5) Welcome Back
by wwnews
6) Mass Layoffs, not Recovery
by wwnews
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 24, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EDITORIAL: WELCOME BACK
Those listening to Pacifica Radio's WBAI in the New York
area at 6:00 a.m. on Jan. 15 were warmed to hear familiar
voices that had been missing from the listener-supported
station for almost 13 months. Bernard White was back hosting
the morning show with Amy Goodman. Robert Knight was doing
the news section of the show, another welcome change from
recent WBAI broadcasts, whose content had been barely
distinguishable from that of National Public Radio.
A combination of persistent, large listener mobilizations
and legal challenge had stopped the plans of the Pacifica
National Board, which seemed headed in the direction of a
corporate takeover of the station. With a new interim board
now in place, it appears that WBAI and the other Pacifica
stations will remain out of the control of corporate
sponsors, at least for the time being.
The national Democracy Now! show, co-hosted by Goodman and
Juan Gonzalez, has also returned to its 9 a.m. slot on WBAI,
and on Martin Luther King's birthday featured an interview
with actor Danny Glover, who has spoken out against the so-
called "war on terror."
In recent years, the morning show hosted by White and
Goodman had played an essential role in spreading the word
of struggle in the New York area, especially with regard to
fighting police brutality, for the freedom of Mumia Abu-
Jamal, and against racism in general. It had also provided
an opening from time to time for anti-imperialists to
discuss questions of war and peace.
We hope this and other sorely needed progressive programs
will be continued and extended in the future.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (wwnews)
Date: torstai 17. tammikuu 2002 05:44
Subject: [WW] Mass Layoffs, not Recovery
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 24, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
MASS LAYOFFS GIVE LIE TO TALK OF RECOVERY
By Heather Cottin
More than 2 million people in the U.S. lost their jobs in
2001. Workers are being cast out into the cold from one end
of this country to the other, and are getting the message
that they'll just have to wait until the next capitalist
upturn to do anything about it. But this has happened
before, and something can be done about it.
The old union song, "Solidarity Forever," gave voice to the
feelings of millions of workers during the Great Depression
when it said, "It is we who ploughed the prairies, built the
cities where they trade; Dug the mines and built the
workshops, endless miles of railroad laid; Now we stand
outcast and starving 'midst the wonders we have made."
It was a bitter condemnation of capitalism.
And then it added, "But the union makes us strong."
Out of that cruel and painful collapse of economic life came
a fighting workers' movement full of hope and promise.
This is not another Great Depression--yet--but the Bureau of
Labor Statistics indicates that from October 2000 to
November 2001, unemployment in the U.S. grew from 3.9
percent to 5.7 percent. Job losses continued in December and
the unemployment rate moved up to an official 5.8 percent.
That conceals, of course, the many millions not counted as
jobless because they worked a few hours a week, or are
undocumented, or found no jobs when they got out of school,
or are in prison, or went into the military because they
couldn't find work.
NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND WEST, ECONOMY IS 'LOUSY'
The government and media have worked hard trying to convince
people the economy is in the tank because of terrorism.
Certainly New York City has lost a lot of jobs since the
attack on the World Trade Center--the estimate is 100,000--
but in other cities around the country economic life is just
as "lousy," wrote Leslie Eaton in the Home Front column of
the Jan. 13 New York Times.
In Danville, Va., unemployment is at 9 percent. In Yuma,
Ariz., in the Sunbelt where new economic opportunities were
supposed to be so promising, it's 20 percent. Unemployment
rates of 10 to 20 percent are plaguing regions of
Washington, California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, according to Eaton.
Devastating job losses have thrown workers into poverty who
once built furniture in North Carolina, computers in
California, and cars in New York. Unemployment in the
smaller cities across the U.S. has risen precipitously.
In New York State itself, "the unemployment rate has risen
more sharply in Binghamton and Elmira than downstate,"
giving the lie to those who view the crisis as emanating
from Sept. 11.
As Eaton put it, "Most of the job losses have been in
industries making things."
IMPLOSION OF MANUFACTURING
The website of the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that
"In 2001, a number of industries lost more than 10 percent
of their total employment--electrical equipment (-15.2
percent), leather (-14.5 percent), apparel and textiles (-
13.1 percent each), primary metals (-10.8 percent),
industrial machinery (-10.7 percent), and furniture (-10.6
percent)."
