Posted on 11/03/2011 5:34:10 AM PDT by SJackson
Don’t miss FrontPage’s other Union Gangsters profiles featuring Craig Becker, Richard Trumka, Stephen Lerner, Andy Stern and Daniel De Leon.
Few union gangsters have the exquisitely barbaric pedigree of International Brotherhood of Teamsters president James P. Hoffa.
And few labor unions can match the Teamsters, the million-plus member union of truckers and blue-collar workers, for its legendary connections to organized crime, corruption, and violence. For decades the word Teamster was essentially a synonym for gangster.
Hoffa is the son of James R. Hoffa, the relentlessly corrupt, larger-than-life Teamsters president who worked closely with figures from the crime underworld. In July 1975 the elder Hoffa disappeared mysteriously outside a suburban Detroit restaurant at which he was planning to meet with two mobsters. His body has never been found.
Historian Thaddeus Russell likened the elder Hoffa to General George S. Patton. “He exalted bravery and despised frailty, and presented himself as the toughest, strongest, and most ruthless fighter in the union,” Russell wrote. Hoffa also once proudly proclaimed his potential to be “the meanest bastard that God ever created.”
Like his foul-mouthed, publicity-loving father, the younger Hoffa doesn’t mince words.
Like most union leaders, Hoffa blames “Wall Street’s greed, stupidity and fraud” for the nation’s economic problems, ignoring the role that Big Government meddling in the economy played in inflating the mortgage market bubble. He supports Occupy Wall Street and acknowledges that Teamsters “all over the country are participating in Occupy Wall Street events.”
When introducing President Obama at a Labor Day rally this year, Hoffa launched an attack, bellowing, “We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party.”
Well-practiced in the art of Saul Alinsky-style vilification, Hoffa told the crowd, “Let’s take these son [sic] of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.” Not surprisingly, President Obama, who encourages his supporters to find opponents and “argue with them and get in their face,” never distanced himself from Hoffa’s demonization of a large chunk of the U.S. population.
After the event, Hoffa invoked the Mother of All Leftist Cliches, telling ABC News that conservatives “want to roll the clock back to about 1900.”
When Wisconsin voters gave their Republican governor Scott Walker a clear mandate to cut state spending, Hoffa lashed out. In February he called Walker’s extremely modest proposal that state workers shoulder a small percentage of the costs for their health care plans and pensions “union-busting” and “a vindictive attack” that was part of a “one-sided class war.”
Jimmy Hoffa Jr., a lawyer by training, has had a radical streak for a long time.
He grew disenchanted with the union his father had dominated for so long as it drifted away from some of its past radicalism. Teamsters had flirted with Republicans for years. President Nixon commuted the father’s prison sentence for jury tampering and fraud. The union alienated others in the labor movement by endorsing Ronald Reagan for president in 1980 and 1984 as well as his successor George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Teamsters had embraced Republicans decades before in an act of self-preservation when then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, a Democrat, went after corruption in the union in the early 1960s.
But by 1995 the younger Hoffa was urging Teamsters to return to the Democratic fold. “American labor is confronted by a crisis — a crisis of lack of militancy, and what we want to do is to get our union moving again, to start rebuilding it from within.”
By 2005, Hoffa led the Teamsters out of the AFL-CIO and into the more radical breakaway labor federation, the SEIU-endorsed Change to Win Coalition. A key criticism of the AFL-CIO was that it was not aggressive enough in recruiting new members. “In our view, we must have more union members in order to change the political climate that is undermining workers’ rights in this country,” he said. “The AFL-CIO has chosen the opposite approach.”
In fact the AFL-CIO had become increasingly radical in the years leading up to the split. Then-president John Sweeney, a member of the neo-communist group Democratic Socialists of America, rescinded a longstanding rule preventing Communist Party members from holding leadership positions within the federation and the unions belonging to it. Sweeney also instituted the “Union Summer” training program which required its young participants to regurgitate Marxist boilerplate “that we produce the world’s wealth, that we belong to the only class with a future, that our class will end all oppression.”
