PARIS, December 29 — Unemployment in November hit new record levels in France, and the bosses’ government and the union misleaders agree: shift the burden of the crisis onto the backs of the working class by putting workers on short time, cutting their income, in order to help maintain the bosses’ profits.

Pôle emploi, the unemployment office, reports an “official” jobless rate of 10.1% — 2,844,800 jobless in an active population of 28,269,000 — a level of unemployment unseen in the past 12 years. However, the real rate rose to 17.1%.

The 1,400,000 persons working part-time but actively seeking full-time work raises the rate to 15.0%. An additional 589,600 workers on the unemployment rolls were sick, in job training or had a government-subsidized job so were not counted in the “official” rate because they were not obliged to actively look for work. This ups the real unemployment rate to 17.1%.

All this hits black and Arab immigrant workers from sub-Saharan and North Africa, and their children, particularly hard (see box). Because of racist discrimination, they are already at the lower end of the jobs and income level and now are being driven deeper into poverty.

On December 27, the Minister for Labor said that a January 18 summit on jobs “will make it possible … to put forward quick-action solutions to limit the effects of the economic crisis as much as possible.” He notably favored making it easier for companies to put workers on short time. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will preside over the labor-management summit.

On December 27, France’s largest trade union confederation, the CGT, said it will propose to the summit “the elimination of untaxed overtime hours; reinforced checks on financial aid granted to companies, with a firm commitment to maintaining jobs; and the establishment of a mechanism to avoid layoffs by working short time.”

Thus, the CGT is trying to help the capitalists manage the recession and shift the crisis onto the workers. It’s trying to patch up the rotten capitalist system instead of pointing workers towards revolutionary change.

The CGT is also calling for nation-wide demonstrations on January 18, demanding more jobs, more purchasing power for all, and a united struggle against the government’s austerity policies. Although these reformist demands may sound positive, the demonstrations (as in the past) will probably prove to be little more than an opportunity for workers to blow off steam, especially since the CGT has carefully avoided calling for strikes to back up the demands.

France’s second-largest union confederation, the CFDT (more conservative than the CGT) will advance four points at the summit: (1) working short time to avoid layoffs; (2) more access to unemployment benefits for temporary workers; (3) state action to maintain jobs for youth; and (4) hiring 2,000 more workers at the unemployment agency, Pôle emploi, to deal with the expected increase in unemployment!

The CFDT is not even organizing workers to demonstrate behind these demands, much less go on strike. In other words, it’s begging the bosses to make a symbolic gesture, a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Capitalism is based on the bosses netting maximum profits, making it impossible for the bosses to show pity, even if they wanted to.

This summit will amount to nothing more than a showy photo-op for the government in the run-up to the April 22 presidential elections. Workers are wasting their time if they look to the bosses, the government or the union leaders for solutions. The initiative for action will have to come from the rank and file.

The upshot is that the government and the union leaders are working together to persuade the bosses to put workers on short time instead of laying them off. They’re aiming to avoid the kind of social unrest resulting from mass unemployment. But this is no solution, even in terms of capitalism.

The government will receive less revenue from income and corporate taxes. Already, it’s increasing taxes on natural gas, food and home improvements. Lower incomes and higher taxes will force workers to reduce their expenses even more, plunging France deeper into an economic depression.

Ultimately, the bosses and their government can only look to imperialist adventures to exit the crisis. French participation in the wars in Libya and Afghanistan is no accident — the French ruling class is honing the war readiness of the French army.

The capitalist system has plunged this country into a vicious circle in which austerity begets economic stagnation and unemployment, which in turn lead to more draconian austerity measures. For the working class here — as for workers worldwide — the only solution is to smash capitalist exploitation through communist revolution.

Racist Unemployment Hits Black and Arab Workers

According to an Oct. 19, 2010 government report entitled “Trajectoire et Origines,” all else being equal, the unemployment rate among immigrants from Sub-Saharan (mostly black) and North Africa (mostly Arab) is over twice that of people born to French parents. The unemployment rate among children of black or Arab immigrants is 1.8 to 2 times higher.

The report revealed that almost 25% of black immigrants and 19% of Algerian immigrants had been unjustly turned down for a job within the previous five years, as had 12% of the children of black or North African immigrants.

This racist discrimination means immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and Algeria earn 12%-13% less than people born to French parents.

The study showed that there was no significant difference in unemployment or income levels between European immigrants and people born to French parents.

“The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action,” writes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the current issue of Foreign Policy magazine. In the article, “America’s Pacific Century,” she announces a major change in U.S. foreign policy, a “pivot to new global realities,” that sets its sights among the three giants of the Asia-Pacific: China, India and the U.S.

Crucial in this strategic turn to maintain U.S hegemony is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a vast trade network spread across the Asia-Pacific rim promoted by Obama at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) forum in November. Currently being negotiated by nine countries, the TPP is essentially a U.S. thrust to exploit the markets, cheap labor and raw materials of the world’s fastest growing region and is also a move to contain China, the main threat to U.S imperialist aims.

