Economic Terrorists

Didn't they toss Lerner out on his ear last year - I doubt if he speaks for anyone but himself - he is a bit kooky -

It is a misnomer to label this as 'the left' it really should be labeled 'Lerner's', and Cal - he isn't leading anything these days.
 
Didn't they toss Lerner out on his ear last year - I doubt if he speaks for anyone but himself - he is a bit kooky -

What was the reaction of his audience?

What he is talking about is borderline treasonous (intentionally undermining social institutions and, essentially, manufacturing a revolution) and no one seems to take issue with it. In fact, they seem to be adding to what he says and generally supportive of the overall agenda of manipulation and revolution.

It is a misnomer to label this as 'the left' it really should be labeled 'Lerner's', and Cal - he isn't leading anything these days.

It is rather consistent with, among other things, the Cloward/Piven strategy typically employed by radical leftists (they even mention Cloward & Piven at the end of the audio).

Ignoring patterns like that makes it seem reasonable to accept easy "answers". Unfortunately, those "easy answers" in the political arena are almost always short-sighted, simplistic and tend to miss the premises, fundamental principles and true agendas involved.
 
I knew foxpaws would find the time to respond this evening.....

Didn't they toss Lerner out on his ear last year - I doubt if he speaks for anyone but himself - he is a bit kooky -
Did they? The information available is conflicted, but he certainly held a leadership position until recently. I think he was at least shifted to a different position or organization last November.

According to his bio on the Huffington Post:
Architect of the groundbreaking Justice for Janitors campaign, Stephen Lerner has spent more than three decades successfully uniting hundreds of thousands of janitors, farm workers, garment workers, and other low-wage workers into unions and lifting entire communities out of poverty.

Lerner currently directs SEIU’s banking and finance campaign, mobilizing SEIU members and other community groups across the country into action to break the decades-long stranglehold Wall Street and big banks have had on our economy and democracy. Through this campaign SEIU is also partnering with unions and groups in Europe, South America, and elsewhere to build a campaign to hold financial institutions accountable in a global economy.

In his previous role as director of the union’s private equity project, Lerner launched a multi-year campaign to expose the overleveraged, unregulated and unsustainable feeding frenzy of private equity firms during the boom years and the economic disaster that would follow once the bubble burst.

Lerner is a frequent contributor on national television and radio programs and has published numerous articles charting a path for a 21st century labor movement focused on growth and meeting the challenges of a global economy.​

So, foxpaws, did he only become kooky a few months ago, until then, he was a highly respected leader on the left and union leader and anti-capitalism organizer.
 
Uncovered: Did the Leftist Encouraging Economic Terrorism Have Access to Obama’s White House?
March 23, 2011
Meredith Jessup

As we brought you earlier Tuesday, newly surfaced audio has captured disturbing evidence of radical leftists plotting to deliberately wage war on American capitalism in order to redistribute the nation’s wealth. Leading the group of leftist organizers is (reportedly former) SEIU director of financial reform efforts and international executive board member.

“It seems to me that we’re in a moment where we need to figure out in a much more, through direct action, much more concrete way how we really are trying to disrupt and create uncertainty for capital, for how corporations operate,” Lerner said during the progressive conference last weekend in New York.

So what kind of influence does Lerner have in progressive circles? As it turns out, quite a lot.

Not only does Lerner maintain the clout of being a former SEIU executive, but his influential position seems to have gained him access to the Obama White House on more than one occasion. According to White House visitor logs, “Stephen Lerner” has visited the White House four times over the past two years.

Two of these visits were for public gatherings: a large group’s private White House tour and a White House Hanukkah celebration. But at least two other visits were scheduled for private meetings with high-level executive offices.

On May 22, 2010, Lerner met with a presidential personnel officer who manages economic agencies. While the minimal information in the WH visitor log offers no real information on what this meeting was about, it’s distressing to know a) anyone in the White House would meet with the kind of man who could openly call for the deliberate dismantling of the American economy, and that b) that White House official works to recruit personnel for the federal government’s economic agencies.

