NEA: A Labor Union This Teacher Quit!

The National Education Association, one of our nation's most powerful labor unions, wields a lot of political clout.  It predominantly promotes liberal policies and politicians, such as these reported by Human Events:

Over these past three decades, the NEA has carpet-bombed the political landscape with money. In just the one-year period from September 2004 through August 2005, the NEA spent $25 million on political activities and lobbying, and another $65.5 million on contributions, gifts and grants.


From 1990 through 2002, the NEA was the nation's second biggest political giver. (Unions comprised six of the 10 top political contributors.)


The NEA's political support goes almost exclusively to the Democratic Party. Between 1990 and 2002, 95% of NEA candidate and party donations went to Democrats. After the 1976 Carter endorsement, they've been strong backers of every subsequent Democratic presidential nominee. As University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato once observed, "It's fair to say that the Democrats would be nowhere without them."


What have the NEA's tens of millions of dollars bought? The first prize was the 1980 establishment of the Department of Education itself. In subsequent years, there have been repeated hikes in education spending at the federal, state and local levels.

LifeSiteNews reported on the most recent policies voted on this past summer by NEA member, causing many to abandon the organization:

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After the National Education Association (NEA) last month confirmed its support for abortion and same-sex "marriage," one teacher's association is reporting an influx of new members seeking an ethical alternative source of liability insurance and other benefits.


... In addition, they say, teachers coming to the AAE have expressed outrage with retiring NEA general counsel Bob Chanin's speech at the same convention, where he launched into a tirade against "right-wing bastards" who are challenging the organization's liberal politics.

In September, the Washington Examiner reported that NEA contributed $1.3 million to ACORN:

Teachers unions have contributed over $1.3 million to ACORN and its affiliates, since 2005, according to U.S. Labor Department financial disclosure forms.

But there is no guarantee that the $1,333,112 million in donations from the National Education Association (NEA) and Teachers AFL-CIO unions are actually being used for their stated purposes, according to present and former Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) officials.

Some of the larger donations include $100,000 from the NEA in 2008 and $200,000 in 2007 for political activities. The Teachers AFL-CIO Local Union 2 contributed $406,730 in 2008, $457,778 in 2007, and $346,300 in 2006 for representational activities.

Now that ACORN staffers have been caught on video helping a man and woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute acquire illegal home loans to set up a brothel it is imperative that these organizations reconsider their support, said Ron Sykes, treasurer for ACORN’s Washington D.C. branch.

Both the NEA and Teachers AFL-CIO advertise as strong advocates for children. ACORN staffers in Baltimore were caught on video instructing James O’Keefe, the undercover filmmaker, and his partner Hannah Giles how they could falsify documents and obtain benefits for 13 “very young girls” from El Salvador.

Not quite sure yet about the far-left leanings of the NEA?  How about the recently announced "historic agreement" that allows for the 3.2 million NEA members and the 11.5 million members of the AFL-CIO unions to "work together to strengthen and unify the union movement" by forming the AFL-CIO/NEA Labor Solidarity Partnership.  This allows "local affiliates of the NEA to join the federation at the local and state levels through affiliation with the national AFL-CIO. Directly affiliated NEA locals (DANLs) will have the same rights as any direct affiliate of the AFL-CIO, including jurisdictional protection and representation and voting rights."  [Source: AFL-CIO]

Well, luckily my West Coast buddy Darren sent me some background on the AFL-CIO's president Richard Trumka, as compiled by National Right to Work:

As president of the United Mine Workers (UMW) union, Trumka led multiple violent strikes. Trumka’s fiery rhetoric often appeared to condone militancy and violence, especially against workers who dared to continue to provide for their families by working during a strike. As a Virginia judge ruled in 1989, "violent activities are being organized, orchestrated and encouraged by the leadership of this union."


Take the murder of Eddie York, a nonunion contractor, who was shot in the back of the head and killed while leaving a worksite in 1993. Trumka and other UMW officials were charged in a $27 million wrongful death suit by Eddie York’s widow. After fighting the suit intensely for four years, UMW lawyers settled suddenly in 1997 -- just two days after the judge in the case ruled evidence in the criminal trial would be admitted.


Later, as Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, Trumka pleaded the Fifth Amendment before Congress and a court-appointed election monitor over his role in an illegal fundraising scheme to benefit the Teamsters president Ron Carey’s re-election. Trumka has remained in his position ever since despite an AFL-CIO rule (adopted in 1957) which held that union officials who plead the Fifth have “no right to continue to hold office” in the union umbrella organization.

Be sure to check go to that link to download a pdf with more of Trumka's activities, ranging from not only "fiery rhetoric", but violent events during UMW strikes under his presidency, questionable fiduciary activities while secretary of the AFL-CIO, and his role in Big Labor's power grab strategy.

