New labor SuperPAC jumps into the political field

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http://peoplesworld.org/new-labor-superpac-jumps-into-the-political-field/

Labor's new SuperPAC will be called Workers' Voice, the AFL-CIO announced this week. The labor movement says it formed the SuperPac not because it expects, like the corporate SuperPacs, to be able to raise billions of dollars for political campaigns but because it will allow unions to bring their program to non-union members.

Workers' Voice, the new union SuperPAC, has an initial warchest of $5.4 million, according to the AFL-CIO. It will "activate and energize networks of working families -- both union and non-union -- around political campaigns, legislative issues and holding elected officials accountable," said the labor federation in a statement.

Workers' Voice is the first entry by anyone other than large corporations into a political field of SuperPACs awash in corporate campaign cash thus far funneled into campaign operations with little or no disclosure or accountability. The SuperPACs were made possible by the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling two years ago.

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Workers' Voice will focus on social networking on issues, on voter registration and protection, and on get-out-the-vote efforts, she said. "It will be dedicated to helping communities of color, seniors, and students exercise their right to participate in the process," Shuler added.

Link to join Worker's Voice: http://www.workersvoice.org/

Like 'em on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WorkersVoice

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1. I'm glad to see them reaching out to non-union members, but this is weak, VERY weak.

Unions have 30 years of reaganesque union-bashing to overcome, and they aren't going to do shit by nicey-nicey helping get out the vote. Where in the fuck have they been that they let the voting machines be taken over by corporate whores?

Unions are the group most capable of turning elections around. But their bigness, their corporate culture, their noses-up-the-asses-of-washington-insiders posture of the past 30 years, with their tails between their legs, has me furious. LABOR IS THE WORKER!!! And LABOR UNIONS should represent THE WORKERS. ALL the workers.

The labor unions quit representing the worker when they didn't update and innovate after the Reagan war on workers.

I, as a non-union person, would have donated HANDSOMELY to any union or superpac that was actually out there fighting tooth and nail for the worker. Even this announcement doesn't give me the incentive to contribute. It's like a limp noodle trying to fence against Excalibur.

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2. Well, I'm sorry.

I'm in AFT and I'm happy to see the beginnings of growth of an independent progressive structure by the unions, which this is. Hopefully you will find something to join when the effort is further along.