The capitalist multi-national corporation Foxconn and socialist China

Because there is little to no understanding here in the United States about the nature of capitalism in its most savage, barbaric and cannibalistic stage of imperialism it has been difficult to understand why workers are being so severely exploited and abused at Foxconn in socialist China.

One writer among many, a retired United Electrical Union (UE) staff person, John Case, who is also an unrepentant Obama supporter and self-avowed member of the Communist Party USA’s Economic’s Commission wrote the following muddle-headed, confusing article in the revisionist-led anti-Marxist  CPUSA’s on-line newspaper, People’s Weekly World.

John Case somehow managed to write a lengthy article without so much as mentioning that Foxconn is a multi-national corporation which has become a major player in China’s Wall Street dominated economy where a sell-out, revisionist Communist Party leadership wants to integrate China into the Wall Street dominated world imperialist system while deceitfully covering up their dirty deeds with claims of strengthening socialism— calling this “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

The wanton multi-national capitalist exploitation and abuse of working people has nothing to do with building socialism; it never has and never will.

Here is the article written by John Case making excuses for the despicable living and working conditions one would hope Case never would have accepted and tolerated for workers he was supposed to be representing in this country: http://www.peoplesworld.org/foxconn-and-socialism-in-china/

Obviously, John Case never read nor studied V.I. Lenin’s, “Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism,” < http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ > which provides a basic understanding of what imperialism imperialism is all about.

No doubt these Chinese leaders have been tutored well on deceiving working people by the same hacks who have trained Obama so well in using left-sounding rhetoric he learned from his “mentor,” Frank Marshall Davis, to cover up his thoroughly rotten and reactionary Wall Street agenda of waging wars abroad paid for with austerity measures here at home to enforce Wall Street’s imperialist agenda in quest of maximum profits resulting from the rape of Mother Nature and the exploitation of labor.

We should not have to turn to the Huff Post and Reuters < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/foxconn-working-conditions-2012-hours_n_1390541.html > to find out what is going on with problems of working people in China— Communist newspapers like the People’s Weekly World should have been among the first to expose what is going on with exploitation and abuse of working people while exposing the treachery and betrayal of Communist “leaders” who have sold their souls— and the working class— to Wall Street.

This kind of exploitation and abuse of working people that this capitalist multi-national corporation Foxconn is engaged in— not only in China but all over the world— certainly has nothing to do with the building and uneven economic development of socialism in China as John Case suggests in no uncertain terms.

I find it very interesting John Case and the Obama-loving leadership of the Communist Party which has lost over twenty-thousand members under the “leadership” of Sam Webb is willing to overlook the injustices in China the same way they willfully sit in silence in refusing to condemn or organize against injustices right here in our own country.

Like the Chinese “leaders,” these CPUSA leaders like John Case have given up on the working class winning the class struggle here in our own country and in China. Thus they tell us socialism is for a far distant future.

When all is said and done, what is the class struggle all about from a working class perspective? Is the class struggle not a struggle on the part of working people and the working class a struggle for social and economic justice?

Recently I took a photograph of an owl— he would turn his head away thinking that I was no longer there because he couldn’t see me.

Well, CPUSA “leaders” like John Case and his fellow Obama-loving buddy Sam Webb have turned their heads in indifference to these injustices in China while these worthless, imperialist serving Chinese leaders have lied about these social and economic injustices they have been a party to enabling to go on in China.

Foxconn is not a company which has to employ workers at poverty wages working long hours no human being should be forced to endure. Foxconn is an extremely profitable multi-national corporation. Contrary to what many would like us to believe, Foxconn is not a Chinese enterprise. Foxconn is a multi-national corporation part of the imperialist scheme of things striving for MAXIMUM PROFITS resulting from the brutal exploitation of labor— the abuse of working people.

This brutal and savage abusive exploitation of working people is not an accident, oversight nor is it in any way a requirement for building socialism in China anymore than such brutal exploitation is necessary for an outfit, a huge sweatshop, like Lillian Vernon in Virginia Beach, Virginia employing 5,000 workers— mostly people of color— to be forced to work 10 and 12 and even 16 hours a day six and seven days a week for months on end. Perhaps if John Case had to work in one of these sweatshops living these kinds of injustices described he would have a better understanding of the nature of imperialism. Why doesn’t John Case go live and work in Foxconn’s China “compound.” Case could write from his own first-hand experiences; this is what a Communist writer would do. Of course no real socialist government would be opposed to a Communist writer doing this.

