Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-01-11
Capitalist
Anarchy
by Ben Dor
LPA COlumnist

DETROIT-'A fighting town,
this local union president called
it Detroit, the automobile
center of the world. Right now,
It's the center, too, of one of the
most important fights of our
time, q strike over wages and
prices, q strike over how many
workers may be sentenced to
unemployment so that industry
may make unlimited profits.
A few weeks ago, it saw one
of the naStieSt political fights
ever staged, a fight over wheth-
er a labor man could be mayor
of this great industrial city.
Labor lost the fight and un-
fortunately didn't even get out
of it the satisfaction of knowing
the fight had been well fought.
During Christmas week labor
got into another fight = poll
tical and legal fight over street
car fares. Again labor lost, and
the &c street car fares have now
gone up to 10c.
Labor in Detroit is used to
fighting and losing - but it has
won some great victories, too.
Perhaps the greatest victory of
all was organizing the auto in
dustry, but that fight isn't over.
And this time, the union has
landed a punch on the corpora
tons sorest spot profits -
and the corporations are scream
ing wildly.
WHOSE BUSINESS?
"Our profits" says GIN, ARE
none of the peoples damn busi-
ness"
That's not a new point of
view. It's been expressed over
and over again by capitalists
since America began. "The peo-
pie well, they just don't
count" or, even more direct,
"The public be damned" That
has been capitalism's answer
time and time again, when it
has been asked to accept the re-
sponsibilities of power as well
as its privileges.
A GIN striker in Detroit put it
very we'll when l talked to him
a short while ago. These cap
italists are anarchists" he said.
He was talking about GINS
behavior over the fact-finding
panel that Truman has set up to
decide the facts in the auto
workers strike. The union has
given the panel every bit of CO.
operation that it could. 1t has
kept its GIN strike committee in
Washington for days, meeting
with the fact-finding panel, do
ing everything possible to help
the government decide what the
facts really are.
But, just at the time when its
cooperation was most needed,
the GIN withdrew from the
proceedings. The union wanted
the company officials to stay.
The panel wanted their help.
The President himself had ask
ed them to cooperate with the
panel. But GIN preferred to put
half-truths before the people in
expensive newspaper ads, rath-
er than work with the govern
ment panel, which might end up
giving the people all of the
truth about this corporations
profits and It's position on the
wage issue.
The workers cannot and
would not strike against the
government. The corporations
don't hesitate to do it. If that Is
capitalism, then the capitalists
are anarchists, said this GM
striker. Or the corporations are
greater than the u. S. govern
ment and the people 1t is set up
to represent.
In Detroit, people know what
this means. They know what it
means for the strikers to have
to defy a corporation like GIN
under these conditions in the
of winter. On every
hand, I heard compliments for
the spirit which the GIN work
ers are showing. And civic
committee has been meeting to
set up plans for helping the
strikers with money and in any
other way that is possible.
Detroiters know, too, that the
and the auto dealers
will lose very little by the
strike. l heard rumors that
orders are being taken for
at $500 each. All ]
could say when I heard the
was woWl
So. everybody seems to be
protected except the people -
the people who won't thumb
their noses at the government as
the corporation has done; who
have no tax refunds and re-
serves to fall back on as the
corporation has; who have moth
ing to sell at black market
prices as the dealers seem to be
able to do, and who can't afford
70 offer $500 for a Chevrolet,