Chicago Workers Thrive Three Years After Taking Over a Window Factory

 

These stories are always welcome and many plants could well be sold forward in this manner to the workforce itself.  The key is a capable trusted manager who relishes been part of such an enterprise.  They are not more common mostly because capital does not understand them and government has failed to provide the appropriate guarantees and tools which are all oriented to corporations.

This should be the desired  outcome for established plants.

Perhaps we need to take a serious new look at this option.  The human capital in play makes failure far less likely.

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Chicago Workers Thrive Three Years After Taking Over a Window Factory

Thursday, 15 October 2015 00:00

By Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine | Report

The following is a dispatch from The Edge of Change Road Trip. Find out more about it here.

Back in the day, factory workers at the Chicago-based Republic Windows and Doors were simply told what to do. That wasn't unusual. Workers might have seen ways to improve the production process, but at Republic their supervisor wasn't interested, said former employee Armando Robles.

"Whatever the bosses want, we do it. We'd say, 'Look, this is a better way,' and they say, 'No, we say you have to do it this way.' Even when they make a mistake, they just continue," Robles explained.

Things are very different today. Employees of what is now called New Era Windows and Doors are also the owners. And their ideas matter. Any of them can propose improvements, and if they can convince a majority of their co-workers, things can change quickly.

"If we make a mistake, we talk to each other and we find a solution," Robles told me when I visited the factory in late September. "We try to do the best for everyone. We work harder because we're working for ourselves. But it's more enjoyable. We work with passion."

It was a long journey to becoming a worker cooperative, and it was not a journey anyone had planned. In 2008, Republic's owners closed the factory and laid off the work force without the required 60-days notice. Workers occupied the factory and refused to leave the premises until they were paid what they were owed. The story went nationwide. Pressure from the union, area activists, and even President Obama led to a victory. The workers were paid, and instead of shutting down, the factory was sold to California-based Serious Materials.

The workers kept their jobs, though the experience radicalized them. Some visited Argentina where they learned that other workers facing the same situation had occupied their factories and eventually became worker-owners.

So Robles and his co-workers were prepared when, three years later, Serious Materials announced they would shut down and liquidate the factory. Once again, the workers occupied. With a nationwide petition drive, support from United Electrical Workers, financing from The Working World (an organization that helps establish worker cooperatives), support from the local Occupy movement, and the memory of the previous occupation still fresh in the minds of the Chicago power elite, the protest turned into a buyout.

The New Era Windows and Doors Cooperative has been in operation since 2013. It hasn't been easy, but the worker-owners have learned together how to operate their own business. And then there were the meetings: "It was difficult to make decisions together," Robles said. "But it's kind of fun, because at the end of the day it's for the benefit of everyone."

Sales are modest, but growing. Last year the company sold about a half million dollars worth of windows. This year, they anticipate the number will be significantly higher. There are 23 worker-owners, and two staff members who Robles hopes will opt to become worker-owners.

His vision is for New Era to help spawn other cooperatives. Instead of expanding by hiring drivers, for example, he'd like to see the company help start a cooperative of drivers.

How is this company staying alive when other owners have failed? The worker-owners made tough decisions about what equipment they could get rid of to save money. And they did a lot of sales via word of mouth.

"The good thing is we don't have the CEO making millions of dollars," Robles said, "so we have the ability to compete with the industry." Also, they don't have to generate big profits to keep investors happy; they just have to make enough to pay expenses and pay back their debt.

This business model is based on "enough." Enough pay and benefits to live with dignity. Enough of the machinery that is necessary, but not the sort that is too expensive. Opportunities for employee-owners to draw on their full capacities, not to be relegated to repetitive work while a few make all the decisions and much of the money. Their more equitable pay structure creates opportunities for more people to have enough to live and thrive; instead of keeping some at the edge of poverty while others prosper.

This is what local power looks like: companies like New Era Windows and Doors creating the stability that comes with locally rooted employment, insulated from the speculative finance that, in the case of publicly traded companies, requires many jobs be moved to low-wage regions. These worker-owners focus on values, including the possibility for others to also be worker-owners, and the importance of producing ecologically smart products. The company prides itself on selling energy-efficient windows and doors, and customizing them to the climate and location of the client.

If this and other locally rooted companies can survive government policies that favor big corporations over local business, they could help lay the foundation for an inclusive and sustainable rebirth of our society.

The White Alien Gods of Mesoamerica: Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan

We do have a common legend of superior white skinned folk who took on leadership roles as they moved from area to area.

