The weakening of the left (and the Communist Party in particular) in the auto industry and the UAW was a factor in the making of “The Treaty of Detroit,” in 1950, but not the main one. As I see it, that honor goes to the favorable and non-repeatable conditions for capital accumulation in the auto industry and U.S. economy in the immediate post WWII period.

That period, however, came to an end in the early 1970s as conditions in the auto industry (and the U.S. economy as a whole) deteriorated markedly. So much so that UAW President Doug Fraser under immense pressure from Chrysler and the Carter Administration did what former UAW President Walter Reuther would have done had he been alive: agreed to major concessions in jobs, benefits, and productive capacity. What bothered Fraser wasn’t so much Chrysler’s insistence on concessions, but the extent and depth of them.

In other words, concessions per se were not out of the question for Fraser given the cyclical and structural troubles of the auto industry at that moment, but they should be, in his social democratic calculus, reasonable and shared. Not suprisingly, the auto companies (and the ruling class) would have none of it. They were governed by a different calculus. For them the restoration of their profits and dominance in what was an increasingly global auto market was paramount. In their mind the restructuring of the industry at the expense of labor was absolutely necessary and had only begun.

These concessions then were but the opening salvo of a general corporate offensive in the auto industry and beyond. More were to come. The halcyon days of the postwar period in the auto industry (and economy as a whole) were over. The class struggle was back in full swing! Postwar Keynesianism and the “Golden Age” of capitalism were departing the scene and the wrecking ball of neoliberalism was announcing its arrival.

The UAW leadership, however, failed to adjust to these new conditions and thus a long period of contract concessions followed. It was only recently that a new leadership struck a new fighting posture. And that should be welcomed.