United Steelworkers launch alternative to broken, corrupt capitalism

USW – Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers, together with representatives from Mondragon International., the global worker industrial cooperative leader, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, have announced that a new “union co-op” model template is available for organizations wanting to combine worker equity with a progressive collective bargaining process. This template was created as follow up to the original USW-Mondragon agreement in October 2009 to collaborate in establishing Mondragon-like industrial manufacturing cooperatives that adopt collective bargaining principles to the Mondragon worker ownership model of “one worker, one vote” within the United States and Canada.

“To survive the boom and bust, bubble-driven economic cycles fueled by Wall Street, we must look for new ways to create and sustain good jobs on Main Street,” urged Leo Gerard.  “Worker-ownership can provide the opportunity to figure out collective alternatives to layoffs, bankruptcies, and closings in hard times, rather than having the rug pulled right out from under struggling communities to the benefit of a few at the expense of the many”.

Josu Ugarte, President of Mondragon International, added: “Mondragon is very pleased to support this historic collaboration – combining the world’s largest industrial worker cooperative with one of the world’s most progressive and forward-thinking manufacturing unions – to work together.”

Building upon this union co-op model, exciting new projects in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are already well underway. Additional projects based on the union co-op concept have begun or have been proposed in multiple locations from coast-to-coast. Pittsburgh intends to announce its first union-coop project sometime in the late May, early June.

OEOC Director, Bill McIntyre stated: “Statistics emerging from the Great Recession demonstrate that employee-owners were much less likely to have been laid off and much less likely to be looking for a new job than were non-employee-owners. By extension, employee-owned companies have more stable, loyal and experienced workforces which translate into real cost-saving, productivity and quality advantages in the marketplace. In the aggregate, employee-owned companies are more successful than comparable non-employee-owned companies, and the beauty of employee ownership is that success is shared by all employees and the wealth created has a positive impact on the communities in which they live.”

The USW-Mondragon union co-op model seeks to build on the ten basic principles that Mondragon co-operatives have put into practice during the past fifty-five plus years:

Open Admission

The co-op will not discriminate in the admission of new worker-owners, except that the worker-owner must accept the basic principles and be capable of performing the work required.

Democratic Organization

The principle of “one worker, one vote” shall prevail throughout the co-op, including the annual general assembly and the election of the board of directors.  Every worker-owner owns an equal share and has an equal vote through “one class” ownership.

Sovereignty of Labor

Labor is the main factor for transforming nature, society and human beings themselves. As a result, Labor is granted full sovereignty in the organization of the co-operative enterprise, the wealth created is distributed in terms of the labor provided and there is a firm commitment to the creation of new jobs.

Instrumental and Subordinate Nature of Capital

People are prioritized over profits.  Providing and creating jobs are prioritized over increasing the marginal return on investments.  As President Abraham Lincoln wrote in his first State of the Union address in 1861: “Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

Participation in Management

“Ownership” must become more than just the value of a share.  Workers must also undertake the responsibilities of ownership in the co-op by their participation in the management of the co-op, ensuring that the co-op remains accountable to its worker-owners.

Wage Solidarity

Wage solidarity means there is less disparity among workers and the communities in which they live, reinforcing the equality and quality of ownership.  In most cases, the highest paid worker in the Mondragon co-operatives makes no more than 5 to 7 times the lowest paid worker.

Inter-Cooperation

Just as workers benefit from working cooperatively in a business, so too can co-ops benefit from working cooperatively with other co-ops.  Such an interdependent system of co-ops allows each co-op to create and share common resources such as financing, research and development, and training, as well as to support each other through down turns in the markets or the economy

Social Transformation

A key part of the co-op’s mission is to support and invest in their communities by creating jobs, funding development projects, supporting education, and providing opportunity.

Universality

The co-op supports all efforts to promote workplace democracy and promotes the co-operative model and culture as a means to achieve social and economic justice.

Education

Education is valued as “the key to the development and progress of a people” and is critical to “democratize power”, as quoted from Mondragon’s founder, Father José María Arizmendiarrieta.  Education and lifelong learning provide the tools for worker-owners to adapt and sustain the cooperative.

Creating sustainable jobs and sustainable communities requires broadening the definition of societal value beyond “the bottom line.” Democratic worker ownership principles combined with social and economic justice differentiate the union co-op model from traditional business models, making the union co-op option sustainable and giving it a competitive edge over the long term as worker-owners get to benefit more fully from their hard work and own their own decision-making process and all the fruits of their labors.

The full text of the union co-op model is available at www.usw.coop or www.union.coop

About the USW: The USW is North America’s largest industrial union representing 1.2 million active and retired members in a diverse range of industries.  (www.usw.org)

About Mondragon: The Mondragon mission is to produce and sell goods, and provide services and distribution using democratic methods in its organizational structure and distributing the assets generated for the benefit of its members and the community as a measure of solidarity.  Mondragon began its activities in 1956 in the Basque town of Mondragon by a rural village priest with a transformative vision who believed in the values of worker collaboration and working hard to reach for and realize the common good.  Today, with approximately 850,000 cooperative members in over 260 cooperative enterprises present in more than forty countries; Mondragon is committed to the creation of greater social wealth through customer satisfaction, job creation, technological and business development, continuous improvement, the promotion of education, and respect for the environment.  In 2011, Mondragon reached annual sales of more than twenty-four billion dollars with its own cooperative university, cooperative bank, and cooperative social security mutual and is ranked as the top Basque business group, the seventh largest in Spain, and the world’s largest industrial workers cooperative.  ( www.mondragon-corporation.com)

About the OEOC: The Ohio Employee Ownership Center is an outreach center of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.  It was founded in 1987 by John Logue who worked tirelessly to bring the successful Mondragon business practices and employee ownership structure and governance to the United States.  Since Dr. Logue’s untimely death in 2009, the OEOC’s staff of eleven has continued to carry out its mission to promote employee ownership through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and worker-owned cooperatives in order to broaden capital ownership, deepen employee participation, retain jobs locally, and increase living standards for working families and their communities. (www.oeockent.org )

Ben Fulford’s February 27, 2012 | U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrested, questioned and released; Asian negotiations continue

Ben Fulford,

As predicted, the collapse of the Satan worshipping financial mafia is accelerating. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was detained for questioning by New York police on February 24th and was released after giving evidence about many high level financial criminals, according to New York police sources. “In most cases we have to slap people to get them to talk but in his case we had to slap him to shut him up,” one of the interrogators joked. Geithner has been released but is accompanied at all times by an armed deputy to make sure he does not leave the country. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy is also proving to be very talkative, sources in Europe say. Berlusconi has been released. Meanwhile, meetings between White Dragon Society representatives and South Korean government officials last week in Seoul were very productive.

is first report further on the ongoing chaos in Europe and the US before returning to the Asian negotiations. In general what has happened is that dozens of high level informants have come forth in the past weeks and detailed testimony by them is being gathered. Apart from Geithner and Berlusconi, the talking big fish include members of the Rothschild family who have come forth with startling information.

The most interesting revelation given by the Rothschilds is that Queen Victoria was actually the illegitimate daughter of Nathaniel Rothschild. That means Rothschild’s had managed to place family members at the head of the British, German and Russian empires by the time World War I started. Hitler was also a Rothschild who wanted to be crowned King of the world and who helped found Israel by chasing the Jews out of Europe. Their infiltration of the highest levels of world power continued in the post war period. So, in the big picture of things we are witnessing the collapse of the Rothschild attempt to crown themselves as monarchs of a world government with a capital in Jerusalem.

The competing attempt by George Bush Sr. and the Nazi faction to set up a 1000 year reich is also collapsing. Geithner has already told the police that both he and Obama work for Bush. The Bushes, like Geithner and others are not allowed to leave the US now.

