Nurses and Teachers
"Stop Arnold"
The Nurses and Teachers (and Raging Grannies) were in full form this afternoon - down at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale.
Their "Stop Arnold" campaign was in the Silicon Valley to protest another billionaire fundraiser for Arnold's anti-worker ballot initiatives. Today Yahoo founder, Jerry Yang, was hosting Arnold's oligarchy.
I felt honored to be among the heroines and heroes who have managed to stop this Schwarz'ngr/Corporate juggernaut in its tracks. Giuliana Milanese took me down there. She's an organizer for CNA, the California Nurses Association.
Our nurses and teachers have taken the offensive with innovative tactics including brilliant TV commercials. They have reframed the public discussion, in this case about the Governor's power grabbing Special Election in November. They are exposing the beast for what it is: a mean spirited, dishonest campaign by Schwarz'ngr and his wealthy supporters to capture even more power and wealth for themselves - an almost identical replica of what Bush, Cheney, Rove and Delay are doing nationally.
The latest commercial from the teachers spotlights the Schwarz'ngr strategy: create a "phenomenon of anger" against teachers and all public workers by blaming them continuously for California's economic woes. It clearly illuminates the vicious "blame game" mentality of Schwarz'ngr and Company.
Meanwhile the Austrian-American California governor has collected $100K contributions from everyone from Chevron-Texaco and Wal-Mart to Anheuser-Bush and Donald Fisher.
Who is Donald Fisher? Fisher is an example of the extent to which greed and power can pervert the human animal. We in San Francisco have a particularly insulting relationship with this odious creature. He lives here and he continually uses his enormous wealth (The GAP) to manipulate the local body politic. Most recently he is alleged to have paid for a hit piece bearing a swastika against local progressive Supervisor, Gerardo Sandoval.
Fisher is now using his wealth to try to drive Sandoval into poverty. Fisher's strategy is to put the fear of God into all progressives in San Francisco who dare to mess with him. He's shown that he will use any means to increase his strangle hold on this city.
What does this have to do with the nurses and Schwarz'ngr?
I believe that Fisher reflects the ugly reality of the mentality and the morality of the Schwarz'ngr/Bush phenomenon. The California nurses and teachers have learned how to expose them for what they are. All of us had better understand the likes of Donald Fisher because we will be doing battle with them for years to come.
It's going to be a hard battle to beat Schwarz'ngr in November. He and his funders will spend hundreds of millions of dollars; they will be at their meanest; they will stoop so low as to vilify even our care providers and our educators. They will try to destroy anyone who gets in their way.
Nonetheless, this oligarchy can be beaten. Our nurses and teachers are proving that. They are in the vanguard of the people's revolution for economic and social justice in America.
I urge everyone to add yourselves to Giuliana's mailing list and to participate whenever and however possible in the Stop Arnold campaign. It symbolizes everything we stand for, locally and nationally.
Email her at gmilanese@calnurses.org
Yours,
Charles