UNIONS, the engine of the Rhode Island left, are all propaganda — all the time.

The first step for the National Education Association Rhode Island (NEARI) in conducting the perfect propaganda performance at the Jan. 13 East Providence School Committee meeting was to make sure that their supporters engulfed the high-school auditorium, where the gathering took place. Many of the union’s unruly enthusiasts were not from East Providence but were imported.

Mission accomplished. About 90 percent of the crowd was clearly in support of the teachers union.

“Last night was a great night in East Providence. Teachers and supporters showed the public that the real support is with them, not the School Committee,” NEARI representative Patrick Crowley reported, revealing how unions cultivate their image as a victimized group, armed with the support of the majority.

Shortly before the meeting began, the restless crowd assembled casually. Suddenly, when the light from the news cameras flashed across the auditorium, the crowd erupted by hurling pro-union slogans toward the cameras — right on the cameras’ cue (almost as if they had done this before).

But manufacturing a false impression of popular support was merely the first act of deception. During the meeting, several figures in the audience became targets of Crowley’s intimidation. His actions perfectly illustrated just how deviously calculated some union maneuvers are.

One of Crowley’s targets was consultant Lisa Blais, in whose face he intrusively pointed a hand-sized camera several times. Karin Gorman of Rhode Islanders for Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement (RIILE) was taunted by this professional miscreant as well. “[Are you] adding union-busting to [your] racial-profiling work?” he mocked. He then derisively asked Rhode Island Statewide Coalition (RISC) President Harry Staley if he was there “representing the millionaire Watch Hill crowd?”

Such provocation was intended to incite an incident, hopefully an unfriendly backlash caught on film that would serve as faulty evidence of the crudeness of those people standing athwart the NEARI’s attempt to bankrupt East Providence.

Worse than Crowley’s pushy tactics, however, was this instigator’s disingenuous recap of his own actions. Despite receiving little ammunition, he still managed to propagandize these altercations on a left-wing blog. While failing to mention his provocative videotaping, he reported that, after confronting Staley, “one of the lovely people with him said to me, ‘What are you, a member of Hamas?’ Lovely to know what they really think of people.”

Union propagandists are well aware of the charge of indecency often levied against them, so they seek to reverse it. Accuse your accuser — one of the oldest tricks in the book. But then again, unions haven’t had a new idea in decades.

All of Crowley’s sophomoric charades were occurring while others continuously disrupted the dignity of the meeting, forcing the committee to hurdle abusive heckling throughout the entire night.

When it came time for the public comments portion of the evening, the first three to approach the podium all expressed their solidarity with union interests. None were interrupted.

True to totalitarian form, however, the fourth speaker was shouted down once the crowd recognized his support for the committee. The union’s heightening hostility became irrepressible, and the committee was forced to adjourn what had become a dysfunctional meeting. Police officers escorted the committee members from the auditorium.

The audio from this disruptive uproar confirms my account of the meeting’s close. So do all the news reports. Yet, this is how NEARI characterized it: “Actually, what happened was that after teachers were cheering for a former School Committee member who was about to speak in support of the teachers, the meeting was shut down. Obviously, [committee chairman] Tony Carcieri can’t handle the criticism.”

Just another lie.

As committee members prepared themselves to take questions from the media, dozens of union supporters pressed themselves against the stage. A few minutes passed before a camera was being focused on Chairman Carcieri. From 15 feet away, the thugs roared, drowning any chance for a substantive interview with the press.

The union had succeeded in keeping the committee’s perspective from public ears.

Carcieri stood for several more minutes on the auditorium stage with a police presence, waiting for the crowd to dissipate. Two men waited by the end of the stage where Carcieri would eventually have to pass. When he finally made his way over, the two men prompted a verbal scuffle. Without the presence of the officers, the situation probably would have escalated (which is what the two men were hoping for).

But what makes seemingly normal citizens behave so thuggishly? And why do unions harness so masterfully the art of dishonest propaganda?

It’s actually rather simple. The ideology of the collective is abrasive to the capitalist fabric that most Americans subscribe to, so unions long ago were forced to adopt a decrepit subculture of radicalism that compels them to invoke fascist political strategies. Their methods include the evasion of debate, the promotion of class warfare, and the flattering portrayal of themselves as “workers” and “community heroes.”

Oh, and don’t forget flat-out lying.

Travis Rowley is vice-chairman of the Rhode Island Young Republicans, and the author of Out of Ivy ( trowley@idiversity.org).