Thursday, the AFL-CIO, the country's largest umbrella organization of labor unions, staged public demonstrations in New York, New Hampshire, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, California, and Kansas as part of an ongoing national campaign against Bush's Social Security privatization plan.
The labor union is targeting several investment firms that belong to a coalition of big business groups and investment firms that support Bush's privatization plan. The AFL-CIO has especially focused on Charles Schwab Corp., Wachovia Corp., and others asking them to withdraw their support for privatization.
At least two investment firms have withdrawn from the privatization coalition.
Koch Industries also provided millions in startup funding for right-wing think tanks and lobbying groups like the Cato Institute, which has described Social Security as a "cancer," and Citizens for a Sound Economy, which funnels millions into right-wing campaign coffers every year. David Koch and other directors of Americans for Prosperity have worked at or sat on the boards of both of those far-right organizations.
A far-right organization bristling from the union's campaign against privatization has attacked the AFL-CIO in a recent press statement. Americans for Prosperity called the union "out of touch" and presented unsubstantiated poll numbers claiming that most union members want to do away with Social Security.
A quick perusal of the Americans for Prosperity website indicates who is behind this attack on the AFL-CIO.
David Koch, the founder of Americans for Prosperity, is a part owner of Koch industries a privately-owned compnay that seems to dabble in just about anything from mining and energy to ranching and oil. It doesn't publicize its financial information, but it is believed to be among the largest privatey-owned companies in the country with annual revenues of $25 billion.
But there are some numbers that the Koch family can't hide. According to OpenSecrets.org, a website that publishes publicly available data on campaign contributions – large donors included – the Koch family, through its company and various members of its households gave well over one-half million dollars to the Republican Party and various GOP candidates, including tens of thousands of dollars to the Bush campaign between 2000 and 2004.
Koch Industries also gave Bush over $35,000 bewteen 1993-1999 for his gubenatorial campaigns and his candidacy for the GOP nomination while benefiting from loopholes in Texas environmental laws. These loopholes allowed the company to avoid having to reduce pollution emissions in some of its Texas facilites or to pay fines aimed at polluters by Texas law, as information from the Public Research Works and Center for Responsive Politics shows.
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The company's support for Bush and the GOP also garnered it a lucrative federal oil contract in 2002, which was widely understood as having derived directly from its patronage of the Republicans.
Koch Industries also provided millions in startup funding for right-wing think tanks and lobbying groups like the Cato Institute, which has described Social Security as a "cancer," and Citizens for a Sound Economy, which funnels millions into right-wing campaign coffers every year. David Koch and other directors of Americans for Prosperity have worked at or sat on the boards of both of those far-right organizations.
Both the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy are notoriously anti-union, and Koch Industries has been a client of the infamous Faegre & Benson law firm, which, according to its website, specializes in anti-union campaigns and withdrawing from pension plans.
So suddenly Koch cares about what union members think? He expects us to believe that he cares about our futures?
Can the founder of Americans for Prosperity with this record really be "in touch" with working people?
Other directors of Americans for Prosperity include John Thomas who works for Wachovia Corp., a corporation that is a member of the anti-Social Security coalition that is a target of the AFL-CIO's campaign against Bush's privatization plan.
Additionally, Walter Williams, another director of Americans for Prosperity, is a college professor who teaches classes and writes books (fortunately not widely read) about how bad unions are, against regulation of industry (like Koch's), and how privatization of public services is a good idea. Williams regularly publishes his ideas in far-right magazines like the National Review or can be found sitting in for extreme far-right radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Williams' ideas seem to fit well with Koch Industries' record of flouting environmental laws and skirting campaign finance laws to give big donations for lucrative government contracts.
It seems that Americans for Prosperity should have a different name, if they were honest: Rich Corporations for their own Prosperity – and Screw Everyone Else.
--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and may be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.
