A literary snob will read that headline and think “Ho ho, another blogger attempts to be an intellectual but falls short. I shall L-O-L for the moment”. What that snob fails to realize is that “OUR Walmart” charges money, and those “lending” their money to the organization will be paid back. The reward they promise to deliver is so great that those paying into the cause are in fact “shylocks” themselves. For a small amount of money they get in return something nearly priceless; the oppurtunity to begin the tearing down of almost unparalleled success. Your money buys an alliance with the CPUSA. From there the project is on cruise-control
My colleague at CRO, Mike Madden, (Twitter: here) has done a fantastic job at exposing this group. Nothing I can say here regarding OUR Walmart, unions, the attempt to destroy Walmart from within (by in effect, socializing it) can do it justice. I must in fact refer you to the post. No matter where your political philosophy falls on the scales, an intelellectually honest person should read this and have questions of their own. If you don’t, reread it. Link to the post below
End Note: I actually had a brief conversation on Twitter yesterday with someone who outright said that freedom was a bad thing and would rather have Chinese families not work in factories that make goods for Walmart. I am going to follow up with a detailed post on the difference between the families who have that opportunity and the families that do not. The contrast could not be sharper and the results…well, lets jsut say that anyone that would choose to take that chance away from the family is as cold as toes in Siberia.
Frequently, new politically active non-profit groups emerge, and after a quick once over look of the board members it is usually blatantly obvious what philosophical category the group falls into. However, one that has been somewhat innocuous is 25×25.
Their objective is to increase renewable energy to be 25% of total US energy consumption within 25 years. Imagine that. It can be achieved if we cut ourselves down to the standards of a third world nation. There are thousands of groups like this with similar goals. Anyone who follows the Climate Change debate can probably name a handful off of the top of their head. So how is 25×25 different?
Was it the fact that the original bill proposing the co2 reductions bears the signature of our current President (then Senator) or the current Secretary of State? Not at all.
The Associations
What caught my attention and raised suspicion is where I found all of the group’s files. They seemed misplaced. Not only were these files absent from their own site and its “directory”, all of the internal documents of this Green group were placed in the “Parent Directory” of the AFTFACE directory. AFTFACE is the American Federation of Teachers Faculty and College Excellence.
Everyone knows why teachers would keep tabs on such a group; the green agenda is an extremely popular aspect of curricula. But they wouldn’t need to host the groups “founding documents”. Before we get started with the unions lets just clear up who the main funders are; Center for American Progress, General Motors, and other losers like the “Union of Concerned Scientists” Now that that is out of the way lets move on!
However, it does make sense if you go back and read AFT president Randi Weingarten’s statements. Their association with green groups tells how the union could benefit; then the story starts to speak for itself.
IMPORTANT: The rest of this post contains documents taken from AFTFACE website directory; while they still had the directory available with public access. Although the directory and folders originally had public access, these documents were not directly accessible while visiting the AFTFACE site-no links existed; these were in “storage”.
Lets start with the politicians (including then Senator Obama and Senator Clinton) that signed off on the 25×25 legislation. Click image for full document.
Click for full Document
The above document is dated January 2007. Shortly after this document (hosted on the one of the AFT/Teacher’s Union Website) the AFT released their “Building Minds, Minding Buildings” report with its focus on building “green” schools with “green jobs”. Out of nowhere the Teacher’s Union was especially interested in “green jobs”. Why? I’ll show you shortly with private letters from the teachers union lobbying for green jobs in recent legislation concerning foreclosures on homeowners. Click on image below for “Building Minds, Minding Buildings” report. (Again-in storage on AFTFACE’s “parent directory”)
Click image for full document
In the Introduction, signed by Randi Weingarten, the AFT expresses its concern over making buildings conform to LEED standards. This week, a blog on Forbes took a look at LEED certified buildings and found some terrible flaws; it turns out the new regulation standards actually cost more $$$. Via a report from Fast Company citing that the buildings are actually “Energy Hogs”
Anyways back to the the “Green Jobs Act” of 2007; it seemed to be helping out more than just the tree-huggers. The “FAQ” sheet hosted on the AFTFACE website outlines who helped draft this legislation. (click image for full document)
Click image for Full Document
Money from All Over spread out All Over
After the Green Jobs Act of 2007 the AFT president Randi Weingarten started talking up the importance of going green. Even in H.R. 3221 (a housing and anti-foreclosure bill) they were touting the importance of “green jobs” even though a brief of the bill doesnt mention anything about green jobs here (govtrack) or here. But the Union letter to all house members mentions it on the bottom of page 2 under “Community Colleges”
Click image for full document
When Capitalism just wont work…Socialism is the answer
To the informed it’s not a surprise to learn that the Teacher’s Union as well as other Unions are not at all capitalists. However, this is usually an assertion that is just made from those “right-wing lunatics” (like Beck, who are right nearly 100% of the time). But it is quite different when you see them say it in their own words. The following entries/documents show the breakdown of the AFT with the AFL-CIO and other organizations, the denouncing of freedom and capitalism, and the Teacher’s Unions open invitation for staff to attend the leftists US Social Forum. Lets Roll!
#1 The invitation for AFTFACE members (same site hosting all these “green files) to attend the US Social Forum.
and then there is the video invitation…from the above screen cap…to get faculty to join with the same group that receives praise from Hugo Chavez. Make sure you take to the streets and push for totalitarian control; sell out generations of freedom for next weeks paycheck!
AFT PowerPoint
Here is the AFT’s Political Action Report. Notice the group that prides itself on helping children doent have the childrens needs listed once in this report. Its all about members and advancing union power. (Clicking both images brings you to the same file)
Click Image for full Report-AFT Political Action
Click Image for AFT Political Action Report
But Wait there’s More!
In a 2007 interview AFT president Randi Weingarten said “…schooling is important for all kids. There is universal acknowledgement of that now. It used to be just us progressives that said that!” (pg. 18 of document below). Its an interesting interview that trashes capitalism and achievement and later, quoting from page 27, “We cede some of our individual rights to have collective responsibility and representative democracy (I thought we were a representative republic). Thats not Socialism; (yes it is) thats not communism (yes it is-especially when youre bilking the public of funds for “green” projects) . thats ceding certain things to have a democratic structure. That’s like Hillary Clinton and others saying ‘It Takes a Village’ “. I believe Jonah Goldberg already discussed how fascistic this was in Liberal Fascism. Here is the interview that starts on page 18 (click image below for full document)
Click for full document
I lied-you can see the AFT files
Yes I am a dirty rotten scoundrel-the parent directory is still open at the AFTFACE site but I will not be posting the link…I want to still be able to access and review the files-I’ll publish the direct path later. But just so you know I’m not BS’ing you here is a screen shot of their backdoor. Good luck and Happy Hunting!
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.
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:
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 