Bank of America should still worry about Wikileaks...

I've been reading more than a few of the Stratfor emails that were published by Wikileaks beginning February 27th, and in going through them I noticed something of minor interest. In fact, it's something everyone expected. One of the earliest batches of the 5 million emails from the private intelligence firm contains a couple of client lists. I was pretty excited--it's not a big deal in itself--and immediately wondered "Is BoA in there somewhere?" and in fact they were, right up at the top of a client list, prioritized.

This isn't news of course--we know about this association between Stratfor and BoA from the December hacks by the Anonymous group and other sources. While the private intelligence firm hasn't confirmed it in the past it seems that BoA did contract Stratfor to investigate and disrupt Wikileaks. Five million emails is a lot of correspondence, so we shall see how deep the association goes, maybe eve evidence of criminal activities.

Assange has said that there are approximately 4,000 internal emails about or related to Wikileaks out of the entire batch.  Karl Domscheit-Berg destroyed the 5GB BoA file on an unknown date (this is assuming he did since his stories vary), but we might learn far more about the biggest American bank just yet. The Stratfor files seem to amount to 65GB, mentioned in an earlier post on here, without a key. This could get interesting.

Postscript: When you look in the internal emails at how Stratfor was also sponging one set of clients for inside information, then selling it to another set of clients ("Robbing Peter to pay Paul"), what you have is an intelligence/information brokering version of a Ponzi scheme. Boy, are they in trouble.

Obama's endorsement of the Republic Windows and Doors sit-down is historic

Chicago, Illinois--Just as FDR finally relented in 1935 and backed the right of the UAW, the CIO and other national unions to legally organize and recruit, Obama's support of this strike is a very real step forward. The passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was a momentous step in our history that guaranteed the legal right of collective bargaining with ownership, and the right is being reaffirmed. There's nothing "socialist" or "communist" about this, the desire for workplace democracy is as American as apple pie.

It could only have happened because the workers--the laid-off no less--of that factory said, "No more, we want what's due to us."They've used their collective-heads and found that they aren't cowards and that they have guts. There really is strength-in-numbers, which is why employers in this country have done their best to keep us all divided. This is because they were always redundant.

The business in Chicago was shuttered giving Republic workers just three days notice, rather than the sixty required by law. Bank of America now holds the debts and obligations of the company but won't pay them. Republic's "bankrupt" owners appear to be in-hiding.

Several politicians have smelled the opportunity that escapes the average American, and have come down to show their solidarity with the workers there who are getting stiffed out of their benefits. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has also thrown-in, stating that Bank of America is under a statewide business injunction until Republic workers receive these benefits.

...We have contacted all of our agencies across state government and as of right now, every agency has been ordered to suspend doing any business with the Bank of America. The Bank of America received $25 billion in taxpayer money as part of the financial bailout. This is exactly, precisely the kind of thing that isn’t right -- when one the one hand, powerful special interests get the help of taxpayer money to bail them out -- the banks -- and yet the purpose of that money was supposed to be to provide a line of credit to businesses like this to keep workers working and keep people employed. And yet the Bank of America has yet to step up and say that they are going to be helpful to this company and keep these workers working. ...

This all sounds like the 1930s again, doesn't it? It's almost been that long since any American governor would dare to say such things towards the business sector. Unionization is coming back, bigger and better than ever, it's coming, and it's time to recognize the opportunities. Make it happen if you want a future. Many of the Republic Window and Door employees are Hispanic, and the UEW (United Electrical Workers) is doing a very good job indeed in lending their support. Solidarity must continue to cross racial and cultural-lines.

In this mix, Obama's endorsement is a very refreshing breath of air, it's going to have a very big impact. He's set himself up for a follow-through. Being the party of big business, the GOP will do their best to ensure he doesn't do this, because the last thing they ever want to do is assist the American worker in anything but emptying their wallets without too much fuss.

On the Chicago sit down occupation at Republic Windows and Doors

Chicago, Illinois--I'm sorry, but I hate this city, it sucks. But it's going to suck a lot worse there if more working-class Americans don't start standing up to power and the banks as these folks at the Republic Windows and Doors plant are.

Already, the comparisons to the 1936-37 Flint, Michigan sit down strike are coming, and they're becoming apt. The time to hit employers and ownership is here, and the fist is beginning to clench again when the options of apathy and complacency are gone. Habits die hard, people tend to prefer to be told what to do, but that's ending anyway. Fear is the great controller, but how many cars was anyone buying during the Great Depression? Who was buying them? The workers struck anyway, for their futures and for their families.

You know, nobody important: just our grandparents and parents, because history affects others, and never ourselves. Americans are also being stripped of this convenient attitude by events.

Most Americans think that in a major economic downturn they're even more expendable, that they have even less leverage. This is, flatly-put, utterly wrong and defeatist thinking that we've all been conditioned to. It's in times like this that employers are most vulnerable, and it's in these kinds of environments that workers must start hitting them where they live and demanding more, much-much more.

In the case of the Republic Windows workers, they're getting shafted by the creditors of the company, a name that should sound familiar: Bank of America, recipient of $25 billion in bailout money. How is any of this going to "fix" the economy?

No, these workers should remain there until this is sorted-out in an amicable way. If it isn't, they have to weigh their options. Drama is a very real possibility.

Most of the workers at the factory are Hispanic-Americans. The majority of them were unionized under the UEW (United Electrical Workers), whose leadership are aiding in the fight and negotiations with the now-bankrupt company. The real problem right now appears to be Bank of America, meaning a very real and dramatic confrontation could be coming between them and the UEW.

The time has come for a new step in the history of the labor struggle, and once again, Chicago is center stage. One Big Union.