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49,000 U.S. GM Workers Strike South Korean and Mexican GM Workers Join Strike

By Gregory William

Forty-nine thousand General Motors workers began striking on September 16. This is the largest private sector strike in the U.S. since GM workers walked out in 2007. The capitalists are increasingly denying workers benefits and regular jobs as they make super profits from using and discarding workers at will. A major issue of the strike in all three countries is the right of temporary workers to equal pay and job security. This strike helps all workers. As usual, the capitalist government sides with GM as it harasses and arrests strikers on various picket lines.

Members of the United Automobile Workers union, or UAW, the strikers are pushing back against GM’s attacks on the workforce carried out in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 recession. During the recession, the government bailed out GM with $50 billion in taxpayer money, just as they did with the giant banks. Instead of improving conditions for the workers, GM “restructured”, bringing in more low-paid temp workers and subcontractors. Over time, the number of regular, full-time union employees has declined. Employees are increasingly overworked.

GM has effectively increased the level of exploitation in its plants, bringing in $35 billion in profits over the last three years. In 2018, they paid no federal income taxes. Now, they have the nerve to ask employees to pay more for health insurance. The workers are not standing for it.

GM’s anti-worker restructuring shows that, under capitalism today, no workers are truly secure. What we used to call “good jobs,” (jobs with benefits, decent pay, etc.) can be put on the chopping block at any moment. It is increasingly important for workers to stand together, whether we are full-time, part-time, temp, or subcontractors.

One of the most advanced demands of the union is for GM to reopen a car factory in Lordstown, Ohio. GM had shut down this facility, along with plants in other states, as part of a cost-cutting measure that resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs. Workers demanding that a factory be re-opened indicates that the working class is becoming more assertive and confident of its power. The UAW was built when workers occupied the factories they were striking against. The time has come to say, “our labor, our plants!” and take them over.
The bosses need us. We don’t need them!

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Korean Unity at the Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang took a special political significance for the Korean people. The games opened up space for dialogue between the governments of North and South Korea on the topic of peace, space that would be hard to imagine a year ago. They even went as far as having their respective athletes march under a unified flag at the opening ceremony. This represents the deep desire of Koreans across the peninsula for peace and reunification. The U.S. government, however, made it clear that they were actively sabotaging the dialogue. They want to keep the South Korean government on a very short leash and disapprove of any independent moves on their part. And as long as the South Korean government refuses to act independently of the U.S. war-machine, which only wants to increase tensions, there will not be peace in Korea.

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Trump Threatens World With Nuclear War

DISMANTLE U.S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARSENAL

By Dylan Borne

It’s very clear that everyone in Korea wants peace. On January 2nd, North Korea offered an olive branch to the South: they asked to attend the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. South Korea accepted and responded with its own offer—diplomatic talks— which the North accepted. To many Koreans, peace and reunification might be possible.

Yet the United States government, controlled by its capitalist ruling class, continues to press for war. Korea sits on trillions of dollars’ worth of mineral wealth and tens of millions of laborers. The rich that run the US see them like they see their workers— as possible resources. And the US government is stopping at nothing to wage war to take those resources. That’s why:

  • It’s the US, not North or South Korea, that split the country by imposing the 38th parallel in 1945 (a divide and conquer approach)
  • It’s the US that continues to occupy the peninsula with almost 30,000 troops and forced the South to give the US permission in their constitution (Koreans can’t even call their country their own!)
  • It’s the US that continues to make nuclear threats (Trump screaming “my nuclear button is bigger!”)

The corporate media has no right to make North Koreans look like they’re the ones that are war-crazy. Nor does it have a right to make it look like the South supports the US government. The US has over 4,600 nuclear weapons and North Korea has no more than 20. Koreans in the South have been protesting every part of the US military occupation for decades. North Korea pledged that it would never strike first in nuclear war, and it even promised it would stop testing weapons if only the US stopped conducting military drills. But the US refuses when Koreans on both sides ask for peace.

The ruling class in the US wants war for the same reason that it wants to raise our rents and lower our wages: money and wealth. Every bullet, rifle, tank, missile, and warship commissioned by the US military adds to arms contractors’ profits. That’s not even counting all the looting US corporations could do after a war. And our taxes pay for it all. Meanwhile, the rich line their pockets, workers still live from paycheck to paycheck, and the government’s so focused on war that it hasn’t done a thing for our roads or schools.

The Workers Group stands in solidarity with the people of Korea, both for their sake and so we can see money being spent on workers at home.

Let’s see schools built before the next bomb.