Who Stole My Pension?

Who Stole My Pension?

Book Review

By Jim Vail 

This is the book every teacher, retired teacher or wannabe teacher should read if they want to know if their pension is safe.

Who Stole My Pension was written by Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame and Ted Siedle, who successfully sued public pension funds and writes how Wall Street money managers are ripping off the pension funds.

These are the questions we need to ask about our Chicago Teachers Pension Fund:

--  Pensions are becoming less transparent at the behest of Wall Street

--  Pensions are gambling on high-risk, high-cost investments more than ever

--  Pensions routinely lie about the investment fees they pay, their investment performance and funding levels

--  Pension are not fully audited by independent accounting firms

We cannot trust the government to protect our defined benefit pension in which we work a number of years and are guaranteed a pension payment each month (roughly 2.2% of salary earned each year on the job). Ted writes that the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. that is supposed to police pensions instead has a private agenda to assist corporations. He noted the federal agency has no capacity to audit pensions.

His 2011 forensic audit of the bankrupt US Airways pilots pension revealed profound omissions, conflicts of interest, hidden and excessive fees, and potential violations of law with dozens of firms who do audit, actuarial, investment consulting, and money management.

Why is the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund dragging its feet on conducting a forensic audit that would probably reveal the same things?

The Teamster Alliance for Pension Protection key finding was a massive $767 million gamble on high cost, high risk, illiquid and opaque "alternative' investments that cost $400 million. It too like CTPF was only 45 percent funded.

Illinois is one of the worst offenders of short changing its public pensions. But Ted writes that not enough money in the pot is not the primary cause of pension problems.

The authors predict that the next big bailout with taxpayer money will be the pension 'too big to fail' banks selling fake, toxic assets to the world. The bailout will be in the name of saving pensioners retirements, but really just a repeat of bailing out corrupt Wall Street.

In the US the combined value of pension plan assets held by state and local governments in 2018 was over $4 trillion. overseen by trustees of laymen who lack knowledge in investments.

CTPF is overseen by teachers and retired teachers with little investment background.

“Fortunately there are globally recognized experts in pensions and investments who offer sound advice on how pensions should be prudently managed.”

Public pensions have failed to meet overly optimistic return assumptions over the past 2 decades and dug themselves into deepening funding hole as they allocated ever greater assets to highest cost, highest risk ever devised by Wall Street - hedge and private equity funds.

Second City Teachers is hearing reports that the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund is heavily invested in high-risk, high cost private equity funds. The question is why amidst our crisis!

"In fact, every forensic investigation I've ever undertaken has exposed that the nearer a pension is to insolvency, the higher the fees and the greater the risks the pension takes on."

Is the Chicago Teachers Union paying 'obscene fees to Wall Street and moving further away from transparency?’

Every teacher and pensioner should be able to ask a simple question, like how much do we pay these private equity funds to manage our pension money.

While CORE has boasted that their trustees have kicked out hedge funds, they still work with private equity funds who are not much different.

"The workers should tell the pension fund board to refuse any secrecy agreements with investment firms. There is no justification ever for secrecy agreements."

Siedle writes that you need to know the assets (stocks, bonds, private equity, etc) in which your pension is invested, the names of these firms managing the assets, how much the firms get paid and how well they performed.

"To protect your retirement security, you need to pay particularly close attention to your pension's investments in these risky "alternatives" because these deals are riddled with abusive provisions amounting to a license to steal - from you."

"In summary, less transparency in pension results in less accountability and greater looting."

If Warren Buffet says, “It’s a lopsided system whereby 2% of your principal is paid each year to the manager even if he accomplishes nothing .. and additionally 20% of your profit is paid to him if he succeeds," then it can’t be good if our beloved Chicago Teachers Pension Fund is doing this.

Pension overseers are supposed to be on the pensioners’ side, not cuddling up to investment firms. That is a question I had when I noticed how poorly Ariel Management performs for the CTPF, yet some of our trustees continue to support them. Why must our trustees take exotic trips to sales conferences?

A 2014 internal review by US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) found that more than half of about 400 private equity firms charged unjustified  fees and expenses without notifying investors.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has even proposed new regulations on the private equity industry to end "legalized looting" by "vampire" investment firms that take over troubled companies. 

The CTPF should seriously consider index investment management services that can be purchased for 1 basis point (one one-hundredth of a percent) or even for free.

