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It ain’t John Ashcroft ordering the coverup of Lady Justice’s bare breast, but it’s close. The Tea Party-backed Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, has ordered his state’s Department of Labor to remove a mural depicting moments in labor history from its walls. LePage also demanded the state rename the Labor Department’s conference rooms, currently honoring labor icons like Frances Perkins and Cesar Chavez.
What gives? According to LePage’s spokesperson, the labor mural and labor icon-named rooms “showed ‘one-sided decor’ not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.” I’ll let you parse that one. From the Lewiston, Maine Sun Journal:
Gov. Paul LePage has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting Maine’s labor history from the lobby of the Department of Labor.
Worker advocates described the move as a “mean-spirited” provocation amid the administration’s high-tension standoff with unions.
Acting labor chief Laura Boyett emailed staff Tuesday about the mural’s pending removal, as well as another administration directive to rename several department conference rooms that carry the names of pro-labor icons such as Cesar Chavez.
According to LePage spokesman Dan Demeritt, the administration felt the mural and the conference room monikers showed “one-sided decor” not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.
“The message from state agencies needs to be balanced,” said Demeritt, adding that the mural had sparked complaints from “some business owners” who complained it was hostile to business.
So the mural probably shows people-powered revolutions putting CEOs’ heads on spikes, right? I can see how that’d seem unbalanced.
The 11-panel piece depicts several moments, including the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston, “Rosie the Riveter” at Bath Iron Works, and the paper mill workers’ strike of 1986 in Jay.
“There was never any intention to be pro-labor or anti-labor,” she said. “It was a pure depiction of the facts.”
Oh. Damn facts! So what’s the Gov’s solution?
Demeritt said he didn’t know when the mural would be removed. [...] Demeritt said the rooms could be named “after mountains, counties or something.”
Or something. Sounds perfect for the Department of Labor…
Picture of the mural below:
UPDATE: Dirigo Blue has the full memo from Maine DOL.
DOUBLE UPDATE: This is crazy. Here’s the letter the prompted the Governor to remove the mural:
She said the Governor’s Office has received “several messages” from the public complaining about the mural. She released an anonymous fax dated Feb. 24 that apparently comes from someone who sat in the Labor Department lobby.
“In this mural I observed a figure which closely resembles the former commissioner of labor,” the person wrote. “In studying the mural I also observed that this mural is nothing but propaganda to further the agenda of the Union movement. I felt for a moment that I was in communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.”
The fax is signed “A Secret Admirer.”
That’s it?
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About Work in Progress
Oh.my.god. I’m surprised he isn’t changing the name of the Dept. of Labor itself. Labor! Inherently eeeevvvvillll to idjit tea party republicans.
He objects to Frances freakin’ Perkins???? Good gawd, Secretary of Labor 75 years ago. I suppose he thinks FDR was an evil communist, too.
What is wrong with these people?
Yeah, really, that’s a rhetorical question.
I really hope the dept resists.
Oh, I know! They can sell the naming rights for the conference rooms to corporations! It’s a win-win! It generates revenue in these tough times, and bolsters the hurt feelings of poor picked on CEOs everywhere, struggling to get by on mere millions. ; )
Being in the majority (61%) of the Mainers who DIDN”T vote for this governor I find this absolutely abhorrent.
He’s just one of the many, like Scott Walker, who with the help of deep out of state pockets managed to squeak out a victory in November. Those same deep pockets funded (as never before) republicans in state legislative races and now control both houses.
This goes way beyond the renaming of rooms and the taking down of a mural – it’s what conquerers of old, and new i suppose, do – destroy the population’s history so in time it disappears from all memory. These people are so scary. What’s even more scary is that this seems to be coming out of some Rovian/Kochian playbook that all these recently elected governors are following . . . religiously.
Remember when the Taliban blew up the Buddhist statues?
Ding, ding!
Was he elected in a 3-way race with obviously less than majority of vote?
Why don’t they just change the name, “Labor Movement” to “Movement by the People of the United States for Democracy in the Workplace.”
If guv maine can’t swallow that he should move to china.
Duhs he know the difference between the Department of Labor and the Department of Commerce ?
Well, some folk are just assholes. Then there’s guys like LaPage.
I wonder if they’ll replace it with a mural of corporate sweatshop labor
Sounds like the Taliban & the Bamiyan Buddhas.
Nah, they’d put up happy, laughing, shining face photos of calves in their pens.
Maybe it’s just me, but this sounds like a most dangerous development.
I suspect the neoliberals in both parties want to bring a piece of China to the United States. Republicans, though, just want to piss on the heads of those working in the sweatshops.
Inquiring Minds would like to Know, in Maine do you do Diebold or does Diebold do you ?
It’s certainly indicative of the eliminationist (read: totalitarian) mind at work.
I thought that these people were all into saving money. Who is going to pay the expenses of taking these things down, repairing the wall and changing the signs for the rooms?
Portraits of Donald Trump, Tim Geithner, Alan Greenspan, GWBush, Barak Obama, Jack Welch, Albert Speer, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh would be more fitting.
Well, maybe if business owners weren’t so hostile to everything but their own fucking golden parachutes…
I’m right there with you. It’s a most dangerous development. I’m taking this very seriously.
FYI everybody! Today in 1933, Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.
They just don’t think right…these teaboogers.
How about a mural of happy child laborers under the motto, “Are There No Workhouses?” Maybe that would be a little less “hostile” to business?
Anyone who is with these idiots is culpable. If Maine doesn’t stand up and either kick the bums out or go on general strike…well….they will be making the rest of the bed they’ve made.
SO the Guv. sends himself a fax from the Labor Dept building and calls it the voice of the people. And the people should be responding with pitchforks and torches to this blatant fraud.
Makes sense, those old pictures would be false advertizing. Given what LePage has in mind, scenes from Dante’s Inferno would seem more appropriate. /s
Now, now. He just wants murals that depict the 21st century mission of the Department of Labor. You know, something like mercenaries in crisp uniforms with corporate logos machine-gunning striking workers.
“Not open to debate”? We’ll be the judge of that, thank you very much, Ms. Boyette. That is one hell of a ‘WTF’ statement by the Commissioner of the Department of Labor. Whom does she think she addressing? Does she believe that the Department of Labor is a Wholly owned subsidiary of the TeaBag Party of Maine and it’s TeaBag governor?
Well maybe the two offending rooms could become the Charles and David Koch conference rooms. That should be neutral enough for a ‘bagger governor.
Wait, if I criticize the Governor of Maine does that make me anti-Maine-ist?
I’d take a mural of Japanese people dying of radiation poisoning while trying to save their country from disaster.
Piss in their cornflakes !!!
That mural must stand.
I’ve gotta dig, but I saw a picture last week of a 9 year old boy at the capitol building in Madison, WI. He was carrying a sign that read
“If it wasn’t for Unions I’d be at work right now.”
I am so tired of these militant freaks. So it is official? Government of for and by business and the people are the enemy? When I become POTUS, first thing I do is change the name of anything that has Reagan on it.
Protect the slaveowners, Gov. Maggot?
Let’s call these Koch-beholden governors what they are folks…Fascists.
If we, as in all of us, do not stand up for ourselves today in every way possible against the push by the modern republican party to create a government run entirely by (and entirely for) business, it’s surely not going to get easier if the future.
Get up, organize, protest, boycott, vote, run for public office, and turn the light of day on the plans of these fascists. Our future depends on it.
Isn’t there anyone in Maine who remembers how to apply tar and feathers?
==modnote: painting someone with hot tar is excruciating, no violence please.==
I totally agree, but someone up there better do something about it…it is simply outrageous.
How could Mainers possibly elect this teabag wearing clown? People badmouth Texas, usually with good reason but Goodhair is nothing compared to this guy.
Bring out yer dead, bring out yer dead…but I’m not dead yet!
The politicians have gone mad – mad I tell you.
Spoken like a true authoritarian facsist.
Asshole.
The country has apparently been infiltrated by 6,000 year old aliens…and they aren’t friendly.
“And you vill like it!!”
Attica! Or something.
No windows, dim lighting ???
it was on DU and all those pictures were great!
Anyone notice how when Republicans win elections they ram through everything they can, but when Democrats win the Republicans go on and on about how the people want there to be bi-partisanship for everything.
These people are utterly complete assholes.
Probably gonna commission a mural to replace them of Raygun and/or W.
Well, facts DO have a liberal bias. Guess that’s why Faux “News” has so few of them …
It’s not like the Department of Labor is supposed to, you know, advocate for the rights and privileges of workers or anything else that might upset a business owner. After all, owners only have departments of commerce, the legislature, the governor and multiple chambers of commerce and thousands of lobbyists advocating for them.
First clue.
I want Raygunz on horseback, bare-chested and drooling, rescuing W in a dress as the damsel in distress.
Raygunz must have flowing hair like Fabio. And W should have giant breasts and be drapped in an American flag.
That’s precisely what I thought of.
This is how Maine’s governator pays homage to Triangle Fire?
hahaha
…because that’s what real ‘Merikuh looks like.
Ancient Aliens – Underground Aliens S02 E04 part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvBFGqNqJ70
You might be correct!
First they revise history to suit their deluded self-image, then they will erase(paint over) that history so it no longer exists.
If that statement seems to come out of Soviet 1930′s I seem to recall words to that effect in my earlier readings in Russian History
oops edit doesn’t work for me. I meant erase the history as in Labor movements. My aplolgies if I was unclear.
This is why I post in EPU land*g*
Maybe they could remove the mural on friday in celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. Anyone got a match?
Just like the Soviets, or 1984, or whatever you might come up with. Simply erase history that your corporate whores find disturbing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_at_the_Crossroads
Sort of like (not exactly) the censorship & subsequent destruction of Diego Rivera’s mural Man at the Crossroads at Rockefeller Center in NYC.
