Ontario Autoworkers in the fight of their lives

An estimated 5000-7000 jobs were lost in the Ontario auto industry in the last couple of months as General Motors (GM) announced that it will close its flagship Oshawa truck plant in 2009 and auto-parts companies like Progressive Moulded Products and Magna followed suit shortly afterwards. According to the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW), the Canadian auto industry including both assembly and parts has lost a total of nearly 30,000 jobs since 2001.

This comes hot on the heals of a controversial no-strike agreement between the CAW and auto-parts giant Magna Inc. as well as early concessionary contract agreements between the CAW and the big three auto-manufacturers: GM, Ford and Chrysler.

Upon news of the Oshawa truck plant closing, hundreds of CAW members responded by setting up a blockade of GM’s corporate offices for two weeks before getting slapped with an injunction and a lawsuit by GM. Union leaders complied, urging their members to “stay tuned,” but ruled out any workplace or strike action. Over one month later there has been no signs of any resumption of any protests.

“At this point, we’re not going to pull our workforce out of the plants,” CAW Local 222 president Chris Buckley stated on June 16th, “We understand the auto industry is not very healthy at this time and we’re not going to put our members’ jobs at risk.”

One has to question if the announcement that GM was slashing tens of thousands of jobs in a panicked effort to stem GM’s hemorrhaging of money at a rate of $3 billion a quarter doesn’t already put jobs at risk.

On July 7, only a few days after learning that their employer Progressive Moulded Products had filed for bankruptcy and closed down their 11 Toronto area plants, a large group of angry non-union workers followed the Oshawa lead and set up a picket line to try and pressure for severance pay. While this action started off strong with hundreds of workers out on the picket line, it faded after a couple of weeks as a protocol was agreed to, likely at the advice of CAW leadership that intervened, that saw trucks allowed through the picket line at timed intervals until all tools and equipment were systematically removed. With this crucial leverage gone, the pickets became largely symbolic and it is unlikely that workers will receive any reasonable compensation.

While the pickets in Oshawa and then Toronto show the potential strength of workers to stand up and resist these attacks, they have not been enough. Wildcat strikes, plant occupations and above all organizing with co-workers is required should autoworkers stand up against the bosses and defend jobs. It won’t be easy, but nobody else is in the position to do it. If autoworkers do not respond strongly, even radically, to this blatant attack on their livelihoods, it is likely that these trends will continue in both Canada and the USA.

by Mick S                                                  linchpin.ca

On Sunday, July 27th, anti-fascists (”antifa”) came together from across Southern Ontario to confront and shut down an attempt by long time hate organizers to intimidate the participants of London’s 2008 Pride Parade. Acting on information found posted on white supremacist websites, antifa in several cities were able to organize and produce the numbers despite minimal preparation time.

Close to 30 people gathered at Victoria Park at 11:30AM to discuss the plan for the day and create banners that would be used to block out the homophobic and anti-gay signs. As expected, harassment from the London Police Department was heavy from the get-go. Police used several tactics in an unsuccessful attempt to get information from and intimidate those gathered at Victoria Park (i.e. good cop / bad cop, isolating individuals and pressing for answers, intrusive photographs, etc). The group was approached by the cops repeatedly before they even left the park.

At around 12:15PM the 30-person strong crew left Victoria Park with several large banners, flags, and signs, heading down to pay the the fascists a visit at their meeting spot, the corner of Dundas and Colborne. Rumors had circulated earlier that upwards of 20 white supremacists would be present for the hate demonstration. However, in reality an unimpressive 5 people (including Randall Linton, Melissa Guille, Dave Ruud, and Louis Morin), primarily washed up Canadian Heritage Alliance (CHA) members, managed to drag their sorry selves out of bed early enough on a Sunday to wave around bristle board signs with sloppy slogans scrawled across in black sharpie.

During the initial confrontation a minor incident broke out that resulted in one ARA activist being arrested after a bonehead grabbed at a member of ARA. This police action was completely unwarranted and was a weak attempt to discourage those involved in the ARA demonstration. Our comrade was released from detention after we came together and arranged support for him.

