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The Company Store
The Company Store
Leaves almost nothing to live on
In the song Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis (and made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford), the idea of the ‘company store’ referred to a system of debt bondage that effectively trapped workers within an unfair system designed to harvest all of their labor at very low cost.
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
Sixteen Tons – Merle Travis
How exactly did the company store system operate?
Under a scrip system, workers were not paid cash; rather they were paid with non-transferable credit vouchers that could be exchanged only for goods sold at the company store. This made it impossible for workers to store up cash savings.
Workers also usually lived in company-owned dormitories or houses, the rent for which was automatically deducted from their pay.
This model was simple enough to understand. “Pay” your workers with scrip vouchers, then sell them your marked up goods at the company store, pocketing a nice profit. On top of that, force your employees to live in company housing, too, also at terms very favorable to the company.
Add it all up and the workers found themselves in perpetual service to their employer. No matter how hard and long they toiled, there was nothing left for their own private benefit after all was said and done. The company succeeded in skimming off any and all ‘excess’ for itself.
This vast unfairness eventually led to the formation of unions as well as to regulations providing protection to the workers.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
In its Desperation, Scandal-Riddled Spanish Government Criminalizes Solidarity Among Citizens
In its Desperation, Scandal-Riddled Spanish Government Criminalizes Solidarity Among Citizens
On Tuesday, March 10, 19 Spanish citizens were rounded up in dawn raids by the Madrid police. They are accused of committing a crime against the Spanish state. That crime? Trying to prevent, through passive, non-violent resistance, the forced eviction of a local resident. If found guilty, the suspects could face crippling fines.
Welcome to Rajoy’s Spain, where helping out your neighbor in his or her hour of need is now an administrative crime.
A Not-So-Silent Tragedy
In most countries that have experienced foreclosure epidemics, the eviction of neighbors and local residents is usually a quiet, if not silent, tragedy. Often people don’t realize that their neighbors have gone until hours, days or even weeks have passed. Some may never even notice.
In Spain, however, things are different. In recent years foreclosures have become a very explosive public affair, sometimes drawing the participation and attention of scores or even hundreds of people. When a local resident is threatened with eviction word quickly gets out and groups of neighbors and social activists begin forming and offering their support. By the time police officers arrive there is an almost impenetrable wall of protestors between them and the front door of the property to be foreclosed. [To get an idea of what this looks like, enter “desauhicios” + “españa” in Youtube’s search engine; I can’t add the links here because providing links to images of police officers going about their business is now a chargeable offense in Spain].
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Warnings Australia in rural financial crisis as farmers look to take on ANZ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
There is growing concern Australia is in the grip of a rural financial crisis as banks foreclose on hundreds of properties and force farmers off the land but some are vowing to fight back.
Rural lender Landmark – once owned by the Australian Wheat Board – held the long-term mortgages of hundreds of Australian farmers but at the height of the global financial crisis sold its loan book to big four bank ANZ.
Up until a recent decision to halt foreclosures for 12 months, ANZ was foreclosing on drought-stricken farmers that missed repayments.
With slumped property prices, some rural families also faced a situation where their debt was higher than the value of their farms.
Like hundreds of other farmers, Rodney Culleton did not choose to be an ANZ customer but faced the bank’s new loan agreements and demands for fresh guarantees after Landmark offloaded his loan.
