William McNary, USAction - REMEMBER THIS NAME

[proud2BlibKansan]

I was very fortunate last night to get an invitation to hear William McNary speak. He is the President of USAction, the largest coalition of progressive organizations in the nation. I had never heard of him before but boy am I ever a fan now! He was in KC to testify at the WalMart hearing. (WalMart is trying to go into the banking business and McNary was testifying AGAINST WalMart.) He spoke to my Democracy for America group after he testified yesterday.

McNary said progressives must build a broad tent and build alliances with the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement, the women's movement, the PEACE MOVEMENT and the Latino rights movement. McNary said we must never allow sexism, racism, homophobia or economic exploitation under our tent. And all of the groups he mentioned do reject all of those while standing strong on human
rights. The problem is we have not come together.

McNary said that right after the election in 2004, his network of progressive groups nationwide began attacking bush and his plans to destroy Social Security. He said that contrary to what the right has
been led to believe, it was indeed an organized effort. The proof of the effectiveness is that el pretzeldente has abandoned his plans to 'reform' Social Security. (I know that I have been trying to spread the message for some time now that we did win the Social Security battle but I had no idea there was such an organized effort behind this victory.) McNary said this battle over Social Security was part of the bigger battle over the soul of our nation.

McNary said we must be just as concerned about the security of human beings as we are about homeland security. He also said that the majority of Americans do NOT agree with the RW. He laughed and said when the various RW preachers said Katrina was a punishment from God he thought yes, this was God exposing the inept bush administration. We need a government that protects the weak from the strong. Katrina proved we do not have that. We can't all be elitists.

About WalMart, McNary said the boycott is working. He also reminded us that the purpose of a boycott is to change corporate policy, not to bankrupt a corporation. He gave examples of effective boycotts during the Civil Rights struggle. He also said the reason we must continue to battle WalMart is their stranglehold on our economy. He said that when WalMart opened 60 Super WalMarts in Iowa, that Iowa eventually lost 550 hardware stores, 290 drug stores and 161 variety stores. Those losses are devastating to a small town economy and it is not healthy economically to allow one super corporation to dominate any community, state or country.

Some links:
http://tinyurl.com/ghe5u

http://www.usaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=eiJPJ5OVF&b=281499

http://www.pww.org/article/view/2070/1/112/

http://en.thinkex.com/quotes/william_mcnary/

"There are people that make things happen; there are people that let
things happen; and there are people that don't know what's happening."

William McNary