A May Day rally in Los Angeles, co-sponsored by the SEIU and various communist groups, as well as other unions, reflected yet another step in the normalization of self-identified communist and socialist ideologies in the Obama era. Not only did the SEIU help to organize the rally in conjunction with communists, they marched side-by-side with communists, while union members carried communist flags, communists carried union signs, and altogether there was no real way to tell the two apart.
Southern California citizen journalist and photographer “Ringo” was on hand to record the day’s events, and posted a full-length photo essay on his site Ringo’s Pictures. To bring this important photo essay to a wider audience, I present here a small selection of Ringo’s May Day pictures; visit his site to see dozens more photos from the rally.
When I tell people that public political rallies are more and more being led by communists and socialists, most folks simply don’t believe me. Aw, come on, you’re just giving decent protesters an extreme label, they say. No, actually, I’m not: The communists freely and proudly declare their affiliation.
And the SEIU has no problem marching arm-in-arm with them.
“Smash Capitalism” is a slogan the SEIU apparently endorses — or at least doesn’t mind marching behind.
In case you think the SEIU is some peripheral out-of-the-mainstream organization:
The individual who has visited the Obama White House the most: SEIU President Andy Stern, who has visited 53 times.
Obama is closely linked with the SEIU.
The SEIU is closely linked with communists.
You do the math.
Did I say communists? Sorry, I meant Communists (with a capital “C”).
Note how the Communists that day (like the women on the right in this photo) carried solid red flags symbolizing their ideology. Keep that in mind as you view the next photo…
One of the SEIU leaders picked up a Communist flag and led a contingent of rank-and-file SEIU members. Everyone was OK with that.
The way you can identify the SEIU members in all these pictures: They’re the ones in purple t-shirts carrying blue-and-yellow signs.
So, as you can see, the communists and the union members intermingled as the march progressed.
In case you were wondering what the SEIU was saying during all of this, here’s a video of the SEIU chanting “Legalization or REVOLUTION!” Clear enough?
And it wasn’t just the SEIU at the march — other “normal” unions like the AFL-CIO were on hand as well.
There were plenty of teachers’ unions attending too, and they brought along many of their public school students for some good old-fashioned communist indoctrination, as this video shows.
Most of the idiots in the US who walk around with Che buttons or Che shirts do so simply because they foolishly think he’s “cool.” These hardcore communists carry his image not because he’s “cool,” but because he was one of the most radical revolutionaries who ever lived. Right up there with Lenin, apparently.
In order to have a more “civil dialogue” with their political opponents, the marchers made a puppet of a demonic Statue of Liberty aligned with the “Tea Bag Party.”
OK, I guess Hitler comparisons are off the table for now — too many people have called it taboo. So what’s second best? The Devil!
Tell me the honest truth: If the Tea Party had marched in a rally behind a banner held up by fascists or neo-Nazis, don’t you think it would have been national news? But the nation’s biggest Obama-supporting political organization marched behind banners like these, and not a peep about it in the media. Hmmmm….
Until recently, the average American has regarded fascists and communists as equally noxious and equally malignant. As well they should have. But the drive these days by the left side of the spectrum is to make communism and socialism somewhat less remarkable and more palatable. For two years they angrily denied the Tea Party accusation that Obama’s policies and supporters had a socialist bent. But in recent months, as the accusation had started to gain traction, the new leftist tactic has become: “What’s so bad about socialism after all? You’re demonizing a very popular and respectable ideology!”
“Imposin’ crime”??? That’s an interesting spin I’d never seen before: “Hey America, it’s your fault we’re criminals!”
The never-ending quest to become king-of-the-hill in the victimology sweepstakes. The higher your victimhood status, the more politically successful you will be!
In case you aren’t quite aware of just how close our current president is to the SEIU, here’s Barack Obama speaking at an SEIU rally on January 15, 2008:
Barack Obama: “Everybody: There’s not a presidential candidate, a gubernatorial candidate, a congressional candidate, who won’t tell ya, that they’re pro-union, when they’re looking for their endorsements. They’ll all say, ‘Oh we love SEIU.’ But the question you gotta ask yourself is, do they have it in their gut, do they have a track record of standing alongside you on picket lines? Do they have a track record of going after the companies that aren’t letting you organize? Do they have a track record of voting the right way? But also helping you organize to build more and more power?
And some of you know I come from an organizing background, so — I’ve been working with the SEIU before I was elected to anything. When I was a community organizer, SEIU Local 880 and myself we organized people, to make sure that healthcare workers had basic rights; we organized voter registration drives, that’s how we built political power on the South Side of Chicago….and now the time has come for us to do it all across this country, and then we’ll paint the nation purple, with SEIU!
I would not be a United States Senator had it not been for the support of your brothers and sisters in Illinois. Those folks, they supported me early, they supported me often. I’ve got my purple windbreaker from my campaign in 2004.
And so, we’ve just got, what, four more days? Four more days of knocking on some doors. Four more days of working the precinct. Four more days of making sure all your co-workers are caucusing.
SEIU, I am glad you are with me, let’s together change the country! SEIU! SEIU! SEIU! SEIU! SEIU!”
There's some kind of collision we're headed towards that's inescapable. The government workers vs private workers, producers vs takers, capitalists vs communist or some combination of the prior or even other groups. Ultimately i'm not sure who the contestants will be but I can definitely say that when it comes, those people pictured above are going to be on the other side of a two way range from me.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
There's some kind of collision we're headed towards that's inescapable. The government workers vs private workers, producers vs takers, capitalists vs communist or some combination of the prior or even other groups. Ultimately i'm not sure who the contestants will be but I can definitely say that when it comes, those people pictured above are going to be on the other side of a two way range from me.
Unfortunately, I think you are right. People like that are the complete polar opposite of folks like you, me, Phil, and others. Right now the differences are big and only seem to be growing larger. Not going to be pretty...
I'm actually OK with this. It's good to conclusively identify, without any doubt, who is not on your side. No assumtions, no suspicions, no reading between the lines. BAM! Opposition identified.
There's some kind of collision we're headed towards that's inescapable. The government workers vs private workers, producers vs takers, capitalists vs communist or some combination of the prior or even other groups. Ultimately i'm not sure who the contestants will be but I can definitely say that when it comes, those people pictured above are going to be on the other side of a two way range from me.
In the past decade, unions have become increasingly desperate to obtain new dues-paying members. An example of how desperate can be found in a 70-plus-page intimidation manual from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which only recently came to light in a pending court case.
The new union tactic is to use pressure on corporate boardrooms as a means of organizing entire companies nationwide rather than recruiting workers on a site-by-site basis; in short, to organize employers rather than employees. To create this pressure, unions attempt to push businesses to the edge of bankruptcy, with little regard for the welfare of employer and employee. They attempt to strong-arm businesses into agreeing to take away the secret ballot for employees in union-organizing elections via card check. They also try to force employers to restrict their own speech on union issues so that workers will not get both sides of the story on unionization. Among the SEIU’s demands is that employers agree to bargain only with it, to the exclusion of all other unions, regardless of what workers want.
SEIU is in federal court defending itself against charges of racketeering and extortion filed by one of its unionizing targets, the catering company Sodexo Inc.Sodexo's court discovery recently revealed an SEIU “Contract Campaign Manual” on “Pressuring the Employer.” Union pressure is nothing new, but what SEIU recommends is not limited to organizing drives and strikes. Rather, the pressure takes the form of a so-called corporate campaign, whereby the union allies itself with outside third parties to raise intimidation to a new level.
SEIU’s manual details how “outside pressure can involve jeopardizing relationships between the employer and lenders, investors, stockholders, customers, clients, patients, tenants, politicians, or others on whom the employer depends for funds.” The union advises using legal and regulatory pressure to “threaten the employer with costly action by government agencies or the courts.”
It details the use of community groups to “damage an employer’s public image and ties with community leaders and organizations.” SEIU recommends going after company officials personally. Not mincing words, SEIU states, “It may be a violation of blackmail and extortion laws to threaten management officials with release of ‘dirt’ about them if they don’t settle a contract. But there is no law against union members who are angry at their employer deciding to uncover and publicize factual information about individual managers.”
The “dirt” includes charges such as “racism, sexism, exploitation of immigrants or proposals that would take money out of the community for the benefits of distant stockholders.” SEIU recommends “[l]eafleting outside meetings where [targeted managers] are speaking, their homes, or events sponsored by community organizations they are tied to are some ways to make sure their friends, neighbors, and associates are aware of the controversy.”
Putting this into practice, in May SEIU drove 14 busloads of protesters to the quiet suburban home of Bank of America’s deputy general counsel, Greg Baer. Fortune magazine’s Washington bureau chief, Nina Easton, Mr. Baer’s neighbor, reported on the “hordes of invaders” shouting into bullhorns and waving signs. Ms. Easton wrote that “a more apt description of this assemblage would be ‘mob.’ Intimidation was the whole point of this exercise.”
Only Mr. Baer’s teenage son was home. Terrified, he locked himself in the bathroom, pleading with Ms. Easton, “When are they going to leave?”
In some areas, the manual blatantly advises breaking the law, stating, “Union members sometimes must act in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King and Mohatma [sic] Gandhi and disobey laws which are used to enforce injustice against working people.”
How do SEIU and other unions plan to get away with this? With help from the Obama administration. Though their corporate campaigns are not new, they are becoming more prevalent with the help of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In fact, this was the subject of a May 26 hearing by the House Education and the Workforce subcommittee on health, employment, labor and pensions. Chairman Phil Roe, Tennessee Republican, noting the acceleration of corporate campaigns, said that the NLRB recently has taken “steps to expand the arsenal of tactics available for a corporate campaign,” including moving to uphold union elections tainted by intimidation because the board said the intimidation was originated by “nonparties,” and removing restrictions on boycotts of neutral employers.
Organized labor is losing members at a rapid rate. In the private sector, union membership stands at less than 7 percent. In attempting to hang onto its money and power, Big Labor has produced some documents that make for interesting reading and, as we may find out at a July 22 hearing in the Sodexo case, for legal fireworks as well.
This is a developing story as police are still investigating the shooting of a non-union business owner, John King, by what appears to be a union assailant.
August 16, 2011
With around 25 employees, John King owns one of the largest non-union electrical contracting businesses in the Toledo, Ohio area. As a non-union contractor, his business happens to be doing well at a time when unions in the construction industry are suffering. This, it seems, has made the usual animosity unions have for him even greater, making him a prime target of union thugs. So much so, that one of them tried to kill him last week at his home.
John King didn’t plan on being an enemy of unions. In fact, he says all he’s ever wanted to do is work at something he loves doing and be successful at it—something that most normal Americans would call ‘The American Dream.’
After high school and some college, Mr. King briefly worked for an IBEW contractor before being drafted into the military. Following his service in the early 70s, King became his own boss by going into business as the youngest electrical contractor in Toledo.
Over the years, King Electrical Services had always been a small business. However, during the Great Recession, King’s business has actually improved as his union competitors have priced themselves out of work.
Unfortunately, being a non-union electrical company, King has always been on the radar of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). In fact, in 2006, he won a significant case against the IBEW at the US Court of Appeals, after the union had improperly promised his electricians jobs on union sites if they voted the union into King’s company.
Since he’s been in business, in addition to the legal battles and verbal abuse, King’s company has been vandalized and threatened on numerous occasions.
“Back then, it was nothing to have to regularly buy a new set of tires.” King said during a telephone interview on Tuesday. “The ice pick was the weapon of choice.”
Until Wednesday, the worst of the union attacks on King and his business came in the mid-eighties during the UAW strike at AP Parts. During a lull during the lengthy strike, King’s business was picketed by more than 50 IBEW picketers. This was at a time when he only had eight or nine employees. One of his employees, whose car was trashed by the union picketers, was also beaten up by IBEW thugs.
Unfortunately, the vandalism has never stopped. This year alone, he’s had to report three incidents of damage to police. This doesn’t include the incidents of stalking he and his men have to go through while they’re working.
In one incident earlier this year, rocks were thrown through the front windows of his shop, one of which had the word “kill” written on it.
Last Wednesday, however, the attacks on Mr. King became much more serious when he was awakened late in the evening at his home in Monroe County, Michigan and saw that the motion lights in his driveway had come on. When he looked out his front window, he saw a figure near his SUV and went outside.
As soon as he got outside his front door, King yelled at the individual who was crouched down by King’s vehicle. As soon as King yelled, the suspect stood and, without hesitation, fired a shot at Mr. King.
Luckily for King, as he yelled, he also stumbled. If it weren’t for that, however, John King’s injuries might have been much, much worse. In fact, he might have been killed.
Upon scrambling back into his house, King got to his cell phone and called 911. However, due to the pain in his knees and shoulder from falling, King was unaware that he had been shot in the arm.
At first, King thought that his assailant was merely trying to break into his vehicle. Little did he know, however, that the perpetrator was targeting him–because of his non-union company.
The night of the shooting, police recovered a shell casing from a small caliber handgun. In addition to the shell casing, police also found a Swiss Army knife that police say was likely going to be used to slice the tires on King’s SUV.
While neither the police, nor Mr. King can say which union was behind the attack, it is very clear by the word ‘scab’ scrawled on his SUV that it the attack was union-related.
“The police have been very thorough,” King says. “I cannot praise the Monroe County Sheriff’s department enough.”
The Monroe County Sheriff’s office is encouraging anyone with information to call 734-240-7530.
In addition, Mr. King is offering a $10,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
I suppose there was a time for unions in that they initially were organized for the benefit of the working class. However those days have long since passed. In today's world there are still sweat shops and child labor camps. Of course the simple answer, if you are not pleased with your employer just quit and find another job.
I don't know if it is human nature, but it seems that when organizations get past a certain size the greed factor kicks in and the entity takes on a different dimension.
I suppose there was a time for unions in that they initially were organized for the benefit of the working class. However those days have long since passed. In today's world there are still sweat shops and child labor camps. Of course the simple answer, if you are not pleased with your employer just quit and find another job.
This is true. Why aren't these Unions going after those places? Oh, wait, because they are in China, India and Mexico and they wouldn't be welcome in those places....
I don't know if it is human nature, but it seems that when organizations get past a certain size the greed factor kicks in and the entity takes on a different dimension.
I don't believe that for a moment.
Greed is not the driving factor in anything. It's pointed to "evil corporations" that they are "greedy". Well, precisely what defines greed? Let's take a quick look at the definition.
Definition of GREED
: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed
EXCESSIVE is the key phrase here.
All companies want to make money. It is subjective if this is "selfish" and "excessive" and in general let's point out that the people who make the accusation of "greed" are almost, without a doubt, 90% of the time, Leftists (who are really socialists) who want what someone else has.
Now, tell me, isn't that JEALOUSY?
And isn't "greed" one of the "Seven Deadly Sins"? So where do the Leftists (Godless for the most part) in this? Oh, well, they are CLAIMING THESE things to upset the Right (who are usually Religious to some extent).
So you see - it's all about perception.
Let me focus this a bit better...
the religious definition of "Greed" is thus: Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
Covetousness is "I want what he has" (Whatever that might be) but the caveat here is "ignoring the realm of the spiritual".
There is NOTHING in the Bible about remaining poor and without. Only about helping others and GIVING of what you have. No one says you have to run through life without making money, or fending for yourself.
When a company sets out to make money, it's never over greed, it is to make a living, make oneself comfortable, to have something more than one had to begin with.
That companies grow large is usually a good thing. They "spread the wealth around" rather than keep it all for themselves.
Personally I work for a small company, 50-55 people. We receive profit sharing in the form of a check once per year (used to be twice, but the GOVERNMENT started mandating how the companies could do this now, and the prime contractor that we fall under ordered new rules in place to PREVENT my company from giving us a check twice a year... imagine that, regulation to make everyone the same... Who is John Galt?)
So - this is not about greed. It's about jealousy.
Libertatem Prius!
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I guess I should add something... Unions want to OWN the companies. They want to CONTROL the companies. They want to be the people getting all the money.
Why do you think OSHA, EPA, and countless other agencies have been created? Those agencies have been put in place to "protect workers" which sounds fine and dandy. But when they are allowed to create their own rules and have the police ENFORCE the rules, there's a serious problem in the United States of America.
Had a safety guy tell me a couple of days ago I "couldn't use alcohol" to clean some stuff I clean (that is touched by lots and lots of human hands) without using gloves cuz, you know I might get cancer.
I kicked him out of my office.
Libertatem Prius!
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SEIU union organizer Stephen Lerner spoke to a crowd of progressives in Minnesota and said they must "create a crisis for the super rich."
According to Lerner, this can be accomplished with 3 main steps. The first is to "focus on corporate power." Secondly, they must have a "commitment to escalating activity that creates a crisis for the other side." Finally, 'Non-violent' disobedience and direct action" is needed.
Stephen Lerner also was responsible for SEIU's "Justice for Janitors" campaign in the 1980's with a goal of organizing large scale property owners who exercise control over hundreds, if not billions, of dollars embedded into commercial real estate.
"These property owners typically hire building managers who out-source the work of office-cleaning to subcontractors who hire non-union cleaning crews. SEIU’s aim was to shame and harass the building’s owner by organizing noisy and disruptive strikes and protests against the subcontractor and demanding “justice for janitors.” Lerner and his staff learned how to coordinate their outcries, involve church and civic leaders in their protests, and denounce the owner as a wealthy absentee landlord profiting from the manual labor of the poor. Cleaning crews were trained in protest tactics to disrupt pedestrian and vehicular traffic, interfere with the building’s tenants and foment other nuisance-generating actions.
The Justice for Janitors campaign helped SEIU leaders show how to coordinate the union’s tactics so that they had a social and political dimension far greater than a mere dispute over custodians’ wages. What came to be called a “corporate campaign” gave the union leverage over the major owners of capital. Rather than rely on any single labor action, a corporate campaign could produce multiple benefits. The trick was to learn how to shake up the downtowns of major American cities, frighten commuters, worry the mayor, and produce editorials in the newspapers urging the property owner to demonstrate “social responsibility.”
UPDATE (Stephen Gutowski): We want to give a big shout out to Naked Emperor News over at the Blaze for originally unearthing clips of this speech by Lerner. Good work!
Union Thuggery and Intimidation
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Originally Posted by Malsua
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