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Deeper into the Tunnel: SF Labor Council, Pelosi & Peace Movement
"On August 29, the October 17 Coalition voted to endorse a protest at the Westin-St. Francis, one of the city’s flashier hotels, the following Friday where San Francisco Congresswoman and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was to be honored with a $100 a plate breakfast. But by the end of the day the October 17 coalition leadership got cold feet when it learned that the host of the breakfast was none other than the San Francisco Labor Council."
From: "Deeper into the Tunnel" by Alex Cockburn, 9/4-6/2009 at
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09042009.html
"As John Walsh described it here last week, “the silence was, as Cindy put it in an email to this writer, ‘crashingly deafening.’ Where are the email appeals to join Cindy from The Nation or from AFSC or Peace Action or “Progressive” Democrats of America (PDA) or even Code Pink? Or United for Peace and Justice. And what about MoveOn although it was long ago thoroughly discredited as principled opponents of war or principled in any way shape or form except slavish loyalty to the ‘other’ War Party. And of course sundry ‘socialist’ organizations are also missing in action since their particular dogma will not be front and center. These worthies and many others have vanished into the fog of Obama’s wars.”"
"Before he joined Sheehan on Martha’s Vineyard, Walsh says he contacted several of the leaders of the “official” peace movement in the Boston area – AFSC, Peace Action, Green Party of MA (aka Green Rainbow Party) and some others. Not so much as the courtesy of a reply resulted from this effort - although the GRP at least posted a notice of the action."
"Take the craven behavior of the leadership of the October 17 anti-war protest in San Francisco [Comment: Please take it away from San Francisco now], the first scheduled to be held in the Obama era. In the nuts-and-bolts details of organizing and endorsements, the saga tells us much about the spavined state of the antiwar movement."
"On August 29, the October 17 Coalition voted to endorse a protest at the Westin-St. Francis, one of the city’s flashier hotels, the following Friday where San Francisco Congresswoman and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was to be honored with a $100 a plate breakfast. But by the end of the day the October 17 coalition leadership got cold feet when it learned that the host of the breakfast was none other than the San Francisco Labor Council."
"Now, in the Bay Area, the bleak truth is that organized labor’s participation in marches and demonstrations has been minimal since the first Gulf War [Comment: It has always been minimal in the past 50 years of memory, definitely not 50% of its Bay Area members participating in anything]. But rather than challenging the Labor Council about its apathy on the war questions and about its choice of Pelosi, a war supporter, as its breakfast honoree, the coalition – replete with supposedly fiery socialists - promptly tried to cancel the protest.
"There’s nothing new here. Genuflections to the Labor Council has long characterized San Francisco’s anti-war movement leadership when it comes to determining its public agenda. "
"Unsurprisingly, panic at anything to do with Israel’s conduct has characterized many of these more odious chapters in this history, as was forcefully demonstrated by the refusal of what was then called the Spring Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice to planks to its major marches against US intervention in Central America and apartheid in South Africa in 1985 and 1988 that demanded, “No US Intervention in the Middle East,” and “End US Support for Israeli Occupation,” respectively."
"In the spring of 1985, Israel was in its fourth year of occupation of Lebanon after an invasion that had been publicly supported by the AFL-CIO with no dissent from San Francisco’s labor bureaucracy. The main organizer of both of those marches was Socialist Action. In its newspaper this group regularly boasted of its anti-Zionism and solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Nonetheless, in this instance Socialist Action promptly turned into Socialist Inaction. The group was adamant about not allowing any demand that referred to the Middle East to be added to the Mobilization’s program. The limp excuse: “labor will walk.” So determined was it, in fact, to keep the issue from being raised at the Mobe’s general meeting that Socialist Action had two of its members stand at the end of the aisle where she was sitting to keep Lebanese-born Tina Naccache, a well known radio host from Berkeley’s KPFA, from trying to approach a microphone and addressing the packed union meeting hall."
"It was considerably more difficult for Socialist Action and its allies to ignore the Palestinian intifada in 1988 but again they rose to the challenge, managing to appease the Labor Council by doing so. This required Socialist Action to cancel a general meeting of anti-war activists that quite likely would have led to the addition of a demand for an end to Israeli occupation. "
"Today we find the very same Socialist Action leader, Jeff Mackler, longer of tooth but no closer to socialism, taking unilateral action to prevent the picketing of the Labor Council breakfast for Pelosi."
"In an email to the October 17 steering committee, Mackler described in rather comically elevated terms the proposed picket of the breakfast as a"
"time bomb [that] was ticking…. I based my decision [to cancel the meeting] on a higher principle. We made a decision [to approve the picket] based on false information. No one knew that we voted to hold a demonstration at the Labor Council breakfast! No one knew that our coalition was going to be the ONLY initiator and sponsor of the demonstration!
" “After I consulted with several of the leading forces present, it was clear that we had made a grave mistake that needed immediate correction. The demonstration we had approved was essentially 3 days away and we had to assume that it was being built in our name, with our leaflet and with our approval. It is now clear that no one approved such a demonstration, with perhaps one exception, the maker of the motion who neglected to inform us of what we were voting for.” "
"The maker of the motion was Steve Zeltzer, a long time labor activist who may be remembered, along with Jeffrey Blankfort and anti-apartheid campaigner, Anne Poirier, for having successfully sued the Anti-Defamation League for spying on them and thousands other activists in the late Eighties."
“We could have done ourselves great harm had we waited,” Mackler quavered. “Had we not acted as we did, we might have lost the coalition or a good portion of it. We definitely would have lost the ability to ask in good faith for Labor Council support. And no one doubts that labor's support is critical in these days of terrible encroachments on the lives, health and stability of working people, not to mention the masses who are daily slaughtered in the course of the U.S. wars that we so strongly oppose.”""
"Opposition to the war and the slaughter of the masses apparently stops and flees at the hideous possibility of causing embarassment to the San Francisco Labor Council. There is not a hint in Mackler’s lengthy email suggesting that the Labor Council might owe anti-war forces an explanation for having invited Pelosi in the first place. "
"So Pelosi and the Council were spared embarrassment. “As it stands now the event remains cancelled,” wrote Mackler contentedly, “now agreed to by most everyone, and hopefully with the least amount of damage done.”"
"The Executive Director of the Labor Council, Tim Paulson, who also happens to head the state Democratic Party’s labor caucus, was quick to show his appreciation to both Pelosi and to the October 17th Coalition while attacking Zeltzer."
"“We are…honored to be visited by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who has been fighting tirelessly for real health care reform and is taking time out of her busy schedule to break bread with her friends in the labor movement before she heads back to Washington, D.C..” wrote Paulson in a letter to union members."
"“I have recently received an email put out by Steve Zeltzer and was saddened to learn that Zeltzer is trying to organize and smear our event by protesting the Speaker at our celebration of Labor Day."
“Our partners in the anti-war movement have been calling me to say they are condemning this protest as irresponsible and divisive. U.S. Labor Against the War has written an email condemning this action. The A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition is also not supporting Zeltzer, and many progressive anti-war activists are emailing and calling the Labor Council to distance themselves from Zeltzer’s misguided efforts."
"“This missive is just to let our friends know that you might be met outside the hotel by some protesters, but that almost unilaterally the labor and anti-war movements condemn these efforts.”"
"“What labor and anti-war movements?” San Franciscans might legitimately ask."
"For the historical record, and for illustrations of the political effectiveness of causing embarrassment and rocking the boat, the last picket of a San Francisco Labor Council event took place at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on October 15, 1987. It was the annual dinner that the Labor Council hosted for the Israeli Labor Federation, the Histadrut, which had an office at a San Francisco union hall and whose close business ties with apartheid South Africa had been exposed in the Israeli press. It was also the first public event of the Labor Committee on the Middle East which had been co-founded by Steve Zeltzer and Blankfort earlier that August."
"The featured speaker was to be Mayor Willie Brown and Zeltzer and Blankfort wrote him requesting that, as an opponent of apartheid, he cancel the speaking invitation and make a public statement condemning the Histadrut. Needless to say, Brown refused and along with Walter Johnson, the executive director of the Labor Council at the time, and many of the guests, were forced to enter the hotel by a side entrance to avoid crossing our picket line. As a result of the protest, which garnered considerable publicity, there were no more Labor Council dinners honoring the Histadrut and shortly thereafter, it closed its office and left the city. "
See also:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php?show_comments=1#18620447
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php?show_comments=1#18620492
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php?show_comments=1#18620511
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php?show_comments=1#18620647
THIS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT IN THIS GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 21ST CENTURY. It is outrageous, unconscionable and unforgivable that "Socialist Action, Socialist Organizer, ANSWER, Peace and Freedom Party, World Can't Wait-RCP and the Party For Socialism and Liberation PSL" refused to endorse this urgently needed housecleaning event so that labor finally breaks from the Democratic Party as that is the only way it can advance. The idea of having the Executive Director of the Labor Council, Tim Paulson, also be chair the California Democratic Party’s labor caucus is equally outrageous, unconscionable and unforgivable as the Democratic Party, like its twin, the Republican Party, represents the same capitalist class that oppresses and exploits the workingclass. In other words, the Labor Council is just the plaything of the Democratic Party. WE CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT ANY ENDORSEMENT OF OUR PEACE MARCHES FROM A WAR PARTY OR ANY OF ITS ELECTION FRAUDING PUPPETS, LIKE THE SAN FRANCISCO LABOR COUNCIL, ALWAYS PROUD SUPPORTERS OF ALL STADIUM SWINDLES AND EVERYTHING ELSE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PROMOTES. Contrary to Paulson, Nancy Pelosi is bought and paid for by the insurance industry and does not support single payer healthcare, as the above comments to the above calendar item explain in detail. NOW WE KNOW WHICH GROUPS TO AVOID: THE DEMOCRAT-REPUBLICAN PARTY, THE SAN FRANCISCO LABOR COUNCIL, AND ALL OF ITS FRIENDS. There is no worker attending anything at the St. Francis Hotel or paying $100 a plate for anything. This is a vicious insult the workingclass. This country is in a grip of poverty unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and it is getting worse daily. Get out of your cars and walk around San Francisco or any other town in this country, and you will see lots of closed stores, lots of people begging everywhere. Get on the buses, go to the public schools, go to the workingclass communities, and see for yourself if you happen to be better off. There are no jobs; the school system is being destroyed; nothing works. Yet alleged socialists kiss the behind of the ruling class and their election frauding puppets, the San Francisco Labor Council. These old fossils need to be pushed aside immediately so the workingclass and the peace movement can move forward.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09042009.html
"As John Walsh described it here last week, “the silence was, as Cindy put it in an email to this writer, ‘crashingly deafening.’ Where are the email appeals to join Cindy from The Nation or from AFSC or Peace Action or “Progressive” Democrats of America (PDA) or even Code Pink? Or United for Peace and Justice. And what about MoveOn although it was long ago thoroughly discredited as principled opponents of war or principled in any way shape or form except slavish loyalty to the ‘other’ War Party. And of course sundry ‘socialist’ organizations are also missing in action since their particular dogma will not be front and center. These worthies and many others have vanished into the fog of Obama’s wars.”"
