The Lunchpail

Say "NO" to the Viking Stadium boon-doggle

2012-01-18T15:52:00.003-06:00

The iron Range has nothing to gain by tax-payers footing the bill in any way, shape or form when it comes to building a new Viking's Stadium.

The present stadium is good enough for a second-rate football team.

The owners of the Vikings should foot the bill not expect tax-payers to subsidize their profits.

CALL TO ACTION!!

2009-11-09T14:44:00.000-06:00

Money for jobs; not for war... unemployed workers shouldn't have to pay any taxes.

Make the minimum wage a real living wage based upon all the cost-of-living factors as scientifically calculated by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and then legislatively tie the minimum wage to cost-of-living increases.

A National Conference to Create Living-Wage Jobs,
Meet Human Needs and Sustain the Environment

November 13-14, 2009

New York, NY

The Problem: Even before the onset of our current, deep recession, we faced chronic unemployment, low and stagnant wages, myriad unmet needs and unprecedented environmental degradation.

Today’s rapidly escalating unemployment has put job creation back on the public agenda for the first time in recent history. Nearly 15 million workers were officially unemployed in June 2009, and hidden unemployment brings total joblessness up to almost 30 million with nearly 12 seekers for every available job. If it is possible to ignore the chronic unemployment that besets millions of people in normal times, it is much harder to ignore this current, mass unemployment and its staggering social and economic costs.

 What should progressive activists concerned about economic justice, labor, the religious community and other concerned people do about mass unemployment?
 What long-term goals should we have for the economy?
 How can we build a strong, effective unified movement to achieve full employment and living wage jobs for all?

A strong economic stimulus is imperative to meet the current emergency. Yet, even if the current stimulus package that achieves its intended goal of creating 4 million jobs, it would only reduce official unemployment by a third!

Nor is it good enough to return to official unemployment of 5 million women and men and millions more working poor even in the “best” of recent times, or to be satisfied with the host of unmet needs with which this recession began. In the words of FDR, “We cannot be content, no matter how high the general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people … is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.”

The Challenge: Crises present opportunities for progressive change. This is the time for Progressives people of good will to mobilize and to develop goals and strategies for an economy that provides living wage jobs for all, sustains the environment, and repairs our social and physical infrastructure and begins the transition to a more stable, productive economy that provides for shared prosperity.

Conference Goals and Intended Outcomes:

1. Expand public debate and action on the future of the U.S. economy
2. Increase public awareness of chronic unemployment and underemployment and its human and economic toll, even in better times
3. Build on Increase public awareness of current mass unemployment, its dire consequences for human beings and its waste of potential economic output;
4. Raise public awareness of our current economic dead-end—high personal and foreign debt, inequality, wage lag, environmental degradation, military overreach….
5. Steer public debate and action toward:
• Government promotion and creation of living-wage jobs, strengthening of the safety net and supportive fiscal, monetary and trade policies;
• Government promotion and creation of jobs that improve the physical and social infrastructure (repair of bridges, upgrading public transportation, building affordable housing, improving and expanding public education and child, health and elder care).
• Government promotion and creation of jobs that further the goal of a sustainable economy and begin to restructure it.
6. Develop plans to pay for this program of reconstruction through more progressive taxes and confinement of military spending to genuine defense needs

7. Initiate a movement for living-wage jobs for all and develop strategies for achieving this permanent economic reform-- including similar conferences in cities across the country and a mass mobilization in Washington on behalf of economic reconstruction.

You Are Invited to Be a Conference Convenor/Co-Sponsor: We seek broad participation and sponsorship for this National Conference, especially organizations with a primary focus on the quality and quantity of jobs, economic justice, social security, the safety net and poverty prevention. Other critical participants will be organizations not primarily concerned with employment, but whose goals for union rights, health care, education, child care, elder care, disability rights, housing, economic restructuring, public transportation, environmental sustainability, and the arts would be furthered by job creation in their areas of interest. The hope is to gain their ongoing commitment to conquering unemployment and low wages-- even after the crisis subsides. This would build on a plans of the National Jobs for All Coalition and the Chicago Political Economy Group to simultaneously create living wage jobs for all and, through a renewed public sector, to repair our deeply deficient social and physical infrastructure.

Remember Medicare for All in the healthcare reform debate

2009-11-03T22:51:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Remember Medicare for All in the healthcare reform debate
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/66053-remember-medicare-for-all-in-the-healthcare-reform-debate

Remember Medicare for All in the healthcare reform debate

By Kay Tillow, Coordinator, All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676, Nurses Professional Organization - 11/03/09 10:06 AM ET

We are in danger of losing the opportunity to bring Improved Medicare for All, a single payer plan, before the Congress. Last July Congressman Anthony Weiner and six of his colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee attempted to substitute the real public option—HR 676, a single payer plan—for the healthcare reform in the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi assured them that if they withdrew the amendment in committee they would have an opportunity to bring it to the House floor for a debate and vote. Now Pelosi is threatening to keep the Weiner Single Payer Amendment from seeing the light of day.

If we were able to get this plan really on the table and before the nation in a meaningful way, we could win this hands down. Even Blue Dog Mike Ross, in an unguarded moment, asked why not just have Medicare for All. HR 676, the national single payer legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers, would cover everyone for all medically necessary care through an Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. The bill and its advocates have been blocked, excluded, and beaten back in the current national healthcare reform debate.

Yet Medicare for All continues to raise its head. When single payer advocates were excluded from the White House kick off meeting for health care reform, doctors’ opened the door to two single payer advocates with a plan to protest at the White House gate. When Senate Finance Chair Baucus ruled single payer off the table, thirteen doctors, nurses, and others rose to protest. Baucus had them arrested. Those gutsy advocates pried open another door and won a round of publicity for single payer. But still not a place at the table.

Yet support for single payer continues to grow. Its simplicity, humanity, and economic efficiency win more supporters each day. The Kentucky House of Representatives, four other state legislative bodies, scores of cities and counties, a half dozen giant religious denominations, NOW, the NAACP, and the National Conference of Mayors have called for passage of HR 676. For unions, it’s the plan of choice. At each contract deadline the double digit rise in health care costs gobbles up the lion’s share of bargaining power. For that reason, 578 unions including 39 state AFL-CIO’s and 134 central labor councils have endorsed HR 676. In September the national AFL-CIO Convention declared unanimous support for single payer as the social insurance plan necessary to achieve social justice.

When Physicians for a National Health Program founder Quentin Young, testified before a House committee last June, Representative Weiner listened and was impressed. Weiner turned HR 676 into an amendment that would transform the House bill into a single payer plan. He popularized it as Medicare for All and catapulted the discussion into the national media with his feisty good humor and popular style.

Now Pelosi wants to renege on her promise to Weiner. We have sent an action alert to over 19,000 unionists asking them to contact Pelosi, and Waxman (who relayed Pelosi’s commitment publicly) and Slaughter (who heads the rules committee) to assure that they allow the Weiner amendment to come to the floor.

The “public option” that remains in both the Senate and the House bills is pitiful and powerless--totally incapable of providing cost control. Those bills, with their forced mandates and fines, their massive transfer of public funds to the insurance industry, and their ban on bulk buying power to rein in the pharmaceutical companies, will fail woefully to cover our people and to make that care affordable.

Pelosi should stick to her promise. We’ll keep up the effort to make her do so. Either now or later Medicare for All will have to come to the table. We’ll keep building the movement to make that happen.

Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/66053-remember-medicare-for-all-in-the-healthcare-reform-debate
The contents of this site are © 2009 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsisiary of News Communications, Inc.

Iron Range lose second-most construction, mining, logging jobs in the nation in last year

2009-10-19T16:43:00.000-05:00

Published October 02 2009

Duluth (MN) area, Iron Range lose second-most construction, mining, logging jobs in the nation in last year

By: Andy Greder, Duluth (MN) News Tribune

The Twin Ports and Iron Range lost the second-most construction, mining and logging jobs in the past year of any metropolitan area in the U.S., according to a report released Wednesday.

Carlton, Douglas and St. Louis counties suffered a 33 percent decline in employment in those three sectors from August 2008 to August 2009, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.

Only Reno-Sparks, Nev., at 35 percent, suffered a steeper decline, the association said. Of the 337 metropolitan areas analyzed, 324 lost jobs. The association, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, said about 1 million jobs were lost nationwide in those industries during the period.

The bulk of the job losses in the Duluth-Superior metro area were in mining and logging on the Iron Range, said Drew Digby, regional labor analyst with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. The number of miners collecting unemployment skyrocketed from 300 in January to more than 2,000 in June, he said. About 1,000 miners collected unemployment benefits in August, DEED numbers show.

About 3,600 Northland residents were employed by the mines in September 2008, before the mining companies began cutting production.

What the August-to-August report doesn’t show are the recent improvements on the Iron Range, where most mining operations have ramped up production this fall.

The latest bit of good news comes from Minorca Mine in Virginia, where employees returned to work this week after a five-month shutdown. All 290 employees were back on the job Thursday, said David Zasadni, vice president of United Steelworkers Local 6115.

Since the mine was idled in April, ArcelorMittal kept more than 100 workers busy doing $10 million worth of maintenance and repairs. Now that those repairs are done, the company wants the mine operating at full production, Zasadni told Fox 21 News.

Five of the six Iron Range taconite companies are recalling workers, said Craig Pagel, president of the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota. The lone exception is Hibbing Taconite Co.

“They are changing on a daily basis; they are all calling back people,” Pagel said. “We are cautiously optimistic and want to keep moving at a steady rate.”

Bad summer

August employment in mining, logging and construction hadn’t fallen below 9,000 workers this decade — until this year. Employment in the sectors totaled about 9,400 workers last August, but plummeted to about 6,300 in August 2009, said the association’s chief economist Ken Simonson.

“Pretty dreary,” Simonson said from his office in Washington, D.C. “This is quite a recent change for Duluth.”

While the brunt of the job losses happened on the Iron Range, construction employment regionwide also took a hit and remains weak as fall begins.

The Duluth Building and Construction Trade Council, the umbrella organization to 15 unions and 10,000 workers in the Northland, is mired in about 30 percent unemployment.

Craig Olson, council president, said about 50 of the council’s 200 painters were without work on Thursday alone.

“Normally, this time of year, we have no painters available this late in the fall,” Olson said. “There is usually a last-minute rush until the snow falls, so when I see 49 painters for one local union, that is troubling.”

The construction trades have been buoyed by some of the larger public construction projects in the area, including the new Duluth Entertainment Convention Center arena and the Enbridge Energy pipeline among others.

Racism and the Minnesota DFL

2009-07-12T20:02:00.002-05:00

This letter is making the rounds on the internet.

For once someone isn't afraid to challenge the racism that pervades the Minnesota Democrats.

The only question now is what will be done to correct this disgraceful problem where not one single Native American holds a seat in the Minnesota House or Senate.

Now a Native American worker has challenged this and rightly so.

The letter writer proposes a just and innovative solution to a problem no one has dared to articulate.

This letter deserves the full and immediate attention of everyone in Minnesota regardless of political affiliation.

Iron Range Club, CPUSA

--- On Wed, 7/8/09, greg paquin wrote:

From: greg paquin
Subject: Minnesota Senate District 4 (seat)
To: brian.melendez@usa.net
Cc: chair@dfl.org, dcassutt@dfl.org, srego@dfl.org
Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 7:15 PM

Wednesday, July 8,
2009

Brian Melendez, Chair, Minnesota Democratic
Farmer-Labor Party

Dear Mr. Melendez,

I am writing to inform you that I will be running for the Minnesota State Senate for the District 4 seat.

I would like to run with the endorsement of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party in the Primary Election.

As you are aware, there isn’t one single Native(Anishinabe) American sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature; not in the Senate, not in the House.

This needs to change.

And the change needs to take place now.

Barack Obama promised change. I intend to fight on behalf of
Indian(Anishinabe) people to see to it that we get the change that we assumed was coming. Real jobs at real living wages. Our children going to school, not tossed behind bars and forgotten. We lack adequate health care. Native(Anishinabe) American women suffer sexual abuse at rates far higher than the general population.

Our land and our resources, the wealth of our Nations, were stolen out from under us in the most brutal manner and nothing has been done to make things right.

Native (Anishinabe)Americans are the largest single minority population in the State of Minnesota and we have no representation in the State Legislature; anyone can see that this is unfair.

I intend to try to change this with or without the support
of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party; I would like to do this with support from the DFL if at all possible, if not, I will use other means.

As a long-time union member of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United
States and Canada (UA), I have always been a loyal supporter of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party.

Should I not hear from you in seven days, I will decide after consulting with my campaign committee and my many friends--- Native and
non-Native--- whether to seek the DFL endorsement during the Primary process and Election or run as an independent candidate in the General Election.

Minnesota Native(Anishinabe) Americans, including myself, have repeatedly sought assistance from the local DFL elected public officials who we helped in every way to elect. WE now need their help on a variety of issues of importance to us from jobs to education, housing and health care and environmental concerns, we find ourselves shut out of the political and decision-making process by these same politicians who could not have been elected without the votes of Anishinabe people who are now ignoring our problems and concerns when it comes to doing things by way of finding solutions. Solutions which are often as simple as doing what is right to make sure Anishinabe people get jobs. Often we don’t even hear about jobs until the work is completed. How do others hear about jobs, even in our own communities, before we do? This is not right.

I organized the “We Shall Remain” conference in Bemidji.

Many Native Anishinabe and non-tribal people, from all walks of life showed up at this conference fully expecting to be able to explain and tell elected officials what our problems and concerns are. The only public official who showed up was the Beltrami County Sheriff who informed us that he didn’t know how many Native Americans worked on his staff but he knew the population in the Beltrami County Jail was more than 50% Native American. This was a figure not lost on those in attendance since the current unemployment on most Minnesota Reservations is 50% or more. There is something terribly wrong with this picture and the present DFL State Senator from District 4, Mary Olson, refuses to talk about resolving the injustices creating these problems.

I want to most vigorously point out to you that the MN DFL claims to have a policy that decries discrimination; yet, for all these years the MN DFL has done not one thing to assure Native( Anishinabe) Americans are elected to state and federal offices. There is something wrong with this picture here; you want our money and our votes but you don’t want us sitting as equals with all other Minnesotans in the State Legislature or the halls of Congress.

Certain measures have to be taken in order to ensure that Minnesota Indigenous,Anishinabe people get the seats they are entitled to in the Minnesota State Legislature; those measures have not even been considered, let alone taken.

We are entitled to at least two seats per tribe. I am quite sure most Minnesotans will find this very reasonable. Democracy requires this.

Anishinabe Native Americans are entitled to District 4, 4a, 4b, 2, 2a, 2b seats in the Minnesota State Legislature as a beginning to right this wrong of no representation.

I intend to do everything I can do to make sure that Senate seat 4 is held by an Native Tribal Member citizen, because this is what justice requires.

It is my hope that other Native(Anishinabe) Americans will join my efforts to secure the other five seats.

Most Anishinabe, Native Americans are working people, yet you treat us as if only the cash you get from the casino managements counts for anything. This, too, will change once I am elected to the Senate District 4 seat because the people of Minnesota will be hearing the truth about gaming revenues. If these revenues can be used to elect non-Tribal Natives to political office who then turn around and ignore our problems we can find a way to make sure these gaming revenues remain in our communities being used for meeting the needs of our own people now living in dire straights as the economy declines. I know many families who need food more than politicians need campaign contributions.

It is my hope you will also broach my concerns, distributing this letter, with the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party’s State Central Committee.

I await your response,

Gregory W. Paquin

Hotpasstheketchup@yahoo.com
651-503-9493 cell
218-209-3157 home
1511 Roosevelt Rd SE Bemidji, MN 56601

Support for single-payer universal healthcare comes from Deer River, Minnesota

2009-06-22T14:50:00.001-05:00

Good example of Letter to the Editor (approximately 50 words). If you haven’t sent a Letter to the Editor on the health care issue here is a good example of what to send---

From the Mesabi Daily News

http://www.virginiamn.com/articles/2009/05/23/your_views/doc4a18c23c546bb646825102.txt

Bailouts first; then comes the single payer

Published: Saturday, May 23, 2009

Well you bailed out Wall Street, the same people that got us in this mess now it is time to give something to the people who are going to pay to get us out of this mess, the American citizen.

Single payer health care now.

Mel Thoresen
Deer River, Minnesota

Chicken Shit Patriots; War, Peace and Democracy

2009-04-21T09:50:00.000-05:00

This post by right-wing bigot Nancy L. LaRoche to the "e-democracy forum" pretty much tells us the truth behind all the statements coming from the two-bit, half-assed fascist right-wing talk radio big-mouths who host these programs that somehow these teabaggers are putting on some kind of "non-partisan" events open to all who decry wasteful government spending.

Check out this response to me very closely because the truth is in what Nancy L. LaRoche posted in opposition to what I posted.

Here is what I posted which she is responding to:

Alan wrote: "Yes, you want people to attend your "Tea Party" rallies but you exclude those with a left view from speaking... wow! Real democratic.

Invite me to speak; I'll be there."

Now, notice what she says:

Alan: Do you leftist protesters pass their bullhorns and allow the other side to speak at their rallies?

This is a very frank admission that only those from the right side of the political spectrum are welcome at these "Tea Parties."

This statement here makes Mitch Berg, Chris Baker, Shawn Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the chicken shit patriot crowd so eager to send others off to kill and die in these dirty imperialist wars being waged for control of the oil fields and gas pipeline routes along with regional domination and control of the poppy and heroin trade nothing but outright liars afraid to defend their fascist, racist, warmongering, pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist ideas. They lie when they say these "Tea Parties" were organized by "concerned citizens" from grassroots, when, in fact, these right-wing bigots and blowhards of talk radio have organized these "Tea Parties" for two reasons: 1.) As promotional publicity stunts to promote the now largely discredited right-wing talk radio; and, 2.) To try to move the country firther to the right THAN WHAT BARACK OBAMA, THE DEMOCRATS AND THE WALL STREET CROWD are already trying to take us. Make no mistake, Barack Obama is not liberal, progressive or left in any sense of the meaning of these words... Obama is definitely not a "socialist" as these racist, bigots of right-wing talk radio of are charging.

In other words, the teabaggers are not going to allow me (or any known "leftist" to address their Tax Day Rallies with the message that military spending is wasteful government spending.

The organizers of these "Tea Parties" do not want people hearing the truth that the most excessive, wasteful government spending is for wars and militarism.

These right-wing blow-hards like Mitch Berg are afraid to have me addressing their crowds saying things like:

The United States government, dominated by Wall Street bankers and coupon clippers, is wasting trillions upon trillions of dollars of tax-payer monies borrowed from Wall Street bankers to finance a vast and far-flung network of over 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting all parts of the globe instead of building 800 public health care centers right here in the United States providing free health care from cradle to grave for everyone.

Now, this self-avowed, Bircher--- this two-bit, half-assed fascist--- Nancy L. LaRoche declares that I have denied people with differing viewpoints from my own the right to speak at anti-war rallies.

This is another outright and brazen two-faced lie and she is well aware she is a liar in making this statement.

I have never in my life prevented anyone--- from any political perspective or persuasion--- with an anti-war view to speak at any anti-war rally.

To the extent it has been within my power (as one vote on a committee), I have never allowed anyone with a pro-war view to speak at an anti-war rally.

Why would I give consideration to anyone with a pro-war view to speak at an "anti-war rally?" Only a complete idiot and fool like this Birchite, Nancy L. LaRoche, would make such a statement... it is up to her and her warmongering friends who support these wars but never go off to fight them to organize their own "pro-war rallies."

However, I have organized (and participated as a debater in debates I had no part in organizing) dozens of debates all over Minnesota--- some ninety debates, in fact--- prior to the start of the war in Iraq, around the question and issue:

Should the United States Government Go To War in Iraq?

Participants in these debates, generally consisted of two or three pro and con views. As the main organizer of these debates across Minnesota I did not seek out and select participants according to my personal left-wing views. In fact, these debates included retired military people--- both pro and con--- on the question and the issue. In fact, there were even some right-wing talk show hosts who participated in these debates--- several times as the moderators. Not once was I ever accused of stacking these debates. And not once was the discourse anything but cordial. I would note, the bigots and the Birchites did condemn these debates because they included the anti-war view! You see, these two-bit, half-assed fascists do not believe in democracy or any concept of democracy. To them, democracy is only them getting out their views. These is an obviously perverted view of democracy; the same perverted view of democracy that almost thoroughly permeates right-wing talk radio--- with a very few notable exceptions of those who hold genuinely conservative views but welcome all other views into the "battle of ideas in our modern world."

Nancy L. LaRoche intentionally tries to blend "debate" with demonstrations and rallies. She does this intentionally as do all of her bigoted friends because they know that people get their ideas together when they hear the many sides to these complex and complicated questions in the process of public and democratic debate--- and, then, after formulating opinions based upon what they believe to be the best information they can gather; from this informed position they go out a try to convince others to rally and demonstrate with them to try to move government, corporations or whatever in the direction they think society should be moving.

But, where has the debate been on the Obama/Wall Street agenda?

In fact, there has been no debate.

In fact, the "left" which our bigoted, Birchite friend Nancy L. LaRoche so bemoans, has had no voice what-so-ever in a debate, which I would remind the reader, has largely been an attack on socialism.

Denying a voice to the adherents of the socialist viewpoint and perspective under these circumstances can hardly pass for democracy.

By Nancy L. LaRoche's own words here, these "Tea Party" and tax-protests are nothing more than right-wing rallies; her own words give lie to the words of those like Mitch Berg, Chris Baker, Shawn Hannity and Rush Limbaugh along with the "fair and unbiased" FOX news crew that these rallies are anything but anti-communist, pro-war and pro-corporate bash the working class and attack the rest of the world rallies.

That two-bit, half-assed fascists from both the Republican and Democratic Parties participate in these rallies does not mean these rallies are open to all who oppose wasteful government spending; it means that those on the right from both political parties support and sponsor--- and exclude--- anyone not right-wing from participation.

After all, when you openly state as Nancy L. LaRoche has done that "leftists for peace" are excluded; here in the state of Minnesota you are excluding a good 40% of the population.