The names of some of the many top cabalists being fingered by high level defectors will be listed at the end of this report.

In other signs of the collapsing old regime, the Greeks have clearly told the EU to put their latest bail out where the sun does not shine. Elected Prime Minister George Papandreous is expected to return to power soon and replace cabal puppet Lucas Papademos, according to Europe based CIA sources.

The Italians are also deciding they do not want to become part of the greater German empire and have begun actively preparing a return to the Lira, the sources said.

The cabalists for their part are still fighting to preserve their power and control. The latest scam they are working on involves the $6 trillion worth of 1934 gold back securities that were seized in Switzerland recently. These bonds were tied to financier and Bush/Clinton bagman Mark Rich of Glencore Commodities. The plan was to place Hillary Clinton at the head of the World Bank and have her use the World Bank to launder the bonds and give the money to the communist government in China. The Chinese, in return, were supposed to turn a blind eye to the continuing European Central Bank and Federal Reserve Board scams.

The cabalists have also tried yet again to assassinate Russia’s Vladimir Putin in an attempt to regain control of Russia in a desperate attempt to revive the insane plan to get the Russians to help start the World War 3 they feel is needed to complete their plans for world domination.

The pentagon has already told top cabalist attack dog Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that they would shoot down any Israeli planes that tried to trigger this war by attacking Iran.

The CBS news network in the US now has also broken with the cabalists and has begun information warfare with cabalist propaganda outlets like CNN and Fox.

Meanwhile, in Asia, signs of harmony and unity are multiplying. Discussions last week in Korea between a White Dragon Society representatives and South Korean representatives reached agreement in principle on many issues. First of all, the South Koreans agreed on unification between North and South Korea based on the principle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a ceremonial post (perhaps “symbol of unity”) and a palace. After North South unification, talks could begin on greater East Asian economic and political integration.

The South Koreans also agreed to the plan to set up a new international economic planning agency in Japan so long as it was also possible to set up a major new private sector financial center near Pusan, South Korea.

There was also agreement on the issue of having Asian nations continue to support the transition of the pentagon into a global peacekeeping force merged with the Russian and Chinese militaries.

A Chinese delegation is expected in Japan soon to further develop the ideas explored in South Korea.

In Japan, meanwhile, the Yakuza understand their funds in the US were frozen by Bush flunky David S. Cohen.

There will be partial retaliation when senior cabal operative Ichiro Ozawa is arrested on tax evasion and has his funds frozen. There will also be confiscation of Japanese listed company stocks and other assets in Japan illegally taken over by the cabal. This confiscation is expected to affect at least 30% of the total value of all listed shares in Japan as well as considerable amounts of real estate.

Similar confiscations of assets illegally obtained by cabalists are expected to take place around the planet, especially in the USA.
Although it is still premature to give a timetable on further arrests, here is a partial (non-alphabetical) list of people (many who have tried to keep a low profile) who have been informed upon by the recent wave of cabal defectors:

The “family of three.”
The Medicis and Borgias
The Club of Rome
Larry Summers
Paul Volcker
Wylie Aitken
Vernon Jordan
Admiral William Crowe
Richard Haas
Felix Warburg
John Jacob Astor
Lord Pillsbury
Bill Hicks
Kiyohika Nishimura
David Gergen
Lamar Smith
J. Rockefeller
Yotaro Kobayashi
John Snow
Mark Rich
David Cohen
James Cameron (his family got rich from opium)
John Roberts
Paul Wolfowitz
Frank Carlucci
Peter Hans Kolvenbach (the former black pope)
George Bush Senior

Federal Reserve Power

Below is quote from Representative Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency for 12 years as quoted from the Congressional Record

The Federal Reserve Board, …, has cheated the Government of the United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt…Our people’s money to the extend of $1,200,000,000 has within the last few months been shipped abroad to redeem Federal Reserve Notes and to pay other gambling debts of the traitorous Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks……………SUMMARY OF QUICK FACTS
1a. The Federal Reserve (FED) is a PRIVATELY OWNED, organization. Unbelievable? Check the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA.
b. Below is the list of the owners of the 12 Central Banks:
– Rothschild Bank of London
– Rothschild Bank of Berlin
– Lazard Brothers of Paris
– Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
– Warburg Bank of Amsterdam
– Warburg Bank of Hamburg
– Lehman Brothers of New York
– Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York
– Goldman, Schs of New York
– Chase Manhattan Bank of New York
In all, there are about 300 VERY POWERFUL, partly foreign individuals that owns the FED.

2. Although the FED is required to give back most of its PROFITS back to the Treasury Dept., there is NO ORGANIZATION that has the power to AUDIT the FED (not even the Congress or the IRS). This creates a HUGE opportunity for “creative accounting” to hide the profit that ROBS the US Tax Payers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars annually.

3. Every year, a few Congressmen introduced a legislation to AUDIT the FED, and every year, the legislation is defeated. The owners of the FED is the most powerful, invisible lobbying power there is.

4. The owners of the FED own the controlling interests in ALL major media in the US . Rockefeller, through Chase Manhattan bank, controls CBS and ABC and 28 other broadcasting firms. Each of the other owners of the FED also have controlling interest in the US media. This explain why the media have
been silent about the FED scam. The FED fraud is the biggest and longest cover-up in the US today.

5. According to Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, the US Congress has the power to print money (The Congress shall have the power…to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, ..). According to the Supreme Court, the Congress can not transfer its power to other organization like the FED.

HISTORY OF THE FEDAfter several attempts to push the Federal Reserve Banking Act through Congress, a group of bankers funded and staffed Woodrow Wilson’s campaign for President. In 1913, Nelson Aldrich, maternal grandfather to the Rockefellers, pushed the Federal Reserve Act through Congress just before Christmas, when most Congressmen were on vacation. Naturally, president Wilson passed the Act when he was elected as a pay back to the bankers.

HOW THE OWNERS OF THE FED PROFIT AT OUR EXPENSEThe US goverment runs a $400 billion deficit annually. To cover this, the US goverment issues bonds which are bought by the FED.

Since the FED has the POWER TO PRINT MONEY, it can buy any amount of the US . Government bonds at almost NO COST, save for the expense of printing money (~3 cents/$100).

At this point, the owners of the FED already profit $99.97 for every 3c they invested to print the money. Basically, they exchange something that costs almost nothing to them with the US Government Bonds.

Since the FED can NOT be AUDITTED by the IRS (or even by Congress), most of this profit can go anywhere the FED owners want to. BTW, did I mention that the profit is TAX-FREE?

After buying the bonds, the owner of the FED can either:
1. Keep the bonds, and collect the interest the US Government now OWES them.
2. Sell the bonds to the US Tax Payers or foreigners.

In either case, the FED owners have profitted $99.97 for every 3 cents it invested to print the money. Remember, the FED is a PRIVATELY OWNED corporation, just like the Federal Express. The profit of the FED goes to the FED owners.

The US Government now owes the FED owners the interest on those bonds. Remember that the FED owners DO NOT EARN the bonds. They simply PRINT the money to buy the bonds. In other words, they created money out of thin air, and exchange it for the interest bearing bonds.

In order to pay for the bonds’ interest, the US Government taxes the US population.

When a US Citizen holding US Government bonds receives his/her return of investment on the bonds, essentially the money he/she receives is the tax money he/she is paying to the Government.

When the OWNERS of the FED receives the interest on the BONDS they’re holding, they are receiving that money for FREE (save the initial 3cent/$100 investment to print the money)! Not only that, the FED owners receive the money TAX FREE.

Under the LAW, the FED is REQUIRED to RETURN its PROFIT back to the US Treasury. However, NEITHER the Congress NOR the IRS have the POWER to AUDIT the FED. The FED has used this obvious loophole to profit via ‘creative accounting’.

Consider this: every year, the FED profits by hundreds of billions of dollars by buying US Government Bonds. Yet it only returns ~$20 billion to the US Treasury. The rest of the profit has been spent as “Operational Expenses”.

The FED expects us to believe that the FED operational expenses amounts to $100’s billion dollars annually!!!

The truth is, those profits were spent as “DIVIDENDS TO SHAREHOLDERS”!!!!

Year after year, the FED owners bleed the US Tax Payer dry by hundreds of billions of dollars. Keep this going, and the US will go bankrupt in a few more years. Small wonder why the National Debt is increasing at its current rate.

WHY THE FED SHOULD BE ABOLISHED1. The US Congress has the option to buy back the FED at $450 millions (per Congressional Records).
When the Congress does this, it will own back the billions of US Government Bonds held by the FED.
The US Government will actually PROFIT by buying back the FED! Also, the US government no longer has to pay interests to the FED owners on those bonds.

2. Through their ownerships in the FED, FOREIGN POWERS CAN and WILL influence the US economy. By controlling our interest rates and money supply, they can actually create economic disaster in the US , should the US disagree with them.

3. Although the FED directors must be confirmed by the Senate, the awesome lobbying power of the FED owners makes this process meaningless. The owners of the FED can and will put whoever they wish in the position.

4. Abolishing the FED will lead to lower inflation. At this moment, the FED prints as much money as needed to buy the US Government Bonds. Since the FED prints this MONEY out of THIN AIR, this leads to an INCREASE of MONEY SUPPLY, WITHOUT increase in GOODS/SERVICES. This, as all of us know it, leads to INFLAFION.

If the general public buy those bonds with money that they EARNED by providing GOODS/SERVICES, the money supply level is contant in relation to the goods/services level. Thus, there is no inflationary pressure from selling these bonds.

5. Abolishing the FED will reduce the national debt level. By buying back the FED at $450 millions, the US Government will buy back the billions of dollars of bonds held by the FED. Thus, the net effect is a reduction in national debt. After buying back the FED, the US Government does not have to pay interest on those bonds it buys back, further reducing the national debt.

6. Abolishing the FED will lead to eventual balance budget. Today, even if the US Economy only grows by a meager 2%/yr, the US Government should be able to put 2% of US-GDP dollars into circulation WITHOUT INFLATION.

Consider, if the goods/services grow by 2% and the money supply grows by 2%, the ratio of goods/services vs. money supply remains constant. Thus, no inflation is created.

The government can use this extra money supply to fund its project without raising taxes.

As long as the government does not print money more than the goods and services available in the US , there will be no inflationary pressures.

This had in fact been done with Executive Order 11110 of President Kennedy. Kennedy ordered the Treasury Dept. to print a US GOVERNMENT NOTES (vs. FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES). In effect, Kennedy bypassed the FED by making the Treasury Department printed REAL US MONEY, instead of selling bonds to the FED for almost free.

The sad fact is, the US Government does not do this anymore. Instead, the US Government sell bonds to the FED, which buys those bonds using money they don’t earn. Thus, the US Government must now pay interest on those money that it “borrows” from the FED.

7. By point (6) above, the US Government can actually reduce taxes on everybody since it has more interest free money to spent in the amount equal to the growth of the US GDP. KEEP IN MIND,
THIS MONEY WILL NOT CAUSE INFLATION, since the money is printed along with the growth of the goods and services.

What you can do to save the United States of AmericaThe FED should either be AUDITTED every year, or be abolished. I have done my part providing this information. It is up to you to decide the future of the US economy. Please do the followings:

1. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!!!!
If everything that I wrote here sounds too far fetched to be true, I challenge everyone of you to do your own research, and see for yourself.

