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Communist Party USA Executive Vice Chair Jarvis Tyner joined in a conference call with Wisconsin activists last week to talk about the “struggle” against budget cutters in the state and national governments. Tyner is complimentary of President Obama and says now is the time for Obama and his allies in the labor movement to go “on the offensive” against those trying to rein in government spending and union political power. HEAR THE EXCLUSIVE AUDIO HERE. “When Obama ran in 2008 and picked up all this support, and won the presidency, it was a mighty blow against racism. You may...

Organizing for Action, President Barack Obama’s dark money group, will accept donations from labor unions, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. ... OFA’s headquarters are located in the National Education Association building. As Politico’s Kenneth P. Vogel noted on Twitter, it is unclear if “Obama 501c4 [is] paying rent to @NEAToday or accepting in-kind contrib. of union-dues-funded office space.”

I recently read the new biography of Trotsky by Oxford don Robert Service, published in 2009 by Pan Books. It is well-written and surprisingly interesting. The book does a great public service in describing the life of the actual Trotsky, whose previous “biographies” were little more than hagiographies written by his toady worshippers (people like Isaac Deutscher). The last time that I had taken any interest in Trotsky was when I was a teenager and had fleeting delusions of believing in “socialism.” Reading the new book as an adult and as an economist, I found it a useful opportunity to...

This is the second in a series on unions in America.Public Servant is defined in Webster’s dictionary as a government official or employee. When I was growing up that perception was accepted on a near-universal basis. Christopher Stevens, our deceased Libyan Ambassador, would fulfill that role in most people’s eyes. Certainly members of the military are truly public servants. But because of public employee unions, our former public servants are really at odds with the public. We have felt that our public employees were against us for a long time as they have used their unionized power to collect massive...

Watching the reaction of some union members you would have thought a mass murder had occurred in the state of Michigan. But what simply happened was a law was changed that exists in 23 others states and may soon be enacted in others. Right-to-work laws makes sense and it is as clear as the sky on a cloudless summer day. The unions are particularly outraged about the turn of events in Michigan because they had just attempted a power play of their own during the November 6th election. They tried to ensconce in the state constitution their right to...

The NLRB now allows that unions no longer are required to provide proof, through audits of their finances, to so-called “Beck objectors” that their money is not spent on union politics. In addition to saving unions from mandatory financial audits, the NLRB also decided that lobbying expenses are now “chargeable to [Beck] objectors, to the extent that they are germane to collective bargaining, contract administration, or grievance adjustment.”

If you are one of the folks who voted for Barack Obama in the last election, what did you vote for? More generally, if you voted for any liberal politician, what did you vote for? Here are three things for starters: (1) no reform of the public schools, (2) no reform of the welfare system, and (3) no reform of labor market institutions that erect barriers between new entrants and good jobs. How can I be so certain? Because the teachers unions, the welfare bureaucracy and all the other unions form the base of the Democratic Party. At least they...

It's not about jobs. It's not about safety. It's not about improving dockworkers' living standards. The looming, long-planned East and Gulf Coast port strikes are about protecting Big Labor's archaic work practices and corrupt waterfront rackets. Are you ready for a fiscal cliff? The union bosses of an estimated 14,500 workers at 15 ports are preparing to send the economy plunging back into recession over productivity and efficiency rules changes. You read that right. Much more on that in a moment. But first, here's what's at stake. The International Longshoremen's Association's (ILA) grip extends from Boston to Texas to Florida...

Michigan has now become the 24th state to give workers the right to work without having to join a union. The event provoked more than vigorous debate. State police had to be on duty to guarantee the safety and the ability of Michigan legislators to actually go vote on the measure. So what is the controversy all about? I agree with folks on the left about the real issue. It's not about right to work. It's about unions themselves. Why do we have them? Why do we need them? What public purpose do they serve? There's no mystery here. A...

In 1958, Senate Minority Leader William Knowland, his eye on the 1960 GOP nomination coveted by fellow Californian Richard Nixon, went home and declared for governor. Knowland's plan: Ride to victory on the back of Proposition 18, the initiative to make right-to-work the law in the Golden Land. Prop. 18 was rejected 2 to 1. Knowland's career was over, and the Republicans were decimated nationally for backing right-to-work. Badly burned, the party for years ran away from the issue. This history makes what happened in Michigan, cradle of the United Auto Workers, astonishing. A GOP legislature passed and Gov....

