Show Me the Money.

Many people are now aware of the political campaign of right-wing Catholic and Protestant organizations to deny American women the right to safe, legal abortion and even contraceptives. This same campaign has blocked appropriations to the United Nations, family-planning programs overseas, and equal rights to a minority whose sexual orientation is different from the majority.

However, few Americans are aware of the intimate link between these religious groups and the corporate interests that are campaigning for the privatization of schools, prisons, and Social Security and against the rights of teachers and workers to organize counter campaigns.

In June 1998, California held a referendum on Proposition 226, a so-called paycheck protection initiative. Although it was defeated in California, similar initiatives are planned for other states. The wording may vary but the following ideas are generally included in each: employers would be required by law to get written permission from each employee to use payroll-deducted money for union dues, and unions would be required to get written permission from each member to use dues for any political activity.

The major purpose of such measures is to prevent organizations--of teachers and labor unions, generally--from opposing legislation creating government vouchers for private schools. In 1993, right-wing groups funded by wealthy foundations, corporations, and individuals put Proposition 174 on the ballot in California in a failed attempt to get vouchers approved--the same groups that funded the paycheck initiative in 1998.

These efforts led the National Education Association to undertake the most exhaustive research yet on the largely secret network of right-wing organizations and its funding sources. The result is a 148-page book entitled The Real Story Behind Paycheck Protection--The Hidden Link Between Anti-Worker and Anti-Public Education Initiatives: An Anatomy of the Far Right. It contains detailed information about the national and state networks of those far-right organizations that seek to control government, end separation of church and state, enhance the influence of corporate and other business enterprises, and legislate a dogmatic religious agenda with respect to abortion, homosexuality, and other so-called family values issues.

One of the virtues of this book is its thorough analysis of such far-right groups as James Dobson's Focus on the Family and Gary Bauer's Family Research Council. It also demonstrates the relation of virtually all right-wing groups to the Council for National Policy and such major groups as the Heritage Foundation.

Another virtue of the book is its naming of wealthy individuals, foundations, and corporations providing the funding for the far right. Among them are John Walton of Wal-Mart enterprises, who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the California paycheck initiative and who, working with others, has launched a $200 million national effort to promote vouchers. Among the out-of-state corporate supporters of Proposition 226 were Federal Express, Bristol-Meyers, Geico, and Outback Steakhouses.

The most important information in The Real Story Behind Paycheck Protection, hitherto unavailable, is the listing of state institutes, foundations, and alliances of right-wing organizations together with their boards of directors, funding resources, and programs. Another feature is its listing of "Selected Biographies" of various right-wing leaders.

The chief weakness of the book is its total neglect of right-wing Catholic organizations like the Catholic Campaign for America, major Catholic right-wing funding sources, and individuals like Paul Weyrich, William Bennett, and Richard Viguerie who have organized or led some of the major national right-wing organizations.

Since Bennett is one of the most prominent spokespeople for school vouchers, and Catholic parochial schools would be the chief beneficiaries, this is hardly an oversight. However, it is an understandable omission; since the Catholic right wing is so largely related to bishops and cardinals, such a listing would create problems. There is, however, no religious discrimination in the book, since it also avoids relating right-wing groups and individuals to the Southern Baptist Convention, whose policies are correspondingly right wing.

Without any doubt, this is an indispensable resource for anyone who seeks information about the network of state and national far-right organizations and its proposed actions to create an America in its own image.

John M. Swomley is professor emeritus of social ethics at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, and a national board member of the Interfaith Alliance.