The best minimalist explanation is my work up of the Atlantean world that culminated as a global trade empire around 2400 BC and continued until 1159 BC.  This was dominated by European and Mediterranean peoples.  Time frames allows it all to fit well together.

Yet we also have the legend of God like bringers of knowledge in Sumer as well for the same time periods.  That implies a world wide culture and that these are our glimpses.  We still have not quite settled on the nature of the so called Gods, although the large skulled folk from Peru are surely prime candidates.

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The White Alien Gods of Mesoamerica: Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan

http://humansarefree.com/2015/10/the-white-alien-gods-of-mesoamerica.html#more

Viracocha is the great creator god in the pre-Inca mythology. He was one of the most important deities in the Inca pantheon and seen as the creator of all things. 

According to ancient legend, Viracocha created the universe, sun, moon, stars and time by commanding the sun to move over the sky and created afterwards, civilization itself. 

Viracocha was worshiped as god of the sun and of storms. Interestingly, like many other Mesoamerican gods, he traveled across the lands teaching ancient mankind and bringing order and civilization to the inhabitants of South America.

Just like other Gods from Mesoamerica, he too said to return one day to its people. He was considered one of the most important, if not the MOST important deity in the Inca culture.

According to mythological accounts, Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca during the time of darkness to bring light. He made mankind out of stones, but his first creation were brainless giants that displeased him. 

A feathered serpent deity has been worshiped by many different ethno-political groups in Mesoamerican history: Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan. Where is the connection well… It seems that Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan are closely connected. 

The worship of a feathered serpent is first known documented in ancient Teotihuacan dating back to the first century BC or first century AD.

In the Maya area he was approximately equivalent to Kukulcan and Gukumatz, names that also roughly translate as “feathered serpent” in different Mayan languages.

Like the Maya, the inhabitants of Tiahuanaco mysteriously disappeared around 1100 AD. Tiahuanaco is a true masterpiece of ancient construction, not only did they have incredibly well designed temples and plazas, Tiahuanaco had mayor features in political development, agriculture and in several industries in the region making it one of the most advanced cultures in ancient times.

Mythologically, Puma Punku and Tiahuanaco are very connected. Ancient legend has that Tiahuanaco was built as a religious site to celebrate the arrival of sky gods at Puma Punku. 

During excavations in the 60’s a Temple was unearthed at Tiahuanaco, present at this “sunken temple” several odd features are carved on the walls, the most interesting ones are the carvings of several faces, which according to some researchers, depict all of the races of mankind ranging from heads with elongated skulls, faces that have thick lips, turbans and many other examples of different human species.

Spanish chroniclers from the 16th century claimed that when the conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro first encountered the Incas they were greeted as gods, “Viracochas”, because their lighter skin resembled their God Viracocha.

Similar accounts by Spanish chroniclers describe Viracocha as a “White God”, often with a beard.

Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan: The White Alien Gods of Mesoamerica

One of the most prominent features at Tiahuanaco is the statue that is located at the center of the sunken temple. Believed to be a statue depicting their creator God Viracocha, the look of this God is particularly strange. 

Viracocha is represented as having a beard and a mustache something very unusual because American Indians did not have these long beards and mustaches, even more strangely the representation of Viracocha is very much like the ancient Gods of ancient Sumeria in Mesopotamia. Why would the designers of this statue depict their most important God with features unlike their own?

Mysteriously, as the Incan god Viracocha, the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and several other deities from Central and South American pantheons, were described in legends as being bearded. 

The beard, once believed to be a mark of a prehistoric European influence and quickly fueled and embellished by spirits of the colonial era, had its single significance in the continentally insular culture of Mesoamerica.

Kukulkan is closely related to the god Q’uq’umatz of the K’iche’ Maya and to Quetzalcoatl of the Aztecs. Little is known of the mythology of this pre-Columbian deity. The cult of Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl was the first Mesoamerican religion to transcend the old Classic Period linguistic and ethnic divisions.

Were ancient cities such as Tiahuanaco, Puma Punku, Teotihuacan built by the help of the “White Alien Gods”?

Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku are amazing, the details and precision present at these two ancient cities is unique. 

Recent studies at Tiahuanaco has led scientists to believe that the structures were positioned in such a way that they had to be based on an astronomical principle called ‘the obliquity of the ecliptic’, which is the angle between the plane of the ecliptic (or the plane of the earth’s orbit) and the plane of the earth’s equator; the “tilt” of the earth.