In 1997, then Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin likened a similar strategy to having China “play Gulliver to Southeast Asia’s Lilliputians, with the United States supplying the rope and string.” But China is no sleeping giant. The Chinese Global Times warned that, “any country which chooses to be a pawn in the U.S. chess game will lose the opportunity to benefit from China’s economy.”

Obama urged the nine Beijing neighbors to join this “landmark 21st-century trade deal,” noting China’s trade barriers, high tariffs and taxes on foreign investors. Chinese Premier Wen countered that the region’s countries share interests as developing nations with dynamic economies, unlike the West which, “lacks momentum,” and is “plagued by serious financial and debt crises.”

But these threats and promises of economic gains and losses veil serious intentions to control the region’s economy, militarily if necessary.

In November China hosted a meeting of its regional security/economic bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) whose members, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, frequently hold joint military exercises.

At the meeting Wen called for developing multilateral trade and economic ties between its members and recommended Iran, (currently U.S. enemy #1), and Pakistan for membership. India and Turkey have observer status.

Obama makes no bones about U.S. intentions to back up its capitalist interests with military force. On his recent visit to Australia he announced the deployment of 2,500 Marines to Darwin, (the Australian port closest to China) and stated that the U.S. was “here to stay” as a Pacific power.

Hammering the point home, Clinton symbolically chose to speak from the deck of the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Fitzgerald in Manila Bay, Philippines: “We are making sure that our collective defense capabilities and communications infrastructure are operationally and materially capable of deterring provocations from the full spectrum of state and non-state actors.”

Central to keeping China at bay in the Asia-Pacific is the U.S. backing of puppet regimes in Thailand and Malaysia, strengthening alliances with the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Australia and pursuing “broader, deeper, and more purposeful relationships” with India and Indonesia.

These events come at a time of heightening tensions in the South China Sea over the oil-rich Spratly Islands, whose energy reserves may rival those of Kuwait, and which are claimed by China, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. At a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders, (ASEAN) in Indonesia, the U.S. and China disagreed about how to handle the claims, with Wen issuing a warning to the U.S., saying “outside forces” had no excuse to get involved in the complex maritime dispute.

The stakes are high. Half the world’s tonnage passes through the South China Sea. Control of its sea lanes is a necessity for U.S capitalists eager to invest for super-profits and for China, whose economy relies heavily on sea transportation for its import and export trade, including Middle East oil, vital for its industry.

The U.S. is aggressively attempting to weaken China’s growing economic relationships, such as between China and Pakistan which are involved in the development of a deep-sea port, heavily financed by China, at Qwadar on the Arabian Sea in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province. The project came under heavy attack by Baluchi separatists, secretly funded by the CIA and Britain, slowing down completion of the port and forcing the Chinese to work under the protection of the Pakistani Army.

Pakistan is facing increased attacks from U.S. intelligence and military forces in what many see as an attempt to destabilize and break up the nation (composed of four main provinces). An independent Baluchistan (and possibly Khyber Pakhtunkwha) would cut off China’s Gwadar port, leaving the sea lanes under U.S control and give the U.S. access through Northern Pakistan to Afghanistan and the oil and gas fields of the Caspian Basin.

New U.S. relations with India, which Obama calls “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century, rooted in common values and interests,” is further straining the Pakistani-U.S. strategic partnership and sharpening tensions between China and India. The U.S. is helping India become a leading military power, selling it uranium and providing nuclear know–how. India, world’s largest weapons importer, accounts for 9% of the world’s arms transactions. They buy warships, destroyers and nuclear submarines to build a navy rivaling China’s.

Finally Russia, another player in the area, threatened to retaliate militarily if Washington goes ahead with a planned missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. America’s Pacific Century is quickly shaping up into a battleground between superpowers and would-be superpowers. But class struggle is also heating up. Globally the working class is taking to the streets in increasing numbers, in Russia, China, the Arab countries, Asia, Europe and the U.S. It’s time for the world’s workers to unite in a communist revolution, led by the ideas of PLP, to overthrow these bloodthirsty imperialists and wipe out the hell of capitalism with a society run by and for the international working class.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, December 10 — Ten years of struggle by the unions in a progressive federation here have mostly meant heartbreaking frustration for the workers involved. They are still organizing, although their strikes, marches, mass meetings, forums, legal fights, petitions and press conferences have yielded so little. Yet they fight on. Many hundreds have been fired, in several different industries, for union activism. In fact almost every delegate at the dinner was currently jobless for that reason! In two unions they are still battling after three years or more for back pay and reinstatement after mass illegal layoffs of unionists. The workers in one case were rounded up and physically kicked out of their workplace by police swat teams. 

So how do we win? Among the ideas considered by this group of committed men and women workers was the road to revolution, the need for a communist party, and the importance of an international revolutionary movement. These ideas were raised by a union leader from the old communist movement and developed by PLP speakers from two countries. They put it in the context of inter-imperialist rivalry and war, and what this turmoil in global capitalism means for Haitian workers.

