An individual may make a statement that sums up the thinking of an entire social class. So did billionaire real estate developer Tim Garner’s remarks before Tuesday’s real estate summit. Australian Financial Review.
In comments that were widely shared and condemned on social media, Garner identified what he considered to be the essential “problems” created by the COVID-19 pandemic. This does not mean that 25 million people have died and millions more are suffering from debilitating diseases. No, Garner said, “The problem we’re having is that people have decided they don’t want to work as much because of COVID-19, and that’s causing huge productivity problems. think.”
“They’re definitely reducing productivity,” Garner said, referring to the daily challenges faced by construction workers in a $10 billion construction project. In recent years they have been paid a lot of money not to overdo it and we need to see that change. ”
The claim that workers are “paid too much not to do too much” is an irrational and self-deceptive lie. According to the International Labor Organization, wages around the world, excluding China, fell by 1.4% in 2022 alone, as sharp increases in the cost of living eroded workers’ living standards. When it comes to not doing too much, the coronavirus pandemic has spelled death for 40-hour work weeks, with 50-hour work weeks becoming the norm in the auto industry and 70-hour work weeks in railways and ports. .
“We need to remind people that they work for their employers, not the other way around,” Garner continued. “Instead of employees feeling extremely lucky that their employer hired them, there is an organizational shift happening, rather than the opposite. So it’s a dynamic that has to change. It is.”
Mr. Garner’s prescription for the problem of a working class refusing to accept its status as a wage slave is simple. “We need to see the economic pain.” This includes “massive job cuts”, which have already begun, and will lead to “reduced arrogance in the job market”. He added: “The unemployment rate needs to go up. In my opinion, the unemployment rate needs to go up by 40-50%.”
220 million people are unemployed worldwide. Garner hopes that number will rise by 110 million more, given the untold suffering caused by mass unemployment, including hunger, malnutrition, drug abuse and family breakdown.
After the online outrage, Garner said he “deeply regrets” his comments. This disingenuous statement was probably motivated by the fact that in the past such truth-telling has facilitated the installation of the guillotine.
Garner, who has an estimated fortune of AU$929 million, or US$600 million, does not speak for himself. In his earnest remarks, he was giving voice to the sentiments of the entire capitalist class, which uses mass unemployment as a cudgel to ensure that workers’ wages continue to plummet. .
His recommendation that the “problem” of working class arrogance should be solved by mass unemployment is, more directly, echoed by the policies of central banks around the world. In August 2022, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the COVID-19 pandemic had created an “imbalance” in the labor market and that “pain” would be needed to bring inflation down. declared.
The introduction of “pain” is progressing in every industry and country. If American autoworkers want to know what CEOs like Mary Barra and Jim Farley are really thinking, just watch this show. 1 minute video Garner’s statement. Automotive giants plan to create mass unemployment through a shift to electric vehicle (EV) production, which requires far less labor. Wages and benefits at EV battery factories would be cut even further than those for temporary part-time workers at GM, Ford, and Stellantis.
And behind the car owners stand the big banks and the entire financial oligarchy, and they hold the reins. They set policy for every industry and give instructions to politicians in the Biden administration and capitalist governments around the world.
The ruling class’ policies to reduce employment and living standards, and to impose even more brutal conditions of exploitation, have far-reaching social and political consequences. Such measures cannot be imposed democratically. Direct intervention of the state is necessary to suppress or crush the struggles of the working class. The Biden administration gave its first glimpse of this last December when it intervened to ban strikes by railroad workers and impose a contract that many railroad workers had already voted to reject.
In each country, capitalist rulers are moving toward mass repression and dictatorship, building authoritarian and fascist movements that serve as instruments of attack on democratic rights. In the United States, this is embodied by the transformation of the Republican Party under the aegis of Donald Trump. Similar forces are operating in Germany (AfD), France (Marine Le Pen’s party), Italy (where the fascist Giorgia Meloni is now prime minister), and many other countries.
The TV series was released earlier this year. inheritance It showed that billionaire media families, like a thinly fictionalized version of Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News empire, are turning to the reinforcements of fascist politicians to enforce their class interests. Garner’s comments don’t tell us whether this is a case of art imitating life or vice versa.
David North as Editor-in-Chief World Socialist Websitecommented on Twitter (X): “To paraphrase Trotsky: ‘Not every entrepreneur can be Hitler, but there’s a little bit of Hitler in every entrepreneur. Mr. Garner has publicly stated that corporate leaders speak privately to each other. He gives voice to the interests of the ruling class that supports fascism and extermination camps.”
Tim Garner did not discuss the political implications of his support for class warfare policies. But workers must make no mistake that behind the scenes, the capitalist class in Australia, the United States and around the world is creating a system of authoritarian character designed to cut down the jobs, living standards and social rights of working people. This means that measures are being prepared. The working class must prepare itself accordingly.