Whois & Analysis for aflcio.org

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is a national trade union center and the largest of unions in the United States.

It is made up of fifty-six national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million active and retired workers.

The AFL–CIO engages in substantial political spending and activism.

Democracy (' literally "rule of the commoners"), in modern usage, is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament.

Democracy is sometimes referred to as "rule of the majority".

Democracy was originally conceived in Classical Greece, where political representatives were chosen by a jury from amongst the male citizens: rich and poor.

The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle French and Middle Latin equivalents.

Solidarity is unity (as of a group or class) which produces or is based on unities of interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies.

It refers to the ties in a society that bind people together as one.

The term is generally employed in sociology and the other social sciences as well as in philosophy or in Catholic social teaching.

Political freedom (also known as a political autonomy or political agency) is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies.

Political freedom was described as freedom from oppression or coercion, the absence of disabling conditions for an individual and the fulfillment of enabling conditions, or the absence of life conditions of compulsion, e.g. economic compulsion, in a society.

Although political freedom is often interpreted negatively as the freedom from unreasonable external constraints on action, it can also refer to the positive exercise of rights, capacities and possibilities for action, and the exercise of social or group rights.

The concept can also include freedom from "internal" constraints on political action or speech (e.g. social conformity, consistency, or "inauthentic" behaviour).

The concept of political freedom is closely connected with the concepts of civil liberties and human rights, which in democratic societies are usually afforded legal protection from the state.

Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual.

Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government.

Individualism is often defined in contrast to totalitarianism, collectivism, authoritarianism, communitarianism, and more corporate social forms.