While working at Lillian Vernon, upon being told by the plant manager as he strutted down the long line of Meistergram machines where workers were forced to stand because if the stools he took away were returned someone might “sew off a finger if they got so comfortable they would fall asleep;” he declared to the elderly black woman at the machine in front of me that working 12 hours a day six days a week would be mandatory for the next three weeks, she responded with what we all wanted to say but didn’t, “Why don’t you people just bring back the chains.”

Lillian Vernon is an extremely wealthy woman; she and her business partners did not have to operate this plant as a sweatshop enforcing these sub-human labor conditions— Lillian Vernon and her business partners chose to operate this plant in this way in order to make maximum profits just like Foxconn does in China.

Lillian Vernon has been a big-time supporter of the Democratic Party and these worthless creeps like Barack Obama.

Lillian Vernon purchased product from the sweatshops in China , India, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

The AFL-CIO was willing to over-look these injustices workers were subjected to at Lillian Vernon because she was a big-time contributor to the Democratic Party.

I spoke in person with both Andy Stern and John Sweeney together about the possibility of organizing Lillian Vernon’s sweatshop— they didn’t even want to hear about these injustices working people were forced to endure not far from their fancy offices let alone provide the organizing resources. Miss Lillian might be offended and withhold her contributions derived from unpaid labor forced to work long hours no human being should have to endure.

It is not coincidental that these labor-fakers are joined with sell-out “Communist” apologists for imperialism like Sam Webb and John Case as they meet in “unity” behind supporting these politicians like Barack Obama who serve Wall Street’s interests so well.

After all, if they were to attack these inhuman working conditions in China, they would have to do something about the injustices right here in our own country. Wouldn’t that be a novel idea for labor leaders and Communists who used to be well known for organizing unions to stand up to injustices right under their own noses.

But one cannot expect those like John Case who would use a Communist publication to make excuses for a bunch of perverted, Wall Street serving “Communist” leaders in China to vigorously speak out against injustices in China because then these revisionists would have to acknowledge Obama’s role in Wall Street’s imperialist agenda for workers of the world… from Virginia Beach to China.

These labor “leaders” like Sweeney, Stern and now Trumka use the perversions of deceitful Communists in China serving Wall Street’s interests to attack socialism while their new found friends like “Communists” Sam Webb and John Case give socialism a bad name by claiming these injustices are a requirement for building socialism which they don’t support anymore anyways.

All of this attempt to evade the injustices— created by capitalist multi-nationals given free reign to plunder and exploit in China under the guise of being necessary to building socialism by so-called “Communists” as their new-found partners, the sell-out union “leaders” use these injustices as an excuse to smear socialism, spins massive confusion among working people about the only alternative to this rotten capitalist system: socialism.

If we are going to turn our own country around we will need a strong and vibrant Communist Party; we will need a militant and united labor movement led by the “reds;” we will need a strong, militant, united anti-imperialist organization integrated with the struggles of working people all over the globe; we will need to free ourselves from this two-party trap by creating a new labor-based people’s party. The basis of unity must be the struggles against the social and economic injustices created by capitalism with a clear understanding about the nature of capitalism in its highest imperialist stage.

If these over-paid, muddle-headed apologists for imperialism had to work in a sweatshop they might be able to more accurately write about injustices— here and in China.

Make no mistake— the source of the injustices for the people working in the sweatshops of Foxconn can be found in capitalism and the corrupt relations with the sell-out leaders of China; not with socialism.

Here is the Foxconn website: < http://www.foxconn.com/ > This a capitalist multi-national corporation whose exploitation and abuse of workers should be restrained and prohibited and not enabled by a real socialist government.

Here is a link to The Manifesto of the Communist Party— The Communist Manifesto:  < http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ > Read it; study it. See if it isn’t as relevant as the day it was written. Understanding it helps if you have worked in a sweatshop but anyone who has an open mind believing that social and economic injustices must end shouldn’t have too difficult of a time understanding the message.

