A Crain's Cleveland Business writer put his name on a press release (he called it "news") announcing that union-busting billionaires will run this vicious anti-worker ad beginning today in Ohio. Only he didn't quite put it like that. Scott Sutell wrote:
Ohio will be the focal part of a broad-based campaign by FreedomWorks, which advocates for small-government causes, to target what the group considers “the rampant abuse of power that organized labor has engaged at the state and federal level to impact elections and the public policymaking process.”Let's hold it right there. FreedomWorks is not for small government. FreedomWorks is for large corporations that plunder American taxpayers and attack American workers. FreedomWorks just fine with big government, so long as it benefits CEOs and billionaires.
And is there anyone on the planet who thinks American labor unions engaged in a rampant abuse of power? Our polling shows most people believe (correctly) that it's corporate abuse of power we need to be worried about.
But let's continue with Mr. Sutell's stenography:
FreedomWorks said the budget for the first phase of the campaign is $5.6 million. The campaign will include “organized grassroots rallies and protest activities to counter union events, in addition to paid TV and online video ads,” the group said.
The campaign will begin in Ohio, followed by Wisconsin, Tennessee and other states.Our heads are exploding at the brazenness of the lie that FreedomWorks has anything to do with grassroots rallies. Unless you consider billionaires -- most of whom inherited their money --to be "grassroots." Let's look at the corporations and multimillionaire-founded groups that fund FreedomWorks:
• The Armstrong Foundation: 140,000 (Run by union-busting executives of a company that wants to double Teamsters employees’ health care premiums and cut benefits)
• Carthage Foundation: 200,000 (funded by the Mellon family industrial, oil, uranium and banking fortune)
• Castle Rock Foundation: 65,000 (funded by Coors’ heirs)
• Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation: 674,484 (speaks for itself)
• Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation: $5,725,375 (a Koch foundation)
• David H. Koch Charitable Foundation: $5,956,853 (speaks for itself)
• Earhart Foundation: $35,000 (started in 1929 by Earhart fortune from White Star Oil Company)
• Exxon Mobile: $275,250
• F.M. Kirby Foundation: $145,000 (from Kirby family fortune)
• Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation: $360,000 (from Cain chemical fortune)
• JM Foundation: $135,000
• Jaquelin Hume Foundation: $50,000
• John M. Olin Foundation: $1,300,000 (founded by Olin family chemical and munitions fortune)
• Leadership Institute: $500
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $205,000 (founded by Wisconsin multimillionaires to champion corporate rights; Harry Bradley founded the John Birch Society)
• Philip M. McKenna Foundation: $162,000
• Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation: $205,000 (from Amway (Ponzi scheme) fortune)
• Rodney Fund: $102,000
• Roe Foundation: $2,000 (founded by right-wing S. Carolina multimillionaire)
• Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation: $10,000
• Sarah Scaife Foundation: 2,960,000 (Mellon family)
• Scaife Family Foundation: 325,000 (Mellon family)
• Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation: 97,000
We just have one question: how come these groups are considered "charitable"? All they do is try to bust unions, lower wages for working people and try to make it easier to ship jobs overseas.
