Riot Cops Detain IWW Union Supporters at Mall of America

[Aggiesgigem]

You aren't exempt from the law because you are protesting...

[lunarmation]

unions are great aren't they?? this is what America needs more of, ha...

[ShY1CAS]

shy cAS....

[PJohnny76]

FUCK THE UNIONS!

[rickbar123]

Mall of America- More like Mall of China and every other low wage country on earth.

[MRTPALN]

FUCKING PIG THE IT B.S.

[retrotronikal]

starbucks.. give me a break.. just find another job!

[iGenerator1]

ha they don't even have guns!

[dbfsho]

1:39

[CuteFlrt21]

The mall is actually private property, not public

[armalabama]

@CuteFlrt21 excuse me?..On May 18, 2008, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a bill granting the city of Bloomington the right to raise property and sales taxes to pay for the MOA expansion.

Private property funded by public money makes it public no matter what the fkn law says..If they want it to be private property then they should pay for it with private money...

[AnarchistActivist]

keep up the work

[MrBunsX]

are you kidding me? cops waiting at the station in roit gear not letting people get of the train? Boy i love minneasota!

[farkdanarc]

@MrBunsX - the mall is private property.....can i come do what i want on your property if you dont want me on it? nope.

what gives these people the right? nothing.

[MrBunsX]

@farkdanarc Well My thinking would be that the Mall Of America would be public property and living in america we do have freedom of speach, and also wouldnt the mall of america be basicly the people of minneasota's property due to tax that we pay or payed for the buidling?

[farkdanarc]

@MrBunsX - listen to the officer earlier in the video. he declares it private property.

i agree with you about the freedom of speech, but freedom of speech doesnt get you onto the property. also, while you have freedom of speech, there are still laws that dont allow full freedom of speech.

Freedom is not as free as one would think.....there are lots of acts/regulations that can be used to control you in the end.

[MrBunsX]

@farkdanarc i dont listen to cops they lie,

[farkdanarc]

@MrBunsX - who doesnt? theres not a person on this earth that doesnt lie.

[armalabama]

@farkdanarc i'd say all the tax breaks they got and the fact that tax money even paid for the building makes it public property

[farkdanarc]

@armalabama - while i see your point and even agree with you to a point, thats not how it works.

shopping malls are owned by a private company and rent out the spaces to the chains (GAP / Gamestop / starbucks / etc). if i own a building and rent the space out to another company/organization, it doesnt automatically become public property.

[armalabama]

@farkdanarc I understand how our society works and as long as people continue to put up with it then it will never change..may 18,2008 the state even passed a bill to allow a tax raise to pay for the expansion of this mall..they privatize the profits and socialize the losses...that's the only way it can stay in business

[farkdanarc]

@armalabama - welcome to basic politics. maybe government thought it was a sound investment to maintain a commercial entity in the community. they provide government funding for community support. this does not only happen in malls you know.

what would the affects be on the community of the mall shut down? jobs, propery values decreasing, crime increases....

either case, its private property and if people dont like it, they can keep the ef out of the mall.

[armalabama]

@farkdanarc no sir...if the mall was bringing in that much tax revenue then the taxes wouldnt have to be raised on the public...constitution 101..no taxation without representation...does everyone in the community shop at that mall?if not then there is no representation..i look at it like this..if the mall is going to exist anywhere at all then it shouldn't be under socialism unless we can have socialism for all..either way we can do this all day but my point is the public paid for it ..fight!

[armalabama]

@farkdanarc I am a communist and I believe if socialism works for corporations then it will work for the people just as well...I'm not talking about fabian socialism either...l'm talking about communism..Socialism for the people would mean less homeless ;so,your reason for giving the money to the corporation was fulfilled by giving it to the people...no need to give it to a wealthy man..if the wealthy are going to have malls anywhere then they will have them with or without subsidies.