If that didn't convince you of NEA's political allegiances, how about this little webpage from NEA's website endorsing the puchase of some of Saul Alinsky's books, as reported by Bob Parks of Black & Right?:

Here is how the page promoted Alinsky's books (with snarky comments by me):

An inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!
Saul Alinsky wrote the book on American radicalism - two books, in fact: a 1945 best-seller, "Reveille for Radicals" and "Rules for Radicals" in 1971. The "Reveille" title page quotes Thomas Paine... "Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul."  [I shudder at how Paine's name is uttered with Alinsky's ...]


Saul Alinsky, who was a labor and civil-rights activist from the 1910's until he died in 1972, has written here a guidebook for those who are out to change things. He sets down what the goal is: a society where people are free to live, and also aren't starving in the streets. A society where there is legal and economic justice. Then he sets out to say how to get there.


Alinsky spends a lot of time critiquing the idea that "The end does not justify the means." What end? What means? He feels that there are circumstances where one can and should use means that in other circumstances would be unethical. I am not sure I agree, but Alinsky certainly speaks with the voice of experience.


Alinsky's goal seems to be to encourage positive social change by equipping activists with a realistic view of the world, a kind of preemptive disillusionment. If a person already knows what evil the world is capable of, then perhaps the surprise factor can be eliminated, making the person a more effective activist. Alinsky further seems to be encouraging the budding activist not to worry to much about getting his or her hands dirty. It's all a part of the job, he seems to say.


Alinsky, the master political agitator, tactical planner and social organizer didn't mince words...


"Liberals in their meetings utter bold works; they strut, grimace belligerently, and then issue a weasel-worded statement 'which has tremendous implications, if read between the lines.' They sit calmly, dispassionately, studying the issue; judging both sides; they sit and still sit.


"The Radical does not sit frozen by cold objectivity. He sees injustice and strikes at it with hot passion. He is a man of decision and action. There is a saying that the Liberal is one who walks out of the room when the argument turns into a fight.  [So, the Radical has more balls than the Liberal?]


"Society has good reason to fear the Radical. Every shaking advance of mankind toward equality and justice has come from the Radical. He hits, he hurts, he is dangerous. Conservative interests know that while Liberals are most adept at breaking their own necks with their tongues, Radicals are most adept at breaking the necks of Conservatives.


"Radicals precipitate the social crisis by action - by using power. Liberals may then timidly follow along or else, as in most cases, be swept forward along the course set by Radicals, but all because of forces unloosed by Radical action. They are forced to positive action only in spite of their desires ...

• "The American Radical will fight privilege and power whether it be inherited or acquired by any small group, whether it be political or financial or organized creed.
• "He curses a caste system which he recognizes despite all patriotic denials.
• "He will fight conservatives whether they are business or labor leaders.
• "He will fight any concentration of power hostile to a broad, popular democracy, whether he finds it in financial circles or in politics.
• "The Radical recognizes that constant dissension and conflict is and has been the fire under the boiler of democracy. He firmly believes in that brave saying of a brave people, "Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
• "The Radical may resort to the sword but when he does he is not filled with hatred against those individuals whom he attacks. He hates these individuals not as persons but as symbols representing ideas or interests which he believes to be inimical to the welfare of the people. [Thus de-humanizing your enemy? ... easier to kill him, eh?]
  
• "That is the reason why Radicals, although frequently embarking upon revolutions, have rarely resorted to personal terrorism."

Alinsky practiced what he preached. He said, "Tactics means doing what you can with what you have ... tactics is the art of how to take and how to give."


He uses eyes, ears and nose for examples...
Eyes
"If you have a vast organization, parade it before the enemy, openly show your power."
Ears
"If your organization is small, do what Gideon did: conceal the members in the dark but raise a clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more that it does."  [I love how radicals quote the Bible to "justify their means"...]
Nose
"If your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place." ...

Alinsky was hated and defamed by powerful enemies, proof that his tactics worked. His simple formula for success...  "Agitate + Aggravate + Educate + Organize"

The praise goes on and on for these books!  It's pure adulation for Alinsky by the NEA.  You really should check out the page -- all of it -- for yourself.

As Bob Parks so aptly commented: "Any questions now as to why our kids are coming home so f@#%ed up?"

Of course, as with so many of Obama's supporters, the NEA is now in a post-nuptials slump having perhaps seen the light about its Beloved.  In August, the NEA criticized Obama's $4.35 billion education reform plan, saying that it puts too much emphasis on a "narrow agenda" centered on charter schools and echoes the Bush administration's "top-down approach" to reform [source].

Hee, hee!  You paid for him, NEA.  Now you have to live with him!  In the meantime, keep your radical leftist agenda out of my classroom!!!!!!!