Re: [A-List] Chrysler at the Private Equity Gates of Hell

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

> I thought perhaps the story of MMC from  late 90s on might reveal
something for the analysis of Cerberus and the new  Chrysler Group. MMC
changed hands a number of times and, as far as I can  tell, would
appear to be back in control of the Mitsubishi Keiretsu. Wonder  just
who took whom for a ride in all that. <  

Comment 
 
Remembrance of the Mitsubishi days slowly fades, but I clearly remember  
their 2.5 engine, used in the first launch of the mini-van segment created by  
Chrysler (1984/85), was always superior to our domestic produced 2.2 engine.  
Chrysler's interest was superior production technique and superior quality  
products. Later this "jointness" lead to manufacturing several cars distributed  
under different names through Chrysler and Mitsubishi networks.  
 
The most intense and sharpest struggles within auto, have erupted from the  
Chrysler sector over the last 40 years. The last sharp and intense strike in  
auto was April 1997 at Chrysler's Mound Road Engine Plant. This strike  and a 
complex mix of other factors would eventually lead to the removal of our  local 
union President, (Local 51), Sam Nardicchio. Sam would later sue the  
International Union for illegal removal from office and win. The Local 51 strike  
struggle closes out a chapter in the history of American industrial unionism. 
 
Today, hindsight makes it clear that at the time of this strike April 1997,  
then President Bob of Chrysler, had already laid the ground work for the  
purchase of Chrysler by Daimler. Bob career was initially with General Motors  and 
included a significant European tour where he made his international  
connections, but none of us at Mound Engine - Local 51, (my home plant from  where I 
retired) had this information or understood the juncture this our  actions 
expressed. 
 
The relationship with Mitsubishi and then the German purchase of Chrysler  by 
Daimler is very different - I think, from the purchase of purchase of  
Chrysler by the equity firm of Cerberus. Chrysler relationship with Mitsubishi  and 
then Daimler was rooted in and driven by impulses generated as production  
relations and their non-property aspect. This means rationalization and exchange  
or sharing of existing technology and the need for synergy in flexible  
organization world wide. Shared advertisement and even a collective vision of an  
industry shaped on the basis of industrial unionism for the social glue holding 
 everything together. 
 
A lack of information cannot cloud ones vision and instinctive distrust of  
capital. We work and they pay us and need us . . . at least in the past  
frameworks. The old social bond - in the form of industrial workers/industrial  
financial capital, that shaped the struggle of the industrial workers have  been 
dissolved, sublated and replaced by a new aggressive form of finance  capital, 
whose politics in the international arena is understood as  neo-liberalism or 
"the scorched earth policy" of the speculator.  
 
They burn the earth beneath our feet and try and push us in the ocean. With  
a grin the speculating jackals of Cerberus demand that we get out feet wet. 
 
Cerberus is no industrial production entity as was the case with  Mitsubishi 
or Daimler 
 
Cerberus is the corporate expression of one of the Medusa heads of  
speculative capital. The difference is forth stating as the fight unfolds in  real 
time, within and outside the Union. 
 
In 1980 the restructuring of Chrysler lead to the UAW winning a Board seat  
in the person of Doug Frasier. The German purchase lead to a Board seat in the  
person of Nate Gooden. 
 
Ain't no fucking board seats for a union in an equity firm because its  logic 
is not based in the unity bond holding industrial worker and financial  
industrial capital together. Can concessions be won under conditions where  reform 
of capital is impossible? 
 
Yes. 
 
The coming wave of mass disorientation has to be fought through as new  class 
forms are fought out. The Chrysler workers, against all odds have carried  
the ball for four decades. Now is the time for leader to step forth and lead. 
 
Rally to the flag pole boyz and girls. The impossible has happened. Across  
the table will sit the speculator, whose loyalty is to his self and himself  
only. His hatred of us is reminiscent of the slave masters hate - not of the  
slave, but of the free worker, whose existence meant his minute to minute demise 
 from history. 
 
The fight has been brought to our doorstep. Many of us can't swim. 
 
The criticism over the General Motors sector of our union granting  
concessions to GM . . . no longer matters. The criticism over the Ford  sector of our 
union granting concessions to Ford . . . no longer matters.  Let history note 
that we conceded nothing in this area, despite former President  Nate Gooden's 
endless bootlicking and genuflecting toadyism. 
 
Cerberus is the three headed monster that sits at the gates of hell. 
 
Fuck it . . . we fight our way into Hell. 
 
Gimme the ball is the Chrysler workers message. 
 
Rally. 
 
Waistline 



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