Labor Notes on the Auto Bailout

Hear Mark Brenner of Labor Notes on Democracy Now! this week. Brenner made the radio rounds discussing the next chunk of corporate welfare cheese coming to those too big to fail.

The auto bailout can't be another decadent giveaway for executive spa days. It can't just be tied to production shifts toward green cars either--Brenner argued on Portland public radio--but must also address the more fundamental structural flaws that have created the financial crisis: a credit-crunched, debt-driven consumer economy (with a sprawling, crumbling, and ultimately unsustainable infrastructure) in which services are too expensive not to put on layaway.

The cash infusion for GM must shore up the safety net through which (not only) auto workers have continued to fall as de-industrialization and de-unionization have torn it apart. The corporate attack has been facilitated by governments willing to wage economic war on their own citizens. And the Big 3's concessionary march, Brenner argues, has too-often brought the UAW leadership into "lock step" for 30 years.

It remains to be seen if the energy unleashed by Obama's victory will translate into a broader social movement that pushes for the livelihood of a working majority. And it's early--the man hasn't even taken office yet. But as Clinton-folk slither back around the White House, it's increasingly clear which (large) segment of Obama's grand "post-partisan" coalition--rife with antagonistic interests--he's inclined to betray. The shape of the auto bailout (if and when it comes) and government rescue efforts surely coming down the pike, will say a lot about the shape of change (or continuity) Obama has in mind.