Fighting to “save (our?)automotive production from the effects of overcapacity” will not “save (some of our) jobs” but destroy them, raise the level of exploitation and SHARPEN the crisis of overcapacity.
On this moment is the total production capacity in the world for cars: 75 million cars/year.
You can say, roughly, that each car-buyer or « car-consumer » will renew his car once in ten years. So you have a « purchasing powered demand of the market » of 750 million car-buyers. These 75O million « consumers » are mostly workers or worker families that can obtain enough income out their « selling of their workforce » (or the selling of the combined workforce of the family) to buy the goods and services that they need or want to acquire.
Probably have 5 billion people living on this planet a need or a wish to have the possibility to travel easy, safely once and a while more than, say, 100 km and to transport with them some personal goods.
When it is available, and when they have enough income for that, they can buy the service, also « produced« by capitalist enterprises: « public » transport.
But only 750 individuals (or families) have enough income out of their work to transform this need into a purchasing powered demand with which they can buy the by capitalist production-system proposed « solution »: the car.
A lot of those 750 million people or families had in fact already long time not enough PURCHASING POWER to buy, in our case, a car.
With other words, there was already long time a OVERCAPACITY compared with the purchasing powered demand of the market. But that crisis of overcapacity was shift to the future by giving the possibility to loan money of which was said: « you can pay this back in the future out of your INCREASED income » But the wages, or at least the purchasing power of them, DECREASED, and in a lot of places in the world the income out of wages DISAPPEARED.
It become clearer and cleared to the workers in the world that the capitalist production system ( the highest form of production of COMMODITIES, with commodities sold at their value to buyers with enough purchasing power) can not satisfy the NEEDS of a world population of 5 or 6 billion of which the majority are forced to sell their workforce to have an income.
This is not only the case of the NEED, MOBILITY but also of the needs, HOUSING, EATING and DRINKING, HEALTHCARE, SCHOOLING, WARMTH and LIGHTNING, (TELE-)COMMUNICATION. More and more workers (they speak about 20 to 30 million workers in the USA ,the top of imperialism!) have not enough income (out of their labour) to buy their daily FOOD (and that for their family). They have to go several time each weak to a public kitchen to get a meal.
The biggest part (and an increasing part) of humanity is not succeeding to get enough income to be able to BUY all necessary products and services to have a decent human living.
Also, already since the beginning of the eighties, the average wage(or salary) out of labour in the world is DECREASING and so the purchasing power of that income. And a global INCREASING of the prices is the same as a similar DECREASING of the wages.
And also since the beginning of the eighties there is a worldwide deterioration of al kinds and forms of social security systems and of al kind of systems to get an income when you are in the impossibility to work or to get work. All those systems were financed by putting indirect wage or collectively collected wages (all kind of taxes on wages or even all kind of corporate taxes) into a fund managed by the government. In fact cancelling all those kinds of taxes to finance those social funds is also form of DECREASE of the wages.
Where the purchasing powered demand decreased was the production-capacity increasing because the capitalist competition COMPEL to increase total production capacity above the total purchasing powered market demand.
The actual sharpening of the overcapacity crisis means ( for the capitalist monopolies) above all, a sharpening of the competition (that was already one of the main CAUSES of the overcapacity itself)
The shrinking market (because of the decreasing of the salaries of the workerd and the decreasing of the number of the workers that is capable to SELL their workforce and so have an income out of their labour) and the shrinking of the parts of the market that the different monopolies have, make that monopoly A goes into failure or STOPS producing or destroys his production capacity or let it disappear. For monopoly B it SEEMS that the market demand is still increasing because putting together his own parts of the market with those who were left by monopoly A. So monopoly B will again INCREASE his production capacity and can sell enough cars for example to realise an increased profit (Profit is that part of the realised surplus value of which the monopoly can dispose itself - that is not used for example to pay rent on loaned capital).
The unemployment increases and has a decreasing pressure on the salaries. This is an extra advantage for monopoly B: an increase of the level of exploitation and so of the surplus value and thus of the profit. (when all the production can be sold of course)
… but a lot of all the workers that are working in the whole production chain (of natural resources via production of parts to the assembling of the cars of monopoly B will not have enough salary to BUY one of the cars that they have produced collectively.
