[lbo-talk] U.S. auto sector socialized! WITBD?

[Eric Beck]

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 11:55 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> So with the UAW about to control 55% of Chrylser, and the U.S. gov likely to
> take a majority interest in GM (with the UAW holding a large stake as well),
> this means the effective socialization, at least in potential and/or theory,
> of a large chunk of the U.S. auto sector. What does this mean? Does anyone
> know what to do with it? Or is this just lemon socialism on a very large
> scale? Has anyone thought about this?

Isn't this effectively what you've been advocating for for a couple of
years at least?

Like the handing over of health care responsibilities to the UAW, I
don't see how this can end well. The auto makers are, of course,
deeply, deeply effed, and the unions have no idea how to run something
this large and complicated. To run it well, they'll have to fuck their
current employees and, even more, their retirees (in part, at least,
because of their not advocating for single. If anything goes wrong,
and lots will, the unions will take all the blame. I see no
opportunities for anything decent here.