Re: AFT Backs Israel's war, raises dues

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

I dont get the logic. If labor is cheap other places, capital will 
leave the US. If workers get paid the same everywhere in the world, 
theres no reason to export jobs and workers here will do better. What 
am I missing?
Susan

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>
> Date: Fri Jul 21, 2006  7:02:13 PM US/Pacific
> To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
> Subject: [ca-resisters] AFT Backs Israel's war, raises dues
> Reply-To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
>
> My friends on staff at AFT tell me that the AFT passed a motion 
> supporting what AFT calls Israel's response to Hezbollah aggression, 
> etc. That appears to put AFT right in line with the US State 
> Department, and George Bush (and much of the Democratic party too).
>
> The vote, according to my friends, appears to be much closer than the 
> NEA  3 to 1 decision at their RA to not discuss the Middle East wars 
> at all. It is hard to tell from a phone call, but the impression I 
> have is that the AFT vote was quite close, maybe even deliberately 
> miscounted by the leadership---which is usually unnecessary in AFT 
> since dissension is hardly tolerated in the union.
>
> AFT has long had well-known connections to the U.S. State Department, 
> and the CIA (through AFT leadership in the National Endowment for 
> Democracy, the American Institute for Free Labor Development, etc) and 
> AFT bosses have long played a key role in the ongoing relationship of 
> the entire AFL-CIO with the CIA. Even today, the AFL-CIO spends about 
> 50% of its dues income outside the United States, usually seeking to 
> destroy indigenous trade union and people's movements in other 
> nations. Most recently, the AFL-CIO-NED was instrumental in the effort 
> to overthrow the elected government of Venezuela.
>
> Do not take my word for this stuff, nor my own research. Look for work 
> by Kim Scipes, Paul Buhle, Jack Scott, and many others. It is not a 
> conspiracy theory, but a recognition of the confluence of interests 
> between US union bosses, the US government, and US business. The 
> AFL-CIO unions believe, and have always believed, that workers in the 
> US will do better if workers elsewhere do worse, following closely to 
> the same line that they adopted in the US, that is, white workers will 
> do better if black workers do worse.
>
> While this racism and nationalism may be true (that is, it works) for 
> the union leaders, who are relatively well paid, it is against the 
> interest of the mass of rank and file workers in the unions, including 
> school workers, who have much more in common with, for example, an 
> Iraqi or Israeli or Lebanese teacher, than they do with George Bush or 
> Ted Kennedy: millionaires.
>
> The union leaders betray the people they claim to represent, us, 
> serving as Quislings in our ranks, in exchange for the opportunity to 
> try to behave like bosses, to win income and opportunities that are 
> denied to the rank and file. They systematically, deliberately, 
> disorganize and mislead us, offering our potential militancy as a 
> bargaining chip for their own benefit. They live off the fruits of US 
> imperialism which is necessarily born from US warmaking---and they 
> know it. That is why they support the many endless wars that 
> capitalism has to offer---and it has nothing but war to offer.
>
> The AFT-AFL-CIO--CIA links are pretty commonly known and accepted.
>
> What is not so well known is the NEA's role in all of this. NEA is 
> involved through the National Democratic Institute for International 
> Affairs,  a branch of the National Endowment for Democracy. NEA signed 
> on to that in 1984.
>
> AFT also voted to raise member dues about 14 dollars per month.
>
> Justice demands new kinds of organizations.
>
> best r