195 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
195 lines
8.3 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 30
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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HOW THE MOBSTERS GOT INTO THE UNIONS
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Interview With Sherman Skolnick -- February 26, 1996
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CONSPIRACY NATION:
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This is my idea of how the thing works: Back around the late
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1800s, the workers banded together, and formed unions. And the
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bosses hired gangsters to beat up on them. So then the unions
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figured, "Well, if *they're* gonna hire gangsters, *we're* gonna
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hire gangsters." And that's kind of how the mobs got into the
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unions.
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SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
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There was a movie a few years ago about the organization of the
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Teamsters. And that's the thesis that they took. I think it was
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sort of a *roman a clef* about Hoffa. And then I think there was
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an actual movie on the television called "Hoffa".
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CONSPIRACY NATION:
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Yeah, I saw that movie, "Hoffa", with Danny DeVito and I think
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Jack Nicholson was the other one in it.
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SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
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In other words, it started out with exploited workers but then
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the gangsters took over. However nowadays, some workers say,
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"Well what's the difference if the Mafia runs the union, as long
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as I get good wages?" In *some* places, that *is* okay. [But] if
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the Mafia runs the union, they skim off... They make sweet-heart
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deals with the boss so that the wages are not very good. And the
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pension rights, in some instances, are almost non-existent.
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One of the tricks they use, in the Chicago area and probably
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across the country, they make certain that small employees are
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forced to join a union even if they don't work regularly. And
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they've got to contribute like 8 dollars an hour, if they're
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skilled tradesmen, to the "health and welfare fund". And if the
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worker does not work regularly (like seasonal workers)... if they
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don't work for a month, whatever it is, that so many dollars to
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that "health and welfare fund" is for *nothin'*! Because the
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insurance only continues if you pay regularly.
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So it's a racket for skimming off money.
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In the case of the Teamster's Pension Fund, I did stories, years
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ago, that the Teamster's Pension Fund has been the largest
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private unregulated bank in the world. And the government didn't
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regulate it, and the CIA started to use the Teamsters in the
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early '50s, with "Red" Dorfman (who was the father of Alan
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Dorfman, who had been in the Marines. Alan Dorfman considered
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himself rather patriotic.)
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And what they did is, they used the Teamster's Pension Fund as a
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*bank*, for the CIA to funnel covert money overseas to overthrow
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foreign unions that they didn't like.
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CONSPIRACY NATION:
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And eventually these unions got intertwined with the politicians;
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that they would give these huge "campaign contributions" (so-
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called) to the politicians, and then the politicians would do
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"favors" for them. And so that would be how the government and
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the unions began to kind of "be in bed together" -- right?
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SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
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Well, during the '70s the Teamsters escaped prosecution when Jim
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Thompson was the District Attorney in Chicago. A key witness was
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allowed to be murdered. The witness was supposed to be protected
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by the government, but mysteriously, the guards "disappeared" and
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he was murdered. That was 1974. And that was a key witness
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against Alan Dorfman and others.
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But then, by the end of that decade, into about 1980 and so on,
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suddenly the government decided that they wanted to put Dorfman
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in jail. And they found him guilty. And just before he was to be
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sentenced, he was being interviewed by a foreign news group. And
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he bitterly complained that he had been secretly in business with
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the Governor, and that he had been in the Marines and was
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patriotic and had helped the CIA -- and he couldn't understand
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*why* they now were about to sentence him to jail. And once he
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started that interview, in short order he was murdered. And it
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remains an unsolved murder.
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They would like you to believe, through the press, that Alan
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Dorfman was killed by the mob. But I don't believe it. I believe
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that James Thompson, who at that time was the Governor of
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Illinois, he and his associates arranged the murder of Alan
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Dorfman -- who was a wizard! He was really good at the numbers in
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the pension fund.
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CONSPIRACY NATION:
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You know, the name Alan Dorfman "rang a bell" -- that whole case.
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But back at the time, I wasn't really following the news that
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much.
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SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
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Judge Bua [BOO-ahh], Federal District Judge Bua, talked to us
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later that the Dorfman estate escaped scrutiny. So the judges,
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and the District Attorney, and all those guys were involved in
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the whole business.
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Supposedly the corruption was justified in that, secretly (as I
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said), the Teamsters Pension Fund in Chicago was the largest
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private bank in the world and, like the Vatican Bank, had
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assisted the CIA in covert operations.
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CONSPIRACY NATION:
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So I'm still not sure what the deal is: the mob muscles in on the
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unions because they see a way of stealing money from the unions?
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SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
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At the close of the Second War there were left-wing unions in
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Europe. And they were controlling the docks in Marseilles,
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France. And it was there that the O.S.S. (which later became the
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CIA) arranged... They didn't want the left-wing unions to have
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any power. So they allowed the traditional gangsters to muscle in
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on the situation and to set up dope/chemical factories in
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southern France. That is all well-documented in a book by Alfred
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McCoy called *The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia* -- the
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rise of the gangsters and the dope business worldwide because...
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Well... It went back further than that. During the Second World
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War they needed the help of the traditional Sicilian Mafia to
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fight the Germans. So what they did is, before the Allies landed
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on Sicily, the Mafia arranged to sabotage the roads... [This was
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done with the help of] a Sicilian gangster who lived in the
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United States: Lucky Luciano. And there's a book that goes into
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it, how Naval Intelligence made a deal with him. [CN -- As I
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recall, one book that tells of this deal is *Little Man* by
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Robert Lacey. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991)]
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That's where the connection between the gangsters and the
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espionage agencies began.
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And a more recent book is by the Godson and younger brother of
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"Momo" Giancana, called *Double Cross*.
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CONSPIRACY NATION:
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Yeah. Yeah. Good book.
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SHERMAN SKOLNICK:
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*That* *book* rings so close to the truth, it is frightening.
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In other words, the CIA used the gangsters. And then, when they
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were tired of them, they murdered 'em one by one and said that
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"other gangsters killed them." When in fact, many of 'em were
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killed with guns with special silencers that only the CIA had.
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And that includes Giancana. [CN -- Giancana was murdered by
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person/persons unknown.]
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So there's been a long connection between the gangsters, the dope
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business, the espionage agencies, and the unions. And it
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continues to this day (although the unions are getting very weak
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in the United States.)
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Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc?
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(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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See also: http://www.europa.com/~johnlf/cn.html
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See also: ftp.shout.net pub/users/bigred
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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