But none of this is radical enough for James P. Hoffa.
Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle. Click here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/11/02/union-gangsters-jimmy-hoffa-jr/
The Government arm of the Teamsters and SEIU is the NLRB. When the Republicans have their smashing victory next year the first thing they should do is defund/get rid of the NLRB.
Since the teamsters signed off on the Consent Decree the DOJ effectively runs the union under a federal trusteeship
Hoffa Lite doesn't sneeze without an OK from DOJ
James Riddle Hoffa was the father ... James P. Hoffa is there now after Government stooge Ron Carey was caught swaping cash for campaign contributions with leftist groups like Project Vote, ACORN Rich Trumpka and Andy Stern .... James P.'s brother 'Chuckie' was adopted ...... and there any number of back stories on that adoption
It is widely held that Chuckie was involved at a low level in setting up James Riddle's disappearance
in knowledgeable circles the story goes that Tony Jackolone (sp?) ... Jacko ... a Detroit criminal .... or Tony Provensano ... 'Tony Pro' ... JC 73 & LU 560 North Jersey .... facilitated the hit with their goons
The Detroit story ends with Jimmy as melted into a bumper and the Jersey story has two LU 560 business agents ... the Bragollio (sp) brothers ... bringing the body from Detroit to their south Jersey chicken farm where he was fed through a chipper and mixed with chicken feed
v.
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL-CIO, the Commission of La Cosa Nostra, Anthony Salerno, also known as Fat Tony, Matthew Iannielo, also known as Matty the Horse, Anthony Provenzano, also known as Tony Pro, Nunzio Provenzano, also known as Nunzi Pro, Anthony Corallo, also known as Tony Ducks, Salvatore Santoro, also known as Tom Mix, Christopher Furnari, Sr., also known as Christie Tick, Frank Manzo, Carmine Persico, also known as Junior, also known as the Snake, Gennaro Langella, also known as Gerry Lang, Philip Rastelli, also known as Rusty, Nicholas Marangello, also known as Nicky Glasses, Joseph Massino, also known as Joey Messina, Anthony Ficarotta, also known as Figgy, Eugene Boffa, Sr., Francis Sheeran, Milton Rockman, also known as Maishe, John Tronolone, also known as Peanuts, Joseph John Aiuppa, also known as Joey O'Brien, also known as Joey Aiuppa, John Philip Cerone, also known as Jackie the Lackie, also known as Jackie Cerone, Joseph Lombardo, also known as Joey the Clown, Angelo Lapietra, also known as The Nutcracker, Frank Balistrieri, also known as Mr. B, Carl Angelo Deluna, also known as Toughy, Carl Civella, also known as Corky, Anthony Thomas Civella, also known as Tony Ripe, General Executive Board, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Jackie Presser, General President, Weldon Mathis, General Secretary-Treasurer, Joseph Trerotola, First Vice President, also known as Joe T, Robert Holmes, Sr., Second Vice President, Robert Holmes, Sr., William McCarthy, Third Vice President, Joseph W. Morgan, Fourth Vice President, Edward M. Lawson, Fifth Vice President, Arnold Weinmeister, Sixth Vice President, John H. Cleveland, Seventh Vice President, Maurice R. Schurr, Eighth Vice President, Donald Peters, Ninth Vice President, Walter J. Shea, Tenth Vice President, Harold Friedman, Eleventh Vice President, Jack D. Cox, Twelfth Vice President, Don L. West, Thirteenth Vice President, Michael J. Riley, Fourteenth Vice President, Theodore Cozza, Fifteenth Vice President, Daniel Ligurotis, Sixteenth Vice President, Salvatore Provenzano, Former Vice President, also known as Sammy Pro, Defendants, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Defendant-Appellee, Vincent Sombrotto and Edwin Gonzalez, Local 116, Production and Maintenance Employees' Union, Appellants.
Obama to Hoffa:
"Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?"
