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Show Column left Strikers need higher wages machine in Vietnam, Laos and around the world where the U.S. forces have bases. Support Strike It is important then for students stu-dents to support the G.E. strike. It is important to understand the effects of the strike on the imperialistic im-perialistic nature of big business. The strike does not help business, nor will the wage increase that comes out of it. But it is necessary to understand that a wage increase will not affect the basic nature of General Electric. The wage increases in-creases are necessary mainly so that the workers can live a decent life. What eventually must be fought for however, is an end to the giant concentration of wealth in corporate America. Big strikes such as the GE strike are very instrumental in helping us to understand the na ture of U.S. society. It is a dasj society that is bottom heavy. The few at the top not only control the U.S. economy, but also have a large say in the world economy Each strike is a small knock at this power, and as the nature of US business continues to be exposed through workers' strikes and other actions on the part of business interests in-terests both at home and abroad it becomes more and more necessary neces-sary for workers and non-workers alike to realize their plight and join together in bringing down the imperialistic powers of big business busi-ness and the U.S. government. BY DENNIS DUFFY On October 27 around 150,000 workers from nine different unions struck against General Electric. The average wage of all . the workers is $3.25 an hour which amounts to about $5000 a year after taxes. This is simply not a sufficient wage to raise a family on, and this comes from a company com-pany whose sales approach eight billion annually and whose total clear profits are over $350 million and growing. Huge Sums Admittedly one can't grasp the significance of these huge sums of money. It is enough to say that G.E. is quite rich. It is the fourth largest corporation in the U.S., giving it a Gross National Product higher than many countries in the world. G.E. owns one hundred percent voting rights in 24 separate sepa-rate U.S. companies and 105 foreign affiliates. It can be clearly seen that G.E. is a true economic power in the world. The wages of its foreign companies are even lower than in the U.S., which is typical of U.S. big business in its efforts to put a little money in and take a lot of money out. Businesses use cheap foreign labor and untapped natural resources re-sources which these countries can't now use because of their stage of industrial development. At a later date when they could use these materials as they develop de-velop they will be gone, having already been taken by U.S. big business. Business Imperialistic It is easy to see that the basic nature of big business is imperialistic; imperial-istic; it takes from other countries solely for its own economic profit. G.E. is no exception. Besides Be-sides having huge investments in foreign countries, fully 20 percent of its income is directly related to heavy defense and aerospace contracts. con-tracts. And this does not include electronic equipment used in planes, rockets, radios, etc., purchased pur-chased by the U.S. government. So on top of economic exploitation exploita-tion of foreign countries, G.E. is a chief contributor to the U.S. war |