Bal Harbour, FL
The intensity of the assault on working families following the 1994 Congressional election was harsher than expected. The Republican extremists had a message that captured the imagination of American voters, including nearly 40% our members.
But the electorate in 1994 didn't vote for the program the radical Republican Congressional leadership had in mind for them -- slashing Medicare funding, cutting Medicaid and then giving it to the states with no guarantees and few standards, cutting funding for education and college loans, weakening environmental and worksite health and safety protections, and attacking all other programs for working families.
The AFL-CIO staved off the assault by informing our members and the public about the details of the Republican Contract -- details hidden by their rhetoric. We communicated with workers and their families, mobilized them to resist, and began the process of forming a national grassroots network to carry their voice into the national political debate.
We have hit the nerve center of the Gingrich extremists. As a result of the victory in Oregon and the grassroots legislative and political plan we've begun, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have filed FEC complaints against us. Their cronies at the Heritage Foundation published a "study" in an attempt to limit the ability of unions to engage members in legislative and political battles. And the Wall Street Journal accused us of "Ruining Politics".
The AFL-CIO wears these specious charges as a badge of honor and we take them as an incentive to continue to win and engage and empower our members and workers in America. We intend to organize grassroots action committees of at least 100 activists in every Congressional district in this country. We will commit every resource at our disposal to register voters, educate and inform our members as well as the general public. And we will rally our efforts to turn out massive numbers of voters in local, state and federal elections this fall as we reclaim America.
To get this job done the labor movement must mount an effort of unprecedented scale, with every union doing its share by contributing ideas, money, staff, media and materials.
While implementation of our plan will benefit candidates who stand with working families, that is not our primary goal. Rather, we will rebuild a base of working people who will hold elected officials, regardless of party, accountable and inject workers' rights and values into our national debate --- this year and next year and the next.