Yep....the wealthy are protected at every turn. The worker should be allowed to sue the shareholders/directors of the company DIRECTLY in order to get monies owed. Instead those directors are protected by the Limited Liability of the Corporation.

Those who support the Free market are duplictous liars. The Corpration was formed for the expressed purpose of distorting the "Free market".

The so called "invisible hand" can not work if liability for actions, criminal and otherwise can be shielded via the entity which is also given personhood that we know as the corporation.

PK

except NorthComm now has a brigade of combat-hardened soldiers dedicated to uphold the law in the usa:

"The unit it assigned is the 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team, which has spent three of the last five years in Iraq. It was one of the first units to get to Baghdad, and it was active in retaking and patrolling Fallujah. One of its specialties is counterinsurgency."

http://www.progressive.org/mag/wx100708.html

You can scream all you want about activating the Attorney General but until Obama is sworn in there is very little he can do but try to arouse public opinion.

God forbid, THAT WOULD BE SOCIALISM. Pardon the sarcasm.

[Quoted: "Excellent! The workers need to do this at all all plants that shut down. Then they should follow the example of the Argentine workers, and take over the plant operations and resume business as a worker-run cooperative."]

Definitely Cool!

Muy bueno.

Don't forget Naomi Klein's work on Argentina and the factories, meetings and is this the film she did with her husband, Avi Lewis? She put a lot of the interviews into a book, also.

Don't forget Naomi Klein's work on Argentina and the factories, meetings and is this the film she did with her husband, Avi Lewis? She put a lot of the interviews into a book, also. I just googled, and I think it's "The Take", documentary and book.

Hope can't be something that flickers every time an appointment is made or a position taken. It has to be a steady trust. It has to be -- well, audacious.

"Milk" has come out at the perfect time, giving us the portrait of a man who emerged from his fears & his imperfections to help defeat the anti-gay rights measures at a time when those rights were threatened across the country.

We're also poised to celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth & there are a raft of new studies on Lincoln which have moved past the pessimistic revision of Lincoln as a mere temporiser who was indifferent to slavery, and show the whole pattern of his action in the work in rescuring the US as it was about to be lost forever to the slave power that was working to entrench itself in the decades prior to the Civil War.

The country now has to be saved again from the spiritual & political descendents of the slave-power, those who want to deliver women again into the shackles they wore before they were free to determine their own destiny, to deliver gays again into civic inconsequence, to rejoin the state to the church and the corporation.

Obama needs the help of those who hope, because only collectively & by steady action, not by instantaneous transformation, can we carry out the true meaning of the nation's creed.

Right on. This kind of courage will be required of all of us in the coming years. I hope we're up to it.

the problem is the US with these disappearing jobs, replaced by LOWER paying jobs (a typical capitalist "cycle" built into the system often initially justified as "businesses will collapse if wages are allowed to RISE" - except that europe and socialist states seem to get along fine inspite of better wages and it's REALLY when full 'laissez-faire" economics is practiced the INSTABILITY in pricing BETWEEN wages and capitalist "control of production and distribution" rises, though you wont' see that explanation coming from capitalists) , is that americans generally, with their devotion to ultra-individualism, coming from the so-called "protestant work ethic" that has underpinned much of US capitalism ,

have basically ALLOWED it to happen. so people are reaping the rewards of what they , as a nation, decreed collectively , as the "american way">

THIS is the american "way".

why should it be a SURPRISE? people thought that they would NOT be touched by these things so long as they can point to "others who are not self-responsible like me?" ,,while actually doing the bidding of their masters such as the business class and chamber of commerce and their way of TAKING CONTROL of how to dictate WAGES - with the threat that they will "bring our production somewhere else?"

if SO _ they SHOULD HAVE BEEN GONE A LONG TIME AGO - over there in china, or honduras, not JUST in the 20th century. and there would be NO "america'' in which THEY "do business" while forcing workers to make concession after concession in order to "have a job" .

in reality -- the reason that these unionized workers are showing up like this , is because it is a REFLECTION of what SHOULD have been the case long ago - on a NATIONAL SCALE..so that if the majority of working people, realizing that collectively THEY create the real wealth for capitalists to accumulate profits FROM and then turn into "capital" to use as a threat and incentivise themselves to 'create' jobs --

BUSINESSES or anyone who wants to profit - will have NO RECOURSE but to "DO BUSINESS" under FAIR dstribution of wealth created by LABOR. what are they going to do in that circumstance? jump ship and go to china THEMSELVES? the chinese will see them as "competition" and tell THEM to GET OUT! same everywhere else.

but first it is the ORDINARY WORKING PEOPLE that have to realized, collectively and individually that it is in THEIR OWN BEST INTERESTS to DEMAND these things AND support politicians that do THEIR bidding and NOT that of the "chamber of commerce of america" whose interests are ANYTHING BUT PATRIOTIC or NATIONAL -- but instead - PROFIT.

the problem of course is that the CULTURE, and economic structure in the USA is SO WEAK in terms of valuing LABOR, and they get distracted by the corruption that labor unions can ALSO be guilty of. but that is ALSO because they are under such threat and pressure to function within a SYSTEM that , to begin with, is built for empowering businesses interests FAR ABOVE that of labor interests..and so there is no REAL balance of power.,....while that same structure is so powerful as to KILL in the cradle any notion of a BALANCE of power between business and labor.

it's simple.

