While poverty levels grow and living standards fall, the American bosses keep up the pressure to drive down real wages even further. The latest example is what is happening at Delphi (that supplies parts to GM) where the bosses asked workers to take a 63% pay cut. In December the UAW votes on what response to give and GM are bracing themselves for possible strike action.
Living standards for the US working class have been falling for some time. Inside the richest country in the world we have “third-world” type conditions for a layer of the population.
The events of the past year have awakened millions of Americans to the bitter reality of life under capitalism. To many, the entire planet appears to have gone insane. The world has been shaken from top to bottom by natural disasters, wars, famines, political crises, riots, and revolutionary uprisings. This is a graphic reflection of the impasse of capitalism in the epoch of its decay and decline: an era of wars, revolutions, and counter-revolutions. Editorial statement of the US Socialist Appeal.