There is hardly an industry that has not seen its number of
employees decline. Steinway piano has fired skilled
craftspeople. Bombardier Aerospace is cutting 700 jobs in
Kansas.
In Denver, Lockheed Martin is cutting 10 percent of its
workforce. General Motors is forcing 5,000 workers into
early retirement in the Midwest. Burlington Industries, once
the largest textile manufacturer in the United States, will
cut 4,000 jobs in North America. AT&T announced on Jan. 4
that it plans to lay off 5,000 employees this year.
In Neenah, Wis., the Plexus Corp., one of Wisconsin's
largest technology manufacturers, announced it is cutting 5
percent of its global work force. (AP, Jan. 3) The list
grows daily: 6,500 job cuts at American Express Jobs, 6,000
at Aetna.
An AFL-CIO analysis of the layoffs between Sept. 12 and Dec.
31 of last year broke them down by economic area:
* manufacturing, 363,345
* hospitality, tourism and entertainment, 139,156
* *transportation, 138,855
* communications and utilities, 101,526
* public administrators, insurance, real estate and
financial workers, 79,000
* service industries, 46,008 people
* retail trade, 25,749
Financial workers are losing jobs, too. Merrill Lynch has
fired 11,000 employees since 2000, and does not appear to be
letting up, with even investment bankers and stock analysts
joining the ranks of the unemployed.
At law offices in metropolitan areas, firings have become
routine as business declines.
Cigna will cut 2,000 jobs in the insurance industry,
according to the Philadelphia Inquirer of Jan. 10.
Economists now are talking about the possibility of a
recovery. Do they mean for the bosses or the workers?
Ford Motors gave the answer Jan. 11 with its blockbuster
announcement of 35,000 layoffs, 22,000 of them in North
America Ford had already cut 10 percent of its salaried
employees last August.
YOU'RE NOT FIRED, YOU'RE 'RESTRUCTURED'
The capitalists now avoid the use of the word "firing." They
tried to avoid using the expression "layoffs." "Downsizing"
began to sound ugly, too. So when Lucent Technologies fired
5,000 workers in August, they began the trend of naming the
callous dismissing of workers "restructuring." Merrill Lynch
called it "staff reduction." Cisco Systems Inc. beat all
with the atrocious phrase, "normal involuntary attrition."
No amount of spin can hide the fact that workers are facing
the loss of jobs in every state.
Nor are massive firings confined to the United States. Car
and truck maker DaimlerChrysler announced it will fire
between 5,000 and 6,000 German workers. Consignia, Britain's
newly privatized postal service, is eliminating 30,000
workers. In the industrial capitalist economies, massive
layoffs are epidemic.
Unions in the U.S. seem stunned by the layoffs. They can
look for inspiration to what workers in other countries are
doing.
In Canada, the Ford announcement of mass firings was met
with militant and righteous anger. The head of the Canadian
Auto Workers Union, Buzz Hargrove, immediately threatened a
strike to keep a Ford truck factory in Oakville, Ont., from
shutting down. "I am angry and frustrated," he said. "I
don't accept the logic of Ford Motor Company."
The auto workers took to the streets of Quebec last April in
opposition to the free trade agreements that they knew would
cost workers their jobs. Joining the thousands who descended
on the city to protest the Free Trade Agreement for the
Americas, Canadian Auto Workers proclaimed their "outrage at
the loss of our rights to corporations and the effect it has
on our jobs, the air we breathe, the water we drink, health
services and education." (CAW Website)
In autumn 2001, Moulinex, the French-based electrical
household appliance manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy and
announced the elimination of 3,700 jobs. Workers responded
by occupying plants and adopting other hard-line tactics.
They marched on Paris and received overwhelming support from
other sectors of the working class. The conflict ended with
an agreement on enhanced compensation for workers who lose
their jobs.
Last year the Daewoo workers in Korea fought back against
layoffs that threatened to impoverish their class. They
fought the police who responded to their demonstrations with
violence. They mounted massive strikes against layoffs. They
took on GM in an effort to fight for their rights.
Globalization has created a truly international working
class. Workers are facing the very same capitalists and the
very same economic crisis around the world.
U.S. workers and their unions need solidarity with the
workers of the world. They need to embrace some of the
righteous anger and dignity that impel Argentine and
Canadian and Korean and Nigerian and French workers to
challenge the bosses and the governments that defend
capitalist greed.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
