> Your contempt for these young people and towards me
> for conveying this information
I note that we have none of the names of "these young people," nor first-hand accounts from Chuck. Therefore I'll assume that, as I had guessed, this is an unreliable third-hand account.
Once again, the Working America website is pretty clear on what it is:
http://www.workingamerica.org/about/
It's not a union but "the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO," and "uses professional research, communication, education, canvassing, lobbying and community organizing to demand that politicians address the priorities that matter most to working people-not just wealthy special interests." So my guess is that these folks were doing 527 work, talking to people about issues and about the Bush record. But we don't know for sure because we're only getting third-hand accounts. I have had no first-hand experience with the Working America organization (it's obvious from their local office listings that they're targeting the three swing states of Florida, Ohio, and Missouri, plus Washington), so I can't comment on it, though anyone who signed up to work for them should have known what they were getting into. Here are some examples of "action" taken straight from the Working America website, easily viewable by anyone with Internet access:
http://www.workingamerica.org/actions/
They're mostly issue leaflets telling people to "tell President Bush" to do something or back off something especially heinous, mixed with stuff about how you should register to vote and information on the candidates' stances on the issues. Like I said, I have no idea of how effective Working America is, but of COURSE any organization like that in a critical election like this one is going to connect these issues to the presidential election. They'd be fools not to, and yes, I also think that if someone is going to take a union staff job where they will be paid with workers' dues money, they ought to be willing to carry out this necessary and important part of the unions' program -- otherwise their politics and commitment are suspect. So it turns out that a lot of this work is actually boring and tedious instead of glorious and inspiring struggle 24/7. Boo-hoo.
- - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs!