Book Talk Brings "Big Picture" to AFSCME Members
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)A recent meeting of the Library of Congress
Professional Guild, AFSCME Local 2910 covered
subjects beyond the traditional
agenda items of grievances, collective
bargaining and working conditions. On
Thursday, May 29, Local 2910 sponsored a Book
Talk for its members and the
general public featuring Pulitzer Prize winner
Hedrick Smith, author of "Who Stole the
American Dream?”
Smith spoke about the origins in the 1970s of
the efforts by the corporate
elite to counter the gains of citizens’
movements – including organized labor
-- and the development of “shareholder
capitalism” in which making
super profits for CEOs and large
shareholders became the primary
goal of corporations and their massive army of
business lobbyists.
Encouraged by recent Supreme Court
decisions, Smith said that the
nation’s elite – the “One Percent”
targeted by the Occupy movement -- have
“polluted our political system with money and
derailed the American Dream of
joining the middle class.” The Book Talk was
attended by over eighty Library of
Congress employees, fifty of whom purchased
books which were autographed by Mr.
Smith after the event. Free copies were
provided to any employee who
joined the union, which resulted in a number of
new members.
photo: Smith (left) with AFSCME Local 2910
member Bob Dardano, who organized the Book
Talk; photo by Nan Ernst