Seattle City Councilmember-elect shares radical idea with Boeing workers

[OneCrazyDiamond]

Source: KIRO 7

SEATTLE —

Seattle City Councilmember-elect Kshama Sawant told Boeing machinists her idea of a radical option, should their jobs be moved out of state

“The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant announced to a cheering crowd of union supporters in Seattle’s Westlake Park Monday night.

Read more: http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/seattle-city-councilmember-elect-shares-radical-id/nbxbC/

[DJ13]

1. She's going to be a thorn in the elite's backside

Good!

[OneCrazyDiamond]

2. I think she already is.

And she isn't even in office yet.

[silvershadow]

20. Good. nt

[EC]

3. If Boeing had tax breaks to stay there all

the past time they've been there, then the town pretty much paid for the factory and machines. Change the name and keep on manufacturing...she's right, they don't need the executives. Call it a repossession or a tax lein on past taxes.

[BrotherIvan]

4. Oh damn, I love this idea

How many cities and states are doing the exact same thing: basically giving away any tax income. What about sports teams? And when they decide to up and leave, the town dies.

Like the Hostess factory, it would be wonderful if there were teams who would go out and consult with workers on how to take over or buy out businesses and run them on their own. Because manufacturing a product is only part of what makes a business successful, it would need a good plan to help them get going. But I would love to seem some sort of model for how this would work, with families and towns investing in a company and reaping the benefits. And all the consumers in this country putting a very high premium on products Made in the USA!

[freshwest]

13. I love it, too and deleted my worried post below. This is the truth and should work for the union.

[nykym]

5. Actually this might be a good tact

to take when negotiating with corporations that want to come to your town.
Sure you can have these tax breaks for 10 years.
But if you decide to shut it down after the 10 years we get to keep your factory and machinery.
And guess what you have to pay back 50% of those tax breaks.

[liberal_at_heart]

6. now that is a fantastic idea!

[SoapBox]

7. I love it!

I hope we can start putting a few similar "thorns" in place across America.

KKKoch Terrorist Brothers, it's time for some ass kicking on you!

[MyNameGoesHere]

8. I think this should be happening all over

the world. Corporations have proven beyond a doubt they cannot be trusted, they are evil entities that only want slaves. Take em all over. Let the workers decider on their own fates.

[Scuba]

9. Excellent. We need more like Sawant.

[SunSeeker]

10. FUCK YEAH. Boeing got billions from us taxpayers, it's time we collect on our investment!

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. Finally a politician says something that doesn't make me want to either

puke or hide from the embarrassment.
& R

[LeftOfWest]

14. Already loving our Kshama Sawant. n/t

[BlueEye]

15. Sounds a little too much like Communism for my tastes.

And before you all gun me down, I am in a union and work for a company in the aviation industry.

It seems like there is always a crisis at Boeing with labor. And yet their chief competitor, Airbus, almost never has labor problems, and Airbus employees get paid better, better benefits, and their health care is the responsibility of the governments of Europe. The solution is for the United States to be more European in our politics. Do away with these Right to Work for Less laws. Institute universal health care through a single-payer mechanism. And lastly, governments should exert more control over corporations through legislation. Airbus is nationalized consortium, but that wouldn't even be necessary if our government would simply pass laws to protect workers.

We need to wage war at the ballot box. "Taking over a factory", or publicly traded company for that matter, is a pretty ridiculous notion.

[jtuck004]

17. Well, just like we take kids away from parents who are doing harmfuil things, maybe it's time to

take the assets that really matter back into the hands of the people that do the work. Industrial Unions were fighting and dying for that from 1865 to about the 1930's till business, Business Unions, and the government conspired to kill them off in favor of business, so maybe it's time to get off the path they set us on.

The Starvation Army (Salvation Army) stands on the street corner and tells people to work hard and play by the rules, that their reward will come later. It didn't then, and it won't now, of course. Back then they kept starving, and learned that those were just pie in the sky promises. The ballot box has proven to be unsuited to solving this problem because it is simply for sale to those with more assets.

People need to quit making excuses for exploiting people in the name of profit.

[BrotherIvan]

19. I never ever could wrap my head around why corps weren't the first ones

to push for single payer. If they could get that cost off their books, it would be a huge boon for them. Why would they give a damn if the insurance companies make money? It's just mind-boggling.

I do understand that keeping workers in chains because they are tied to their health insurance is part of the game, but it is so expensive, surely there are other ways to keep wages incredibly low, *heh*.

And for the hope of the US exerting more control over corporations, with the TPP, we're ceding control of our country to them.

Taking over a factory is not communism or socialism, it's capitalism plain and simple. The workers are creating competition; they are leveraging their skills to create the product and bring it to market. Perhaps in the case of aviation or automobiles, which requires very expensive specialized machinery, that is more difficult, but in the case of day-to-day consumer goods that is entirely possible. By cutting out huge CEO salaries and overpaid bloated management, the workers could create a superior product that is price competitive--perhaps not slave labor cheap, but a good value. As consumers, we MUST support this model, we must shun foreign goods to satisfy our own selfish impulses. It is literally killing this country and our economy.

[zeemike]

23. Well I have an alternative to communism.

which is capital owned by the state...and that is capital owned by the workers...
And this is being done in some places...where the people that actually work there are the owners and share ALL the profits among themselves.
It cuts out the middle men, and that is where most of our money goes...

[DeSwiss]

16. I like how she thinks!!!

- K&R

[jtuck004]

18. Go Kshama!. n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

21. People like Ms. Sawant give me hope for America's survival

This is the way to fight back against corporate fascism.

If I may amend our founding documents:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men humans made of flesh and blood are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments political, economic, educational and religious institutions are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed People, --That whenever any Form of Government powerful social instituion becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government institutions, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments institutions long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government institutions, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

[Phlem]

22. I'm so proud

to be in the state that elected a socialist to city council.

Yes we did that!



-p

[geardaddy]

24. Solidarity!!

[pnwmom]

25. And how does that work, exactly? She's fun but this is mostly a joke. n/t

[ForgoTheConsequence]

26. It's called a worker cooperative.

And it's been done before, successfully.

[pnwmom]

27. It hasn't been done when the plant is still owned by someone else.

Boeing won't be handing it over to the competition, even if the competition consists of former workers.

[mwrguy]

28. Tell that to the companies that used to own oil rigs in Venezuela

It simply takes the will to do it.

[pnwmom]

29. Seattle is not Venezuela. n/t

[loli phabay]

30. wondering who they would sell what they make, boeing would not buy it nor airbus

They would have to retool the whole place and come up with other products unless they plan to build their own aircraft.