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PrintMarch 24, 2011
Will SEIU Tape Its Next Corporate Kill?
There have been some interesting and sometimes humorous caught on tape news items lately, but the most explosive and scary one was last week. The subject at interest here is Stephen Lerner, a former official with the powerful union SEIU, and he offers a disturbing glimpse into the hidden anti-business agenda of the Left -- to intentionally harm our economy to build its own power base.
Speaking at a university forum last week, Lerner spoke about his plans to destroy Wall Street and the markets and create all the necessary conditions to push us into a complete change of government and redistribution of wealth.
For example, he schemes that, "10% of homeowners are underwater, right, their home they are paying more for it than it's worth 10% of those people are in strategic default, meaning they are refusing to pay but they are staying in their home that's totally spontaneous they figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because foreclosure is backed up.... If you could double that number you could put banks at the edge of insolvency again."
Last Spring, writing in the New Labor Forum, Lerner argued that the modern labor movement has not done enough to capitalize on economic crisis and is at risk of losing relevance unless they take drastic measures. He writes,
Speaking at a university forum last week, Lerner spoke about his plans to destroy Wall Street and the markets and create all the necessary conditions to push us into a complete change of government and redistribution of wealth.
For example, he schemes that, "10% of homeowners are underwater, right, their home they are paying more for it than it's worth 10% of those people are in strategic default, meaning they are refusing to pay but they are staying in their home that's totally spontaneous they figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because foreclosure is backed up.... If you could double that number you could put banks at the edge of insolvency again."
Last Spring, writing in the New Labor Forum, Lerner argued that the modern labor movement has not done enough to capitalize on economic crisis and is at risk of losing relevance unless they take drastic measures. He writes,
"If we don't seize the opportunity of the current economic crisis to chart a radically different course-committing ourselves and our movement to organizing for transformative change-we will sink into a deserved abyss of irrelevance."
If that sounds familiar, it's because it echoes anti-corporate, anti-liberty "thinkers." Over-burdening the machine is straight out of the Cloward/Piven strategy to seek (and cause) systemic crisis to seize power. And those who have actually read V.I. Lenin will note that Lerner's argument has shades of the former political radical and communist leader's logic and rhetoric. Their idea of progress is a combination of socialism and anarchy.
These are not just thoughts, since thoughts have consequences. Far-out SEIU activists have attempted to mold the world in their image of "progress." It's not just that SEIU types like Lerner want to kill mean ol' banks; a Texas businessman is suing the union after it threatened to "kill" his company if he didn't accede to card check demands, and allegedly cost the company millions of dollars in lost business.
As a small business owner, there's always more than enough to do with actually running the business, managing employees, purchasing and maintaining equipment and many other tasks that are common to every other hard working business. The personal benefits are many, foremost is the ability to provide for my family, provide jobs to those who work hard, and be in a position to be a benefit to my community and the economy.
It's astonishing that there are individuals such as Mr. Lerner and others in the Big Labor and "community organizer" movement who find the business community and a robust economy as powers that must be ruined and brought down as the means to enact their warped view of government. We should automatically be suspicious of anyone who rejoices at economic downturns and wishes they would hurt more, as they obviously don't have the well being of Americans at heart.
It's a good reminder next time SEIU or one of its ilk pushes "social change" that seems to put more change in their pocket but be bad for the rest of society.
Brett McMahon is a spokesman for the Free Enterprise Alliance's Halt The Assault campaign.