"Before he joined Sheehan on Martha’s Vineyard, Walsh says he contacted several of the leaders of the “official” peace movement in the Boston area – AFSC, Peace Action, Green Party of MA (aka Green Rainbow Party) and some others. Not so much as the courtesy of a reply resulted from this effort - although the GRP at least posted a notice of the action."
"Take the craven behavior of the leadership of the October 17 anti-war protest in San Francisco [Comment: Please take it away from San Francisco now], the first scheduled to be held in the Obama era. In the nuts-and-bolts details of organizing and endorsements, the saga tells us much about the spavined state of the antiwar movement."
"On August 29, the October 17 Coalition voted to endorse a protest at the Westin-St. Francis, one of the city’s flashier hotels, the following Friday where San Francisco Congresswoman and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was to be honored with a $100 a plate breakfast. But by the end of the day the October 17 coalition leadership got cold feet when it learned that the host of the breakfast was none other than the San Francisco Labor Council."
"Now, in the Bay Area, the bleak truth is that organized labor’s participation in marches and demonstrations has been minimal since the first Gulf War [Comment: It has always been minimal in the past 50 years of memory, definitely not 50% of its Bay Area members participating in anything]. But rather than challenging the Labor Council about its apathy on the war questions and about its choice of Pelosi, a war supporter, as its breakfast honoree, the coalition – replete with supposedly fiery socialists - promptly tried to cancel the protest.
"There’s nothing new here. Genuflections to the Labor Council has long characterized San Francisco’s anti-war movement leadership when it comes to determining its public agenda. "
"Unsurprisingly, panic at anything to do with Israel’s conduct has characterized many of these more odious chapters in this history, as was forcefully demonstrated by the refusal of what was then called the Spring Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice to planks to its major marches against US intervention in Central America and apartheid in South Africa in 1985 and 1988 that demanded, “No US Intervention in the Middle East,” and “End US Support for Israeli Occupation,” respectively."
"In the spring of 1985, Israel was in its fourth year of occupation of Lebanon after an invasion that had been publicly supported by the AFL-CIO with no dissent from San Francisco’s labor bureaucracy. The main organizer of both of those marches was Socialist Action. In its newspaper this group regularly boasted of its anti-Zionism and solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Nonetheless, in this instance Socialist Action promptly turned into Socialist Inaction. The group was adamant about not allowing any demand that referred to the Middle East to be added to the Mobilization’s program. The limp excuse: “labor will walk.” So determined was it, in fact, to keep the issue from being raised at the Mobe’s general meeting that Socialist Action had two of its members stand at the end of the aisle where she was sitting to keep Lebanese-born Tina Naccache, a well known radio host from Berkeley’s KPFA, from trying to approach a microphone and addressing the packed union meeting hall."
"It was considerably more difficult for Socialist Action and its allies to ignore the Palestinian intifada in 1988 but again they rose to the challenge, managing to appease the Labor Council by doing so. This required Socialist Action to cancel a general meeting of anti-war activists that quite likely would have led to the addition of a demand for an end to Israeli occupation. "
"Today we find the very same Socialist Action leader, Jeff Mackler, longer of tooth but no closer to socialism, taking unilateral action to prevent the picketing of the Labor Council breakfast for Pelosi."
"In an email to the October 17 steering committee, Mackler described in rather comically elevated terms the proposed picket of the breakfast as a"
"time bomb [that] was ticking…. I based my decision [to cancel the meeting] on a higher principle. We made a decision [to approve the picket] based on false information. No one knew that we voted to hold a demonstration at the Labor Council breakfast! No one knew that our coalition was going to be the ONLY initiator and sponsor of the demonstration!
" “After I consulted with several of the leading forces present, it was clear that we had made a grave mistake that needed immediate correction. The demonstration we had approved was essentially 3 days away and we had to assume that it was being built in our name, with our leaflet and with our approval. It is now clear that no one approved such a demonstration, with perhaps one exception, the maker of the motion who neglected to inform us of what we were voting for.” "
"The maker of the motion was Steve Zeltzer, a long time labor activist who may be remembered, along with Jeffrey Blankfort and anti-apartheid campaigner, Anne Poirier, for having successfully sued the Anti-Defamation League for spying on them and thousands other activists in the late Eighties."
