The Fourth International flag which fluttered over Brussels University last November when 3,500 Trotsk wist militants met to discuss the struggle for Red Europe.
The message below was only one among many the Congress approved. in a subsequent issue we will carry a special supplement on the Fourth Internationar "What's good for General Motors is good for the nation. (Charles E. Wilson, director of General Motors, Defence Minister in Eisenhower's administration, 1953.)
The strike by the American workers of General Motors finished some weeks ago. The workers of the biggest automobile giant have been on strike since mid-September. Right from the tart every prediction was that it would be i long strike. It lasted two months: 59 days to be more exact.
1. The outcome of the negotiation approved by the delegates e strike ended through the acceptance by the G.M. workers' delegates of an outline agreement which must be concretised in a new agreetent jointly agreed upon for three years.
The segotiations had been conducted by the G.M. management and the team of negotiators appointed for G.M. by the United Automobile orkers Union. The draft was approved unanimously by the executive committee of the UAW and the negotiating team.
Meanwhile the UAW President Leonard Woodcock took the precaution of saying while iddressing 350 members of the G.M. Union Council: "I want to tell you that I'm not satisfied with this compromise", at the same time adding But there are times in the course of the struggle when the gains made must be weighed against the hardships inflicted on the front line troops." The G.M. Union Council of. the Car Union then approved the draft agreement which had been adopted by a majority of four out of every five delegates on the 12th November last.
2. The content of the agreement The content of the agreement has been described as "the most expensive settlement that an American company has ever had to bear"
Very briefly, the conditions agreed on are as follows: 1. An increase in wages, which will be 51 cents (approximately 4s 3d) an hour-a minimum of 9 cents and a maximum of 61 cents: The verage hourly wage at G.M. is 4.02 dollar £1 13s 6d). The increase is therefore 12.59 In addition to this immediate rise, there will be an increase of 14 cents during the second and third years.
2. An increase in the retirement pension: the agreement stipulates that the retirement pension will be granted at the age of 58 during the second year of the agreement's validity and from 56 for the third for workers who have completed 30 years' service in the enterprise. The pension will be 500 dollars (E210+) a month. inder the old agreement the monthly pension was only 104.22 dollars for a worker who retired at 55 and 165 dollars at 65 under the SECRETES BHUTSI 3. The restoration of the sliding scale. A cost of living" escalator has boon introduced into the agreement, that is a sliding scale without limit. From now on wages will be automatically inked to the consumption goods price index and will undergo quarterly adjustments in accordance with that index's fluctuation.
Remember that the sliding scale had been won in 1948 but that the introduction of a ceiling to these increases in 1967 had strongly curbed the buying power of the General Motors 3. Assessment of the agreement: varying opinions A leading union militant has stated that the new agreement would by the end of three months increase wages and social benefits by 1.80 dollars per hour on average. An employer's delegate declured that the agreement provided for increases "substantially larger than the predicted growth in productivity and has described the agreement as "inflationary"
The bosses of other sectors fear that the G.M. agreement is "a dangerous preceden!" and are not prepared this time to share the opinion of un ex-G.M. director that "What's good for General Motors is good for the nation", The New York Stock Exchange has given the agreement a rather cool welcome. Some estimates put the finaricial cost resulting from the agreement at about 2 million dollars for the three years of its validity.
Meamwhile this has not prevented Henry Ford Il from saying that Ford will follow this move and accept a similar agreement without increasing the price of 1971 models. A strike is not to be expected at Ford's then despite the union's advanced warning which expired on December 7th.
The assessment made by the employers then is not so unanimous as it might seem at first sight. On the other hand we must take careful GREETINGS TO THE COMMUNIST MILITANTS OF EASTERN EUROPE The international conference of European revolutionaries, meeting in Brussels on the 21st and 22nd of November 1970, to work out a strategy for the struggle for a Red Europe, sends its warm greetings to the Communist opposition which fights against bureaucracy and for socialist democracy in Eastern Europe. -to the old Bolshevik, Major-General Grigorenko, imprisoned in a mental hospital for his heroic defence of civil rights in the USSR;
note of the opposition of a fifth of the Union' delegates to th te agreement.
