Fighting policies for US carworkers

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We reprint here from the June issue of Labor News, the paper of the Socialist League cratic Centralist) extracts from a joint statement to the Constitutional Convention of the Auto Workers by the Socialist League and the Revolutionary Workers Group.

COsT UF NOT A PENNY DIGNIT FOR ME!!! DCAL NOT Auto workers campairn for cost of living increases • Speed-up. Slowing the lines defence of its own interes une Dosses wro are up to enem capital The 1980 UAW Constitutional Convention faces one of the greatest crises since the formation of the union in the 1930s. For the second time in less than ten years, nearly 35% of American auto workers have been thrown out of work, many with no prospect of returning to a re-opened plant.

And the massive assault on hundreds of thousands of auto workers and their families has just begun.

ployment are certain to run out even at GM and Ford, and the plant shutdowns have just started. According to Chrysler Executive Vice President Harold Sperlich, in the May 26 issue of Forbes, the auto industry needs to shut down another 30 plants to be more "competitive" in the market.

These permanent shutdowns (the auto bosses discuss them openly) would decimate the auto industry in much the same way as plant closures in steel during the last 10 years.

Fraser, Peanuts and Import Controls. In the midst of the deep depression in auto, UAW President Doug Fraser and all those officials who support his regime have absolutely serious progtamme for putting UAW members back to work.

The deepening depression hit the auto industry particularly hard. Workers still had to buy food and energy, but they could and did put off buying new cars.

• The situation will get worse before it gets better. Unemployment (measured by official figures) should rise to eight or nine per cent by year-end. Inflation will be down some by then, but real wages will still be falling. Living standards will continue to decline for both employed and unemployed.

There may be some recovery toward the end of 1981 but the recovery will be short-lived. The 1980s will be grim for UAW members and for workers generally.

World Protectionism would be another big step on the road to depression, fascist terror and world war.

Working people will find no solutions on that road. But US workers, fighting alongside German, Japanese, Brazilian and South. African workers, can create their own workers' solutions to the capitalist crisis.

Many of these solutions can be found in the militant traditions of the UAW.

Inflation. The problem of inflation can be solved through a full and unlimited cost-of-living allowance (COLA) to replace our present, partial and inadequate COLA. COLA increases should be determined by workers' committees in the unions (not by the bosses' Layoffs and Plant Closings. The problems of layotts and plant closings can be solved by dividing the available work among the available workers, with no loss in pay.

This is the idea behind the traditional UAW demand of "30 for 40" (30 hours work for 40 hours pay) which even local union officials like Frank Runnels claim to back.

Ban overtime

Combining a sliding scale of hours with a ban on compulsory overtime and retirement at full pay after 20 years would eliminate general unemployment in the auto industry.

Specific layoffs and plant closings could be prevented through strike action; including mass picketing and plant occu400,000. 750 FOR ESTES down, hiring more workers, and renegotating production standards to lower the work load, enforced by unlimited local and national right to strike, could eliminate spced-up.

Racism and sexism. Seniority access to all jobs and apprenticeship programmes, union control of hiring, recruitment and training, and getting foremen off the plant floor could greatly reduce race and sex discrimination on the job.

Bankruptcies. Chrvsler and American Motors may object that they cannot afford a full CULA, "3U tor 40" and nATI other measures we demand.

Our union must force bankrupt company to open its books. If it is unable to meet our demands, then the union should take it over. Expropriate the company without compensation to its wealthy owners, and let the workers control its operation through the union.

To answer the capitalist crisis with these workers' solutions will require very militant action. The UAW would have to pull its entire membership out on strike against the corporations and against their We would have to call on the rest of the labour movement to back up our strike with a general political strike of the working class against the capitalist class.

Such a general strike would It would break the resistance of the corporations and open the The failure of the trade unions to launch a workers party during the 1930s is today coming back to haunt the labour movement.

Fraser's attempt to "pressure" the Democrats by supporting Kennedy is not taken seriously even by Fraser himself. In the midst of the 1980 presidential election.

because of their continued support of the Democrats and Republicans.