Perhaps more telling, the Stephen Lerner listed in the White House logs had an October 16, 2010 appointment scheduled by Tara Corrigan, executive assistant to then-WH political director Patrick Gaspard. Like Lerner, Gaspard spent much of his career working as a lobbyist and executive vice president for SEIU‘s Local 1199 in New York one of the union’s most powerful and notoriously militant chapters. You may recall that Gaspard announced his departure from the White House earlier this year in order to focus on the upcoming 2012 campaign. He now serves as executive director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) under chairman Tim Kaine.

We have asked the White House to confirm that the reported “Stephen Lerner” is indeed the veteran SEIU organizer, however we still have received no response.
lerner3.jpg

In addition to securing White House access, Lerner’s reputation precedes him in the progressive movement as well. The union organizer has a long history of leading labor strikes and demonstrations.

During the 1970s, Lerner worked with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union to orchestrate a year-long strike in South Carolina. In the 1980s, Lerner worked with Justice for Janitors through the SEIU’s building service division. His work in organizing the bottom-up protest model based on geographical area propelled Lerner to progressive stardom, receiving praise for his innovative style and success as the labor movement struggled to increase membership.

Lerner’s Justice for Janitors campaign has been particularly praised for its use of disruptive demonstration tactics to deliver its message. The campaign also demanded so-called “master contracts” which would apply contract benefits to all unionized janitors across the market rather than localized, disjointed union organizations.

As a former organizer of the United Farm Workers (UFW), Lerner applied UFW tactics to the SEIU’s JfJ campaign, including street theater, hunger strikes, vigils, public blockades, sit-ins, clergy-labor alliances and community organizing. (Sound familiar?)

YouTube - Justice for Janitors actions (1990 through 2006)

Lerner — who was recruited to the SEIU at the same time as former president Andy Stern — has also expanded the unions’ views to a global scale. In spearheading the JfJ campaign, Lerner focused on a bigger strategy than grassroots rank-and-file protests. “There was literally a worldwide plan to win,” he wrote in 2005.

“From Denmark, where the key cleaning contractor was based; to pension funds in New York that owned buildings; to immigrant, community and religious groups that united in support for the campaign—there was a comprehensive plan and large-scale resources to support the struggle. The Los Angeles campaign demonstrated that undocumented workers would take incredible risks to lift their families and communities out of poverty if there was a plan that gave them the confidence that they could beat a multinational corporation with hundreds of thousands of workers around the globe.”

Don’t like the new globalized focus of your union? Too bad. When local SEIU officials refused to participate in Justice for Janitor campaigns, their union supervisors would simply remove them from office, and replace them with trustees to run the locals and later run the trustees for the presidency.

It’s this global strategy that Lerner most recently worked to expand in other areas of the SEIU and the labor movement as a whole — to much success. “It is clear that what unions are doing isn‘t working for union members or the tens of millions of workers who aren’t in unions. The labor movement’s structure, culture, and priorities stand in the way of workers winning,” he said.

As noted above, reorienting the country‘s religious groups to union support is among Lerner’s top priorities. “The months and years ahead are our chance, our moment to be part of making history,” Lerner said on the eve of President Obama’s 2008 election victory to a progressive Jewish group.

Lerner is “exerting an outsized influence, working at the front end of some of the most innovative, and occasionally divisive, union campaigns of today,” Foward the Jewish Daily noted at the time.

“When you are there, you physically experience the number of Jews in Washington who are in the labor movement — but also the larger passion for social justice that is driving that,” Lerner said.

Lerner’s wife, Marilyn Sneiderman, has also been a longtime union organizer, including nearly a decade of work as the AFL-CIO’s director of field mobilization. Similar to her husband, she worked to launch a national initiative designed to unite unions and religious, civil/immigrant rights group to campaign for social and economic justice. Last summer, she took a position as executive director of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, a group dedicated to social justice.

Protesters descend on the home of Bank of America executive Greg Baer (Photo: Nina Easton)

Sneiderman and Lerner now host an annual Yom Kippur Break Fast event “to make the link for people who work in the labor movement and are Jewish, so that they see that it’s not by accident that they are doing this work — and that is tied to their roots and values,” she has said.

