I was surprised when I saw that the AFL-CIO was backing SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act sponsored by the RIAA and MPAA. I was able to find out the name of the AFL-CIO official, Paul Almeida, testifying for the bill, and I sent him and email. Below follows that exchange.
To: Paul Almeida
From: Michael Pellegrini
Subject: Sorry to see an AFL-CIO officer shilling for likes of the RIAA…
Sir:
I am an ILWU member. I’ve been involved in the union movement for over 30 years, working as an International Organizer, as a Business Rep, and have held elective positions.
I am appalled to find the AFL-CIO in bed with organizations like the RIAA and supporting SOPA.
Perhaps this is the “new” AFL-CIO we’re seeing?
I can’t imagine any good reason to support the passage of SOPA – a bill that does away with due process, which will stifle First Amendment rights, kill innovation and generally do away with the Internet as we know it.
With the percentage of union members on the steep decline, is this the new tack for the AFL-CIO – hiring out as a “big guns” lobbyist for whatever deep-pockets, scumsucking organization has the bucks? I suppose that could be quite lucrative.
Because the RIAA and their buddies are indeed scumsucking, lowlife one-cell, life forms. Their business model is outmoded and will soon vanish. But yet they cling to the past, vainly trying to halt progress and innovation – all at the expense of consumers, and our civil rights.
This sort of attempt to halt progress is not without precedent: in the early 1900’s, I suspect the livery stable owners association felt much the same as the RIAA about the advent of the automobile.
But the RIAA is dead wrong.
The AFL-CIO needs to drop it’s support of SOPA, because SOPA clearly works against the best interests of America’s union members.
I’m going to have a chat with the president of our local Central Labor Council and my local union President and see what can be done at our level. Perhaps a resolution to withhold our per capita in protest?
Until then, may I be so bold as to suggest a new plan of action for you: stop sleeping with big business and get your ass out in the field and do some organizing! Or have you forgotten how?
Fraternally yours,
Michael Pellegrini
Tacoma, WA
And Mr. Almeida’s response
From:Paul Almeida
Sent:Thursday,November 17, 2011 7:17 AM
To:Michael Pellegrini
Subject: RE: Sorry to see an AFL-CIO officer shilling for likes of the RIAA…
Michael,
I am sorry you have learned about this issue from an unreliable bog or news story. Typically I do not respond to email like this but I am because I believe you
are a good union member. One of our corner stone motto’s is “An Injury to One is an Injury to All.” This bill SOPA will go a long way to saving and creating good union jobs lost to online piracy and counterfeiting. I work for those union members your brothers and sisters.
You have quoted the people who profit from the proliferation of online piracy the BIG tech giants who don’t care about issues important to us, just profits.
I am attaching my submitted testimony to the committee from yesterday, please read all of it. You’ll see at the end the full Executive Council of the AFL-CIO supports our position on this matter. If when you are finished reading the testimony your position hasn’t changed I suggest we agree to disagree.
In solidarity,
Paul
Paul E. Almeida, President
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
And my response back:
From: Michael Pellegrini
To: Paul Almeida
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2011 8:24 PM
Subject: Re: Sorry to see an AFL-CIO officer shilling for likes of the RIAA…
Paul:
Thanks for responding. You sound like a nice guy. I have nothing against you personally.
I don’t doubt that SOPA will temporarily save some jobs, but you have to ask at what cost.
On first blush, the most damning aspect of SOPA, from a labor standpoint, is that one of its biggest supporters is the US Chamber of Commerce. Are you aware of the historical role of the US Chamber vis-à-vis organized labor? I do hope so.
The amount of union worker’s blood on their hands is simply staggering. They may ostensibly be a little kinder and gentler these days – they may not have any Pinkertons’ busting heads or killing people – but their aims and goals are completely unchanged. They are diametrically opposed to everything unions stand for.
To think that the AFL-CIO and the US Chamber of Commerce are now working together on any issue is simply appalling. Next I suppose I’m going to learn that the AFL-CIO Headquarters buys its office supplies at Wal-Mart to save a buck?
To speak very plainly, the Chamber of Commerce, the MPAA and the RIAA are greedy cocksuckers intent on nothing more than buttfucking the American public and in particular, the American workers in any and every way they can. And if you think otherwise, then you’re much more naive than any senior union official should ever be.
The livery stablemen’s unions probably suffered greatly from the introduction of the automobile. But that doesn’t mean that the unions should have acted to restrict the use of cars.
You have to think of the greater good – or in this case, the greater evil. The recording and motion picture industries are failing because their business models have become outmoded with the advent of the internet.
But rather than impinge on our civil rights and stop progress, they need to find a new niche and a new way to do business – or simply admit defeat and pull the plug.
Some livery stables – the forward thinking ones – started catering to the new automobile crowd. They thrived.
Other ones – the ones locked in their traditional business models, went out of business.
The RIAA and MPAA are the livery stables of the 2000’s.
As an aside, my views about the dangers of legislation like SOPA weren’t gained on “unreliable b[l]ogs” and fringe news stories. Given below is a sampling of current coverage.
Labor’s got a tough row to hoe right now. Union membership levels are at all-time lows, and to make things worse, you have the grand attacks against our very basic union rights occurring, in places like Wisconsin and Ohio and other states.
Labor needs to get tough and brainstorm and try some new tacks to recapture our lost members.
But what we don’t need to do is ally ourselves with one of our biggest historic enemies, The US Chamber of Commerce, and greedy, moronic, scumsucking, latter-day Luddites like the RIAA and MPAA.
Time to get back to the drawing board, I think.
Fraternally yours,
Mike Pellegrini