The not-so-spontaneous Occupiers are planning a new action for February 29th — “Shut Down the Corporations.” As is usually the case, this appears on the surface to be another David and Goliath battle between the little people and the big, bad, evil capitalists. However, looking behind the curtain, it is more like Occupy acting as a private army for all the same progressive players. This is not an attack on corporate America. This is an attack on selected conservative corporations only.
The actual target of this event is the membership of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that represents everything they despise:
A nonpartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who shared a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty.
Considering ALEC membership allegedly includes many in the GOP, the Koch Brothers, Focus on the Family, the Heritage Foundation and more, one can see why few groups would make a better target. It not only includes their least favorite people, but ALEC is blamed for slowing down their revolutionary efforts in Wisconsin:
Wisconsin has become the critical start point for a much broader assault on worker’s rights and unions. Ohio has seen similar protests over a very similar bill. And states like Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey and new Mexico are considering additional limits on public employee rights, though not to the extent of Ohio and Wisconsin.
The origins, as I wrote about Monday, come from ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a key driver in the conservative movement. One reason why you see similar bills from Republicans pop up in multiple states is ALEC, which pushes an agenda for state legislators to pick up and run with. We know that ALEC brought together Walker and southern state Governors after the elections to discuss so-called “right-to-work” legislation. We know that ALEC commended Walker for his first successful piece of legislation, the bill slashing business taxes that created the budget deficit which he is now exploiting to take away public employee rights. They are basically behind all of this.
No one networks like these people do, but they certainly don’t seem to appreciate it when it is employed by conservatives.
As is always the case, it is no coincidence that ALEC also seems to be despised by Van Jones, his close associate and Wiccan activist Starhawk, George Soros funded groups, and Professor Joel Rogers.
The Shut Down the Corporations site has direct ties to Starhawk, suggesting her material as part of their training resources:
Within an affinity group, there are a whole range of different roles that its’ members can perform. A lot of these roles will be determined by the aim or reason for existence of the AG. The aim at the end of the day is to look after yourself and each other, have fun, and work towards a maximum degree of constructive social change.
* The above is adapted from Starhawk (more at http://www.starhawk.org/activism/trainer-resources/affinitygroups.html )
Van Jones’ Color of Change organization has an anti-ALEC campaign going as well, against the “racist” Voter ID legislation that would actually require identification to vote.
For years, the right wing has been trying to stop Black people, other people of color, young people, and the elderly from voting- and now some of America’s biggest companies are helping them do it. These companies have helped pass discriminatory voter ID legislation by funding a right wing policy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Of course, that requirement might make election fraud a lot harder to pull off. According to their site, there is virtually no voter fraud in the US, which might come as a surprise to many.
Although proponents of the voter ID laws claim the goal is to reduce voter fraud, there is no evidence that such fraud occurs with any regularity in this country.
According to a recent piece at BigGovernment.com , radical professor Joel Rogers at the University of Wisconsin and director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) feels so strongly about defeating ALEC that he is offering college credit to students who will help him build a Leftist alternative. From the MacIver Institute:
At the conclusion of his end-of-the-year email to his UW Law School students, Professor Joel Rogers wrote:
“I think I mentioned a little project I am doing now- which thus far involves professors from such crummy law schools as Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Virginia [sic] and elsewhere, but thus far, beyond your lonesome, NOBODY from UW- to build a partial counter to ALEC. It’s going to involve a lot of law students. If you’re interested in helping out with that (no money, but possible credit), or know of somebosy [sic] else who might be, please let me, or even better, “Nate Ela” a lawyer and now sociology grad student, know. Project description attached.”
The funders of Rogers’ COWS organization include, of course, Soros’ Open Society Institute along with the Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and more of the usual progressive funders.
Also promoting Shut Down the Corporations is a website called Nonviolent Conflict that appears to be from Ryan Croy, a Colorado activist. Ryan encourages the use of the Peter Ackerman/Gene Sharp/CANVAS “Waging Nonviolence” techniques for revolution, the techniques used in the Serbian uprising that Soros was involved with. In fact, Ryan put together a workbook on using these techniques for Coloradans for Immigrant Rights/Let Us Rise. These are the techniques used in Egypt and promoted by movements.org, the State Dept. and Google related youth movement site. We all know how that turned out.
Once again, it’s clear that the usual players from the vast network of radical progressives continue to use the Occupy movement in an attempt to take care of yet another item on their revolutionary shopping list.
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