The Gate of the Sun, an incredible gateway believed to be by some an ancient portal, was carved from a single block of Andesite granite with incredible depictions with complex astronomical connotations which according to scholars was an ancient calendar. 

But the most mysterious part about Puma Punku and Tiahuanaco is how ancient mankind managed to precisely cut and move blocks of stone that weigh up to 150 tons.

Teotihuacan: This gigantic citadel was home to over 200,000 people thousands of years ago. It is an ancient city unlike any other in the region. It was an ancient metropolis whose builders are unknown to history. 

The Pyramid of the Sun, the Moon and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl were constructed at the main plaza of the city, these were the main landmarks of a city meticulously planned, obsessed with astronomical alignments. 

Interestingly, the Pyramid of the Sun is exactly half as tall as the Pyramid of Giza and the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Moon, and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl are in the same layout as Orion’s Belt.

If that isn’t enough there is more to leave you baffled: Archaeologists have found large quantities of Mica at Teotihuacan, yet this mineral is found 3,000 miles away in Brazil, Mica is present almost in every single building at Teotihuacan. 

Mica was known to ancient Indian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman and Chinese civilizations, as well as the Aztec civilization of the New World. Mica is stable when exposed to electricity, light, moisture, and extreme temperatures. 

It has superior electrical properties as an insulator and as a dielectric, and can support an electrostatic field while dissipating minimal energy in the form of heat and is thermally stable to 500 °C.

Puma Punku: How did the ancients do it? Are the White Alien Gods Responsible?

Puma Punku is so unique in the way that it was constructed, shaped and positioned, that it is the most intriguing ancient site on the planet. If you look at the stones carefully, you can see some intricate stonework, as though they used machine tools or even lasers.

Evidence of ancient civilizations using modern technology? Or are the white Alien Gods responsible? Several theories have been proposed as to how this labor force transported the stones from the quarries to Puma Punku but these theories remain speculative. 

It is believed that the builders of Puma Punku used llama skin ropes and ramps and inclined planes to move these incredible blocks to the site. 

But this explanation is not accepted widely, at least in our opinion it takes more than llama skin rope and ramps to move stones of block that weigh over 100 metric tons through distances of 10 – 100 kilometers.

6 Government Secrets That Go Far Beyond Edward Snowden’s Surveillance Leaks

This is on our need to know file.  This essentially paranoid government driven behavior is always rationalized in some way but serves only to slow everything down.  In the meantime all those secrets are available for full application in the Dark budgets.


Worse it chokes open research allowing a rapid advance in knowledge.  Those outside often wonder just how much is already understood, particularly in physics although there i do not think that is is possible to close out true knowledge.


We are all fed up with it and we need a global treaty to address thus nonsense..

6 Government Secrets That Go Far Beyond Edward Snowden’s Surveillance Leaks

http://humansarefree.com/2015/10/6-government-secrets-that-go-far-beyond.html#more

“A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many, and various, and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.” – John C. Calhoun, the 7th Vice President of the United States (source)

There are a number of important issues that need constant attention and reiteration when it comes to creating awareness, and one of them is government secrecy, which is happening on multiple levels, so I apologize if you’ve already come across this information from us.

It really makes no sense to say that we live in a democracy when, as former Canadian defense minister puts it:

“The veil of secrecy has to be lifted, and it has to be lifted now… trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars have been spent on projects which both the Congress and the Commander in Chief know nothing about.” (source)

We’ve been warned by many about the world of secrecy. This is precisely why President Eisenhower warned us about the “acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex,” and that we must “never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.” (source)

When we are talking about government, we are talking about corporations that dictate government policy. We do not live in a democracy, we live in a “corporatocracy,” where corporations are above the government, and the banks are above them.

Here is a great video clip from the documentary Thrive that I’ve shared before; I apologize if you’ve seen it before, but it’s fitting.

“The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation … The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties … [and] control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government. It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and] seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.” – (source) (source) John F. Hylan, Mayor of New York City from 1918-1925

The Black Budget World

The black budget world is the pinnacle of government secrecy, at least in North America. It involves programs that are extremely classified and deal with everything from technology to information and more. In fact, Edward Snowden’s leaks were the very first to prove the existence of clandestine black budget operations in the mainstream world, despite the fact that they’ve been investigated before.

“There exists a shadowy government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.” – Senator Daniel K. Inouye, the highest ranking Asian-American politician in United States history (source)

The topic was discussed in 2010 by Washington Post journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin. Their investigation lasted approximately two years and concluded that America’s classified world has become so large, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it, or how many agencies do the same work. (source)

A 1997 US senate report described them as so sensitive that they are exempt from standard reporting requirements to the Congress. (source)

Is this where all of the missing money from the federal reserve system has gone? For example, in July of 2001, in front of the house appropriations committee, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld stated that the financial systems of the department of defence are so snarled up that they can’t account for approximately 2.6 trillion dollars in transactions. (source)

According to RT news, for the past couple of decades many trillions of dollars have been pumped into these black budget programs. (source)

You can read an article that goes more into detail about the black budget here.

A lot more is going on here that goes well beyond surveillance, and the black budget is basically the umbrella of surveillance and other programs that are not known to the public.

Who Really Created ISIS & the Truth About ‘Terrorism’

“Another threat that Obama mentioned was ISIS. Well, who on Earth armed them? Who helped to arm the Syrians that were fighting against Assad? Who created the necessary political/informational climate that facilitated this situation? Who pushed for the delivery of arms to the area? Do you really not understand as to who is fighting in Syria?” – Russian President Vladimir Putin (source) (source)

Vladimir Putin recently expressed his concern when it comes to so-called ‘terrorists,’ and he’s not the only one. David Stele, a 20-year Marine Corps Intelligence Officer, said that most terrorists are false flag terrorists, created in the United States. He has said that every single terrorist attack in the United States has been a false flag attack. You can read more about that here.

“They say Muslims are terrorists, but it just so happens that terrorists are Made in America. They’re not the product of Muslim society, and that should be abundantly clear to everyone on this floor.” – Dr. Michel Chossudovsky, the University of Ottawa’s Emeritus Professor of Economics, spoken at the International Conference on the New World Order (source) (source)

“The US is reviving terror scare with ISIS to promote the terror war industry.” – FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds (source)

We even have documents that tie Al Qaeda to the CIA.

“Malcolm X once said ‘If you’re not careful newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed & loving the people who are doing the oppressing.’ Never has this quote been more relevant than in the way the media paints most conflicts in the Middle East. It’s always ‘sectarian’ or ‘religious’ so we can think Arabs are uncivilized people — that THEY can’t get a long. When in reality, most of the conflicts we see today, from Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, to Syria, are a direct results from Western & imperialist intervention & meddling.” – Mnar Muhawest, Editor-in-Chief of Mintpress News (source)

Here are some related CE articles on the subject where you can find more information about this phenomenon and find more evidence for false flag terrorism.

What Is Happening In Space?

Space news has been at an all time high lately, especially with the recent discovery of water on Mars.

Also in the news recently, the Russian government has called for an international investigation into the United States moon landings. They are concerned about the disappearance of film footage from the original moon landing, as well as the missing 400 kilograms of lunar rock that was taken from multiple missions. You can read more about that here.

Perhaps one of the strangest things is the recent disclosure of UFO files by multiple countries around the world. These files indicate that governments have spent a great deal of resources investigating this very serious/real phenomenon.

For example, here is an article that sources various documents detailing what happens when a UFO is tracked on radar.

Here is a document (1 of thousands of pages) from the FBI illustrating what type of documents were typed up, and the ‘important’ people they were sent to. It provides details of extraterrestrial bodies and craft on pages 21 & 22. You can read more about that document here.

Here is an NSA document pertaining to UFOs, and here is another.

“I’m skeptical about many things, including the notion that government always knows best, and that the people can’t be trusted with the truth. The time to pull the curtain back on this subject is long overdue. We have statements from the most credible sources – those in a position to know – about a fascinating phenomenon, the nature of which is yet to be determined.” – John Podesta, Councillor to Barack Obama, former Chief of Staff at the White House under the Clinton administration, and current head of Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign (taken from Leslie Kean’s 2010 New York Times bestseller, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, And Government Officials Go On The Record, in which Podesta wrote the forward)

Here is a video of him at the National Press Club speaking about the issue.

Here is the latest batch of files released by the UK government.

Keep in mind that these files, in my opinion and according to my research, are not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to government secrecy about UFOs and extraterrestrial life. Who knows what information remains hidden from the public, or why it is so?

All of these now-public documents and statements, like the one below, have people turning their heads.

To view some more statements like the one below, you can browse through this heavily sourced article.

“There is a serious possibility that we are being visited and have been visited for many years by people from outer space, from other civilizations. That it behooves us, in case some of these people in the future or now should turn hostile, to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. This should be the subject of rigorous scientific investigation and not the subject of ‘rubishing’ by tabloid newspapers.” (source) – Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, Former Chief of Defence Staff, 5 Star Admiral of the Royal Navy, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee

The Manipulation of Science

Government secrecy is a shady area to explore, because how much does the government really know? If corporations dictate governmental policy and influence major decisions, is it really government secrecy that we’re talking about, or corporate secrecy?

When we think of science, we think of logic, deductive reasoning, and truth. But what science is turning into is information that has been manipulated and distorted for the sake of corporate interests. Scientists today are muzzled, paid off, threatened, and in many cases, completely misled, resulting in an abundance of fraudulent research.

“The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of the practice of medicine, but also in terms of teaching and research. The academic institutions of this country are allowing themselves to be the paid agents of the pharmaceutical industry. I think it’s disgraceful.” – (source) (source) Arnold Seymour Relman (1923-2014), Harvard Professor of Medicine and Former Editor-in-Chief of the New England Medical Journal

“The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious imporance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.” – (source) Dr. Richard Horton, current Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” – (source) Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and long time Editor-in-Chief of The New England Medical Journal

The list goes on and on. In 2005, for example, Dr. John P.A. Ioannidis, currently a professor in disease prevention at Stanford University, published the most widely accessed article in the history of the Public Library of Science (PLoS), entitled Why Most Published Research Findings Are False. In the report, he stated:

“There is increasing concern that most current published research findings are false.”

It’s not only in the medical field, think about all of the suppressed science in the black budget world. We are talking about all subjects, from engineering to physics.

Scientists working for the Canadian government are starting to raise their voices, accusing the federal government of “muzzling” them and their findings on various issues, particularly when it comes to climate change. Apparently, the union representing this group of researchers will be taking “the unusual step of demanding Ottawa enshrine scientific independence in their collective agreement.” (source)

You can read more about that here.

Invention Secrecy

New documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal how the Patent Office has been using a secret system to withhold the approval of some applications.

This 50-page document was obtained by Kilpatrick Towsend & Stockton, LLP, who commonly represent major tech companies that include Apple, Google, and Twitter (to name a few). You can view that entire document here.

The program delaying patent applications is called the Sensitive Application Warning System (SWAS). Usually, when an application is submitted for a patent approval it requires a couple of examiners who work with the patent office to put it through their process of approval. This process usually takes approximately 1 to 2 years, but applications that are filed in SAWS must be approved by several people, and can be delayed for a number of years.

One great example of delayed patent applications comes from Dr. Gerald F. Ross. He filed a patent application for a new invention he had devised to defeat the jamming of electromagnetic transmissions at specified frequencies. It was not until June 17, 2014 (almost 37 years later) that this patent was granted. (source)

It’s also important to note (as reported by the Federation of American Scientists) that there were over 5,000 inventions that were under secrecy orders at the end of Fiscal Year 2014, which marked the highest number of secrecy orders in effect since 1994. (source)

This is all thanks to an act many people are unaware of. It’s called the “Invention Secrecy Act” and it was written up in 1951. Under this act, patent applications on new inventions can be subject to secrecy orders. These orders can restrict their publication if government agencies believe that their disclosure would be harmful to national security. (source) (source)

As Steven Aftergood from the Federation of American Scientists reports:

The 1971 list indicates that patents for solar photovoltaic generators were subject to review and possible restriction if the photovoltaics were more than 20% efficient. Energy conversion systems were likewise subject to review and possible restriction if they offered conversion efficiencies “in excess of 70-80%.” (source)

He goes on to illustrate why this is so concerning:

One may fairly ask if disclosure of such technologies could really have been “detrimental to the national security,” or whether the opposite would be closer to the truth. One may further ask what comparable advances in technology may be subject to restriction and non-disclosure today. But no answers are forthcoming, and the invention secrecy system persists with no discernible external review.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the largest trade agreement since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the United States has been engaged in discussion with eight Pacific nations to come to an agreement on the terms of the TPP. It is a free trade contract that would allow for a more open system of exchange between the United States and less developed nations, apparently, and it has been wrapped in secrecy since discussions began within the Bush administration in 2005.

This is one (of multiple) example(s) of global economic/political partnerships and deals that is happening behind the back of the public eye.

Below is a video of Robert Reich, an American political economist and professor who served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, talking about the deal. He was also Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

The TPP is not really “secret,” but it sure does seem that way, which is why I chose to raise awareness about it here.