Michigan Demands a Marshall Plan for Auto Sector

April 11, 2007 (EIRNS)--On April 10, the Michigan State Legislature introduced House Resolution No. 31, calling upon "the Congress of the United States to establish a 'Marshall Plan' for the United States automotive industry." Citing the crisis now faced by the auto sector, with tens of thousands of workers fleeing the industry in the recent months alone, the UAW has finally done something, even though this resolution comes almost two years too late.

Although the resolution does call for federal intervention, there is no mention of using a retooled auto industry for infrastructure development; instead, the bill echoes the UAW's plea for "a level playing field among all automotive companies," ignoring the fact that the entire world economy is in the process of disintegrating, and thus that all stop-gap measures are doomed to failure. The bill also calls for federal assistance to accelerate the production of alternative fuels and energies, such as ethanol, fuel cell technologies and clean diesel, while mentioning nothing about the auto industry's ability to produce components for nuclear power plants.

That any resolution has been passed at all can be attributed in great part to the work of Lyndon LaRouche and the LaRouche Youth Movement, who have organized intensively since early 2005, across North America, to get the Congress to implement LaRouche's Emergency Recovery Act, a policy in the spirit of FDR. This forced the UAW to respond with something, which became their "Marshall Plan" proposal, a much watered down version of what is actually needed. Michigan Legislator LaMar Lemmons III had introduced a resolution in 2005 calling for the very policies outlined in LaRouche's ERA; however, the lacklustre UAW did not support the resolution, despite the scores of members openly organizing with the LYM, both on Capitol Hill and across the Midwest. The 2005 resolution was defeated by the Michigan State Republicans, who then had the majority.

The Michigan resolution can be found at:

Lemmons' resolution can be found at: