Vol. 74/No. 47 December 13, 2010
Every time the capitalists hit a downturn in their profits, they try to get us to see their problems as our problems. We have to figure out how to work faster for less money so our company can compete better against rivals abroad. We have to make tough decisions about the budget deficit. But its not our deficit.
Recently, the bosses at General Motors celebrated the fact that the company made $1.9 billion in profits last quarter. The automakers recovery has come at the cost of tens of thousands of jobs, wage cuts of up to 50 percent, and speedup on the assembly line. Wheres the shared sacrifice?
Now the White House and Congress want to extend this, saying, Sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government. After all, small businesses and families are tightening their belts. The bosses and their politicians always try to pit workers against one another, to disguise the real source of the problemthe profit system. They tell us federal workers are greedy because they get a cost-of-living-allowance, health insurance, and pensions. Unionized workers are to blame; theyre too highly paid and the boss cant arbitrarily fire them. The elderly are driving up the cost of Social Securitytheyre living too long!
What working people need is not more sacrificewe need jobs, quality housing, education, health care, and secure retirements. The capitalist system is proving itself less and less capable of providing these basic needs even as worker productivity is higher than ever. Capitalist governments are increasingly detached from the reality of everyday life for working people as they scramble to bail out banks and big corporations on the backs of our labor.
Workers need a revolution in this country that mobilizes millions of working people in a struggle to end exploitation, racial oppression, wars, and environmental degradation that the capitalist system perpetuates; and begin the fight for a socialist world.
Related articles:
Workers in Ireland protest govt austerity
Capitalists press wage cuts, layoffs
White House targets govt workers for wage freeze
Official inflation is flat; food, energy prices rise
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