Who’s Behind the Attacks on Labor?

The “tea party” movement is owned lock, stock and barrel by billionaires. No wonder they’re attacking the labor movement!

In the 2010 Citizens United decision, a right wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations have a “free speech” right to unlimited “independent expenditures” on “electioneering communications” advocating the election or defeat of a candidate.  This opened the floodgates of corporate campaign spending, and funded the “tea party” takeover of a majority of state legislatures, Governor’s mansions and the U.S. House of Representatives.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce alone spent  $32 million on the 2010 election, followed by three other conservative, anti-union corporate front groups.  More Info

The “tea party” is about as far away as you can get from a grass roots movement of ordinary Americans.  The two main organizations that provide logistics and organizing support for the tea party movement are Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and Freedom Works.  These are both right-wing think tanks run by conservative lobbyists. An oil company called Koch Industries funds Americans for Prosperity.  Billionaire David Koch is Koch Industries’ Executive Vice President and the Chairman of the Board of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. He is also one of the co-founders of AFP.  The Claude R. Lambe Foundation, which is also controlled by the Koch family, has donated more than $3 million to AFP.  Freedom Works has received nearly $3 million in funding from a foundation financed by the Mellon family industrial, oil, and banking fortune.  More Info

The demographics of the tea party movement reflect its funders.  They are overwhelmingly wealthier and more conservative than the rest of America.  According to a New York Times/CBS News poll, “Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45. They hold more conservative views on a range of issues than Republicans generally…  Tea Party supporters over all are more likely than the general public to say their personal financial situation is fairly good or very good.”  More Info

So it is hardly surprising that the first thing on the agenda of every newly-elected conservative (and some not-so conservative) Governor and legislature has been to cut taxes for the rich, bust unions, cut services, deny the science of climate change, and make the rest of us pay for it.  Know your enemy!