On August 1st, European Union claimed Syrian authorities used tanks to storm protestors in the city of Hama which have killed 80 civilians on July 31. President Bashar Al Assad’s decision to send troops and heavy armor into the city where his father crushed an Islamist uprising in 1982 suggested he intends to use all means to crush protests rather than carry out his promises of reform. Michael Mann, the spokesman for EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton said, ”We were extremely shocked and appalled by what happened in Hama yesterday. There has never been any justification for what has been going on. You cannot justify attacking civilians who are exercising their right to democratic protest. You just can’t send in the tanks and attack them like that. We have condemned it in the strongest possible terms… It is completely unacceptable what is going on in Syria at the moment.” Human Rights Watch said the response from the European Union and the United States has increases sanctions on Syria but it criticized Russia, China and the non-aligned for failing to act. Human Rights Watch spokesman Reed Brody said, ”I mean, we know what’s going on. The Syrian government is trying to stop us from finding out but we know what’s going on and the international community is failing to act. Countries like Russia and China, but also South Africa, India and Brazil, who are stopping the Security Council from acting, who are stopping the International Criminal Court from getting …

Article by Alan Farrow

When a person signs on the dotted line for a loan, payments typically extend from one to five years. Credit unions offer special rates for loans that can be helpful to a borrower. Consequently, they are very popular.

Features of a credit union loan include:

* The insurance on a loan doesn’t come out of the borrower’s pocket.

* Repayment protection insurance is an available option to a borrower.

* Hidden fees and transaction charges are non-existent.

* The calculation of repayments depends on the reducing balance of the overall loan. Interest repayments can be lower if repayments are made more frequently.

* Depending on the borrower’s job, there are many types of repayment loans available on the menu.

* A borrower can prepay a loan without penalty.

* There are also no penalties for large repayment sums.

Additionally, credit unions differ from banks in several respects.

* They have limited membership. If their membership increases, then will lose their status as a credit union.

* Customers are members who may originate from a particular region, type of industry, or other commonly associated groups.

* The emphasis of the credit unions is service, unlike banks whose main motivation is profit maximization.

* The top management is run by volunteers who don’t receive salaries; banks, on the other hand, have a board of directors who receive monetary remuneration.

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As credit unions expand their assets and activities, there are a few US credit unions accounting for hundreds of billion dollars in 2009. In total assets the top 100 credit unions account for 825$ billion and 90 million memberships. The credit unions have become extremely important and major forces on the economical status and landscape of the US. Until a few years ago, most of the members were looking to the credit unions for car loans and small personal loans. Today, these credit unions are able to meet more needs and expectations, being able to offer mortgages, debt consolidations, refinancing, credit cards, and a vast array of services.

The twenty largest credit unions in America based on their assets are:

1. Navy Federal Federal Credit Union

Merrifield, VA. .4 billion in assets.

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2. State Employees Credit Union

Raleigh, NC. .7 billion in assets.

3. Pentagon Federal Credit Union

Alexandria, VA. .0 billion in assets.

4. Boeing Employees Credit Union

Tukwila, WA. .6 billion in assets.

5. Schoolsfirst Federal Credit Union

Santa Ana, CA. .8 billion in assets.

6. The Golden 1 Credit Union

Sacramento, CA. .0 billion in assets.

7. Alliant Credit Union

Chicago, IL. .9 billion in assets.

8. Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union

Tampa, FL. .9 billion in assets.

9. American Airlines Federal Credit Union

Ft. Worth, TX. .3 billion in assets.

10. Security Service Federal Credit Union

San Antonio, TX. .1 billion in assets.

11. America First Federal Credit Union

Ogden, UT. .6 billion in assets.

12. San Diego County Credit Union

San Diego, CA. .5 billion in assets.

13. Digital Federal Credit Union

Marlborough, MA. .5 billion in assets.

14. Kinecta Federal Credit Union

Manhattan Beach, CA. .2 billion in assets.

15. Patelco Credit Union

San Francisco, CA. .1 billion in assets.

16. Star One Credit Union

Sunnyvale, CA. .1 billion in assets.

17. Alaska USA Federal Credit Union

Anchorage, AK. .8 billion in assets.

18. Citizens Equity First Credit Union

Peoria, IL. .8 billion in assets.

19. Vystar Credit Union

Jacksonville, FL. .7 billion in assets.

20. ESL Federal Credit Union

Rochester, NY. .6 billion in assets.  

In order to work together, we must dance together. THE FULL SPEECH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZdEmjtF6HE THE ORIGINAL IYAZ SONG: www.youtube.com FOLLOW the Gregory Brothers for more remixes/songifications: www.youtube.com www.twitter.com www.facebook.com 2ND CHANNEL www.youtube.com/thegregorybrothers SHIRTS www.districtlines.com/Auto-Tune-the-News CHORDS F#m – D – A – E LYRICS Intro: Shawtayee, ay Shawtayee, ay ay Shawtayee, ay ay ay Chorus: All the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories, different beliefs. We do not give up. Nah, nah, nah, nah, not today We do not get stuck in replay. Verse: No matter who we are or where we come from each of us is a part of something greater more consequential than we individually are. New laws will only pass with Democrats and Republicans. I believe we can, we must, get the economy going again. Bridge: We do big things from the days of our founding big things cause we dare to dream big things our destiny is our choice we share common hopes, common creed Chorus

Article by Nick Messe

The concept of credit unions originated in the United Kingdom. It was in 1844 that a group of weavers in Rochdale formed the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers. It was formed to buy goods at wholesale prices and sell them to members at lower than the retail market price. The funds were raised by selling shares to members. This was the first credit union. The movement came to Canada in 1901 and it was a huge success. Attracted by the success in Canada, the first credit union in the United Staes was established in 1908.

Pierre Jay, the Massachusetts Banking Commissioner, and a Boston merchant by the name of Edward Filene were instrumental in passing the first state legislation in the United States in 1909 in the state of Massachusetts. Growth was slow, both for the legislation in other states and the Massachusetts Credit Union Association. Only a very few states followed suit to pass laws on credit unions.

In 1921, Felene stepped up his efforts to get laws passed in other states and for the creation of more credit unions. He formed the Credit Union National Extension Bureau spending one million dollars from his own pocket. He hired the services of attorney Roy F. Bergengren to support his efforts for legislation. By 1925, 25 states passed credit union laws and there were 419 credit unions with a total membership of 108,000. By 1935 the number of credit unions grew to 3,372 with a membership of 641,800 and 35 states had credit union laws.

In actual practice, credit unions are an organized group of people that provide cheap financial service to their members. The members pool their resources. Unlike banks, the stress is on giving financial services to members rather that making a profit.

Most credit unions are governed by a voluntary board with the board members being local people. The banks have highly paid professionals on their board. They have to be paid a hefty sitting fee and traveling expenses. You can see how that amounts to a huge saving for credit unions.

The banks are motivated by profit which is disbursed among the stockholders. On the other hand, the intention of the credit unions is to provide cheap credit to members. These factors help the credit unions keep their operating costs very low. As there is no profit motive there is no need to show big surpluses in the balance sheet.

Compared to banks, the credit unions have no intention of making huge profits to distribute among the stockholders. Since expenses are kept very low, it allows credit unions to offer credit to their members at very low rates. They also keep their service fees for their members very low.

For the same reason credit unions are also able to offer better mortgage deals. That is also why they can pay much better returns on the savings of the members. The surplus funds available with the credit unions are distributed among the members as dividends. You’d be wise to join a credit union in your locality.

About the Author

Enjoy the convenience of online banking with ICCU – the Illinois Community Credit Union – Our goal is to return profits to our members by offering more service with lower rates on things such as Sycamore Mortgages and Dekalb Auto Loans – 815-895-4541 – http://www.ilcomcu.org

Article by PottersvilleUSA

There were many motives for the assassination in Dallas:

- JFK’s firm plan to withdraw from Vietnam by the end of 1965, – JFK’s peace overtures to Cuba and Russia–both Communist countries, – JFK’s stated plan to tax the oil industry and further tax the undertaxed wealthy, and – JFK’s refusal to put the wishes of big business above the needs of the people.

Yet I rarely see discussion of what I believe is a major factor in the decision by the Military Industrial Complex to murder him:

-President Kennedy supported labor unions.

The War on Organized Labor

Communism is the code word for labor union. Organized labor is the lone counterbalance to the immense power that corporations wield. Obviously corporations don’t want that counterbalance.They want slaves. The old South in the US. The forced labor in circa WW2 Germany. The new South in the US. They were/are utopia for industrialists.

The war on ‘communism’ is a war on organized labor. The rich and powerful have intentionally made the word ‘communism’ a dirty word, when in fact it’s merely an economic political framework as is capitalism. And like capitalism it can be corrupted but is not inherently bad.

For example, Hitler’s rise to power depended on his support by industrialists. They supported him because he promised to crush organized labor. Sure enough once in power he did just that. One of his first acts was to outlaw unions and lower wages. This resulted in huge profits for businessmen like Thyssen, Bush, Sullivan & Cromwell and Harriman. And it gave him a war machine that could be run cheaply and efficiently. Hitler understood business. Industrialists understood that about Hitler.

Another critical component of the perpetually profitable war machine is steel. This brings us back to Thyssen, P. Bush, Sullivan & Cromwell, Harriman Bros and the steel companies.

When President Kennedy took on US Steel it was a clash with the Titans. Donald Gibson describes this clash in his excellent book “Battling Wall Street.” And Laura Knight-Jadczyk discusses it in her excellent article “John F. Kennedy and the Titans.” These are two exceptional resources where Kennedy’s support of labor unions is illuminated.

To summarize this decades long battle: In 1911 the US government tried unsuccessfully to break the monopoly of US Steel, the first billion dollar corporation in history & a company symbolic of the high tide of banker power in America. It was largely run by Rockefeller through JP Morgan.

“After World War I, trade unionism surged forward. Membership doubled; organization expanded into meat packing, textiles, motors, and other open-shop fields. The key was steel. If unionism entrenched itself here, the entire mass-production sector could be swept into the labor fold. A steel drive, launched in August 1918, gathered force in the postwar months. By the summer of 1919 more than 100,000 steelworkers had joined up. In September the steel movement struck the industry and, despite the heroic scale of the conflict, expired. From that defeat there would be no reprieve until new forces were unleashed by the Great Depression.”From “Labor in Crisis: The Steel Strike of 1919.”

Then in April of 1952 Truman ordered the US Army to seize the nation’s steel mills to avert a strike.Good ol’ Truman. Now there’s a man who ‘understood business.’ However, he didn’t understand the law. His seizure was ruled illegal by Supreme Court two months later.

In 1956 650,000 US steel workers went on strike. In 1959 the Taft-Hartley Act was invoked by the US Supreme Court to break a steel strike. The epic battles–by and against labor unions–continued.

Then John Kennedy became president in 1960. He did not ‘understand business.’

As Laura Knight-Jadczyk says:

“Kennedy did not regard profit-making as the most esteemed of vocations. Brought up in a family of millionaires and a millionaire himself, he was not impressed by other millionaires, nor did he consider the successful businessman the most admirable of beings. He liked to quote from Dr. Johnson:

‘A merchant’s desire is not of glory but of gain; not of public wealth, but of private emolument; he is therefore rarely to be consulted on questions of war or peace, or any designs of wide extent and distant consequence.’

He was well aware of their power, but he did not trust the Titans. When he became President he declared: ‘Taken individually, labor leaders are often mediocre and egotistical, but labor as a whole generally adopts intelligent positions on important problems. On the other hand, businessmen are often individually enlightened but collectively hopeless in the field of national policy.’

Eisenhower sought out the Titans, respected their advice, and treated them as they thought they deserved to be treated — in other words, as representatives of the most influential body in the nation.”

In fact Eisenhower let business Titans and the military machine run amok during his 8-year presidency. Then at the end of his presidency, days before John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, the outgoing president went on television to warn the country.

