Published on Monday, June 1, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Goodbye, GM

by Michael Moore

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.

But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?

Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:

1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.

President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.

2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.

3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.

4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.

6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).

7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.

8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.

9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.

Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.

100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.

Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.

So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.
Yours, Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
Michael Moore is an activist, author, and filmmaker. See more of his work at his website MichaelMoore.com

News Library

HOME FILLED WITH TROPHIES IS MONUMENT TO SLAIN MOTHER'S DEVOTION TO HER CHILDREN

Published on November 6, 1996
Author: LOU MICHEL - News Staff Reporter
� The Buffalo News Inc.
Valerie Soos helped her two daughters dance their way to the top in studio competitions.
The Soos family home on Riverside Avenue is filled with trophies that now stand as monuments to the 43-year-old mother's devotion to her children, Angela, 8, and Tamara, 15, family and friends said Tuesday. Few details have been made public on how the Riverside woman met a violent end this past weekend. Homicide investigators Tuesday continued searching for suspects.
What is known is that Mrs. Soos left her home for the last time around midnight Saturday to purchase food items from an area supermarket for Sunday breakfast, acquaintances and relatives said in interviews.
When her husband, Andy Soos, awoke later that morning and discovered his wife was not home, he called her sister, Vanessa J. Bichler, at about 8:30 a.m., seeking assistance, the sister said.
Mrs. Bichler, of Grand Island, picked up their brother, James Riexinger, from his home in Riverside, and headed to their brother-in-law's home and together they filed a missing person's report with Hertel Station police.
As word spread that the well-liked woman had disappeared, a search party was formed and area neighborhoods were scoured. At about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Mrs. Soos' station wagon was located behind a Niagara Street bar.
"The car was found by the dance teacher from the dance studio where Valerie's daughter Angela took dance lessons. Valerie was close friends with the teacher and would help her out answering phones at night at the studio," Mrs. Bichler said.
The dance teacher, who had called Mrs. Bichler at Mrs. Soos' home to alert her she had found the car, also contacted police to say the vehicle had been located, the sister said.
"When my brother Jim and I went to where the car was, we were told no one should go near the car until police arrived.
"I didn't think Valerie was in the car. I just thought someone stole her car," Mrs. Bichler said.
That assumption would soon change.
Police inspected the station wagon and found Mrs. Soos' naked body in it. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that her ring finger had been severed, according to police sources.
But, Capt. Joseph Riga, chief of the Homicide Bureau, refused to discuss any details of the case Tuesday, for fear it might hamper the arrest of those responsible.
"My sister called herself a big welcome mat. She was a good person and there was nothing she wouldn't do for anyone," said Mrs. Bichler, who with Mrs. Soos worked together cleaning homes.
The lack of information on the slaying, including Mrs. Soos' cause of death, weighs heavily on family members, according to relatives and friends.
"No one wants to go on and not know what happened. That's what's killing us," Mrs. Bichler said.
A funeral is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today in James E. Grace Funer








RING FINGER CUT OFF BODY OF SLAIN WOMAN

Published on November 5, 1996
� The Buffalo News Inc.
The ring finger was cut off the body of a woman found dead behind a Niagara Street bar, police sources said Monday.
That mutilation apparently occurred after the death of Valerie Soos, 43, of Riverside Avenue, sources said, citing the lack of blood flow from the wound. Mrs. Soos' body was found Sunday afternoon in her car behind Campbell's Pub at 1591 Niagara St. An autopsy was performed Monday by the Erie County medical examiner's office. Homicide Bureau officials declined to comment on the results.
Andrew Soos had reported his wife missing approximately 14 hours before her body was found. He had given police a detailed description of her clothing and the car and noted that she may have been carrying several hundred dollars.
Police sources said the body was entirely nude when it was discovered at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
The victim's husband has been questioned by police, as is customary, and the couple's home was searched. The couple has two daughters, ages 8 and 15, according to a neighbor.


AUTOPSY PLANNED ON WOMAN FOUND IN CAR

Published on November 4, 1996
� The Buffalo News Inc.
Homicide detectives say an autopsy conducted today should determine the cause of death of a Riverside woman whose body was found Sunday in her car behind a Niagara Street bar.
The body of Valerie Soos, 43, of 29 Riverside Ave. was discovered at about 2:30 p.m. outside Campbell's Pub at 1591 Niagara St., on the corner of Forest Avenue. Patrons on Sunday said she wasn't a regular at the bar, and her neighbors remembered her as a devoted housewife who often was seen working in the yard.
"It's such a terrible thing," said a friend, Jan Nimo, who lives at 23 Riverside. "I can't get over it -- seeing a person one day and the next day they're gone. It's devastating."
Ms. Nimo said Mrs. Soos and her husband, Andrew, have two daughters, ages 8 and 15.
Detectives spent several hours at the Soos home and emerged with a garbage bag of items, which they took to Police
Headquarters. They also searched a van parked outside the house.
Today, investigators returned to the scene in search of more evidence, police officials said.