I’ve been in leadership positions for two labor unions for over 40 years, the last 30 years leading a local urban union of almost 2000 members. And given the state of the labor movement, it galls me to read a supposedly progressive site where the leadership of the site, and about half of the posters, claim that Hillary Clinton is a progressive leader.
I have no problem with people supporting Hillary because they agree with her record. But please, please, don’t try to fool anyone, including yourself, in claiming the progressive label.
I have hard time calling anyone “progressive” who thru their actions, not their pre-election rhetoric:
1) Was a member of the Board of Directors of Walmart from 1986 to 1992 and ...
remained silent as Walmart waged a ferocious campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers; especially at a time when workers, particularly women workers, were treated as scum; workers who had no right to complain, to organize or to raise a family on a living wage. Hillary did nothing to fight for working people when she was on that Board.
An ABC News analysis of the videotapes of at least four stockholder meetings where Clinton appeared shows she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions.
A former board member told ABCNews.com that he had no recollection of Clinton defending unions during more than 20 board meetings held in private.
The tapes show Clinton in the role of a loyal company woman. "I'm always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else," she said at a June 1990 stockholders meeting.
Clinton, now that she is a politician, says she no longer shares Wal-Mart's values and believes unions "have been essential to our nation's success."
2) Who supported every corporate trade deal that shipped jobs overseas and lowered income for thousands of American workers, many of them women. And only now, in trying to win the nomination, has she said she opposes the TPP. Does anyone in their right mind think if she wins the Presidency, she will keep that stance? I didn’t think so.
3) Who was silent on Keystone pipeline until very recently
4) Supported the Iraq War. Enough said.
5) Supports the death penalty. She won’t change that position until the wind blows in the other direction.
6) Looks to Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, the poster children for Wall Street, for her economic guidance.
While Hillary has taken some consistent liberal positions on equal pay, abortion rights andpaid sick leave (all popular issues),(I can find no core values that she has, except that she is a classic corporate democrat.
At what point do some of you question her core values and her judgement?
Support her if you must, but I will do what I can to expose people who have served a lifetime of shilling for big money and when elections roll around, change their positions for 12 months. Just like I know what I’m getting with Hillary Clinton, so too I know what I’m getting with Bernie Sanders.
Yes, I will encourage my members, to vote for Hillary, if she is the nominee, but I will do so in an honest way; not like the sycophants carrying her water on this site. I know her campaign makes sure she is painted with a progressive brush on this site, but it really is unseemly. Isn’t there a Third Way website you can go to?
By the way, everything about Hillary’s time at Walmart is documented, so please let’s not try revisionist history. Thanks.