“We could have done ourselves great harm had we waited,” Mackler quavered. “Had we not acted as we did, we might have lost the coalition or a good portion of it. We definitely would have lost the ability to ask in good faith for Labor Council support. And no one doubts that labor's support is critical in these days of terrible encroachments on the lives, health and stability of working people, not to mention the masses who are daily slaughtered in the course of the U.S. wars that we so strongly oppose.”""
"Opposition to the war and the slaughter of the masses apparently stops and flees at the hideous possibility of causing embarassment to the San Francisco Labor Council. There is not a hint in Mackler’s lengthy email suggesting that the Labor Council might owe anti-war forces an explanation for having invited Pelosi in the first place. "
"So Pelosi and the Council were spared embarrassment. “As it stands now the event remains cancelled,” wrote Mackler contentedly, “now agreed to by most everyone, and hopefully with the least amount of damage done.”"
"The Executive Director of the Labor Council, Tim Paulson, who also happens to head the state Democratic Party’s labor caucus, was quick to show his appreciation to both Pelosi and to the October 17th Coalition while attacking Zeltzer."
"“We are…honored to be visited by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who has been fighting tirelessly for real health care reform and is taking time out of her busy schedule to break bread with her friends in the labor movement before she heads back to Washington, D.C..” wrote Paulson in a letter to union members."
"“I have recently received an email put out by Steve Zeltzer and was saddened to learn that Zeltzer is trying to organize and smear our event by protesting the Speaker at our celebration of Labor Day."
“Our partners in the anti-war movement have been calling me to say they are condemning this protest as irresponsible and divisive. U.S. Labor Against the War has written an email condemning this action. The A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition is also not supporting Zeltzer, and many progressive anti-war activists are emailing and calling the Labor Council to distance themselves from Zeltzer’s misguided efforts."
"“This missive is just to let our friends know that you might be met outside the hotel by some protesters, but that almost unilaterally the labor and anti-war movements condemn these efforts.”"
"“What labor and anti-war movements?” San Franciscans might legitimately ask."
"For the historical record, and for illustrations of the political effectiveness of causing embarrassment and rocking the boat, the last picket of a San Francisco Labor Council event took place at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on October 15, 1987. It was the annual dinner that the Labor Council hosted for the Israeli Labor Federation, the Histadrut, which had an office at a San Francisco union hall and whose close business ties with apartheid South Africa had been exposed in the Israeli press. It was also the first public event of the Labor Committee on the Middle East which had been co-founded by Steve Zeltzer and Blankfort earlier that August."
"The featured speaker was to be Mayor Willie Brown and Zeltzer and Blankfort wrote him requesting that, as an opponent of apartheid, he cancel the speaking invitation and make a public statement condemning the Histadrut. Needless to say, Brown refused and along with Walter Johnson, the executive director of the Labor Council at the time, and many of the guests, were forced to enter the hotel by a side entrance to avoid crossing our picket line. As a result of the protest, which garnered considerable publicity, there were no more Labor Council dinners honoring the Histadrut and shortly thereafter, it closed its office and left the city. "
See also:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php?show_comments=1#18620447
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php?show_comments=1#18620492
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php?show_comments=1#18620511
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620408.php?show_comments=1#18620647
THIS WAS A WATERSHED MOMENT IN THIS GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 21ST CENTURY. It is outrageous, unconscionable and unforgivable that "Socialist Action, Socialist Organizer, ANSWER, Peace and Freedom Party, World Can't Wait-RCP and the Party For Socialism and Liberation PSL" refused to endorse this urgently needed housecleaning event so that labor finally breaks from the Democratic Party as that is the only way it can advance. The idea of having the Executive Director of the Labor Council, Tim Paulson, also be chair the California Democratic Party’s labor caucus is equally outrageous, unconscionable and unforgivable as the Democratic Party, like its twin, the Republican Party, represents the same capitalist class that oppresses and exploits the workingclass. In other words, the Labor Council is just the plaything of the Democratic Party. WE CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT ANY ENDORSEMENT OF OUR PEACE MARCHES FROM A WAR PARTY OR ANY OF ITS ELECTION FRAUDING PUPPETS, LIKE THE SAN FRANCISCO LABOR COUNCIL, ALWAYS PROUD SUPPORTERS OF ALL STADIUM SWINDLES AND EVERYTHING ELSE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PROMOTES. Contrary to Paulson, Nancy Pelosi is bought and paid for by the insurance industry and does not support single payer healthcare, as the above comments to the above calendar item explain in detail. NOW WE KNOW WHICH GROUPS TO AVOID: THE DEMOCRAT-REPUBLICAN PARTY, THE SAN FRANCISCO LABOR COUNCIL, AND ALL OF ITS FRIENDS. There is no worker attending anything at the St. Francis Hotel or paying $100 a plate for anything. This is a vicious insult the workingclass. This country is in a grip of poverty unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and it is getting worse daily. Get out of your cars and walk around San Francisco or any other town in this country, and you will see lots of closed stores, lots of people begging everywhere. Get on the buses, go to the public schools, go to the workingclass communities, and see for yourself if you happen to be better off. There are no jobs; the school system is being destroyed; nothing works. Yet alleged socialists kiss the behind of the ruling class and their election frauding puppets, the San Francisco Labor Council. These old fossils need to be pushed aside immediately so the workingclass and the peace movement can move forward.