And, if you are "not going to pass the bullhorn" to leftists to speak about their concerns about inappropriate government spending no one, not Mitch Berg or Chris Baker or Shawn Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, can make the claim they are speaking for all Americans... they are speaking for a very, very narrow slice of America... perhaps 3% to 4% of the population... no more than this.

But, here we are supposedly talking about bringing people of "all political persuasions together" in these Tea Parties who are opposed to "government waste."

Are these "Tea Parties" also "pro-war parties and rallies?" If we listen to Nancy L. LaRoche they really are.

Not only do the American people have to ask:

Where is the change?

We also have to ask:

Where are the debates on these issues?

Nancy L. LaRoche knew better than to demand the microphone at an anti-war rally because she was pro-war.

In her small little demented and perverted mind, patriotism is equated with being pro-war. Waving a flag is equated with being pro-war. That she convinced someone to put down a peace sign and hold the American flag tells us absolutely nothing... did she convince that person to become pro-war? No. And she knows it. That person waved the American flag to demonstrate that peace is patriotic, and war is unpatriotic.

I'm not a "flag-waver" but I will stand my patriotism for this country up against the chicken shit patriotism of these right-wing bigots hosting these Fox radio programs any day... and it they who run from the challenge of debating these issues.

That they can convince a few stupid fools like Nancy L. LaRoche to join them tells us everything we need to know about this perverted crowd of "teabaggers."

Nancy L. LaRoche tells us that she and her friends "don't bite." However, they sure want to give the working class a good "teabagging."

Teabaggers have more in common with the "steal the land from the Indians," pro-slavery, pro-Hitler crowd than with the sons and daughters of the American Revolution and Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson.

Again, I reiterate my suggestion for real--- face-to-face--- debates in every city where the teabaggers are planning their events... come on Nancy L. LaRoche, your idols Mitch Berg and Chris Baker refuse to debate me... let's me and you tour these sixteen cities debating the issues involved... let's me and you debate what constitutes wasteful government spending...

bak, bak, bak, baaakkk, bak, bak, baakk, baaakkkkk, bak, bak.

No doubt Hitler was a "teabagger," just like Mitch Berg and Chris Baker in every sense of the word.

Something to think about around the dinner table--- if you can keep from gagging.

Yours in the struggle,

Alan L. Maki

From a posting to "e-democracy" to which the "moderator," Rick Mons, would not allow me the above response.

The posting was from: Nancy L LaRoche Date: 07:23 CDT Short link

Alan Maki wrote:

"Yes, you want people to attend your "Tea Party" rallies but you
exclude those with a left view from speaking... wow! Real democratic.

Invite me to speak; I'll be there."

Alan: Do you leftist protesters pass their bullhorns and allow the other side
to speak at their rallies? I've attended some anti-war protests and had great
conversations with those opposed to my views. I didn't demand the microphone.
In fact, at one three years ago I made friends with a homeless Native American
who was given an anti-war sign to carry. After we talked for a while, he put
his sign down and picked up a flag. That's what democracy is - the right to
have differing opinions and discuss openly with others. You seem to want to
dismiss and shut up those who disagree.

Come out and talk with us May 2. Try to understand our side face to face.
Again, we don't bite.

Global steel industry awaits auto turnaround as layoffs on the Iron Range mount and MN DFL twiddles thumbs

2009-04-12T19:45:00.001-05:00

Statement of the Iron Range Club of the Communist Party, USA

Barack Obama in an Easter Sunday holiday message had the nerve to lie to the American people about the nature of the economic depression we are in. Obama said he sees "glimmers of hope."

We ask: Where are the "glimmers of hope?"

Obama has not been to the Iron Range.

We ask: Where's the change?

Here on the Iron Range there are no "glimmers of hope;" only the despair that accompanies growing joblessness and dire poverty making the Iron Range, what Alan Maki has referred to "the Appalachia of the North with the same pits, pollution and poverty."

The economic situation and social conditions are worsening by the day on the Iron Range as working class families are now experiencing dire economic straits our grand parents tell us they have not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930's.

We and our grand parents were assured such conditions would never come about again.

We were told that Karl Marx was wrong. We were told that the capitalist system could be managed by flaky, weirdos like John Maynard Keynes and Alan Greenspan.

This generation was assured by the best paid economists Wall Street could buy that this generation would never live through an economic depression where the capitalist system collapses.

Yet, today, all economic indicators--- contrary to Barack Obama seeing "glimmers of hope," are pointing to the worst depression ever along with all the misery for working people such a catastrophe will most certainly entail as this "ball continues to drop" if we don't push back against Wall Street, and push back hard.

Larry Summers, Director of the National Economic Council--- Barack Obama's chief economic adviser--- describes the economy like a "ball dropping from the table that has not stopped falling."

Something is terribly wrong with this entire scenario. We are being played for suckers and fools as if we do not have the brains or capacity to reason and think.

Vice-president Joe Biden stated months ago that he and Obama are trying to "dropkick the ball." Here we are, months later, with Larry Summers telling us "the ball is still dropping" and hasn't even touched the ground yet.

Key to Obama's lies is that he continues to state economic troubles were caused by the "crisis in the housing market." This is an outright lie. The housing market, sabotaged by a bunch of greedy crooks not of which one has been prosecuted to date as millions of people lose their homes, is part of the problem; part of the problem contributing to the main problem. But not the primary source of the problem that Barack Obama and his over-paid economic advisers are well aware of but refuse to acknowledge because to do so would expose the capitalist system for what it has become: rotten to the core.

The present crises the capitalist economic system is experiencing is the direct result of the corporate assault on the standard-of-living of the working class that has been well underway in this country for over thirty years, and Wall Street has intensified this assault on the working class over the last eight years of Republican domination over our lives while Democrats sat back like cowards and did nothing.

The problem is one from which the capitalist economic system cannot escape:

Workers not being paid enough to purchase back what they have produced. Most working people in the United States have been receiving poverty wages; unable to purchase even the minimal basic necessities required to live decent lives.

Capitalist exploitation is THE PROBLEM. Capitalists stealing the wealth created by the working class is the source of this economic mess.

Common sense tells us that if the wealth created by the many is being constantly stolen by the rich few there is going to be severe economic problems down the road; we are now at the end of that road.

High-paid corrupt union leaders like Leo Gerard, Ron Gettelfinger and John Sweeney have worked in cahoots with big-business in forcing concession after concession from the very workers whose dues are paying their big fat salaries when they should have been putting the unions' resources into organizing the unorganized. Instead, they plowed union dues into supporting Barack Obama and the Democrats who are now kicking workers in the head while down on the ground.

How else can one explain taking away the homes of working people who are jobless and going hungry?

A moratorium on all foreclosures and evictions should have been and still is the NUMBER ONE requirement needed by hard-hit workers. This is so basic to common human decency we Communists should not even have to be stating this.

Minnesota Senator David Tomassoni could not even get the vote of one single Democrat in support of "the Minnesota People's Bailout." And the United Steel Workers and United Auto Workers unions are pumping money into getting these servants of the Chamber of Commerce, the mining, auto, banking and power industries elected!

If Senator Tomassoni and any other DFL'ers who consider themselves "progressive" don't see the need to leave the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party after this (first it was betrayal and sell-out on saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant) now these same rotten Democrats have defeated "the Minnesota People's Bailout" which would have halted foreclosures and evictions so widespread across the Iron Range and the rest of the state and the entire country.

Now these same Democrats are kicking the living daylights out of the working class at every opportunity; not missing an opportunity to kick workers in the head. Case in point: the auto workers; and miners right here on the Iron Range.

No two unions did more to help elect Barack Obama and the Democrats than the United Steel Workers union (USW) and the United Auto Workers union (UAW).

Steel workers and auto workers are now getting kicked in the head by Barack Obama and the Democrats without any help from the Republicans.

What does this tell us about the two-party system?

It should tell us what Communist Party leaders William Z. Foster and Gus Hall said over and over again:

Labor needs its own political party.

The time has come for working people to get up off the ground and fight back.

Since the labor "leadership" is not willing to fight back; the rank-and-file is going to have to stand up and slug it out with these corrupt and wholly incompetent labor leaders, the Democratic Party and Wall Street.

Military recruiters are not shy about walking into our public schools trying to convince our children to go fight Barack Obama's dirty imperialist wars.

A third of the ore that has been taken from the ground on the Range has gone into wars and militarism as our children die in these senseless wars that Barack Obama said were "stupid" when he wanted our votes.

Barack Obama and the Democrats are not as eager to solve our problems as they are to ship our kids off to war.

In fact, to a large extent the social and economic problems we are experiencing are directly related to these dirty imperialist wars.

As Alan Maki has pointed out, we need "800 public health care centers spread out across the United States instead of over 800 U.S. military bases dotting the globe."

On this Easter Sunday, we on the Iron Range don't see Barack Obama's "glimmers of hope."

The steel and auto industries need to be nationalized and brought under public ownership and the democratic control of the people.

We will not get a "people's bailout" until we organize some kind of "people's lobby" as part of a "massive people's front" in the struggle for an end to foreclosures and evictions and a legislated minimum wage that is a real living wage directly based upon and tied to all cost-of-living factors.

Polls now show the American people have completely lost confidence in capitalism.

The same polls demonstrate that the time is now to place socialism on the table; socialism is the only way working people are ever going to get out of this economic mess.

The time has come for working people to create a people's political party to challenge the monopolies for power, and put us on the high road to peace and jobs through socialism.

We ask Barack Obama and the lying, warmongering Democrats: Where's the change?

As the article below points out, the steel and auto industries are the key to any healthy economy.

We ask: Does anyone see any indication of these two industries ever recovering again under capitalism?

China bailed us out and saved thousands of jobs for us here on the Iron Range.

Now that Chinese "leaders" have betrayed their people like union "leaders" here and jumped in bed with Wall Street after having been sold a bill of goods by Alan Greenspan, the CATO Institute and the Heritage Foundation that capitalist markets could provide a "quick fix" to their problems there is no place else for us to look other than to our own strength which comes through our own working class unity in getting out from under this mess.

Make no mistake, this economic mess was made by Wall Street capitalists in their never-ending drive for profits; there is no reason for the working class to have to shoulder the burden by way of being driven into poverty to get these vultures and parasites out of this mess that they created.

The corporate CEO's and bankers who created this mess are walking away with multi-million dollar "unemployment checks"--- our tax-dollars; and Barack Obama and the Democrats who expect our votes can't even come up with unemployment checks for workers from time of unemployment until time of re-employment as part of a "people's bailout." This is a disgrace.

We ask: Where's the change?

Since working people are called upon to solve the problems we had no part in creating, we need to resolve these problems in a way that benefits the working class by improving the lives of working class families and not Wall Street pigs gorging themselves at the public trough provided courtesy of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party at our expense.

Again, we ask Barack Obama and the Democrats: Where's the change?

In response to those still saying: "Give Obama a chance;" we say:

Join the Communist Party.

Join the fight for peace and jobs through socialism.

Iron Range Club, CPUSA

Global steel industry awaits auto turnaround

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090412/bs_wl_afp/commoditiesmetalssteelsector

PARIS (AFP) – Steel is on edge and the global industry is cutting back hard, hanging on for either a budget blast from China, new credit for vast Middle Eastern building schemes or resurrection of the US auto industry.

Demand has dwindled and steelmakers, notably the giant of them all, ArcelorMittal, are damping down surplus furnace capacity while waiting for credit to flow, construction cranes to turn and factories to roll.

A decision by ArcelorMittal last week to pursue temporary production cutbacks, slashing European output by more than half from the end of April according to a union source, dramatises the extraordinary ride and role of steel in the last few years.

In just months the global industry has gone from a boom driven largely by China, emerging markets and a property extravaganza in the Middle East to a narrow line between excess capacity and the costs of waiting for recovery.

"Over the past six months, demand for steel has dropped dramatically and, as a result, producers have been cutting production," analysts at Barclays Capital said in a study last week.

In another report, Morgan Stanley predicted "the current demand shock to lead to excess steel capacity."

Consequently, the bank said, steel plants should operate at rates below 75 percent of capacity until 2012.

"The steel market is not very different from base metals as a whole, but steel has reacted more rapidly and dramatically since September," said commodities analyst Perrine Faye of London-based FastMarkets.

She said the future of the steel industry depended on three factors -- the impact of Chinese economic stimulus efforts, a pick-up in the Middle East construction sector and a revival of the once mighty US auto industry.

"Chinese imports and exports are at a standstill. Everyone is waiting for the Chinese stimulus package to see if it will revive demand."

The Chinese government last month announced a four-trillion-yuan (580-billion-dollar) package of measures that it said could contribute 1.5 to 1.9 percent to the country's economic growth.

Industry experts have meanwhile spoken optimistically of China's prospects.

Thomas Albanese, chief executive at steel maker Rio Tinto, said earlier this year that the company foresaw "a short, sharp slowdown in China, with demand rebounding over the course of 2009, as the fundamentals of Chinese economic growth remain sound."

Analysts have said steel inventories are falling in China in anticipation of projects expected to emerge from the country's huge stimulus package.

"It is encouraging that the inventory of steel products, especially long products, which are mostly used in construction projects, have started to fall (since the end of March), likely suggesting that end-demand is gathering momentum," Frank Gong, a Hong Kong-based economist for JPMorgan, wrote in a research note.

On-the-ground evidence suggested that the Chinese industry had been re-stocking in the first two months of the year, followed by a pause in March before major infrastructure projects were expected to start in the second quarter, Gong wrote.

In the Middle East, according to Faye, the big problem is a shortage of credit, notably for real estate developers and builders.

Construction planners had "counted on a higher price for oil and on credit to finance their huge projects."

In addition, demand for such facilities, especially in the Gulf, has died.

"They were hoping that Americans and Europeans would buy apartments. But property prices have collapsed in the Middle East as well."

In the United Arab Emirates more than half the building projects, worth 582 billion dollars or 45 per cent of the total value of the construction sector, have been put on hold, a study by Dubai-based market research group Proleads found in February.

In Dubai, one of the states of the UAE, prices in the real estate sector have slumped by an average of 25 percent from their peak in September after rallying 79 percent in the 18 months to July 2008, according to Morgan Stanley.

Faye said the fate of the steel sector was in addition tied to that of the struggling US auto industry, once a thriving steel market but one in which two of its giant players, General Motors and Chrysler, are staring at bankruptcy.

The two companies are currently limping along thanks to billions of dollars in government aid.

"We are waiting to see if the auto sector in the US will get out of the crisis intact," she said.

The United States has 800 military bases on foreign soil...

2009-03-23T11:44:00.000-05:00

What we need--- instead--- is 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States where people can universally access, for free, all their health care needs from pre-natal care, to general health care to eye, dental and mental care right through to burial.

Instead of moving in this progressive direction, President Barack Obama and the United States Congress are moving in a most reactionary direction towards establishing military bases in outer space as they seek to insure the profits of both the merchants of death and destruction and the profit-driven health care industries... talk about skewed priorities and your wacky ideas devoid of common sense.

In addition to these 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil, Barack Obama and the United States Congress continue funding--- with our tax-dollars--- the Israeli killing machine to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

A network of 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States would create over four-million good-paying, decent jobs--- talk about your "economic stimulus" package!

We would be planting the seeds of socialism while helping to eradicate poverty as we keep people healthy and get them well when sick.

Think about this kind of solution in relation to what Barack Obama, the U.S. Congress and the Wall Street bankers and coupon clippers are offering the American people, and the peoples of the world... just what is the reason for bailing out the banks and AIG and maintaining more than 800 expensive U.S. military bases of foreign soil?

The Mt. Carmel Clinic in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada offers us a glimpse at what militarization and wars continue to rob us of.

The problems created by Wall Street will not be solved as long as the military-financial-industrial complex is allowed to squander human and natural resources on militarism and wars... we might just as well be dumping these resources out into the ocean... at least no one would die in wars.

These merchants of death and destruction must be stopped if humanity is to survive in a livable world.

The time has come to talk about the working class Marxist politics and economics of livelihood... capitalism has failed humanity miserably and left us a real mess.

Something for working people to think about and discuss around the dinner table... the capitalist sooth-Sayers certainly are not going to broach such solutions to the problems of working people as they hide behind the skirt of Rosy Scenario as this global capitalist economic depression intensifies.

Alan Maki

The big lie about AIG

2009-03-18T09:01:00.000-05:00

The big lie about AIG:

From---

U.S.News & World Report (see complete article following my comments)

What's Good, What's Bad About the AIG Bailout

“It's keeping AIG's insurance businesses stable. Here's something that's really startling: The entire problem at AIG was caused by one unit, the Financial Products division, whose employees constituted less than one percent of AIG's overall workforce. AIG's insurance units - the core of its business - essentially had nothing to do with the fiasco. But if AIG had been forced to liquidate, it could have affected the insurance units and millions of policyholders. With a more orderly process underway, the policyholders are now completely protected.”

This is the truth:

The entire problem at AIG was caused by one unit, the Financial Products division

But if AIG had been forced to liquidate, it could have affected the insurance units and millions of policyholders. With a more orderly process underway, the policyholders are now completely protected.

Question:

Who are these AIG “policyholders?”

Answer:

These AIG “policyholders” are the largest multi-national corporations in the world… and include corporations from every industry, from media to banking/mortgage to auto and steel to toys.

Question:

What kind of insurance policies have the multi-national corporations purchased from AIG?

Answer:

These “policyholders” have purchased insurance from AIG to protect their profits.

Question:

What kind of “claims” are they filing?

Answer:

These multi-national policyholders are making claims based upon their loss of profits due to the recession/depression.

Comment:

Our tax-dollars are paying on “claims” being filed by these multi-national corporations for losses in profits as the economy goes south.

Comment:

While the disgraceful tens of millions of dollars in executive “bonuses” paid by AIG are now the justified topic of wide-spread discussion; these “bonuses” are being used a “Trojan Horse” of sorts by the media and politicians who don’t want to disclose to the American people where the hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars are going.

Comment:

Make no mistake, the $170,000,000,000.00 (one-hundred seventy billion dollars) paid out to AIG is just the beginning… as the depression deepens these multi-national corporations will continue filing claims and AIG will have to honor the policies these corporations purchased to protect their profitability… our tax-dollars are going directly into the pockets of the Wall Street coupon clippers and the very mortgage company crooks who ripped off the American people.

Comment:

For the American tax-payer, there is nothing “good” about the bailout of AIG… except to the stock and bondholders and bankers and mortgage companies and the big industrialists and investors who will continue to pocket profits at tax-payer expense, everything about the AIG “bailout” is bad.

Conclusion:

The “bailout” of AIG with our tax-dollars is doing nothing but stabilizing Wall Street “profits.”

AIG’s insurance business is the business of protecting multi-national corporations against a loss in profits.

Once the tax-dollars stop flowing into the coffers of AIG and flooding out to the multi-national corporations, the world stock markets will collapse and we will be in the midst of the worst capitalist economic depression humanity has ever known--- complete with all the accompanying human misery and social strife one would expect--- now being widely predicted by many diverse voices.

On top of all of this, the American dollar will become worthless and we will be forced to purchase oil with Euros and Rubles… then what?

And if the Chinese aren’t dumb enough to buy into the American capitalist economic mess… then what?

In spite of what the highest-paid capitalist sooth-Sayers are telling us, capitalism as an economic system is finished… it is time to explore a socialist solution where production takes place to solve human needs rather than for profit… there is no other solution.

The multi-national corporations purchased insurance policies to protect their profits against recession/depression incurred losses from AIG, a private--- for profit--- insurance company, which assumed the risk in underwriting such policies.

The multi-national corporations did not purchase insurance policies from the United States government; so why should tax-payers be the ones paying out on these claims?

This is the biggest corporate swindle in history… in comparison, Bernie Madoff is a piker… we are being played for suckers.

We need a national “people’s bailout” based on the “Minnesota People’s bailout.”

The time has come to take a “left turn” to get us off this road to perdition as the capitalist system collapses.

Big-business created this economic mess as they reaped the profits while leaving working people with ALL the problems.

Alan L. Maki

U.S.News & World Report
What's Good, What's Bad About the AIG Bailout

http://biz.yahoo.com/usnews/090317/17_whats_good_whats_bad_about_the_aig_bailout.html?.&.pf=insurance

Tuesday March 17, 1:52 pm ET
By Rick Newman

"There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce."

The latest surreal twists in the AIG bailout bring to mind Mark Twain, who could spot folly as if he were hunting for it with a spyglass. Had Twain had AIG to work with as raw material, we'd probably have another couple dozen enduring epigrams skewering the greedy and the foolish.

Many Americans would like to finish the farce and simply cut AIG off, especially now that the company has paid $165 million in bonuses to executives at the very unit that nearly caused the firm's downfall and triggered an unprecedented taxpayer bailout that now totals $170 billion. To almost everybody, it seems self-evident that traders shouldn't be rewarded for wrecking their company and then burning through vast amounts of public funds. Yet AIG insists it is legally obligated to pay the bonuses, because of contracts signed before the damage occurred and taxpayers got involved. There have also been suggestions that the rascals who devised these complex derivatives deals may be the only ones who know how to unwind them, so AIG has no choice but to keep them around - and pay for the privilege of their company. In other words, the bonuses amount to extortion.

Okay. Breathe deep. Think calming thoughts. Find your center. Amidst this outrage, it's worth keeping in mind that the AIG bailout is actually doing some good. It's also a kind of learn-as-you-go experiment that's never really been done before. Here's a rough scorecard of what's working and what's not:

What's working

The AIG bailout has helped stabilize the financial markets. Take a moment to revisit September 2008. That's when Lehman Brothers failed, Merrill Lynch almost did, and AIG would have been forced into a chaotic bankruptcy if the feds didn't arrange an emergency $85 billion loan. With a bit of hindsight, it's starting to seem that AIG, which brokered more than $2.5 trillion worth of derivatives known as credit-default swaps held by many of the world's biggest banks, was the death star of that troubled troika.

We've survived the Lehman bankruptcy, after all, and Merrill found a buyer. "The real surprise wasn't Lehman Brothers, it was AIG," Frederic Mishkin, a Columbia Business School professor and former member of the Federal Reserve Board, said in a recent speech. "Who would have thought that an insurance company would have been affected by all this? When that happened, all bets were off."