"society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I've earned."
------------WARREN BUFFET. america's richest ma

oh -- that has been going on , the foundations laid down for it.

it is in fact TIED to the waging of foreign wars - such as "war on terror" - as an excuse to apply domestic police state fascism.

"THE LOSS OF liberties at home are to be charged to the waging of foreign wars". James Madison.

he too , or another among them said:

"TYRANNY shall come to this nation in the guise of securing the safety of the people:" -- Benjamin Franklin.

Poet -- i know i have read many months ago that this has been done in brazil - they turned it into a cooperative and it was government recognized...or maybe it was argentina..and the workers now "own" the company ...which was doing well..something about local products for export.

and you are right OldGoat...MY sense of this is -- the COMPANY is REALLY having problems because of that line of credit cut off by the Bank of America. it is COMMON practice for businesses to have lines of credit based on the assumption, as in any market economy, that their business EXPECTS to do business properly - to 1) gain profit, 2) pay its obligations .

but for a BANK to cut of line of credit within a system that functions according to what a bank EXISTS FOR (which IS extending credit out of ITS accumulated "capital" which IT has earned as a "service" industry which ITSELF DEPENDS and RIDES on the wealth created BY businesses and labor TOGETHER) - is to say that "we don't practice market economy anymore"...and merely HOARDS capital that is USELESS in its vaults and ledgers.

so - what is the BUSINESS TO DO? of course it is NOT everyday that a business gets profit - that IS why it has to have a line of credit to keep going, in the HOPE that the economy keeps humming.

BUT THEN -- how CAN an economy keep humming, say , construction in california ORDERING doors and windows from THAT illinois Company - when the economy ISN"T humming . and WHY is that SO?

BACK TO LOW WAGES imposed by the DEMANDS of BANKS for as "great a return in their investments as lines of credit" TO the companies and businesses that are just trying to survive in order to live for another day to eventually hope to make a profit -- WHILE at the same time they have to maintain their workers AT the decent wages they need IN ORDER to beceom part of a larger whole of "working population" that , because of decent wages does NOT have to resort to "debit" existence which is what is happening to america..and THEREFORE become a growing foundation of a HEALTHY STABLE ECONOMY.

this, bottom line, is the BANK OF AMERICA's "new" tactic.

it would be interesting if it did that to many more businesses....until businesses see that THEY TOO, EVEN at their highest management levels with their big compensations that they protect "from too many demands and costs by workers" (thus promoting the bottom line through cutting business costs by keeping or pressuring for Lower wages and benefits which translate into distressed populations of "consumers" UNABLE to BUY the business products ..etc. etc. etc.) --

it would show that the REAL CULPRITS are the BANKING and FINANCE SYSTEM that has taken over america. the BUBBLES as we can see -- have at their heart THESE institutions - which are the PARASITES of the system.

=================

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/09chicago.html?_r=1&hp

and below is what a STATE government ought to do -- to protect BOTH teh BUSINESS and the Workers , and therefore the ECONOMY - the REAL economy ....

FORCE the banks -- which are lining up in the PUBLIC TROUGH for THEIR welfare -- to extend that line of credit or ELSE BE OUT OF THE RUNNING for doing business WITH the state for its projects. let's see THEM try and squirm out of THAT. that is the kind of courage and focused and no nonsense governing that ought to be happening across america. if they WON"T -- then they will see their own existence dwindle to the proper IRRELEVANCE that they deserve and other institutions can always come up as "banks" or even state institutionalised that serves BOTH the needs of businesses to meet their obligations as well as the right compensation for workers to have decent living wages that accumulate ACTUAL SAVINGS -- the same one that banks always want in order to FILL UP their "capital" vaults!!!

banks ought to be put in THEIR PLACE!

=======================

The New York Times
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December 9, 2008
Illinois Threatens Bank Over Sit-In
By MONICA DAVEY

CHICAGO — Illinois will no longer do business with Bank of America until the bank restores credit to the shuttered factory here where workers are continuing their sit-in, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich announced Monday.

Executives at the plant, Republic Windows and Doors, which is on the city’s North Side, have said they need the restoration of their line of credit, which the bank canceled last week, to enable them to pay workers severance and vacation time owed to them.

“During these times of economic turmoil, we must ensure that workers’ rights are protected,” Governor Blagojevich said. He said the Illinois Department of Labor will file a complaint if negotiations between the factory’s owners, the workers’ union and Bank of America officials, expected later this afternoon, are not resolved rapidly.

“Families are already struggling to keep afloat,” the governor said, in a release issued by his office. “I hope that the company will be motivated to exhaust all resources to stay open. We should be putting people to work during this difficult economic time — not sending them to the unemployment line.”

Governor Blagojevich’s announcement came after President-Elect Barack Obama’s defense of the workers Sunday, in which Mr. Obama said the company should “follow through on its commitment” to pay them.

The workers, who were laid off last Friday, continued their sit-in for the fourth day Monday, as they awaited the meeting, which was to be held downtown. The meeting was the first sign of progress in the peaceful, yet dramatic labor situation that has captured the attention of a nation reeling from the recession and the loss of more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs.

For years the workers had assembled vinyl windows and sliding doors for Republic; they said they would not leave, even after company officials announced the factory was closing.

The workers, members of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, said they were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law when companies make layoffs. Lisa Madigan, the attorney general of Illinois, said her office was investigating, and representatives from her office interviewed workers at the plant on Sunday.

HAHAHA!!!!

The US governmnet would FORCE you to remain supporting Bank Of America by using your tax dollars to replace any deposits you might remove.

This is called "a Free market".

Great points , evelyna!