Listen now | Ralph welcomes back union organizer, Chris Townsend, to discuss the reasons why the AFL-CIO shrinks from effectively fighting for its members and expanding the power of workers.
Thanks for staying focused on the true heroes of this democratic republic on Memorial Day weekend. Many people will get tired of endless paeans to the military services this weekend. We should regard with great thanks the whistleblowers in government, the journalists exposing government corruption, the union organizers, the lawyers and volunteers fighting for the common good.
Thanks TomL so many to be grateful for. So many journalists out telling the story just not on MSM. Thankfully lawyers and volunteers being great contributors
Let's not kid ourselves. The US military is the last place I would recommend anyone of age to join. Young people would be better off doing anything productive than joining up. We haven't had a just war since maybe WWII, and even that one was a terrible war as Paul Fussell and others documented. And we haven't "won" a war since then, even Korea was a draw. They have no use for real scholars, poets, philosophers, artists, creative thinkers, and those with those talents who go there seldom come back with those intact. People hear profanity and incessant lascivious and braggart talk, not the sort of character building and moral communications they try to lead you to believe they are about.
I’m surprised that no mention was made of the large role of the Israel lobby in both the Massie and Rabb races. Reportedly, the lobby spent millions to defeat Massie in Kentucky and also invested large sums to try to defeat Rabb in Pennsylvania. How can the outsized and ongoing role of a lobby in support of a foreign state not be newsworthy?
A very fine Radio Hour! Chris Townsend does a masterful job discussing how organized labor, for the most part, does not even care about rear-guard battles anymore. As a lifelong active member in the AFL’s American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association (and a union at the last community college where I taught), I’m pretty much well-versed in actively taking part in union movements while those unions fell into something I could not have imagined decades ago.
When I began as an active union member in my local, we actually went out on strike for better working conditions for our members and better pay. By the time the majority of my working life was over, I saw the union movement in the state where I had spent my career working, lose our cost of living adjustment (COLA) to the pushback against pension benefits that had been negotiated over decades and thought were etched in stone. This was in Rhode Island, where all three branches of government came together to end the COLA, which in many cases was the lifeblood for some retirees.
In Superior Court, along with scores of other union members, I testified against the pension law, but it was a done deal. In an article written for CounterPunch, I included interviews with rank-and-file union members and union presidents about the pension law. In court, the president of the union to which I had belonged was close to the truth when he said that there was no money left with which to fight against the so-called pension reform law and the gathering juggernaut against pensions.
Howie thanks for your service to the greater good of society. I was a member of AFL went on strike a few times it was powerfully and uniting. I miss that in the world now. The youngsters have poor working conditions and don’t know it 💟
As a union member of the California Nurses Association and a CLC member it is apparent that the AFL-CIO supports corporate democratic candidates, as politics demands. It is then demanded and required of union members to support these corporate candidates. It isn't allowed to speak up or endorse a progressive candidate after the AFL-CIO has stated their endorsed candidate. A sad statement indeed for union members.
My main criticism of gerrymandering is when it is done exclusively by state legislatures without popular approval. The core democratic problem is partisan gerrymandering done solely by self‑interested state legislatures, without any direct popular approval or independent check.
What are some practical ways to limit gerrymandering at the federal and state levels?
I propose to raise the corrupt practice of partisan gerrymandering to a state and federal election issue. The current US Supreme Court seems to support partisan gerrymandering. The voters who oppose gerrymandering should refuse to vote for politicians who support partisan gerrymandering. This year voters will have the opportunity to support Senators and Governors who oppose gerrymandering. Who are this year's U.S. Senatorial and gubernatorial candidates who would be likely to sign a pledge to oppose partisan gerrymandering?
I'm a lifelong Democrat, a progressive Democrat, and a union member since 1997. Here in Washington State, I've supported progressive Democrats running against a 20+ year incumbent, and I've seen unions endorse the incumbent simply because they expect the incumbent to win, even when the progressive challenger aligns more with the union. One example is SEIU 775 endorsing the incumbent rather than a progressive candidate with a long history of actively supporting a single-payer healthcare system.
One of the biggest stories in the last week was how Elon Musk, recruiting NSA top pros and others very likely stole the 2024 election for Trump: https://kaitjustice.substack.com/p/how-america-detects-election-fraud-musk-epstein-files It's time they go back to hand counting and fully verifiable data. We can't trust the technology doing this anymore as the biggest money is hijacking our system.
It is disheartening to hear Chris Townsend's analysis of the empty ceremonial stance of the AFL-CIO Convention that will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the current issue of Capitol Hill Citizen, Townsend does reflect far more positively on the Labor Notes Conference that will follow in Chicago, Illinois. A hopeful note! All in all, thank you to Mr. Townsend and Mr. Nader for honestly highlighting the lower depths of the state of the Unions! Hopefully, this discussion provokes more people of conscience within labor and business to somehow surface.
Before big money took over Union's had value , better products and services, better paying jobs
Can you name one valuable product or service created by a hedge fund ? Other than to serve themselves., Having a job that you can tell your kids after a hard day of work I made and did something today to make other people's lives better ..today Union's are just yesterday's shadow's of themselves. Will unions make a comeback on the world stage for a better life and prosperity for all ? , I sure hope so ,,,,it's the only way the poor and or disavataged will get the opportunities to share in the wealth of nations in the future I e ,M day ,,how about a tv camera slowly showing the names of my Nam buddies on that wall in Washington ? Good luck America have a great day my friends
the discussion of the Taft-Hartley act brings me to your point, that the key to the system is the congress. Politicians lie is accepted as a rule. In our system we vote for a representative and once they are elected the do whatever they want. Then the electorate reacts, your answer has been to monitor them and pressure them after the fact. What if representatives were required to get over 50% of their constituents to agree to legislation that they introduce and other legislators would then also be required to get their constituents to approve before they could sign on. This would require representatives to work, not fund raise, we do not have representatives, we have mouthpieces of the rich and powerful and until that changes we will be stuck watching the world burn.
The 22nd amendment and the tax code are other examples of our system in which the rules were set up not by the will of the people, but by the rich and powerful. This was set up over 250 years ago by people that were perhaps well intentioned, but should not be put on a pedestal other than to say that they were notables of their time. We are in the age of computing and we need to utilize that tool, and stop acting like this can't be fixed.
I recall that way back in the 1960s, I asked what kind of agency existed to keep union corruption at bay. No answer was forthcoming. And that is something we need now, way more than we did back then. Of course, for such an agency to have any teeth, it would have to be under the management & control of the workers themselves, those with "skin in the game".
One problem with this solution to gerrymandering is that it is based on the illusion that we have a two party system. We have a one party system (the one big money party) that pretends to be a two party system (the Democrats are one half and the Republicans are the other half of the one big money party).
Having three, four or five parts to the one big money party gaining seats through a proportional system will still be a one party system creating more division on kitchen table or social issues that keep us from working together against the big money interests.
And where does an independent candidate fit in to the proportional system?
We need to form a multi party Union for Politics to demand and create opposition both within and outside the party system to demand that politicians are not controlled by big money.
80% of citizens want the big money out of politics, including a majority of Republican voters.
If we can organize 10% of voters in 2026 to demand small donor candidates and enforce that demand with their votes it will inspire more citizens to participate in 2028 and candidates to run small donor campaigns in 2028 to get those votes.
Just a small percentage of citizens that would not vote in the off year election and the citizens that live in the 90% of districts that are not competitive due to gerrymandering could easily reach the 10% total in 2026.
This coalition of Republican, Democratic, third party and independent voters uniting for the common goal of getting the big money out of politics would be a major change in the dynamics that make gerrymandering possible because gerrymandering depends the predictability of citizens voting by the divisions created by the parties.
Ralph, you have said in the past that politicians want our votes more than big money but you will not even give me one hour in the last ten years to discuss putting your theory into action.
If it is because you think it can't work then please explain why it can't work but as this is the most basic principle of democracy you will have to explain why democracy can't work.
If you think democracy can work then you should be willing to at least discuss this with me and consider helping to organize citizens to participate in 2026.
It won't cost much in 2026 as there will be few if any small donor candidates running.
All we need to do is organize citizens to cast a write in vote in November if there are no small donor candidates on their ballot to register a vote against the big money candidates on the ballot and to create and demonstrate demand for small donor candidates in 2028.
It is time for you to stop hiding from this discussion and start helping to organize citizens to put your theory into action.
It is said that listeners can continue the discussions on the Radio Hour here in the comments. How about Ralph continuing the discussion here in the comments on the Radio Hour?
Organizing citizens to demand small donor politicians and enforcing that demand with our votes seems a good topic to begin that new trend.
Thanks for staying focused on the true heroes of this democratic republic on Memorial Day weekend. Many people will get tired of endless paeans to the military services this weekend. We should regard with great thanks the whistleblowers in government, the journalists exposing government corruption, the union organizers, the lawyers and volunteers fighting for the common good.
Thanks TomL so many to be grateful for. So many journalists out telling the story just not on MSM. Thankfully lawyers and volunteers being great contributors
Let's not kid ourselves. The US military is the last place I would recommend anyone of age to join. Young people would be better off doing anything productive than joining up. We haven't had a just war since maybe WWII, and even that one was a terrible war as Paul Fussell and others documented. And we haven't "won" a war since then, even Korea was a draw. They have no use for real scholars, poets, philosophers, artists, creative thinkers, and those with those talents who go there seldom come back with those intact. People hear profanity and incessant lascivious and braggart talk, not the sort of character building and moral communications they try to lead you to believe they are about.
I’m surprised that no mention was made of the large role of the Israel lobby in both the Massie and Rabb races. Reportedly, the lobby spent millions to defeat Massie in Kentucky and also invested large sums to try to defeat Rabb in Pennsylvania. How can the outsized and ongoing role of a lobby in support of a foreign state not be newsworthy?
A very fine Radio Hour! Chris Townsend does a masterful job discussing how organized labor, for the most part, does not even care about rear-guard battles anymore. As a lifelong active member in the AFL’s American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association (and a union at the last community college where I taught), I’m pretty much well-versed in actively taking part in union movements while those unions fell into something I could not have imagined decades ago.
When I began as an active union member in my local, we actually went out on strike for better working conditions for our members and better pay. By the time the majority of my working life was over, I saw the union movement in the state where I had spent my career working, lose our cost of living adjustment (COLA) to the pushback against pension benefits that had been negotiated over decades and thought were etched in stone. This was in Rhode Island, where all three branches of government came together to end the COLA, which in many cases was the lifeblood for some retirees.
In Superior Court, along with scores of other union members, I testified against the pension law, but it was a done deal. In an article written for CounterPunch, I included interviews with rank-and-file union members and union presidents about the pension law. In court, the president of the union to which I had belonged was close to the truth when he said that there was no money left with which to fight against the so-called pension reform law and the gathering juggernaut against pensions.
Howie thanks for your service to the greater good of society. I was a member of AFL went on strike a few times it was powerfully and uniting. I miss that in the world now. The youngsters have poor working conditions and don’t know it 💟
the young know it
As a union member of the California Nurses Association and a CLC member it is apparent that the AFL-CIO supports corporate democratic candidates, as politics demands. It is then demanded and required of union members to support these corporate candidates. It isn't allowed to speak up or endorse a progressive candidate after the AFL-CIO has stated their endorsed candidate. A sad statement indeed for union members.
My main criticism of gerrymandering is when it is done exclusively by state legislatures without popular approval. The core democratic problem is partisan gerrymandering done solely by self‑interested state legislatures, without any direct popular approval or independent check.
What are some practical ways to limit gerrymandering at the federal and state levels?
I propose to raise the corrupt practice of partisan gerrymandering to a state and federal election issue. The current US Supreme Court seems to support partisan gerrymandering. The voters who oppose gerrymandering should refuse to vote for politicians who support partisan gerrymandering. This year voters will have the opportunity to support Senators and Governors who oppose gerrymandering. Who are this year's U.S. Senatorial and gubernatorial candidates who would be likely to sign a pledge to oppose partisan gerrymandering?
I'm a lifelong Democrat, a progressive Democrat, and a union member since 1997. Here in Washington State, I've supported progressive Democrats running against a 20+ year incumbent, and I've seen unions endorse the incumbent simply because they expect the incumbent to win, even when the progressive challenger aligns more with the union. One example is SEIU 775 endorsing the incumbent rather than a progressive candidate with a long history of actively supporting a single-payer healthcare system.
Then the incumbent gets to brag about all the endorsements he's gotten, on top of his ability to be constantly campaigning for free.
One of the biggest stories in the last week was how Elon Musk, recruiting NSA top pros and others very likely stole the 2024 election for Trump: https://kaitjustice.substack.com/p/how-america-detects-election-fraud-musk-epstein-files It's time they go back to hand counting and fully verifiable data. We can't trust the technology doing this anymore as the biggest money is hijacking our system.
It is disheartening to hear Chris Townsend's analysis of the empty ceremonial stance of the AFL-CIO Convention that will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the current issue of Capitol Hill Citizen, Townsend does reflect far more positively on the Labor Notes Conference that will follow in Chicago, Illinois. A hopeful note! All in all, thank you to Mr. Townsend and Mr. Nader for honestly highlighting the lower depths of the state of the Unions! Hopefully, this discussion provokes more people of conscience within labor and business to somehow surface.
Before big money took over Union's had value , better products and services, better paying jobs
Can you name one valuable product or service created by a hedge fund ? Other than to serve themselves., Having a job that you can tell your kids after a hard day of work I made and did something today to make other people's lives better ..today Union's are just yesterday's shadow's of themselves. Will unions make a comeback on the world stage for a better life and prosperity for all ? , I sure hope so ,,,,it's the only way the poor and or disavataged will get the opportunities to share in the wealth of nations in the future I e ,M day ,,how about a tv camera slowly showing the names of my Nam buddies on that wall in Washington ? Good luck America have a great day my friends
Thank you Mr. Nadar,
the discussion of the Taft-Hartley act brings me to your point, that the key to the system is the congress. Politicians lie is accepted as a rule. In our system we vote for a representative and once they are elected the do whatever they want. Then the electorate reacts, your answer has been to monitor them and pressure them after the fact. What if representatives were required to get over 50% of their constituents to agree to legislation that they introduce and other legislators would then also be required to get their constituents to approve before they could sign on. This would require representatives to work, not fund raise, we do not have representatives, we have mouthpieces of the rich and powerful and until that changes we will be stuck watching the world burn.
The 22nd amendment and the tax code are other examples of our system in which the rules were set up not by the will of the people, but by the rich and powerful. This was set up over 250 years ago by people that were perhaps well intentioned, but should not be put on a pedestal other than to say that they were notables of their time. We are in the age of computing and we need to utilize that tool, and stop acting like this can't be fixed.
Again, thank you and all your crew,
Respectfully, Nigel Wilkinson.
I recall that way back in the 1960s, I asked what kind of agency existed to keep union corruption at bay. No answer was forthcoming. And that is something we need now, way more than we did back then. Of course, for such an agency to have any teeth, it would have to be under the management & control of the workers themselves, those with "skin in the game".
One problem with this solution to gerrymandering is that it is based on the illusion that we have a two party system. We have a one party system (the one big money party) that pretends to be a two party system (the Democrats are one half and the Republicans are the other half of the one big money party).
Having three, four or five parts to the one big money party gaining seats through a proportional system will still be a one party system creating more division on kitchen table or social issues that keep us from working together against the big money interests.
And where does an independent candidate fit in to the proportional system?
We need to form a multi party Union for Politics to demand and create opposition both within and outside the party system to demand that politicians are not controlled by big money.
80% of citizens want the big money out of politics, including a majority of Republican voters.
If we can organize 10% of voters in 2026 to demand small donor candidates and enforce that demand with their votes it will inspire more citizens to participate in 2028 and candidates to run small donor campaigns in 2028 to get those votes.
Just a small percentage of citizens that would not vote in the off year election and the citizens that live in the 90% of districts that are not competitive due to gerrymandering could easily reach the 10% total in 2026.
This coalition of Republican, Democratic, third party and independent voters uniting for the common goal of getting the big money out of politics would be a major change in the dynamics that make gerrymandering possible because gerrymandering depends the predictability of citizens voting by the divisions created by the parties.
Ralph, you have said in the past that politicians want our votes more than big money but you will not even give me one hour in the last ten years to discuss putting your theory into action.
If it is because you think it can't work then please explain why it can't work but as this is the most basic principle of democracy you will have to explain why democracy can't work.
If you think democracy can work then you should be willing to at least discuss this with me and consider helping to organize citizens to participate in 2026.
It won't cost much in 2026 as there will be few if any small donor candidates running.
All we need to do is organize citizens to cast a write in vote in November if there are no small donor candidates on their ballot to register a vote against the big money candidates on the ballot and to create and demonstrate demand for small donor candidates in 2028.
It is time for you to stop hiding from this discussion and start helping to organize citizens to put your theory into action.
It is said that listeners can continue the discussions on the Radio Hour here in the comments. How about Ralph continuing the discussion here in the comments on the Radio Hour?
Organizing citizens to demand small donor politicians and enforcing that demand with our votes seems a good topic to begin that new trend.