All that federal money has helped AIG redeem some of those derivatives contracts, getting them off its books and out of the system. The financial markets still aren't back to normal, but they're heading in that direction. Forestalling another industrial-strength financial failure, and the chain reaction it would have triggered if AIG had collapsed, has certainly helped.

It's also helping AIG unwind itself. AIG's problems snowballed in September when suddenly it had to produce billions of dollars worth of collateral to back up those credit-default swaps. The collateral call was triggered by an unexpected drop in AIG's credit rating, along with the plunge in value of mortage-backed securities around the world. AIG didn't have the cash, and to come up with it, the only option would have been to sell off illiquid assets like its highly profitable insurance divisions or its aircraft leasing company. Try doing that in a week.

Had AIG been forced to liquidate those assets, it would have had to accept fire-sale prices, which would have led to a sudden collapse in the prices of other similar assets and companies throughout the world. AIG would have gotten pennies on the dollar for valuable assets and many other businesses would suddenly have been devalued, too.

AIG is still in the process of selling off assets, to pay off the government loans that effectively served as its collateral. But it's doing that in a more orderly way, seeking the highest bidders and the best terms. That's generally good for everybody, and it's also the best way for taxpayers to get most or all of their money back.

It's keeping AIG's insurance businesses stable. Here's something that's really startling: The entire problem at AIG was caused by one unit, the Financial Products division, whose employees constituted less than one percent of AIG's overall workforce. AIG's insurance units - the core of its business - essentially had nothing to do with the fiasco. But if AIG had been forced to liquidate, it could have affected the insurance units and millions of policyholders. With a more orderly process underway, the policyholders are now completely protected.

What's not working

Revolting bonuses. It simply goes without saying that giving bonuses to the people who brought down AIG is a perversion of justice. Officials at the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Dept. should have put terms into the original bailout agreement that prevented this. They didn't. It was a chaotic time, and legitimate worries about a global financial collapse obviously clouded thoughts about rules to prevent rapacious traders from holding the government hostage. If it's any consolation, the $165 million bonus pool is relatively small. Still, it grates.

Counterparty payouts. AIG has used much of the $170 billion in government aid to basically refund money to big banks and other "counterparties," to cash out some of those credit-default swaps and reduce AIG's massive liabilities. That's sensible, and it's basically the original idea behind the "Troubled Assets Relief Program," which was intended to get the worst derivatives and other securities off the market.

The problem is that the government has apparently agreed to $105 billion worth of payouts - at the full face value of the securities. That means that banks like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Societe General and Deutsche Bank - among the world's most sophisticated investors - are taking no loss at all on securities that had a market value of half their face value or less when AIG redeemed them in full. It's like house prices falling in your neighborhood by 50 percent, and somebody coming in and buying one house for what it was worth at the market peak a couple years ago. And using a government loan to finance it.

Regulators at the Fed, Treasury, and other departments still haven't explained why the counterparties got all their money back. They're certainly going to be asked at upcoming Congressional hearings. But in a situation where just about everybody is taking a loss - taxpayers and consumers especially - it will be tough to make a case that the world's richest banks deserve full redemption.

Secrecy. We keep learning the terms of the AIG bailout well after the fact. Obviously there are times when the feds need to move quickly and can't have a 60-day comment period. But it's not the same crisis atmosphere as last fall. In general, we should learn the details of the bailout as they occur.

AIG strongly resisted releasing the list of counterparties that have been paid back with bailout money, for instance. As recently as March 5, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn defended that secrecy, saying that firms might be reluctant to deal with AIG in the future if they knew their dealings could become public.

Then a week later, under mounting pressure, AIG released a list of counterparties. The world didn't end. AIG is also refusing to release the names of individuals in the Financial Products division who are getting bonuses. They may lose that battle too, since New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has asked for the names and started an investigation, much as he has with Merrill Lynch. Information is going to come out one way or the other, and AIG and its regulators should stop trying to protect the failing company any more than they already are. When AIG pays back that $170 billion in taxpayer money, they can keep all the secrets they want. In fact, once we've got our money back, the less we hear about AIG the better.

Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

U.S. Steel lays off half its workers at Minntac

2009-02-20T10:11:00.002-06:00

Minnesota Democrats continue to play games with "The People's Bailout" the same way they played games with legislation that was supposed to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

Over 1,000 Rangers employed in the iron ore mines and taconite industry have now joined the unemployed in the past few months.

What is wrong with these politicians? These politicians owe their jobs to us but they do nothing except pretend doing something for working people.

Working people are being played for fools.

We want to know why Minnesota State Senator James Metzen is dragging his feet in getting "The People's Bailout" through his Committee on Business, Industry and Jobs?

There is no end in sight to the problems plaguing the economy.

Workers have a right to expect those politicians they elected will now bail them out of this mess.

Here on the Range these mining companies have been taking out the profits leaving us with poverty, pits, pollution.

The mining companies run off with the profits; we get stuck with the problems.

This has been going on for over 100 years.

We have been fed the line, "Everything will be alright; recovery is in sight."

The problem is every "recovery" results in fewer and fewer jobs here on the Range. There has never been a recovery. Never.

The time has come to nationalize the steel industry under public ownership... we can do better than United States Steel. We can't do any worse.

We want action not speeches at election time from DFL politicians.

We say to the politicians in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party: You brought forward this legislation called "The People's Bailout" thinking that it would be enough to pull the wool over our eyes again. You knew you had no intent in pushing this legislation through the Minnesota Legislature. You knew you were grandstanding. We call your bluff. Now get this "People's Bailout" out of the Committees in the House and Senate and bring this legislation to a vote so the many hurting and suffering working people can get a little help to get them through this mess.

If there is going to be a recovery then you should have no problem making this help available to workers and their families from time of unemployment to re-employment.

If you can't write this into "The People's Bailout" it means you know there is never going to be a recovery.

If there isn't going to be a recovery, than let's bury capitalism in the pits and start anew with socialism.

Iron Range Club of the Communist Party USA

U.S. Steel lays off half its workers at Minntac

http://www.startribune.com/business/39883292.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

By STEVE ALEXANDER, Star Tribune

U.S. Steel Corp. said Thursday it is laying off 500 union and 90 management employees at its Minntac taconite facility on Minnesota's Iron Range, nearly half the plant's workers.

The layoffs, which will occur over the next few weeks, affect two of the Mountain Iron, Minn., plant's five taconite production lines, increasing the number idle to three, said Courtney Boone, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel.

It was U.S. Steel's second production cutback in Minnesota since early December, when it stopped work at its smaller Keetac taconite plant in Keewatin.

The Minntac layoffs are a response to declining demand for steel products worldwide, Boone said. However, stopping plant production lines doesn't mean they're being closed permanently, she said. The plant's future "depends on U.S. Steel's customer orders and on market conditions," Boone said. At full production, the Minntac plant produces 16.5 million tons of taconite a year, Boone said.

It's unclear how the plant's output will be affected by the layoffs. The Minntac plant had 1,100 union and 180 management workers before the layoffs. The idled Keetac plant previously produced more than 6 million tons of taconite annually.

The layoffs came as U.S. Steel's stock dropped nearly 3 percent to $24.77 Thursday, the day after an analyst reduced U.S. Steel earnings estimates for 2009 and 2010, citing weakness in the market for steel pipe and the firm's pension liabilities and capital-spending expenses.

Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553

E-mail: alex@startribune.com

It's about time: Iron Range DFL'er pushes "The People's Bailout"

2009-02-13T20:56:00.003-06:00

Much of what this legislation contains is what the Iron Range Club of the Communist Party USA has been advocating for a long time and we encourage Rangers to get behind supporting this legislation in full force.

We wonder why the USW and the Iron Range Labor Council have been so slow in mobilizing support for this important legislation that will help thousands of Rangers cope with pressing problems associated with this capitalist economic crisis.

Members of the Iron Range Club of the CPUSA see no end in sight of this economic crisis. Without the kind of help embodied in "The People's Bailout" many working people will suffer needlessly.

Alan Maki has called on Minnesota workers to step up and fight for The People's Bailout.

Alan Maki at Wellstone Memorial on Bodas Road

Maki, in his blog says, "Don't let the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party betray working people like they did with workers employed at the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant when Senator Tomassoni brought forward SF 607; we second Maki's astute observation.

With mines closing down and workers on the Range being thrown out of jobs left and right Rangers need this "People's Bailout" legislation and we expect ALL Range legislators to fight like hell to get it through the state legislature and mobilize all out support to force Governor Pawlenty to sign "The People's Bailout."

We urge Rangers to read what "red" Finn, Alan Maki, has to say and check out his blog for all the information. Maki has done a great job in bringing all the tools we need together at the top of his blog. Check out Maki's blog and check it out often:

Thoughts From Podunk

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Support S.F. 542 "The People's Bailout" by Minnesota DFL State Senator David Tomassoni

Support and follow this legislation:

https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/revisor/pages/search_status/status_detail.php?b=Senate&f=SF0542&ssn=0&y=2009

-----Original Message-----

From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]

Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 8:53 PM

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Subject: Re: People's Bailout (SF 542)

Re: SF 542; The People’s Bailout

Senator David Tomassoni;

First, let me commend you for having the courage to bring this legislation forward; I am sure the opposition will be enormous even from your DFL colleagues, not to mention from Republicans and Governor Pawlenty.

I hope you intend to call for roll call votes at each step of the process on (SF 542) The People’s Bailout so there is more accountability than we had on S.F. 607 to save the Ford Plant; legislation you so courageously brought forward in the Senate Committee on Business, Industry and Labor where your fellow DFL'ers so shamefully let you, and more importantly, Ford Workers and Minnesotans, down. We need to keep in mind in the struggle ahead over The People's Bailout--- S.F. 542, that it was in this same Senate Committee where you failed to get help from your DFL colleagues in moving S.F. 607 forward--- out of Committee and through the Minnesota State Legislature and onto the Governor's desk.

We need to keep in mind that Senator Jim Metzen, while being a DFL'er, is also a banker--- an officer with Key Community Bank known for its very dirty deeds against working people. It is up to you and the rest of us to push Senator Metzen to do his job as Chair of the all-important, heavily DFL dominated Committee on Business, Industry and Labor and twist the arms needing twisting to get The People's Bailout through the Committee... again, I stress the need for a roll call vote to assure Minnesotans have complete accountability--- unlike with S.F. 607 where you received no support from your DFL colleagues yet none of the other Democrats or Republicans would acknowledge their very dirty and shameful role in sending S.F. 607 down to defeat.

Why haven’t you included something along the lines of SF 607 to automatically apply to any business closing which has received any kind of local, state or federal subsidies, tax abatement or public assistance of any kind in your People’s Bailout? This would be particularly important in trying, again, to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

I am very leery that this is one more gimmick the DFL is using to make it appear the DFL is trying to do something when the intent is all show since the DFL did nothing to push SF 607 through the legislature; hopefully I am wrong about this since many, many Minnesotans will need such assistance.

Might I also suggest that you include rescinding “at-will hiring, at-will firing” legislation as part of The People’s Bailout since this would place Minnesota workers in line to benefit from the Employee Free Choice Act.

Also, might I suggest that you include a provision in this legislation that would establish the minimum wage in Minnesota to be in accordance with the calculations of the United States Department of Labor and its Bureau of Labor Statistics based upon the scientific facts pertaining to real cost of living factors and the minimum wage should be recalculated every time these cost of living factors are recalculated.

I agree with you that we can not spend our way out of this economic crisis and instead we need to work our way out of this mess which obviously requires all working people to be paid real living wages as a way to completely and thoroughly redistribute wealth in this country.

At the heart of this economic mess is the fact that wealth created by the working class has in fact been stolen in the form of huge profits by corporations not paying workers real living wages in accordance with cost of living factors; common sense tells us that depressions occur when working people cannot purchase back the goods they have produced which are required for human survival.

Common sense also dictates that we cannot allow the Ford Motor Company to start bringing Ford Rangers produced in Thailand into the United States instead of continuing production at the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

Hopefully you will include something in this legislation protecting the rights of Minnesota’s 30,000 workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry who are forced and compelled to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws… I am sure you understand with so many workers employed under these deplorable conditions these workers serve to drive down the standard of living of all workers in Minnesota. I am sure you are aware that casino workers, such as the thousands of workers employed at casinos like Mystic Lake Casino are forced to sign their names to statements that they know they will be terminated should they engage in union organizing. I think you should include something in this People’s Bailout directing the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development that casino workers fired for union organizing cannot be denied unemployment benefits as they presently are.

In order to protect the rights of all workers in Minnesota to unemployment compensation which you want to extend (and your proposal for such extension is not long enough in my opinion given the fact that this economic mess is going to be with us for many years--- perhaps you should include unemployment coverage from time of layoff/firing to time of re-employment); but, getting back to the rights of workers to receive unemployment benefits in the first place, you need to eliminate the right of employers to challenge a worker’s right to unemployment benefits without having to provide a reason for the challenge.

Combined with “at-will hiring, at-will firing” this places workers in a real bind… fired without reason and then subjecting workers to the further injustice of being denied unemployment compensation due to an employer’s challenge without that employer having to provide a reason… this process can drag on for many months leaving workers without any income or public assistance--- meager as public assistance is in Minnesota… not to mention leaving workers and their families without health care. But, it does little good to extend unemployment compensation if employers are allowed to challenge a worker’s right to compensation without reason or just cause.

Without massive mobilization of members from the unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO and Change To Win this legislation has no chance of passing as you fully know and understand.

Have you heard from labor’s registered lobbyists concerning this legislation?

What have you heard from the Chamber of Commerce and other organizations representing employers and the business community regarding this legislation?

When will the first reading of this People’s Bailout take place? I can’t find anything on the legislature’s on-line calendar.

Please keep me informed of any hearings on this legislation as I would like to testify in support of this legislation.

Don’t forget; request there be recorded roll call vote at each step in the process so Minnesotans have full accountability; this not only assures accountability, but will cause those business oriented DFL’ers in the Summit Hill Club to think twice should they decide they want to join with their Republican colleagues in opposing this legislation.

Might I suggest you develop a newsletter--- printed in hard copy and e-mail format--- pertaining solely to SF 542 (The People’s Bailout) to keep its supporters in and out of the legislature fully and completely informed; a newsletter which requests supporters to do specific tasks in bringing the full weight of Minnesota’s working class--- organized and unorganized--- into support for this important piece of legislation… we certainly don’t want a repeat of only a handful of proponents showing up like what happened with SF 607. We should do everything possible to make sure that Minnesota’s working class “owns” this legislation and that we work together to mobilizes huge turn outs of working people supporting this legislation at each and every stage in the legislative process.

In my opinion, we should be looking at organizing Minnesota’s workers to mobilize fully in support of this important piece of legislation, S.F. 542 The People's Bailout, you are bringing forward.

You are most certainly aware that your legislation can serve as a model in winning new needed reforms comprising an extension of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal; just as the struggles for Roosevelt’s New Deal received powerful, decisive support from Minnesota’s socialist Governors Floyd Olson, Elmer Benson and John Bernard and other Farmer-Labor Party elected officials along with Minnesota’s working class--- especially the “red” Finns of the Iron Range. Let “The People’s Bailout” become a rallying point for the working class movement, and become a model for Barack Obama and the United States Congress along with other states to emulate and follow through on.

I assume you have spoken with Congressman Jim Oberstar and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar about developing similar legislation in Congress.

Might I suggest you request an appearance on Amy Goodman’s television program--- “Democracy Now!” to promote national working class unity in support of The People's Bailout.

I hope you will suggest to the Minnesota AFL-CIO and Change To Win they bring all their affiliated unions into support for this legislation and these unions in turn fully mobilize their memberships to every extent possible.

Your final item regarding state employees is very weak given the intent of leading Republicans to push for things like using the powers of state government to abrogate union contracts. As you know, Barack Obama and Congress are already doing the same thing with autoworkers; whereas, in France the government is prohibiting the abrogation of union contracts and requiring those businesses receiving government bailouts not to cut employment. You might want to take a look at what the French government is doing to protect the rights and jobs of working people.

I would encourage you to look at what action can be taken to make the Minnesota government the employer of choice for road building, bridge repair and maintenance so more jobs are created rather than contractors and engineering firms reaping huge profits, keeping in mind the reason for New Deal make work projects being so successful was that the government was the employer--- not private industry and corporations… again, common sense dictates that when you cut out profits more can be paid out in wages for more workers thus, as you say, and I agree, we work our way out of this mess rather than trying to spend our way out of this most severe crisis.

In conclusion, I would encourage you to consider some type of resolution calling on President Obama to discontinue his wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as cutting all funding for Israel since it makes little sense to pump three-quarters of a trillion dollars into economic “stimulus” while continuing to squander the exact same amount on wars and militarization, which is like taking our human and natural resources and tossing them into one of those polluted, water-filled, abandoned mining pits on the Iron Range or into U.S. Steel’s “Clear Water Reservoir” in Mountain Iron.

Also, as much as I am for road-building and repair to create jobs… I can’t see spending millions of dollars building a road from Minnesota Highway 71 out into the Big Bog for a Canadian peat mining operation to truck away the profits… you might want to mention to Congressman Oberstar that Franklin Roosevelt spent hundreds of thousands of dollars putting the Civilian Conservation Corps to work trying to protect this very sensitive ecosystem; it just destroys our credibility advocating for public works programs when Oberstar has spent millions destroying the good work the CCC did in trying to protect and save the Big Bog. I find it rather ironic this peat mining boon-doggle is taking place right at the site of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp site in the Pine Island State Forest in the Big Bog.

S.F. No. 542, as introduced - 86th Legislative Session (2009-2010) Posted on Feb 06, 2009

1.1A bill for an act
1.2relating to economic development; extending MFIP assistance; modifying
1.3unemployment compensation; augmenting foreclosure provisions; establishing a
1.4jobs creation program; limiting certain layoffs; appropriating money;amending
1.5Minnesota Statutes 2008, sections 256J.42, by adding a subdivision; 268.035,
1.6subdivisions 4, 21a; 268.07, subdivision 1; 268.085, subdivision 15; 504B.151;
1.7proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 582.
1.8BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.9 Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 256J.42, is amended by adding a
1.10subdivision to read:
1.11 Subd. 1a. Temporary 60-month time limit extension. For assistance units that
1.12have reached the 60-month time limit under subdivision 1 or assistance units that will
1.13reach the 60-month time limit under subdivision 1 before the sunset of this subdivision,
1.14MFIP benefits are extended to eligible assistance units until the sunset of this subdivision.
1.15This subdivision sunsets July 1, 2011.

1.16 Sec. 2. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 268.035, subdivision 4, is amended to read:
1.17 Subd. 4. Base period. (a) "Base period," unless otherwise provided in this
1.18subdivision, means the last four completed calendar quarters before the effective date of
1.19an applicant's application for unemployment benefits if the application has an effective
1.20date occurring after the month following the last completed calendar quarter. The base
1.21period under this paragraph is as follows:
1.22
1.23
1.24 If the application for unemployment
benefits is effective on or between these
dates: The base period is the prior:
1.25 February 1 - March 31 January 1 - December 31
2.1 May 1 - June 30 April 1 - March 31
2.2 August 1 - September 30 July 1 - June 30
2.3 November 1 - December 31 October 1 - September 30
2.4 (1) (b) If an application for unemployment benefits has an effective date that is
2.5during the month following the last completed calendar quarter, then the base period is
2.6the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the effective date of an
2.7applicant's application for unemployment benefits. The base period under this paragraph
2.8is as set forth below follows:
2.9
2.10
2.11 If the application for unemployment
benefits is effective on or between these
dates: The base period is the prior:
2.12 January 1 - March January 31 October 1 - September 30
2.13 April 1 - June April 30 January 1 - December 31
2.14 July 1 - September 30 July 31 April 1 - March 31
2.15 October 1 - December October 31 July 1 - June 30
2.16 (2) (c) If the applicant has insufficient wage credits to establish a benefit account
2.17under clauses (1) and (3), and paragraph (a) or (b), but during the base period under
2.18clause (1) paragraph (a) or (b) an applicant received workers' compensation for temporary
2.19disability under chapter 176 or a similar federal law or similar law of another state, or
2.20if an applicant whose own serious illness caused a loss of work for which the applicant
2.21received compensation for loss of wages from some other source, the applicant may
2.22request an extended base period as follows:
2.23 (i) (1) if an applicant was compensated for a loss of work of seven to 13 weeks, the
2.24base period is the first four of the last six completed calendar quarters before the effective
2.25date of the application for unemployment benefits;
2.26 (ii) (2) if an applicant was compensated for a loss of work of 14 to 26 weeks, the
2.27base period is the first four of the last seven completed calendar quarters before the
2.28effective date of the application for unemployment benefits;
2.29 (iii) (3) if an applicant was compensated for a loss of work of 27 to 39 weeks,
2.30the base period is the first four of the last eight completed calendar quarters before the
2.31effective date of the application for unemployment benefits; and
2.32 (iv) (4) if an applicant was compensated for a loss of work of 40 to 52 weeks, the
2.33base period is the first four of the last nine completed calendar quarters before the effective
2.34date of the application for unemployment benefits;.
2.35 (3) if the applicant has insufficient wage credits to establish a benefit account under
2.36clause (1), an alternate base period of the last four completed calendar quarters before the
2.37date the applicant's application for unemployment benefits is effective will be used. This
3.1base period can be used only 30 calendar days or more after the end of the last completed
3.2quarter, when a wage detail report has been, or should have been, filed for that quarter
3.3under section 268.044; and
3.4 (4) (d) No base period under clause (1), (2), or (3) paragraph (a), (b), or (c) may
3.5include wage credits upon which a prior benefit account was established.
3.6(e) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the base period calculated under paragraph (b)
3.7using the first four of the last five complete calendar quarters before the effective date of
3.8the applicant's application for unemployment benefits must be used for an applicant if the
3.9applicant has more wage credits under that base period than under the base period in
3.10paragraph (a).
3.11EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective for applications for unemployment
3.12benefits filed effective on or after July 1, 2009.

3.13 Sec. 3. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 268.035, subdivision 21a, is amended to read:
3.14 Subd. 21a. Reemployment assistance training. (a) An applicant is in
3.15"reemployment assistance training" when:
3.16 (1) a reasonable and opportunity for suitable employment for the applicant does not
3.17exist in the labor market area and it is necessary that the applicant receive additional
3.18training in order to obtain will assist the applicant in obtaining suitable employment;
3.19 (2) the curriculum, facilities, staff, and other essentials are adequate to achieve the
3.20training objective;
3.21 (3) the training is vocational in nature or short term academic training vocationally
3.22directed to an occupation or skill for which there are reasonable that will substantially
3.23enhance the employment opportunities available to the applicant in the applicant's labor
3.24market area;
3.25 (4) the training course is considered full time by the training provider; and
3.26 (5) the applicant is making satisfactory progress in the training.
3.27 (b) Full-time training provided through the dislocated worker program, the Trade
3.28Act of 1974, as amended, or the North American Free Trade Agreement is considered
3.29"reemployment assistance training," if that training course is in accordance with the
3.30requirements of that program.
3.31 (c) Apprenticeship training provided in order to meet the requirements of an
3.32apprenticeship program under chapter 178 is considered "reemployment assistance
3.33training."
3.34(d) An applicant is considered in reemployment assistance training only if the
3.35training course has actually started or is scheduled to start within 30 calendar days.
4.1EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective for determinations and appeal
4.2decisions issued on or after the day following final enactment.

4.3 Sec. 4. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 268.07, subdivision 1, is amended to read:
4.4 Subdivision 1. Application for unemployment benefits; determination of benefit
4.5account. (a) An application for unemployment benefits may be filed in person, by mail,
4.6or by electronic transmission as the commissioner may require. The applicant must be
4.7unemployed at the time the application is filed and must provide all requested information
4.8in the manner required. The commissioner shall accept a valid individual taxpayer
4.9identification number from an applicant who is applying for benefits. If the applicant is
4.10not unemployed at the time of the application or fails to provide all requested information,
4.11the communication is not considered an application for unemployment benefits.
4.12 (b) The commissioner shall examine each application for unemployment benefits to
4.13determine the base period and the benefit year, and based upon all the covered employment
4.14in the base period the commissioner shall determine the weekly unemployment benefit
4.15amount available, if any, and the maximum amount of unemployment benefits available, if
4.16any. The determination is known as the determination of benefit account. A determination
4.17of benefit account must be sent to the applicant and all base period employers, by mail or
4.18electronic transmission.
4.19 (c) If a base period employer did not provide wage information for the applicant as
4.20provided for in section 268.044, or provided erroneous information, the commissioner
4.21may accept an applicant certification as to wage credits, based upon the applicant's records,
4.22and issue a determination of benefit account.
4.23 (d) The commissioner may, at any time within 24 months from the establishment of
4.24a benefit account, reconsider any determination of benefit account and make an amended
4.25determination if the commissioner finds that the determination was incorrect for any
4.26reason. An amended determination must be promptly sent to the applicant and all base
4.27period employers, by mail or electronic transmission.
4.28 (e) If an amended determination of benefit account reduces the weekly
4.29unemployment benefit amount or maximum amount of unemployment benefits available,
4.30any unemployment benefits that have been paid greater than the applicant was entitled
4.31is considered an overpayment of unemployment benefits. A determination or amended
4.32determination issued under this section that results in an overpayment of unemployment
4.33benefits must set out the amount of the overpayment and the requirement under section
4.34268.18, subdivision 1 , that the overpaid unemployment benefits must be repaid.

5.1 Sec. 5. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 268.085, subdivision 15, is amended to read:
5.2 Subd. 15. Available for suitable employment defined. (a) "Available for suitable
5.3employment" means an applicant is ready and willing to accept suitable employment in
5.4the labor market area. The attachment to the work force must be genuine. An applicant
5.5may restrict availability to suitable employment, but there must be no other restrictions,
5.6either self-imposed or created by circumstances, temporary or permanent, that prevent
5.7accepting suitable employment.
5.8(b) Unless the applicant is in reemployment assistance training, to be considered
5.9"available for suitable employment," a student who has regularly scheduled classes must
5.10be willing to quit school discontinue classes to accept suitable employment when:
5.11(1) class attendance restricts the applicant from accepting suitable employment; and
5.12(2) the applicant is unable to change the scheduled class or make other arrangements
5.13that excuse the applicant from attending class.
5.14(c) An applicant who is absent from the labor market area for personal reasons, other
5.15than to search for work, is not "available for suitable employment."
5.16(d) An applicant who has restrictions on the hours of the day or days of the week
5.17that the applicant can or will work, that are not normal for the applicant's usual occupation
5.18or other suitable employment, is not "available for suitable employment." An applicant
5.19must be available for daytime employment, if suitable employment is performed during
5.20the daytime, even though the applicant previously worked the night shift.
5.21(e) An applicant must have transportation throughout the labor market area to be
5.22considered "available for suitable employment."
5.23EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective for determinations and appeal
5.24decisions issued on or after the day following final enactment.

5.25 Sec. 6. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 504B.151, is amended to read:
5.26504B.151 RESTRICTION ON RESIDENTIAL LEASE TERMS FOR
5.27BUILDINGS IN FINANCIAL DISTRESS; REQUIRED NOTICE OF PENDING
5.28FORECLOSURE; RIGHTS OF TENANTS OF FORECLOSED PROPERTY.
5.29 Subdivision 1. Limitation on lease and notice to tenant. (a) Once a landlord
5.30has received notice of a contract for deed cancellation under section 559.21 or notice of
5.31a mortgage foreclosure sale under chapter 580 or 582, the landlord may only enter into
5.32(i) a periodic residential lease agreement with a term of not more than two months or
5.33the time remaining in the contract cancellation period or the mortgagor's redemption
6.1period, whichever is less or (ii) a fixed term residential tenancy not extending beyond the
6.2cancellation period or the landlord's period of redemption until:
6.3(1) the contract for deed has been reinstated or paid in full;
6.4(2) the mortgage default has been cured and the mortgage reinstated;
6.5(3) the mortgage has been satisfied;
6.6(4) the property has been redeemed from a foreclosure sale; or
6.7(5) a receiver has been appointed.
6.8(b) Before entering into a lease under this section and accepting any rent or security
6.9deposit from a tenant, the landlord must notify the prospective tenant in writing that the
6.10landlord has received notice of a contract for deed cancellation or notice of a mortgage
6.11foreclosure sale as appropriate, and the date on which the contract cancellation period or
6.12the mortgagor's redemption period ends. The landlord must also inform the prospective
6.13tenant of the tenant's right to continued utility services if the landlord defaults on utility
6.14payments during the foreclosure process.
6.15(c) This section does not apply to a manufactured home park as defined in section
6.16327C.01, subdivision 5 .
6.17 Subd. 2. Exception allowing a longer term lease. This section Subdivision 1
6.18does not apply if:
6.19(1) the holder or the mortgagee agrees not to terminate the tenant's lease other than
6.20for lease violations for at least one year from the commencement of the tenancy; and
6.21(2) the lease does not require the tenant to prepay rent for any month commencing
6.22after the end of the cancellation or redemption period, so that the rent payment would be
6.23due prior to the end of the cancellation or redemption period.
6.24For the purposes of this section, a holder means a contract for deed vendor or a
6.25holder of the sheriff's certificate of sale or any assignee of the contract for deed vendor or
6.26of the holder of the sheriff's certificate of sale.
6.27 Subd. 3. Transfer of tenancy by operation of law. (a) A tenant who enters into a
6.28lease under subdivision 2 is:
6.29(1) deemed by operation of law to become the tenant of the holder immediately upon
6.30the holder succeeding to the interest of the landlord under the lease; and
6.31(2) bound to the holder under all the provisions of the lease for either the balance of
6.32the lease term or for one year after the start of the tenancy, whichever occurs first.
6.33(b) A tenant who becomes the tenant of the holder under this subdivision is not
6.34obligated to pay rent to the holder until the holder mails, by first class mail to the tenant at
6.35the property address, written notice that the holder has succeeded to the interest of the
7.1landlord. A letter from the holder to the tenant to that effect is prima facie evidence that
7.2the holder has succeeded to the interest of the landlord.
7.3 Subd. 4. Holder not bound by certain acts. A holder succeeding to an interest in
7.4a lease lawfully entered into under subdivision 2 is not:
7.5(1) liable for any act or omission of any prior landlord;
7.6(2) subject to any offset or defense which the tenant had against any prior landlord; or
7.7(3) bound by any modification of the lease entered into under subdivision 2, unless
7.8the modification is made with the holder's consent.
7.9 Subd. 5. Rights of tenant of foreclosed property. (a) When a holder takes over a
7.10rental property as the result of a foreclosure:
7.11(1) a tenant is deemed by operation of law to become the tenant of the holder; and
7.12(2) all leases, verbal or written, and all terms and conditions of those agreements
7.13shall be transferred to the holder.
7.14(b) A holder shall:
7.15(1) maintain as rental property, property that was used as rental property by the
7.16landlord;
7.17(2) offer renewal leases to tenants of the foreclosed property; and
7.18(3) keep affordable rent levels in place.
7.19 Subd. 6. Eviction. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a holder must not
7.20begin an eviction action against a tenant without cause.
7.21 Subd. 7. Termination of tenancy. Except for lease violations, a holder must not
7.22terminate the tenancy of a tenant of foreclosed property without cause.
7.23 Subd. 8. Periodic leases. A holder must offer a fixed-term lease option to a tenant
7.24with a periodic lease in place at the time the tenant becomes a tenant of the holder.
7.25 Subd. 9. Applicability. The provisions of subdivisions 5 to 8 apply to all tenants
7.26regardless of when a tenant entered into a rental agreement with the property owner or at
7.27what stage the foreclosure process was in when the rental agreement was entered.

7.28 Sec. 7. [582.33] FORECLOSURE MORATORIUM.
7.29 Subdivision 1. Emergency declared to exist. The legislature of the state of
7.30Minnesota declares that a public economic emergency exists in the state of Minnesota
7.31due to the increase in foreclosure rates. The legislature declares that these conditions
7.32have created a housing emergency that justifies legislation creating a moratorium on
7.33mortgage foreclosures.
7.34 Subd. 2. Court stay. In an action to foreclose a mortgage upon residential property
7.35under chapter 580 or 581, in which a judgment of foreclosure has not been entered by the
8.1effective date of this section, the district court having jurisdiction over the matter, upon
8.2motion of a defendant, shall order the action stayed for two years after the entry of the
8.3stay. The court may order that certain conditions relating to the property are met during
8.4the stay, including, but not limited to, possession of the property, payments by the person
8.5in possession, and preservation of the property.
8.6 Subd. 3. Application. This section applies only to mortgages executed before
8.7the effective date of this section.
8.8EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.

8.9 Sec. 8. SPECIAL STATE EMERGENCY UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
8.10PROGRAM.
8.11 Subdivision 1. Purpose. Federal law currently provides for a federally funded
8.12extension of unemployment insurance benefits for applicants who have exhausted
8.13entitlement to regular Minnesota unemployment insurance benefits. But, because federal
8.14law contains a special requirement that an applicant has earned a certain amount of base
8.15period insured wages, a significant group of applicants who exhausted their regular
8.16Minnesota unemployment insurance benefits do not qualify for the federally funded
8.17extension. The purpose of this section is to provide a state-funded extension to that group.
8.18 Subd. 2. Eligibility. (a) Special state emergency unemployment insurance benefits
8.19are payable to an applicant who does not qualify for a federally funded extension
8.20of unemployment insurance benefits solely because the applicant does not meet the
8.21requirement under section 4001(d)(2)(a) of the federal Supplemental Appropriations
8.22Act of 2008 that an applicant have wage credits of not less than 40 times the applicant's
8.23weekly benefit amount.
8.24(b) Except as provided in paragraph (a), all requirements for federally funded
8.25extended unemployment benefits and all requirements of Minnesota Statutes, chapter
8.26268, must be met in order for the applicant to be eligible for special state emergency
8.27unemployment insurance benefits.
8.28(c) Special state emergency unemployment insurance benefits are payable in the
8.29same amounts, the same duration, and for the same time period as provided for under the
8.30federal Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008, and any later amendments, but shall
8.31be no less than 13 times the applicant's weekly special state emergency unemployment
8.32insurance benefit amount.
8.33 Subd. 3. Payment from trust fund. Special state emergency unemployment
8.34insurance benefits are payable from the Minnesota unemployment insurance trust fund.
8.35Special state emergency unemployment insurance benefits will not be used in computing
9.1the future unemployment insurance tax rate of a taxpaying employer nor will they be
9.2charged to the reimbursing account of government or nonprofit employers.
9.3 Subd. 4. Expiration. This section expires on June 30, 2010, and no benefits shall be
9.4paid under this section for a week beginning after that date.
9.5EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the Sunday following final enactment
9.6and applies only to weeks of unemployment after that date.

9.7 Sec. 9. JOBS CREATION GRANT PROGRAM.
9.8 Subdivision 1. Establishment. The commissioner of employment and economic
9.9development shall develop and implement a jobs creation grant program to make grants
9.10available to cities and towns for public and private projects that will generate new jobs
9.11and produce a stronger state economy.
9.12 Subd. 2. Fund distribution. In distributing funds, the commissioner shall give
9.13priority consideration to projects that are available to begin immediately and to projects
9.14that promote environmental sustainability and a green economy.
9.15 Subd. 3. Funding. To the extent that the commissioner receives funds for this
9.16purpose in fiscal year 2009, funding for the jobs creation grant program shall be done
9.17through federal stimulus dollars. If federal stimulus dollars are not available, funds shall
9.18come from state sources.
9.19 Subd. 4. Appropriation. $....... is appropriated from the general fund to the
9.20commissioner of employment and economic development to develop and implement
9.21a jobs creation grant program. This appropriation is only available if federal stimulus
9.22dollars are not available. This appropriation is available until expended.
9.23EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.

9.24 Sec. 10. STATE EMPLOYEE LAYOFFS.
9.25For the 2010 and 2011 biennium, in order to prevent increased unemployment and to
9.26protect jobs, the legislature shall not mandate layoffs of state employees, including, but
9.27not limited to, employees of the University of Minnesota.
9.28EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective the day following final enactment.

Please direct all comments concerning issues or legislation
to your House Member or State Senator.
For Legislative Staff or for directions to the Capitol, visit the Contact Us page.
General questions or comments.
last updated: 01/30/2009

Again, thanking you for having the moral and political courage in standing up and fighting for the rights and livelihoods of Minnesota's working class, and for having the common sense and intelligence to know that we cannot spend our way out of this economic crisis; rather, understanding and explaining that for working people and the working class the way out of this crisis, and the way to a better future, will be found in working our way out of this crisis.

In full support of your leadership in bringing forward The People's Bailout--- Senate File 542...

For a living wage job, justice and equality along with a voice at work for each and every worker in Minnesota...

On behalf of Minnesota's 30,000 workers in the Indian Gaming Industry organizing and struggling to survive while employed in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages, without any rights under state or federal labor laws...

Sincerely,

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Posted by Alan L. Maki

Two views on "Economic Stimulus"

2009-02-02T16:12:00.003-06:00

"Red" Finn Alan Maki replied to some of the problems he sees with President Barack Obama's "economic stimulus package."

First is an article from the Campaign for America's Future. The response by Alan Maki is at the end of this blog posting.

What do you think?

Iron Range Club of the CPUSA

Obama’s Economic Recovery Plan Is Almost As Pure As Ivory Soap

"The bottom line: This is the biggest and boldest progressive legislation in 40 years."

Oh, really? There are a few important things Bernie Horn has failed to address... read my response to Horn's essay following.

Alan L. Maki

By Bernie Horn of the Campaign for America’s Future

January 27th, 2009 - 9:00pm ET

There’s been a lot of bitching and moaning in the progressive blogosphere about the huge business tax cuts that are supposed to be contained in President Obama’s economic recovery plan.

In fairness to all, the negotiations took place behind closed doors, leaving us little solid information on which to base opinions. And over the years, we’ve had good reason to be wary of backroom deals in Congress.

But there's good news. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a remarkably “clean” bill. Only between 1½ and 3 percent is being wasted on tax cuts for business. Put another way, the bill is about 98 percent pure—money dedicated to good, progressive causes.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis, released Monday, says the business tax cuts will cause “a net revenue loss of $13 billion over the 2009-2019 period.” See the discussion on pages 11-12 of this document.

The figure of $13 billion is confirmed and explained by the House Ways and Means Committee on pages 2-3 in this document. There are only three business tax provisions that have a significant price tag. First, the extension of bonus depreciation enacted last year, allowing businesses to depreciate capital costs faster than the ordinary schedule, will cost $5 billion. Second, the 5-year carryback provision, allowing businesses to deduct net losses from the last five years instead of the last two, will cost $15 billion. Third, the repeal of a Bush Treasury Department ruling that unjustly benefits the purchasers of certain companies will increase revenues by $7 billion. So $20 billion in business tax cuts are offset by a $7 billion tax increase, leaving a total of $13 billion in benefits.

As you probably know, the Senate Finance Committee intends to make larger business tax cuts than the House bill has. The analysis of the Finance Committee’s markup, evaluated by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, is on page 3 of this document. The Senate version includes both the bonus depreciation and 5-year carryback provisions, but the Joint Committee estimates these will cost a total of $22.5 billion instead of the House’s $20 billion. The Senate does not include the $7 billion tax increase and adds a bit more than $2 billion more in tax breaks for a total of $24.9 billion in business tax benefits.

The CBO tells us that the whole bill costs $816 billion. So if the Senate version is adopted, only 3 percent of the spending is for business tax breaks. (That percentage is about the same with or without the recent Alternative Minimum Tax provision.) If the House version is adopted, it’s only 1½ percent. Either way, this is a bill that is between 97 and 98.5 percent targeted toward good causes.

In our nation’s capital, no major bill ever passes without a “sweetener” for the special interests you may oppose. By Capitol Hill standards, this is an exceptionally modest sweetener. And don’t think it’s necessarily being done to gain Republican votes—key Democrats want these too.

The bottom line: This is the biggest and boldest progressive legislation in 40 years. By all means, register your complaints against the business tax cuts. But don’t let that dampen your enthusiasm for the overall measure. If you live in a state with a Republican or less-than-liberal Democratic Senator, call them today and urge them to support this bill. You'll be sorry if you don't help out, because this is history in the making.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The writer is a Senior Fellow at Campaign for America’s Future and author of the recent book, Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People.

Response by Alan Maki:

Never mentioned by you and the “pundits of the left” (is that at least 30% of this "stimulus" will be sucked away in corporate profits--- more than likely well over 45% once this money passes through all the hands… untold billions sucked off by the banks in interest (at least double before its all paid back because these are loans paying for all of this); and what you refuse to acknowledge is the American tax-payer first subsidized these loans to the banks AND now those loans (remember, this money was never loaned out because no companies wanted to borrow due to a crumbling economy )… so, surprise, surprise--- Obama just borrowed this money (OUR tax money) back from the bankers!!

Rather than stimulating anything other than a capitalist feeding frenzy at an expanded public trough… these “stimulus” packages are going to further depress the economy for the simple reason that these capitalist pigs will be lapping up the cream before this money can circulate and get into the pockets of working people.

Even Paul Krugman says it will take at least triple and it was relatively easy for anyone who has been following what has been going on with the economy to see that with such “stimulus packages” it would take five to six trillion dollars before working people would gain any relief at all as the economy goes to hell.

Plus, we shouldn’t even be worried about stimulating the capitalist economy other than to expose the futileness of such schemes and their primary intent: to provide a way for capitalists to get richer at our expense by stealing the wealth they could not initially attain through exploitation of labor.

We need to be supporting “public programs” giving relief to workers to help them through this as we move people into struggle against capitalism… we have no interest in propping up and saving this rotten system.

And who knows how much of this “stimulus” money will be siphoned off as sheer graft and corruption? We have seen what has been going on with the "bailouts" to date.

Capitalism is in crisis.

You might want to consider this from Frederick Engels writing in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific:

* * *

Commerce is at a standstill, the markets are glutted, products accumulate, as multitudinous as they are unsaleable, hard cash disappears, credit vanishes, factories are closed, the mass of the workers are in want of the means of subsistence, because they have produced too much of the means of subsistence; bankruptcy follows upon bankruptcy, execution upon execution. The stagnation lasts for years; productive forces and products are wasted and destroyed wholesale, until the accumulated mass of commodities finally filter off, more or less depreciated in value, until production and exchange gradually begin to move again. Little by little the pace quickens. It becomes a trot. The industrial trot breaks into a canter, the canter in turn grows into the headlong gallop of a perfect steeplechase of industry, commercial credit and speculation, which finally, after breakneck leaps, ends where it began--in the ditch of a crisis. And so over and over again. We have now, since the year 1825, gone through this five times, and at the present moment (1877) we are going through it for the sixth time.... The fact that the socialised organisation of production within the factory has developed so far that it has become incompatible with the anarchy of production in society, which exists side by side with and dominates it, is brought home to the capitalists themselves by the violent concentration of capital that occurs during crises, through the ruin of many large, and a still greater number of small, capitalists. The whole mechanism of the capitalist mode of production breaks down under the pressure of the productive forces, its own creations. It is no longer able to turn all this mass of means of production into capital. They lie fallow, and for that very reason the industrial reserve army must also lie fallow. Means of production, means of subsistence, available labourers, all the elements of production and of general wealth, are present in abundance. But "abundance becomes the source of distress and want" (Fourier), because it is the very thing that prevents the transformation of the means of production and subsistence into capital. For in capitalistic society the means of production can only function when they have undergone a preliminary transformation into capital, into the means of exploiting human labour power.

Frederick Engels's---
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific/
New York: International Publishers, 1935, pages 64-65

Add to this the fact of the complete waste from wars and militarism including billions of dollars we are pumping into the Israeli killing machine and the only thing Obama is doing is setting up the working class for massive poverty and all the misery associated with poverty.

Bernie horn stated:

"...the bill is about 98 percent pure—money dedicated to good, progressive causes..."

Since when do progressives consider tax-money dedicated to corporate profits, corruption and graft, "good, progressive causes."

Print this blog posting off and stick a few copies in your lunch pail to discuss with fellow workers during lunch break.

Alan L. Maki

What Next As The Masses Cheer? by Bruce Gagnon

2009-01-25T17:55:00.000-06:00

Posted on January 20, 2009

by Bruce Gagnon

Organizing Notes
Jan 20, 2009

The New York Times ran a headline immediately after the inauguration today that read “President Obama Vows Era of Responsibility.” They quoted Obama as saying that with our current economic crisis we must deal with “our collective failure to make hard choices.”