“My fellow Americans:

Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. [Early drafts of his speech used the phrase "Military Industrial Congressional Complex."] The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

So Eisenhower allowed the Military Industrial Congressional Complex to become a juggernaut during his administration, and then handed it off to John Kennedy. A hand grenade with the pin pulled.

Back to Laura Knight-Jadczyk:

“Kennedy kept his distance. Prior to his election he had had little contact with industrial circles, and once he was in the White House he saw even less of them. Businessmen were generally excluded from the Kennedys’ private parties. Not only did he “snub” them (in the words of Ralph Cordiner, President of General Electric), he also attacked them. Kennedy did not consult the business world before making his appointments. The men he placed at the head of the federal regulatory agencies were entirely new.

Since the end of the war, the businessmen had become accustomed to considering these bodies as adjuncts of their own professional associations. They were more indignant than surprised. They attempted to intervene, but in vain. The President had a mind of his own.”

President Kennedy Had a Mind of His Own

In March of 1962 President Kennedy persuaded the United Steel Workers to accept a contract he hailed as “non-inflationary.” A few days later, the United States Steel Corporation announced an increase of 3.5% in its prices, and most other steel companies did likewise. US Steel, who had fought unionization for decades, punked the United Steel Workers and punked the US President. In the three days that followed, Kennedy put intense pressure on US Steel.

As Knight-Jadczyk explains:

“‘The following day at his press conference, the President declared: . . . the American people will find it hard, as I do, to accept a situation in which a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans.’

This denunciation of the Titans stunned the nation. It marked the birth of a legend. The President’s remarks made headlines throughout the world and were even quoted in Pravda, which expressed its surprise and satisfaction. The businessmen were disconcerted by the violence of his reaction and by the apparent extent of his public support, but Roger Blough [US Steel CEO] maintained that his decision had been made “in the interest of the stockholders” and that the profits of the largest steel producers were 33% lower in the first quarter of 1962 than they had been in 1959.

The administration replied that the dividends paid to the stockholders of the steel corporations in 1958-61 were 17% higher than those paid in 1954-57. The steel industry rejoined that profits had exceeded billion in 1959, but that they had fallen to 7 million in 1961, endangering investment possibilities, the future of the steel corporations, and consequently the future of American industry. But, faced with FBI investigations, the pressure of public opinion, and the cancellation of government contracts, it yielded and revoked the increase.

On May 7, 1962, US News and World Report wrote: ‘What happened is frightening not only to steel people but to industry generally . ‘

May 28, 1962 was the blackest day on Wall Street since the 1929 crash. Steel holdings fell to 50% of their 1960 level. “This could become total war,” declared Avery C. Adams, Chairman of Jones and Laughlin Steel, to the stockholders of his company.

Business reaction was unanimous. Ralph Cordiner, President of General Electric, declared that Kennedy ought to reread his Lincoln, and David Lawrence wrote:

‘The heavy hand of government has just won a pyrrhic victory . . . Economic facts cannot be changed merely because politicians dislike them. Nor can America’s private enterprise system survive very long if the Federal Government itself engages in the mudslinging of class warfare and, in effect, tells an industry it must disregard profits, disregard dividends, and pay labor whatever the Administration says shall be paid even if, as in this case, it costs the industry an additional 0 million a year.

United Federation of Teachers’ Vice President Leo Casey explains why his union is organizing charter schools. From the Left Forum, March 19, 2011
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Article by Michael Parry

When the Trade Unions were originally established there was a definite need to change the working conditions for the average worker. However, as time progressed, working conditions improved, the unions became more powerful, and the friction between the unions and management grew. And then something happened.

With international competition, more companies transferred their work overseas to avoid the high cost of labor. Unions saw significant declining membership and conflict between the unions and management increased. The current political mood is to increase the power of the unions once again.

But international competition is not going to go away. And a strong union with no work is of no use to anyone. High union labor and legacy costs, is one of the major factors being blamed on the lack of the American Auto Industry

Activists from Graduate Students United at the Universiy of Chicago explain their collective and personal motivations for unionizing.
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