Speaking of Credit Crunch Riots, a few more dots to connect.

Laid off workers occupy Chicago Factoyr, demand severance

About 250 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts Saturday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.

During the two-day peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.

Bosch employees express anger over severance packages

Bosch employees and local business owners are reacting to the corporation’s offer of voluntary severance packages for all 1,380 employees with a mixture of fear and anger.

“One week per year is an insult,” he said in reference to the stipulation that employees would be given one week’s pay for each year of service. “That’s not a golden parachute, that’s a lead parachute.”

Yahoo curbs severance in event of takeover

In a move that could make it easier to negotiate a sale, Yahoo Inc. has overhauled a severance program that could have saddled potential buyers with a huge bill after a takeover…

Yahoo is laying off 1,500 employees, or about 10 percent of its work force, as part of a cost-cutting plan, but those firings weren't covered by the severance plan created for takeovers.

Youth may riot in Europe, in the US, it'll be grown folk with grown folk problems who riot.

Laid off workers occupy Chicago Factoyr, demand severance

<quote>About 250 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts Saturday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.

Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give 60 days' notice required by law before shutting down.

During the two-day peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.
</quote>

Bosch employees express anger over severance packages

<quote>Bosch employees and local business owners are reacting to the corporation’s offer of voluntary severance packages for all 1,380 employees with a mixture of fear and anger.

One, a 49 year-old male with two children who asked that his name not be printed, expressed frustration over the amount provided by the severance package, as well as it’s timing.

“One week per year is an insult,” he said in reference to the stipulation that employees would be given one week’s pay for each year of service. “That’s not a golden parachute, that’s a lead parachute.”</quote>

<a href=”http://www.2news.tv/news/business/35970434.html

<quote>In a move that could make it easier to negotiate a sale, Yahoo Inc. has overhauled a severance program that could have saddled potential buyers with a huge bill after a takeover…

Yahoo is laying off 1,500 employees, or about 10 percent of its work force, as part of a cost-cutting plan, but those firings weren't covered by the severance plan created for takeovers.
</quote>

Youth may riot in Europe, in the US, it'll be grown folk with grown folk problems who riot.

LEAP/E2020 anticipates than the unfolding global systemic crisis will experience in March 2009 a new tipping point of similar magnitude to the September 2008 one. According to our team, at that period of the year, the general public will become aware of three major destabilizing processes at work in the global economy, i.e.:

• the length of the crisis

• the explosion of unemployment worldwide

• the risk of sudden collapse of all capital-based pension systems

A whole range of psychological factors will contribute to this tipping point: general awareness in Europe, America and Asia that the crisis has escaped from the control of every public authority, whether national or international; that it is severely affecting all regions of the world, even if some are more affected than others (see GEAB N°28); that it is directly hitting hundreds of millions of people in the “developed” world; and that it is only worsening as its consequences reveal throughout the real economy. National governments and international institutions only have three months left to prepare themselves to the next blow, one that could go along severe risks of social chaos. The countries which are not properly equipped to cope with a surge in unemployment and major risks on pensions will be seriously destabilized by this new public awareness.

The Freeway movies I linked to are Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel updates – both phenomenally entertaining and frankly slightly shocking retellings of the Grimms. What all the stories you linked yesterday had in common to me was the utter devaluation of children and the young, and, the abandonment and devaluation of institutional norms (schools) which allegedly exist to shelter and cultivate children and the young.

Oh, and lest you get hopeful about the organizing potential of the enabling technology in the hands of the young, bear in mind the extent to which its use has been studied VERY carefully for some years now, and, the way in which the parameters of what authority is empowered to do with and to the backend of the technology has progressed very rapidly under Bush/Blair and the total information awareness regime.