'Citizens United' Decision Allows Spread of Anonymous, Anti-Worker Network

A network of anti-worker, anti-union organizations is getting bigger and more aggressive as it spends hundreds of millions of dollars to steamroll America's working families, a new report from American Rights at Work.

"We have seen an unprecedented surge of activity by shadowy organizations that use hidden donors to undermine the progressive social agenda for which organized labor has always stood," ARAW says.

Some of the groups are well known, including Dick Armey's Freedom Works, the far-right Club for Growth and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which not only received $1 million from the right-wing News Corp., but also gets lots of money from foreign corporations. Read more at www.thinkprogress.org.

The Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision this year and a 2007 decision on political spending have meant that donors to groups with misleading names like "Americans for Job Security" don't have to be disclosed.

The 2010 elections are being financed by a very small group of wealthy individuals and corporations whose names are never known, with most of those funds going to Republican campaigns.

Americans for Job Security, for example, has spent nearly $8 million so far in an attack campaign supporting free trade, ARAW says. Read the full report here.