Your Right to Justice, or Your Paycheck
People lose a lot of rights during the hours they are workers. As a worker, you’re subject to being searched by your employer in ways that the government can’t do to you. Your actions and what you can say are more restricted in the workplace than they are on the street.
But a recent Senate vote highlighted a practice that goes way beyond those things. It goes back to this:
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Franken said:
The constitution gives everybody the right to due process of law … And today, defense contractors are using fine print in their contracts do deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court. … The victims of rape and discrimination deserve their day in court [and] Congress plainly has the constitutional power to make that happen.
Let’s sum up: Franken’s amendment said that the government would not do business with companies that prevent employees from getting their day in court if they are raped.
The Franken amendment passed in a bipartisan vote—10 Republicans voted for it, including six Republican men. But that left 30 United States senators saying that the defense department should continue doing business with companies that deny their employees justice when they are victims of violent sexual assault. That’s a lot of power to try to give corporations over their employees.
This weekend, a rape survivor confronted Sen. David Vitter, who’d voted against the amendment. It’s worth watching.
Maybe that is why we call it “Wage-Slavery”
Incite Social Evolution
By Rosemarie Ashley, Music by Rich “Iodine” Ramsey
Verse 1:
Open up your eyes and see middle class has never been free;
working for the man all day, desperately trying to stay out of his way.
Then they start to union bust, asking us to give them our trust
‘til the time we’re so behind they close down the office and I lose my mind.
Chorus:
If you want to change the world, incite social evolution.
Find your passion. Plan your action. Then pursue what’s right for you.
If you want to change the world, incite social evolution.
Otherwise compromise is slavery
Verse 2:
Put your cash in stock they say. We have the people to make things ok.
You just have to play to win. I’ll hold the door so you can walk in.
‘till a house of cards appears, breaking down beyond our worst fears.
Subtle lies are no disguise when shameless greed is awarded the true prize.
Chorus:
If you want to change the world, incite social evolution.
Find your passion. Plan your action. Then pursue what’s right for you.
If you want to change the world, incite social evolution.
Otherwise compromise is slavery
Bridge:
Master of the land. miner of the sand, who can’t understand his role in the plan,
seeking victory using trickery. Always bickering. It’s all sickening!
Playing by the rules is for fools without their own tools to get the jewels.
If you’re greater be the equator. Control your behavior, now not later.
Musical Break
Verse 3:
Every single market falls. Unemployment is jammed with calls.
Spent another chunk of hope today – for urgent care. No insurance to help pay.
Everything is overwhelming. In the news they’re always telling
“Cut your rate and seal your fate”. Business protects the key to the one gate.
Chorus:
If you want to change the world, incite social evolution.
Find your passion. Plan your action. Then pursue what’s right for you.
If you want to change the world, incite social evolution.
Otherwise compromise is slavery.
Listen to FREE full-length previews at http://www.SassyAlternativeMusic.com/Downloads
You must sign in or register to post a comment. Registration is free.
http://newsblaze.com/story/20070828055523lill.nb/topstory.html
You must sign in or register to post a comment. Registration is free.
If anyone questions my usage of the term “crapitalist pigs,” this should clear things up for them.
You must sign in or register to post a comment. Registration is free.