Their annual guest lists include movers and shakers like Andy Stern and Paul Booth, a top official at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Anna Burger, chair of the Change To Win coalition of unions, is a regular, and John Sweeney, president of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, has also attended.

“It seemed like every other person there was a senior leader in the labor movement,” said Jacob Feinspan, the young Jews United for Justice leader, who attended the 2008 event.

Lerner‘s fingerprints are all over today’s labor movement, including protesters’ confrontational tactics. You may recall when busloads of SEIU demonstrators descended on a Bank of America executive’s own front yard last year.

When the executive’s neighbor, Fortune‘s Nina Easton, asked Lerner about the controversial intimidation tactic, he accused of her of being too “emotional” and insisted it‘s the union’s role to confront “people in powerful corporations” about the “damage they are doing.”

A year later, protesters in Madison, Wisc., practiced their own street theater and sit-ins at the state capitol building. On Monday, we brought you the story of SEIU protesters who stormed a Pennsylvania bank to protest the CEO. In each instance, SEIU organizers are taking marching orders directly from Lerner’s protester playbook.

We have officially crossed into a new era of politics — the politics of intimidation — and it looks like we have Stephen Lerner to thank for it.

http://www.popmodal.com/video/5409/...tortionists-at-the-home-of-BofAs-Gregory-Baer
 
Other than noisy surly demonstrators what has he accomplished recently that we should fear.
 
Oppoa

I heard that this Lerner a sshole has just started a new campaign. It's to be called 'Pork for Pickpockets' and will require that all adults provide pockets constructed such that it'll be easier to get wallets out of them.

The poor pickpockets are having to work too hard as things are now.

Any citizen not making his pocket properly available to the pickpocket will be guilty of a felony under federal law.

Pickpockets are organizing and have agreed to pay dues of 75 percent of all the money they get out of wallets in grateful submission to OPPOA (Organized PickPockets Of America.)

KS
 
Other than noisy surly demonstrators what has he accomplished recently that we should fear.

Why do you keep focusing on "fear?"
Why don't you instead try to focus on understanding, motivation, and association. After that, then consider anticipation and preparation.

You ask what "He" has accomplished recently. My last post provide a good snapshot of his resume for you to review. But why are you making mistake of thinking he's just an isolated individual with a bullhorn?

Let's walk through this-
Have you actually listened to the complete audio or transcript? Because that's important, the excerpts aren't sufficient.

But let's start off with what would happen if he were able to accomplish his organizations stated goal?

Is it impossible to believe that he might have the ability to accomplish such a thing noting the organizational power of the organizations that he's aligning himself with. Mind you, he's not having this conversation over beers, it was a closed session (no cameras) that took place last weekend at a Pace University forum.

But, even if you don't think this particular scheme will take place, what is his goal and who shares it?
And by what means are they willing to go to achieve it?
 
Why do you keep focusing on "fear?"
Why don't you instead try to focus on understanding, motivation, and association. After that, then consider anticipation and preparation.

You ask what "He" has accomplished recently. My last post provide a good snapshot of his resume for you to review. But why are you making mistake of thinking he's just an isolated individual with a bullhorn?

Fear is an element of the art of war.
I understand his motivations and associations.
Americans play Poker and not Chess.
Anticipation and preparation are not strong suits with impatient Americans.
He doesn't appear to be a total slimeball and seems to genuinely care about the people he purports to represent.
He hasn't become some rich union fat cat with his work.
I reviewed the resume you provided and he hasn't accomplished anything substantative since 2006.
I don't see how he can accomplish a big revolution since the little guy with limited talents has things stacked against him in this country so I don't see where the banks have much to fear.
Fear is an indication that one considers an adversary formidable and worthy of respect for their abilities.
You'll know he's getting somewhere when the Banks start to try and buy off his causes by making consessions and offering a little silver but not any gold.
He may get people foreclosed on or upside down on their mortgages some relief but that is hardly what I would call a revolution.
You have a way of respecting the empty threats of weaklings as if they were made by powerful forces.
This is an emotional reaction not based on facts.
Shag said whether an enemy can accomplish a threat does not play into his calculation of the gravity of the threat when I pointed out that Islam is toothless and has no way to accomplish subjugation and world domination.
Suicide bombings are the desperate act of weakness presented as some kind of strength.
I thought Shag's comment was a pretty telling silly nonsensical statement to make since to me it seems more neurotic than sensible.
And he's the one touting critical thought.
Therefore I take your and his statements(of opinion) and alarm with a grain of salt.
 