[armalabama]

@farkdanarc here's an idea,buy a mall with public money and give equal ownership to the workers at that mall...then they would have incentive to give better service and be profitable if they all shared in the profits equally...imagine a world like that..a world where people have a reason other than minimum wage and no benefits to go to work...wow imagine all the smiling faces

[armalabama]

@farkdanarc I'm so far past basic politics I don't even think about it anymore.I can look around and see with open eyes what kind of society that we have created and it hurts my soul.Another 20 years of this and our planet will be a smoking ball of tar floating in space and the sad thing about it is that the only thing stopping us from making it better is some fat retards with attitude in black jumpsuits and a lot of simple minds that think capitalism will give them a better life good luck

[jon55667788jon]

Oh it looks like time for a big group hug. You have no idea how foolish you all appear as victims. Take responsibility for your own outcomes in life and you won't have these problems. Try improving your skills beyond entry level work if you don't want entry level pay. Need more tissues? Sniff sniff.

[xgenra]

can anyone tell me,

HOW MANY PEOPLE BELONG TO THE IWW IN THE USA?

WHAT HAS THE UNION DONE FOR ITS WORKERS SINCE THE RECESSION STARTED?

[bjarczyk]

@xgenra

Don't whine, organize!

[Tyr7777]

Poor down-troden collage kids, with their cell phones and expensive A&F tees! The Mall has a right to throw anyone they want out. Go find some real cause to fight for.

[666Angelfuck]

cops are as dirty as the politicians

[NavyCop20070221]

Those green hat goons are jokes. Hippy college kids who enroll in law 101 and think they're activists.

Second, that mall is private property and therefore the owners, rightfully, were able to prevent any sort of potentially bad publicity.

[rlvowell]

in a legal sense, they own it. in reality however, the laws that ensure private property are unjust/violent/economic/biolog­ical attacks against working people. no one is entitled to something they didn't create themselves.

[Renta1Cop]

You are exactly right, I love it how people say Oh her child is a diabetic and needs insulin, a good parent would have what their "diabetic" child needs even for a worse case scenario. Another video to try to make any form of law enforcement look bad.

[bjarczyk]

property is theft

[dallasguy1980]

SCREW ALL UNIONS!!!THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO SHUT DOWN ALL UNIONS!!! I WORK FOR A UNION COMPANY AND I CAN TELL YOU THAT THERE IS NOTHING GOOD ABOUT THE UNIONS... tHEY ARE A DRAIN ON THE ECONOMY AND YOUR PAYCHECK...WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE TO PAY ANOTHER COMPANY TO WORK AND WHY SHOULD YOU HAVE TO GO ON STRIKE AND LOSE YOUR PAY WHEN THEY AREN'T GOING TO LOSE THEIR PAY???

[wizardtree]

fuck you, rot in hell.

[reformationposttlc]

haha, omg! you are so right, of course unions are a "drain to the economy". That's because workers should have no interest in a "healthy economy" as long as it is a capitalist economy. Even a healthy capitalist economy is not for the better of working people. Therefore: Abolish wage labour! Join the I.W.W.!

[Monomaniac23]

unions are job insurance. until you need it they seem useless.

[TheNonExistentlife]

Well dallasguy1980 then get the hell out of the union....I to live and work in Dallas and am in a union...Let me tell you I have worked no union..and even with the "drain" on my paycheck...I am making $3 to $10 dollars more than a non union worker doing the same job...as for as the economic drain...that is just something the company want to sell you...just like the crap about paying to work...every body pays to work...

[scratchbrad]

ummm? who fought for an eight hour day and just maybe safety regulation on the job? yeah......unions. maybe you'd like to get hurt on the job without compensation\ but maybe not.

I believe the largest drain on the economy, as of current economic standpoints, is the fucking banks .

I'll strike to save my and fellow coworker's well being to be treated with dignity as human beings.

[farkdanarc]

@scratchbrad - weird, cause i have worked for unions and non-union positions and i freely prefer the non-unionized positions.

also, i do believe that the safety regulations are a Federal Program.......and the shift hour restrictions are part of labor laws and safety regulations........hmmmm.....

the only thing unions do well, is keep idiots in thier positions.

[paulsviplist]

Why don't they just open their own coffie shop?

[NorthMichael]

Usually stupid people get what they deserve. As far as the police, it will only get worse as time goes on. Search for concentration camps in America.

[yaiknowscrewme]

Its teh coffee brownshits..fuck off faggots

[Brian4186]

Pussy cops doing whatever the slavemaster tells them. I hope they all rot in hell.