Why we need to re-organize the Communist Party here in the United States with a Marxist-Leninist leadership and membership

[Note: This is a guest blog written by an unemployed Ford worker who feels his efforts to gain employment might be hindered should he provide his name. I thought he was entitled to express his views anonymously under these circumstances. Alan L. Maki]

The present liquidationist "leadership" of the Communist Party USA intended to "phase out" the organization and establish in its place a social democratic type organization as a support group for the Democrats. Most of this has been accomplished although the remaining 184 members of the organization, mostly high-paid staff, have been reluctant to abandon the Party's name fearing working class revolutionaries will re-establish the Party as a class conscious revolutionary anti-imperialist Marxist-Leninist working class organization.

This article tells us all we need to know about what is wrong with the CPUSA today (see full article at the very bottom):

http://www.peoplesworld.org/locked-out-workers-and-supporters-converge-on-minnesota-town/

Mark Froemke who is on the National Committee of the CPUSA is a "leader" of this union and a Vice-president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and big-shot in the Democratic Party.

Being a Communist, one would think Mark Froemke would understand how to handle a situation when the employer announces months in advance that it would be locking out workers should they not agree to managements "final offer."

Instead of bringing forward the idea of occupying the plants, Froemke and this bunch of union "leaders" threatened and intimidated rank-and-file workers who began discussing the need to occupy American Crystal Sugar's plants instead of leaving the plants as ordered and instructed by management.

Mark Froemke, along with the rest of what remains as a "leadership" in the CPUSA, has spent their time trying to get workers engaged in supporting Barack Obama and the rest of these Dumb Donkeys instead of preparing the working class for these battles.

Even at this late date as can be seen in the article below, there is no suggestion as to what needs to be done when employers use the lockout as the weapon of choice in busting unions.




Mark Froemke sporting his Obama cap.

When employers notify workers they will be locked out and replaced by scabs any union leader worth his/her salt would respond by asking workers if they want to occupy the plants. This is the class struggle approach.

Instead, Froemke and his fellow union leaders ordered workers to leave the plants as instructed by management. What did Froemke and these union leaders expect; that Barack Obama and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton would join them in holding up signs as the scabs pass them by going to work?

No attempt has even been made by the labor movement to organize massive protests which would be required to stop the scabs.

Labor "leaders" come and make nice tough sounding speeches about the "united strength of organized labor" but do nothing of any consequence to stop the scabs. All talk; no action.

American Crystal Sugar workers have now lost more than they can ever hope to win in the next thirty years--- if they can even save their jobs after management secures replacement workers they will train who will have no union that management will have to contend with.

Why does this article not explain the terms and conditions under which Leo Gerard and the USW "leadership" will force workers back to work at Cooper Tire?

If the "pattern" continues for American Crystal Workers they will go back to work looking down at their feet accepting a contract providing them with substantially less than management's initial "final offer." All because these union "leaders" like Mark Froemke convinced workers to put their trust in worthless Democratic Party politicians instead of teaching working people that their strength comes from militant, united action which in this case required occupying and taking over the American Crystal Sugar's plants, and now requires stopping the scabs.

After failing to take the appropriate action the first time around by occupying the plants, one would expect union leaders to at least recognize after seven months this is a struggle which can't be resolved (there is nothing any longer to win) without stopping the scabs.

I find it interesting that Mark Froemke and his gang have no problem physically attacking progressives at Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party conventions where they are used to prevent progressive alternatives from reaching the convention floors; but, when it comes to stopping these dirty scabs Froemke and his ilk cower before the company security and state and local police guarding the safe passage of these scabs depriving workers of their jobs and livelihoods. 

Everything that is wrong in the CPUSA and in the U.S. labor movement can be seen in these 1,300 American Crystal Sugar workers being locked-out of their jobs left without any incomes or livelihoods.

This "Journey for Justice" should have begun long before the contract expired with workers and union leaders knowing they were facing a lockout with scabs being brought in.

Mark Froemke still wears his Obama cap even though Obama has ignored the plight these 1,300 workers living in the Red River Valley find themselves in.

