>This makes one wonder why? Why is that people who are mercilessly
>exploited by two-bit capitalists do not use legally available to them means
>to protect their interest? Who or what stops them?
It isn't an easy question, as someone who has been involved in this sort of organising nearly all his life I have thought about it a bit myself.
Of course the simple answer is that the poor are rarely inclined to organise their lives on the premise of remaining poor. Not in rich countries anyhow. In poor countries perhaps it is a natural assumption that you will remain poor, like everyone else.
The reason the unemployed don't organise into unemployed workers unions (like the one I was involved in for a long time) I figured, is that they don't particularly want to remain unemployed. To invest a lot of time and effort into such an organisation would be an admission of defeat.
As for forming co-operative cleaning businesses and the like (workers co-operatives) I suppose its a combination of things that mitigate against it. There can be little expectation of getting rich through a business vehicle that involves sharing profits. So I suppose those who have the best abilities to run a successful business, are inclined towards the capitalist business model. Where if they succeed then they can at least escape the working class. By exploiting others.
Housing co-operatives are somewhat different, they require capital. The little housing co-op that I'm a member of, only has 5 houses and most of its capital comes from government funding. Took a long time to get even to this modest stage and funding for co-ops is even harder to get now, despite the fact that tenant self-management is far and away the most cost-efficient way of delivering low income housing.
Interested in your answers though, I've never been entirely satisfied with mine.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas