http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.htmlJanuary 29, 2010
On Thursday, January 21, the Supreme Court handed down an opinion that dramatically altered the legal landscape of campaign finance law. In its 5-4 ruling on Citizens United vs. FEC, the court overturned two precedents, struck down key parts of the McCain-Feingold, and thrust campaign laws in 24 states — some over a century old — into legal limbo.
To find out what the ruling means for American democracy, Bill Moyers turns to Monica Youn, an attorney at NYU Law's Brennan Center for Justice, and Zephyr Teachout, a professor at Fordham School of Law.
Youn, who has litigated campaign finance and election laws in federal courts throughout the country, argues that by allowing corporations the spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose a candidate, the new reality of campaign finance may direct the focus of political parties away from people and towards corporations:
What the Supreme Court has done here is really a power play. It takes power away from the grassroots, and it puts it squarely back in the hands of corporate special interests. <...> It threatens to make these grassroots networks irrelevant. To say, you know, it's no longer going to be worthwhile for parties to look for fundraising opportunities, $20, $100, even $2,400 at a time, if they can just have multimillion dollar support directly from corporate treasuries.
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January 29, 2010
Jobs reigned high among the priorities outlined in President Obama's first State of the Union address. But union members, some of Obama's most active supporters, are hoping he delivers not just jobs, but union jobs. They have reason to be hopeful — when the AFL-CIO held its convention the week of September 14, 2009, there was a new AFL-CIO leader, Richard Trumka, a new president in the White House and a Secretary of Labor friendly to some of organized labor's priorities like the Employee Free Choice Act.
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka joins Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to talk about why he thinks labor remains relevant, how labor has fared thus far under the Obama presidency, and the role he envisions for unions in the future.
Since their heyday in the middle of the 20th century, unions have fallen on hard times. A recent Gallup poll showed support for unions at the lowest level since they began posing the question in 1936. And, although there was an uptick in membership in 2008, the percentage of American workers represented by a union is down to about 12 percent from more than 25 percent in 1950.
As World War II came to an end, more than a quarter of the American workforce belonged to unions. Labor leaders wielded major clout in Democratic Party politics. They had the ear of the White House and Congress. That power plummeted as states adopted right-to-work laws, jobs moved overseas, and union-busting campaigns by corporate America became commonplace. For many, the benefits of union membership — job and wage security, workplace safety, health and pension benefits — evaporated.
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December 4, 2009
"They're willing to let people think about mild reforms and little changes, and incremental changes, but they don't want people to think that we could actually transform this country." Howard Zinn has long been known as the historian of the American everyman and woman. His groundbreaking work, THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, turned history on its head — concentrating on the power of the people to effect change, not just the deeds of great men and those in political power.
Now selections from his collection of voices from the American past are performed by actors, poets and writers in a new documentary directed by Matt Damon which is airing on The History Channel. Find out more about some of those voices below, and delve further into American history through the JOURNAL's coverage of American history on-air and online.
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