The October 2008 job report showed a decline in the employment rate for the 10th consecutive month, with 240,000 jobs eliminated. This brings the unemployment rate to 6.5 percent nationally and puts the total recorded job cuts at 1.2 million so far this year, with more than half of the cuts happening over the last three months. Currently, there are 10.1 million citizens officially unemployed in the United States.
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The crisis has hit oppressed communities especially hard. Amongst Latinos, for example, unemployment is now at 8.8 percent. For African Americans, the figure has risen to 11.1 percent.
Official unemployment figures are deceiving. They do not include those who are classified as “no longer looking for employment.” Undocumented workers are undercounted or not counted at all. The figure does not account for workers who need full-time positions and are being forced to struggle with only part-time hours.
The downward trend in the employment rate and wages, happening in every industry across the country, is making it harder and harder for workers to make ends meet.
Heading into the holiday season, consumer spending declined in October for the first time in 17 years.
The auto industry is in a virtual freefall, recording some of its weakest sales in 25 years. Overall, the auto industry saw a 32 percent decline in sales compared to this time last year. In particular, the Big Three—GM, Ford and Chrysler—saw declines of 45 percent, 30 percent and 35 percent respectively in October.
Workers who previously felt distant from the crisis were rudely awakened last week. Ford announced that it would be laying off 10 percent of its salaried workers. Circuit City, the second largest U.S. consumer electronics retailer, declared bankruptcy shortly after announcing that it would be closing down 155 locations and laying off 17 percent of their workers before the end of the year.
It is increasingly clear that no industry is immune from the deepening capitalist crisis. How might the newly elected administration respond?
The change promised by the president-elect is quickly proving to be no real change at all. President-elect Barack Obama joined with leaders of both ruling parties to support the massive financial bailout. Most of the individuals Obama is surrounding himself with are recycled from past administrations.
Obama picked Rahm Emanuel to be his White House chief of staff, the second highest-ranking member of the Executive Office. Under Clinton, Emanuel was a leading advisor and helped shape the 1995 “welfare reform” legislation. Emanuel participated in the efforts to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement, and was on the board of director’s of Freddie Mac at the time its disastrous lending policies were formulated. Time and again, Emanuel has demonstrated that he is an enemy of the working class.
What can workers do in the face of such dire economic circumstances? Inevitably, the bosses and bourgeois politicians will push for workers to invest in their crisis-ridden system and encourage workers to increase consumption. The dire economic situation has brought great uncertainty to workers, yet it creates a potential opportunity for the revitalization of the labor movement.
Now is the time to press forward with labor struggles to face the ruling-class offensive. In these dire economic times, working-class people need to build a powerful, militant fight-back movement organized in defense of our class.