They spoke of the bitterness of this period for workers under fascist and imperialist attack like those in Haiti, but also even in the U.S., where workers face frozen wages in union contracts and over 20% unemployment. They showed how Haitian unemployment and labor migration (1 million in North America) are an important tool in the bosses’ plan to drive down wages and divide the working class in this whole region. 

Unemployment in Haiti is between 70% and 90%, which makes any union struggle difficult as bosses use unemployed workers as weapons against those with jobs. Workers here respond to the bosses’ use of the “reserve army of the unemployed” by helping one another day to day, making every job feed many of the jobless. Some progressive unions also seek to cross the divide by including the unemployed in their ranks. In one union there are 400 employed and 400 unemployed members. Those employed have actually taken the jobs of those fired en masse for unionizing. But despite the initial feeling against scabs, they are now accepted as brothers and sisters by those who were kicked out. This union sings a song at the end of its delegate assembly that leads off: “Unions stand up! Strike for liberty!”

Critically and self-critically, one major weakness of the event was the absence of the hospital workers recently on strike — the sharpest struggle of the moment. Inevitably, four of their leaders were fired during the strike. Party members should certainly have made sure these workers were not only present but cheered and supported by the meeting. The anniversary dinner could and should have become a moment of organizing by the federation of more active and militant support of these members under attack.

Unfortunately at this point the federation focuses not enough on getting masses of workers behind struggles like this one, and too much on legal cases, trainings in union organization, and political forums. These are all useful, especially the political forums, which some unions use effectively as an organizing tool. But haven’t 10 years shown them to not be really the road ahead?

This federation is also courted by a few big international union federations like PSI (Public Services International) and some big U.S., Canadian, and French unions like the AFT, CUPE (Canadian public employees), and SNES (a French teachers’ union). It’s interesting that these unions come from the Big Three imperialist powers who dominate Haiti. The term “labor imperialism” was coined to describe such international union operations. Not everyone involved deserves this term, but they could have the effect of pulling Haitian unions to the right as they pay to build clinics and rebuild union halls. 

Revolutionaries in Haiti, like everywhere else, have a ways to go in making our ideas of a need for a communist revolution a material force which grips the masses. In small group discussions around the edges of this event, however, and in firming up political friendships between communists in PLP and other workers, those ideas are slowly picking up steam. The Party and workers generally can expect to be attacked as fascism gathers momentum in Haiti (see box). These ten years of pain and bitterness will toughen up workers for more decisive battle if we all learn from our mistakes and strike harder for workers’ communist freedom. The cruel alternative is fascism and global war.

Fascism Grows in Haiti but Workers Are Resisting

One unionist reported to his delegate assembly how he had infiltrated a march through Cité Soleil, a desperately poor district, organized by a pro-Martelly group called “Ghetto Réuni” (“Reunited Ghetto”) to whip up support for a Haitian army. They gave out t-shirts printed with “Haiti: Vous Etes Souveraine!” (“Haiti, You Are a Sovereign State!”), implying that UN MINUSTAH troops should be replaced by a fascist local army. A new t-shirt would be half someone’s clothing needs for six months, and there were also small money handouts. A Rara (festival music) marching band attracted more people.  March organizers used their hands like guns, chanting “The army’s coming back!” Bosses will try to use the unemployed to build fascist mass movements, but the communist answer is to crush fascists ruthlessly with workers’ strength and courage, such as that displayed by the worker who infiltrated Ghetto Réuni for his union.

OAKLAND, CA., December 13 — Thousands of Occupiers, confronted by police in riot gear, shut or disrupted ports from Anchorage, Alaska, to Southern Ca., highlighting economic inequality and high unemployment.

Thousands of pickets chanting “Whose ports? Our Ports!” forced the closing of four shipping terminals here. Hundreds shut two of Portland’s four main terminals. Seattle cops used “flash-bang” percussion grenades against protestors blocking the port entrance, arresting 11.

Pickets in Longview, Wash., demonstrated in solidarity with longshoremen fighting EGT Investment over the latter’s takeover of their jobs. They were also protesting Goldman-Sachs which owns a stake in the largest cargo terminal operator, SSA Marine. Other demonstrations occurred as far south as Long Beach, CA. and as far north as Vancouver, Canada and Anchorage, Alaska.

Although the longshore union refused to support the actions, an Oakland docker said “the rank and file have spoken today by not crossing the lines.”

Reuters reported (12/13) that in Oakland, “Two longshoremen outside the gate said they would refuse to cross the picket lines to get to their jobs and assumed others would follow suit” (Sacramento Bee 12/13).

Doug Seaman, a 35-year-old unemployed construction worker, told the San Francisco Chronicle (12/12), “We need to make the public aware that Wall Street’s tentacles have infiltrated every facet of our lives.”