Recommended literatures:
– Encyclopaedia Britannica.
– Congressional Record
– “The Federal Reserve Bank” by H.S. Kenan
– “Repeal the Federal Reserve Bank” by Rev. Casimir Frank Gierut
– “The Secrets of the Federal Reserve” by Mullins

when you are sure about the facts,

2. Call your Congressman and tell him to support the legislation to AUDIT the FED.

3. Call your representatives and ask them to support legislation introduced by Congressman Henry Gonzales to repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

4. Push for your home states to introduce and pass a legislation to end the FED scam. The following states have already done so:
Arizona , Washington , Arkansas , Idaho , Oregon , Indiana , and Texas .
Even if you live in these states, contact your representatives and tell them to support the legislation. THEY WILL LISTEN if you care to TELL THEM!!!

5. Ask your STATE and COUNTY government to abolish the FED. Since the FED is CONSTITUTIONALLY ILLEGAL, it MUST be abolished. Ask your state/county governments for the proper paperworks.
If the US Congress refuses to abolish the FED, your STATE/COUNTY governments can do it.

6. Collect signature on petitions calling for the end of the FED.

7. Tell friends and family about this fraud, and ask them for supports. Secrecy is the FED’s main strength. Since the media has been quiet, no one even notice this FRAUD that goes on for decades.
Now it is up to the tax payer to be informed. Inform everyone you know about this, and be organized!!!

8. Contact “ America Betrayed”,
Center for Action,
652 N. Glenview ,
Nesa , AZ 85213

9. Contact “National Committee to Repeal the Federal Reserve Act”,
P.O. Box 1205 , Middleburg, IL60599

10. This article maybe reproduced and distributed freely WITHOUT changes.

Federal Reserve Power
http://whistleblowers.freehosting.net/federal_power.htm

Inflation and the Dollar’s Crash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYLb9Vm4xU&feature=related

Conquering the Spirit of Debt – 49 min
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3051024550497129264&hl=en

The Gig Is Up: Money, the Federal Reserve and You
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4020719354420953428&hl=en

OUR MEXICAN DRUG POLICY REPEATS THE SORRY STORY OF PROHIBITION

Bruce Mirken, Alternet – Like it or not, marijuana is a massive industry. Some 100 million Americans admit to government survey-takers that they’ve used it, with nearly 15 million acknowledging use in the past month.

That’s a huge market — more Americans than will buy a new car or truck this year, or that bought one last year. Estimates based on U.S. government figures have pegged marijuana as the number one cash crop in America, with a value exceeding corn and wheat combined.

Our current policies are based on the fantasy that we can somehow make this massive industry go away. That’s about as likely as the Tooth Fairy paying off the national debt.

We haven’t stopped marijuana use — indeed, federal statistics show a roughly 4,000 percent rise since the first national ban took effect in 1937 — but we have handed a virtual monopoly on production and distribution to criminals, including those brutal Mexican gangs. . .

We’ve seen this movie before. During the 13 dark years of alcohol Prohibition, ruthless gangsters like Al Capone and “Bugs” Moran had a monopoly on the lucrative booze market. So lucrative, in fact, that these scoundrels would routinely gun each other down rather than let a competitor share their territory. Sound familiar?

Today, the bloodbath is taking place in cities like Tijuana and Juarez, Mexico, but it’s beginning to spill across our border. Prohibition simply doesn’t work – not in the 1930s and not now. . .

The situation is so intolerable that three former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have recently joined the chorus calling for a shift in U.S. marijuana policy.

There is no reason to believe that our nation’s current marijuana policies are reducing the use and availability of marijuana. Indeed, in the Netherlands — where, since the mid 1970s, adults have been permitted to possess and purchase small amounts of marijuana from regulated businesses — the rate of marijuana use is less than half of ours, according to a recent World Health Organization study. More importantly, the percentage of teens trying marijuana by age 15 in the Netherlands is roughly one-third the U.S. rate.

By taking marijuana out of the criminal underground and regulating and taxing it as we do beer, wine and liquor, we can cut the lifeline that makes these Mexican drug gangs so large and powerful. And at the same time we’ll have a level of control over marijuana production and distribution that is impossible under prohibition.