Seeing the writing on the wall, Becket fled to France where he remained in exile for six years. The two former friends appeared to resolve their dispute in 1170 when King Henry and Becket met in Normandy. On November 30, Becket crossed the Channel returning to his post at Canterbury. Earlier, while in France, Becket had excomunicated the Bishops of London and Salisbury for their support of the king. Now, Becket remained steadfast in his refusal to absolve the bishops. This news threw King Henry (still in France) into a rage in which he was purported to shout: "What sluggards, what cowards have I brought up in my court, who care nothing for their allegiance to their lord. Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest."
The king's exact words have been lost to history but his outrage inspired four knights to sail to England to rid the realm of this annoying prelate. They arrived at Canterbury during the afternoon of December 29 and immediately searched for the Archbishop. Becket fled to the Cathedral where a service was in progress. The knights found him at the altar, drew their swords and began hacking at their victim finally splitting his skull.
The death of Becket unnerved the king. The knights who did the deed to curry the king's favor, fell into disgrace. Several miracles were said to occur at the tomb of the martyr and he was soon canonized. Hordes of pilgrims transformed Canterbury Cathedral into a shrine. Four years later, in an act of penance, the king donned a sack-cloth walking barefoot through the streets of Canterbury while eighty monks flogged him with branches. Henry capped his atonement by spending the night in the martyr's crypt. St. Thomas continued as a popular cultist figure for the remainder of the Middle Ages.
U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee
June 25, 1997
Big Labor's Big-Money Political Machine
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical." Thomas Jefferson
Four Million 'Harry Becks' Voted In 1996
In 1988, the Supreme Court determined that 79 percent of telephone lineman Harry Beck's compulsory union dues were spent on political and other activities unrelated to collective bargaining or union organizing. His union, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), was required to return that portion of Mr. Beck's dues. Despite the Beck decision, however, millions of union employees are still forced to pay dues as a condition of employment while their union bosses continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on politicians and political causes that their rank and file members do not support.
According to Department of Labor statistics, 80 percent (8.2 million employees) of all private sector workers covered by a union contract are required under that contract to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Like Harry Beck, nearly 4 million of these workers are forced to devote a portion of their paychecks to political activities they may not support:
Ex-Teamster Official Puts Price Tag at $400 Million in 1992
F.C. "Duke" Zeller, who for 14 years served as director of communications at Teamsters headquarters in Washington, D.C., estimates that unions spent about $400 million in the 1992 election cycle. Moreover, in his book, Devil's Pact: Inside the World of the Teamsters Union, Mr. Zeller quotes former Teamsters vice president Gene Giacumbo who states that he was present at an executive board meeting in which union president Ron Carey boasted of spending $56 million in Teamster funds to help Bill Clinton get reelected. If Mr. Giacumbo's recollection is correct, that figure represents more than 20 times the $2.4 million in PAC contributions the Teamsters reported to the FEC for the 1992 election.
Rutgers Economist Also Puts Price Tag at $300 to $500 Million in 1992
In March of 1996, during testimony before the Committee on House Oversight, Rutgers University economist Leo Troy also estimated that unions spent between $300 million and $500 million during the 1992 election cycle. This amount includes both cash contributions from union PACs and "in-kind" or "soft" money contributions consisting of such activities as voter registration drives, telephone banks, transportation to polls, and campaign "volunteers."
In a letter to the committee chairman, Professor Troy stated, "According to figures reported by the FEC (reproduced in the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. of 1995), in 1991-2, union political action committees spent just under $95 million. I estimate that "in-kind" expenditures could reasonably be a multiple of 3 to 5 times that amount."
Nothing "Soft" About Big Labor Money
By their own admission, union leaders place a high premium on in-kind political expenditures, making it easy to understand why soft money greatly exceeds PAC money. The following are excerpts from union newsletters and press accounts of soft money in action:
Paul Patton for Governor Campaign (Kentucky 1995)
Ron Wyden for Senate (Oregon 1996)
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.