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Vol. 72/No. 47      December 1, 2008

 
Workers hit with more
layoffs, cuts worldwide
(front page)
 
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS  
Layoffs, wage cuts, and reductions in social services continue to spread around the world as the capitalist economic crisis deepens. In some cases, workers are resisting the attacks.

Mining companies “are shuttering operations and firing thousands of workers across South Africa, Australia, Canada, and Russia,” reported the Wall Street Journal November 17. Tin smelters across Indonesia, where nearly 25 percent of the world’s tin is made, are halting production.

Layoffs are rapidly mounting in South Africa. Some 71,000 jobs were eliminated in the third quarter, reported the South African newspaper Business Day. In mid-November Uranium One, a Canada-based company with mines in South Africa, said it would lay off more than 1,000 workers. The National Union of Metalworkers reported General Motors SA is cutting 2,000 employees there before the end of the year. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 workers walked out at Lonmin’s Limpopo platinum mine November 11, demanding increased pay to match wages at the company’s other operations.

In Chile some 400,000 public workers conducted a two-day national strike November 11-12 to demand a 14.5 percent wage raise. The action was in response to rising inflation, which was nearly 10 percent over the past year.

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said November 10 that Brazil and other South American countries “are in better condition to face the crisis than rich countries.” However, in October bosses slashed 10,000 jobs in São Paulo, Brazil’s most industrialized state. General Motors is temporarily shutting two of its three São Paulo plants and laying off some workers at the third plant. Stock prices in Brazil have plunged more than 50 percent since May.

Of growing concern to Washington is the political instability and working-class resistance U.S. rulers know they will face as economic conditions worsen. “Experts See Security Risks in Downturn: Global Financial Crisis May Fuel Instability and Weaken U.S. Defenses,” headlined a November 15 Washington Post article. This “could weaken fragile governments in the world’s most dangerous areas” and “threaten the survival of friendly regimes from Pakistan to the Middle East,” the Post stated. In response, the capitalist rulers insist upon expanding funds for military and “intelligence” operations.  
 
Street protests in China
With slowing exports, at least 67,000 factories in China have closed in the first half of the year, according to Chinese government statistics. Thousands of workers have taken to the streets to demand back pay. Until recently, the Chinese economy was growing at double-digit rates. Those rates are now plunging, with the annual growth rate increasing in October by 8.2 percent, down from 17.8 percent last March.

Japan, with the world’s second-largest economy, saw its gross domestic product decline for two consecutive quarters and is now officially listed as being in a recession, as are Germany and Italy. Data released by the European Union November 14 show that the entire euro-zone economy is also in a recession.

Some layoffs are devastating whole towns in Canada and the United States. Blue Note Mining shut its zinc and lead mine in Bathurst, Canada, a town of 12,000 dependent on jobs at the mine. DHL ended U.S. domestic service, closing its distribution hub in Wilmington, Ohio. Out of the town’s 12,000 residents, 7,000 no longer have employment. “Can a town go bankrupt, like Iceland?” one Wilmington man asked, according to Reuters. Ohio’s unemployment rate is 7.2 percent, above the official national rate of 6.5 percent.  
 
Bailout fund recast
A month and a half after Congress approved a $700 billion bank bailout fund to purchase “troubled mortgage assets,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced November 12 that this program is being halted. Instead, it’s being recast as a plan that would supposedly aid consumers.

Federal funds will now be available not just to banks but to insurance companies and other financial institutions that issue student, auto, and credit card loans. During the past month the federal government has already given nearly $300 billion to more than 40 banks and financial companies, including insurance giant American International Group.

The mayors of Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Atlanta have requested at least $50 billion of these funds.

In Atlanta, Mayor Shirley Franklin is seeking to institute a hiring freeze and a 10 percent reduction in wages and work hours for city workers from December through June.

In New York, Governor David Paterson is insisting on huge cuts in funds for health care and education and the reopening of union contracts. He wants state workers to give up a 3 percent raise due next year and to defer five days’ pay this year, to be repaid when they retire. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is calling for eliminating 300 parks department jobs and closing 44 dental clinics.  
 
 
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