other unions condemn mark penn, while my union remains silent

i have spent no small amount of time trying to educate people about the extremely shady character who is hillary clinton's "chief strategist", mark penn. sourcewatch wiki gives a small taste of his misdeeds and highly questionable clients and allegiances, and a google search will yield a mountain of troubling information. i have always been amazed at how gerald mcentee, president of afscme, is able to ignore penn's role and still tirelessly claim that the clinton's "will fight for working families". as recent as april 1, mcentee was fulfilling his role as clinton apologist by claiming that she opposed nafta originally, when there are many, many documented instances of hillary clinton supporting nafta.

and most recently, mark penn was doing what he does best, being a shill for global corporations and powerful elites, while promoting a "free trade" deal in colombia. in fact, penn's p.r. firm, burson-marsteller signed a $300k contract with the colombian embassy. yes, the same colombian embassy and colombian president uribe that oversees the assassination of labor leaders in colombia. as my friends and family know, i visited colombia at the end of 2006 as part of a union delegation, and spoke with many union activists who have faced brutal repression from the uribe government, and the paramilitary that do their dirty work for them. my hate of mark penn and what he represents is direct and personal. i try not to swear on this blog, but you all know what i mean when i say "[expletive deleted] mark penn!"

so, given this recent revelation about mark penn, two of the country's most prominent unions have strongly condemned him and questioned the hillary campaign as well, which has paid penn's firm more than $10 million so far. these statements by these unions are appropriate and timely. but it is with sadness that i see that my own union, afscme, remains SILENT. gerald mcentee--president of afscme--has never disappointed me more than right now. it is time for mark penn to go, and it is time for the clintons to go, and finally it is time for gerald mcentee to [expletive deleted] go! thats right, i have finally publicly said it. in no uncertain terms, i am saying: "26 years is enough, your time is up mcentee, time to go!" i will welcome your retirement at the afscme convention this summer.

here are some quotes from unions with more courage and honor than mine.

from the teamsters:

“How can we trust that a President Hillary Clinton would stand strong against this trade deal when her top advisor is being paid by Colombia to promote it?” Hoffa said. “To support this so-called ‘free trade agreement’ is anathema to the labor movement and to anyone who supports working people, social justice or the environment.”

“This has caused us to question Clinton’s stated stances on everything from human rights and environmental issues to very basic labor issues,” Hoffa said.

from change to win:

“It’s time for Senator Hillary Clinton to send her vaunted ‘chief strategist’ Mark Penn packing -- back to his job consulting for union busting corporations and anti-labor governments for good.

“We have questioned Penn’s role in the Clinton campaign in the past for his representation of union busting employers like Cintas. At that time, Penn said there was a wall between him and his firm’s representation of union busters. The latest revelation that Penn -- whose firm represents the Colombian government in its effort to secure passage of a so-called free trade agreement -- is actively involved in securing its passage in the middle of Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign is outrageous. It also suggests that he has been playing a double role – advising the Senator on what to say to curry Democratic voters and advising the Colombian government on what to say to curry a majority of votes in Congress.