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Who's to Blame? Layoffs, Imports & Lies

By VVAW

Over the ten-year history of VVAW one of the most important lessons we've learned is that the rich owning class likes to have public opinion on their side before they wage war--they don't have to have it, but it makes wars a whole lot easier for them since they have no intention of fighting the wars themselves.In the beginning, the Vietnam War, if not a popular war, was at least not unpopular. Few opposed it. But as the war escalated the U.S. government couldn't hide its unjust nature and their criminal participation. Millions of people in this country and around the world stepped forward in one way or another, opposing the war. This opposition contributed significantly to ending it.

Since the war ended, times have gotten harder--what with the dollar worth hardly anything and headlines announcing plant shutdowns and thousands thrown on the streets to hunt for jobs that don't exist. From the other side of their mouths, the "makers of public opinion" go on and on about how the economy has stabilized and how things are "recovering." As with the Vietnam War, these guys will lie to us and turn reality on its head; they'll say anything to hide the nature of their rotten system.

In the last couple of months there have been massive layoffs in the steel and electrical industries. These layoffs are the most publicized but are only the sharpest examples of what's happening in the economy overall. "US STEEL Eyes Southworks Closing," "1000 Laid Off at Five Area Plants," "Bethlehem Steel Layoff--7000 at NY, Penn Mills," "Zenith Slashes U.S. Production--Chicago Plants to Close." These headlines in boldface type. In slightly smaller type we read: "Management Blames Imports," "Union Officials Call for Tariff." In the body of the articles themselves (in small type) we can read that company profits are at an all time high.In 1975 Zenith made $31 million in profits after taxes: U.S. Steel's earnings are up 4.5%.

What's going on here? Why the layoffs with record profits? Are the Japanese people to blame? Are Korean and Taiwanese workers getting rich because now they have our jobs? Or is all this screaming about imports a coverup to hide the nature of "our" political system?

Contrary to the crying of the owners of these giant companies, imported products are not "glutting the market." Foreign steel averaged about 15% of all steel sold in the U.S. between 1970-74, went below that mark for a couple of years, and may reach 18% this year. Sony, the larges importer of TVs accounted for only 7.5% of the U.S. market.

What is happening worldwide is that the demand for these products is shrinking relative to what it was a few years ago. Fundamentally, this is what happened during the Great Depression of the 1930's. This crisis of over production intensifies competition among the company owners, both between and within each country. Buyers of these products naturally buy where they are least expensive and they are least expensive where they are most efficiently produced--with sophisticated machines and fewer workers. In the steel industry the U.S. has built only one new plant since World War II. European and Japanese plants and equipment are brand new since the war. RCA has introduced a new chassis for their color sets which is allowing them to sell for $50-75 below the '76 models. Companies that don't have the new efficient equipment and processes are forced to speed up their workers and lengthen the work day to get more and more out of them.The harassment is just like being back in the military. Work is back-breaking.

The bosses are making money hand over fist. But they are not reinvesting their profits in new machines to stay competitive on the world market. Instead they're investing their capital where it will have the greatest return. If plastics, if nuclear energy, or if investing abroad yields more than steel, then that's where they put their money. Capital chases after the highest rate of profit--that's a law of this system. It happens whether we want to do anything about it or not. So we get tosses out of work and can't find any. Plants close down and run to parts of the country where there are no labor unions, or to foreign countries where the cost of labor power is a fraction of what it is here. Many of us who have been stationed in foreign countries know the poverty that workers there face on a daily basis. In Korea and Iran, where many American companies are building factories, it's a capital offense to organize for collective bargaining. American auto companies like General Motors and Chrysler own big plants in South Africa where the Black workers still have one foot in the slave system.

Trapped in an economic crisis of their own making, the capitalist bosses try to put the blame anywhere they can so long as it's not on themselves. What about the jobs for foreign workers? Are we supposed to give up our jobs so they can work? Of course not. What the bosses would really like is to force us down to the same level as workers in Taiwan (at 65 and hour) or South Korea (25 an hour) with unionizing outlawed and benefits non-existent. That would give them the best chance to increase their profits. And workers in other countries aren't going to sit idly by, either--despite the repression of their governments, they too are fighting back (see Iran article on page 12).

Our commanders in government and on the job blame foreign workers for the state of the economy. Their lower echelon officers, the editors and commentators say "Bite the bullet and be ready to fight." Never do they point the finger at themselves and their rich man's system. When we say "Fight the Rich" we mean our only choice is to stand up and aim our blows at the companies who are strangling us right here; get down on who is the real enemy so when the shapers of public opinion say "Stop imports," or "foreign products (and foreign people) are the source of our problems," the American people will say: "No Way! We see through your lies that try to hide the nature of the system. Our fight is right here against you!"