Wednesday, April 1, 2009

B&E: Financial crisis style

G-20 Protesters Break Into Royal Bank Of Scotland
In London thousands of G-20 protesters jammed downtown London on Wednesday and some tried to storm the Bank of England, pelting police with eggs and fruit and rocking the barricades designed to control them.

Demonstrators shouted "Abolish Money!" and clogged streets in the financial district known as "The City" even as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference elsewhere in the British capital.

Protesters had branded the day "Financial Fool's Day" ahead of Thursday's summit of world leaders who are gathering in hopes of resolving the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.
Oh G20 and G8 protesters you always amuse, what with your hectoring puppets, maceable faces, terrible slogans, and political ideas a college freshman would chortle at. I'm sure the G20 will get right on that abolishing money thing. But then what will your parents use to pay for your air and hotel fare to go to these protests? Hemp? A shitty poem? Listen, you have the same problem as PETA: some laudable ideas surrounded by insane bullshit, methods that make decent people cringe, and tactics that discredit your ideas before you even utter them. Here's a suggestion for the next summit: put the anarchy/abolish all economies/property is theft people at the back, try not to riot at the sight of cops/capitalism, and more serious puppets.

Sarkozy "to save plant" after staff detain bosses
French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged on Wednesday to save a factory run by U.S. bulldozer maker Caterpillar Inc, where staff angry over layoffs detained four managers for 24 hours.
...
Workers at the Caterpillar plant locked the site's director, head of human resources and two other managers in an office on Tuesday in a bid to force them back into negotiations over redundancy terms, a trade union official said.

A senior police officer negotiated on Tuesday a resumption of talks between unions and management at Caterpillar, but the management were not able to leave and spent the night there.
Calling France cowards is always the go to Z-grade joke for hacks/right wingers/Dennis Miller, but they'll riot at the drop of a hat. This is the third such incident following a office locking of the head of Sony France and shop owners going ape merde on Francois-Henri Pinault. That last one could have just been over the fact that he's a billionaire and nailing Salma Hayek, and not the economy/layoffs. In any event: American workers, I think you've just been handed your blueprint. Don't like the bailouts or your company handing out bonuses to executives and firing you? Take hostages! If you want to really rub some ironic salt in the wound call them financial enemy combatants and claim you're just detaining them.

No comments: