Throw The Book At Corrupt Unions...

[icyfroth]

...after the criminal banks!

Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood today called on the Abbott government to finally hold the banks accountable for their financial crimes, before it goes off on its crusade against union corruption.

Isherwood said, “In 2009 I called for an Australian Pecora Commission, modelled on the U.S. investigation of Wall Street led fearlessly by Ferdinand Pecora from 1932-34, which exposed the financial crimes that led to the Great Depression, and the corrupt dealings between the Wall Street banks and American politicians that enabled the banks to get away with their crimes.

“So far, outside of some Senate inquiries there has been no serious investigation of financial crimes in Australia. Yet after a few high-profile examples of union corruption, people in the Abbott government are pushing for a Royal Commission into the unions.

“I say investigate both,” he said, “but unless the government goes after the banks with the same zeal it has to tear into the unions, it is being corrupt itself, by covering up for corruption on a scale that crooked unionists could only dream of.”

Isherwood cited examples of the banks not being held accountable: 

• The central role of the Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie Bank and the Bank of Queensland in the Storm Financial scandal, in which hundreds of customers in North Queensland were lured into borrowing heavily against their homes in order to gamble on the stock market, and were subsequently ruined in the 2008 GFC.

• The evidence that loan officers in not just mortgage brokers, but also the Big Four banks, fraudulently doctored loan documentation to justify making low-doc loans that many customers subsequently couldn’t afford.

• The relationship between Macquarie Bank, aka the Millionaires’ Factory, and numerous ex-politicians and public servants who have gone to work for Macquarie after, in many cases, being involved in public policy decisions such as privatisations and public-private partnerships from which Macquarie directly profited.

• The role of Australian-based banks in the UK LIBOR scandal, and the fact that six of the 14 banks caught rigging the LIBOR in London are also involved in setting Australia’s benchmark interest rate, the Bank Bill Swap rate (BBSW). Rigging the LIBOR interest rate allowed the banks to skim off the top of hundreds of trillions of dollars of deals over three decades, and it was known and condoned at the highest levels.

• Commonwealth Bank’s sudden decision in 2012 to no longer disclose its exposure to the toxic over-the-counter derivatives market, after increasing its exposure at a breathtaking rate in the three previous years. OTC derivatives are purely gambling side-bets that are often instruments of outright fraud; it was the global meltdown of the OTC derivatives bubble that caused the GFC in 2008.

Isherwood noted that there have been numerous corporate collapses in recent years in which the losses were borne by the mum and dad investors but not the banks or the well-connected.

Isherwood concluded, “It is time to clean up the criminal activity in the financial system that has been allowed to flourish under the cover of deregulation. 

“We must also impose the only effective regulation which can protect ordinary people from the predations of financial speculators, which is a Glass-Steagall separation of retail banking from investment banking.

“The only reason for the government to not launch a thorough investigation of criminality in the banking system, and not go with Glass-Steagall, is to cover for the bankers.

Link To Article

"The relationship between Macquarie Bank, aka the Millionaires’ Factory, and numerous ex-politicians and public servants who have gone to work for Macquarie after, in many cases, being involved in public policy decisions such as privatisations and public-private partnerships from which Macquarie directly profited."

[poddster]

Yes there has been evolution within the union, and as evolution favors the survival of the species, they have evolved different tactics and methods but they are still the same unions that prey on their members.

[freakiness]

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@poddster wrote:

Yes there has been evolution within the union, and as evolution favors the survival of the species, they have evolved different tactics and methods but they are still the same unions that prey on their members.

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Unions are the members, not some sort of animals of prey.

What was that you were saying about following posters around?

[poddster]

Unions are the upper echelon of the union administration they are the ones who formulate police and dictate what will or will not be done.

When people are put under pressure to join a union they are being preyed upon.

By the way I address the discussion not the person making a statement.

If anyone makes a statement they should be prepared to accept another to disagree with that statement..........it's called debate.

[freakiness]

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@poddster wrote:

Unions are the upper echelon of the union administration they are the ones who formulate police and dictate what will or will not be done.

When people are put under pressure to join a union they are being preyed upon.

By the way I address the discussion not the person making a statement.

If anyone makes a statement they should be prepared to accept another to disagree with that statement..........it's called debate.

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As do most people.  You said you are followed.

No, unions are the members.  The members can and do argue with the union officials and do have the right to vote on who fills the union official roles.   Without these sorts of changes the union movement would probably not have survived.

[boris1gary]

Seeing as this thread was started with an article from the Citizens Electoral Council, thought it's only right to add some of their other delights - this little gem is from their website and the publication - The New Citizen vol 7 no:5

Behind the GFC: Charles Darwin was a Fraud!

15th August, 2011—The hyperinflated global financial system has now entered its inevitable, terminal phase of collapse, as long forecast by the American physical economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche. Even more than the rampant financial speculation of London and Wall Street, the single greatest cause of this collapse is environmentalism. Since their emergence in the 1960s, the Greens have systematically banned the application of scientific and technological advances to the world’s physical economy, and thereby collapsed it. The Greens are fascists, who propose and have largely implemented a totalitarian, dictatorial regimentation of society just like Hitler, but even worse: the Greens intend the total collapse of modern agro-industrial society.

The acknowledged granddaddy of this Green Fascist movement is Charles Darwin, a third-rate intellect who discovered nothing whatsoever, but who was lionised by the British oligarchy to help secure their global imperial rule. If we are to initiate the otherwise feasible global economic recovery specified by LaRouche, then we must start by unmasking this fraudster.

The following is an abridged and edited version of the speech which Citizens Electoral Council National Chairman Ann Lawler delivered to the 23-24th July CEC National Conference, “Educating the Mass Strike: Cosmic Radiation Beats Green Fascism”. To our knowledge, it is the most devastating refutation of “Darwinism” ever composed. Mrs Lawler’s full presentation will appear in the October New Citizen, together with several other conference speeches.

anybody like a cup of crazy with that.

[boris1gary]

poddster, didn't you say in another thread that you have never been a member of a union in your life - if that's correct where is all this union information coming from. oh i just saw your one experience with one shop steward at one company - i see.

[boris1gary]

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@poddster wrote:

Let me relate what occurred when I was hired by a company.

H had not been there a week when I was lod by the union shop steward that this was a "closed shop" and that i had to join the union. I said that no desire to do so and I was told that unless I did would be made at odds with the rest of the workers int the "closed shop" I said I would handle that if it should arrive. After arounr 3 weeks of pressure being applied to no avail the shop steward approached the company and threatened to strike unless I joined the union. I was approached by the manager who asked me to join the union just to keep the peace. I told him that i would not join and would terminate my employment before joining a union.

it so happens that over the perion of my employment the company was more than happy with my performance and did not want me to leave.

A solution was found, I was made a member of staff. 🙂 the shop steward was miffed for years to come and about half of the other union members in the "closed shop" gave up their membership when they saw that it could be done 🙂 

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poddster, we had a word for this where I used to work, hubby has the same word now where he is working, but in the interests of polite posting..........................

[spotweldersfriend]

"Cosmic Radiation Beats Green Fascism".But of course!!!.It all makes perfect sense now.Why didn't I see that? 😄

[boris1gary]

spot, I bet you didn't know that Darwin was a 3rd rate intellect who discovered nothing either? the source does explain a lot.........

[freshwater-2]

Poddster, I am confused.

Some time ago, during a discussion on my previous career in the overseas diplomatic service, you gave me the impression that you were a career public servant....from memory in DofD..    I made the comment that I had probably come across some of the people with whom you woud be familiar.   Your response was that it wasn't wise to discuss this in a public forum. Do you remember?

So what were you doing in a 'closed shop'.  Were you temping?