Clinton Tarver has been serving hot dogs to hungry locals in downtown Lansing, Mich., for the last five years, but a brush this week with a pro-union protest literally upended his small business in a matter of minutes. During a protest against right-to-work legislation in Michigan's capital, Tarver’s catering supplies were destroyed when demonstrators tore down the tent where he was serving and trampled his gear. Related News: Labor Unions: A History of Murder and Sabotage Learning From History (Labor Unions) - The Kohler Strike of 1954 Are Unions Completely Overrun by Radicals?

This article analyzes the history of labor union violence, and how Rep. Capuano's comments are a perfect continuation of this historical truth. Labor Unions: A History of Murder and Sabotage The New American 28 February 2011 The raging union-led protests in Wisconsin have resulted in many Americans taking a closer, more critical look at labor unions and their political clout and influence in shaping policy. With the ubiquitous announcement from AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka that he is granted an audience at the White House “nearly every day,” the American people have become more skeptical of unions and the role...

Organized Labor: The assault on a Fox News contributor protecting women and seniors in a tent is but the latest example of the civil discourse and respect for democracy the president's union supporters really have. Imagine the outrage and the mainstream media feeding frenzy had it been a Tea Party member punching an MSNBC contributor covering a protest over ObamaCare. Or if Tea Party members had descended on a tent full of Occupy Wall Street supporters, flattening and tearing it apart with total disregard for the people inside. Yet that is precisely what happened to conservative comedian and Fox News...

Yes, this is the same elegant creature who screeched about "taking out" Tea Party "son-of-a-bitches" [sic] at a presidential event last year.  In case you'd forgotten, both the White House and the DNC conspicuously declined to repudiate his vituperation at the time.  Now Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. has taken his anger mismanagement show to CNN, seething about an incipient "civil war" in Michigan:   Jimmy Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said Tuesday he expects Michigan unions and lawmakers to break out into "civil war" after the state legislature passed right-to-work bills that would weaken unions' power. "This is just...

Yesterday we brought you news of union members in Michigan becoming violent against conservatives. First, there was the tearing down of a large Americans for Prosperity tent while women and elderly people were inside and then conservative activist Steven Crowder was punched in the face four times and threatened with murder. Now, straight out the Saul Alinsky playbook, the Left, the Teamsters Union and MSNBC's Ed Schultz are accusing AFP of tearing down their own tent down and are accusing Crowder of provoking union workers to attack him. The Teamsters have gone so far as saying the protest in Michigan...

Not so many moons ago, President Obama urged us all to "make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds." He Who Heals advocated "a more civil and honest public discourse" in the wake of the January 2011 Tucson massacre. As usual, though, the White House has granted Big Labor bullies a permanent waiver from the lofty edicts it issues to everyone else. This week, menacing union goons unleashed threats, profanity and punches in Michigan, which is now poised to become a "right-to-work" state. Obama met the initial outbreak of...

The behavior of large unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), indicate the power of the radicals and Marxists in the unions. Are Unions Completely Overrun by Radicals? The New American 09 June 2010 On yesterday’s episode of the O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly asked, “Is corruption seeping into America’s big unions?” Fox News analyst Charles Krauthammer claimed, “The labor movement has always had its radicals and Marxists, but in America we’ve never had them take over the unions and become the dominating force.” However, in consideration of the behavior of large unions like the Service Employees International Union...

The president says right-to-work laws mean "the right to work for less money." So how does he explain the fact that incomes are up in RTW states while forced unionism is a proven job killer? Campaigning Monday in Michigan as it stood poised to become the nation's 24th right-to-work state, President Obama spoke the exact opposite of the truth to union workers at a Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in the birthplace of organized labor. "What we shouldn't be doing," he told the small crowd, "is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages. We don't want a...

Mother Jones calls her “Professor Occupy.” She was the brains behind the violent 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. Now, Lisa Fithian – a self-described anarchist – has brought her tactics to Michigan, where the unions are prepping for a massive demonstration Tuesday as the legislature gives final passage to Right to Work legislation. EAGnews exposed Fithian when she popped up in Chicago last year to organize the Chicago Teachers Union during the height of the silly but dangerous Occupy protests. SEE THE VIDEO HERE. But strangely, the Associated Press didn’t mention Fithian’s track record in a story it...

Message for wealth-bashing millionaire actor Ed Asner: Man up and take responsibility for lying to America's schoolchildren. Confronted by a producer for Fox News Channel's "The Sean Hannity Show" this week, the left-wing celebrity claimed he couldn't remember "a thing (he) said" on a vile propaganda video produced and published by the California Federation of Teachers. Asner narrated the unforgettable eight-minute anti-capitalist screed geared toward children. Think Occupy Wall Street meets Sesame Street. "Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don't want to pay taxes anymore," Asner warbles in a folksy grandpa voice....