The Truth Behind The Propaganda

The following was posted on the CDUI list-serve. We need to continue this discussion of the "progressive labor" issues........................Scott



Know the Real Facts

Anti-Union Campaign


Know the Real Facts,

TO: IFPTE Executive Council, Local Presidents, and
Staff
FROM: Gregory J. Junemann, President
DATE: February 14, 2006
SUBJ: New Anti-union Campaign - UnionFacts.com

On February 13, in full page ads in the Washington
Post and the New York Times, a new anti-union front group launched an
aggressive assault on unions that includes a new website filled with
distortions and misleading 'facts'. We understand that it will soon involve
additional advertising.

The campaign is clearly bankrolled by business
interests threatened by workers' efforts to roll back corporate power. An
anonymous source told us the campaign was championed at a Chamber of
Commerce meeting last month as a $2 million per quarter effort - $8 million
a year.

Unionfacts.com is a project of The Center for Union
Facts, which is run by Richard Berman of Berman and Company. The company
specializes in discrediting organizations that are a threat to certain
business interests. Berman has attacked Mothers Against Drunk Driving
on behalf of the alcohol industry and represented the tobacco lobby
against the Centers for Disease Control. In the early 1990s, Berman was
tied by House Ethics Committee reports to Newt Gingrich's PAC, GOPAC. In
the 1970s, Berman was labor law director of the Chamber of Commerce.

Get the real facts on Richard Berman and
Unionfacts.com; read the attached document - Get the Facts on Unionfacts.com.




Get the Facts on Unionfacts.com
For more information call the AFL-CIO at 202-637-5018


a.. Unionfacts.com is a project of the Chamber of
Commerce, according to an anonymous source which claims that, in a meeting of
the State Chambers of Commerce National Conference held on Sanibel
Island in Florida on January 26, the State Chambers announced they were
spending $8 million a year ($2 million a quarter) to launch this
anti-union campaign.


a.. It's clear that corporations are pooling resources to
fight back against workers' efforts to roll back corporate power. It's
no accident that the Chamber and its members are launching a major
initiative as the AFL-CIO and its unions are launching Fair Share health
care in 30 states, helping record numbers of workers win unions outside
the flawed NLRB process (like at Cingular), and taking on giant
corporations, like WalMart.


a.. Unionfacts.com is a project of The Center for Union
Facts which is run by Richard Berman of Berman and Company. Here are
examples of the types of campaigns they run:
a.. Attacking MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) on
behalf of the alcohol industry. (consumerdeception.com)
b.. Representing the tobacco lobby against the CDC
(Centers for Disease Control.) (consumerdeception.com)
c.. Berman has been accused of falsely attributing to
the EPA a minimization of the risk of ALAR, a pesticide used on apples
that is especially harmful to children and which has since been banned,
when, in fact, the information he used was from the company he
represented that made ALAR. (Sourcewatch.org)


a.. In the early 1990s, Berman made a $93,000 donation to
Kennesaw State College for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's
class on the condition that Gingrich teach ideas supported by the
right-wing Employment Policies Institute. House Ethics Committee reports
revealed that Berman's contribution was solicited by GOPAC, Gingrich's
PAC. (Sourcewatch.org)


a.. Other organizations reportedly attacked by Berman
and his organizations include: Action on Smoking and Health; American
Medical Association; Center for Food Safety; EarthSave International;
Environmental Working Group; Friends of the Earth; Harvard School of
Public Health; National Association of High School Principals; and the
Surgeon General. (consumerdeception.com)


a.. Berman has a long history with the Chamber of
Commerce; in the 1970s, he was their labor law director.




§ Berman's "Guest Choice Network" (according to the
Center for Media and Democracy):

o Described Mothers Against Drunk Driving as a group
of "professional fund-raisers" who try to "scare us away from even
responsible drinking."

o Characterized former New York Mayor Rudy
Giuliani's proposal to confiscate the vehicles of people convicted for drunk
driving as a "car-theft ring."

o Criticized the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) for its warnings about salmonella-related food
poisoning "For nearly three decades, [CDC] has been whipping up fear over food
while remaining virtually unchallenged by the press or the scientific
community. By generating more heat than light, [CDC] helps create fear .
. . over . . . food products."

"[There is a] lack of evidence that second-hand smoke
causes cancer."
-Rick Berman
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/oped_detail.cfm?oped=123





The Washington Post did an expose on Berman and his
organization:



The Escalating Obesity Wars

Nonprofit's Tactics, Funding Sources Spark Controversy

By Caroline E. Mayer and Amy Joyce

Washington Post
Wednesday, April 27, 2005


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/
AR2005042601259.html

________________________________________________________________
This is a response to the above posting.........................Scott
________________________________________________________________

I spent a couple of hours reading on the UnionFacts.com web site. It would be useful to know which of these so-called 'facts' are in actual fact true, or which are not true. Unfortunately, Brother Hougland does not address any of these 'facts' directly, other than to state that they are "distortions and misleading". He then goes on to 'attack the messenger', by exposing UnionFacts as an anti-union project of Corporate Interests. I personally never had any doubt or confusion that UnionFacts is an anti-union PR attack by the Corporate Party, (and I am expecting that this is merely the first salvo in what will become an overwhelming barrage of anti-union propaganda), but it's good to get Brother Hougland's run down on the individual groups and people involved.

What is interesting to note here, for what it tells us of our overall situation, is that the 'facts' presented on the UnionFacts site largely support the Progressive Labor position. [I am calling that faction within Labor that believes that unions have become corrupt and anti-democratic self-serving bureaucracies that no longer serve the best interests of their members or of working people, 'Progressive Labor', since it does not yet have any other name that I am aware of]. Much of the information supplied on UnionFacts supports the Progressive Labor 'case' very strongly. Much similar information has been presented on many Progressive Labor sites. (I remember one called 'Pigs at the Trough', a project of MFD (UFCW dissident progressives) if I recall, which was a rundown of many of these same excesses in greed and power by the Fat Cat union bureaucracy, (or fat Pigs, as they call them).

I have been corresponding with people in SOS, the dissident and militant faction of the UAW. The sense that one gets from reading their commentaries over a period of time is that they (SOS) are fighting their own union (UAW) as much as they are fighting the company (Delphi). This is the same Basic Theme that people like Mike Griffin, David Johnson, and other 'progressive' CDUI members, as well as the MFD people (who were actually sued by their own union, UFCW), and/or the LAC group, or TDU, or AUD, (and/or any of the literally DOZENS of other Progressive Labor groups), have strongly projected. (Is this not the Basic Message that (thus far) defines Progressive Labor?) Anyone who wanted to write a 'position paper' making a case against anti-democratic unions and the way they often sabotage the best interests of their members, could use the UnionFacts site as a rich research source. If any of the information provided on UnionFacts is not true, that needs to be exposed. But what is true is true, whether we find it 'comfortable' or not.

There appears to me to be a great deal of confusion among trade unionists, resulting from functioning within a scenario that has (at least) three major players, which are Big Money, Big Labor, and Progressive Labor. (OK, I admit, I'm flattering the latter here). Of these three 'major players', Progressive Labor, which has not actually even yet consolidated itself into a credible 'faction', is by far the weakest. Big Labor, which is in the process of un-consolidating, (or perhaps re-consolidating), has much more power than Progressive Labor (derived from the $6 Billion dollars in dues it collects from workers' paychecks each year). Big Money, which is in firm control of the apparatus of government, including the courts and regulatory agencies, (like the NLRB), as well as in complete control of the Means of Communication (it OWNS the media), is currently holding most of the high cards. Big Money runs the government (it controls both major political parties), the courts, and it controls the flow of information to the masses, (to the general citizenry). Big Labor has its $6 Billion, (which comprises a considerable degree of functional power), and Progressive Labor actually does not really yet even exist as a functional entity.

But the ONE trump card that Progressive Labor is holding is that Truth lies somewhere in our camp. The other 'players', though they do hold great power, are motivated by greed, by power itself, and by other degrees of naked self-interest. Progressive Labor, on the other hand, is motivated by a Cause, (which is the 'best interests' of working people, of the Common Citizens of the Nation). Though we have fallen into a weak position, we must remember that high concepts which are usually associated with Truth itself, (like Justice, Equality, Freedom, Democracy, etc), are our motivating ethos. WE are the 'good guys' (or at least we're trying to figure out how to be the good guys). If we could project our identity, and our powerful message, into the Public Forum, it would very likely find strong support among the Common Citizenry. 'Speak Truth to Power' is becoming a sort of a cliché, but Truth does command its own Power. People respond to Truth when they hear It. (they just seldom ever do, any more).

The triangular array of forces in the current Management/Labor struggles makes for very odd de facto 'alliances'. In the SOS situation, they feel that Delphi and UAW are in a de facto 'alliance' against them, and they feel that it is SOS that represents the interests of the rank-and-file. This is the often repeated general theme of Progressive Labor. This seems to be (thus far) Progressive Labor' defining message. Our unions (Big Labor) are functioning in collusion with the companies (Big Money), in order to preserve their anti-democratic fiefdoms of cash, corruption, and power.

Yet here, in regarding the UnionFacts site, we can see a de facto 'collusion of interests' between Big Money and Progressive Labor, since both are 'preaching' the evils of Big Labor. I think that any progressive unionist would find the UnionFacts site VERY interesting, and very informative of the Progressive Labor point of view. (Don't forget to 'remember the source'. It's always a struggle to separate fact from propaganda).

I don't know Brother Hougland, or where he might invest his loyalties in this triangular struggle involving Big Money, Big Labor, and Progressive Labor. (Doesn't the 'CDU' in CDUI stand for Carpenters for Democratic Union?) One thing that we must realize is that any confusion we have in telling the 'good guys' from the 'bad guys' will be capitalized by Big Money, and then by Big Labor, (in that order), and it will be used with great effectiveness against us (Progressive Labor). It seems to me that the lack of a clearly defined, and clearly stated perspective on the part of Progressive Labor, which has not yet consolidated to the point where it is 'capable' of defining or projecting a cohesive and consistent message in the Public Forum, is rendering us 'confused', and we really do not know how to 'process' new data, like this UnionFacts site. Are the 'facts' on UnionFacts 'true'? THAT should be our (Progressive Labor's) primary concern. Many of these 'facts' strongly support Progressive Labor's point of view.

If we, Progressive Labor, had a cohesive identity, and were capable of communicating in the Public Forum, we could leverage the 'powers that be' (Big Labor and Big Money) to our own best advantage. That is what both Big Money and Big Labor are doing to us (and each other). The Truth is the Truth, no matter whether it is spoken or presented by friend or foe. Progressive Labor's greatest power lies in our knowledge that Truth lies somewhere in our camp. WE are, (or at least we think we are, and we are certainly trying to be), the Good Guys. We are for Justice, Equality, Democracy, and Freedom. We are for the Workers, the Common Citizens. The other guys are for themSELVES. We have an inherently powerful message that could be very successful in leveraging our power by appealing directly to the actual, real, god-awful Truth. A properly projected Basic Message from Progressive Labor, based on the Truth, would play these two other 'powers' against each other. But Brother Hougland rather seems to be taking up the defense of one of them.

"If the shoe fits.........", and all that. It is (thus far) our position relative to Big Labor that defines us (Progressive Labor). We have to sort through any confusions we have. Is Brother Hougland supporting Big Labor then? His comments strike a 'dissonant' tone. They do not seem consistent with the general ethos of 'progressive labor', (without caps, as it should truly be written). The UnionFacts site, for example, has some powerful statements exposing the anti-democratic nature of many unions. These same statements could appear on any Progressive Labor list-serve or blog and be applauded.

What 'facts' on UnionFacts.com are "distortions and misleading", as Brother Hougland calls them?

Zwarich