Emergency jobs program needed

[dcsmart]

The record wave of layoffs that seemed to peak in December is continuing into 2009.

At the same time, hundreds of billions of dollars in aid are flowing from Washington to the banks and corporations, not to the unemployed. Reviving corporate profits has taken precedence over providing desperately needed jobs or calling for an immediate end to foreclosures and evictions.


Circuit City announced it is laying off 34,000 workers by the end of March—the largest mass firing since the current crisis began. This second-largest electronic retailer in the U.S. is closing 557 stores.

Just in the first two weeks of this year a series of other layoffs has been announced.

Motorola, which laid off 3,000 workers last October, has announced another 4,000 jobs will be cut. Hertz announced 4,000 jobs will go worldwide. ConocoPhillips will lay off 1,350, Pfizer 2,400, WellPoint 1,500, Saks 1,000 and Neiman Marcus 375. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Blue Cross/Blue Shield and other large companies are also scheduled to announce new rounds of layoffs.

These are only the most publicized firings.

The official unemployment rate, which was 7.2 percent at the end of 2008, is expected to shoot up rapidly in the coming months as the bosses continue the onslaught without mercy.

However, there is a less publicized but also official figure called “total” unemployment—and it has reached 13.4 percent. The first thing to remember about this figure is that it amounts to 20 million workers. It includes people who couldn’t get anything but part-time work when they need to work full time, plus the millions who have stopped looking altogether, termed “discouraged” workers.
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Why ‘stimulus’ can’t work

Wall Street told the incoming Obama administration to get hold of the $350 billion fund Congress passed to bail out the banks and use it to clean up their bad loans. In addition, the Democrats have submitted an $825 billion “stimulus” package.

There are many progressive features to the package, such as increases in Pell grants, reduction of payroll taxes for workers, rural assistance, additional food stamp aid and unemployment insurance. But these features, including the declared goal of creating 3 million jobs in the next two years, are utterly inadequate to meet the massive crisis that is unfolding at a rapid rate.
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Banks don’t lend when markets are glutted

Giant technology companies like Motorola, Nortel, AMD and Intel are suffering losses due to overproduction and hence executing layoffs. Under those conditions, the banks see no profit in lending, no matter how much money the government hands them.

In fact, they are using their bailout money not for lending but to strengthen themselves financially. According to a New York Times survey of two dozen banks, “The overwhelming majority saw the bailout program as a no-strings-attached windfall that could be used to pay down debt, acquire other businesses or invest for the future.”

At a recent conference at the Palm Beach Ritz-Carlton, “Bankers mingled with investment analysts at an ocean-front luxury hotel, where the agenda featured evening cocktails by the pool and a golf outing at a nearby country club.” They were there to discuss the bailout funds. Referring to the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, conference organizer John C. Hope III, chairperson of the Whitney National Bank of New Orleans, said, “We see TARP as an insurance policy.” Hope figures that, “No matter how bad it gets, we’re going to be one of the remaining banks.” (New York Times, Jan. 18)

So much for lending, job creation and recovery.

The “crisis” of the bankers and bosses is calmly discussed at luxury watering holes, while the workers are suffering the greatest attack in three generations.

The only way to get a real working-class recovery program is to organize to shake up the entire capitalist system until the bosses are forced to provide jobs and/or a livable income.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://www.workers.org/2009/world/jobs_program_0129/

[nichomachus]

1. We already have one --- it's called

"Cannon Foddder." The corporatists are, in effect, reinstituting the draft, except that they will get people to go down and volunteer. When joining the corporate army is the only way people can make money, they will do it. It's called the "economic draft."