turers, such as Mitsubishi, Fiat and Rover, have little chance of survival.
The small number of markets which are really expanding - like China and Eastern Europe - are strongly fought OVeR
Massive overcapacity starting there, which will flood the world market in 2006 at the latest. If a crisis is emerging in GM at the moment, this is a glitsch. In recent times Ford was in a worse position than GM/Opel.
Six months ago DaimlerChrysler had the disaster with Mitsubishi. The claim that it is, above all, about the failure of GM in Europe is ridiculous. At the current time GM has to give a discount of $6,000 on the official list price on the US market to sell cars at all.
The second claim, that GM is losing money, above all in Europe, is unreliable. In fact, worldwide the company made an official profit of $3.822 billion US in 2003.
This was an increase of 120.2% as against 2002 (according to Fortune magazine, July 26).
In the third quarter of 2004, GM made a net profit of 440 million US dollars.
The fact that GM claims this is overwhelmingly down to its GM banking subsidiary says nothing. It is obvious that things look bad in the car industry for someone who has to offer a $6,000 discount on every car.
If it pumps these cars onto the market on credit, then it
Dankt Schröder mit der renmitgliedscho makes a profit even with its own banking subsidiary.
The claim that losses are being made in Europe is just as questionable.
In January 2004 the erstwhile chief executive of Adam Opel AG, Carl-Peter Forster, pointed out that the operational losses of 400 million euros at Opel at the time was down to the fact that, although the majority of the costs of developing GMFor further
information see
www.labournet.de
Send messages of
support to the Opel
workers
Fax 0049 234 989
2680.
Mechtur Reichtum Europe-cars, which are sold world-wide by GM, are put down to Europe and above all Opel, the profits from the sale of these vehicles (for example in Asia) are often not put down to Opel or GM Europe.
The conclusion that it must come to a radical reduction of the workforce and works closures in Europe is not convincing. Isn't it the case that all car manufacturers are doing so at this time (such as DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen)?
Isn't the status of the Ford factory in Cologne being changed in such a way as to give the company more flexibility in blackmailing the workforce? Won't the workforce at Saab in Sweden be put under pressure after a successful attack at GM/Opel?
And why is the attack on Opel in Bochum? That factory is running at 100% capacity, unlike Eisenach and Luton (70%) and Russelsheim (58%).
Is GM management taking revenge for the fact that the workforce in Bochum was heavily involved in preventing the wage reductions which were planned in 2000?
There is no reason to believe that there will ever be a halt to the blackmail and attempts to divide the workers.
On the contrary, GM management in Detroit wants to see blood. And whoever has tasted blood and pocketed profits has had their appetite whetted.
As Wolfgang Schaumberg, long-time activist at Opel Bochum, has written:
"The deeper cause lies with an economic system which rests on profit and competition. One doesn't work to meet one's needs, but in order to fulfil the drive for profit."
This vicious circle of blackmail, intensification of work and factory closures will only be broken when there is collective resistance from the workers at GM/Opel/Saab, VW and the other automobile producers. Louise van der Hoeven Hartz IV is a package of benefit reforms that will affect 3.1 million Germans. Benefits will be means tested and many unemployed people will be forced to take low paid jobs anywhere in the country. Demonstrations have been taking place every Monday all over the country, predominantly in former East German towns.
Waiting at the Nicholai Church (the rallying point also for the demonstrations of 1989) that evening we didn't know quite what to expect. People began to arrive, selling papers and giving out leaflets A disproportionate number of police appeared. We chatted to the German section of the CWI as they set up a stall. Suddenly people started assembling and, headed by police vehicles with flashing lights, the march moved off.
As it snaked its way round the city centre streets I realised that there were actually a lot of people involved, ordinary people of all ages, carrying hand made banners and placards. The atmosphere was serious and resolute. The march wound its way to a large civic building with a PA set up on its steps.
Speakers were introduced by Thomas Rudolph of the WASG (Election Alternative For Employment and Justice, the German RESPECT). There were a lot of speakers, benefit
counsellors, trade unionists, local politicians. Several used the example of Britain as how bad things could possibly get in Germany. Someone gave a report back from the ESF, incongruously playing a recording of Billy Bragg saying how great it was that people were on the streets of Leipzig again. The crowd started drifting off long before the speakers were finished. A young protester told me to imagine this same square with 25,000 people in it instead of the 1,000 there were today, as there had been at the beginning. He said the mainstream politicians and the union leadership that had initially supported the movement There were a lot now wanted it to be of speakers, over.
benefit Everyone was counsellors, attacking the trade unionists, reforms, but no-one local politicians. was proposing any Several used the course of action
example of against them that Britain as how would galvanise and
focus the movement. bad things could
There also seemed to possibly get in
be some infighting
Germany. amongst the organisations involved as the guy I was talking to said his group had been instrumental in starting the protests but had now been excluded. Although the movement against Hartz IV and Agenda 2010 seems to be dissipating and may have lost its way, the fact that a significant number of ordinary people were taking to the streets after all these weeks was something that impressed me a great deal. Hartz IV comes into effect in the New Year.
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FRIDAY 19TH NOVEMBER 'Guantanamo: Honor Bound To Defend Freedom *(by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo) 7pm, Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8EP Cast includes Bruce Kent reading Lord Justice Steyn, Clive Stafford Smith - Guantanamo Bay Lawyer, Victoria Brittain. Buy tickets either by sending a cheque payable to Unity Political Fund and send to Respect, Winchester House, 3rd Floor, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5RA or calling the office on 0207 170 4030/4031 with credit card details. OXFORD RESPECT: An evening with Ken Loach, 7.30pm, Asian Cultural Centre, Manzil Way (off Cowley Rd). Entry E3/22, Curry £4 per head. SAT 20 NOVEMBER 1pm-4pm - Musical Protest Against the ExCel Arms Fair (DSEi), outside the ExCel Centre, next to Custom House Docklands Light Railway Station. Singers and musicians needed (all styles but no mikes or amplifiers.) Non-musical participants also very welcome to leaflet, gather petitions and provide visual effects. SUNDAY 21 NOVEMBER 4pm, East Midlands Respect meeting. The Sun Cafe, opposite Lincoln train station TUESDAY 23 NOVEMBER York Stop the War public meeting 7pm, Priory Street Centre, off Micklegate. WEDS 24 NOVEMBER Naomi Klein speaks on Making a Killing: The corporate invasion of Iraq'. Friends Meeting House, Euston, London. Doors open 6.30pm. SUNDAY 5 DECEMBER Occupation and Resistance in Iraq: An International Teach-in. University of London Union Malet Street, London WC1 11am - 5pm Speakers include: Lou Plummer (US Military Families Speak Out) Michael Hoffmann (Iraq Veterans Against the War) Christian Parenti (author of The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq) Sami Ramadani (Iraqi writer, teacher, and activist MON 10 JANUARY 2005 7.30pm - East London Against the Arms Fair meeting at the Garden Cafe, 7 Cundy Road, London E16. (Thereafter there will be meetings on the 2nd Monday each month until the ExCel Arms Fair (DSEi) is cancelled.) All welcome. Please come and share your ideas. WEDNESDAY 6TH JULY 2005 Gleneagles, Scotland Thursday G8 - demonstration, counterconference, actions..
GO B EDITORS: , Terry Conway, John Lister, Liam MacUaid. DESIGN: John Lister Bill Walton, Roger Welch. Printed by Web Press International, London E15. Send us a donation every month - through EDITORIAL BOARD : Mandy Baker, Julia Brandreth, Paul Brown, John Bulaitis, Andrew Burgin, Kathy Lowe, Pauline Roland, Piers Moystn, Karen O'Toole,. SPONSORED BY: International Socialist Group, Socialist Solidarity Network and individuals including Patrick Baker, Andrew Burgin, Brenda and Brian Bushell, Mathew Caygill, Duncan Chapple, Julian Coppens, Frances Curran, Norma Dowd, Andy Gibbons, Jamie Gough, Catriona Grant, Marcus Greville, Patrick Hall, Rick Hatcher, Wayne Holmes, Nick Lidgett, Frank McMahon, Lesley Mahmood, Alan McCoombes, Martin Milne, Piers Moystn, Liz Peretz, Sue Phillips, Surykant Raithatha, Norman Traub, Rick Simon, Colin Smith, Murray Smith, Sarah Taversham, Doug Thorpe, Tony Traub, Tessa van Gelderen, Published by SOCIALIST RESISTANCE, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. Because our production schedules were put back to deal with the ESF special, the next issue of Socialist Resistance will be produced in the final week of December and published in the first week of January 2005. The deadline for feature articles and letters (up to 400 words) will be Monday December 20.