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Bolivia's Third Revolution Confused by Bolivia's upheavals? CounterPunch's Newton Garver gives you the history, the politics and a roadmap through the present great upsurge of Indians who say NO to centuries of theft and oppression. On the track of Guatemala's killers: a searing report from John Ross on the US-backed monsters who turned Guatemala into a charnel house and on the heroes who hunt them down. The rise and rise of a corporation called Halliburton: Jeffrey St Clair scours some of Texas' history's dirtiest pages and tells how Halliburton's cash helped put two presidents to the White House. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories June 20, 2005 Alan Maass June 18 / 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Greg Moses Benjamin Shepard Stan Goff Lee Sustar Jude Wanniski Diana Barahona Brian Concannon, Jr. Fred Gardner Mike Whitney Ahmad Faruqui Manuel García, Jr. Roger Howard Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
June 17, 2005 Ricardo Alarcón Clay Conrad Marc Estrin Colin Brown Christopher
Brauchli Joshua Frank Norman Solomon Mary Rizzo Bond / Brutus
/ Setshedi
June 16, 2005 John Walsh Dave Lindorff Adrian Lomax Tom Crumpacker Jeffrey Kolakowski Julene Bair Michael Dickinson Francois Houtart / Isabel Parra,
et al. Tom Barry
June 15, 2005 Stan Goff Daniel Wolff Tim Wise Ricardo Alarcón Joshua Frank John Hilary Norman Solomon Alexander Cockburn
/ Jeffrey St. Clair Website of the Day
June 14, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Forrest Hylton Richard Gott Fred Gardner Steve Breyman Dave Zirin Robert Kent Paul Craig
Roberts
June 13, 2005 Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff John Stauber Fred Gardner Evelyn J. Pringle Norman Solomon Winslow T.
Wheeler
June 10 / 12, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Sharon
Smith Brian
Cloughley Chris
Kromm Heather
Gray Kevin
Zeese Mickey
Z. Gary
Leupp Eli
Stephens Nick
Dearden Oscar
Olivera Robert
Fisk Michael
Dickinson Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
Len
Colodny Christopher
Brauchli Ron
Jacobs Dave
Lindorff Katrina
Yeaw / Alex Schmaus Alan
Farago Saul
Landau
June 8, 2005 Jim
Hougan Alan
Maass Jason
Leopold Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Dave
Zirin Derrick
O'Keefe Diana
Johnstone Website
of the Day
June 7, 2005 Forrest
Hylton Greg
Moses / Susan van Haitsma Lenni
Brenner Col.
Dan Smith Joshua
Frank Dave
Lindorff Margot
Veranes / Adrian Navarro Michael
Neumann
June 6, 2005 Stew
Albert Paul
Craig Roberts Nicole
Colson Ali
Khan Jason
Leopold Charles
Walker Poff Ramzy
Baroud Rep.
John Conyers Evelyn
Pringle Gary
Corseri Website
of the Day
June 4 / 5, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn James
Petras Robert
Fisk Patrick
Cockburn Rev.
William Alberts Saul
Landau Mario
Lamo Jimenez Dave
Lindorff Lance
Selfa Tom
Crumpacker Joshua
Frank Fred
Gardner Michael
Dickinson Roger
Martin Reza
Fiyouzat Ben
Tripp Graeme
Greenback Poets'
Basement
June 3, 2005 Paul
Craig Roberts Joseph
Massad Jeff
Halper Tom
Barry Bruce
K. Gagnon Joshua
Frank Mickey
Z. Gary
Leupp Website
of the Day
June 2, 2005 Paul
Craig Roberts Forrest
Hylton Mike
Whitney Brian
Cloughley Mazin
Qumsiyeh Russell
D. Hoffman Norman
Madarasz Norman
Solomon David
Price Website
of the Day
June 1, 2005 James
Petras Justin
Delacour Edward
Jay Epstein Omar
Barghouti / Lisa Taraki Dave
Lindorff Kevin
Zeese Jason
Leopold William
S. Lind
May 31, 2005 Sen.
