This episode aired on July 6, 2012.
Bill opens this week's show by explaining how last week's Supreme Court decision not to reconsider Citizens United exposes the hoax that Citizens United was ever about "free" speech. In reality, Bill says in a broadcast essay, it's about carpet bombing elections "with all the tonnage your rich paymasters want to buy."
Also lost in the Supreme media chatter last week: a disturbing ruling in Knox vs. SEIU Local 1000 that restricts labor unions from directing collected dues toward political causes. There's no similar limit on corporations, naturally - yet another indication that the power and status of modern unions is waning, especially when compared to the unbridled influence of Corporate America. With a sharp decline in union membership, a legion of new enemies, and a series of legal and legislative setbacks, can unions rebound and once again act strongly in the interest of ordinary workers?

On this week's Moyers & Company, Bill talks to two people who can best answer the question: Stephen Lerner and Bill Fletcher, Jr. The architect of the SEIU's Justice for Janitors movement, Lerner directed SEIU's private equity project, which worked to expose a Wall Street feeding frenzy that left the working class in a state of catastrophe. Fletcher took his Harvard degree to the Massachusetts shipyards, and worked as a welder before becoming a labor activist. He served as Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO, and is author of the upcoming book "They're Bankrupting Us!": And 20 Other Myths about Unions.
Later in the show, Bill talks with and invites readings by poet Philip Appleman, whose creativity spans a long life filled with verse, fiction, philosophy, religion... and Darwinism. Appleman's latest collection is Perfidious Proverbs.
Like Moyers & Company? Donate to KCET and choose a Moyers & Company-related book, CD or DVD as a thank you gift.
Choose a gift

What's my channel?
Type in your five digit zip code to find KCET on your local cable box.

Bill Moyers hosts a weekly hour of compelling and vital conversation about life and the state of American democracy, featuring some of the best thinkers of our time.
Visit the show page

KCET donors are eligible for a range of thank you gifts and benefits--from books, CDs and DVDs of your favorite performers and speakers to concert tickets and frequent flyer miles.
Donate












