Labor

When Teachers Unions Back War Escalations

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Special to the International Labor Communications Association

On July 12th I received an Email from the American Federation of Teachers with a soft pink headline and an image of a heart. It said: “Pink Hearts. Not Pink Slips.” That sounded nice. The text continued:

“Now is the time to tell the Senate to put our children first. The House of Representatives approved an emergency spending bill that included $10 billion to save educator jobs and $5 billion for Pell Grants. It read more

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We Need ACORN

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By David Swanson

Much of this country believes that ACORN, the now defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, supported prostitution, engaged in voter fraud, and caused the subprime lending crisis. Some people are aware that these lies have been more solidly disproven than Saddam Hussein’s friendship with Al Qaeda. The Government Accountability Office has now joined a former Massachusetts attorney general, a federal court ruling, and the Congressional Research Service read more

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Dear Fiscal Conservative War Supporter

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By David Swanson

Is it that you don’t know what war costs, or that you don’t know that it makes us less safe?

We’ve spent $268 billion on making war on Afghanistan, and using Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz’ analysis of Iraq we need to multiply that by four or five to get a realistic cost including debt, veterans care, energy prices, and lost opportunities. Public investment in most other industries or in tax cuts produces more jobs than investment in military. In fact, read more

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Happy May Mission Accomplished Downing Street Minutes Impeachment Is Off the Table Day

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May Day (tomorrow) sums up our history. No longer is it May Day (Year 124) (although it is in Richmond VA, and they beat back the requirement that they hire mercenary guards in order to hold events). This is Mission Accomplished Day Year 7 and Downing Street Minutes Day Year 5 and Impeachment Is Off the Table Day Year 4. How’s that letting Bush and Cheney’s crimes become standard practice working out for you? Yeah, me too.

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Massey and Goldman Under Criminal Investigation Despite Requirement to Look Backwards, What About the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?

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By David Swanson

War makers, torturers, warrantless spyers, and all sorts of other categories of criminals are still off the hook.  But there is a bit of "looking backward" going on.  Two out of the three people whom we at StopTheChamber.com have asked for criminal investigations of are now under investigation.  We’re wondering about the third, the big one, the one that ties the other two and so much more together.

On April 12th, we asked read more

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Prisoners Shoveling Snow in Snowpocalypse

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By David Swanson

Walking through Charlottesville, Va., today I saw a sight that is increasingly common in the United States: men in prison uniforms, watched by guards, out working in public, in this case shoveling snow. I asked them if they were being paid for their work, and they just laughed.

A short while later I ran into a city official who was clearly familiar with the prisoner snow-shoveling program. He told me it was nothing new, part of “work release,” gave the prisoners a read more

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What Trumka SHOULD Threaten

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Every election cycle, the labor movement alone dumps enough money into the corporate media through the campaigns and PACs that it could have instead created a new television network that would actually report the news all year long through every future election cycle.  Rather than threatening to possibly not succeed in persuading working people to vote for corporate candidates, Trumka should threaten to defund the corporate media election bonanza and give us real news.

read more

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War and Military Spending Means Fewer Jobs, Perriello Claims Opposite

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By David Swanson

The evidence is clear that there is nothing Congress can do to produce fewer jobs than borrowing money and spending it on wars and the military. Even cutting taxes produces more jobs. Investing in nonviolent industries, in education, in energy, in transportation, in infrastructure produces more jobs and does more for the economy.

But my representative, Tom Perriello, said in an Email today:

I supported the Defense Appropriations Bill, which also included three of my requests for read more

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They Should Get a Union

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By David Swanson

“If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union. It’s that simple. We need to stand up to the business lobby and pass the Employee Free Choice Act. That’s why I’ve been fighting for it in the Senate and that’s why I’ll make it the law of the land when I’m president of the United States.” –Barack Obama

Nobody is making it the law of the land. Nobody is fighting for it. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has read more

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U.S. Chamber Of Commerce To Sue Itself For Fraud And Self-Parody?

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Washington, DC: On Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a letter (http://tr.im/CQCf) to an internet provider threatening legal action if it did not shut down the Yes Men parody website, (http://tr.im/CQCu) because the website falsely portrays the Chamber’s position on global warming. However, in its letter, the Chamber falsely inflated its membership by 1,000 percent read more

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