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LABOR LAUNCHES ANTI-McCAIN CAMPAIGN

(PAI)LABOR LAUNCHES ANTI-McCAIN CAMPAIGN
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer

    EXETER, N.H. (PAI)--The cold north winds from Canada
and an even colder crowd of Republicans inside didn’t
stop more than two dozen unionists from launching
labor’s anti-John McCain campaign, in the northern
wilds of Exeter, N.H.

    The group gathered March 12 near where the Arizona
senator, the all-but-officially-crowned GOP
presidential nominee, hosted a “town hall” meeting to
thank Granite State Republicans for reviving his
once-seemingly-dead White House drive.

    The unionists’ objective was to tell voters--and
indeed the rest of the country--what McCain’s real
record is on issues important to workers.

    For the New Hampshire group, their focus was on
McCain’s votes against legislation that would help
workers when plants close--or even require firms to
warn them of closures--for so-called “free trade”
treaties without worker rights, his comments in
Michigan that jobs won’t come back, and his admitted
lack of an economic plan.

    The New Hampshire unionists, marshaled by the state
AFL-CIO, are the van-guard of what will be an intense
push by the national AFL-CIO to “define” McCain by his
anti-worker votes, before he gets a chance to define
himself by his supposed “straight  talk,” federation
national Political Director Karen Ackerman told
reporters that day.

    And defining McCain, including a critical website
detailing his record, and featuring his smiling photo
with that of anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush,
is part of the federation’s overall $53.4 million
political drive this year, she added.   All of that
will be for grass-roots organizing and education, with
none for radio and TV ads.

    “He has not yet talked about a plan to focus on
preventing good-paying jobs from leaving this country,
or on a plan to rebuild this country,” and the fed is
going to hold McCain accountable, Ackerman said.
“Everywhere he goes, union members will go to confront
him and demand he talk on economic items.”

    New Hampshire wasn’t the opening salvo in the “McCain
revealed” campaign, including a website by that name.
The first shots were fired at rallies in Columbus and
Cincinnati before the Ohio primary.  And the website
features a “briefing book” of the senator’s stands.

    Those include his votes for NAFTA, the
jobs-destroying U.S.-Mexico-Canada “free trade” pact
and for successor, similar treaties with Central
American and other nations.

    They also include McCain’s votes against raising the
minimum wage, his votes against labor rights, and his
health care plan, a variation of Bush’s demand to
privatize Medicare and to leave everyone at the mercy
of the health insurance companies.  And they include
his support for GOP plans to substitute comp time for
overtime, for Bush’s plan to privatize Social
Security, and against expanding SCHIP, the joint
federal-state children’s health care program.  Bush
vetoed SCHIP expansion, twice.
   
           McCain’s stands on those issues, especially
Social Security, SCHIP and the wage issues, will be
pitched to the wider electorate, not just to
unionists, Ackerman said.  “We’ll be encouraging him
to change his position” on those and other economic
topics, she pointed out.  “But we’ll complete his
profile to show his unwavering support of Bush’s
economic agenda, so people won’t be fooled.”  She
called him “Bush term 3.”

    The federation will take its “McCain revealed”
campaign into at least 23 states, including 17 swing
states in the presidential race and six others with
hot Senate or gubernatorial races.   Key states are
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.
 Others include Missouri and Indiana, where
governorships are contested, and Kentucky and Alaska,
which expect U.S. Senate battles.

    The McCain revealed campaign is part of the AFL-CIO’s
wider effort to “turn America around,” the theme of
its overall Election ’08 drive.  That drive also
includes voter registration, efforts to prevent voter
suppression, and a 4-part platform for changing the
economy to help workers.

    The four parts are universal affordable health
care--type unspecified--good jobs with guaranteed
pensions, fair trade and a strong right to organize
and bargain.   All are interconnected, the AFL-CIO
says.  “We’ll be targeting union households with a
massive effort,” Ackerman adds. Besides the
anti-McCain campaign, the overall effort will include
a massive get-out-the-vote drive, labor-to-neighbor
walks on health care on May 17 in more than 100 cities
and a big presence at the Democratic National
Convention in Denver.  “We haven’t decided yet” on
what to do at the GOP convention in the Twin Cities,
she said.
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