The sharpening of the competition ( by the crisis) makes the hunting on resources as cheap as possible fiercer, as the hunting on getting the control over the existing sources of resources ( against competitors), the hunting on the cheapest labour forces, the hunting on the biggest part of the market and the organising of repression and the employing of repression forces against each resistance or revolt against imperialist order and the compelling of the destroying of production capacity by the competitor. With other words, allowing to further existing of imperialism, and just when it is in crisis, leads to WAR.
The surviving monopolies are FORCED (by reason of the competition that will exist as long as imperialism will exist) even in the reality of overcapacity crisis to going on with increase their productivity.
Imperialism as highest possible stage of capitalism, means also the highest stage of the CHAOTIC and ANARCHISTIC character of the capitalist production system: the highest possibility to satisfy AL SOCIAL NEEDS in the world against the biggest possible poverty, outbursts of diseases, lack of enough food and drinking, housing, warmth, lightning and the highest lack of possibilities of mobility and the lack of a healthy, safe and clean lenvironment … together with the BIGGEST possible danger of the most devastating wars
There is no other outcome out of the crisis for the workers in the world, inside imperialism than only an increasing of poverty, hunger, not cured illnesses, homeless, wars…
A spontaneous struggle against closure, being fired and decrease of salaries or to save all workplaces will have this objectives as result (but even then only temporarily, partly and insufficiently) when the struggle (massively and violently) is menacing to develop in a struggle against the capitalist order itself.
These experiences in the class struggle are learning the workers by the ideological and political discussions INSIDE the working class that they have to unite in big mass-struggle-organisations that have as objective: the destroying of capitalism that, in its highest stage, imperialism, can no longer satisfy any social and material need in society. With a production system that is ENTIRELY owned and controlled by the class of capitalists and is based on production in function of a purchasing powered demand. At the same time it learns the workers that they have to build a production system controlled and owned by the organised working class in function of NEEDS. The ownership of the entire production system will be taken out of the hands of the capitalists by the struggle of the organised workers.
The PRICE of a product or service is determined by the VALUE of it: the necessary average time of labour for the production of it. Under capitalist production relations the SELLING of the product or service leads to the realising of the surplus value based on exploitation of the workforces.
Under communist production relations the VALUE of a product or service means just the registration of the labour (for example the level of intensity of the labour) used for the production of it or the used time of labour. For the worker that want to get himself a certain product it means that he has already paid for it by the registration of the time of his work.
The product or service will be conceived (or PLANNED) that it will satisfy a real NEED.
The taking of the ownership of the whole system of production by the organised working class, the transforming of the whole production system in function of the purchasing powered demand to that in function of needs is the PASSAGE to communism by the socialist revolution and socialism.
The experience of the class struggle is learning to the working class also that the struggle for working places, for salary or against closure and firing or even for « social plans » (in fact an alternative income for the forced unemployment) CAN NOT BE A struggle with these themes THEMSELVES as objective of the struggle. The realising of these objectives is by struggling against the basements of the capitalist order, and then « given » by the capitalists fearing further development of revolutionary struggle.
The experience of the class struggle will to clarify to the workers the misleading of reformists, « sold » union leaders (mostly not chosen by the workers themselves) and even « left » or self declared « communist » organisations who puts reforms as objective of the struggle.
Because, as is said, EVEN when these « reforms »-objectives are realised it means that the carry on of the struggle began to develop in the direction against the basements of capitalism itself.
Because only then the capitalist will agree (out of fear to lose the capitalist order) with « reforms » which mean a temporary decrease of their realised surplus value or profit.
Finally as long as the whole production system is in the hands of capitalists and as long as that ownerships gives them the power OVER the workers, all reforms will be annulled after some time and the level of exploitation will increase again.
These lessons out of experiences are leading to the necessity to direct EVERY struggle (spontaneously directed to a temporary lowering of the level of exploitation) to the destroying of capitalism itself. This struggle will however not develop this way in one time in one situation of struggle (it depends of the results of general increasing of the consciousness by the majority of the workers in struggle) But the direction in which each struggle has to be clarified and to be clear. This is the task of a real communist. And as much as possible vanguard workers will organise themselves therefore in a communist party.
