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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=hkelber@earthlink.net href="mailto:hkelber@earthlink.net">Harry Kelber</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=unionyes@ameritech.net
href="mailto:unionyes@ameritech.net">david johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, April 12, 2010 8:39 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> FW: Trumka's Demons</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=Verdana><BR>------ Forwarded Message<BR><B>From:
</B>Harry Kelber <<A
href="mailto:hkelber@earthlink.net">hkelber@earthlink.net</A>><BR><B>Date:
</B>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:27:04 -0400<BR><B>To: </B>Harry Kelber <<A
href="mailto:hkelber@earthlink.net">hkelber@earthlink.net</A>><BR><B>Subject:
</B>Trumka's Demons<BR><BR>
<H3><I><U><BR></U></I></H3><I><U><FONT
size=4><B>LaborTalk</B></FONT></U></I><FONT size=4><B> (55)
April
13, 2010<BR></B></FONT>
<H2>Trumka Warns Harvard Audience of Plots<BR>To Poison Workers’
Anger with Hatred<BR></H2>
<H5>By Harry Kelber<BR></H5><BR>AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told an
audience at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government that “there are
forces in our country that are working hard to convert justifiable anger
about an economy that seems to work for only a few of us into racist and
homophobic hate and violence.” <BR><BR>He did not identify “the forces of hate;”
or the extent of their influence or objectives, except to refer to hateful
words against President Obama and the highly-respected Congressman John
Lewis. <BR><BR>Trumka mentioned the many ways that working people have been
short-changed in an economy that favors the rich and powerful, emphasizing the
loss of 11 million jobs. “Mass unemployment and growing inequality
threaten our democracy,” he said. “We need to act—and act boldly—to strike at
the roots of working people’s anger and shut down the forces of hatred and
racism.”<BR><BR>Trumka set forth an extraordinary challenge to his
audience of intellectuals: “If you care about defending our country against the
apostles of hate, you need to be part of the fight to rebuild a sustainable,
high-wage economy built on good jobs—the kind of economy that can only
exist when working men and women have a real voice on the job,” he said.
And in blunt language, he added: “Political intellectuals face a great
choice—whether to be servants or critics of economic privilege.” <BR><BR>Trumka
’s record on fighting the forces of hate is spotty, at best. When Dr. George
Tiller, a prominent Kansas abortion doctor, was murdered--shot in the back
while in church--by an openly racist, anti-abortion zealot, .Scott Roeder, it
was one of the most heinous hate crimes in decades. Yet there \was no comment
from Trumka, not a word. Nor was it discussed, or even mentioned, on the
AFL-CIO web site.
.
<BR><BR></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT face=Helvetica><B><I>Why Is There Growing
Anger Against AFL-CIO’s Leaders</I></B></FONT></FONT><FONT
face=Helvetica><B><I>?<BR></I></B></FONT><FONT face=Verdana><BR>The core of
Trumka’s speech is similar to what he has been saying around the country.
“Working people want an American economy that creates good jobs,
where wealth is fairly shared, and where the economic life of our nation is
about solving big problems like the threat of climate change rather than
creating big problems, like the foreclosure crisis,” he said<BR><BR>But the
unemployed, especially the millions who have been out of work for more than six
months, are getting tired of his speeches and the lack of effective action to
improve their lives. Many resent that Trumka’s annual salary, at the last
count, was $238,975, plus substantial perks.<BR><BR>It is therefore not
surprising that many union members will target their anger to their
leaders—because of their perceived failures, and not because of succumbing to
the forces of hate and violence.<BR><BR>Considering the injustices inflicted on
working people, there has been far less violence in the United States than in
most countries around the world. Of course, we have always in our history
had our share of political and racist demagogues, but today, they
are under close government scrutiny. Under our democracy, they are entitled to
free speech, but there is no evidence that the “forces of hate” have made much
headway within the labor movement.<BR></FONT>
<P align=center><FONT face=Verdana>* * * *
*, </FONT>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>What is truly surprising is that throughout his speech,
Trumka had nothing to say about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not a mention.
Not a word, even though he must know that the two wars are on the minds of
millions of working families, whose loved ones are fighting on foreign
soil.<BR><BR> Trumka talks about creating 11 million jobs, but he has never
put forward a plan on how to chieve it or pay for it. . Nor has he considered
that the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the two wars is something
for the labor movement to worry about.<BR><BR>Let’s be clear: If Congress
and the White House agree to create millions of public works jobs, the
government will be subject to an enormous boost in the federal deficit in the
short term. That’s how it was in the 1930s, when the New Deal put people first.
<BR><BR>Giving unemployed workers a job and a regular pay
check they can spend on household necessities and authorized taxes is a
sounder and humane investment in the future of America than abandoning our
jobless workers to a life of misery and poverty.--Harry Kelber
<BR><BR> <B>LaborTalk (56) will be posted here on Friday, April 16, and on
our two web sites: (www.laboreducator.org
<http://www.laboreducator.org/> ) and
(www.laborsvoiceforchange.org).
<BR></B><BR><BR>------
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