the casino industry in outstate Michigan.
I have put forward suggestions to save the auto industry that would be in EVERYONE’S best interest, including auto workers. We all invest… we all own what we invest in… auto workers come out ahead with their contract intact and their livelihoods and standard of living protected as the profiteers and exploiters are pushed out of the picture as vehicles required by society are produced… Wall Street coupon clippers lose; auto workers and tax-payers win.
You reject my suggestions. You come back with you may agree with me in “principle;” I would suggest that you organize people with your “principles” in mind to stand up and fight for those “principles” rather than making the rest of us suffer… and make no mistake about this: the real intent of the Big Three CEO’s bringing forward this bailout request is because they see an opportunity to get out from under their contractual obligations… the auto industry “broke?” Give me a break. They took the profits they made from North American workers and invested those profits overseas in cheap resource and labor markets; and now, not one single congress person, nor one single leader of the UAW has forced these swindlers to even prove they are broke by demanding they open up their books, including of their international operations.
If you really believe that handing over billions of dollars to the Big Three CEO’s will resolve anything; I suggest that the UAW invest its pension and health care funds in this bailout and leave the rest of us out of this.
The other thing autoworkers could do is re-open their contract with the Big Three and agree to work for seven dollars an hour like casino workers do until the management of the Big Three feel they can pay them back with some interest.
The math is really very simple; figure it out.
Three weeks ago I explained to a leader of a large auto local in Detroit the injustices casino workers are being subjected to as he plunked his quarters into a slot machine at the Odawa casino in Petoskey, Michigan. He told me, “Leave me alone; I came here to have fun. Now, if you don’t get out of here I am calling security to toss you out. Buddy, I don’t know who you are.”
So I gave him my card and told him that the next time I catch him sitting at a slot machine wearing his nice fancy UAW jacket I am going to take his picture and plaster it all over the Internet.
Further, I would point out that for over five years we have been fighting to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and Ron Gettelfinger would not even bring the weight of the UAW into the struggle by supporting a very basic piece of legislation brought forward by a group of progressive Democratic state legislators which would have prevented Ford from demolishing the plant until we could find a new venture for the plant--- either public or private or a combination of the two.
I do not mean to sound rude nor uncaring; but, I suggest that you fight for nationalization of the auto industry under public ownership because you know as well as I do that we are in the midst of a very serious economic crisis--- a depression--- and most working people just will never be able to afford a thirty-thousand dollar vehicle under these circumstances--- so, who is going to purchase the vehicles that autoworkers will build?
Only fools would support the present bailout package aimed at bailing out the Wall Street coupon clippers, bankers and top corporate management.
By the way, because the auto industry has been operated for the sole purpose of profit is the reason Detroit is mired in poverty. The wealth created by workers has been systematically stolen… this is what capitalism is all about.
Beyond the very mild reform--- given the depth of this crisis--- of nationalizing the auto industry; you might want to extend your principles to getting rid of this thoroughly rotten and corrupt capitalist system which has morphed into a parasitical imperialist beast bringing misery to billions of working people across the globe.
Oh, you might want to contact Governor Granholm and suggest to her that she call on the Michigan Senate to reject the Gun Lake Casino “Compact” so it can be renegotiated to include protection of rights for casino workers… we are all, sisters and brothers in struggle together for a better life, right?
Also, could you remind Ron Gettelfinger that many of us have concerns, in addition to the future of the auto industry, which extend to trying to create a better life for the rest of us, too.
Perhaps the auto industry should be turned over to the managers of the Indian Gaming Industry under the terms of these “Compacts?” What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
You might want to check out this blog about the future of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant which I created before you start lecturing me as if I don’t care about the plight of auto workers and the communities they live in:
http://capitalistglobalization.blogspot.com/
Now, let’s act on the principles we have in common and fight like hell to save the jobs and livelihoods and protect the standard of living of auto workers as we fight like hell to do the same for the entire working class and all working class communities.
I would suggest you consider what the management of the Big Three really want along with their “bridge loan”:
“But McConnell said the measure "isn't nearly tough enough." The Kentucky Republican also called for a different bill — one that would force U.S. automakers to slash wages and benefits to bring them in line with Japanese carmakers Nissan, Toyota and Honda — in return for any federal aid.”
See complete article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/congress_autos
United States Steel announced they are closing down a huge taconite operation on the Iron Range. Will Ron Gettelfinger call for a bailout of United States Steel, too?
You might also want to check out what I wrote on my blog on the Obama website concerning the “Main Street Recovery Program:”
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/alanmaki/gGx898
Check out this pamphlet by Frederick Engels… this is what he wrote in “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific:”
Commerce is at a standstill, the markets are glutted, products accumulate, as multitudinous as they are unsaleable, hard cash disappears, credit vanishes, factories are closed, the mass of the workers are in want of the means of subsistence, because they have produced too much of the means of subsistence; bankruptcy follows upon bankruptcy, execution upon execution. The stagnation lasts for years; productive forces and products are wasted and destroyed wholesale, until the accumulated mass of commodities finally filter off, more or less depreciated in value, until production and exchange gradually begin to move again. Little by little the pace quickens. It becomes a trot. The industrial trot breaks into a canter, the canter in turn grows into the headlong gallop of a perfect steeplechase of industry, commercial credit and speculation, which finally, after breakneck leaps, ends where it began--in the ditch of a crisis. And so over and over again. We have now, since the year 1825, gone through this five times, and at the present moment (1877) we are going through it for the sixth time.... The fact that the socialised organisation of production within the factory has developed so far that it has become incompatible with the anarchy of production in society, which exists side by side with and dominates it, is brought home to the capitalists themselves by the violent concentration of capital that occurs during crises, through the ruin of many large, and a still greater number of small, capitalists. The whole mechanism of the capitalist mode of production breaks down under the pressure of the productive forces, its own creations. It is no longer able to turn all this mass of means of production into capital. They lie fallow, and for that very reason the industrial reserve army must also lie fallow. Means of production, means of subsistence, available labourers, all the elements of production and of general wealth, are present in abundance. But "abundance becomes the source of distress and want" (Fourier), because it is the very thing that prevents the transformation of the means of production and subsistence into capital. For in capitalistic society the means of production can only function when they have undergone a preliminary transformation into capital, into the means of exploiting human labour power.
Frederick Engels's---
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific/
part of his...
Anti Dühring/
New York: International Publishers, 1935, pages 64-65
How much longer are we going to endure such a rotten capitalist system that creates so much human misery over and over and over again?
With, or without, this bailout, auto workers and the people of Detroit are going to suffer immensely--- just like the rest of us.
Take care.
Yours in solidarity and in struggle,
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: BHTURTLE@aol.com [mailto:BHTURTLE@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 6:13 AM
To: amaki000@centurytel.net
Subject: Re: auto bailout
Mr. Maki,
I don't know who you are or why you are writing me, but as much as I may agree in principle to much of what you said, living in Detroit and seeing the suffering of working families might jar your ideology a bit. The failure of this "bailout" is utterly anti-union and the suffering here in Detroit will be enormous.
Jane Cassady
bhturtle@aol.com
YES, WE DID!
In a message dated 12/11/2008 11:28:55 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, amaki000@centurytel.net writes:
This Letter to the Editor is submitted to the Star Tribune for publication; writer grants Editor the right to edit as seen fit.
November 12, 2008
First Wall Street Bankers. Now the Big Three automakers. Who is coming for a handout and free lunch next? The lobbying industry?
The government is prepared to let the St. Paul Ford Twin City Assembly Plant and two-thousand jobs go down the river because there was no money to save this one plant and now tax-payers are being told, not even asked, that they will be bailing out the entire auto industry.
Obviously free enterprise has failed. Why should tax-payers bailout the Big Three when in a few months the price of each of the Big Three's stocks should be less than one-dollar a share.
Tax-payers will have the opportunity to purchase the entire automotive industry for a real bargain for far less than what the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing us.
A board consisting of all the stake-holders could be brought together and we could finally produce quality products which are environmentally friendly... not to mention affordable.
Capitalism hasn't worked; socialism will.
The Big Three cry poverty after they have taken the wealth created by North American workers and invested that wealth in quest of cheaper labor and resources overseas.
I don't believe politicians would even consider turning over one penny to these greedy corporations without even having had the opportunity to see their books... all the books, including their international operations.
What tax-payers finance, tax-payers should own.
Nationalization under public ownership is the solution to the problems of the auto industry.
The time has come to put People, Jobs and the Environment Before Corporate Profits!
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
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