Fear is an element of the art of war.
I understand his motivations and associations.
I don't think you understand what the fight is over.

Americans play Poker and not Chess.
Anticipation and preparation are not strong suits with impatient Americans.
He doesn't appear to be a total slimeball and seems to genuinely care about the people he purports to represent.
I'll ask again, What is his motivation, what is he seeking to achieve.
And do you think that he's acting alone? Do you think that his goals are shared by others in the leadership of SEIU, the other increasingly international unions, or even people in the government?

I don't see how he can accomplish a big revolution since the little guy with limited talents has things stacked against him in this country so I don't see where the banks have much to fear.
Now you're focusing just on his May Day preperations.
Had this audio not been exposed, why don't you think he could mobilizes the other various leftist organizations and union members through class warfare rhetoric to take part?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...heirs_thats_a_national_resource_its_ours.html

You'll know he's getting somewhere when the Banks start to try and buy off his causes by making consessions and offering a little silver but not any gold.
Again, I would argue that you do not understand that philosophical or ideological motivation behind this man, and more importantly, those he's of like mind with. You just stated that you don't think he's a slimeball because he hasn't gotten rich as a fatcat union leader. I don't know his personal finances. But you then reframe his agenda to be about getting the banks pay what would amount to extortion fees to get him to back off.

That's inconsistent.
Either he's a fatcat union leader shaking down private industry for his own financial gain OR, I would argue, that he's an ideologically driven political activist USING the power and organization of the union to advance a political agenda.

And I would also point out that his agenda is reflected throughout the leadership of the unions, despite the interests of the members that give them power.


He may get people foreclosed on or upside down on their mortgages some relief but that is hardly what I would call a revolution.
That's not the goal... Did you even listen to the audio?
You're so quick to respond but you refuse to take any time to learn or even just observe. Your bias is wrong. You're attributing motivation that is incorrect and inappropriate to this man and those who share his world view.

Shag said whether an enemy can accomplish a threat does not play into his calculation of the gravity of the threat when I pointed out that Islam is toothless and has no way to accomplish subjugation and world domination.
Suicide bombings are the desperate act of weakness presented as some kind of strength.
I thought Shag's comment was a pretty telling silly nonsensical statement to make since to me it seems more neurotic than sensible.
And he's the one touting critical thought.
Therefore I take your and his statements(of opinion) and alarm with a grain of salt.

I don't want to Goodwin the thread, and this is quite far off the topic, but let's go back to World War II.
Was the threat posed by Nazi Germany any less serious or significant because they would not ultimately be able to dominate the entire world?

In the 1930s, would you have dismissed the threat posed by the German's disregarding their treaties, building up their military, because you were confident that that U.S. had greater natural resources, a large population, and more manufacturing capability...and besides, they'd never be able to launch a mainland invasion of the U.S across the Atlantic?


Back on topic-
keep in mind, you were NEVER supposed to hear that audio. That was a closed door session amongst like-minded people at the "LEFT FORUM 2011" at Pace University. Those people who would have been bused in and motivated to take place would have been inspired by rhetoric from people like Michael Moore (as shown in the previous link), stimulated by class warfare and other rhetoric, maybe some "hope and change" talk, but probably not the reality of what happens if the banking industry crashes again or the capitalist system is pushed over the brink. That certainly wouldn't be in the best interest of the rank and file union member, HOWEVER, it IS something that he's aspiring to- as he speaks of in the audio.


