By far the harshest criticism I have heard about Jonathan Tasini during three months of involvement with his campaign was expressed in response to my diary entry of Wednesday May 31, on the refusal of several of New York's City's Democratic Clubs to endorse Senator Clinton's re-election. Rest assured that I was deeply concerned about the allegations posted by judybrowni. So, I have looked into the situations described and this is what I have been able to find out
New York Times v. Tasini originated as a suit brought by Jonathan Tasini and five other writers against the New York Times, Newsday and Time, Inc. alleging that copyrights had been infringed when the companies sold their work to electronic publishers such as LEXIS/NEXIS without permission and without compensating them. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court which decided in favor of Tasini and the other plaintiffs.
From what I have read about the case ,Tasini never said the lawsuit would right the balance between writers and big media. But, writers had a choice--let the publishers steal their work product or force them to pay up. Because of the Tasini suit, writers ultimately won a compensation pool of $18 million, although the money has not been distributed yet. From my standpoint, the eventual realization of an $18 million pool is better than receiving absolutely nothing and allowing big media to do whatever it wants with a freelance writer's work. Furthermore, Tasini has repeatedly said that the only way for writers to have real power in the marketplace is for them to have a strong union. That sounds pretty good to me.
With regard to the issue of NWU's health insurer being discovered to be a fraudulent operation, the following is what I have been told by one of the co-chairs of the NWU task force that was formed to look into the issue.
"Judy Brown's post misrepresents the facts in significant and dangerous ways. This is no surprise, as she played no active role in investigating the situation nor in solving the problem by finding new health insurance for the National Writers Union.
Tasini never kept the health insurance problem a secret. In reality, it took months for the problem to reveal itself as a crisis, because union members were so dispersed around the country, and isolated complaints about non-payment of claims initially appeared to be no more than typical health insurance snafus. Tasini relied on the reassurances of the union's long-time health benefits consultants, whom everyone involved assumed had done due diligence on the company involved, as well as on counsel from the UAW's health experts, whom he asked to look into the writers' union insurance, and who reported that all was well. As soon as it became obvious that Employers Mutual had collapsed, union members received comprehensive information about the problem, and Tasini appointed a committee, including members who were NOT his political allies, to investigate how the problem had arisen and to propose solutions.
The Writers Union was not forced by anyone to pay for anybody's chemo therapy. The case of the California woman cited by Judy Brown was presented to the NWU board in a highly emotional context, and the board responded in kind, without regard to the true implications of its actions. Tasini attempted to focus the board on its fiduciary duty to the union as an entity, which, as president, he was obligated to do. The union had no legal liability for the fraud perpetrated by Employers Mutual insurance, and, while Tasini was not unmoved by the woman's plight, he was concerned about the implications of taking on responsibility for the medical costs of all individual members caught in this trap, because doing so would surely have bankrupted the union whose interests he was elected to protect.
There was no relationship between Tasini's reelection campaign and the difficulties with the union health insurance. Tasini's reelection was never in doubt, nor was there ever any movement to impeach him."
Judy Brown/judybrowni wrote that Tasini is now waging a "pyrrhic" campaign against Senator Clinton. Pyrrhus was, of course, the ancient Greek king who achieved victory against Rome but at a terrible cost to his own troops.
I have to ask, what if anyhing, is it really going to cost those of us rank and file New York Democrats, average citizens who are fed up with the party establishment and its collaboration with corporate corruption, stand to lose by backing a candidate like Tasini? The Republican Party is on life support in this state. Our state legislature, with the lower house being controlled by the Democrats or perhaps more accurately Majority Leader Sheldon Silver, is so dysfunctional that it barely qualifies as a legitimate form of government. Far too many in the national Democratic Party establishment, including both of the Clintons at times, have sold out average citizens again and again on issues like "free trade," workers rights, personal bankruptcy, overtime regulations, media conglomeration, the theft of elections by the Republicans and sending our young men and women into unnecessary wars.
Those of us in the growing New York State reform movement are quite simply not going to stand for this anymore. We are going to build a new party from the bottom up regardless of whether Tasini wins or loses. We are going to make it into a party that is for and of average people and then we are going to make it into the majority party in this country.
I hope that some of you out there will join us in this effort.
Al Ronzoni, Jr.