Those are code words that really mean the “entitlement programs” need to be scaled back. Particularly Social Security and Medicare. There was no language in the speech about cutting the military budget or closing down bases of the empire. In fact in one flourish, where he talked about the “sacrifices” made to destroy Nazism and Communism, Obama sent out a call to the “terrorists” I presume, declaring “you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

Nothing was uttered about making the rich and the bankers pay back the $700 billion bailout they weaseled out of the tax payers by scaring the nation into thinking they would stabilize the economy if we just handed the national treasury over to them.

Nothing about holding accountable those who violated the Constitution by falsely leading us into war. Nothing about those who broke the law by spying on us and arresting and incarcerating innocent people without legal representation or trials.

Instead we are told to look ahead, get beyond the divisive past, forget that we’ve been used and abused, that we essentially must forgive and forget.

Many in the huge crowd cheered the words from our new president. They are happy that Bush is gone and hope that the coming change will allow them to return to more normal days.

Obama has set up a new organization to help him lobby for the policies that his administration will propose. People will get regular emails instructing them to lobby Congress on this bill or that one. One of the bills will be to help further enrich the insurance companies as the Obama team ignores strong public support for a single-payer health care system. Instead, it will be “health insurance for all” which will likely turn out to be a mandate requiring everyone to buy a health insurance policy just like we are now required to purchase auto insurance. For those who can’t afford it there might be some government subsidy available. In the end the government will facilitate the “market” and health care will remain a commodity and not a human right.

For those deeply concerned about climate change and our Mother Earth’s declining health we will have nuclear energy, “clean coal” and biofuels. We’ll see more government support for corporate control of food - genetically modified crops - promoted by Monsanto’s new Secretary of Agriculture.

In Obama’s opening words he talked about the early vision of our “founding fathers”. He intends to remain loyal to the rich white men who dreamed of their own empire - one that would challenge England’s global power. An empire that would push the Native Americans from their land, ravage the Earth for its natural resources, and move overseas to terrorize and colonize people in Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, Latin America, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and ultimately the moon in the sky.

Days ago I read a story in the mainstream press about wealthy Americans who had repeatedly given Obama big money for his campaigns and inauguration, at every legal opportunity. The Rockefeller family was one such clan mentioned who had given hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The rich in America are proud to boast once again about the “peaceful transition of power.” Yes indeed, they have ensured that they have again successfully moved from one president to another - even one party to another - while they remain in control. That is worth a few hundred thousand dollars. It’s almost an embarrassingly cheap investment.

Alas, only in America can the rich buy a self-proclaimed progressive politician, turn him rightward, and have the adoring masses stand and cheer as the packaged new leader calls for the people to prepare to accept cuts in social spending and ready their children for another war.

Last night Mary Beth and I had an hour-long phone conversation with an activist friend from Canada who had just been physically removed from an expensive luncheon honoring a Canadian general just back from Afghanistan. The conquering general was reporting on their participation in the “right war”. Our friend attended the coronation and silently stood before the general with a sign criticizing Canada for doubling its military budget, cutting social spending, and not focusing instead on dealing with the real enemy of the people - the looming threats of climate change.

Few of our Canadian friend’s “progressive” political allies want her to be so bold. She might create the wrong image, alienate some friendly politician, turn off potential donors or supporters, instead they’d like for her to be more reserved and refined. But she has babies and she has been schooled in the reality of the future under a planet in crisis. She hears the alarms ringing in her ears and pounding in her heart. She finds it hard to turn her eyes away from the great wrecking ball. Her conscience pulls her back toward the truth and forces her out of her isolation.

It is hard to look the other way. I’ve tried and too find it awfully hard to live with myself when I do.

MNDFL and USW continue to give mining companies free reign

2009-01-14T15:10:00.002-06:00

Question: Why are taconite plants and iron ore mines shutting down if Barack Obama is going to be "greening" our economy?

Question: Why don't working people have a say in the decision making process?

Question: Why hasn't the USW organized a fightback demanding a cut in hours to thirty hour week at forty hours pay so everyone continues working?

Iron Range Club, CPUSA

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/02/us_steel_to_layoff_3500_employees/

U.S. Steel to lay off 3,500 employees

by Bill Catlin, Minnesota Public Radio

December 2, 2008

St. Paul, Minn. — U.S. Steel is idling a taconite plant in Keewatin and two other facilities in Michigan and Missouri.

The company says about 3,500 employees will be laid off in total. Amid the global economic slowdown, prices for many steel products have fallen at double-digit rates over the past month.

In October, Cliffs Natural Resources announced it was cutting production at several Iron Range taconite plants.

2009-01-14T14:55:00.002-06:00

"Local lawmaker Tony Sertich said he and the Range delegation will do everything they can, to help during this difficult time."

What can we expect from these windbags in the MNDFL?

The MNDFL has done nothing except talk a good talk.

The time has come to nationalize the mines under public ownership. This is where the struggle to save jobs and our livelihoods needs to center.

Why haven't Sertich and the Iron Range legislators initiated legislation placing a moratorium on home foreclosures already. Our Range Cities already resemble Appalachia complete with all the poverty, unemployment and despair.

We get the pits and the social and economic problems; the mining companies get the profits.

Iron Range Club, CPUSA

http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S687979.shtml?cat=10335

Updated at: 12/03/2008 09:54:08 AM

By: Renee Passal

U.S. Steel Idles Keewatin Taconite

U.S. Steel announced they are idling several facilities, including Keewatin Taconite, in the next several week.

They would not say exactly when the shutdown will take effect, but that it would be temporary.

Steelworkers said they were not surprised, but are still nervous.

"We've been through this before. We're resilient, we'll bounce back," said Art Hamm, a Keetac Steelworker.

We caught up with a crew of Keetac Steelworkers, who were in Duluth for a meeting about pension benefits.

"It will be tough for the families," said John Finken.

"I just hope it's not long, and the company doesn't lose too much production or profitability, and we can come back and be part of a stronger economy," Hamm added.

Steelworkers said they are in the middle of some mini-shut downs for maintenance, and that they heard there would be a 60-90 day shutdown in the spring.

The company plans on concentrating their steel production at other facilities. They would not comment on production at Minntac.

Local lawmaker Tony Sertich said he and the Range delegation will do everything they can, to help during this difficult time.

As for the expansion at Keetac, sources said the company continues to plan for it. Permitting is expected to take several years. U.S. Steel wants to re-start an idled line, and add 75 jobs.

Oberstar lauds U.S. Steel... silent on Keewatin (Keetac) shutdown

2009-01-14T14:40:00.003-06:00

As usual Oberstar has done nothing to save jobs. Not a whimper of protest from this big blowhard and windbag.

The Democratic Party has done nothing to save our jobs.

We need to consider a real workers' party.

All we hear from Oberstar and the MNDFL is "jobs, jobs, jobs." They must be talking about the 40,000 jobs lost. The USW sits on its hands talking tough while giving the corporations free reign to sow misery on the Range.

The time has come to fightback.

Iron Range Club, CPUSA

Oberstar Applauds U.S. Steel Investment in Keewatin Taconite

Friday, February 01, 2008

Washington DC – Congressman Jim Oberstar says U.S. Steel’s decision to invest $300 million in Keewatin Taconite (Keetac) is an important step towards making Minnesota taconite more competitive in the global marketplace. The project will produce 500 construction jobs over 3 years and 75 – 100 permanent jobs for the Iron Range. Production at the U.S. Steel Keewatin plant will increase from the current six million tons a year to nearly ten million tons of taconite pellets.

“Minnesota iron ore has gone global. Our taconite pellets are feeding blast furnaces from Cleveland to China,” said Oberstar. “With this announcement, U.S. Steel demonstrates it has the vision and capacity to compete world-wide. Keetac sits on one of the richest bodies of iron ore on the Range, and this investment at Keetac will create profits for U.S. Steel and long-term, full-time jobs for iron ore miners on the Iron Range. Steel production is a mainstay of American industrial productivity, and Minnesota’s Iron Range fuels that production.”

Keeping Minnesota’s taconite industry competitive has been one of Oberstar’s top priorities throughout his service in Congress. Oberstar introduced the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) which was enacted into law last year. WRDA included provisions to dredge long-neglected, harbors and shipping channels across the Great Lakes.

Shallower navigation channels cause Great Lakes ore freighters to reduce their shipments by as much as 7500 tons on each trip from Duluth to the eastern steel mills. “We have to make sure those ore boats go out with a full load to reduce Minnesota taconite costs,” said Oberstar. “If we don’t maintain our shipping infrastructure, we are giving an advantage to nations like Brazil and Russia that are competing with Minnesota taconite.”

WRDA also authorized $341 million to construct a second lock to accommodate modern ships at Sault Ste. Marie. Another $134 million is authorized to make other repairs and upgrades on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Keetac expansion will also embrace new technology that is more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. U.S. Steel will have to make that case to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to obtain the environmental permits the company will need to move forward. Oberstar says he is confident that effort will be successful. “I am ready to work with the gifted and skilled members of the Iron Range legislative delegation on the permitting process that lies ahead,” said Oberstar.

Global capitalist depression hits Iron Range hard... and this is only the start

2008-12-16T18:53:00.003-06:00

The signs are everywhere. The politicians are telling their lies. We are in a global capitalist depression and there is no end in sight.

Politicians are trying to give this the best and most optimistic face they can because to say otherwise would require them to spend a little money helping people instead of fighting wars.

Maybe Leo Gerard should get his butt up to the Iron Range and explain what he is going to do to mobilize the union to fight for real change.

The only solution is nationalization of the mining and steel industry. We should have been pushing this for years instead of waiting for another capitalist economic depression to hit.

Now we are in the midst of the first stage of what is going to be a massive economic depression and once again we are at the mercy of greedy mining bosses who rape the land, exploit the workers and run off with the profits leaving us with new polluted lakes and ore dumps.

Where are those "jobs, jobs, jobs" Oberstar and the Democrats always talk about?

We have had enough of the capitalist system's "ups and downs." The time has come for the working class to bury this capitalist blood-sucking beast.

It is not mining that has inevitable "ups and downs" it is capitalism that has its "ups and downs." These "ups and downs" are part of the normal "boom and bust" capitalist economic cycle. For working people on the Iron Range life never improves for most people even during the "booms."

When something doesn't work, especially when it fails as capitalism has, most people change to something that does work.

Socialism does work.

Iron Range Club, CPUSA

U.S. Steel laying off 400 at Keewatin plant

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/02/us_steel_laying_off_400_at_keewatin_plant/

by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
December 3, 2008

Hundreds of workers at the taconite plant in Keewatin are wondering how long the layoff will last this time. U.S. Steel has announced it will idle the Keewatin plant, laying off close to 400 workers.

St. Paul, Minn. — KeeTac is one of a handful of U.S. Steel's American operations hit by yesterday's announcement of pending cutbacks. It's the first Minnesota taconite operation to shut down altogether since the recession cut deeply into the demand for Minnesota's taconite pellets.

Company officials have provided few details of the pending shutdown at KeeTac, saying the mine and plant at Keewatin will be idled within the coming weeks.

Spokesman John Armstrong declined to be recorded for broadcast, but said the company will keep enough maintenance staff on hand to bring the taconite mine and production plant back on line when market conditions improve, but couldn't guess when that might happen. Armstrong blames market conditions for steel, which have cut into the sales of autos, appliances and steel used in building construction.

Despite the industry's troubles, a full shutdown was shocking to Keewatin residents. Keewatin Mayor Tom Sampson said maybe half the plant's workers live in the small Itasca County town. He's been uneasily watching U.S. Steel's customers struggle for business.

"Well I kind of watch the steel market, and it just went from great guns to nothing in two weeks," Sampson said. "Then the rest of the mines started working shorter shifts, and all that stuff, but I didn't think they'd shut this one down."

Mining company, Cliffs Natural Resources, announced weeks ago it would cut production at three of its Minnesota mining operations, based in Hibbing, Eveleth, and Silver Bay. But a complete closure of a taconite mining operation like this is the first in years.

It brings back bad memories for State Representative Tom Anzelc of Balsam Township.

"This was the mine that my dad worked at," Anzelc said.

Anzelc said it's hard on the families, especially on young families that maybe haven't prepared for the inevitable ups and downs of mining.

"I feel very bad for the families, and the kids, and the workers, and the spouses and all of that, but we're a pretty resilient group up here in northern Minnesota, as you know," Anzelc said. "I'm hoping that people will hang in there and that toward the end of '09 things will start to look up again. But 2009 is not going to be a good year in Minnesota."

What's surprising is how quickly the fortunes of Minnesota's mining industry have changed. KeeTac is supposed to be getting a $300 million investment to add new equipment for another taconite production line. All that was expected to add 75 new permanent jobs. Anzelc said he's been told permitting and engineering will continue for the expansion, although it's hard to see how U.S. Steel could invest in the plant in the current economic climate.

The temporary closing isn't a surprise to Duluth College of St. Scholastica economist Tony Barrett.

"It's a little worse than I expected when I hear that they're shutting down the whole mine for a while," Barrett said. "But it's not a surprise. And if anyone thought we might be able to dodge this recession like we did the last two national recessions, this is proof that we're not. This is going to be the start of a rough 2009."

U.S. Steel owns another of Minnesota's six taconite operations. Yesterday's annoucement did not mention production or employment cuts at U.S. Steel's MinnTac mining facility in Mountain Iron. MinnTac is Minnesota's largest taconite operation, employing about 1,200 people. But, U.S. Steel is shutting down two other facilities, one in Michigan and one in Missouri.
Broadcast Dates

* Morning Edition, 12/03/2008, 7:25 a.m.

Minnesotans get a political snow job

2008-12-14T22:16:00.002-06:00

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Angela Walker, Global Exchange, Alternetorg collude with corrupt Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party (MN DFL)

Every progressive in this country and around the world should be outraged with the lies being invented in order to try to disrupt the struggles of Minnesotans to save jobs.

We all know the Ford Motor Company is conspiring with some of the most crooked and corrupt real-estate speculators in demolishing the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

Since the 1948 expulsion of Communists from the leadership of UAW Local 879 this UAW Local has been nothing but a pit of corruption and sell-outs undermining the living standards of auto workers.

We should all remember the real history of UAW Local 879 and the members of the Communist Party USA who blazed the trail in securing the first contract at the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant. These Communists were the only union organizers UAW Local 879 ever had.

Maoist Lynne Hinkle worked with his Trotskyist friends to undermine the struggles of rank and file workers at the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant. They have worked together with this creep Roger TerVeen who now presides over the Local as President never consulting the rank and file on anything much less asking them if they want to fight to save their jobs.

Democratic State Senator James Metzen who employs a creepy conniving secretary Lisa Sarne who never returns phone calls for the purpose of taking minutes of his Senate Committee meetings that no one can understand helped undermine and defeat SF 607. So why does this Alternet published story circulate these lies?

Why didn't the author include an interview with Minnesota State Senator James Metzen?

Lynne Hinkle, a Maoist, has colluded with the anti-worker, anti-communists and the company for years leading the attack on the eight-hour day under the pretense of pushing "green." Hinkle's "green" has transformed into more money in the pockets of Ford management. In return, Hinkle has been rewarded with positions on state citizen committees while Ford workers suffer and lose their jobs.

Today speedup in the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Plant is unbearable. 900 workers are now producing more than 2,000 workers did just a couple years ago. This speedup is not even mentioned in this Alter.net article that Carl Davidson published on the "Progressives for Obama" blog knowing that the entire story was a pack of lies just like the lies the "Progressives for Obama" published about Barack Obama. Minnesotans don't need a snow-job from Global Exchange, Carl Davidson or Alter.net. We have politicians quite capable of deceit and disinformation on their own.

This "green" plan Hinkle has now come up with is only a diversion to enable the Ford Motor Company to demolish the plant.

If Hinkle was truly concerned with anything "green" he would have led the fight for public ownership of the hydro dam powering the Ford Plant for free all of these years.

Lynne Hinkle is scam artist just like Barack Obama which the corrupt, sell-out scoundrels in UAW Local 879 supported with a sign hidden in their Local's window.

Like the Republic Window and Doors plant in Chicago and the Maytag Plant before that Barack Obama has sold out workers at every opportunity never saying or doing anything aimed at saving plants and jobs.

How do you save jobs without saving the plants and the industries where people work.

Capitalism is one big cesspool of corruption and the time has come to get rid of the whole darn mess.

Add to this mess these two pimps for Zionism, Tom Hayden and Carl Davidson with their "Progressives for Obama."

A big thank you to Cassandra James and Alan Maki for exposing this fraud.

Rita

Saturday, December 13, 2008

All Alternet cares about is money; the facts mean nothing
This is the response received concerning the story that Alternet passed off about the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant:

Dear AlterNet Reader,

Thanks for your feedback.

We appreciate your input and applaud you for speaking up. Our
editorial staff reads every piece of feedback submitted -- every
single one. We do this because we sincerely appreciate your
contributions. Our readers are the reason we exist; over the
years, we have incorporated valuable reader suggestions and
comments into improving our organization.

However, as a non-profit organization operating on a tight
budget, we simply don't have the staffing capacity to respond to
every inquiry we receive. If you would like to support AlterNet
and help keep quality independent media available to the masses,
please consider visiting https://www.alternet.org/donate/ and
making a donation right now.

Thanks again for your feedback, and especially for your
commitment to being part of the independent media dialogue.

Sincerely,

The Editors
AlterNet.org

Posted by Alan L. Maki

Democratic Party front groups... the Party hacks heap lie upon lie

-----Original Message-----

From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]

Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 11:59 PM

To: 'cassandra.james@ymail.com'; 'kirsten@globalexchange.org'; 'angela@globalexchange.org'

Cc: 'sen.david.tomassoni@senate.mn'; 'Bill Hilty'; Dee DePass 'ddepass@startribune.com'; Benjamin Gross 'bgross8608@aol.com'; Carl Davidson 'CarlD717@aol.com'; Leo Gerard 'lgerard@usw.org'; Ron Gettelfinger 'rgettel@uaw.net'; Dick Long 'DLONG@uaw.net'; 'David Shove'; 'WCS-A@yahoogroups.com'; 'Lynn Hinkle'

Subject: re: lies and more lies about the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant

Cassandra,

Why Angela Walker and Global Exchange knowingly published all of these lies needs to be explained. Any legitimate reporter would have authenticated such an article and sought comments from Minnesota State Legislators.

It is interesting that Alternet allowed Global Exchange to peddle these lies without confirming anything in this wholly fabricated story; and then they used Progressives for Obama to do the rest of their dirty work and give these lies credibility… par for the course with Carl Davidson and Tom Hayden.

We obviously need to do some research to find out the extent to which Global Exchange and Alternet regularly publish these kinds of lies; who they get their money from etc.

I have posted this in the “contact us” at Alternet.

Thank you for bringing this article to my attention.

This is nothing but lies.

You can look for yourself on the Minnesota Legislature’s web site and you can see that there is no such activity as stated here around S.F. 607:

https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/getbill.php?session=ls84&number=SF607&version=list

I have also Cc’ed this article to Dee DePass a reporter who has previously written articles about the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant.

This is the same kind of crap and rumors floated in order to thwart opposition to demolishing the Oldsmobile Plant in Lansing, Michigan… again, in the same way Michigan Legislators remained silent as these kinds of rumors were floated. The politicians and big-business have honed and fine-tuned their lies using their front groups.

I have not been able to find one single presently employed member of this Local who knows anything about the Ford Local being in any kind of “coalition” as referred to.

If such a coalition has been formed it has been organized behind the backs of the membership.

No doubt you will be seeing this kind of thing in Detroit, too.

Hinkle and this group are promoting a “people’s ‘green’ capitalism.”
They know this will never fly but their intent is to do what these phony progressives are doing with all issues from ending the war to single-payer universal health care--- trying to thwart and derail any movements aimed at saving jobs and plants.

As far as the hydro dam everyone says it has been sold but neither Ford nor any government officials will provide the details of the sale.

These same politicians enabled Ford to get away without paying one single penny in property taxes for one of the parcels of land ever since Ford owned the property.

They run up phony schemes that sound good but they have no intent in fighting for making people think something good is in the works while the people in power are scamming behind everyone’s backs to do their dirty work.

Lynne Hinckle and UAW leaders have never organized workers anywhere… the present UAW local leadership dropped the ball on SF 607 as a means to save this plant and two-thousand jobs… they couldn’t even muster the support to push SF 607 through one lousy Senate committee that was dominated by Democrats.

The members of this local have never been consulted about this scheme.

The Democrats who make up this Senate Committee chaired by a banker, Jim Metzen, even colluded to make sure the minutes of the meeting were not kept properly.

As you can see, I have Cc’ed this to Minnesota State Senator David Tomassoni who is on this Senate Committee from which there has been no action on SF 607.

In fact, this property upon which is presently situated the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant is going to be turned into a money pit for money grubbing real-estate speculators with poverty wage jobs for workers.

St. Paul needs to protect the housing it already has which is being foreclosed on with families being evicted daily and the Minnesota Legislature is too cowardly to act to defend homeowners. Vacant foreclosed on homes are all over the city right now.
State legislators allowed United States Steel to close down an iron ore mine which is part of their taconite operation.

The only viable alternative to save auto and steel in this country is nationalization of the auto and steel industries and the Democrats are too cowardly to consider this option.

The only “green solution” being sought here is money green… it’s the only green that capitalists and their bought and paid for politicians know.

These people can “envision” all they want to but the only thing they are going to see in the days ahead is these Ford workers getting the shaft.

Now, it is up to David Tomassoni to either confirm the details in this article or to set the record straight.

Both Leo Gerard and Carl Pope are part of this corrupt fiasco, too.
Let us here from Senator David Tomassoni and State Representative Bill Hilty just what the Minnesota Legislature is considering, if anything, concerning the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant… they have an obligation and responsibility to set the record straight.

We see the exact same thing taking place with the anti-war movement and the movement for single-payer universal health care; the same method of operation took place around the impeachment issue, too. We run into the exact same thing with efforts to defend the Big Bog from peat mining.

I would also note that it is the responsibility of any union to struggle to save the jobs of its members not to push the demolition of the plant where they work.

To date, where ever these “green” schemes have been pushed workers end up with one-half to one-third of their former pay… just ask any steelworker who lost their job in the steel mills now building wind generating equipment.
Alan Maki

Option for Obama: Transforming Manufacturing Plants into Community-Saving Business Ventures

Photo: One of Ford’s Largest Plants

Our Future
Is With A New
Energy Economy

By Angela Walker

AlterNet.org

Nov. 12, 2008 - Hit hard by the slowdown in the marketplace and higher fuel prices, Ford Motor Company recently experienced its largest quarterly loss in its 105-year history. With people evacuating their fuel-inefficient vehicles, Ford is experiencing its delayed rude awakening about the unsustainability of an auto industry geared towards producing pickups and sport utility vehicles. Despite plans to introduce six small cars made in Europe to the U.S. market, Ford today announced another 10 percent reduction in salaried payroll costs and will cut as many as 2,200 salaried jobs by January.

Workers and Students Seeking Green Solutions

The oldest Ford plant still in operation — the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul, Minnesota — will be the epitome of the changes to come. With plans to shut down in 2011, an additional 900 jobs will be lost in a plant that used to employ 2,000 workers. Communities throughout the state have already experienced the brunt of the country’s economic downturn, Minnesota having lost 50,000 manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2006 alone, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

“We’re just hemorrhaging,” states former United Auto Worker (UAW) official, Lynn Hinkle, who retired over a year ago from a 30-year career at the Twin Cities Ford plant.

Yet something unusual is in the works that could change the future of this 140-acre manufacturing site and convert it into a model for green manufacturing.

A coalition of the local UAW 879, McAllister University students, and affordable housing and environmental groups have formed the Alliance to Reindustrialize for a Sustainable Economy (ARISE) to design a green manufacturing site. The ARISE project is currently being considered by the Minnesota Legislature under Senate File 607 as a way to transition workers into a mixed-use facility for green manufacturing.

ARISE is re-envisioning how people look at industry, which historically has collided with the environmental movement. Their reindustrialization plans serve as an opportunity for industry to play a key role in the green economy.

“It is becoming increasingly clear to people in the union movement that our job security is dependent upon the new energy economy,” states Hinkle. “If you’re about family sustaining jobs, you have to connect global warming solutions and jobs otherwise you’re going to have neither.”

Ford’s current training center would be converted into a green jobs training program for onsite wind turbine manufacturing and installation, and light rail car production. A plan to expand the light rail system is in the works to reach out to surrounding, traditionally low-income communities, which have been working with ARISE on the reindustrialization plans.

The Ford plant, located on the Mississippi River, is already connected to a hydroelectric system, which produces 18 megawatts of hydropower, and has powered the plant for over 80 years. Additionally, there exists a maze of tunnels onsite that were originally dug out for silica, used in making glass for windshields. These tunnels may be used for ground-source heating.

“We believe there’s enough green energy sources on site to go totally noncarbon,” says Hinkle.

With 140 acres, the coalition has the space to get creative with its envisioning and holistic approach. Businesses would be brought in to develop retail shops on the lower levels of buildings with affordable, residential units above. Walkways up and over the buildings would connect rooftop restaurants and bars to urban gardens with beautiful views of the Mississippi River. To connect the shops to the light rail, small electric vehicles would be produced onsite.

Throughout the last century, manufacturing jobs and industry have played a significant role in the growth of cities and development of communities by providing families with low entry-level jobs. Communities cannot afford to continue experiencing the off-shoring of their manufacturing jobs, especially during the current economic downturn. ARISE’s plan is to develop this site as a prototype for turning brown fields, or old industrial grounds, into green manufacturing sites to support green jobs and sustainable community development.

Student group Summer of Solutions — in partnership with economic justice organization, Global Exchange — sees the future of their generation invested in this project.

“If we’re going to build the green economy, we have to start here,” says McAllister graduate Joseph Adamji. “The green jobs movement and the whole idea of shifting and expanding economic opportunity are to make social changes happen. As much as this project is about the Ford site, we need to use it as a model for how we develop communities, intentionally and sustainably.”

City planners hope to see this space used as a central hub for sustainability projects for St. Paul and beyond.

“We could redevelop old manufacturing cities like Detroit and bring economic opportunities and prosperity,” states Adamji. “We’re trying to say that industry can play a role in the green economy.”

Decarbonize, reindustrialize, equalize, is what ARISE is saying. The new energy economy can be used to battle lagging economic opportunities and social inequity. ARISE hopes to inspire communities — from Flint, Michigan to Richmond, California — to decide how they want to develop a new sense of community. Reindustrialization can be part of this process by formulating ways to generate green energy, mass transit, higher density and energy efficient buildings, and affordable housing.

“This is an opportunity to change the landscape literally and figuratively,” says Hinkle. “What a great basis to rebuild the union movement. It’s an opportunity for the green union movement to emerge, where unions can stand center stage and create aspirations for our entire society.”

Angela Walker is the media director for Global Exchange.

© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/106425/

Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Human Rights and Racism in Minnesota

2008-12-10T18:25:00.002-06:00

One day of the year is Human Rights Day in Minnesota... the rest of the year is human rights abuse day for Native Americans by state and federal officials.

-----Original Message-----

From: Bill Hilty [mailto:Rep.Bill.Hilty@house.mn]

Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 4:34 PM

To: Alan Maki

Subject: Your msg: Big Bog State Rec Question

Alan,

The Big Bog State Recreation Area received $1,600,000 in the bonding bill this year (CH 179, Sec. 7, subdivision 23). The amount was for "improvements at the Big Bog State Recreation Area, including betterments to the contact station and forest restoration."

Let me know if you need anything else.

Rebekah Smith
Legislative Assistant

Request for further information and action---

Rebekah Smith and Representative Hilty;

Thank you for this information you have provided.

I write you today on the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights because the issue at hand is of great relevance to our celebrating this document as we work to assure its full and complete implementation.

I need not lecture you because you know and understand all to well the severe abuses of human rights First Nation Peoples have been subjected to... the issue of peat mining in the Big Bog is just one more in a long line of these human rights abuses which seems to be unending when it comes to the plight of First Nation peoples.

In fact, the human rights abuses faced by the peoples of the Red Lake Nation for centuries are well documented and if there is a text-book case to be made for the violation of the sovereign and human rights of a people it is the history of the shameful and despicable treatment of the people of the Red Lake Nation by the state and federal governments and a myriad of state agencies and bureaucracies not to mention the daily racist indignities the people of the Red Lake Nation are so often subjected to as they seek a better life and an improved standard of living.

Nor do I have to explain to you the complexities of a people striving to survive cooperatively as dog-eat-dog system of "free enterprise" thwarts and stymies all initiatives taken by the people of the Red Lake Nation to survive--- over the years, the people of the Red Lake Nation have endured insults from right-wing conservative politicians who view their sovereign nation derogatorily and derisively as "a welfare state," "a small socialist island in the north woods of Minnesota," and "America's little Cuba," etcetera--- depending on the mood of these racist bigots and to what self-serving political ends they can twist their bigoted musings and stupid racist mutterings.

The examples of Mr. Tony Cornish and Mr. Jim Abeler in the current period are only a few such examples of such backwards and racist thinking reaching into the Minnesota legislature. Of course, Mr. Abeler apologized; and Mr. Cornish never even has had the common human decency to apologize. Perhaps if the Indian Nations were represented in the Minnesota State Legislature and on Minnesota's Congressional delegation this racism and indifference to racism would be corrected. Shameful as it is that there is not one single Native American in the Minnesota State Legislature or among our Congressional delegation in spite of the large Native American population whose needs go unmet and unrepresented in spite of the existence of such atrocious problems and important documents like the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human calling for full representation and participation of all members of society.

I think you will agree with me that if Minnesota had just one single Native American sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature the permit to mine peat in the Big Bog which threatens the very existence and survival of the Red Lake Nation and its people would never have been issued; now would this racist boondoggle have ever seen the light of day.

More information is required; and I would like to advise you of a new dimension and concern regarding this project of peat mining in the Big Bog. As you are fully aware, the fate and the very existence of the Red Lake Nation and its people are intricately, inseparably connected, woven and tied together. The importance of this cannot be stressed enough. The United Nations has for a long time recognized the plight of peoples as connected to the ecosystems that support their continued existence as sovereign nations.

Today is the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Even a school child reading this Declaration and then learning of the "permitting process" authorizing this peat mining in the Big Bog can understand the flagrant and intentional violations of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights taking place here in North Minnesota.

We had a meeting in Red Lake last night, initiated by the people of Red Lake who are growing increasingly concerned that their tribal officials and state officials along with the Upper Red Lake "Friends of the Big Bog" and federal public officials and governmental agencies have excluded them from the decision-making process as to the future of the Big Bog which has been scientifically established in the most definitive scientific work on the Big Bog in the "Patterned Peat Lands of Minnesota" edited by Wright, et. al. and used in every college and university course on natural resource management contains an entire chapter on the relationship of the Big Bog to the very survival of the Red Lake Nation and its peoples.

To make matters worse, the letter you have seen allegedly authored by then Chairman Gerald "Butch" Brun, which I obtained from Pegg Julson--- then head of the MN DNR Littlefork Forestry Division (she was demoted for providing me a copy of this letter from Gerald "Butch" Brun; a letter I then publicly distributed--- a letter immediately and publicly repudiated by the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council after I gave the Council the letter which made the position of the Red Lake Nation very clear as stated through resolution and letter as being the exact same position as was articulated in the "Patterned Peat Lands of Minnesota" which used a statement from then Chairman of the Red Lake Nation, Roger Jourdain, who clearly and forcefully articulated this position on behalf of the Red Lake Nation for over fifty years which remains the guiding position to this very day.

A now retired Red Lake Tribal administrative bureaucrat who was part of the Administration of Gerald "Butch" Brun was at the meeting last night and speculated based on the fact he would have seen this letter had it gone through the proper channels as required by the Rules and Laws and Procedures of the Red Lake Nation and is very familiar with Gerald "Butch" Brun's handwriting, could not say for certain if the signature was the handwriting of Gerald "Butch" Brun. As you are aware, Chairman Gerald "Butch" Brun suffered a severe stroke during his brief tenure which could account for the handwriting ambiguity; however, as I have long thought based upon the reaction when I first confronted Chairman Brun in his Red Lake office concerning this "letter" and given his enraged denial in writing the letter... it is now speculated that another individual, namely Roger Head, may have written this letter and forged Chairman Brun's signature to it.

At this point, this is speculation as to what happened; however, given that ALL SCIENTIFIC DATA then, and presently available--- including ALL data from the Red Lake Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (which hid very important data that the Black River was already contaminated with mercury before the permit to authorize this peat mining was authorized; including concealing this fact during the EIS process)... but, most importantly, the people of the sovereign Red Lake Nation and their Tribal Government who have a long-standing opposition to peat mining in the Big Bog which is well documented and well known to every single politician in the State of Minnesota, they were not consulted with as required by state and federal laws or the intent of those laws; I am therefore, again, requesting that you broach this issue with the entire MN DFL Legislative caucus at the federal and state level--- both representatives and senators, and in light of the new concerns raised over the "letter" from Red Lake Nation Chairman Gerald "Butch" Brun which "dropped" Red Lake's historic opposition to peat mining in the Big Bog" which we ALL know was the ONLY reason this racist and environmentally destructive project was ever permitted in the first place.

Without this "letter" from Red Lake Nation Chairman Gerald "Butch" Brun this permit to mine peat in the Big Bog never would have been authorized; you know this; I know this; every single politician in this state knows this.

Someone in government, upon receiving this "letter" from Chairman Brun had a responsibility to go before the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council, the sovereign government of the sovereign Red Lake Nation; and knowing of this historic opposition should have asked what was going on.

In fact, everyone in government, instead of demonstrating a proper degree of concern and a questioning attitude, tried to hide and conceal this very important "letter."

Had it not been for the diligence of one single person employed in the bureaucracy of Minnesota government, namely, Pegg Julson--- who lost her job because she took her job and the responsibilities of her job seriously--- still today, we would never have known about the existence of this "letter" even though I requested this letter from United States Congressman James Oberstar, United States Congressman Colin Peterson, Gene Merriam who at the time was Commissioner of Natural Resources, the Koochiching County Commission and from Paul Nevanen, Director of KEDA, who we now know removed this "letter" , now allegedly, from Red Lake Nation Chairman Gerald "Butch" Brun from the file before providing me access to the casino and peat mining venture files... an illegal act on the part of KEDA Director Paul Nevanen which leads me to think he was probably mired in the scheme to embezzle public funds, too.

I am firmly convinced that the sloppy and shoddy record keeping systems of both the Koochiching County Board of Commissioners and the Koochiching Economic Development Authority are intended, not only to keep important records out of the hands of citizens so they can be an educated part of the decision-making process as called for by the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights; but, such shoddy record keeping is done in order to cover up embezzlement and other criminal wrong-doing.

It is frequently the case where attacks on democracy go hand-in-hand with governmental corruption... so frequent in fact that it is safe to say that corruption and anti-democratic measures are integrally fused and connected with the result ending up as a racist attack on people of color--- as is the case here.

To add to all of this, former Commissioner of the MN DNR--- Gene Merriam (a former state senator), to this very day--- denies ever authorizing this peat mining permit. Worse yet, he claims no knowledge of peat mining in the Big Bog even though the permit to mine this peat claims that he authorized it.

So, we have here on the one hand, a very suspect "letter" from a very important Tribal government official is now dead who, while living, became enraged when asked why he signed this "letter;" and, we have a still living former Commissioner of Natural Resources, Gene Merriam, who, according to this permit authorized it but steadfastly claiming any and all knowledge of anything to do with this peat mining and adamantly states he did not authorize the permit!

And, in face of these two very important facts, and entire state legislature and the governor are allowing peat mining in the Big Bog to proceed as if they are completely oblivious to the consequences.

This permit to mine peat in the Big Bog in the Pine Island State Forest to the huge Canadian multi-national corporation--- Berger, Ltd.--- should be immediately revoked; the sheer corruption this project is mired in requires no less; respect for the human rights of the people of the Red Lake Nation requires this revocation of the permit.

The terms of the permit are such, and specifically stated that the Minnesota Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources has the discretionary authority to revoke this permit up until the time the first building foundation has been poured.

I am requesting that you gather together legislators without haste to determine what needs to be done to right this grave injustice now rising to the level of violating the human rights of the people of the Red Lake Nation.

I am sure Minnesota legislators, federal and state, will now be hearing from the grassroots peoples of the Red Lake Nation in support of their Tribal Governments resolution to state and federal public officials and government agencies and bureaucracies.

The head of the MN DNR Little Fork Forestry office tells me that full-scale land clearing is to commence right now. This must be halted; the government officials at all levels responsible for the corrupt manner in orchestrating this dirty racist deed must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law with full restitution of all tax-payer expenditures and those funds from the taconite tax be fully repaid.

As you are aware, this peat mining was first conceived as a "deal" concocted behind closed doors as an "exchange" for the Red Lake Nation receiving favorable consideration for building and operating a casino in International Falls and Koochiching County being able to promote economic growth and jobs. No matter how this peat mining is viewed, from the perspective of those wanting to mine the peat to those who initially pushed the idea of a casino... both projects are now exposed as the fiasco they were right from the start... the casino deal has fallen through (for whatever reason--- ostensibly the overwhelming majority of the people of International Falls and Koochiching County are opposed to the casino while Red Lake the majority of the people of the Red Lake Nation and most all Minnesotans are opposed to this peat mining boondoggle proceeding in the Big Bog in the Pine Island State Forest.

Further, I remind you that tax-payers and the taconite tax fund have been swindled out of hundreds of thousands of dollars--- many of those dollars attached to this peat mining project--- in the now fully exposed theft of public funds through the Koochiching Economic Development Authority by one Brenda Long. I would point out the Director of the KEDA systematically fought all of my requests to examine KEDA documents pertaining to this peat mining for casino venture.

Had I been allowed to examine these documents as requested, including requests made through the Data Practices Act and FOIA, hundreds of thousands of tax-payer dollars and taconite tax funds could have been saved and used for real socially needed and necessary programs and projects including alleviating the deplorable poverty of people living on the Red Lake Nation Reservation.

To think that what is perhaps a continuing multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme was going on, undetected, almost from the very beginning of this peat mining for casino project when I first sought access to these files until the permit to mine peat was authorized is nothing short of deplorable and shameful.

In denying citizens access to important information required to oppose the permitting process--- including access to the letter allegedly submitted by Red Lake Nation Chairman Gerald Butch Brun and the finances of this project. I would further note, that even after I won the right to access to KEDA files, Director Nevanen withdrew the Brun "letter" and financial information from KEDA files and the Secretary of the Koochiching County Board in complete complicity with all members of the County Board with-held this information from me and added further to the complexities of this case as they brought in the office of the Koochiching County Sheriff to threaten me with arrest as I attempted to deliver a written request for these records under the Data Practices Act and the FOIA.

(And it was not just I be denied this important public information, because, as you are fully aware, I shared all information on this dirty racist deal with everyone in a way that has empowered them to fully participate in the decision-making process--- something state legislators should have been doing in accordance with the fiduciary responsibility that comes along with being elected to serve the people. Just as I shared this information you provided with people already at Red Lake and beyond.)

I don't think you will find anyone who really believes that the Koochiching Economic Development Authority's Brenda Long acted alone in swindling tax-payers and the taconite-tax fund in this embezzlement scheme. It was only she and Director Paul Nevanen working in the small two-person operation in a very small two-room office where anyone with the least little bit of business acumen and basic understanding of accounting practices with a third grader's knowledge of addition and subtraction concerning a mere handful of transactions would have, and should have, been able to stop this criminal embezzlement scheme for which tax-payers and the taconite-tax fund have not, and probably never will be, reimbursed.

In addition, I call to your attention the fact that at one point, in the records of KEDA (from the minutes as recorded by none other than swindler and embezzler extraordinaire Brenda Long), these perpetrators of this very racist peat mining for casino scheme lament the fact that "only" $350,000.00 dollars was spent on one of the infra-structure projects on initial upgrading on the road to the peat mining site and that they had another $150,000.00 to spend out of the $500,000.00 allocation for straightening out a few curves in a gravel road and even after the straightening of the curves took place and the "improvements were completed per the requirements of the Koochiching County Engineer, further work was supposedly done on these curves to spend the rest of the allocation!

And we wonder why Minnesota is in debt up to its eye-balls to the tune of billions of dollars! With swindlers and embezzlers like Brenda Long having access to public funds it is no wonder no one can come up with a full accounting of our State's real debt.

Again, I implore you to step in and put an end to what can only be described as a racist boondoggle and a fiasco financed unwittingly by Minnesota and federal tax-payers.

I would also call to your attention the United States Congressman James Oberstar is denying his involvement in this racist peat mining boondoggle even though the head of the United States Army Corps of Engineers in St. Paul, Mr. Robert Whiting, will tell you he authorized this permit to mine peat only as a result of "congressional arm twisting." Robert Whiting identifies Congressman James Oberstar as the "congressional arm twister."

I need not remind you of the pernicious and racist role of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vis-à-vis their activities regarding Red Lake and the Red Lake Nation and the associated ecosystems over many decades; the environmental damage the done by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to this important ecosystem is well documented on their own web site and tax-payers are now footing the bill to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to remedy the destruction to an ecosystem which was being protected well by the people of the Red Lake Nation until U.S Army Corps of Engineer intervention... this, coupled with the depletion of walleye and other fish stocks and now the massive timber harvests laying vast areas of the Red Lake Nation to waste as corporations plunder in quest of greater profits while Red Lake's schools deteriorate, the housing question persists, people cannot afford to heat their homes and joblessness on this reservation is a complete disgrace as drug pushing and casinos create problems... it is with this entire scenario in mind that it is on this day in which we exhorted to foster the goals of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that I implore you, once again, to do something to get this permit to mine peat revoked by discussing this issue with your colleagues, who, on this issue the MN DFL should be in complete control as far as getting the permit to mine peat revoked, if not permanently, than at least on a temporary basis until all of this can be examined fully with proper input from the people of the Red Lake Nation... respect for human rights, and the dignity of the people of the Red Lake Nation and their future existence requires no less.

Again, if you could provide me with the complete expenditure allocated by the State of Minnesota for the establishment of the Big Bog State Park, the Big Bog Beach and the Big Bog Interpretive Center including the Boardwalk, this would be appreciated; including all pertinent legislative actions by name and statute number.

We really need to know the complete expenditures made by the tax-payers of Minnesota for the complete project because this project has been carried out with the stated intended purpose of educating the public on the need to protect the Big Bog and, supposedly, to educate Minnesotans and visitors to our state on the importance of the people of the Red Lake Nation in protecting the Big Bog for centuries and the importance of the Big Bog to the continued existence of the Red Lake Nation and its people. An interconnection established and confirmed by the people of the Red Lake Nation and confirmed by scientists at every level of governmental bureaucracy then rejected for political expediency serving corporate interests.

Once again we see the threats to democracy when the Minnesota Legislature sits in silence and turns a blind eye to this kind of racist injustice embodied in this peat mining for casino venture. Everyone loses except the Canadian corporation which will truck away the profits compliments of Minnesota and federal tax-payers.

Please confirm that you have received this e-mail.

Again, thanking you for your assistance in this matter;

Sincerely,

Alan L. Maki
Writing on behalf of "Save Our Bog"

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541

Workers Occupy Factory in struggle for their rights

2008-12-06T11:31:00.000-06:00

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Workers Occupy Factory in struggle for their rights

"Republic Windows and Doors workers require the support of all working people. They fight for our rights as they fight for their own rights."

Maggie Bird
President,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Workers Occupy Factory

Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2008

Incidences similar to this may soon be taking place across the United States. Seize the day, seize the hour, seize the means of production.

The workers of Republic Windows and Doors are right this minute occupying their factory, which was due to close at 10:00 AM this morning. The workers are fighting for pay for their lost vacation days and for the 75 days notice that they are guaranteed under Illinois law. This is the first time in many years workers have taken the bold, militant strategy of occupying their place of work to demand justice. The plan to occupy the plant until the hear the results of the next round of negotiations Monday afternoon. THEY NEED TO KNOW THEY HAVE OUR SUPPORT!!!

