PRESS RELEASE
LaRouche Calls for Saving the Auto Industry
As a Crucial Asset for U.S. Recovery
This release was issued on April 13 by the LaRouche PAC political action committee.
In a meeting with labor leaders and elected officials April 9, called to discuss a solution to the existential crisis facing General Motors and Ford, Lyndon LaRouche described the auto industry machine tool design and production capacity as a national asset that must be protected at all costs. LaRouche proposed that the government intervene by placing the relevant productive capacity of the auto industry into government-supervised receivership, and then fund the retooling and expansion of that capacity to supply the components of large scale, national and regional mass transportation, water management, and other basic economic infrastructure projects.
LaRouche's proposal is in stark contrast to the 'slash and burn' proposals — i.e., labor give-backs and carving up GM and Ford and selling off the pieces — coming from the vultures on Wall Street. LaRouche representatives are already in discussion with transportation engineering experts and labor leaders, to develop an index of projects that have already been authorized, but for which the funding has not yet been appropriated.
The historical precedents for LaRouche's proposal are rooted in the economic mobilization under President Franklin Roosevelt and the space program under John F. Kennedy. The retooling for tank and airplane production under FDR and the development of production capacity to meet the needs of the space program can serve as models for the type of programs needed now. LaRouche emphasized that focussing on mobilization of the most advanced productive segments of the economy and labor force, machine tool design and production, as the front end of major infrastructure projects, generates the employment opportunities for much larger layers of skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers, creating the basis for a genuine economic recovery on a national scale. On this basis, the revenue stream to federal, state, and local governments can recover to levels needed to fund essential services, not to mention the benefits of increasing employment to the millions of currently unemployed and under-employed Americans.
In a soon-to-be-released, major policy statement, Recreate Our Economy, LaRouche presents the shocking reality of the physical economic collapse of the United States over the past 40 years, and outlines the principles of a science of physical economy as the only basis for economic recovery today. The text is currently available on LaRouche PAC's website, www.larouchepac.com. Copies of that report can be obtained in pamphlet form from the LaRouche Political Action Committee by contacting the office listed above.
For more information: call 313.592.3945, 1-800-929-7566
or visit www.larouchepac.com
