{"id":4169,"date":"2011-02-26T06:29:45","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T14:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4169"},"modified":"2011-02-26T06:29:45","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T14:29:45","slug":"take-the-unions-out-at-the-knees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/26\/take-the-unions-out-at-the-knees\/","title":{"rendered":"Take the Unions Out at the Knees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">As the conflict between American workers and the Republican party spreads and continues, we now have more definitive proof that Republican claims that this is about budgetary issues are out and out lies.&#160; Americans for Prosperity is a front group for the Koch brothers.&#160; Their Executive Director for Michigan explained both their goal and the reason for it at CPAC.<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"26Koch and Friends\" border=\"0\" alt=\"26Koch and Friends\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/26Koch-and-Friends.jpg\" width=\"602\" height=\"641\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In a speech earlier this month at the Conservative Political Action Committee\u2019s annual conference, Americans For Prosperity-Michigan Executive Director Scott Hagerstrom revealed the true goal of his group and its allies like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker\u2019s (R) efforts. Speaking at CPAC\u2019s \u201cPanel for Labor Policy,\u201d Hagerstrom said that <strong>AFP really wants to do is to \u201ctake the unions out at the knees\u201d<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Watch it:<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" height=\"510\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Xmj1boce8Rc?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Taking \u201cthe unions out at the knees\u201d has long been a goal of the Koch brothers and their many front groups. In the run-up to the 2010 elections, the Kochs worked with other anti-labor billionaires, corporations and activists to <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2010\/10\/20\/beck-koch-chamber-meeting\/\" target=\"_blank\">fund conservative candidates<\/a> and groups across the country. Now after viciously opposing pro-middle class policies for years, Koch Industries is trying to eliminate the only organizations which serve as a <a href=\"http:\/\/maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com\/_news\/2011\/02\/22\/6105961-whats-the-deal-with-wisconsin-power\" target=\"_blank\">counterweight<\/a> to the well-oiled corporate machine\u2026 [<em>emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Inserted from &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2011\/02\/25\/afp-union-knees\/\">Think Progress<\/a>&gt;<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Note here that the reason Hagerstrom gave for taking unions out is \u201cso they don\u2019t have the resourses to fight these battles\u201d.&#160; How do they fight battles for workers rights?&#160; A big way is by opposing Republicans and supporting Democrats.&#160; And what resources did he mean?&#160; Two come to mind.&#160; Union money and union members volunteering for campaigns.&#160; Republicans want to establish permanent one-party Republican rule.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">It is critically important that we all stand together and support our union brothers and sisters.&#160; Republicans are especially well disciplined this way.&#160; When Theocons want to gut women\u2019s rights, Neocons, Corporocons, and Plutocons goose step behind them.&#160; When Corporocons want more welfare for companies to export American workers\u2019 jobs at taxpayer expense, the Neocons, Plutocons, and Theocons goose step behind them.&#160; This is a page we must take from their play book, because we lefties tend to concentrate on our own niche: pacifists, environmentalists, women\u2019s rights activists, LGBT rights activists, civil rights activists, labor, etc. all tend to focus on the one area.&#160; To succeed, we must adopt each others causes with equal passion!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the conflict between American workers and the Republican party spreads and continues, we now have more definitive proof that Republican claims that this is about budgetary issues are out and out lies.&#160; Americans for Prosperity is a front group for the Koch brothers.&#160; Their Executive Director for Michigan explained both their goal and the <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/26\/take-the-unions-out-at-the-knees\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}