Here's more information regarding the Left Forum 2011 at Pace University:
http://pressroom.blogs.pace.edu/2011/03/18/news-release-left-forum-convenes-at-pace-nyc-march-18-20/

http://www.leftforum.org/
 
Take a look at the schedule from that Left Forum 2011:
http://www.leftforum.org/2011/full-schedule

http://www.leftforum.org/content/michael-moore-letter

A Word From Michael Moore

Dear Fellow Travelers in the Post-Bush Era,

I write you at a time of unparalleled national trauma. The banks have been rewarded for bringing on the Great Recession (a Depression here in Michigan)...
Full Info:

When the real statistics of unemployment are revealed, almost a third of our nation is out of work, no longer looking for work or employed in part time jobs they cannot survive on. The new administration should have ended the eviction of millions of people from their homes and it should have stopped the barbarous reality that more and more are not earning enough to get by with dignity. We have no reason to celebrate Washington’s generosity to the greedy. As to making this country what we the people want it to be, our democracy’s representatives do not want to move beyond pro-capitalist compromises and misdirected military, environmental, and economic policies.

That is why this year’s Left Forum at Pace University (across from Mr. Bloomberg’s City Hall office) –- is so important. The theme of the event "The Center Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination" could not be better chosen. The Right and Wall Street have plenty of funds at their disposal and are pushing a "populist" line that exploits the growing anti-capitalist sentiment by misdirecting anger to reactionary ends. The administration has no critique of capitalism to speak of.

As the largest yearly gathering of the broad array of progressives, radicals and other concerned citizens, Left Forum is one of those vital places that offers alternatives to this dangerous political-intellectual vacuum. It brings together thousands of activists, intellectuals, trouble makers and questioners of the Crap We Are Told.

But a funny thing happened on the way to this year's Forum -- everyone thought with the election of Barack Obama our work was done, we could go home, and we wouldn't have to contribute our hard-earned bucks to things like Left Forum anymore.

And then the President went to West Point and surrendered to the Generals. Was that enough of a jolt for you? Do you think our work is over? No, my friends, it has just begun.
...........
Michael Moore

And remember- Lerner says that this needs to be done under the guise that it isn't associated with him or the labor unions.
 
I don't think you understand what the fight is over.


I'll ask again, What is his motivation, what is he seeking to achieve.
And do you think that he's acting alone? Do you think that his goals are shared by others in the leadership of SEIU, the other increasingly international unions, or even people in the government?


Now you're focusing just on his May Day preperations.
Had this audio not been exposed, why don't you think he could mobilizes the other various leftist organizations and union members through class warfare rhetoric to take part?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...heirs_thats_a_national_resource_its_ours.html


Again, I would argue that you do not understand that philosophical or ideological motivation behind this man, and more importantly, those he's of like mind with. You just stated that you don't think he's a slimeball because he hasn't gotten rich as a fatcat union leader. I don't know his personal finances. But you then reframe his agenda to be about getting the banks pay what would amount to extortion fees to get him to back off.

That's inconsistent.
Either he's a fatcat union leader shaking down private industry for his own financial gain OR, I would argue, that he's an ideologically driven political activist USING the power and organization of the union to advance a political agenda.

And I would also point out that his agenda is reflected throughout the leadership of the unions, despite the interests of the members that give them power.



That's not the goal... Did you even listen to the audio?
You're so quick to respond but you refuse to take any time to learn or even just observe. You're bias is wrong. You're attributing motivation that is incorrect and inappropriate to this man and those who share his world view.



I don't want to Goodwin the thread, and this is quite far off the topic, but let's go back to World War II.
Was the threat posed by Nazi Germany any less serious or significant because they would not ultimately be able to dominate the entire world?

In the 1930s, would you have dismissed the threat posed by the German's disregarding their treaties, building up their military, because you were confident that that U.S. had greater natural resources, a large population, and more manufacturing capability...and besides, they'd never be able to launch a mainland invasion of the U.S across the Atlantic?