Throughout the entirety of the parade, the fascists’ signs were completely covered by ARA banners and flags, which was not exactly difficult considering that the homophobes were outnumbered by ARA 6 to 1. It did not take long for the members of the CHA and their supporters to become visibly frustrated and downright embarrassed that their day had been such an obviously miserable failure. On several occasions various boneheads found themselves completely alone and encircled by Rainbow banners, pro-Queer and ARA slogans as they scurried up and down the streets.

Towards the end of the parade the fascists called it quits after having several of their signs torn up, being publicly humiliated, and generally having a terrible Sunday out. They dispersed without incident, enjoying the police protection that they had greatly benefited from all day long.
No Homophobia! No Fascist Canada!
- SOUTHERN ONTARIO A.R.A.

“Corporation”- a body or society entitled to act as a single person… an artificial person created by charter etc, made up of many persons. (Webster) 2) a body that is made up of more than one person which is formed and authorized by law to act as a single person with its own legal identity, rights and duties. (Penguin)
“Corporatism”- the organization of society into corporations serving as organs of political representation, e.g. in fascist Italy.

Many Canadian and Multi-National corporations are currently trying to get severe rights and control of resources, services (public or private), infrastructure and finances within Canada and all of North America. The SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America) is the current vamped-up initiative by corporations to further consolidate NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and much more. Closed-door meetings at the executive level of government and the most powerful corporations on the continent have been taking place to hammer out the plans of ‘deeply integrating’ their schemes of economic policy that will affect us all.

Emile Durkheim described government as “the shadow cast over society by business”.

The Main Stream Media (MSM) goes on about how the economy has bottomed out.  We are told that things will be looking up soon.  When is soon?  The end of the year perhaps?  Crazy-ness.  The trends we see in the economy these days are self-reinforcing.  A vicious circle as at were.

The U.S.A. is still the engine of the world: maybe for not that much longer, but definitely at present.  And here in Canada we are directly influenced by events in the U.S. The traditional saying in this regard was: When the U.S. catches a cold, Canada gets the ‘flu.

With these thoughts in mind let’s take a brief look at the state of the U.S. economy both in relation to the near past and the near future.

As you know Capitalism proceeds in a boom and bust cycle.  When there is money to be made in a particular field more producers are drawn to that field.  This snowballs to the point where more product is coming on the market than is required or desired: a crisis of overproduction.  This has happened in the U.S. in several areas (fields) simultaneously.  The phenomenon has been aggravated by the prices of houses being run up and by people borrowing against these inflated assists.

The Banks, instead of holding the mortgages, sold them bundled together and then sliced up according to how likely they were to be paid off.  Many errors were made in these assumptions.  To make a long story short, far more people defaulted on their mortgages than the assumptions suggested.  It seems to have gone unnoticed that the wages of working people have been falling behind the cost of living for over 30 years.  (Our lives are being devalued.)  Thus it turned out that millions of people have been relying on debt of one form or another to maintain their standard of living.

Something that can’t go on forever doesn’t.  It comes to a rather rude and often ragged end.  In February of 2007 we have the Shanghai hiccup.  The Shanghai stock market dropped 7% in one day.  What???  And two hedge funds bled real dollars.  The emergency first aid teams were soon on the scene.  The patient was patched up and sent on his way.  However that August more holes were discovered in the garment.  In fact the economy started to unravel.  Housing prices and construction peaked.  This hidden unemployment added to stagnant and indeed falling wages to rein in consumption (retail mainly).

This February (2008) there was another crisis in the financial sector that was hastily patched up.  Regional and local banks, credit unions and other local financial institutions were back stopped by U.S. federal agencies.  On July 13,14 and 15 these federal agencies came unstuck.  Emergency measures were enacted to back stop the Federal Agencies with the U.S. Federal government itself.  Amongst other measures was included raising the cap on the U.S. Federal debt from US$ 9.6 Trillion to US$ 10.4 Trillion.  This additional $800,000,000,000 should be eaten up under 18 months.  Assuming a ten trillion dollar debt held at 3% interest we see that the U.S. is borrowing $300,000,000,000 per year to cover the interest alone.  Who is going to loan that kind of money to the U.S. when everyone knows that the value of the U.S. $ is dropping and therefore one is paid back in smaller dollars?  Well the interest rate will rise.  Also there is a very good chance the credit will dry up.

This brings us to the current situation.  Two or three times a week a bank fails in the U.S.  Retail is hurting.

A list of some of the retail chains that failed in July:

o    Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide.
o    Eddie Bauer to close more stores after closing 27 stores in the first quarter.
o    Cache, a women’s retailer is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.
o    Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide
o    Talbots, J. Jill closing stores. Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men’s stores plus another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women’s and J. Jill.
o    Gap Inc. closing 85 stores
o    Foot Locker to close 140 stores
o    Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
o    Levitz - the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.
o    Zales, Piercing Pagoda plans to close 82 stores by July 31 followed by closing another 23 underperforming stores.
o    Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores.

o    Home Depot store closings 15 of them amid a slumping US economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world’s largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.
o    CompUSA (CLOSED).
o    Macy’s - 9 stores closed
o    Movie Gallery – video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.
o    Pacific Sunwear - 153 Demo stores closing
o    Pep Boys - 33 stores of auto parts supplier closing
o    Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations to close with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.
o    J. C. Penney, Lowe’s and Office Depot are all scaling back
o    Ethan Allen Interiors: plans to close 12 of 300 stores to cut costs.
o    Wilsons the Leather Experts – closing 158 stores
o    Bombay Company: to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.
o    KB Toys closing 356 stores around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.
o    Dillard’s Inc. will close another six stores this year.

From this and hundreds of other examples we can see that unemployment and underemployment are rising rapidly in the U.S. The cost of fuel and food is also rising.  Now the U.S. government can falsify numbers ’til its blue in the face.  But reality is out there.  Tax receipts are also falling rapidly.  Tax receipts in New York State from banks are down 97% from last year.  Ninety days into this year’s State budget it turns out that the budget was in no way related to reality.  I called it at the time.  California was supposed to have a new budget starting July first.  It hasn’t happened yet.   Tough choices will have to be made.  As it stands now 10,000 State employees have been laid off and 200,000 more have have their wages reduced to US$ 6.55 (C$ 6.40).  This includes forest workers, teachers, nurses, highway maintenance workers, Librarians, etc.

Many trends are coming together at present, scaled back construction, reduced auto production, dropping retail sales, etc. which point to continuing increases in unemployment.  This means dropping government revenue and rising government costs.  It also means increasing debt loads for individuals, families, companies of all sizes and governments at all levels.

This does not bode well for Xmasse sales.  Goods have to be ordered in May so that factories can retool, line up suppliers and a work force and produce the goods.  If the goods are coming from the far East they should be on board by mid-August.  In May the wise man were still talking about the economy improving in the second half.  Hopefully that was just lies for the masses.  If anyone in responsibility believed that fantasy, they will find themselves with a heap of surplus stock come January first. As it is we can assume that some chains overbought.  This will be a quiet Xmasse.

The U.S. Federal government, several states and many corporations including the “Big 3″ auto-makers start their fiscal year on 1 Oct.  The Bush administration has already drawn up the 2009 budget.  It is a poison pill for the incoming administration.  When all is said and done, the 2009 budget will have a deficit of at least half a trillion dollars.  In other words $500,000,000,000,000 will be added to the federal debt by August 2009.  That will leave three hundred billion of the new cap.  The Federal government should burn through that by April 1 2010.  What we are looking at is massive new borrowing by the U.S. federal government.  This will further weaken the dollar forcing the cost in dollars of imported stuff (like oil) to increase.  In other words the standard of living of Yanks, and tax revenue will continue to go down throughout 2009 and 2010.

Thus the 2009 New York budget which must be in place by April 1st 2009 and the 2010 California budget which is supposed to be in place by 1 July 2009 will both demand extra-ordinary cuts to services.  School buses will most likely go.  Many government schools will be replaced with Radical Right Born Again church schools.  Will the U.S. postal service survive?