Wednesday, February 13, 2008

McCain's Record on Labor Issues

From AFL-CIO Now Blog:

  • McCain voted to filibuster the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have protected the freedom of workers to form unions.
  • He describes himself as a “free trader” and strongly supports NAFTA and CAFTA.
  • He’s voted against protecting overtime eligibility, in support of the overseas outsourcing of federal jobs and against a clean minimum wage bill—but he’s decided he supports renewing Bush’s massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
  • He’s supported privatized Social Security accounts and raising the eligibility age for Medicare.
  • He even crossed a picket line to appear on the “Tonight Show.”

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

By Norman Markowitz. I am calling myself anonymous because blogger has changed the comment identification, but I am not now nor will I ever be anonym ous

McCain is Republican Senator from Arizona, an anti-union shop 14b state aka "right to work" state under the Taft Hartley Law. He began his career in politics in Arizona as a Goldwater Republican and strong supporter of Ronald Reagan's anti-labor anti-social welfare policies. That is what you see and that is what you get, along with a "hands on" military commander-in-chief.

As for the rightwingers who are attacking McCain as a "heretic" for criticizing Washington lobbyists, cosponsoring toothless legislation to restrict the use of money in political campaigns,stating the obvious that launching a war while you were sponsoring tax cuts was very strange, and not spending billions to capture, arrest, and deport undocumented workers, this tells us much more about them than it does about McCain, who would have been considered a conservative Republican in his pro business anti-social welfare and ant-regulation stances at any time from about the 1890s to the 1990s
McKinley, Taft, Harding, Coolidge Hoover, Nixon, Reagan, and certainly Bush I would have been very comfortable with him(the last two certainly were) even if the ultrarightists who have appropriated the term conservative to cover themselves aren't

Anonymous said...

By Norman Markowitz. I am calling myself anonymous because blogger has changed the comment identification, but I am not now nor will I ever be anonym ous

McCain is Republican Senator from Arizona, an anti-union shop 14b state aka "right to work" state under the Taft Hartley Law. He began his career in politics in Arizona as a Goldwater Republican and strong supporter of Ronald Reagan's anti-labor anti-social welfare policies. That is what you see and that is what you get, along with a "hands on" military commander-in-chief.

As for the rightwingers who are attacking McCain as a "heretic" for criticizing Washington lobbyists, cosponsoring toothless legislation to restrict the use of money in political campaigns,stating the obvious that launching a war while you were sponsoring tax cuts was very strange, and not spending billions to capture, arrest, and deport undocumented workers, this tells us much more about them than it does about McCain, who would have been considered a conservative Republican in his pro business anti-social welfare and ant-regulation stances at any time from about the 1890s to the 1990s
McKinley, Taft, Harding, Coolidge Hoover, Nixon, Reagan, and certainly Bush I would have been very comfortable with him(the last two certainly were) even if the ultrarightists who have appropriated the term conservative to cover themselves aren't

Krumbled Kookie said...

Since we know that CPUSA members will likely not be voting Republican, why don't we instead take a look out the Democratic candidates? It would be more constructive to do so instead of bashing Republicans, which in my opinion, has become so easy that its no longer an interesting activity.

Perhaps some insight into Hillary Clinton's record on labor would be appropriate? And perhaps a look into the hypocrisy of her support from so many unions?

All I'm saying is: let's be honest here.

Joel said...

I'd welcome a look at Hillary Clinton's record on labor issues. Let's do it. The AFL-CIO gives Clinton a 93% lifetime rating on her voting record on the issues labor cared about -- ranging from judicial appointments to budget policy to workers rights to minimum wage. What info do you want to share?

Krumbled Kookie said...

Most notably, the fact that while serving on the board at Wal-Mart, Clinton kept her mouth nice and shut when Wal-Mart dictatorially refused to allow its workers to unionize. The fact that she sat on the board at that monstrosity says enough, in my opinion.

Or how about the fact that one of her campaign's top political strategists, Mark Penn, is the CEO of Burton Marsteller, Inc., a PR firm synonymous with union busting?

The fact is that Hillary is a proven careerist, and will do whatever it takes the bring in the campaign contributions, including lying to workers whose interests she will never represent.

Anonymous said...

Norman Markowitz, only anonymous for reasons in comment 1.

Harold should know that the blog and PA online have been looking at the Democratic candidates and the primaries. Also, I would say that PA as a publication is actively attempting to reaching the widest audience of working class and progresssive people it can, not just CPUSA members or people who are committed to socialism.

The propaganda that McCain is a "moderate," a "centrist," an opponent of the Bush administration personally and politically has to be addressed because McCain is not only the presumptive Republican candidate, but the only one who can parley that propaganda into saving the Republicans, who have been directly responsible for the disastrous course of U.S. policy at home and abroad(however DLC and other Democrats aided them through either inaction or, in the case of Bill Clinton, collaboration)
from the decisive defeat that is necessary if the present reality of more war, more income inequality, more destitution poverty, more crippling debt eliminating the revenues to address the present crisis, is to be ended.
The AFL-CIO, like other groups, including business groups and groups on the right on issues of importance to them, rates elected represenatives by their voting records on labor issues. While this is only a part of the story,(any Democratic Senator from New York would have a very high AFL-CIO voting record, as is true of many other industrialized urbanized strong labor states) but it is significant.
I say that as someone who has come to the conclusion that Barack Obama is by far the better candidate of the two, but I don't think that attacking Clinton, as against stressing both the negative aspects of McCain and the positive aspects of Obama, is a sterile intellectual exercise

Krumbled Kookie said...

The point, Norman, is not to "attack" Clinton, but to point out her shortcomings and to allow working people to know that it is highly unlikely that she will work for what is in their interests. I'm not sure what you mean when you say that this is not a "sterile intellectual exercise," but if we can point out McCain's weaknesses on the issues of importance to the working class, than it is entirely worthwhile and healthy to be looking into where each candidate stands on these issues.

I also have come to realize that Barack Obama is far and away the best candidate left on the ballots, and I am pulling for him to win the Democratic nomination.

I know that PA has explored all the cadidates; I'm really just trying to make the point that it's unfair (not to McCain, but to the readers) to point out McCain's poor record without putting Hillary's alongside it where it belongs.

The goal, after all is to work for the best interests of the working class, and to remove the right from power, correct? Then we should all recognize that even though Hillary Clinton is a Democrat, there is nothing progressive about her campaign at all, and she may as well be a Republican.

Not that Obama is perfect - far from it - but we have to realize the difference between Obama and the four right wingers (McCain, Huckabee, Paul and Clinton) remaining on the ballots.

jntn said...

Remember
dear comrades
a candidate could be understood by how does he view that the economic policy that affect american workingclass?and how does he react to it. And listen! that the debate never allow to say that all are same that strenghthen the most powerful evil
jayanthan peroorkada

Anonymous said...

Its me anonymous aka Norman Markowitz
I just picked up your comments and we are in agreement on substance and our differences are what used to be called in the Chinese movement especially "secondary contradictions," namely differences among party people, allies, forces, that should not be,as jntn said in a different way, developed so that they weaken the ability of the party, the movement, to develop the primary contradictions and advance the working class. My present, personal formula would be to advance the Obama campaign, ignore Clinton unless her campaign advances openly anti-working class positions, and then prepare for the broadest possible unity to struggle to defeat the Republicans and their presidential candidate John McCain