On January 27, 2022 Kevin Nicholson, the CEO of No Better Friend Corp. announced he’s running for Governor of Wisconsin. https://www.nicholsonforwisconsin.com/
Every poor and working person in Wisconsin should not dismiss the extreme danger of what a Nicholson in the governor’s office would mean. Organized labor in particular should take note.
In many ways, Nicholson is to the right of former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Walker waged merciless and unrelenting war on poor and working people and is now with the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), an extreme right-wing training ground for youth and students. Mike Pence, former U.S. Vice President and former Governor of Indiana, is assisting Walker at the YAF. Nicholson works closely with these types of reactionary forces.
No Better Friend Corp.: Funded by the Bradley Foundation to Push Anti-Worker, Racist Austerity Shock Doctrine Style
The name No Better Friend Corp. is meant to sound folksy but the organization’s members and backers are some of the most extreme right-wing forces internationally attacking poor and working people relentlessly.
Nicholson is supported by an array of war criminals, union busters, bigots and racists. [https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SourceWatch]
No Better Friend Corp. over the past two years have been opportunistically using the fight over the teaching of historical truth in public schools and science based protocols in regard to COVID-19 as two issues to also push the right-wing agenda of attacking public education generally, unions (particularly in the public sector) and social safety nets. And whipping up racism across the state of Wisconsin especially in rural and semi-rural areas of the state in an attempt to divide and conquer the working class and communities.
Right-wing organizations such as No Better Friend Corp. use issues such as science based protocols and teaching historical truth, to recruit and to build and consolidate their bases nationally and in historically union strongholds such as Green Bay, Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Wausau. For example, Americans For Prosperity (AFP) has been setting up offices in similar areas over the past decade. The rich and their servants like Nicholson, are now also emboldened by the decrease of public sector union membership and strength (especially in rural and semi-rural areas) since the union-busting Act 10 was implemented in 2011 and Right-To-Work (for less) in 2015 in Wisconsin. The right-wing forces hope to use any bases they might build to escalate their attacks on school boards, libraries and other public services whether legally or extra legally (vigilantes if necessary etc.). They want to gut, privatize and profit at any cost. Nicholson being connected to John Bolton is especially concerning as Bolton for decades has been known as one of the most extreme war hawks in the world perfectly fine with using any methods available to wipe out people’s resistance to enrich Wall Street banks and corporations.
Beginning in 2020 in Wisconsin, there have been an alarming number of threatening actions in numerous cities against school board and city/county board members collectively and individually as well as library personnel and employees of other public institutions. Much of this activity has increased after right-wing organizations such as No Better Friend Corp. and Educate Not Indoctrinate have circulated inaccurate, inflammatory intentionally inaccurate information via social media and other methods or had their members speak in numerous cities.
Just a few examples:
Cedarburg: https://bit.ly/3kGVqpR
Manitowoc: https://bit.ly/3sXvtGl
Mequon: https://bit.ly/3t0OaZN
Prairie du Chien: https://bit.ly/3DvFGOR
Oshkosh: https://bit.ly/3zuGfpH
Whitefish Bay: https://bit.ly/3mL79WR
But there has been some people’s resistance including the “Stop The Hate” rally in Manitowoc, WI August 10, 2021: https://bit.ly/3zuIHfX And in Mequon where right wing school board candidates bought and paid for by the rich (including Nicholson’s backers, the Uihlein’s) were defeated in the fall of 2021. And the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association has joined in various people’s fight back activities.
Why?
The right-wing’s activities over historical truth being taught in public schools is in part a backlash against the unprecedented Black Lives Matter protests in the summer and fall of 2021 in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd.
In Wisconsin, as in many states, the Black Lives Matter protests were diverse in character joined by a rainbow of poor and working people. This is the exact type of unity the right-wing wants to crush and splinter before it can build and become more effective ideologically and organizationally.
In tandem with this, the right-wing is using provocatively racist language in regard to historical truth being taught in public schools in attempts to confuse white workers in terms of who their real friends and enemies are. For example, the very same right-wing forces such as AFP and the Bradley Foundation that spent millions for their political servants to pass and implement Jim Crow, anti-worker laws such as Act 10 and Right-To-Work (for less) and eliminating prevailing wage, restricting voting rights, attacking women’s reproductive freedom etc., are the very same right-wing forces now attacking historical truth being taught in public schools and opposing the scientific methods of COVID-19 safety protocols. [AFP is just one example: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity]
Another reason the right-wing hates real truth being taught (using books such as Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”) is that it exposes the horrific history of the United States such as the massive thefts of Indigenous land and genocide, slavery, lynching, the Pinkertons and the horrors of war where the poor get killed and maimed and the rich get richer. But People’s History also shows the leading roles of people of color, women and LGBTQ people – and a way forward where poor and working people can join together to build a better world without poverty, racism and war. [https://www.zinnedproject.org/]
People’s History also clarifies this class struggle asking critical thinking questions such as: Why do the rich need bigotry and racism? Why do the rich that don’t work live in mansions when my Grandmother has worked for decades at hard labor and she has nothing? What’s the role of working women and LGBTQ people in history? How and why did Black workers build unions in alliance with white workers in Wisconsin and across the world? How did poor and working people build unity throughout history nationally and in Wisconsin with union building, voting rights etc.? What is socialism? Etc. People’s history also brings forth poor and working people’s deep cultural contributions (art, music etc.) many of which have been fundamental to social justice movements in building relationships to build people’s power.
The UAW Local 833 in Kohler for example was built in the 1950’s by workers of many nationalities and ages in Wisconsin and internationally through an eight year strike. Since then, a diverse UAW national union with many community and faith based supporters over the decades has ensured UAW Local 833’s vitality. When workers were on strike at various periods at the Kohler Company, many Black and other workers of color from Detroit and many other cities assisted their fellow workers and vice versa by contributing to strike and food funds and plant gate collections. The same is true of paper workers in Green Bay/the Fox Valley, timber workers in northern Wisconsin and aluminum, crane and shipbuilding workers in Manitowoc. There’s also a rich history of progressive farmers and union members joining together in Northeastern Wisconsin and across the state.[https://familyfarmers.org/] [https://www.wisconsinlaborhistory.org/]
This is the type of history the right-wing doesn’t want the students of poor and working people to know for it might spark courage, hope and the audacity to fight back today. And knowing their forebears courageous history could prevent poor and working people (as Malcolm X often stated) from being hoodwinked, bamboozled and sold out by the rich and their political servants again and again. For example when the rich and their servants such as Nicholson spout words such as “freedom,” “flexibility,” and “common sense reforms,” they really mean union busting, war, racism, the shredding of safety nets and regulation etc.
Or from getting ideas such as:
If the rich don’t abide by laws, why do we have to when our very lives are threatened?
The rich seem to always have the police on their side. Why don’t we form our own worker self-defense organizations in alliance with the community? Why should we tolerate raging hordes of anti-union, racists at our public institutions board meetings?
Why can’t white, Somali and Mexican meat packing plant workers in Green Bay team up with the Honduran and Mexican farm workers in Manitowoc County, Black workers in various sectors and the student retail workers in Door County to form workers (and other) assemblies to build fight back programs and mobile organizational vehicles?
Or perhaps we can educate our fellow workers that happen to be white who are confused to join in the real people’s struggles and stop being pitted against their fellow workers who might happen to be LGBTQ, Black or Latina/o? All of whom united together could build a mighty People’s Movement to push back the right-wing onslaught of austerity, horrific greed, lies and daily capitalist violence against poor and working people.
KEVIN NICHOLSON: TOOL OF THE RICH
Kevin Nicholson who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2018, is using No Better Friend Corp. for his personal political ambitions. He’s also being used by the rich to push an extreme Jim Crow austerity program which includes moves to attempt to eviscerate the pensions of poor and working people. Because of union oversight, the Wisconsin pension is the best managed in the United States.
In recent years, Nicholson has become a lap dog for the rich bringing forth an extreme-right wing program in Wisconsin and elsewhere. He is endorsed by the likes of war criminal John Bolton and his PAC, the Club For Growth, and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein.
Nicholson’s No Better Friend Corp. is funded by and allied with an assortment of right-wing entities ranging from the Americans For Prosperity to the Bradley Foundation. [https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SourceWatch]
On the No Better Friends Corp. website, on the staff page, there are many boasts about how the organization has staff that have mercilessly and purposely attacked poor and working people which has and will cause untold suffering.
One staff bio excerpt:
“…. While at AFP (Americans For Prosperity), he worked on some of the most successful issue campaigns in Wisconsin, including Right to Work, repeal of the prevailing wage, the REINS Act, and other pro-taxpayer reforms.” [Note: When right-wing forces use terms such as individual liberty, reforms, flexibility, common sense etc. they really mean racist, anti-worker austerity such as the elimination of public sector labor laws, de-regulation, increasing debt service to the banks, destroying pensions, destroying safety laws and regulations and shredding social safety nets all embedded within racist “capitalism with the gloves off” approach etc.]
The Uihlein’s, well known for their anti-union philosophies and activities, put $3.5 million in a super PAC for Nicholson during his 2018 U.S. Senate campaign. Nicholson also works closely with Jeff Harris, a major GOP donor, and Brett Healy, another operative. [https://politi.co/38pUmRt]
Nicholson is also endorsed by John Bolton, who has a decades long war criminal resume and hates poor and working people according to many progressive people’s organizations. [https://www.codepink.org/boltonindictment] [https://afgj.org/]
During 2021 Nicholson spoke at various No Better Friend Corp. events and some of the right-wing speakers who joined him included:
JAMES LINDSAY
Lindsay, a member and frequent speaker through the right-wing network in the United States. He has been a featured guest on Fox News and Glenn Beck. He is a leader with Turning Point USA and most recently New Discourses.
From Source Watch: [https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Turning_Point_USA]
“Turning Point USA is a right-wing youth and student group, with a mission to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.”[1] The group funnels money to right-wing candidates for student government at universities across the country and has faced numerous allegations of racial discrimination. Turning Point USA is funded by a variety of right-wing mega-donors with a history of flooding the political process with money, including the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, Foster Friess, Michael Leven and various Koch brothers-affiliated groups, such as the Foundation for Economic Education, DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund.”
[https://www.tpusa.com/dr-james-lindsay]
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Bradley Foundation Grants 2013-2020:
https://www.bradleyfdn.org/grants/archived-grants
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 