Mike Gravel David
Krieger Tad
Daley Joshua
Frank Richard
Gott Norman
Solomon Tom
Segev Walter
Brasch Diana
Johnstone
May 28 / 30, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Richard
Lichtman Sharon
Smith Paul
Craig Roberts Dave
Lindorff Ramzy
Baroud Brian
Cloughley Fred
Gardner Lee
Sustar Joshua
Frank Justin
E.H. Smith Jackie
Corr Michael
Kimaid Toufic
Haddad Justin
Taylor Amir
Butler Ben
Tripp Poets'
Basement
May 27, 2005 Gary
Leupp Daniel
Estulin Kevin
Zeese Robert
Fisk Dave
Zirin Website
of the Day
Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Subcomandante
Marcos Norman Finkelstein Steve Niva Dardagan,
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June 20, 2005 One-in-Four Blue Collar Jobs to be SlashedThe GM Job MassacreBy ALAN MAASS The corporation whose name was once synonymous with U.S. economic prosperity has announced another in a series of layoffs that will leave its workforce a fraction of its former size. General Motors will cut 25,000 jobs over the next three years, according to Chair and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner--almost one in four of the hourly blue-collar jobs left at the biggest of the U.S. automakers. GM will be left with 86,000 hourly workers in 2008--about the same number of workers the company employed 30 years before in the city of Flint, Mich., alone. Wagoner's bombshell at a GM shareholders' meeting marks the largest single corporate layoff announcement in two-and-a-half years--since Kmart said in January 2003 that it was shedding 37,000 employees. The layoffs will be felt throughout the U.S. economy. According to the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), a nonprofit think tank, every job lost in a carmaking plant has the impact of 9.4 jobs lost elsewhere in the economy. GM bosses say the cuts will come mostly through attrition--as older GM workers, most of whom were hired in the 1970s, retire--though an unspecified number of plants and other GM facilities are slated to close. Gregg Shotwell, a veteran activist in the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and member of Local 2151 in Cooperstown, Mich., says the autoworkers left behind will pay a steep price. "Job cuts will save the automakers big bucks, but it's a bloodletting for the rank and file and euthanasia for the union," he told Socialist Worker. "Anyone who has worked the line knows job cuts mean speedup, overload, excessive overtime, and health and safety hazards. Production doesn't slow down when the workforce is reduced. The jobs just get harder, faster, longer and more dangerous." GM is suffering through a big financial slump as sales of highly profitable SUVs have declined--in large part, due to rising oil and gas prices. The company has tried and failed to stop the slump by propping up car and truck sales with customer incentives--which now average more than $5,000 per vehicle. By announcing layoffs and complaining about the cost of wages and benefits for GM workers, Wagoner "is dodging accountability," says Shotwell. The company's top executive "neglects to mention the $9 billion GM paid for recall and warranty costs in 2004, or the $1 billion that GM's Saturn subsidiary has lost every year since its inception," Shotwell said. "Why should UAW members subsidize Wagoner's incompetence?" According to GM management, another part of the company's crisis is mounting health care costs. GM is now the largest provider of health care in the U.S.--covering 1.1 million active autoworkers, retirees and their families at a cost of nearly $6 billion. At the shareholders' meeting, Wagoner vowed to get tough with the UAW and force new concessions in the form of higher co-pays and cuts in health coverage. Shotwell responds that the union has already made concessions. "In 2003," he says, "the UAW agreed to remove the health care factor from the cost-of-living calculation, purportedly because UAW members had full medical benefits and weren't affected by inflation in medical care. If we agree to increase premiums and co-pays, will the COLA be fully restored and reimbursed? "On top of that concession, 2 cents is diverted from COLA every quarter to 'secure pension improvements for current retirees and surviving spouses.' It doesn't sound like much until you multiply it times sixteen quarters times 135,000 UAW members times the number of hours worked. We also accepted higher co-pays for prescriptions and doctor visits...Where is the tradeoff? What does the UAW rank and file receive in return for concessions on jobs and health care?" As Shotwell concludes, "Concessions don't save jobs, improve products or sell vehicles. If UAW members agreed to pay for their own medical insurance, GM would not reduce the price of its cars. The board of directors would simply reward themselves. The only legitimate solution is universal health care. The UAW should take the lead and refuse all concessions until all Americans have full and equal access to health care." Industry analysts say that GM managers were under pressure to make a dramatic layoff announcement because they face a takeover threat from Las Vegas casino mogul Kirk Kerkorian, who has been amassing shares of GM stock. His aim is straightforward--break up GM. The calculation is that while GM stock is worth less than $20 billion in total, the various elements of the corporation could be sold off in pieces and bring in three or four times that amount. GM bosses are using the Kerkorian threat for leverage against the UAW. As David Cole of the CAR think tank told one newspaper, "What GM in effect is telling the union is, with Kerkorian in the picture, who would you rather deal with, Kerkorian or us?" Autoworkers will be the losers either way, as one writer on Left Coaster Web site explained: "There is nothing worse than being a pawn in a dominance game between two corporate bastards. You watch all of your plans evaporate and your dreams crumble into dust with every move they make. Your future is nothing to men who can reduce vast sums of cash into a single item on a balance sheet." Another target that GM bosses have in their sights is the workforce at the parts maker Delphi--once a GM subsidiary, and now an independent company that is GM's largest supplier. UAW leaders showed that they are willing to sacrifice members at parts plants when they accepted Ford Motor Co.'s restructuring with its chief supplier Visteon. "In recent years," says Shotwell, "many plants formerly owned by the Big Three were forced into 'separation agreements.' The restructuring has instigated massive concessions, intolerable working conditions and a gross neglect of ergonomic standards. The corporations are breaking the union into smaller, more isolated, and thus more manageable pieces. Without a world view independent of the capitalists, the union has no strategy other than the Three Cs--Cooperation, Collusion and Capitulation." UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Vice President in charge of GM Richard Shoemaker talked tough earlier this year when they said they would refuse to reopen the union's contract with GM to consider further concessions. But Shotwell says their bluster hides a threat--that they will "work within the confines of the contract to reduce health care costs for the company." "If the contract isn't reopened, the UAW leadership will claim victory--and the rank and file won't be required to ratify the concessions, though they would in effect be subsidizing management's incompetence," Shotwell said. "GM will reduce health care costs through workforce reduction and the cooperation of union officials. The rank and file won't have any say." Shotwell says that the hope for a UAW resurgence lies among parts workers--where there are now more UAW members than are employed at the Big Three automakers. He also says that there has been renewed interest in the UAW New Directions Movement (NDM), a union reform group. Shotwell says the group's Web site will soon "introduce a plan calling for a national pattern contract [at parts companies], portability of pensions, a national benefits pool and preferential hiring and transfer rights for UAW members. NDM is promoting a 'No Concessions' campaign and advocating that the UAW put the horse in front of the cart by organizing transplants, instead of lobbying for Democrats." As he concludes, "It remains to be seen if the sleeping giant can be roused to action. In the meantime, I intend to stick verbal firecrackers in her ears." Alan Maass is the editor of Socialist
Worker. He can be reached at: alanmaass@sbcglobal.net
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