WARD HARKAVY, VILLAGE VOICE, 2000 – Twice in three days last week, Hillary
Rodham Clinton basked in the adulation of cheering union members. Her
record
of supporting collective bargaining, however, is considerably worse than
wobbly. Pity the thousands of unionists at last Tuesday’s state Democratic
convention who chanted her name, and the hundreds of retired Teamsters at
Thursday’s luncheon in midtown who had interrupted their Founder’s Day meal

to hear the corporate litigator turned union-loving Democrat deliver a
campaign speech.

They would have dropped their forks if they had heard that Hillary served
for six years on the board of the dreaded Wal-Mart, a union-busting
behemoth. If they had learned the details of her friendship with Wal-Mart,
they might have lost their lunches. . . In 1986, when Hillary was first
lady
of Arkansas, she was put on the board of Wal-Mart. Officials at the time
said she wasn’t filling a vacancy. In May 1992, as Hubby’s presidential
campaign heated up, she resigned from the board of Wal-Mart. Company
officials said at the time that they weren’t going to fill her vacancy.

So what the hell was she doing on the Wal-Mart board? According to press
accounts at the time, she was a show horse at the company’s annual meetings

when founder Sam Walton bused in cheering throngs to celebrate his
non-union
empire, which is headquartered in Arkansas, one of the country’s poorest
states. According to published reports, she was placed in charge of the
company’s “green” program to protect the environment. But nobody got
greener
than Sam Walton and his family. For several years in the ’80s, he was
judged
the richest man in America by Forbes magazine. . .

Was Hillary the voice of conscience on the board for American and foreign
workers? Contemporary accounts make no mention of that. They do describe
her
as a “corporate litigator” in those days, and they mention, speaking of
environmental matters, that she also served on the board of Lafarge, a
company that, according to a press account, once burned hazardous fuels to
run its cement plants. . .

The Clintons depended on Wal-Mart’s largesse not only for Hillary’s regular

payments as a board member but for travel expenses on Wal-Mart planes and
for heavy campaign contributions to Bill’s campaigns there and nationally.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s first lady, who also benefited from Wal-Mart stock,
solicits support from union workers. Which makes her words to the elderly
Teamsters last week especially poignant: “You can count on me to stand up
for the right to collectively bargain!” Right on, sister!

If you can construct his support for affirmative action out of those words, Pravda might be a potential employer.

Dr. King would make Bill Cosby look like a shy wall flower in fighting the condescending attitudes underlying afirmative action. His life’s work has been trashed by his political heirs.

God bless Corretta Scott King’s soul.

Ignorance on Bush’s behalf, betrays his words.