The rank-and-file will have to develop a new union leadership quickly lest they wind up without a union contract and without jobs.

Another thing complicating this situation is that for years Mark Froemke has been doing the dirty work for the well-heeled Summit Hill Club in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party by attacking those seeking real reforms and standing aloof of auto workers trying to save their jobs as the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant closed. Fromeke and this joke called the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union (BCTGM) which passes itself off as a union has never demonstrated let alone shown any sympathy or support for other working people and their struggles for justice. Had they, workers would have turned out to stop these scabs many months ago.

The working class needs a strong Communist Party now more than ever so these mis-leaders of organized laborcan't continue to sell out the working class.

We didn't learn that our union leaders in the UAW had sold us out until it was too late. We believed all their tough sounding talk about how they would never allow our plant, the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant to close. The CPUSA and the Democrats sold us out. So did the Trotskyists like they usually do. American Crystal Sugar workers still have their union. If they don't take a stand and stop the scabs they will be no better off than us Ford workers.

Locked-out workers and supporters converge on Minnesota town

by: John Wojcik

February 24 2012

tags: Minnesota, worker rights, lockouts

CHASKA, Minn. - Locked out workers and their supporters from all over the Midwest were on the move yesterday.

The workers  locked out from American Crystal Sugar's plant in Mason City, Iowa, traveled north to join the Journey for Justice entourage as it pulled into this Twin Cities suburb.

The rally they held here and a picket line brought together in one big crowd locked-out workers form five Crystal Sugar plants -  Mason City, and four Minnesota plants: Chaska, Moorhead, Hillsboro and Drayton - as well as locked-out workers from Cooper Tire in Findlay, Ohio.

Later in the day the Steelworkers announced a tentative agreement had been reached with Cooper Tire to end that lockout. The agreement will be outlined for 1,000 members Saturday and they will vote on it in Findlay on Monday.

Michael Moore, press director for the Journey for Justice, told the People's World today that the Cooper Tire workers would continue on the 1,000-mile Journey for Justice in solidarity with the locked-out American Crystal Sugar workers.

He said that while the locked-out Cooper Tire workers "haven't yet broken out the bottles of champagne, they are guardedly optimistic." Cooper Tire workers had rejected the last contract offer in November. Terms of the new agreement won't be disclosed by the union until members have had their chance to see those terms.

Before rallying and throwing up a picket line here the eight Journey for Justice riders entered CoBank, the primary lender for Crystal Sugar.

They delivered a letter telling the institution's officers that CoBank is incurring increased risk by doing business with Crystal Sugar during the lockout. The letter explained that it is costing the company more money to transport scabs in and out of the facility, in addition to having to feed and house them. The scabs, the letter points out, are also less productive than Crystal Sugar's union workers.

Workers note that the proof is in American Crystal's profits which, according to the letter, fell 39 percent in the first quarter after the lockout began August 1.

A representative of the bank accepted the letter, promising to get it to the bank's executives.

The eight locked-out workers gave CoBank 24 hours to respond to the letter or be faced with a demonstration outside its corporate headquarters later today.

Robert Greer, one of the eight making the 1,000-mile Journey for Justice through six states,  was locked out from Cooper Tire after working for the company as an electrician for 22 years. Greer, the Rapid Response Political Action Coordinator for Steelworkers Local 207L, which represents Cooper workers,  says companies have what they consider good reasons for paying the high costs of lockouts.

"You have lockouts going on all over for the same reason you have right-to-work-for-less laws being pushed in the states. They want to take advantage of the economic climate and use it to cut pay and benefits and to destroy unions," Greer said.

Greer said it is important that all workers, union and non-union, see the importance of stopping lockouts and other corporate attacks on collective bargaining rights.

"We've lost 58,000 manufacturing plants during this recession," Greer said. "The attacks on unions have created a situation that in a town like mine jobs now start at $8 or $10 an hour. This hurts everyone, including the people not in unions. You can't raise a family on the kind of money they are paying. Everyone needs to see this as their fight."

Photo: Workers from five American Crystal Sugar facilities across the Midwest converge on the plant in Chaska, Minn. Photo courtesy of Bakery Workers union.