I find it odd and sort of revealing that this video only has 826 views. Here sits Bill Fletcher Jr and Mike Zweig discussing the left’s agenda with Bill Moyers in 2009. The entire clip is an extremely intimate view into the left’s agenda and their ignorance and/or spin on current events.
Bill Fletcher Jr is the founder of the Radical Black Congress and co-founder of Progressives for Obama along with Danny Glover
Mike Zweig is a co-founder of the SDS (according to PBS) and is active with the AFT and AFL-CIO. Also he is the Editor and Contributor to AFL-CIO funded book Religion and Economic Justice that discusses how important the churches are to the left’s social agenda. (see below for SDS emails)
This video is amazing. In their own words they prove everything that every moderate or right-winger has ever claimed.
Key Points in the video with a little of revisionist history:
at 3:05 Mike Zweig talks about organizing capital on a broader social context. Not shop by shop. The non-producers are advocating for a total control of capital
at 5:00 Bill Moyers hits the crack pipe and says that conservatives “arent afraid of confrontation” and “Why isnt labor more confrontational”? You mean like beating down Kenneth “Uncle Tom” Gladney (On video)
at 11:40 Bill Fletcher says that “[Richard] Trumka comes out of a history of militancy”
More points continued below the video—It gets better (emails from SDS, Sarah Palin, Clarence Thomas, etc)
At 8:15 Bill Fletcher Jr. says that Sarah Palin used the term “working class” more than Obama did on the campaign trail. But he is quick to clarify this; The working class that Palin talks about does not include “Latinos, African Americans, Whites and Asians”
At 15:10 Bill Fletcher echoes Mr. Zweig’s earlier statement about the broader context of capital when he outlines the areas of social justice. (i.e. health care, housing, racial disparities within health care, etc)
18:30 it gets disgusting. Mike Zweig makes the comparison of Obama to Clarence Thomas suggesting this proves his argument for class struggle. Only because it depends on “which African-American” is going to fight for corporations or “working people”
Mike Zweig’s failure in the SDS (emails)
Earlier in the interview Zweig states that labor unions were “proud anti-communists”. We can argue that for decades. However, they were supposed to be democratic and embrace liberal ideology. Either Zweig has failed or like all revolutionaries they stray from their mentors lacking faith in the movement. This is when more radical ideas are adopted.
In an email from the Lewis and Clark SDS listserv the students one year ago today they were meeting to discuss “The Coming Insurrection”. From the email:
(If above link gets removed please click image)
Mr. Zweig, you’ve failed. The Students dont believe in your cause or class warfare. They are looking to anarchism just to escape your identity politics.
Ameristroika 