GM shutdown, the loss of jobs and manufacturing value must be stopped

Time for a new direction for the economy under the control of Canadians! | K.C. ADAMS

Unifor 222 press conference, November 26, 2018, demands GM keep Oshawa plant producing.

GM executives in Detroit have announced the closure of an auto assembly plant they control in Oshawa, Ontario. The shutdown will terminate the direct employment of 2,522 auto workers, members of Unifor Local 222 and a large number of salaried workers, and result in an enormous loss of value for the Canadian economy and community.

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On the US attack against Oshawa auto workers

In the same breath as they pass brutal anti-worker legislation to criminalize the postal workers, the cartel parties ooze sympathy for the auto workers in Oshawa. The pundits are brought to the fore by the media to cynically tell the workers “to move on” and “prepare for the new economy” featuring robotics and automated cars. The president of Unifor is right when he says this is an attack on both the workers and the nation but is not he the one who cast his lot with NAFTA and split the CLC and now fulminates how he has been “betrayed” and will “fight.” That will be a good thing!

For your information: NAFTA becomes USMCA

The supranational oligopolies that control the economies of North America and seek global hegemony have tightened the screws of their domination over the peoples of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in becoming the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) have both strengthened and loosened the rules of international trade on the continent to favour the most powerful oligarchs.

The noise accompanying the new free trade agreement between US, Mexico and Canada

By K.C. ADAMS

Since President Trump’s inauguration in 2017, the Trudeau Liberals and their retinue in the mass media and trade union movement have hysterically bleated about the demise of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). They have presented Trump’s threat to walk away from NAFTA as a grave danger to Canada’s economy and saving the trade agreement as akin to saving Canada from collapse. The mass media generated a three-ring circus of non-stop “will they agree or not,” “will Trump pull the plug or not,” “will Freeland appear on the steps to make an announcement or not.”

International trade as a weapon of exploitation, chauvinism and war

Necessity for a new direction for international trade | K.C. ADAMS

In March, the U.S. government suddenly announced tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese exports to the U.S. and threatened even more. China has now retaliated with tariffs of its own against certain U.S. exports. Whatever the reasoning for these tariffs, the sudden imposition seriously disrupts the working lives of those involved in producing those goods in both China and the U.S. and those using the commodities either as a means of further production or articles of consumption. Modern industrial mass production cannot simply be turned on or off with the flick of a switch without causing widespread pain. This is no way to conduct economic relations among the peoples of the world.

Billions in state funds for transportation corridors to serve US-dominated empire-building

Federal government marches further into dead end of nation-wrecking. The working class is determined to affirm its right to build the new! Report from WORKERS’ FORUM

Transport Canada has announced another $2.1 billion of state funds for the Trade and Transportation Corridors Initiative to serve the global oligopolies and their control of the Canadian and international economy.[1]

A Ministry press release on July 4 states the Trade and Transportation Corridors Initiative is “[to] build stronger, more efficient transportation corridors to international markets…. Canadian businesses will be able to better compete, grow and create even more jobs well into the future.”

Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: the issues, the method, the opposition

Indepth report by Renewal Update, May 25, 2016

Demonstrations at hearings oppose the deal

The people’s opposition is deepening the legitimacy crisis of the institutions which advocate the neo-liberal agenda and the parties which champion it. Their attempt to use public consultations to give legitimacy to a neo-liberal free trade deal that has already been negotiated and signed behind the backs of Canadians is seriously at risk. In every city where the government’s consultations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have been held, Canadians inside and outside pointed out that far from upholding trade on the basis of mutual benefit, the TPP puts trade further under the domination of global monopolies in pursuit of their own private interests. It is a nation-wrecking agreement that attacks the right of Canadians to sovereign decision-making power.