Yes, Virginia, this IS called censorship. Let the buyer beware. This IS a very hostile act that smacks strongly of fascism.
Hope the good citizens of Maine strongly protest this act of hostility clearly aimed at workers/small people/dwindling middle & working class.
Excellent point. How long before the Statue of Liberty is dismantled because she embodies open borders and stands for foreigners taking over “our” country?
I guess Citizens United gave the state houses to the kochsuckers who are focused on the destruction of what is left of organized labor. Their goal is to enslave us all. No hyperbole intended.
American workers, organized or not, will have to break out of thirty years of propaganda that taught them that rich people “give” them jobs, that rich people are their natural superiors, and that therefore they should shut up and be obedient and grateful. A tall order.
But even more difficult, American workers will have to give up their petty, long held and cherished, grievances against one another such as black against white or women against men or Republicans against Democrats. Because we will have to be united to prevail against the Fascists who will certainly reduce us to serfdom if we let them.
The easy part, once we have achieved solidarity, will be driving the ass holes from power. Personally I would throw them in prison and confiscate their wealth. Our leaders (yes, we will have leaders) may decide to be more lenient.
SOLIDARITY
Yeppers, that state & local effort to reinstate progressives in govt is going swimmingly.
This is a bad idea by the Governor. A meaningless waste of time.
Leave the painting and names. Get rid of the payoffs to politicians.
Replacement mural.
Well, if Powell can insist Guernica be covered up before he whores himself out again advocating aggressive war…
What is it about symbols of humanity that just drives the conservative mind nuts?
I had the pleasure of talking to a kochsucker.
“Who cares if the elderly are homeless eating catfood, it’s not my problem so why should I help them?”
I don’t see this one way class war ending peacefully.
Time for some political theatre in Maine. Bobble Head LePage and the Baggers. Great graffiti and street art/theatre for workers and Progressive themes. Just in time for tourist season.
And of course, a Firedog-worthy run of media ads.
Doesn’t the State of Maine require a vote of the legislature to expend funds for such things as removal of murals, an intimate part of the capital expenditure for the building? It seems to me the Maine-iac in the governors office must not have a good grasp on the principles of constitutional government and the separation of powers.
Yupper:
Unlike Wisconsin, Maine doesn’t allow for recalls of elected officials. They have to be impeached — and there’s no way articles of impeachment for LePage would make it through the Maine legislature, which is now controlled by Republicans.
With all the petty and not so petty outrages inflicted by these rat bastards, something about this just pisses me off more than normal.
I suspect the art was purchased with tax-payer’s dollars and therefore belongs to the people of Maine….as does the Dept. of Labor buildings (including the conference rooms) and every dollar of the governer’s salary. Suggest they have a referendum on the ballot regarding the removal of public works of art and/or renaming of conference rooms…or at less put the issue to the legislative branch to see if they can spend money on removing the mural and making new name plates for the rooms.
You must realize that the victors get to write or rewrite history as they wish to reflect their views. Soon we will only see depictions of Amerikan Exceptionalism in our public places.
Explain to me how Tea Partiers and Republicans don’t hate the low and middle class.
Hmmm, Seems such a shame to boycott LL Bean! Judging from their website they have a notably progressive and responsible labor policy, but it’s the best way I can think of to express my displeasure. Anyone have some more creative ideas?
OMG. Damnatio memoriae. These right wingers are…there isn’t a word to describe them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae
I’m offended that tax dollars will be used for this ridiculous action by Governor Lepage; it will cost money to remove and replace this mural in another location. If the administration feels that the mural is one-sided, then why don’t they commission an additional mural to be placed in Department of Labor that depicts the history of entrepreneurs. They could even create a concept contest with an entry fee to pay for it. This article really clarifies the kind of fascist politics that are going on in the LePage administration. Much more in depth than the piece done by WCSH6.
Are the seeds of civil war are being sown here? Corporations are being protected just as the SJC protected the slave owners. It is a function of the undue influence of monied interests on the political process as Jefferson and Madison feared. The amoral corporate shell is a kocksucker, just as the slave-owners where amoral pieces of shit who challenged the rule of law and took America to civil war. When a government becomes subordinate to the interests of corporations and the governed are rendered into states of servitude, using the color of law, as was used against the slave, I think of “despot government.” From Dred Scott to Citizens United, a direct assault on the rights of Americans is being conducted by corporate scum, in the lust for “perpetual profit” at the expense of life!
I am an LLB retiree, but work seasonally in Distribution. They have been forward thinking on employee relations and land conservation over my 26 years there. Please dont judge Mainers by our governor-he is the poster child for instant run-off elections! I am also a friend of the mural artist, Judy Taylor, and my wife and I visit her studio whenever we go to Acadia National Park.
Dear Ducky, Thank you for confirming my positive impression of LL Bean and Maine generally. I wonder how people outside the state can express our concern in a way that will actually matter to this governor. Since he is so business-minded, it seems like even the threat of economic repercussions might be enough to adjust his attitude.