Auto Workers Need to Fight for Communism
South Africa—General Motors (GM) has announced that it will close its business in South Africa. Eventually close to 2000 workers could lose their jobs at the plant here. At present, the bosses will cut at least 589 jobs at the factory (which will be taken over by Isuzu) and more will lose their jobs as GM closes at least 42 dealerships.
They say this is because “South Africa will no longer provide GM the expected returns of other global investment opportunities.”
What a cover up!
The truth is that the capitalist automotive industry has been gripped in a crisis of overproduction. More cars are being produced than the capitalists can sell for a profit. They have tried for a long time to survive this crisis by cutting jobs from all corners of the world: from Venezuela to India and now South Africa and in the US. Auto workers have to pay for the bosses’ crisis! For the bosses, it’s a decision about where they make the most profit. For us workers, it is a question of life or death.
The auto industry plays a central role in capitalist economies. For every auto worker, many more jobs depend on the auto industry. In times of war, the auto industry produces tanks and other equipment crucial for the military.
The US is a declining power, challenged by the emerging Chinese economy and others. In global affairs, they are losing their grip on most of the markets around the world.
The masses’ cost of living is rising. The working-class masses are waking up and angry. As a result, the US imperialists are advocating fascism with more nationalism. Trump used this “awakening” of the workers to win the election, to supposedly make the US “great” again by calling on the US companies like GM to manufacture, buy and sell local or else face Trump raising tariffs on them.
The imperialist wars, especially in the Middle East and Africa, and the capitalist crisis of overproduction in other industries as well, like steel (especially in South Africa), have left many workers unemployed, desperate, and struggling to meet their needs.
To US rivals like China, this creates a major opportunity for them to move their companies in and exploit cheap labor because workers are desperate for jobs.
The capitalists’ crisis of overproduction means that markets shrink and their competition to control those markets gets fiercer. They need fascism to get workers to sacrifice and fight for the bosses in their wars to control those markets.
No longer must we, the working class, depend on the capitalist bosses to survive. They need us more than we need them. They are all our enemies. They need us so they can exploit us and continue making profit for themselves while we live in the most unbearable conditions.
We are the ones that create and build everything. They are the ones that benefit from all that we have created and produced. We need a society where we are the ones that benefit from what we have produced. We must fight to abolish them and their capitalist system based on exploitation of the masses and privileges, gains or profit for a few (less than 0.1% of the population).
We must fight to establish a communist society world wide where we work and produce for our own needs. Where there is no exploitation and privileges, no money and no wage slavery. There will be no “jobs,” no hiring and firing, no layoffs.
There won’t be any crises of overproduction. There won’t be any markets: nothing will be bought or sold, but instead used to meet workers’ needs. In communism, we workers will decide what to produce and how to produce and distribute it.
We call on auto workers and all workers to read and spread the Red Flag and to join ICWP now and help fight for Communism.
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