For more information:
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn090420...
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PELOSI IS NOT A FRIEND OF
WORKING PEOPLE AND LABOR
Let your voice be heard against her
pro-war and anti-labor policies!
Nancy Pelosi has been invited to be the guest of honor by the leadership of the San Francisco Labor Council for their Labor Day Breakfast On September 4, 2009. What is the record of San Francisco’s Congressional Representative and Speaker of the House.
*Pelosi has voted for hundreds of billions of dollars for the war in Iraq and has coerced other Democrats to support funding for the wars and for maintaining the US military empire around the world.
*Pelosi is for expanding the war in Aghanistan and is voting tens of billions of dollars for this imperial adventure.
*Pelosi as a member of the Intelligence Committee was told about torture and rendition by US forces around the world and kept it secret despite the fact it violated US and International law.
*Pelosi has voted to give billions of dollars of economic and military aid to Israel for it’s continued suppression of the rights of Palestinians and it’s genocidal apartheid policies against the people in the West Bank and Gaza.
*Pelosi supported NAFTA and other “Free Trade” Agreements that have harmed workers and organized labor in the US and in Mexico and Canada through deregulation and privatization.
*Pelosi has supported deregulation of the Telecommunications industry, the banks and the energy industry leading to major losses of union jobs and helping to bring the financial panics and crisis.
*Pelosi has supported the privatization of the Presidio and supported the privatization of large parts of the military as well as supporting an anti-labor law in the formation of the Homeland Security Agency that took away the right to organize unions.
*Pelosi refused to call public hearings on the terrorism against US postal workers in San Francisco despite petitions signed by hundreds of postal workers and a murder suicide of a postal worker and his supervisor.
*Pelosi has supported the militarization of the border and supported more funding for the ICE and the raids of the ICE to terrorize immigrant workers in the United States.
*Pelosi has voted trillions of dollars to bail out the banks through the TARP bill and other measures. She promised that there would be no more multi-million dollar payoffs to these crooked bank and insurance executives but at AIG and the major banks they continue to get major bonuses.
Pelosi’s policies have harmed the interests of workers in San Francisco, in the US and around the world. We need to let her know she does not represent the working people of San Francisco and the US.
For A Real Labor Representative For The Working People Of San Francisco
WORKING PEOPLE AND LABOR
Let your voice be heard against her
pro-war and anti-labor policies!
Nancy Pelosi has been invited to be the guest of honor by the leadership of the San Francisco Labor Council for their Labor Day Breakfast On September 4, 2009. What is the record of San Francisco’s Congressional Representative and Speaker of the House.
*Pelosi has voted for hundreds of billions of dollars for the war in Iraq and has coerced other Democrats to support funding for the wars and for maintaining the US military empire around the world.
*Pelosi is for expanding the war in Aghanistan and is voting tens of billions of dollars for this imperial adventure.
*Pelosi as a member of the Intelligence Committee was told about torture and rendition by US forces around the world and kept it secret despite the fact it violated US and International law.
*Pelosi has voted to give billions of dollars of economic and military aid to Israel for it’s continued suppression of the rights of Palestinians and it’s genocidal apartheid policies against the people in the West Bank and Gaza.
*Pelosi supported NAFTA and other “Free Trade” Agreements that have harmed workers and organized labor in the US and in Mexico and Canada through deregulation and privatization.
*Pelosi has supported deregulation of the Telecommunications industry, the banks and the energy industry leading to major losses of union jobs and helping to bring the financial panics and crisis.
*Pelosi has supported the privatization of the Presidio and supported the privatization of large parts of the military as well as supporting an anti-labor law in the formation of the Homeland Security Agency that took away the right to organize unions.
*Pelosi refused to call public hearings on the terrorism against US postal workers in San Francisco despite petitions signed by hundreds of postal workers and a murder suicide of a postal worker and his supervisor.
*Pelosi has supported the militarization of the border and supported more funding for the ICE and the raids of the ICE to terrorize immigrant workers in the United States.
*Pelosi has voted trillions of dollars to bail out the banks through the TARP bill and other measures. She promised that there would be no more multi-million dollar payoffs to these crooked bank and insurance executives but at AIG and the major banks they continue to get major bonuses.
Pelosi’s policies have harmed the interests of workers in San Francisco, in the US and around the world. We need to let her know she does not represent the working people of San Francisco and the US.
For A Real Labor Representative For The Working People Of San Francisco
The Pelosi Picket At The SFLC Breakfast
The decision arbitrarily to reverse a vote to picket Nancy Pelosi's presence
at the Labor Day breakfast initiated by the leadership of the San Francisco
Labor Council, is unwarranted.
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, is a leading policy maker in the
administration of Barack Obama and a point person for the imperialist,
profoundly anti-democratic and exploitative policies of the Democratic Party
- a principal instrument of rapacious class rule in the United States.
She represents the following:
Escalating the war of brutal aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
beyond.
Sustaining the murder of Iraq indefinitely.
Expanding the use of torture, rendition and the implementation in the United
States of the architecture of the fascist state.
She is a major figure in the handing over to the banksters, to date, of
$23.7 trillion, as documented by Neil Barofsky in his testimony before
Congress.
Nancy Pelosi, like the Party and administration she represents, is an enemy
of working people - of their economic survival, their right to organize and
their political independence.
It is matter of principle to protest her public appearances.
A picket protesting the anti-working class and anti-democratic policies that
she represents is not an attack upon labor, let alone upon the San
Francisco Labor Council as an organization.
It is disingenuous to equate protesting Ms. Pelosi's appearance at this
breakfast with an attack upon the San Francisco Labor Council as an
institution.
If the San Francisco Labor Council leadership is embarrassed by protests
against Nancy Pelosi, all the more reason to hold this picket.
The leadership that would foist upon the Labor Council and upon working
people the policies of the Democratic Party is a misleadership that disarms
labor and renders working people unable to fight in their own name and in
their class interests.
Those who have engaged in personal attacks upon Steve Zeltzer for proposing
to picket Nancy Pelosi's appearance on Friday, September 4 - a proposal that
was adopted unanimously - have used abusive language that covers an
unprincipled accommodation.
Every defender of the rights of working people will reject this hysteria
and recognize that it seeks to cover a bending of the knee to a labor
misleadership that undermines the future of working people in the United
States.
Ralph Schoenman
Mya Shone
Bradley Wiedmaier
The decision arbitrarily to reverse a vote to picket Nancy Pelosi's presence
at the Labor Day breakfast initiated by the leadership of the San Francisco
Labor Council, is unwarranted.
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, is a leading policy maker in the
administration of Barack Obama and a point person for the imperialist,
profoundly anti-democratic and exploitative policies of the Democratic Party
- a principal instrument of rapacious class rule in the United States.
She represents the following:
Escalating the war of brutal aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
beyond.
Sustaining the murder of Iraq indefinitely.
Expanding the use of torture, rendition and the implementation in the United
States of the architecture of the fascist state.
She is a major figure in the handing over to the banksters, to date, of
$23.7 trillion, as documented by Neil Barofsky in his testimony before
Congress.
Nancy Pelosi, like the Party and administration she represents, is an enemy
of working people - of their economic survival, their right to organize and
their political independence.
It is matter of principle to protest her public appearances.
A picket protesting the anti-working class and anti-democratic policies that
she represents is not an attack upon labor, let alone upon the San
Francisco Labor Council as an organization.
It is disingenuous to equate protesting Ms. Pelosi's appearance at this
breakfast with an attack upon the San Francisco Labor Council as an
institution.
If the San Francisco Labor Council leadership is embarrassed by protests
against Nancy Pelosi, all the more reason to hold this picket.
The leadership that would foist upon the Labor Council and upon working
people the policies of the Democratic Party is a misleadership that disarms
labor and renders working people unable to fight in their own name and in
their class interests.
Those who have engaged in personal attacks upon Steve Zeltzer for proposing
to picket Nancy Pelosi's appearance on Friday, September 4 - a proposal that
was adopted unanimously - have used abusive language that covers an
unprincipled accommodation.
Every defender of the rights of working people will reject this hysteria
and recognize that it seeks to cover a bending of the knee to a labor
misleadership that undermines the future of working people in the United
States.
Ralph Schoenman
Mya Shone
Bradley Wiedmaier
Since 1983, at the original invitation of Democratic mayor Dianne Feinstein, and every mayor since then, all Democrats, the Navy's Blue Death plans to strafe San Francisco October 8-11, 2009, Columbus Genocide Week, with its illegal low flights over heavily populated San Francisco wasting tax dollars and oil, MAKING TERRIBLE NOISE AND LETTERS EASILY SEEN WITH THE NAKED EYE AS THEY FLY TOO LOW, all to glorify war as the military does not exist to entertain anyone; it exists to murder the workingclass to maximize the profits of the capitalist class. The voting population, basically all adults over age 40 and all educated adults under age 40, have signed and submitted many public sentiment petitions to the Board of Supervisors to demand that this horrifying noisy strafing of San Francisco end. THERE IS NO SUPPORT IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR THIS TERRORISM BY THE UNITED STATES NAVY AND ITS FRIENDS, THE SAN FRANCISCO DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Here is a previous resolution submitted by Chris Daly and supported by 1 other Democrat and a Green in 2007 at http://www.blueangels.org/SF.htm
The current mayor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, nephew of Nancy Pelosi, strongly supports this terrorism of San Francisco. See his disgusting press release of August 13, 2007 at
http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_page.asp?id=65824
These horrifying death machines, the Blue Angels F/A18 Hornet, COSTING THE TAXPAYERS $18 MILLION EACH, are 56 feet long, 15.3 feet tall, with wingspan of 40.4 feet with missiles and wing area of 400 square feet, are more fully described with picture and drawing at http://www.blueangels.com/fa18hornet.shtml The history and armaments of these death machines with pictures may be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-18 At http://www.pbase.com/image/29006057 you will see the announcement with excellent photo of one of these murder machines that this is indeed a recruiting tool: “THE MISSION OF THE BLUE ANGELS IS TO ENHANCE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS RECRUITING…”
These terrorists flights are perpetrated by the same military that carried out the 9/11 Inside Job at the behest of the ruling class and its spokespeople, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Giuliani. More information on the 9/11 Inside Job, made obvious as it happened as there was no air defense, and if you need more, the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers and Building 7 is at the end of this article.