[granitoja]

Right. What I meant was that the time spent unionizing could be better spent learning a different skill or even just enjoying life. The gains from unionizing starbucks employees are too little to justify the time spent on it.

[LibSocialism]

The IWW seeks to organize all workers into one big union, many members who get into organizing already have 4 year university degrees, but choose to work in low paying industries to agitate, in hopes that the workers will organize themselves. The IWW does not have paid officials to do this work, unlike the mainstream trade unions. Gains from organizing Starbucks may be small, but to the workers who are winning, they are huge, and for what might be the only real, democratic union left in the U.S

[granitoja]

The expense of unionizing starbucks jobs is greater than the gain. It would be better for those graduates to work in a field where they could have a greater social impact than getting college and high school students a dental plan. Universal healthcare, financial literacy, inner-city development, microfinance, education. At the risk of sounding like an economist, you are not looking at the opportunity cost of unionizing starbucks.

[LibSocialism]

If the I.W.W were a mainstream trade union I would agree with you, however, being a syndicalist union, the goals are not just dental care and 50 cents more per hour. The labor movement has become so fragmented that it hardly serves the purposes of the working class. By accepting workers in all industries, even Starbucks, the I.W.W seeks to build grassroots working class power outside of the political arena.

[granitoja]

but what would you use the working class power for?

[ClearPerception]

Solidarity, what else???

In the pressing times of economic instability, the best thing the working class can do is create alternative systems of cooperation within the exploitative reigns of the destructive global elite , or as Libs calls it, their 'political arena'. Such an act takes the power out of their hands and control, and in turn, makes the working class itself a liability to the power structure that depends on them and is ultimately supported by them.

[granitoja]

Right, but what would the solidarity achieve other than "bringing down the system"?

[destructicon500]

Anarchism doesn't seek to preserve "the system."

[granitoja]

So IWW wants to bring about anarchism?

[granitoja]

haha. Why would you want to unionize a crappy job like starbuck's? Go to community college for a year or two and bam, you're an electrician making two or three times as much for the rest of your life.

[comradepinko]

Most people need to hold jobs while attending school, so it is a strong possibility that many of the workers are already doing exactly what you suggest.

[ajkmyway]

I don't get it. What does the little girl being diabetic have anything to do with getting off the train at the mall? What a lame excuse.

[DeflocculatedDentist]

They weren't letting her get off. That wasn't an excuse for everyone else to get off.

[evergladesearthfirst]

keep up the fight! fuck yeah! anytime you can show clearly that the cops work for corporations rather than people you have at least an informational victory!

[farkdanarc]

@evergladesearthfirst - the police enforcing a law that protects you as well? your right....you showed them?

[WolfArden44]

Who owns Starbucks.Check it out.

[hbcrazyman]

interesting video. i wonder who sent the cops to stop everybody from getting off the train. was it starbucks idea or the city. very interesting video.

[steveminne]

Those cops were stationed at the Mall of America during the Republican National Convention. They were there to deter political protests.

That said, the police state tactics employed are total bullshit. We are just beginning public hearings in the Twin Cities on police conduct during the RNC.

[kixtiergirlz75]

Easy Enough, spread the word and NOBOBY visit Starbucks. They will go under. Bottom line wins every time.

[violawil]

The Bosses have shut 40 stores here in Australia too, with little protest as the Business Union the SDA ios too slack to have even visited and signed up members...good on the IWW for sticking together with the wage slaves of Starbux!

[Birdman507]

so retarded

[griffjam]

why is there always a fuckin diabetic?

[Solechnaya]

I dunno man, but it's only right to let the little girl and her mother off.

[Blink182Hero]

i bet she wasnt even diabetic, they wrere jus lookn for sympathy and a way to get off the train

[Solechnaya]

That's a possibility.

[julzzz]

obviously not, they were only asking for HER to be allowed off. she was not involved in the event, she was just riding the train at the same time.

[RenegadeU]

i think that when the cops asked people for the first time where are they going and what is it for, they just checked if it is this train for sure.

But dont give up IWW members!

Solidarity words from Poland.

[t0kt0k]

Solidarity is powerful :)

[Democrats08]

Your papers please, Don't Resist or

[erikwdavis]

....and ever!

[eliumn]

Solidarity forever!