Reality Check

Interview with Naomi Klein Regarding "Disaster Capitalism"

Domtar Closes in Cornwall: Manufacturing Doomed in North America

The end of an era in Cornwall, Ontario is rapidly approaching. At the end of March, 2006, Domtar Inc. will be locking the doors of the Cornwall mill- forever.

The bleeding started in December, 2004 when 390 employees were permanently laid off. Roughly a year later Domtar announced that it would be closing the mill, and that the remaining 500 employees would have the same fate as their colleagues- becoming unemployed workers in a manufacturing base that is doomed in North America.

The effects of the Domtar closure will be devastating for a city like Cornwall. Property owners already pay higher taxes per square foot than most other communities in the province. Having lost its textile base in the late 80’s and 90’s, and now the manufacturing base is being ravaged, the city is struggling for its survival.

After over 100 years of being part of the highest paid work force in the city, Domtar employees will lose their $60,000 minimum salaries, and face the real world where they will be lucky to make one half of that.

Call centers have emerged in the city, since there is now a pool of bilingual, unemployed people, who are willing to work for $10. per hour. Call centers gravitate to regions where there is high unemployment, and where the workers will accept far less than in an urban center like Toronto.

So, how is it that manufacturing keeps failing, and what will happen next?

First of all, forget what the government tells you. The erosion of Canadian manufacturing, creating unemployment, has been in the works for a long time.

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney literally sold us out in the 80’s with the free trade agreement, the document that we still can’t read, and don’t have access to. Free trade has led to globalization that has benefited the rich and made most of us poorer. The multinational companies rule. They are stronger than governments and they control government policies.

Low wage jobs, lower standard of living, fewer social benefits, more homeless people, and higher unemployment have been the result of free trade. CanWest News Service predicts that 100,000 more jobs in manufacturing will disappear in Canada this year.

Instead of making our country self sufficient, the marketplace has encouraged more and more consumer spending, the banks have encouraged people to become indebted, and a free flow of cheap merchandise comes from a growing list of third world countries such as: China, Thailand, Malaysia, and India. The multinationals have encouraged this development and with the promise of cheaper and cheaper goods, North Americans took the bait.

Instead of a country that produced what it needed, and provided jobs for its citizens, the lure of cheap goods and the Walmartization of the economy, has produced millions of unemployed in the U.S. and Canada. And it’s not over yet.

Instead of producing an entire car in one country, the multinationals make sure that the batteries, seatbelts, spark plugs, and transmissions are all manufactured in different countries, and therefore the countries become interdependent. No one country can ‘break away’ and become self sufficient. Clever planning by the multinationals makes sure that you can buy it cheaper, somewhere else!

Had the country been better advised and informed, citizens might have been persuaded that it might be better to pay $500. for a television set made in Canada, than a television made in China at $150, if it meant keeping one’s job at the end of the day. It probably would have been a hard sell though. People tend to act in their immediate self interest.

Maude Barlow, in her new book, Too Close for Comfort, explains in painful detail that the multinationals have one guiding principle and that is the ‘bottom line.’ They leave a trail of abuse, corruption, despair, illness and death whenever they get a foothold on the economy of a country.

The whole mess is like waking up from a bad dream that just won’t go away.

Barlow points out that it’s almost too late to make a difference in our collective future, unless we shake off the dream and force our governments to support the people before it’s too late.

If we don’t take action we’ll wake up one morning in Canada and find we are prisoners of our own country. We all need a wake-up call.