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Unemployment: Crisis Thrown on Workers

By VVAW

Well, they've come out and admitted it. The Untied States is officially headed into a recession. President Ford has finally had to admit that all is not well in Mudville these days. We don't thing this news comes as a surprise to millions of Americans -- those of us who have been trying to keep up with inflation and increasing unemployment, while noticing the big monopolies' super-profits. In fact, our whole economic system is really in deep trouble, so deep that it is scaring the hell out of our supposed leaders.

For the third straight quarter in a row, the production level of this country, the GNP, has continued to fall. Used as a prime indicator of economic health, the fall in the GNP hearls what for most Americans has become an increasingly desperate fight to stay above water. However, it is another aspect of economic health that really lays bare the crisis now facing this system -- the amount of people out of work. The rate of unemployment is steadily on the rise and is now at a national rate of 6%. But that's the government statistic -- pampered and juggled to reflect the lowest possible rate.

What is really happening is that millions of people, after looking high and low for jobs, are giving up that search. These are the figures that are not reflected in government statistics. Their figures also omit the fact that a large percentage of those considered employed are actually working part time, unable to find full time jobs. What is the government afraid of? They are afraid that when the real facts come out, people are going to get fighting made. And what are those facts? That the national unemployment rate is almost double what they say it is, when adjusted for all the people government figures leave out. Instead of 6%, unemployment is at a rate of almost 12%, and things are getting worse everyday. Particularly brutal is the fact that many urban Black communities face unemployment rate of 40% and over.

Auto workers are some of the hardest hit by the current tidal wave of layoffs. General Motors has announced that it will have 75,000 less workers by the end of the year, let alone the fact that GM already has 73,000 less workers that they had last year (1973). Chrysler is closing down almost all of its plants for the month of December, throwing an estimated 100,000 people out on the streets; a move which can cause thousands of related layoffs. This is particularly hard on Black workers in Detroit because they constitute 80% of that plant's workforce. Ford Motor Co. is also moving rapidly to cut back on its number of employees. All over the country, auto plants are cutting back and each cutback in direct production causes a whole "wave" of layoffs in related industries.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The jobless rate in the construction industry, the people that make our buildings and homes, is around 12%. The rate is also high in furniture, clothing, rubber goods, glass goods and machinery. The hardest hit are the so-called blue collar workers with a 7.3% unemployment rate, while white collar workers face almost 4% unemployment. As stated by john Bregger, an analyst for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "The typical unemployed person is blue-collar and semi-skilled, probably an assembly line worker." However, that's no cause for joy amongst white-collar workers, as their jobs are literally dependent on what happens in heavy industry.

You think it couldn't be worse? You're wrong, especially if you are a young veteran. Carefully hidden away in all those statistics is the ugly fact that he unemployment rate for vets between 25-34 years of age is a rousing 9.9%, and that's the "official" figure. You can bet your last dollar (the one you're holding) that it's a lot higher than that. Topping that off, in the same age group, Black vets face twice the jobless rates of white vets, and its doesn't look any better for other Third World veterans. In many cases, vets make up a majority of those being laid off, as is the case in the auto industry. This is the little gem the military recruiter never revealed. You get called on to fight a rich man's war, one that you have no interest in; and when you get back, the rich man could care less about hiring you. In fact, the conditions that veterans face contains one of the keys to understanding exactly what is happening, why the supposed "free enterprise" system is in crisis, why peoples' jobs are disappearing like snow in the desert.

Basically, our employment problems amount to the fact that the giant corporations, whose financial fingers extend throughout the worlds, are finding those fingers being chopped off little by little. A big chop came from the Vietnamese people who actively resisted the use of their country as a resource for US corporate profits and resources, and their struggle has inspirited other countries under the thumb of US domination to remove the US fingers from off their throats. At the same time, while the markets for US corporate expansion aboard are closing, there is no market or room for expansion here in America.

All of this leads us back to the conditions that vets face. After pumping billions of dollars into the war in the futile attempt to stop the liberation struggles of the Indochinese people, the US financial wizards have nothings left for the men and women they yes to fight in that war. Not only are jobs scarce for all, but because vets lost time in the military from the job market, because of the half-million less-than-honorable discharges, and because there are not training programs adequate to help, veterans have become less employable than many of their civilian counterparts. President Ford even considers a 23% raise in the GI Bill as inflationary, when it would have to be raised 300% to equal World War II levels.

Why doesn't the system provide help? Because it can't; it is too busy trying to force its crisis onto the backs of all poor and working people -- by speed-ups, runaway shops, price hikes, and most importantly, by unemployment. The giant monopoly corporations and their interests, the need for greater and greater profits, runs smack up against our needs -- decent jobs, good education, good health care and a decent life. The people of this country need jobs, and we need them fast.