“Active managers, who attempt to beat the market by stock picking, may charge pension fees up to 120 times greater (1.2 percent). Private equity may charge up to 9 percent or 900 times greater than indexing. Paying higher fees negatively correlates to superior investment performance. Overwhelming majority of active managers fail to outperform market indexes over time net of fees. The higher the fees, the greater the drag on investment returns.”

Siedle said shifting from passive investing to active investing is a terrible idea. He recommends all of us writing the following letter to CTPF:

“Please disclose all fees, expenses and other costs related to pension investments, but not limited to asset based investment advisory fees and performance or incentive fees as well as investment advisory fees. Please provide this comprehensive fee and expense information by manager and for the pension as a whole.”

In countless investigations, Siedle said he has proven that the fees pensions disclosed to the public as just the 'tip of the iceberg,' most often due to complexity, and multiple levels of hefty fees which are not fully disclosed to pensions or participants.

We should be suspicious when the CTPF newsletter gives glowing reports about beating their benchmark, because you need to compare the pension to relevant benchmarks like S&P 500, not their own benchmarks.

About 60 percent of all corporate pensions in the US are not audited or they pretend to audit, or they have limited scope audits but then disclaim responsibility for fraud or mismanagement.

Here are some more eye-opening takeaways from this must-read book:

1. World is faced with retirement crisis

2. Pension benefits promised are in danger

3. People overseeing your pension are not knowledgeable about pensions or investments

4. Wall Street firms hired to manage pension money are profiting at pensioners expense (aka looting)

5. You can and should get involved in scrutinizing the pension for your retirement security.

We need to take action and start asking the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund these very same questions!

DNH Removed!

Former Football Star Coach Removed from DNH

By Jim Vail

Former Dunbar Football Star Coach Freddie Lesser who was unfairly placed on a Do Not Hire List 20 years ago was successfully removed from the black list.

“Please be advised that the Do Not Hire designation (DNH) has been lifted from your file,” stated the Dec. 9 letter from the Chicago Public Schools Office of Administrative Hearings. “As a result, I am pleased to inform you that you are eligible to reapply for employment with the Chicago Public Schools.”

The letter was written and signed by Jennifer Rogers, Executive Director of Administrative Hearings.

Lesser contacted Second City Teachers just a month ago to complain that it was taking a long time for him to get his DNH removed. We then ran his incredible story and posted it on social media on Nov. 30.

One week later CPS announced their decision to remove him.

The power of the media!

“It feels good,” Lesser told Second City Teachers. “Thank you!”

His story was one of many outrageous stories we have featured at Second City Teachers about wonderful teachers unfairly placed on the DNH List.

You could call it the equivalent of someone serving a prison sentence for a crime they never committed.

In Lesser’s case, it was a clear case of mistaken identity that was easily explained. Except, it did not turn out that way.

A provocateur accused him of being assaulted by Lesser at their football practice. Even though his co-coach admitted to everyone that he was the one who threw the punch to defend Lesser, and even though the courts agreed and threw out his case, the Chicago Public Schools still unfairly labeled him guilty and put him on a Do Not Hire List.

Lesser was not only a star football coach at the top-rated Dunbar High School at the turn of the millennium, he was also a star graphics design teacher who had a waiting list of a thousand students to take his award-winning class.

Lesser said he is not sure he wants to work again in CPS, but he did want to clear his name.

8.7% Increase

CTPF Trustees Vote for 8.7% Increase

By Jim Vail

CTPF Director Carlton Lenoir

The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund Trustees voted at the November 17 Board Meeting to increase the fund's employees salaries by 8.7% even though the Fund has been losing money lately.

CTPF Executive Director Lenoir Carlton spoke in favor of the motion made by CORE Trustee Mary Sharon-Reilly and seconded by Members First Trustee Victor Ochoa for the salary increase as part of an agreed Cost of Living Adjustment or COLA because he said it saves the fund money over the long-term.

The Retired Teachers Association President Linda Williams and others argued against the whopping salary increase that reflected the country's high inflation rate this year.

Carlton told Trustees that the Fund had agreed to the COLA increase for its employees in 2019 to reflect the Consumer Price Index and this policy has saved the fund "hundreds of thousands of dollars."

He said the Pension Fund moved to a fixed COLA adjustment in order to make CTPF salaries competitive. 

"Every five years we need to make sure our pay structure is competitive," he said. "And COLA is equivalent to Social Security that provides inflation protection."

