America 2008 = Argentine 2003

Workers occupy factory after the factory’s bank refuses credit to pay them:

[…]about 250 workers have occupied their employer’s factory after the company shut its doors without any notice. They intend to stay there until severance and vacation pay due them is guaranteed.

The company is Republic Windows and Doors, and a spokesman for the company told the AP that the precipitous closure was necessary because its creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, won’t let them pay their employees, which is rather interesting because BofA recently received $25 billion from the feds as part of that massive bailout Bernanke, Paulson, and Bush convinced Reid and Pelosi was necessary or the sky would fall and the American Way of Life would end.

For an eye witness view of the occupation, there are of course Youtube videos:

As the title says, it reminds me of what happened in Argentine at the start of the decade, when their economy collapsed. That country had opened up and “liberated” their economy, atteacting investors looking for low risk, high profit investments. When the economic miracle turned out to be not so miracleous after all, they were gone in a flash leaving a broken country behind. Like the workers at Republic Windows and Doors the people of Argentine took their fate in their own hands and occupied and re-opened hundreds if not thousands of empty factories, shops and other workplaces. I wonder if Naomi Klein ever thought the scenes she reported on five years ago would be replicated in her own country?