Read All About ALEC - Or Why Unions need to Fight Back
/April 22, 2012
ALEC - the conservative not-for-profit group that has come under scrutiny lately for funneling millions of dollars of corporate cash into intense, methodically planned lobbying campaigns to push pro-business (anti-union and anti-worker) agendas through "friendly" state legislators seems to have lost some interesting internal paperwork.
Check out this important and fascinating report from the NY Times that received over 500 pages of emails and documents from ALEC. These indicate the close association between many hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from many major national corporations -including AT&T, WalMart and many others, and the design, coordination and passage of some of the most pro-business, anti-union and worker laws - as was seen in Wisconsin after the election of Scott Walker.
Everybody from labor, worker or progressive groups needs to read this carefully in order to understand:
1) The level of coordination and outreach that corporations now have to not only spread their message, but get them passed into anti-worker laws.
2) Give credit where it is due - these pro-business, anti-worker ALEC types come out of marketing and promotion and data-mining at the highest levels. The Left needs to keep the pressure on both ALEC - which unbelievably is currently tax-exempt! And we as progressives need to really understand the amount of spade work it really takes to turn around some of the most vicious legislation that has been passed in over fifty years.
We beat back the Kasich crap in Ohio - we can beat these schlemiels too (look it up!!). We just have to pay attention, spend some of our campaign money more wisely - for the long term effect and never, ever, ever let our guard down against these putzes.
This Is the American Spring!