UAW support for Carter in the last election has brought nothing but misery to UAW members. Pressure by UAW staffers to drop Kennedy and support Carter is ludicrous and despicable in the face of what Carter has done to American workers.

The only policy Fraser can muster is collaboration with the bosses to impose import controls against Japan and the rest of the world.

In most locals, including the Rouge, local officials are not fighting the companies to stop the shutdowns but are pushing for unity with the bosses against foreign auto workers.

This policy will continue to lead to longer unemployment lines and increased speed-up and exploitation of those workers left in the plants.

Instead of protectionism, American workers need interC.O.L. 16 FENSICAS IN'* 6 ears in foreign operations.

New Programme and Strategy. A new programme and strategy is needed if the UAW is to survive. The auto companies must be nationalized under workers' control (not just a token Fraser on the Chrysier board of directors).

Shutdowns must be stopped by workers who occupy the plants. The UAW, in every local and through the International, must begin running and supporting labour candidates for all offices including president of the U.S.

Delegates at this convention have the opportunity (despite the rigged mikes and controlled votes) to break with Fraser and begin the process of the election of officers who have principles and a programme to defend UAW members.

Forged in battle

Whether or not this happens at the 1980 convention, it is necessary and will come sooner or later. The later it comes the more violent it will be. The UAW was forged in battle and it will defend itself in battle, without the wimperings of the Frasers and Woodcocks.

Why are more than one-third of all auto workers out of work? Why are the companies closing plants from Mahwah, New Jersey, to Detroit to Los Angeles? Why does the auto industry face depression conditions?

For years the U.S. auto com(DemoUnited factories able to produce smaller, more fuel-efficient, better-made cars.

Because of this, Japanese, German and other foreign cars have been able to capture a fourth of the U.S. market. Chrysler (with its dinosaur Aspen/Volare) is legendary for mismanagement but Ford (firetrap Pinto) and GM (tin-can Vega) are not far behind.

But the problem goes beyond capitalist mismanagement. The underlying cause of Carter the auto crisis is the world capitalist economic crisis.

With their profit rates down, the monopoly capitalists for several years have refused to invest, even while they have been pushing their prices skyhigh.

Workers have been thrown out of work, while inflation has cut real wages by five per cent und more in each of the last several years. Workers borrowed money to keep up their living standards as long as they could, but in the end consumer demand collapsed along with investment demand.

Government cutbacks in social services make the problem even worse.

No Dems! Labour Party Now! Already in California, the head of the state AFL-CIO John Henning has been forced by rank and file pressure to call for discussion of the formation of a labour party.

100,000 California carpenters have called for the creation of a labour party now. This UAW convention can provide leadership to the entire American labour movement by refusing to endorse either of the big business candidates and by calling for a national conference of all labour to begin the formation of a labour party.

Resolution. Submitted by UAW Local 160 to the 1980 convention is a resolution calling for the formation of a The passage of this resolution would only be a step forward for the UAW and the entire labour movement if the rank and file forces the bureaucrats to carry it out.

The rank and file must have full democratic control over the building of a labour party in order to give it a militant programme for workers' control and strict independence from capitalist parties.

"Alternative"

In Canada the UAW leadership backs the New Democratic Party (NDP) as a social-democratic "alternative" to the capitalist parties.

This is not enough, because the NDP is not directly controlled by the labour movement and its programme falls far short of what workers need.

Meanwhile, in the US, Fraser retuses even to break with the Democrats. American labour's continuing endorsement of the capitalist parties shows its backward position, even compared to Canada.

American unions should break with the Democrats and Republicans and build workers' party to fight for a workers' government. „ A workers government would have a policy and practice of nationalisation of major industries such as oil and auto under workers' control.

It would have a policy of spreading the work at full pay until every worker has a job and a decent income.

The rank and file membership of the trade union movement must have a direct say on all candidates and policies of a labour party if it is to truly represent the working people of this country.

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INDUSTRIAL NEWS Mass meeting of CAV Acton workers against redundancies in 1975

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way to working class political power, a workers' government.

Fraser and virtually all UAW officials are politically paralysed

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