credit crisis

Report and reflections on the UK Ford-Visteon dispute 2009 - a post-Fordist struggle

Submitted by Red Marriott on Jun 9 2009 10:39

A detailed account and analysis of the struggle of Ford-Visteon car manufacturing workers who occupied and picketed their plants after being sacked when their employers declared themselves bankrupt.

In June 2000 Ford Motor Company outsourced the production of certain component parts to a new company called Visteon - in reality a spin off company of Ford and in which Ford retained a 60% holding. Visteon runs factories all over the globe: in America, Europe and Asia, for example.

Strikes and lockouts in South Korea

Submitted by Ed on Jun 1 2009 14:48

As the economic recession hits South Korea, striking car workers have been locked out of their factory while earlier in the week construction workers go on strike in and around Seoul.

Ssangyong Motor Company has locked striking workers out of its plant to stop them disrupting production at the carmaker, which is in bankruptcy protection.

Unionised workers at the South Korean automaker have been on strike since May 21, demanding management keep the assembly line workforce at current levels in a self-rescue plan the company is devising under a court order.

The struggle against crisis: We can only rely on ourselves!

This leaflet by KPK contains also a sketch of balance of power between proletariat and capital in Czech both now and during years before the crisis. It was distributed at unionist demo in May.

The struggle against crisis:
We can only rely on ourselves!

Only a year ago, they wanted us to work Saturdays to satisfy demand – today, we're on forced vacations or sacked right away.

The recession: what it means for education

ucu

This article summarises some of the issues facing the education sector and how they are more acute in times of recession, and was the result of numerous discussions on Libcom. It first appeared in issue 1 of The Leveller.

The recession is everywhere we look, in this very paper there’s many articles reporting on, and discussing, the widespread and varied effects of the ‘economic downturn’ across all sectors.

Workers in South Korea respond to mass redundancies with strike action

Submitted by Ed on May 25 2009 11:57

Workers at South Korean automaker Ssangyong Motor went on strike on Thursday in protest at plans for mass layoffs to save the firm from bankruptcy.

Assembly lines at its plant in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, stopped at 1:30pm, said union spokesman Lee Chang-Geun.

"Management should come to talk with the union on avoiding the proposed massive job cuts," Lee said, adding that the duration of the strike would be decided Friday.

Public sector workers reject pay offers

Submitted by Ex-temp on May 19 2009 12:05

Local government workers have rejected a "pitiful" 0.5% pay offer as college staff turned down a 1% cost of living pay rise.

The offer to council workers is worth just 3p an hour to 150,000 low-paid workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Young members' officer for Wirral local government branch Lara Rowlands said: "An extra 3p an hour is nothing. We deserve a decent offer to help us survive during these difficult times.

Fictitious Capital and the New-Fangled Schemes of Public Credit

The text of talk by Marx's theory of fictitious capital, capital accumulation and the current economic crisis.

The following is a talk given by Michael Egoavil at the Left Forum 2009 panel “Marx’s ‘Capital’ and the Economic Crisis”. Michael can be reached at michaelegoavil@gmail.com. It was originally posted at http://marxisthumanistinitiative.org/2009/05/06/fictitious-capital-and-credit-schemes/

Crisis stories

Overview and comparison of different theories about the crisis - Keynesians, stagnationists, Marxists, globalisation.

crisis stories
These notes come from the reading I've done recently trying to understand the causes of the current economic crisis. There are thousands of books, essays and articles out there now, but they all work within a few basic explanations or underlying "stories". Here I outline and compare four of the main ones.

Crackdown in South Korea as President Lee emphasises need for "labour market flexibility"

Submitted by Django on May 8 2009 16:32

Nineteen former workers at the Kor-Tek guitar and bass factory in Dungchon, Seoul, have been indicted on serious charges relating to the occupation of the plant late last year. The charges, alongside similar cases, have led to protests from unions which describe them as “excessive” and “preposterous”.

The original dispute at the plant related to management plans to close the factory and move production to China. Workers quickly staged a sit-in strike, but this was broken up by police after only four hours. The strikers were rounded up, and two local union leaders were given one year sentences, which were later commuted to suspended sentences.

Cretan farmers march in Athens in midst of political meltdown

Submitted by taxikipali on May 6 2009 16:51

Thousands of farmers from Crete marched in the Greek capital under torrential rain demanding financial help in midst of political meltdown

Cretan farmers came by boat for a second time this year to Athens to protest against government neglect of their sector at the time that the Ministry of Agriculture is dedicating some 500million Euro help package to lift problems caused by the global economic crisis in other agricultural areas of the country.