They say cut back, we say pay back!!

[nattyreb]

Y'all let's pay attention to what's happening right now, we have people taking the land (see below posting on Bro. Max's work), a factory (this posting), and this type of activity should be encouraged, broadened, and can even be refined to fit all types of programs. These workers are showing the world that they will get deep in this shitstem's face and will hopefully embolden others to also take a stand against these thieves! At this point these crooks are stealing money right in front of our faces and we stand mute except for a very few!
======

UPDATE: UE Members Occupy Chicago Plant in Struggle for Justice

Chicago, IL - Saturday Evening, December 6

National news networks CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, as well as Chicago news media, are reporting on the following dramatic developments involving UE members in Chicago.

Members of UE Local 1110 who work at Republic Windows and Doors are occupying the plant around the clock this weekend, in an effort to force the company and its main creditor to meet their obligations to the workers. Their goal is to at least get the compensation that workers are owed; they also seek the resumption of operations at the plant. All 260 members of the local were laid off Friday in a sudden plant closing, brought on by Bank of America cutting off operating credit to the company. The bank even instructed managers at Republic to refuse to pay workers their earned vacation pay and the severance pay they are owed under the federal WARN Act, since they were not given the legally-required notice that the plant was about to close.

Interestingly, in this particular case, even Obama said he is in support: Factory Sit-in Gets Support From Obama, Local Pols | NBC Chicago. This is worth remembering when he officially is sworn in come January.

Bank of America, the country's second largest bank, has received $25 billion in taxpayer money as part of the $700 billion government bailout of the financial industry. The public was told that this bailout was necessary in order to keep credit flowing and prevent the loss of jobs. Yet the very-well-paid executives at Bank of America have actually cut off credit and forced the closing of Republic where workers were, at least up until Friday, producing energy-efficient doors and windows.

Jobs with Justice, the national worker rights coalition, is asking people to sign an online letter to Bank of America, demanding that they provide the needed credit to keep Republic Windows and Doors open -- or at a minimum, that they pay workers the money they are owed. Please go to this link to support this important struggle. Take Action: Support Workers Occupying Chicago Factory & Hold Bank of America Accountable

UE Local 1110 members, along with community supporters, picketed and rallied in front of Bank of America's main Chicago branch on Wednesday, December 3. They chanted, "You got bailed out, we got sold out!" Local 1110 President Armando Robles told the news media, "Just weeks before Christmas we are told our factory will close in three days. Taxpayers gave Bank of America billions, and they turn around and close our company. We will fight for a bailout for workers."

To support the members of Local 1110 in their courageous fight, send checks payable to the UE Local 1110 Solidarity Fund, to: UE, 37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607. Messages of support can be sent to leahfried@gmail.com. For more information, call the UE Chicago office at 312-829-8300.

UE has already contacted Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and will soon be in touch with Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), chair of the Senate Banking Committee, regarding Bank of America's apparent abuse of its public obligations under the federal banking bailout.

For future updates on this unfolding struggle, go to <www.ueunion.org/>.
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"UPDATE: UE Members Occupy Chicago Plant in Struggle for Justice"

[Langalibalele]

600,000 jobs lost in the last like two years. The federal govt wants to bail out the worst pigs in history. People who don't fight back merely need proper encouragement. For such such reasons as this and many others, revolutionaries like Karl Marx and V Lenin were clear when they said capitalism is a parasitic excrescence on the body of humanity. CAPITALISM! Not racism, because that is just a jive-ass capitalist sideline that will die when we slay th Beast.

[nattyreb]

i agree for the most part, except for your last point, because nothing is so cut and dry as to determine racism as being just a capitalist sideline, IMO, especially since slavery is what fattened up their coffers to begin with! For example, look at how the tables are turning in this particular episode. First Obama, now the (soon to be indicted) governor spoke in defense of these workers, yet they're both representatives and defenders of this capitalist shitstem, right? The governor even threatened Bank of America if they didn't do right by these workers, isn't that unprecedented? But we (Blacks) can't truss it to work the same for us!

i can't begin to imagine that Obama or the governor would have spoken up so forcefully on behalf of Black workers doing a sit-in like this, the pigs would have rolled on us by now! i absolutely don't believe that Obama would have been available for even a soundbite if these were Black workers, his first priority must (always) be to make certain to not appear to be more aligned with Blacks than with "Americans" as a whole. Racism does not operate as less than capitalism does in this country, in fact it is a large part of what greases the shit-stained wheels. (i'm not gonna start in on the war on drugs, the prison industrial complex, etc.)

These workers most definitely made a beautifully bold move which i applaud and wholeheartedly support, i take nothing from them, as Bro. Max of Take Back the Land recently wrote, this is more punctuation on the point we all are making, NOW is the time for more bold actions in direct defiance of the perpetrators of our oppression, the momentum needs to keep building!

As always, i very much appreciate everything you write, Bro., hope i didn't go too far off into left field!

Originally Posted by Langalibalele

600,000 jobs lost in the last like two years. The federal govt wants to bail out the worst pigs in history. People who don't fight back merely need proper encouragement. For such such reasons as this and many others, revolutionaries like Karl Marx and V Lenin were clear when they said capitalism is a parasitic excrescence on the body of humanity. CAPITALISM! Not racism, because that is just a jive-ass capitalist sideline that will die when we slay th Beast.

[Langalibalele]

Natty Reb, much props! I ain't no kno it all, sometimes I'm just winging it. I agree with what you sed about racism. It aint no sideline. In fact, like you said, it's more like the heart and soul of capitalism. But Imperialism needs to have ne(gr)o colonialism to dilute the venom of white supremacy. Diluting it just makes more venom to go around. Peace.