Auto Workers Fell for Bosses’ Racist Lie, Lost Jobs Anyway!
By Gavrielle Gemma
In 1982 two white working-class men brutally murdered Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old Chinese worker in Detroit. For Vincent, this was his wedding day that was never to be.
In 1982 auto bosses and politicians were waving flags and spewing racism by saying it was Japan’s fault that auto plants were closing. Japanese cars were burned on the street. The auto bosses laughed as they shifted the blame from the greedy company owners to innocent Asian people.
Auto Companies Used Profits to Speed Up and Move Plants Abroad
Layoffs were widespread in the auto industry because the auto companies took the millions in profit made from the labor of workers and sent their plants to other countries around the world to pay low wages. They also reinvested these profits in new technology that made more cars with fewer workers.
Workers should have fought for the profits produced by their labor to be used to benefit their communities instead of benefiting the company owners’ pocketbooks. The U.S. auto unions should have and still should make solidarity with autoworkers around the world. This is the way to raise wages for all.
Today, both Trump and Biden are trying to get us to blame China for everything. They’re trying to get workers to buy into their trade war and prepare for an out and out shooting war. But the Chinese government is not the one refusing to give us economic aid, evict us, or throw us in jail. They’re not letting our children go hungry or killing us with COVID-19.
A tiny handful of disgustingly rich people have used their hoarded wealth to buy mansions and Ferraris while 40 million of us are unemployed. Trump’s giant tax cuts for the rich weren’t used to create jobs but to buy more mansions. A few hundred billionaires in the U.S.—OPP would comfortably house all of them—have increased their wealth by $1,000,000,000 since the beginning of the pandemic.
It’s time we looked the problem in the face. Greedy capitalists and the politicians that protect them are at the root of our troubles. We need to organize for living wage jobs, to cancel our debts, to stop evictions and foreclosures, and end hunger. We need to say no to anti-Asian racism, yes to unity. There are so many more of us than the tiny handful of capitalists. Let’s flex our muscle and fight the real enemy.