By Jim Lane

People's Weekly World

www.pww.org

DALLAS - Martin Luther King Jr. said, "In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right-to-work.' It provides no rights and no work. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining."

With the White House occupied by a supporter of a national right-to-work (for less) law, anti-union forces are gathering strength for a dreaded offensive. Across the nation people are receiving fundraising letters from the National Right to Work Committee. They are signed "U.S. Senator Bob Smith." One such letter, received by a Texan, begins, "Make no mistake - AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has become the most feared man in Washington, and he smells blood in the water."

The letter-writer gives the labor movement back-handed compliments such as, "The fact is, Big Labor's political assault decided many close races in the last election and almost seized control of both houses of Congress."

It goes on to ask for donations to finance a four-pronged anti-labor offensive: lawsuits on behalf of disgruntled union members; class-action lawsuits; changing labor law through right-wing court decisions and a publicity campaign to "use every avenue of modern communications to shine the light of public exposure on Big Labor's power grab."

At another point, the letter advocates a national campaign for a "paycheck protection" offensive that has already failed in a number of states. Such a law would effectively mute workers' political voice by hamstringing all union political efforts.

Right-to-work laws now compel union locals in Texas and 20 other states to spend their union dues money to represent scabs as fully as honorable union members. Union organizing in the South was almost destroyed by these rules.

George W. Bush and the National Right to Work Committee would like to make the same rules apply nationwide. The Right to Work Committee is already working in five states to pass such laws. Oklahomans will vote on a statewide referendum in early September.

The "Senator Bob Smith" who signed the fund-raising letter is probably Robert C. Smith, a Republican from New Hampshire. A quick check of www.opensecrets.org says that Smith received four-tenths of 1 percent of his campaign financing from labor, 9.9 percent from "ideological/single issue" organizations and 89.7 percent from business.