Since ANSWER is now a puppet of the Democratic Party, we need the people who have had enough of ANSWER to organize a peace rally at Union Square the weekend of October 10-11, 2009 (both days would be fine; it is a public space so we can just show up) to protest the Navy's Blue Death and the 9/11 Inside Job, the American Reichstag Fire, perpetrated by the US ruling class to promote war and fascism so as to maximize their profits as they no longer had the communist bogeyman to do the same. You will witness the Navy's Blue Death flights right over your head, with a deafening roar, about 2 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. We could walk to Hyde and California, near St. Francis Hospital, where the horrifying noise is even worse, and the flights are so low you can read all of the letters on these death machines with the naked eye. The strafing of the City begins no later than 2 p.m., sometimes around noon.
HERE IS YOUR HOMEWORK ON THE 9/11 INSIDE JOB:
Watch 9/11 Cover-Up on San Francisco Cable Channel 29 every Friday night, 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Listen to Guns & Butter on KPFA at 94.1 FM at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays and online at:
http://www.gunsandbutter.net/archives.php
View
http://www.brasschecktv.com/
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/664.html
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/88.html
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=49f_1172526096
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/topic/911investigation/
DVD that is a Must See at http://loosechange911.com/
and http://lc911.com/lc911/catalog/Loose-Change-Final-Cut-DVD-p-44.html
Go to Socialist Viewpoint at
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/
for videos and articles on the 9/11 Truth Movement including, in Volume 9, No. 3, May-June 2009, “Exotic High Tech Explosives Positively Identified in World Trade Center Dust” by Editor, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, which also has this article at:
http://www.ae911truth.org/info/51 based on the scientific article by Niels H. Harris, Jeffrey Farrer, Steven E. Jones, Kevin R. Ryan, Frank M. Legge, Daniel Farnsworth, Gregg Roberts, James R. Gourley, Bradley R. Larsen at
http://www.bentham.org/open/tocpj/openaccess2.htm
READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS:
1.Crossing the Rubicon by Michael Ruppert
2.9/11 Facing Our Fascist State by Don Paul (Excellent research all done in 2001-2002; obviously an Inside Job from the beginning. The evidence is in this book.)
3.Waking Up From Our Nightmare by Don Paul and Jim Hoffman (Good color photos & research)
4.Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive? by David Griffin (2009)
5.New Pearl Harbor Revisited by David Griffin (2008)
6.The Hidden History of 9/11, ed by Paul Zarembka (2008), articles by David Griffin, Jay Kolar, Zarembka, Don Trent Jacobs, Nafez Ahmed, David MacGregor, Bryan Sacks, Diana Ralph, with Appendix by Bertrand Russell: 16 Questions on the JFK Assassination (teaches how to investigate a crime)
7.The 9/11 Conspiracy, edited James Fetzer (2007), articles by John Austin, David Griffin, James Fetzer, Jack White, Judy Wood, Joseph Firmage, Morgan Reynolds, Rick Rajter, Elias Davidsson, Peter Dale Scott, John McMurty plus excellent photos
8. 9/11 Contradictions by David Griffin (2008)
9. The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions & Distortions by David Griffin
10. The New Pearl Harbor by David Griffin
11. Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Griffin
12.Painful Questions by Eric Hufschmid
13. The Iron Triangle (on the Carlyle Group) by Dan Briody
14. 9/11 Revealed: The Unanswered Questions by Rowland Morgan & Ian Henshall
15.9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA by Webster Tarpley
16. Body of Secrets by James Bamford
17. The War on Truth by Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed
18. Towers of Deception by Barrie Zwicker (with DVD enclosed)
19. 9/11 and American Empire edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott
20. Flight 93 Revealed by Ian Henshall and Rowland Morgan
21.The Terror Timeline by Paul Thompson
22.Welcome to Terrorland: Mohammed Atta & the 9/11 Coverup in Florida by Daniel Hopsicker
23.The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistleblowers and The Coverup by Sander Hicks
24.The Terror Conspiracy by Jim Marrs
25.Inside Job by Jim Marrs
26.Forbidden Truth by Jean-Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie
27.Pentagate by Thierry Meyssan
28.9/11: The Big Lie by Thierry Meyssan
The current mayor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, nephew of Nancy Pelosi, strongly supports this terrorism of San Francisco. See his disgusting press release of August 13, 2007 at
http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_page.asp?id=65824
These horrifying death machines, the Blue Angels F/A18 Hornet, COSTING THE TAXPAYERS $18 MILLION EACH, are 56 feet long, 15.3 feet tall, with wingspan of 40.4 feet with missiles and wing area of 400 square feet, are more fully described with picture and drawing at http://www.blueangels.com/fa18hornet.shtml The history and armaments of these death machines with pictures may be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-18 At http://www.pbase.com/image/29006057 you will see the announcement with excellent photo of one of these murder machines that this is indeed a recruiting tool: “THE MISSION OF THE BLUE ANGELS IS TO ENHANCE NAVY AND MARINE CORPS RECRUITING…”
These terrorists flights are perpetrated by the same military that carried out the 9/11 Inside Job at the behest of the ruling class and its spokespeople, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Giuliani. More information on the 9/11 Inside Job, made obvious as it happened as there was no air defense, and if you need more, the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers and Building 7 is at the end of this article.
