Michael Moore on Michigan’s 'right-to-work' law

>>> show." our next guest has a long history with the state of michigan .

>> hi. i'm michael moore . in my hometown of flint, michigan general motors closed the factories and put 30,000 people out of work. to raise their spirits i made this movie.

>> the protests we've seen in michigan lately probably got his attention.

>> right to work is wrong! right to work is wrong! right to work is wrong!

>> right to work is wrong!

>> right to work is wrong!

>> let's bring in academy award -winning filmmaker michael moore , who was born and raised in the great state of michigan . michael, good to have you on "the ed show." appreciate it.

>> thanks for having me here, ed.

>> is your blood boiling over this?

>> well, yeah. i've been in a bit of a rage the last couple of days. my uncle was in the sit-down strike in flint 75 years ago this year. uncle vern. and our family and all the families of people i grew up with have been union people from the get-go. and because they were my generation, people who would never have gotten to go to college, needed to see a doctor you could see a doctor, our dads had the weekend off, which they didn't have before, work-class people like us were able to buy a house and live in it. before that most people rented. you didn't have your own car. couldn't get anywhere. of course there was no reason to get anywhere because you didn't have any vacation. all these things happened that really got ignited by that sit-down strike in flint. and if these republicans who are not going to be in power -- the ones that are there, people that were voted out last month, are sitting there voting and removing these laws. it's just -- here's -- the bright side of this is that the fact that they're doing this, they know that the people don't want what they want. that's what they've got to do it in a rush right now before january 1st because january 1st these new democrats come in and there's enough moderate republicans in the state that that will be the majority.

>> it just goes against the culture of the state. everything the state has ever been. birthplace --

>> it goes against the united states of america . that's right. it's not just the birthplace of the -- it's the birthplace of the middle class . there was no middle-class before flint. there was a great middle class after flint and for decades after that. and they've been on this run since reagan. they've been doing whatever we could do to make sure that wages remain stagnant, that jobs are shipped out -- this governor snyder, you understand what he did before he was the governor of michigan .

>> he shipped jobs it china.

>> he was at gateway computers . which by the way, i think we can stop at gateway because everybody knows it was just a crap computer. and then he just shipped all the jobs right to taiwan. it should have been like a coming atraction for michigan , looking at what he did at gateway. and people say, well, mike, how did this guy get in there? i mean, this is a state that voted for obama ten points over romney. and i think honestly, i think people didn't take 2010 serious enough. and i think a lot of people were -- i think a lot of the base was depressed because at least the perception of what president obama was doing in that first year or two, he was trying to get along, he was trying to be a good guy. and it's like --

>> no public option. no universal health care . that's what the country wanted.

>> right.

>> but there was a perception there wasn't a good enough fight --

>> and putting a guy from goldman sachs , larry summers , in charge of our economic policy.

>> what's the plan? you have a history in terms of being able to battle these kinds of issues. do you have a plan to fight back in michigan ? because they're going to go to other states and try to push the same legislation, which is all about stripping the democratic infrastructure, going right to the money, to the foundation, to make it so unions can't be effective in social networking to have an effect on elections. what's your plan?

>> a number of things are going to happen. first of all, the unions and the democratic party there are going to use every legal means possible to obstruct this thing that they've done, which is against the will of the people . that's number one. number two, the democratic party of michigan has got to run candidates who are going to win. and in the last two days i've spent a lot of time talking to friends and colleagues in michigan , and we're going to put together our own search committee. we're going to recruit candidates who are going to win. we don't need to win all the seats. we just need to identify a few. we're only behind by a few. a few seats. and remove those republicans in 2014 and get somebody to run for governor who's going to win. you had ed verge on last night, great guy, lansing mayor. but it's like the republicans. they run somebody that wins. this is why they have both of these governorships. i think we need to run -- if i were the michigan democratic party , i would be approaching boulevard democrats in the state of michigan who the people would love. a number of ex- red wings , for instance.

>> sure.

>> denise ilitch, from the ilitch family that owns the tigers and the red wings and little caesars . democrats.

>> people that people like.

>> they like them. and that family's a beloved business and the sports teams. i mean, why not run people that the people like? that's what the republicans have -- they ran schwarzenegger in california. they run -- they always run these people. reagan. people --

>> your hands-on to get good candidates.

>> absolutely. we've got to start that now. not next month or next year. that has to start right now. and we're starting it now. the final thing i want to say about this is personally. i have a michigan business. my production company. and what i will do, i'll say this publicly right now, is i plan on committing my own act of civil disobedience . i will not obey this law. if you're going to come and be a cameraman or a sound person on my next film, a writer, a director, an editor, if you don't belong to the union you don't work on my film. that's the position i'm taking. and let them come after me.

>> you're going to force them to pay dues?

>> there's no force them to pay dues. you get all the benefits of being in the union. it's like you know, my -- we've got a little league team here that doesn't want to pay their fees to be in the league. but let us play anyways. but we're not going to pay our fees. you know, i don't like these wars going on. do i get to not pay my taxes? what happened to my freedom of choice? this is all b.s., ed.

>> so is governor snyder going to start going after country clubs and letting people pay without paying their dues? i mean, that's really what it comes down to. they get the benefit of doing whatever they want to do.

>> this is class war that's been ignited by them. working people have always kind of admired people with money . they like them. because they would build factories. they create jobs. you know, and the american dream was to aspire to do better. but the rich have been on a rampage for the last 30-plus years to really destroy everything that my uncle, my dad, my grandparents and everybody else fought for for all these years. people just take it for granted now. they think oh, it's the weekend. we're going to have the weekend off.

>> but it is about election --

>> it didn't exist.

>> it is also about elections and making sure the democrats don't have the infrastructure to fight back against the republican machine. you've only got less than 20% of the people in michigan belong to unions, but they are really the foundation of the democratic base when it comes to doing all the things and getting candidates elected. how do you fight that?

>> well, the only way to fight it is we have to overturn this law. because they are trying to defund the opposition. but again, i just want to point out the silver lining in this. they know that people don't support what they're doing. that's why they had to rush this thing through before january 1st . same reason why they had voter suppression this past year. why would you suppress the vote p f. you believed the country was a republican country? why would you suppress the vote if you thought the o'majority of mefrnz were conservative? you have to suppress the vote because think you're in the minority. it's an admission they know that the country doesn't like republican or conservative philosophy. we're a different country now and a lot of them don't have a clue about it. and they think they're going get away with it and they're not going to get away with it. everybody is fighting mad in michigan . and we're not going to stop.

>> michael moore , thank you for coming in to "the ed show."

>> i tried to keep it pg-13 here.

>> i think people are connected to your passion on this issue. no doubt.

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