In the Ford plant -tation

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I know that many rank and file _want_ overtime, are money hungry. In fact,
everybody in now better want overtime. There is a contradiction that emerges
with Ford having an  absenteeism problem, as implied by the news articles.
You know that R Kelly song, My Mind's Telling Me "NO", but "My Body is
Telling Me Yes" ? It's sort of the opposite. The workers over these overtime
accumulating regime years have had minds telling them "yes ! make that
money; work like a slave, go to that plantation", but their bodies are
tellin' them "no". Maybe ?


Evidently the workers are of two minds, and not surprisingly, about overtime
vs. leisure time. The absenteeism is a spontaneous expression that the
workers themselves want to partake of what Tom Walker says is real value,
leisure time. Otherwise there wouldn't be a "problem" with absenteeism. The
economic democratic "free choice" of the rank and file workers themselves is
to basically cut the working week, on an individual choice basis, in the
larger context of accepting and embracing an overtime regime. It's sort of
like choosing guerilla warfare over large army confrontation. Since the
large army confrontations like UAW strikes have been "mothballed" (?), the
workers carry on individual struggle to cut back their workweek, and of
course even try to work part days.


    I don't have real wide experience one millionth of Waistline's, although
coincidently one of my friends was at Mound Road. I walked on that
picketline when there was that brief strike about six years ago. Nothing
organized , just with my friend. My current communication with someone at
the Ford engine plant does seem heavily laden with finding ways to get days
off - and succeeding I might add - though there was a firing that had to be
got around and a long probation , which was very tense and stressful. They
do call it "the plantation" and all that. No doubt , not an original
expression , but it reflects the persistence of "wage-slavery", the old
Marxist slang term.  You have met and know the worker I am talking about.

Another friend, a worker, was the one who was the contact for the job. That
one had been working there for maybe ten years. On this mortification of the
body and whatever of the soul, she just O D 'ed speedballing. Very healthy.
Nothing "wrong" otherwise. Took gangster rap "seriously" in some "sense".
That's anecdotal, but kinda graphic in my personal experience. I can't help
but _suspect_ alienation processes at work.

My facts are  highly anecdotal, and possibly even fortuitous, and I don't
mean to match it to your experience. Also, I'm just responding to these big
headlines, which are sort of revealing. Ford is the one screaming
"absenteeism !" to everybody in Detroit. Methinks they doth protest too
much.

Oh of course, in the past, I was part of a more objective observations
regarding the trend for a while to increase overtime instead of hiring new
people because of money saved to the company on benefits.  This having the
effect of undermining the 40 hour workweek. This seems to be extraction of
absolute, rather than relative, surplus value, lengthening the work
day,effectively.

Rather than using robots to increase leisure for workers without cut in
pay...you know the rap. It's winter in Socialism ,now, but May Day will come
again.

>From an individual's standpoint this is greater mortification of the body, a
heavier labor. The lump of labor fallacy school notes that this is a loss of
value , i.e. leisure time.

So, in this period of increased taking of relative surplus value by
cyberization of the constant capital, there is more taking of absolute
surplus value by increased overtime, with the workers in class struggle
reacting back spontaneously by absenting themselves in personal strikes.  I
wonder if the UAW will ever call a solidarity strike again ? Detroit needs a
UAW strike.

We are discussing Reutherism. Not just any collaborationism, but concretely
the class collaborationist line that opposed the class struggle line in the
UAW in the post WWII era. As the UAW was the leading industrial union coming
out of the great victories of the late 30's, Reuterist anti-Communism was
the bulwark of purging the left from the whole AFL-CIO. It's comeuppance in
2004 is that the UAW has lost the war of position, and has been positioned
such that it can rarely strike and overall has no way to take class struggle
positions. It must substantially collaborate to raise company profits as
it's own ultimate purpose and goal,its only strategy for serving its
membership. The current UAW faculty has so completely severed any connection
to class struggle trade unionism. Much of their experience is conscious and
active in specific anti-communist activity, because this is what they had to
learn more directly with many communists active in and around industrial
locations and plants.

Reutherism dominates all Detroit unionism. Detroit unionism historically is
significant to the AFL-CIO as a whole

The material underpinning for Reutherism is not _only_ imperialist booty, as
you say. But imperialist booty is an important pillar of it in the total
calculus of finance capitalism. As I have discussed this frequently with
Doug Henwood, I have learned the economic categories a bit better ( I don't
mean to imply that Doug agrees that there is imperialist booty currently
significant relative to U.S. GDP) One thing we haven't done, as I recall ,
is to look at the imperialist booty figures for the 40's, 50's and 60's, the
Golden era which would be significant directly to Reuther period of
leadership.

The U.S. bourgeoisie used the carrot and the stick in whipping the class
collaborationists into shape. There was booty and booty beating, as when
Coleman Young went before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee for
being a member of the National Negro Labor Council.  Reuther denounced the
NNLC ,the Detroit NLC, Dave Moore and William Hood of Local 600. Coleman
Young was also on Reuther's Black and Red list. I happened to have been
reading up on this in Coleman Young's _Hardstuff_ and another paper done on
the NNLC by Wendy Thompson for AIMS , an institute Herbert Aptheker
established.

This is only a specific expression of the Reuther's general right social
democrat/anti-communist position, that is well known

There's not much that current UAW shopfloor officials can do to change the
major policy and historic strategy of Solidarity House, don't get me wrong.
I apologize for going "ultra" on "you" , and it wasn't at you in the least.
_You_ are a class struggle trade unionist to the max, I know. There's only
so much even superman can do.  There's nothing wrong, on the otherhand, with
speaking frankly and candidly here about the Reutherist regime. I submitted
often to the discipline of propaganda for seeking center-left coalition , as
expressed, for example, in _Working Class USA_.  There is no working class
logic to responding to Reutherism based on "personal" resentment for its
vicious redbaiting and anti-communism ...except to point out that class
collaborationist strategy has put the working class's fighting organs, the
trade unionism way, way out of position to do anything but continue to
atrophy. Everybody knows membership has been going down steadily as a
percentage of total workforce _steadily_ since the victory of Reutherism at
the beginning of the 50's. Communists should say "we told you so", just
since the victory of Reutherism was essentially over Marxist class struggle
trade unionism. Will send Engels essays on trade unionism.




On the newsstand this headline was something like "Ford: Show up for Work ."
So the newspaper monopoly, the JOA , the unionbusters are putting out Ford's
message.

But the union is with the company at Ford.

Total bureaucratic unity.

Ain't that totalitarianism when the company, the newspapers, the union and
presumably the gov'ment are all trying to make the workers do something ?