Beck: “That is communist, Marxist, propaganda ... we don't want to become a socialist nation”

Beck suggests SEIU's Stern is a communist, socialist, Marxist. On his November 3 radio program, Beck played a clip of SEIU president Andy Stern stating on the June 15, 2007, edition of PBS' Bill Moyers Journal that SEIU has “offices now in Australia and in Switzerland and London, in South America and Africa. We've been working with unions around the world. And what we're working towards is building a global organization. Because comp-- you know, workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work.” Based on Stern's quotation of “workers of the world unite,” Beck suggested that Stern is a communist, Marxist and socialist.

From the November 3 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: Now listen to Andy Stern. This is the most frequent visitor to the White House, the most frequent -- the guy who helped design cap-and-trade. The guy who is helping design immigration policy, the guy who is helping design the stimulus package, and the guy who, most importantly, is designing the mother of all beasts, the health care. Listen to what he is saying in this interview.

STERN [audio clip]: And we are beginning -- we have offices now in Australia and Switzerland and London, in South America and Africa. We've been working with unions around the world. And what we're working towards is building a global organization. Because comp-- you know, workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work.

BECK: Do you understand this? Workers of the world unite. That is communist, Marxist propaganda. Communist -- they for years -- workers of the world unite. This is SEIU, the Services Employees Union International. Got it? Or whatever it is. International union. Service Employees International Union. OK? They're going international -- workers of the world unite. But there's more. The most frequent visitor to the White House, and the guy Barack Obama says he turns to -- not Mao, that's another one of his advisers -- most often, if he needs to know what to do, he turns to SEIU. Here it is.

STERN [audio clip]: We're trying to use the power of persuasion. And if that doesn't work, we're going to use the persuasion of power. Because there are governments and there are opportunities to change laws that affect these companies. I'm not naïve. We're ready to strike.

BECK: He's not naive. He's ready to strike.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: It started last summer with the so called big box ordinance.

BECK: Listen to this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: Labor wanted it; business didn't.

STERN [audio clip]: We took names. We watched how they voted. We know where they live.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: In October Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union --

BECK: We took names.

STERN [audio clip]: There are opportunities in America to share better in the wealth, to rebalance the power, and unions and government are part of the solution.

BECK: To rebalance the power and to share the wealth. Workers of the world unite; we can help you share the wealth, if you combine government and unions. Well, what the hell are we doing?

STEVE “STU” BURGUIERE (executive producer): Can I have one request real quick for you to say again that he's the most -- the person who's visited the White House the most?

PAT GRAY (co-host): Twenty-two times.

BURGUIERE: Twenty-two times.

BECK: Twenty-two times.

GRAY: Except we'll probably hear, it's not that Andy Stern. Uh, that's a different Andy Stern.

BECK: No, we've -- we've checked.

BURGUIERE: Is it possible he's going on tours -- he just really likes the history.

BECK: He is -- he is -- he has weekly meetings with the president. Weekly meetings.

GRAY: He almost lives there. In fact, it was described that way. He practically lives in the White House.

BECK: He has unfettered access to the Oval Office. Now you tell me, America, what is it going to take? What is it going to take? You know, yesterday I drew, if you saw on the TV show, I drew a picture of a building and all of us just jumping off of this building, because the building is so tall you just don't feel the consequences. Well, we're facing the pavement here, gang. Prepare for impact. And we have people now, and where are your damn representatives in Washington standing up and saying “Hold it, we don't want to become a socialist nation”?

Stern while discussing use of “workers of the world unite” slogan: “the good news is communism's dead”

Stern: “the good news is communism's dead.” During the May 14, 2006, edition of CBS's 60 Minutes, reporter Lesley Stahl said to Stern: “You like to say, 'Workers of the world unite,' which sounds, it is Karl Marx. But that's your, that's your kind of slogan now.” Stern replied: “Well, the good news is communism's dead, but the truth is, the phrase means a lot because all of a sudden workers in London and workers in the United States are working for the same employer and the same owners.”

Numerous conservatives have approvingly cited Mao's and other communists' tactics, rhetoric

As Media Matters for America has documented, numerous conservatives, including Newt Gingrich and John McCain, have approvingly cited the quotes and tactics from communist and socialist dictators, and stated that they had used those tactics in their political work, or have otherwise highlighted their philosophies.

Beck frequently targets progressives and Democrats as communist, Maoist, socialist lovers

Beck cropped Dunn quote to falsely claim she said Mao was “the man she turns to most.” Continuing Fox News' witch hunt against members of the Obama administration, both Beck and Special Report misleadingly cropped White House communicators director Anita Dunn's remarks at a high school graduation ceremony to falsely claim that she was, in Beck's words, “proclaiming Mao [Zedong] as ... the man that she turns to most.” In fact, Dunn actually said that Mao and Mother Teresa were “the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is, you're going to make choices.”

Beck falsely claimed Dunn “worships” “her hero” Mao Zedong. Throughout most of his October 15 Fox News program, Beck falsely claimed that Dunn “worships” and “idolizes” “her hero” Mao Zedong. In fact, in the video that Beck aired as evidence to support his claims, Dunn offered no endorsement of Mao's ideology or atrocities -- rather, she commented that Mao and Mother Teresa were two of her “favorite political philosophers,” and based on short quotes from them, she offered the advice that “you don't have to follow other people's choices and paths” or “let external definition define how good you are internally.”

Beck smears net neutrality as a Marxist plot to take over the Internet. Beck argued that the Obama administration's support for net neutrality amounted to a Marxist takeover of the Internet that would stifle innovation, when in fact net neutrality -- which was the law of the land from the creation of the Internet until 2005, and which ensured that Internet service providers were not able to control content -- has been cited by numerous Internet pioneers as the guiding principle in Internet development and innovation. Moreover, in smearing supporters of net neutrality, Beck esentially included groups such as the Gun Owners of America, the Christian Coalition, and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council in what he described as a plot “design[ed]” by “Marxists.”

Beck attacks “manufacturing czar” Bloom for citing Mao. Beck seized on “manufacturing czar” Ron Bloom's February 2008 statement that he agrees “with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun.”

Beck: Obama so clearly" a socialist, “He's surrounded himself with Marxists his whole life.” On the March 9 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Beck claimed that Obama “is so clearly” a socialist because "[h]e's surrounded himself with Marxists his whole life."