NEXT MONDAY June 1 GM will seek Section 11 Bankruptcy, cutting off GM Europe with less cash than is required to see the week out.
GM in the US is now being prepared for administration and restructuring with the Obama administration committed to a 70 per cent share in the company. This will make the giant automaker, the first US ‘nationalised’ industrial giant – because under capitalism it was unable to stand up on its own two feet as a privately-owned concern.
The UAW trade union will own the remaining 30 per cent share.
True, the intention is to hand GM back to private owners as soon as it is possible. However, its bankruptcy is an expression of the bankruptcy of the entire capitalist system, and the fact that it has long been rotten ripe for socialism.
Meanwhile, the German government is bankrolling, with billions of euro guarantees, the take over of GM Europe by either Fiat or Magna, with GM favouring Magna, since Fiat has acquired a 20 per cent share in Chrysler, GM’s US rival.
The German government wants all the German Opel plants to stay open.
The British government is meanwhile strapped for cash, having handed over a trillion to the banks. It has no intention of providing the same support for GM Vauxhall as the German government is willing to provide for Opel.
Yesterday, Business Secretary Mandelson declared that both bidders for GM Europe had committed to UK production.
This is Orwellian double speak. It means that Vauxhall Luton will be shut, while Ellesmere Port will face major sackings and is to be phased out.
The latest reaction of the Unite leadership to the crisis is the Woodley statement of yesterday. He said: ‘The UK government must now finish the job its been working on. That means being at the meeting table when the final decisions for the ownership of GM Europe are made. The future of our plants and jobs are at stake.
‘Germany will be thinking strategically about manufacturing, not just for the next two years but the next 25 years. I believe the British government should be doing the same.
‘It’s crucial that we don’t allow any other government to drive through a plan which reflects only one country’s interests.
‘We also need to make sure that we put British money up in the way that the Germans have done and the Spanish will do. Britain needs to play its part to secure a future for jobs at Luton and Ellesmere Port.’
Woodley does not even demand that there be no Vauxhall sackings, just that Labour must secure a ‘future for jobs’ that reflects the ‘country’s interests’. Since the bosses run the country their interests are not the same as the working class.
He refuses to demand the nationalisation of the two Vauxhall plants under workers control. Instead he raises fears that Germany’s interests will triumph.
The Unite co-leaders favour short-time working and are in an alliance with ex-CBI boss Lord Digby Jones. The Unite leaders are incapable of defending the jobs at GM Vauxhall or jobs anywhere for that matter.
There must be a socialist policy for this crisis.
The Unite union must support a workers occupation of Luton and Ellesmere Port plants and must demand that the two plants be nationalised. It must form a common front with GM workers in Europe to defend every job, and see every plant nationalised.
In the UK, Unite must be prepared to organise the TUC to take strike action to remove the Brown government, to bring in a workers government to nationalise the GM plants and all plants threatened with closure. This is the way forward. Woodley sold out Vauxhall Motors in 2001. He must not be allowed to sell out GM Luton and Ellesmere Port in 2009.
