Kucinich Takes on Both Parties’ Candidates

Steve Smith of the AFL-CIO Media Affairs Department joined union members in Ohio for the seventh AFL-CIO town hall forum for 2008 presidential candidates co-sponsored by the Ohio AFL-CIO.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is known for his biting criticism of the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress on the war in Iraq, the economy and trade policy. However, today at a Working Families Vote 2008 AFL-CIO town hall meeting in Columbus, Ohio, Kucinich went after the Democratic presidential candidates with equal vigor, attacking (without mentioning names) both parties’ presidential hopefuls for their ties to corporate America, health care proposals and positions on the Iraq War.

Speaking about health care, Kucinich told an audience of union members and their families at the Pipefitters and Plumbers Local 189 that he is “the only candidate in this race who says it time to end [the private insurance] system.” Kucinich went on to chide members of both parties for supporting free trade agreements such as NAFTA that have decimated American manufacturing.

“This campaign has to be about what we need to do to have good jobs in this state and around the country and that means overturning NAFTA,” Kucinich said to loud applause. “As a candidate, I bring to this race a demonstrated commitment to working families not just in this campaign but over the course of a lifetime.

“Kucinich said he is the only candidate in the race with a plan to deliver health care to every single American by ending the for-profit insurance industry. He also touted his plan for revitalizing the manufacturing sector by creating millions of new jobs through public works, much as President Franklin Roosevelt did with the New Deal.

Over the course of the 90 minute town hall, Kucinich took questions from members representing a number of unions including the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers, United Steelworkers, AFSCME and others. Jean Tome,a member of the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, Working America, is one of more than 45 million Americans without health care coverage. Though she is employed, the health care offered through her job costs too much for her to afford as a single mother, she told Kucinich.

Kucinich said he advocates a single payer program, much like Canada’s to cover every American at a lower per capita cost. “I see health care as the No. 1 domestic issue,” Kucinich said.

Russ Teegarden, who was fired from his job at Consolidated Biscuit in Ohio while trying to join BCTGM, asked Kucinich what he could do to ensure workers have the freedom to organize. Kucinich said that workers’ rights, including freedom to form and join unions, would be central in his administration.

Responding to Carla Henthorn, a USW member who lost her job when her Rubbermaid plant closed, Kucinich promised to overturn NAFTA and cancel other free trade agreements that “set the stage for jobs to moved out of this country.”

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the town hall came when Kucinich was discussing Iraq. Recounting his days a copy boy for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the 60s, Kucinich told of having to go to the homes of families who’d lost sons in Vietnam to obtain pictures for the tributes the paper published. Kucinich almost came to tears saying he thinks about all the families who are losing their sons or daughters today in a war that he said was “based on lies.”

This war has to stop and I’m ready to do that,” he said to a standing ovation.

Today’s town hall was the last in a series with the presidential candidates that began in April. The AFL-CIO’s Working Families Vote 2008 campaign is the broadest effort yet to involve working people in the selection of a president, aiming for record turnout in 2008 and full involvement by union members in the federation’s presidential endorsement decision-making process. Previous town hall forums have included Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Joe Biden (Del.), Chris Dodd (Conn.), Barack Obama (Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) and Gov. Bill Richardson (N.M.).

The AFL-CIO’s series of individual presidential candidate town meetings with union members will culminate with a multi-candidate forum in Chicago on August 7, moderated by Keith Olbermann and broadcast live on MSNBC and XM Radio.

The AFL-CIO has not endorsed any candidate for president, nor has it endorsed any candidate for president in the 2008 elections.

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