Since ANSWER is now a puppet of the Democratic Party, we need the people who have had enough of ANSWER to organize a peace rally at Union Square the weekend of October 10-11, 2009 (both days would be fine; it is a public space so we can just show up) to protest the Navy's Blue Death and the 9/11 Inside Job, the American Reichstag Fire, perpetrated by the US ruling class to promote war and fascism so as to maximize their profits as they no longer had the communist bogeyman to do the same. You will witness the Navy's Blue Death flights right over your head, with a deafening roar, about 2 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. We could walk to Hyde and California, near St. Francis Hospital, where the horrifying noise is even worse, and the flights are so low you can read all of the letters on these death machines with the naked eye. The strafing of the City begins no later than 2 p.m., sometimes around noon.
HERE IS YOUR HOMEWORK ON THE 9/11 INSIDE JOB:
Watch 9/11 Cover-Up on San Francisco Cable Channel 29 every Friday night, 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Listen to Guns & Butter on KPFA at 94.1 FM at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays and online at:
http://www.gunsandbutter.net/archives.php
View
http://www.brasschecktv.com/
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/664.html
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/88.html
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=49f_1172526096
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/topic/911investigation/
DVD that is a Must See at http://loosechange911.com/
and http://lc911.com/lc911/catalog/Loose-Change-Final-Cut-DVD-p-44.html
Go to Socialist Viewpoint at
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/
for videos and articles on the 9/11 Truth Movement including, in Volume 9, No. 3, May-June 2009, “Exotic High Tech Explosives Positively Identified in World Trade Center Dust” by Editor, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, which also has this article at:
http://www.ae911truth.org/info/51 based on the scientific article by Niels H. Harris, Jeffrey Farrer, Steven E. Jones, Kevin R. Ryan, Frank M. Legge, Daniel Farnsworth, Gregg Roberts, James R. Gourley, Bradley R. Larsen at
http://www.bentham.org/open/tocpj/openaccess2.htm
READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS:
1.Crossing the Rubicon by Michael Ruppert
2.9/11 Facing Our Fascist State by Don Paul (Excellent research all done in 2001-2002; obviously an Inside Job from the beginning. The evidence is in this book.)
3.Waking Up From Our Nightmare by Don Paul and Jim Hoffman (Good color photos & research)
4.Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive? by David Griffin (2009)
5.New Pearl Harbor Revisited by David Griffin (2008)
6.The Hidden History of 9/11, ed by Paul Zarembka (2008), articles by David Griffin, Jay Kolar, Zarembka, Don Trent Jacobs, Nafez Ahmed, David MacGregor, Bryan Sacks, Diana Ralph, with Appendix by Bertrand Russell: 16 Questions on the JFK Assassination (teaches how to investigate a crime)
7.The 9/11 Conspiracy, edited James Fetzer (2007), articles by John Austin, David Griffin, James Fetzer, Jack White, Judy Wood, Joseph Firmage, Morgan Reynolds, Rick Rajter, Elias Davidsson, Peter Dale Scott, John McMurty plus excellent photos
8. 9/11 Contradictions by David Griffin (2008)
9. The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions & Distortions by David Griffin
10. The New Pearl Harbor by David Griffin
11. Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Griffin
12.Painful Questions by Eric Hufschmid
13. The Iron Triangle (on the Carlyle Group) by Dan Briody
14. 9/11 Revealed: The Unanswered Questions by Rowland Morgan & Ian Henshall
15.9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA by Webster Tarpley
16. Body of Secrets by James Bamford
17. The War on Truth by Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed
18. Towers of Deception by Barrie Zwicker (with DVD enclosed)
19. 9/11 and American Empire edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott
20. Flight 93 Revealed by Ian Henshall and Rowland Morgan
21.The Terror Timeline by Paul Thompson
22.Welcome to Terrorland: Mohammed Atta & the 9/11 Coverup in Florida by Daniel Hopsicker
23.The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistleblowers and The Coverup by Sander Hicks
24.The Terror Conspiracy by Jim Marrs
25.Inside Job by Jim Marrs
26.Forbidden Truth by Jean-Charles Brisard & Guillaume Dasquie
27.Pentagate by Thierry Meyssan
28.9/11: The Big Lie by Thierry Meyssan
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