Koch Tea Party wrong about Boston Tea Party



A pro-union small business in Madison, Wisc.

What is it about the Tea Party's ignorance of  American history? Michele Bachmann thinks the shot heard round the world happened in New Hampshire. Sarah Palin thinks Paul Revere warned the British. And the Koch-funded Tea Party (Americans for Prosperity) thinks the Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation.

Actually, the Boston Tea Party was about a special corporate tax break given to a corporate monopoly. The British crown gave a tax break on tea to the Dutch East India Company, a multinational. That preferential treatment threatened to put small American entrepreneurs out of business. Hence, the tea party.

Multinational corporations can be as much a threat to small businesses as to working Americans. We all know what Wal-Mart does to Main Street retailers, and Wal-Mart isn't the only one. Multinationals also pit their suppliers against each other to drive down their costs in much the same way they pit workers against each other to drive down wages.

So labor unions and small business have a lot more in common than you might think. And in the War on Workers, we're noticing more and more alliances among unions and small businesses.

In New Hampshire, small businesses had a tweet-a-thon to support unions by opposing HB474, a right-to-work bill to destroy unions. The AFL-CIO blog reports,

Hundreds of New Hampshire small businesses are taking part in a 36-hour tweet-a-thon, telling the New Hampshire Legislature, especially House Speaker Bill O’Brien, to keep the Granite State open for business and stop playing political games with so-called right to work legislation.

Here's a typical tweet:

Key to keeping NH open? NO to HB 474! Keystone Press LLC, Manchester wants to #keepNHopen4biz http://bit.ly/k5S0Le #NHhouse #standupNH

In Ohio, many small businesses are showing their support for labor by opposing SB 5, the heinous bill that strips collective bargaining rights from government workers. They're part of the Proud Ohio Workers campaign:

Proud Ohio Workers wants to ensure that small shops all across Ohio will remain open. If public employee wages are reduced and jobs are cut, local businesses will suffer. Supporting the creation and retention of good paying middle class jobs is good for local economies,

One of the first actions ever took place in Youngstown at the Our Family Restaurant, where three-fourths of the customers work at the Board of Education next door.

Small businesses in Madison showed their support of unions during the massive protests in February and March. Shopowners advertised 10 percent discounts for teachers. And some small businesses made the extra effort, like the one pictured above.