4. Some comparisons These differences can only be understood if the outcome of the agreement is compared with the initial demands 1. Original Demand: 61.5 cents (first year) + 30 (second year) + 30 (third year). Total: 1 dollar, 21,5 cents an hour 2. Employers original offer: 30 cents (tirst yeur) + 12 cents (second year) + 12 cents (third year). Total: 54 cents. 3. Agreement: 51 cents (first year) + 14 cents (second vear) + 14 cents (third year). Total: 79 cents:
The final agreement seems to be a compromise between the two proposals. At the end of three years it provides however for an increase which is nearer to that proposed by the employers. But as far as the first stage is con cerned, the agreemont seems nearer the union's damand.
We are careful to say "seerns nearer", For the union's demand was calculated in such a manner as to compensate for the loss of 26 cents an hour (14 cents in Canada) through the appucation of the ceiling on the sliding scale. If these 26 cents are deducted, only 25 cents increase in hourly wages is left, which is not such a very large rise. This somewhat qualified then the victory gained with regand to the sliding scale...
As for pensions the UAW demanded a pension of 500 dollars after 30 years' service without an age limit (a worker joining G.M. at 20 could retire at 50). The negotiation ended in a compromise: an age limit would be fixed (58 in 1971, 56 in 1972). G.M. has calculated that it can't do without its most experienoed workers overnight.
In conclusion The G.M. workers have fought well. Their two months strike demonstrates the advantage of having a well-organised union at one's disposul. Remember for example that after the manner of numerous other American unions, the UAW is an "international" union including workers of all the automobile concerns in the LISA and Canuda. Nevertheless the gains that the workers of G.M. have won have been essentially through their militancy and in spite of'a certain number of weaknesses in their union. -to the young Leninist, Ivan Jakimovich, incarcerated in the geols of Stalin's successors for having dared to proclaim in the Red Square of Moscow: "Stalinism-No! Leninism-Yes!" -to the Polish Communists, Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski, who embody the hopes of the Polish October of 1956; -to comrades Vlado Mijanovic and Boznar Borjan, leaders of the revolutionary students of Yugoslavia, thrown into prison for having defended the socialist conquests of the Yugoslav -to the victims of neo-Stalinist repression in The principal weakness has been what has brought about the long duration of the strike and then its ending.
The strike fund of the UAW was in the order of 120 million dollars. This allowed a strike of eight weeks unless support cune from elsewhere. That's exactly low long the G.M. strike lasted: eight weeks.
The stratogy of the "selective" struggle (choosing one of the three car giants) is the rincipal strategic weakness of the UAW. Th Union leadership has in fact avoided strikin simultaneously the three large manufacturersFord, G.M. and Chrysler. After having made a show of prepuring to strike against G.M. and Chrysler, it abandoned the Chrysler objective supposedly through "a chivalrous spirit'"! This firm is in fact less competitive than the others and would surfer more chan them trom a strike. In addition the abandoning of the other objectives has been accompanied by an important limit to the effectiveness of the struggle against G.M. The G.M. factories which provide parts to other firms have not been affected by the strike: if the other car giants had had to close some divisions through lack of parts provided by G.M., wouldn't this have allowed a greater pressure to be brought to bear on the G.M. negotiaters?
The UAW leadership has avoided posing the question in this fashion because of the national repercussions which a strike conceived in these terns would have.
It has similarly avoided posing the question of price and workers' control. G.M. has already made it known that the price of cars would increase because of the increase in wages. In 1946 the Union dermanded an increase in wages "without price increases". G.M. then replied that the question of the price was its concer and not the Union's. The UAW then retorted by demanding workers' control over the account books. This was at the time when the influence of the Left was strong in the Union. The conditions which characterised this period are not joined together today. But little by little they are beginning to fit into place, There are extremely interesting developments taking place today inside the American workers movement which deserve the attention of all socialists.
G. Desire Czechoslovakia, who have fought shoulder to shoulder with the workers and students of the Spring of Prague for a regime based upon the exercise of workers power; we send our fraternal support You are the continuers of Bolshevism and the Left Opposition to Stalinist usurpation. Your struggle and that of your comrades in the labour camps will tomorrow be taken up by millions of workers, students and intellectuals who will rise to smash bureaucracy and reestablish proletarian democracy.