Carlton said employees have received about a 1.36% annual COLA increase over the last 10 years. He called the Board's policy "uber conservative" by following an index so that there would be no volatility which has saved the Fund $200,000.

"This has not harmed the fund," he told Trustees, "but has saved the Fund."

Retired Teacher Trustee Lois Nelson who voted against the motion disagreed.

Nelson said this was not prudent because the COLA adjustment was meant for people on social security (some people receive only $1200 a month), and not workers who earn over 100k a year.

"I love our staff, but I think our staff is realistic to see someone making high salaries," she said. "We know they work hard and deserve what they get, but they are cognizant of what is right and what is wrong."

Retired Teacher Trustee Maria J. Rodriguez who also voted against the raise said she is concerned about the pension's long-term viability noting that many teachers are leaving the system and taking their pension contributions with them. She noted that the Municipal Pension Fund (teacher assistants and city workers) did not agree to the 8.7% salary increase this year.

She asked the Executive Director how much the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund is currently funded at. 

Lenior said CTPF funding dropped from $13.1 billion to $11.2 billion today. 

Teacher Trustee Quentin Washington who voted in favor of the salary increase said that this is the policy the CTPF voted on and they shouldn't changed the rules in the middle of the game. 

"Yeah 8.7 percent is high, but so is inflation," he said. "I want the staff to be treated with respect when we say we are going to do something, we do it."

Members First Teacher Trustees Phil Weiss and Victor Ochoa both voted to increase the salaries.

"We're doing things that are right for the staff," Ochoa said. "We need to make sure this doesn't keep getting repeated."

Trustee Rodriguez suggsted an actuarial study be conducted to evaluate the financial impact on the fund if the Fund would continue with a fixed rate.

"Solvency of the fund is the most important," Rodriguez said, who added there was no need to rush the motion. 

Chicago Board of Education Trustee Miguel Del Valle was not present to vote. The other CPS Board Member Dwayne Truss has not been replaced.

The motion passed 7 - 2 to increase the employees salaries 8.7 percent.

A closer look at the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund and its long-term sustainability will be in order as the Fund continues to lose money. Former Executive Director Charles Burbridge doubled the number of employees as well as the number of money managers at the Fund.

DNH Coach

Do Not Hire List Unfairly Hits High School Football Star Coach

By Jim Vail

Freddie Lesser was coaching at Dunbar High School one of the state's top football teams when something completely crazy happened to him.

The crazy part was not that a man threw water on his car as he passed by on his way to practice in 2002. The crazy part was what happened after this incident that completely changed his life.

The award-winning graphic design high school teacher and offensive line coach did not think anything more of the incident until he arrived on the field and found the guy who hurled the water at him had showed up and was now threatening him.   

There was another person who would prefer to remain unnamed who was one of Lesser's fellow coaches for the Dunbar High School Football. This coach did not like his colleague and good friend being threatened by someone who appeared to be intoxicated. His co-coach told the offender you can't threaten coaches and then he knocked him out.

After that the police were called. Freddie told Second City Teachers in a phone interview that he and his fellow coach who defended his colleague looked very similar with bald heads. The victim who had threatened Lesser told the police that he was assaulted, so the cops took both Lesser and the other coach to the police station.

The police released both men within an hour.

Lesser returned to the school parking lot to discover that his car had been set on fire. He told the Dunbar Principal Barbara Hall who did nothing about it. A few weeks later Lesser got a letter from the Chicago Board of Education informing him he was no longer employed as a Chicago Public School teacher. He was placed on the Do Not Hire List. 

He would also go on trial for assault and battery.

The Criminal Circuit Court Trial lasted a couple of weeks and was also attended by the Hall of Fame Dunbar Head Football Coach Glen Johnson, who passed away a couple of years ago.

"I went to trial accused of battery or assault, and they said I beat up a guy 6'6" and 300 lbs. by a guy who is 5'10" and 200 lbs.," Lesser said.

Coach Johnson had to recuse himself during the hearing because he knew the Judge. So they got another judge, and within a few minutes the judge said this was all bull and he dismissed the case.

Once his criminal case was dismissed, Lesser's lawyer petitioned the court to expunge the arrest so that it would not be on his record. 

Lesser did not know that he was placed on the DNH list until he went to look at his personnel file when he wanted to teach in Arizona in 2003. His fellow coach who did not work as a teacher at Dunbar like Lesser called him after he left and told him they were having a hearing scheduled at the Board of Ed because the victim/water assailant had filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Public Schools.

"I never knew about this hearing," Lesser said. "I was in Arizona. The Board of Ed thought I was running away. They didn't know I had another job and was transferred to Arizona. I couldn't make it to the hearing."

His defender told the hearing officer that Lesser had nothing to do with the incident. His fellow coach said he was the one who knocked out the guy, but it seemed the Board of Ed did not want to hear this. He told Lesser after the hearing that their body language told him that they were nonchalant about what he had told them and the Board probably thought it would be easier to pin the blame on Lesser because he was absent from the hearing.

Lesser said he believed the only reason the police got involved was because the third coach on the field that day was also a Chicago cop - Larry Stewart.

"He tried to protect me," Lesser said. "At the time Dunbar was the best team in the state, and I was the key to their success. I was the line coach. We were the team of the decade. Dunbar was well-known in football. Dunbar was the hub for recruitment ... (CPS) couldn't do anything to Jonathan or (co-coach Larry) Stewart because they didn't work for CPS. I bore the brunt because I was working for CPS."

As the years went by, Lesser went on with his life. He petitioned the Board of Ed to remove his DNH. His file was not on the district's computer system, so he sent them his paperwork, but the Board of Ed said they needed more information. He sent a letter to former CPS Chief Arne Duncan informing him about what had happened and that it was not fair. He included a letter from an investigator exonerating him along with 50 witnesses present when the incident took place. However, the Board never called any of the witnesses. 

"They didn't do an in-depth investigation," Lesser said. "No one ever contacted me. They just wanted to sweep it under the rug because it would look bad for them."

Lesser just recently sent in his appeal to have his DNH removed. People can appeal once a year if they have been placed on the infamous Do Not Hire List. He got the following reply from the Office of Administrative Hearings (formerly Office of Employee Engagement): 

"We are in receipt of your petition and it is still in queue to be reviewed by the Committee. When a decision is made, you will be notified via email soon. We appreciate your patience with this matter."

At the time of the incident Lesser was about to become a tenured teacher. Unfortunately, at the time he was still a probationary assigned teacher and did not have full union rights which would have included the ability to appeal his dismissal. He ended up replacing Nate Dixon as the graphic design teacher, who left to become a Chicago Teachers Union Field Representative. 

"We knew the whole case was fabricated," he said. 

Lesser did not let this miscarriage of justice for him at the Chicago Public Schools deter his career. He continued to teach at schools outside the district. He knows a lot about computers and he is a product of the Chicago Public Schools. He attended South Shore High School and he inspired his niece to become a teacher at Hyde Park High School today.

Lesser exemplifies the essence of a hard worker the Chicago Public Schools should be proud of. He used to work the night shift as a graphic designer at the old Chicago Tribune printing plant and then would come in the morning to coach at Dunbar. He would stay at the high school until 10 pm to review films as a championship coach.

Lesser was a linebacker at Illinois State University. He earlier worked as a graphic designer at the Chicago Park District, and his first supervisor was Arne Duncan. He also worked the night shift as security at the Hyatt Hotel at the McCormick Center and then head to nearby Dunbar at 3000 S. King Dr. to teach and coach.

Recently he earned his doctorate in educational leadership at North Central College. At the time of the incident he had been accepted into the prestigious program to be a National Board Certified Teacher. 

"I got accepted into the Board certification program that a lot of people can't get in," he said. "But they didn't care. So instead of the certification because of the incident I got my Masters and PhD."

"Even though I had some rough times in my life, I didn't let the setbacks in CPS curtail my education. I just used that as a motivation."

He is currently working as a case investigator at the Cook County Department of Health.

Lesser is also an exemplary model for how someone could escape the hard life of drugs and gangs and become a model for students in this rough city. His brother is Herman Williams, one of the original members of the Black Stone Rangers. Black Stone leader Jeff Forte was his next door neighbor when he was little and Lesser used to beat up his brother all the time.

"We used to go on all those marches," he said. "There were thousands of people wearing red cams and black outfits, marching for equal rights and against police brutality."

His mother who was a nurse moved further south to 79th Street to avoid the gangs.

His fiancee is a police officer and many of his former football players became police officers. He had earlier applied to teach at Tilden High School but was told they can't hire him because of the DNH. He has also worked as a tutor at Malcolm X College. 

Lesser was a star teacher at Dunbar. He was nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award for the best graphics class. His class went to the suburbs to compete at the Triton College graphics program contest and one person there told one of his students that it was the first time ever a Chicago public school student won. His student who won the design contest is currently working for Apple, and according to Lesser he still talks to this day about the contest he won back in 2001. 

"We had 1,000 students who wanted to take my graphics design class," Lesser said. "They couldn't find anyone to take my position so they had to cancel the position and no more graphic design."

Lesser is also a part of the Woodlawn Project, where they interviewed him first at age 6 and they follow his life as he grows up. They just recently re-interviewed him on the phone.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think about something that happened," he said. "I got all the memories. I kept a lot of my work and the students' work. Even though I moved on, I haven't moved on. Something in my mind won't let it go."

Let's hope CPS quickly rectifies this gross miscarriage of justice so that Coach Lesser can put this all to rest.

Peter Pay Paul

POOR PETER PAYING PAUL 

By Stephen Wilson                                     

 

Things are falling apart in Britain as school teachers are feeding pupils out of their own pockets. Child hunger has soared as austerity goes on and on.

 

More and more Scottish school teachers are witnessing the devastating impact of over a decade of uninterrupted austerity policies being ruthlessly enforced. And there is no reprieve for hungry school children. Teachers have reported seeing more hungry school students turning up at their lessons. They often can't afford a school meal so their dinner might be a bar of chocolate, a cheap hamburger or a tray of leftover rice. Teachers can often spot the look of hunger on children straight away. They have those bleak and listless eyes or sleepy look on their faces. They are less alert and attentive in the classroom. Then they have this dizziness that constantly accompanies hunger.

 

The  NASUWT {a union of school teachers} stated that they had received reports, from a survey, that their members were handing out money, food and clothes to many children and families who can't make ends meet. The survey of 360 teachers which was undertaken by the union found that as many as 65% had witnessed increased numbers of children coming into school hungry at the start of the day. As many as 58% teachers claimed that the students lacked the equipment they needed for lessons and 55% claimed that more families can't afford school uniforms. {So much for the argument on behalf of school uniforms that school uniforms obscure inequality and so conceal poverty. Families can't even buy the means of hiding their glaring poverty.}  

 

What does a teacher do when confronted with hungry school children? They often try to feed them. More than two thirds of teachers stated they had handed out food or clothing to pupils, while 27% had assisted a pupil's family to obtain aid from a food bank. As many as 23% said they had lent or given money to pupils.

It is not surprising that teachers not only feel embarrassed and awkward about all this. They are angry. A spokesperson of the Union Mike Corbett succinctly summed up the mood by saying "It's outrageous!" It is not only physical discomfort. Some school students can feel the indignity of humiliation, shame and possible teasing from a few insensitive students.  

 

The world is also watching Britain. The United Nations Human Rights Council demanded that action be taken by the British government to prevent homelessness and provide better food security and equal rights for disabled people. Countries such as Brazil, Angola and Romania all called upon the British government to take firm action. Brazil stated, 'The United Kingdom must improve food security, in particular for young children and adolescents and persons with disabilities.' The proportion of consumers who cannot afford to eat a healthy and balanced diet rose by 36% last month. The United Nations rapporteur on extreme poverty, Olivier De Schutter, warned the British prime minister that prolonged austerity policies will increase hunger and malnutrition in Britain. You'd think that the British state would be concerned about how the international reputation of the United Kingdom had sunk to a new low. How humiliating that Angola has to remind an affluent United Kingdom to take steps to fight poverty. But they seem oblivious. If I tell Russians those facts some don't believe me. They think it must be old Russian state propaganda that tends to run down the West. 

"You don't need to believe me," I retort, "just consult the Reports of the United Nations, charity groups such as Oxfam and academic research readily available on the Internet." 

It is true that the Scottish government itself has made an effort to extend school meals and that free school meals have been extended to primary school children in years one to five and that some councils have taken the special steps of providing all children with free school meals in some schools. But it is evidently not enough! Free school meals should be available to all school students and any attempts to cut welfare benefits must cease. Cutting benefits for the poor is as crude as the blood letting treatment used to treat patients during the plague. The cure is worse than the disease. You end up killing the patients. 

Unfortunately the government is out of touch and remote from the ordinary day lives of people. Imagination is not their strong point. Some can't even imagine why a person from a working class background might actually enjoy a visit to the opera. They think that the opera and the theater is something reserved for the rich and well to do.

 

And how does it feel to be hungry? After just two days you can feel slightly dizzy and then feel amazingly  light. At the beginning you feel more lucid and aware of things around you. You can have the sensation that you are not walking but floating on the streets. But after that you begin to feel dense, tired and can easily succumb to sleep. You start dreaming of food more and more. 

That was my experience of living in Dublin during the early 1980's. I'd often drop into a shelter in Church Street that fed poor people. Once I made a mistake of walking in with a brief case. The guy who handed out sandwiches noticed this and asked, "What are you doing? " as if I was pretending to be hungry. After some persuasion I got two sandwiches. Another two Irish guys with a fellow Scot also noticed me and asked me 'Why are you here?" The Scotsman answered on my behalf: "Well the man has to eat." I think it's great how fellow Scots stick together abroad! 

Then another strange incident happened in Dublin which sounded like a miracle. I had not eaten for some time and was very hungry. While in the city center I spotted a twenty pound note floating down like an autumn leaf on to the road. I quickly walked out and grabbed it. A lorry driver noticing it told me, "It looks like your lucky day." I immediately went to my favorite cafe to get a decent meal. Who ever said that Guardian angels don't exist? If only the current government could be guardian angels to British school children!

 

AFT & CIA

The American Federation of Teachers and the CIA 

by George Schmidt

Book Review

Almost all the books we read have been censored in some way by the US government via the publishing industry.

You cannot go to a book store and find The American Federation of Teachers and the CIA written by George Schmidt in 1978. These type of books that expose the lies of our government have to be self-published.

George Schmidt who founded Substance News in 1975 to fight for substitute rights and exposed the corruption and lies of not only the Chicago Board of Education and the Chicago Mayor but also the Chicago Teachers Union and its collaboration at times with the power structure.

His book The AFT and the CIA exposes this lie that the union is just there to protect workers' rights. The American Federation of Teachers has in fact been used to help install right-wing dictatorships around the world via its collaboration with the Central Intelligence Agency which is focused on protecting US corporate power at the expense of the people.

This was the time of the Cold War and the battle with the Soviet Union to control the world. It is no different today.

"These same leaders generally neglect to mention that their own "free" labor movement has been similarly by the American Secret Police, the CIA."

The collaboration with Irving Brown from the CIA with the American Federation of Teachers reminded me of CORE's fight with the AFT when they invited Bill Gates to the AFT Convention in Seattle. Both entities represent corporate power that opposes unions and worker organizing.

George's book is a fascinating narrative of the different groups that work with the unions and the intelligence services to subvert governments across the world. He connects the U.S. Agency for International Development or USAID as another CIA front. I worked with USAID when I reported in Russia in the 1990s to promote the free market. Little did I know!

The American labor groups with CIA money would work with a particular worker organization tied to dictator's like Pinochet in Chile or Bautista in Cuba.

"Chile is a good example. In 1973, Chile lost its democratically-elected president and regained its "free trade union movement" with the help of AIFLD, the Pentagon, the Chilean oligarchy, the right wing of the Catholic Church and a group of freedom loving generals who proceeded to execute at least 30,000 people, most of them trade unionists."

George writes further when the horrors of Chile were exposed that the AFT passed a resolution condemning the coup, but an amendment asking the AFT to investigate its relationship to the 1973 coup was defeated. 

George's research is quite extensive. He noted that Sec. of State Henry Kissinger had planned a NATO intervention of Southern Africa to prevent a radical takeover. The CTU and other labor unions tied to the Democratic Party today have not criticized NATO intervention in Ukraine that has provoke the Russian attack.

He also noted that the war in Vietnam began before US soldiers were sent to die when the CIA worked with French trade unions to make sure no strikes stopped the arms shipments in the early 1950s.

George's acerbic wit matched by his brilliant pen puts a literary spin on some of our more darker moments in trade unionism: "The massacre of half a million Indonesians has opened the door to successful 'free trade union' activity in another country."

But it was not only the AFT but also the NEA or National Education Association that worked extensively with the CIA to kill labor activists around the world on behalf of big business.

His last chapter entitled The New York Road to Power noted that after the NY's United Federation of Teachers established themselves as a liberal union that supported civil rights and desegregation in the 1950s then later purged all their activists as a cold hard business unionism took hold.

This book has more than enough to prove that history repeats!

You can access The American Federation of Teachers and the CIA by George Schmidt at -

https://www.scribd.com/doc/106238989/The-American-Federation-of-Teachers-and-the-CIA-by-George-N-Schmidt