Back on topic-
keep in mind, you were NEVER supposed to hear that audio. That was a closed door session amongst like-minded people at the "LEFT FORUM 2011" at Pace University. Those people who would have been bused in and motivated to take place would have been inspired by rhetoric from people like Michael Moore (as shown in the previous link), stimulated by class warfare and other rhetoric, maybe some "hope and change" talk, but probably not the reality of what happens if the banking industry crashes again or the capitalist system is pushed over the brink. That certainly wouldn't be in the best interest of the rank and file union member, HOWEVER, it IS something that he's aspiring to- as he speaks of in the audio.

The tide is not on the union's side.
The debts states have accumulated are just too big.
Teacher early retirements are way up on the fear that early retirement will be taken away.
By giving poor people free mortgages that inflated the housing market and then allowing the banks to bundle these turds into investment securities what has been accomplished is that the middle class has been hurt due to the market crash that happened as a result.
Leftists like him have already helped cause the 2008 market crash and that has pushed forth the determination of governments to reign in their spending because the revenues are just not there anymore.
Not exactly a victory for the proletariat.
An unintended consequence is the leftists have screwed themselves, hurt the middle class, forced a downsizing of state government and ensured that the banks won't be giving poor people easy money ever again.

You can't compare Germany to Muslim countries.
Germany is a powerhouse of engineering and very well could have won the war without the combined efforts of the allies.
Putting a man on the moon was the work of Vernor Von Braun.
Muslims can hardly run the oil installations we built for them without our expatriots and it's been over 50 years now.
 
The tide is not on the union's side.
Who is representing or leading the unions?
What is it that THEY are pursuing?

You can't compare Germany to Muslim countries.
You continue to perpetuate a false concept that all Muslims are backwards and uneducated. You fail to recognize that they aren't all tent dwelling camel herders but Western or University educated professionals. They live in Europe, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States.
 
Who is representing or leading the unions?
What is it that THEY are pursuing?


You continue to perpetuate a false concept that all Muslims are backwards and uneducated. You fail to recognize that they aren't all tent dwelling camel herders but Western or University educated professionals. They live in Europe, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States.

The unions are pursuing what they feel is social justice.

I didn't say the Muslims are all backwards and uneducated though a lot are as are some of our citizens, only that they haven't accomplished anything to make me believe their radicals empty threats.

You always engage in hyperbole when your argument gets weak.

If they can't even run the oil installations we built for them without our help 50+ years later, what does that say about their capabilities.
Muslims have only won 5 or 6 Nobel Prizes for 1.4 billion people vs 150 prizes for 14 million Jews.
What does that tell you?
These people are still largely tribal as Libya shows.
 
And remember- Lerner says that this needs to be done under the guise that it isn't associated with him or the labor unions.

Good luck with keeping that under wraps.
 
I knew foxpaws would find the time to respond this evening.....


Did they? The information available is conflicted, but he certainly held a leadership position until recently. I think he was at least shifted to a different position or organization last November.


So, foxpaws, did he only become kooky a few months ago, until then, he was a highly respected leader on the left and union leader and anti-capitalism organizer.

Everything I have seen indicates he was booted out in November -

And shag - I don't think undermining Wall Street is an act of treason - ;)
 
But you then reframe his agenda to be about getting the banks pay what would amount to extortion fees to get him to back off.

That's inconsistent.
Either he's a fatcat union leader shaking down private industry for his own financial gain OR, I would argue, that he's an ideologically driven political activist USING the power and organization of the union to advance a political agenda.

It's not inconsistent.
He's ideologically driven and not shaking down the banks in what would amount to extortion.
If underwater mortgage holders still paying withheld their payments all at once then the banks would offer them consessions.
People don't all act at once even in unions where that is the basis of power and are also contradictory and don't always act in their own interest.
Smart leaders know how to play contradictions to their advantage.
I contend it would be idealistic but unrealistic to be able to organize these people to strike the banks just like Atlas Shrugged where the businessmen went on strike was idealistic but unrealistic.
John Galt and Reardon Metal in real life turned out to be Koch Industries.
 
And shag - I don't think undermining Wall Street is an act of treason - ;)

Yes, engaging in economic terrorism, intentionally destroying wealth to force political change, inflicting hardship to force political change on society and subverting the very Rule Of Law (in this case, contract law) is hardly treasonous. :rolleyes:

Treason: Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
 
So, the insiders of Wall Street that almost brought it to its knees (and would have without government intervention) should be tried for treason - got it shag...
 
So, the insiders of Wall Street that almost brought it to its knees (and would have without government intervention) should be tried for treason - got it shag...

So, instead of actually confronting the fact that radical leftists are promoting treasonous economic terrorism, you are going to distract with a simplistic false equivalence that serves as a "justification" for the economic terrorism they are promoting. Got it.

You have anything to say about the fact that this would intentionally destroy the wealth/savings/retirements of countless individuals in the middle class and cause untold economic hardship on society overall?

What about the fact that these Piven-inspired actions are intended to essentially bring about a quazi-proletariat revolution, which would cause much more suffering?

The fact of the matter is that the radical left is looking to bring about their faux "Utopia" by squeezing the middle class, creating a panicked angst in them that the left can then use as a catalyst to "punish" the wealthy. It is amazing how much freedom has been given up, and tyrannies have been created by the many being led to "punish" the few.

So, in the United States, it isn’t that labor hasn’t recognized that they’re in big trouble as they lose members and lose density. They do. They know that. And, there has been shifts in leadership…but not dramatic. And what those new leaders have tried to do is they’ve tried to revive, to put more energy into old strategies and old repertoire…

Our model could be the Manifesto. But the Manifesto…the Communist Manifesto was really too general for the purposes that we have … that we need to put the strategic work to today. We want to face off against neo-liberal propaganda…

-Francis Fox Piven
YouTube - Frances Fox Piven: The weakness of labor unions and new forms of solidarity
 
http://chieforganizer.org/2011/03/25/stephen-lerner-the-banks-and-the-right-wing-scare-machine/

From Wade Rathke's blog:

LWithout talking to Stephen there are some simple facts that get in the way of this fantasy, no matter how pleasing it is to contemplate:

* Lerner has not been “fired” by SEIU as they report. He was placed on paid leave last fall to think through his contribution to the union, but was certainly present at the recent international executive board meeting. He’s in a curious position no doubt, but it’s something like being an “injured reserve” in the NFL and waiting for the team to find a place to bring him back on the roster.
* Lerner has written a number of well circulated papers over the last year expanding on his analysis of the impact of the recession and the need to frame larger campaigns around accountability of banks and the financial system for working Americans. He is an avowed advocate of developing campaigns to finally bring them to account, but who among us hasn’t written something close to the same, isn’t engaged in such pursuit, and doesn’t believe this is necessary? I’ve been on TV panels with Tea Party folks, and when we get to the subject of the banks, we all sound like we are part of the hallelujah chorus and have prayed at the same church forever. That should really share you, Glenn Beck!
* Finally, the Wall Street Journal has already reported from unnamed sources on the SEIU IEB that the union is embarking on a major 15+ city organizing campaign with expansive plans to mobilize labor and community members on economic issues from banks to local corporations. They are following their own, different drum and clearly have their hands tied up in what may be a $100,000,000 organizing campaign mobilizing the entire union to win “climate change” in favor of unionizations again.​

The right wingers need to leave Lerner alone rather than erecting yet another statute in their wax gallery of threats to America. Knowing Stephen, he’s having a hearty laugh at all of this. Especially since the more the Becks and Breitbarts embrace the banks, the more they are inadvertently building a huge, peace and unity bridge that will unite all of us against the ways that Wall Street, tax evading corporations (see GE in today’s papers), and the banks have ripped us off royalty from stem to stern and coast to coast.
 
This is an interesting thread because it ultimately foreshadows the "Occupy Wallstreet" movement as well as the continued decline of Egypt. Had it not been for the "similar thread" link at the bottom of these pages, I'd likely have forgotten about it.
 

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