A rally has been planned for 12:00 Noon tomorrow.

Please attend.

BUT WE SHOULD ORGANIZE A CONSTANT PRESENCE OF COMMUNITY MEMBERS PICKETING OUTSIDE THE FACTORY! BRING FOOD AND COFFEE FOR THE WORKERS. It is our presence and the press that is the workers best defense against the police raiding the factory.

These workers are fighting for all of us!!! As the economic crisis deepens we need to launch a working class fight back.

These workers are the starting point and deserve our full support.

Go to…

Republic Windows & Doors
1333 N. Hickory
On Goose Island, near the intersection of Division & Clyborn

Chicago factory occupied

December 6, 2008

WORKERS OCCUPYING the Republic Windows & Doors factory slated for closure are vowing to remain in the Chicago plant until they win the $1.5 million in severance and vacation pay owed them by management.

In a tactic rarely used in the U.S. since the labor struggles of the 1930s, the workers, members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1110, refused to leave the plant on December 5, its last scheduled day of operation.

"We decided to do it because this is money that belongs to us," said Maria Roman, who's worked at the plant for eight years. "These are our rights."

Word of the occupation spread quickly both among labor and immigrant rights activists--the overwhelming majority of the workers are Latinos. Seven local TV news stations showed up to do interviews and live reports, and a steady stream of activists arrived to bring donations of food and money and to plan solidarity actions.

Management claims that it can't continue operations because its main creditor, Bank of America (BoA), refuses to make any more loans to the company. After workers picketed BoA headquarters December 3, bank officials agreed to sit down with Republic management and UE to discuss the matter at a December 5 meeting arranged by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill), said UE organizer Leah Fried.

BoA had said that it couldn't discuss the matter with the union directly without written approval from Republic's management. But Republic representatives failed to show up at the meeting, and plant managers prepared to close the doors for good--violating the federal WARN Act that requires 60 days notice of a plant closure.

The workers decided this couldn't go unchallenged. "The company and Bank of America are throwing the ball to one another, and we're in the middle," said Vicente Rangel, a shop steward and former vice president of Local 1110.

Many workers had suspected the company was planning to go out of business--and perhaps restart operations elsewhere. Several said managers had removed both production and office equipment in recent days.

Furthermore, while inventory records indicated there were plenty of parts in the plant, workers on the production line found shortages. And the order books, while certainly down from the peak years of the housing boom, didn't square with management's claims of a total collapse. "Where did all those windows go?" one worker asked.

Workers were especially outraged that Bank of America, which recently received a bailout in taxpayer money, won't provide credit to Republic. "They get $25 billion from the government, and won't loan a few million to this company so workers can keep their jobs?" said Ricardo Caceres, who has worked at the plant for six years.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE MEMBERS of Local 1110 have a history of struggle. In 2004, they decertified the Central States Joint Board--a union notorious for corruption and sweetheart contracts with management--and brought in UE, a far more democratic organization.

In May of this year, Local 1110 mobilized for a contract by organizing a "practice" picket, and 70 workers used their lunch break to confront the boss with a petition listing their demands. The workers were able to turn back company's effort to win major concessions and won solid pay increases.Now, management is trying to get revenge by pocketing money that belongs to the workers.

UE officials and workers acknowledge that it will be difficult to stop the plant from closing. But they're determined to get the money owed to them--and they believe that by fighting, they can set an example for other workers facing layoffs and plant closures as the recession deepens.

Negotiations are set for Monday, December 8. Whatever happens, however, the workers have already sent a message to employers that if they violate workers rights and the law, they can expect a fight.

"This is a message to the workers of America," said Vicente Rangel, the shop steward. "If we stand together, we will prevail until justice is done, and we get what we're due."

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

What you can do

If you live in the Chicago area, come to a rally on Saturday, December 6, at 12 Noon at Republic Windows, 1333 N. Hickory in Chicago, on Goose Island.

If negotiations with Bank of America fail to resolve the issue, there will be a picket of BoA's Chicago headquarters at 231 S. LaSalle on Tuesday, December 9 at 12 noon.

Members of Local 1110 need your support.

Make checks payable to the UE Local 1110 Solidarity Fund, and mail to:
37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607.

Messages of support can be sent to leahfried@gmail.com.

For more information, call UE at 312-829-8300.

At the Jobs with Justice Web site, you can send a message of protest to Bank of America (http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica/).

Maki says, "DEBT IS POVERTY!" and we agree

2008-11-17T13:16:00.002-06:00

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008114616/prepare-great-battle-2009#comment-9452

Before I go any further, I want to say something to my progressive friends on the left, and those more liberal than left, who were so adamant that we should all fall in line and give our uncritical support to Obama; and then go on to say in the face of Obama lining up what is obviously a pro-war, anti-democratic, anti-labor cabinet completely complicit in the repressive measures we have seen ranging from taking away signs from those attending Obama campaign rallies saying, “End the wars now!” to “We want health care not war fare; single-payer universal health care now” to remaining silent as black-suited police riot squads attacked people peacefully demonstrating their concerns during both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions:

Where are you now when things like this are being published? What has happened to your voices now that you know the economic facts were intentionally skewed and hidden from the American people and we were lied to about the economy by Obama and the Democrats the same way Bush lied about the wars? You must take us all for complete fools when you sing “Give Obama a chance.” What has happened to the great progressive sea-change of epic historical proportions? Where is that fight-back you promised? What has happened to the struggle for peace and social and economic justice you promised to participate in “after Obama gets elected?”

Where are your voices in response to these kinds of things being dished out not by the day, but by the minute from those who will do and say anything to save the Democratic Party from a real working class led challenge.

In not responding to these pieces you obviously have given up any hope for real progressive reforms like single-payer universal health care.

You wrote so eloquently and passionately condemning those of us who wanted no part of your Obama campaign; now you remain silent as these capitalist sooth-Sayers ply their trade, again, under the guise of “liberalism,” “progressivism” and even “socialism.”

Where are the Tom Hayden’s, the Carl Davidson’s the Eric Mann’s now that their voices are really needed in defense of working class interests. Where is that big-mouth labor leader Leo Gerard who boasted that he got ten-thousand steel workers out for Obama.

We know where Ron Gettelfinger is, holding up the dumb donkey’s tail begging for the sparrows to leave something behind for auto workers.

Just like these people always do, talk big and run for cover when their voices are needed.

Just a few days ago Leo Gerard wrote to Obama, “We are with you.” What did Leo Gerard mean, that he was with Obama in driving down the standard of living for the entire working class because if Obama gets away with these trillion dollar schemes, working people in the United States will be no better off than any poverty wracked country in Asia, Africa or Latin America.

DEBT IS POVERTY!

After I posted the response to this guy (see very bottom), I started thinking and I couldn’t help but add this:

I can't help but add this...

By Alan Maki | November 17th, 2008 - 1:25pm GMT

You know, you people who boosted Obama act like you didn't know how bad the economy was or where it was headed.

If you really didn't know, why should anyone take your advice now?

The capitalists have become rich by creating all these problems as a result of stealing the wealth created by the working class… leaving working people with nothing but poverty and a mess to clean up.

And now you have the unmitigated gall to suggest that we should give up our future, the future's of our children and probably our great grand children to save this rotten capitalist system.

Barack Obama should have considered being more honest with the American people with where this economy was at while campaigning.

On numerous occasions he was asked how he was going to pay for that pitiful little social programs he advocated with the economy going belly-up.

At no time did Obama nor any of you who so enthusiastically supported him bother to inform the American people how bad the economy was... instead, you chose to plug along talking about what a great progressive "sea-change" was at hand.

And now we find that the only thing Obama is going to do is try to save this rotten capitalist system.

It looks to me like you and Obama have used up whatever goodwill and trust you gained by deceiving the American people as you have.

If Obama did not know the seriousness of the problems he should resign right now because he obviously isn't going to know what to do as far as solving the problems in the interest of working people he claimed to represent.

The Great Battle of 2009

Campaign for America’s Future STAFF

By Bernie Horn

November 16th, 2008 - 11:13pm ET

What will be the top priority for the Obama administration at the beginning of 2009? Enacting health care for all? Pursuing energy independence? Rewriting NAFTA?

None of those (I’m sorry to report).

The great opening battle—the one we absolutely have to win—is enactment of an economic recovery program of unprecedented size and scope. Without this, our economy will fall into a deep recession, putting all of our progressive goals in serious jeopardy.

This week's lame-duck Congress will do little or nothing to address the problem. January will find us facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Unemployment, foreclosures and bank failures are already going through the roof. The stock market, home values and consumer confidence are already going through the floor. And things will get worse.

Here’s the politically painful truth: The only way to save our economy is to commence a massive increase in federal spending—requiring as much as $1 trillion in deficit spending over the next two years.

Leading economists like Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, Dean Baker—and even the great majority of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal—know that economic recovery will be expensive. But Americans don’t even know this issue is coming because it went unmentioned during the election campaign. That’s a political problem because deficit spending is widely unpopular.

Americans assume that deficits are bad and balanced budgets are good. One post-election poll found that 61 percent say “reducing the federal budget deficit” should be a “top priority” for the new president, and another 31 percent say it should be “important.” But in a severe recession, that’s bad economic policy. In fact, trying to balance the budget during a recession is the recipe for depression—it was Herbert Hoover’s recipe, to be precise.

Put in the context of economic recovery, Americans remain sharply divided about federal spending. A post-election poll sponsored by Campaign for America’s Future asked voters if they were “more worried that we will fail to make the investments we need to create jobs and strengthen the economy” or “more worried that we will go too far in increasing government spending and will end up raising taxes to pay for it.” The first statement won agreement from 49 percent; 48 percent agreed with the second. So progressives have work to do.

How do we begin to prepare Americans to support us in the coming battle?

First, keep up a steady drumbeat for an Obama “economic recovery program.” The same CAF poll found that most voters support the general idea.

Second, explain that the recovery program will help “make health insurance affordable and accessible to all Americans,” “end dependence on foreign oil,” and “make job-creating investments in America’s aging roads and transportation systems”—specific goals that are widely popular.

Third, don’t accept the argument that our economic recovery plan is too costly. Even if we spend $500 billion per year, it will still be far less than the cost of letting the U.S. economy plummet into a years-long, severe recession.

Finally, explain to people worried about the politics that while “deficit spending” is unpopular, it’s not a make-or-break voting issue. Voters didn’t punish Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush for their massive deficit spending, and voters didn’t reward Al Gore for the Clinton-Gore Administration’s success in balancing the federal budget.

Bottom line: Barack Obama needs your help. If progressives spend the next nine weeks building support for a robust economic recovery plan, the next president will have a much easier time enacting his top priority legislation.

Tomorrow, the Campaign for America's Future will kick off the conversation with a conference on "Real Investment in America" at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. For more about economic recovery and public investments, see our new Institute for America's Future economy webpage.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The writer is a Senior Fellow at Campaign for America’s Future and author of the recent book, Framing the Future: How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People.

Get real...

By Alan Maki | November 17th, 2008 - 12:46pm GMT

You write:

"Here’s the politically painful truth: The only way to save our economy is to commence a massive increase in federal spending—requiring as much as $1 trillion in deficit spending over the next two years."

First of all federal spending on "bailouts" to Wall Street bankers, coupon clippers and the Big Three is only going to make matters worse.

Who do you propose giving this government dole to?

Do you read the newspapers?

Today the headlines blare out at us:

"This is not your 'garden variety' downturn."

We are in the throes of a classic capitalist depression and "overproduction" is the culprit. This means economic depression has struck because workers cannot purchase back what they have produced because they have no purchasing power.

If you deny this is the case, then prove it.

Where are your proposed trillions of dollars going to come from?

Where are those trillions of dollars going to go?

You are assuming, like Barack Obama, that an economic philosophy has failed when it is the capitalist economic system that has failed.

Getting a trillion dollars (your figure) into the hands of working people to spend will require tax-payers putting up well over 6 trillion dollars because Wall Street coupon clippers skim the cream right off the top everytime this is tried.

Spending in this senseless way pushed the U.S. economy to the verge of a never-ending depression just before World War Two began. If not for the buildup to war we would still be mired in an economic depression and poverty just like most of the rest of the world.

And now you are proposing the exact same failed policy, eighty years later.

We need massive redistribution of wealth in this country and we need it fast. This is the only thing that is going to prevent massive human misery.

Rather than spending enormous sums as you propose... Obama should be looking at doing just the opposite of your "maximum deficit spending."

The first thing should be a drastic increase in the minimum wage to a real living wage. Raise the minimum wage so high it makes these Wall Street pigs squeal.

Raise Social Security three-fold to where it should be... we can pay this fund back as we reclaim our stolen wealth that has found its way into bank accounts in the Cayman Islands.

Implement socialized health care; forget about all other health care reforms... this puts trillions of dollars into the hands of working people almost overnite... real purchasing power.

Tax the hell out of business and let them cry.

In combination, begin the most massive infrastructure maintainance and rebuilding in world history... do it through the federal government public works program by-passing the private contractors who have been feeding at the public trough just like the Wall Street bankers and the greedy military-financial-industrial complex.

This is where the remaining "bailout" funds should be invested, in your proposed public works projects.

An emergency measure: Forgive all student debt... again, this frees up billions without having to go to the tax-payers.

We need to do everything possible to undermine the capitalist economy including letting the banks fail and pave the way for socialism so that we never again end up with this kind of mess.

Two massive capitalist depressions in the 1800's; one big one in the 1900's; now the grand-daddy of them all and you want to shore up a system that has been breeding this kind of massive human misery? And we haven't even considered the long-term, never-ending poverty of most of the rest of the world!

Stop these senseless wars for oil and dope and invest those funds in the kinds of social programs required to provide working people with the kind of decent life they are entitled to for having created such tremendous wealth now being squandered by a bunch of dumb clucks and being turned over to another bunch of dumb donkeys.

Forget about capitalist economics, forget about "free enterprise;" just do what is required for working people to live decent lives free from poverty for a change.

Give socialism the chance to see what it can do; capitalism has failed.

Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

U.S. Chamber of Commerce vows to work with Obama

2008-11-05T12:35:00.001-06:00

No doubt profits are the one and only concern:

Chamber vows to work with Obama
Published: Nov. 4, 2008 at 11:53

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced quickly Tuesday night it would work with President-elect Barack Obama on the economy.

The chamber also pledged to work with the new Congress, where Democrats scored big majorities in the House and Senate.

The pledges of cooperation were a quick turnaround from the chamber's activities during the campaign. The chamber raised money to oppose Democratic candidates and reported deploying nearly 600 staffers to key states, spending millions of dollars on ads, sending 15 million e-mails and 6.5 million pieces of mail, and making more than 6 million phone calls.

"Restoring the nation's economic health must be our top priority," U.S. Chamber President Thomas J. Donohue said in a statement. "Any successful and sustainable recovery will involve the business sector, which creates the jobs, the growth and the revenues on which all Americans and our government depend. The U.S. Chamber stands ready to work with the new administration and Congress on measures to spur growth and jobs by restoring credit and confidence throughout the economy, producing more American energy, rebuilding our infrastructure, and reforming our schools."

Donohue said the chamber wants to play a helpful role in the transition process.

"We will offer our policy ideas, access to our many domestic and international experts, and views on key appointees," he said.

Middle-Class Muddle

2008-10-30T14:19:00.001-05:00

My response to this is at the bottom.

You know, there is so much gushing going on over Obama it makes me sick. I can understand people not wanting to see John McCain get elected. But, for those proclaiming themselves to be liberal and progressive to so thoroughly distort--- and convincingly, continuingly, and intentionally distort--- where Obama stands on the issues is nothing short of dishonest. To me it is just as deceitful as the reasons George Bush provided in going to war in Iraq.

This anything goes just to get Obama elected is the absolute bottom of the garbage can down among the maggots as far as I am concerned especially when it comes from outfits like the Campaign for America’s Future and the AFL-CIO who, together with about thirty of their “coalition partners” put forward a “program” in opposition to the bailout but then kept on spending and spending on Obama’s campaign to the tune of some 160 million dollars while not providing one single penny for implementing a grassroots and rank and file fight-back around their program which now just sits there hidden away in some archives on the Internet except for when one of these groups or their “coalition partners” drag it out to say, “Look we have a response to Bush.” Well, why haven’t they asked Obama to respond since he, not Bush, is going to be the next President?

In fact, the reason for this complete dishonesty is that the Democratic Party hacks have seen up close what is taking place in this country--- millions of working people no longer are buying what Obama and the Democrats are selling in their infomercials.

I also hope you will check out another discussion taking place on the Campaign for America’s Future web site… the one on health care I have highlighted; just click on the topic: How Universal Health Care Changes Everything
Alan Maki

Joel Kotkin's Middle-Class Muddle

By Amy Traub

October 29th, 2008 - 11:48am ET

October 28, 2008

by OurFuture.org Staff

October 30, 2008

When Alan Greenspan admits free market ideology is flawed, you know conservative thought is up a creek.

But never fear: if conservative economic ideas have been discredited, the Right can still distort progressive ones.

Joel Kotkin’s recent article in Politico is a prime example of such misinformation. Kotkin recognizes that economic polarization has put the future of the nation’s middle class at risk. He doesn’t appear impressed by McCain’s warmed-over tax-cuts-cure-all dogma. But he isn’t willing to honestly assess Obama’s plans. Instead, Kotkin chooses to focus exclusively on Obama’s agenda for short-term economic rescue, which he discovers doesn’t adequately address the long-term problems of inequality and a faltering middle class. This disingenuous look at “recent proposals” conveniently overlooks the candidate’s larger agenda – including policies with real potential to strengthen and expand America’s middle class over time. But since Obama didn’t discover the middle-class squeeze just last week, his plans to address it aren’t part of Kotkin’s roundup of what’s been happening lately.

Kotkin’s instance on manufacturing political fault lines in absurd places (Al Gore is against infrastructure?) and implying cynical political payoffs behind every policy initiative suggest that he is not genuinely interested in Obama’s long-term plans to bolster the middle class. But the rest of us should be. And there’s plenty there.

Kotkin’s refusal to look at the big picture blinds him to Obama’s health care plan, for example, which would extend coverage to 34 million Americans while lowering costs for millions more. While the Obama health care plan is far from perfect, his proposed reforms would nevertheless reduce a major cause of strain and instability for middle-class families struggling to afford sky-high premiums, deductibles, and co-pays, or even purchase coverage at all. In short, they’d be a major step toward strengthening the middle class.

Creating middle-class is jobs is critical, Kotkin agrees. But he proceeds to overlook both Obama’s short-term Jobs and Growth Fund that would put Americans to work immediately building needed infrastructure projects and the candidate’s longer term plan to invest in green jobs that would help to foster an entirely new sector of the U.S. economy.

Kotkin complains that Obama’s tax cuts don’t create upward mobility, and when it comes to many of the tax plans, he’s right. But Kotkin must have missed the memo about the overwhelming bipartisan, cross-ideological consensus that the Earned Income Tax Credit lifts millions of working Americans out of poverty. And it leaves us with the question: what does create upward mobility? After all, Kotkin denounces Obama’s support for education as nothing more than a sop to the liberal professoriate. And Kotkin neglects to even mention the Employee Free Choice Act which would make it easier for working people to join unions – another proven route to earning middle-class wages and benefits. While our critic would no doubt find it easy to uncover a political payoff in Obama’s support for this measure, the truth is it has tremendous potential to grow the middle class by enabling working Americans to improve their own jobs.

Obama has endorsed policies to help middle-class families cope with income and job loss when they take time off to care for a new baby or a sick relative. He has crafted plans to help middle-class families hold on to their single greatest asset – their homes. And he has thought out proposals to improve middle-class retirement security. Kotkin’s cheap shots do justice to none of this and prevent us from evaluating policies that could genuinely address the future of the American middle class.

The middle class squeeze...

By Alan Maki | October 30th, 2008 - 9:50am GMT

I can appreciate that the middle class is being squeezed; but, what about the working class being squished?

Obama talks, "middle class, middle class, middle class" as if there is no working class.

This is an important distinction because when Obama talks about "tax-cuts for the middle class," this leaves out millions of working class people who are so poor they don't even have to pay taxes. I hope you will give this some thought because in just the one industry where I represent workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry, most of these workers are so poor because they receive such miserly wages they don't pay any taxes as it is and no matter how big of a "tax cut" Obama provides for education or health care or anything else it is not going to do these working class people any good.

This is why our Organizing Committees working through the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council are supporting "universal" reforms which provide social programs for EVERYONE.

Health care: we are for single-payer universal health care as a step towards socialized health care.

The minimum wage: we are for a universal minimum wage legislatively established to correspond to cost of living factors--- ALL COST OF LIVING FACTORS--- including the cost of higher education.

It is the epitome of arrogance to continue talking about "middle class tax-cuts here and protecting middle class incomes there" when everyone knows that a huge segment of the working class is living in poverty with all the personal and social ills that accompany this poverty.

We all know why Barack Obama has chosen to harp on the "middle class;" he is already being attacked by McCain and Palin for being a socialist and an advocate of income distribution. Others on the right are attacking Obama as a Marxist and a Communist.

Obama has turned these attacks into a joke when it is not the viciousness of the attacks that need to be responded to but a defense of working people to live in dignity free from poverty.

And I couldn't care less what the right-wing has to say or what the right-wing calls what needs to be done.

We need to implement those social programs that will enable all working people to live lives free from poverty. Now if this means a real living minimum wage, so be it... the employers are going to have to shell out or do the work themselves. If this means funding social programs to compensate for a lack of an adequate minimum wage, so be it.

The wealth of this country has been created by working people and in the wealthiest country in the world, workers should at least be able to live free of poverty with access to everything from adequate housing to food to health care and a higher education.

The middle class is already doing fairly well I would say--- as far as having achieved more than adequate incomes; not that I begrudge them the right to do even better so they can own a million dollar home rather than a 650-thousand dollar home, take two trips to the Caribbean Islands every year--- one to deposit their money in off-shore bank accounts and one to soak up the sun, go to Las Vegas three times a year instead of twice and spend three days at the golf course instead of two. No doubt Obama's program offers the middle class a great deal.

However, in offering the middle class something in return for their votes, Obama is ignoring the plight of the working class, and most shamefully, is ignoring the plight of the poorest of the poor whose poverty will increase with every middle class tax break.

I say first things first and the middle class has a responsibility to join with the working class in raising the standard of living of working people first.

Yes, it is true that some "middle income" working class people might find some benefit in Obama's programs; but, given the closings of mines, mills and factories in this country coupled with the cuts in public services "middle income" wage earners are fast disappearing in our country and Obama has not put forward one single solution for the problem of mines, mills and plant closings.

His "green economy" will offer many workers previously employed in "middle income" paying jobs... poverty jobs. The proof is in the pudding as they say.

We see previously employed workers from the steel mills who were making upwards of fifty-thousand dollars a year now working in the wind generating industry for eleven, twelve, thirteen dollars an hour while those previously employed on the Iron Range in the taconite industry going to work in casinos for seven and eight dollars an hour... you do the math... millions of workers have gone from "middle income" wage earners to living in poverty.

The intent to create poverty wage jobs is nothing to be boasting about.

Barack Obama jokes about McCain calling him a socialist and ridicules those calling him a communist as he clings to defending the "middle class" while failing to advocate for the kind of universal solutions to the problems being experienced by the working class.

And let me tell you a little something that you obviously do not know about this "Employee Free Choice Act," which Democrats are touting. John Edwards was the great protagonist of the "Employee Free Choice Act" until he was caught with his pants down and his heroic defense of working America came to an abrupt end. But, this "Employee Free Choice Act" isn't what it is cracked up to be simply because in the twenty-eight states have "at-will hiring; at-will firing" legislation, for working people trying to organize, the "Employee Free Choice Act" will mean absolutely nothing. But then again, this is something those making appeals to the "middle class" do not understand. But, understand this: As long as "at-will hiring; at-will firing" legislation remains on the books in twenty-eight states--- including states like Minnesota and Michigan--- your argument that the "Employee Free Choice Act" will in any way contribute towards eliminating poverty among the working class is shot right to hell.

My conclusion is this, which is--- obviously--- at odds with yours, is that too many middle class people are sticking their noses into this campaign who know nothing about working class problems and the shame of it is, you have turned even politics into no more than a middle class game where the only object is to win... when the power to do what is right is conceded to big business and the Wall Street bankers and coupon clippers and in the process of ignoring the plight of the working class, the middle class will suffer, too--- just look at your 401k's.

I had $289.00 in my 401k; now I have $202.00... how is your middle class 401k doing?

One final comment about Alan Greenspan's "free market ideology" being flawed. This is also a nice middle class perspective that if we just change the thinking, provide a regulation here and some oversight there the system--- capitalism--- will work just fine--- maybe capitalism will work just fine for the middle class with a little tweak here and a little tweak there. But, most working class people think the entire system is rotten to the core. If you don't believe me just ask any of the millions out of work, the millions "living" on poverty wages or the millions being foreclosed on and evicted from their homes or the millions more without health care whose children will have about as much opportunity to get a college education as they will have to get heart surgery when their arteries clog up from working in smoke-filled casinos without any rights.

I know all of this is too much for you and Barack Obama to understand; this is why I voted early for Cynthia McKinney... at least when she visited the Twin Cities here in Minnesota, one of the first stops she made was to talk with workers at the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant slated to close and put another two-thousand workers out on the streets. Obama has come to Minnesota and never had the decency to mention the Ford Plant closing out of fear someone might have asked him what he would do to keep the plant open. Cynthia McKinney came with an idea--- bring the plant under public ownership with worker and community control.

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Detroit labor legend reflects on possibly electing first Black president

2008-10-25T21:11:00.002-05:00

Author: Pepe Lozano

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 10/24/08 16:51

Dave Moore DETROIT, Mich. — These days, as millions nationwide work to elect the first African American president, 96-year-old Dave Moore, longtime labor and community leader, wonders if it’s all just a dream.

“I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I’ve been Black all my life, and sometimes I don’t know if I’m dreaming,” Moore told the World. He said he was “blown away” at how many white votes Barack Obama won during the primaries and the impressive display of thousands of white voters at Obama rallies across the country.

“When I wake up the next day after the election and Obama wins, then I will know that this country has begun to take a turn for the better,” said Moore.

Born April 6, 1912, as a teenager Moore left what he calls the “slave state of South Carolina” with his family and moved to Detroit. New to the big city, he says he had never seen so many people before hustling and bustling about.

Moore recalls joining a community water polo team as a youth on the city’s East Side, at a time when “colored” and “white” signs were common. His team made it to the finals and traveled across town to a park in a predominantly white area to face an all-white team. Although the park required segregated seating, Moore said the players ignored the rule and sat where they wanted because the mayor of Detroit had declared the city’s public areas open to all. “And we won the city championship,” Moore said proudly.

Moore remembers the Great Depression of the 1930s when people had little food and ate rotten vegetables and fruits to get by. “And we didn’t have heat in the winter so we would use wood from the porch out front to stay warm,” he said. People at that time lived through “hardships, suffering, pain and agony while the fat cats gobbled up all the money.” His parents lost $500 when banks closed. That was a lot of money back then, said Moore. “All of us were suffering like hell.”

Moore became active with the Unemployed Councils, which mobilized people to fight against mass hunger and home evictions. Those experiences taught Moore the importance of unity among Black, white and Latino workers. People came together and rallied for their basic rights against rich employers who left millions out in the cold.

Moore’s most memorable and proudest moment came in 1941 when he was instrumental in organizing workers into the United Auto Workers union at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mich. At the time Ford was the third largest industrial giant in the world and 75 percent of the workforce there had been laid off with no public relief. People were dying from cold and hunger.

In 1932 Moore helped lead a hunger march where five union members fell victim to machine guns fired by thugs hired by anti-union Henry Ford. It was the multiracial unity among the workers that overcame the divisions that Ford tried to provoke. That struggle eventually opened the door to the organization of the nation’s auto industry and the founding of the UAW.

Moore was eventually elected to leadership positions at UAW Local 600, the powerful Ford local. Like many others, however, Moore fell victim to McCarthyism and was dismissed from his elected position in 1951. But as McCarthyism waned, he was reinstated in 1963 and was assigned as a national UAW representative. Moore was a founding member of the National Negro Labor Council and served as a legislative assistant to legendary Rep. George Crockett. Later Detroit Mayor Coleman Young appointed Moore the city’s senior citizens director.

Reflecting on the history he has lived and battled through, Moore said the Black community has been hit the hardest with the current economic crisis. “We got a lot of people unemployed today,” he said, adding that many of his neighbors have been laid off from the once booming auto industry. Moore believes the economic meltdown is going to propel Obama to become the first Black president, but “it’s not going to be easy for him.”

During the Depression of the 1930s, President Roosevelt had the people behind him, said Moore. “And that is what Obama needs to do — have the people behind him. I believe the key to Obama’s campaign lies with the working people.”

“I think Obama has the best program, but no matter what happens the fat cats of Wall Street and tycoons of big industry are the ones who control the finances of this country,” he said. “They don’t want to see a movement for unity of all people coming together.”

“It’s a long, long road that working and poor people have to travel but we have to remember this is a capitalist country and the fat cats on Wall Street will do whatever they can to keep it that way. Take a look at this country’s history — big business has always called the shots. I hope Obama goes all the way when he says he’s for change.”

When it comes to fighting for unions, multiracial unity, civil rights and peace, Moore has seen it all, he said — he knows what it means to struggle for a working people’s agenda in victory and defeat. Today, he sees great hope for the future.

“I’d like to see unity of all people one day where racism in this country is behind us,” he said. “I’d like to see a world where people don’t have to worry about starvation or unemployment. Where youngsters can get an education and become contributors to the betterment of society. Where our country’s government truly plays a role to help educate our children in a world based on peace, understanding and brotherhood regardless of race, creed, religion or color.”

Moore is looking forward to seeing a step in that direction with the election of Obama on Nov. 4

plozano@pww.org

General strike brings Greece to halt in protest over government policies

2008-10-23T21:19:00.002-05:00

Anyone see anything about this in our local newspapers on the Range?

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibtUiBczDhWBa5O9OtszQkLmAZmA

General strike brings Greece to halt in protest over government policies
2 days ago

ATHENS, Greece — Air, rail and ferry traffic have ground to a halt across Greece and many offices have shut down in a general strike.

The country's largest labour union has called the strike to protest the conservative government's economic policies. Riot police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of rock-throwing hooded youths as thousands of demonstrators marched through central Athens.

Many shops along the demonstration route rolled down their shutters, and only minor damage was reported.

Across the country, state hospitals functioned with emergency staff while state schools, universities, post offices and tax offices were closed, as were many banks.

Some 200 domestic and international flights were cancelled while all ferries were confined to port. The state railway company cancelled most train services. Lawyers, journalists and civil engineers were also on strike.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/128467/General-strike-brings-Greece-to-standstill

General strike brings Greece to standstill
10/21/2008 | 09:07 PM

ATHENS, Greece - Air, rail and ferry traffic ground to a halt across Greece on Tuesday and public offices shut down as workers walked off the job in a general strike to protest the conservative government's economic policies.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of rock-throwing hooded youths as thousands of demonstrators marched through central Athens. Many shops along the demonstration route rolled down their shutters, and only minor damage was reported.

Across the country, state hospitals functioned with emergency staff while state schools, universities, post offices and tax offices were closed, as were many banks. Some 200 domestic and international flights were canceled while all ferries were confined to port and the state railway company canceled most train services. Lawyers, journalists and civil engineers were also on strike.

Greece's largest umbrella union, GSEE, claimed hundreds of thousands of workers participated in the 24-hour strike.

"The country has effectively come to a halt," said union spokesman Efstathios Anestis. "Participation is very high, in many sectors it exceeds 90 percent of the work force."

Demonstrators held banners calling for the minimum salary to be raised to €1,400 (about US$1,880) from its current level of €701 (about US$940) and for the government to cancel unpopular reforms to the country's pension system.

Some also protested a recent rescue package under which the government pledged up to €28 billion (US$38.5 billion) to help Greece's banking sector weather the international financial crisis.

"Not one euro to support the capitalists," read one banner.

GSEE, which covers the private sector, and civil service umbrella union ADEDY called the strike to protest recent legislation reforming the country's fragmented pension system. The new law, passed in March, cuts back early retirement rights and merges lucrative pension funds with financially troubled ones.

"We're expressing anger, despair and rage about the policies which give to the few," said GSEE leader Yiannis Panagopoulos.

The two umbrella unions represent some 2.5 million workers between them, or about half of Greece's total work force.

Unions also demand more state social spending, as well as salary and pension increases, and oppose the government's privatization plans, including for state carrier Olympic Airlines.

"Workers face many accumulated problems, mainly financial," Anestis said.

Air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours from noon, leading Olympic to cancel 150 flights — mostly domestic but including routes to London, Brussels, Rome, Frankfurt and Paris, and private Aegean Airlines to cancel 46 domestic flights.

Athens public bus and metro networks were disrupted by work stoppages, while the capital's tram service was suspended for the whole day.

Commercial stores were to follow suit with their own strike on Wednesday to protest tax laws, vowing to shut down stores across the country for the day. - AP

http://www.winnipegsun.com/News/World/2008/10/21/7153466.html

From the Winnipeg Sun:

Tue, October 21, 2008

General strike brings Greece to halt
Protest over government policies

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATHENS, Greece — Air, rail and ferry traffic have ground to a halt across Greece and many offices have shut down in a general strike.

The country’s largest labour union has called the strike to protest the conservative government’s economic policies.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of rock-throwing hooded youths as thousands of demonstrators marched through central Athens.

Many shops along the demonstration route rolled down their shutters, and only minor damage was reported.

Across the country, state hospitals functioned with emergency staff while state schools, universities, post offices and tax offices were closed, as were many banks.

Some 200 domestic and international flights were cancelled while all ferries were confined to port. The state railway company cancelled most train services. Lawyers, journalists and civil engineers were also on strike.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_293189.html

Oct 21, 2008

Greece sees general strike

ATHENS (Greece) - AIR, rail and ferry traffic ground to a halt across Greece on Tuesday and public offices shut down as workers walked off the job in a general strike to protest the conservative government's economic policies.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of rock-throwing hooded youths as thousands of demonstrators marched through central Athens. Many shops along the demonstration route rolled down their shutters, and only minor damage was reported.

Across the country, state hospitals functioned with emergency staff while state schools, universities, post offices and tax offices were closed, as were many banks. Some 200 domestic and international flights were canceled while all ferries were confined to port and the state railway company canceled most train services.

Lawyers, journalists and civil engineers were also on strike.

Greece's largest umbrella union, GSEE, claimed hundreds of thousands of workers participated in the 24-hour strike.

'The country has effectively come to a halt,' said union spokesman Efstathios Anestis. 'Participation is very high, in many sectors it exceeds 90 per cent of the work force.'

Demonstrators held banners calling for the minimum salary to be raised to euro1,400 (about S$2,784) from its current level of euro701 and for the government to cancel unpopular reforms to the country's pension system.

Some also protested a recent rescue package under which the government pledged up to euro28 billion to help Greece's banking sector weather the international financial crisis.

'Not one euro to support the capitalists,' read one banner.

GSEE, which covers the private sector, and civil service umbrella union ADEDY called the strike to protest recent legislation reforming the country's fragmented pension system.

The new law, passed in March, cuts back early retirement rights and merges lucrative pension funds with financially troubled ones.

'We're expressing anger, despair and rage about the policies which give to the few,' said GSEE leader Yiannis Panagopoulos.

The two umbrella unions represent some 2.5 million workers between them, or about half of Greece's total work force.

Unions also demand more state social spending, as well as salary and pension increases, and oppose the government's privatisation plans, including for state carrier Olympic Airlines.

'Workers face many accumulated problems, mainly financial,' Mr Anestis said.

Air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours from noon, leading Olympic to cancel 150 flights - mostly domestic but including routes to London, Brussels, Rome, Frankfurt and Paris, and private Aegean Airlines to cancel 46 domestic flights.

Athens public bus and metro networks were disrupted by work stoppages, while the capital's tram service was suspended for the whole day.

Commercial stores were to follow suit with their own strike on Wednesday to protest tax laws, vowing to shut down stores across the country for the day. -- AP

Alan Maki...Working class activist to run for Minnesota Governor

2008-10-16T18:25:00.002-05:00

Make way for the working class to have a say…

This enormous economic mess we are now experiencing, along with the heavy debt the bankers and the politicians of both major political parties have saddled us with, can be summed up very simply: The capitalists have taken all the profits and left the working class with all the problems.

There are only two sources of wealth: Labor and Mother Nature.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands that if you allow labor to be continually exploited and Mother Nature to be repeatedly abused and raped there will be severe consequences.

We are now reaping the consequences for allowing this parasitical monster of state-monopoly capitalism to have spun its web of corruption in the form of a cannibalistic military-financial-industrial complex which now threatens to consume and destroy our families, our communities, our State and our Nation while wreaking havoc in other lands.

Enough!

The time has come to put the needs of people before corporate profits.

There is only one alternative; for working people to come together to build a new society on the foundation created by the socialists of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.

We need to fight and struggle to re-establish the liberal, democratic and progressive socialist traditions for which Minnesota is known around the world.

We have complex problems before us… but, any country which can spend trillions of dollars on wars to steal the oil of other nations, and trillions of dollars bailing out corporations and bankers looking for using socialism to solve the problems of their own creation as they have sought to prop up their rotten capitalist system--- which they have touted to the world as being the best--- at our expense… This Nation can now come up with the resources to use socialism to solve the problems for the rest of us, too.

What is good for the goose is, in this case, is even better for the gander.

Let Barack Obama and John McCain volunteer to go off exploring the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for Osama Bin Laden; we have better things to do.

Our first priority is to end these dirty wars for oil and redeploy those funds--- as we bring home the troops--- to creating a world class socialized health care system which will create millions of new jobs; five messes the money-grubbing Wall Street coupon clippers and their bought and paid for politicians created, all solved at the same time by ending these dirty imperialist wars for oil and regional domination--- we get health care not warfare, and we begin to solve the problem of unemployment--- and when we put people to work in this way we begin to create a new--- functioning--- people oriented, cooperative, socialist economy where democracy will flourish because it will require the full participation and involvement of all people working together in order to succeed.

Second, without further delay, we need to establish the State Bank of Minnesota to accomplish for our State what the State Bank of North Dakota was set up, by workers and farmers, to do--- fund enterprises to keep people working.

Third, we need a minimum wage which is a real living wage arrived at by the calculations of the United States Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development--- based upon the real figures relating to the real cost of living and this minimum wage should be required by legislation to be updated quarterly right along with the release of all economic indicators to assure a quality life and decent standard of living for all working people and their families.

We have finally come to the point where even the parasitic bankers and the exploiting industrialists now concede that only socialism can bail them out of this horrible mess and solve their problems... capitalism has reached the end of the line and the only thing now to be had from the system is unending human misery.

At the point where society has to pay to clean up the corrupt mess these parasitic predatory lenders and financial institutions have created, this is the time to say:

Enough!

What tax-payers finance, tax-payers must own.

If Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs do not like these terms, these greedy pigs should make the trip to their off-shore banks in the Cayman Islands and make withdrawals from their accounts to pay to solve their own problems.

The time has come to roll up our sleeves, come together, and get to work quickly before this entire rotten system collapses---like the I35-W Bridge--- and crushes us all while leaving our children and grandchildren with the clean-up and the bills.

I firmly believe working people can run our country and our state better than any of the big-business politicians being funded by the corporate lobbyists.

Effectively using the tools of public ownership and nationalization combined with modern, scientific planning for the common good, we can put people to work in decent jobs at real living wages... we hear it all the time just before Election Day: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs... but we never see the jobs, and if we do, these jobs are poverty wage jobs no one can live on.

I intend to run for Governor of Minnesota in 2010.

I invite all working people who think that it is possible to create something better than the mess we are now in, to come together and work from where socialist Governors Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson left off in trying to create a just and decent society where people live and work in harmony with Mother Nature, to join with me, in establishing the Minnesota Party to give the bankers, the mining, forestry and power generating industries along with the industrialists and big-agribusiness a real run for their money.

Let’s run these parasites that have been living off of our labor and destroying Mother Nature right out of our state. We can get along just fine--- even better--- without them.

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

and

Candidate for Governor of Minnesota

Former member: Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

2008-10-13T12:42:00.002-05:00

The Iron Range Club of the Communist Party USA, with a quorum present, voted at its regular Club meeting on Sunday, October 13, 2008 to support this Open Letter to Barack Obama We encourage widespread circulation among working people in Range Communities.

Jeff Sippila, Chair
Sally Stone, Secretary

An Open Letter to Barack Obama…

From:

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

and Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party activist

October 12, 2008

"The vision of working class Minnesotans for the change we need"

Barack, speaking for casino workers who are forced to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights, some of us have already decided to vote for you, others among us could possibly be persuaded, while others among us--- including myself--- we may be voting for other candidates like Cynthia McKinney; and some people who feel completely disenfranchised by the present state of politics in our country where government is not responsive to their concerns and problems, very unfortunately--- but understandably so--- sadly, may not vote at all… however, we all share a common vision for the kind of change we need; and, that vision is one where the problems of working people need to be solved before the interests of bankers and the Wall Street crowd…

Barack, you began your political career as a member of, and with support from, the socialist New Party in Chicago. We expect that as President you will adhere to this vision of people before corporate profits. You are campaigning in Minnesota where socialist politicians Governor Floyd B. Olson, U.S. Senator and Governor Elmer A. Benson and United States Congressman John Bernard are held in very high esteem… when campaigning in Minnesota, we expect you to address the concerns of working people:

1. Single-payer universal health care as a step towards socialized health care.

2. Public ownership of the Ford Plant and hydro dam to save two-thousand jobs.

3. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now; no war in Pakistan---redirect money to things people need.

4. Moratorium on all home foreclosures and evictions; renegotiate the mortgages.

5. For an end to the robbery at the pumps.

Barack, we expect you to open up the "Compacts" which have created the Indian Gaming Industry to include provisions for the protection of the rights of casino workers--- we are talking about basic human rights and dignity, the right to decent jobs at living wages in a fabulously profitable multi-billion dollar industry.

Barack, we expect you to work for an end to poverty as called for in the United Nations' Millennium Statement, and we expect an Obama Administration to work towards the full implementation of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights which will observe its Sixtieth Anniversary on December 10, 2008; here in the United States we have a very long way to go in fulfilling its goals and objectives.

Barack, socialism isn't just for solving the problems of the bankers, investors, financiers and the Wall Street crowd… in the case of socialism solving problems, what is good for the goose is even better for the gander.

Barack, I have been involved in the Democratic Party in one way or another for over thirty years… I have petitioned, I have chaired campaigns and raised funds; I have served in various capacities in Democratic Party organizations over the years in three states; from trustee to local precinct chair to being a member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee--- I have supported Democratic Party politicians--- and those of other parties, also--- for every office when they advanced the cause of peace, civil rights, the protection of our environment and rights of working people… and, quite honestly, in the case of others like Valerie Solem, Matt Entenza, Mike Hatch, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, when they sought to restrict the rights of working people and encouraged war--- I opposed them.

Barack, in your case, I probably am not going to be voting for you, but, I wish you well in your pursuit of the Presidency… In saying this, I speak for the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council and our Organizing Committees at casinos in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. I believe--- based upon my travels and discussions with many people from all walks of life--- I also speak for many other voters in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa.

Barack, you continue to speak to the concerns of the "middle class;" we are concerned with the problems of the working class.

Barack, let me be perfectly frank and up front with you. There is a short time left until Election Day. What we want is something in return for our votes. Please think about this.

Barack, you write me often and I appreciate the opportunity to stay in touch; you can expect that I will be keeping in touch with you, too, as you have requested, and I appreciate that you indicate you are very open to communication and I trust that you are sincere in wanting change; so we have a great deal to discuss.

I have always believed in building bridges because I seldom find that burning bridges solves problems.

Sometimes building bridges is tough work because of the swift, turbulent and murky waters.

Good luck and best wishes.

Yours in the struggle,

Alan L. Maki

In addition to this letter, I would ask you to note what has come from the Associated Press as I am sure the same thinking will be forthcoming on every issue of concern to all of us as liberals and progressives… so much for anything coming from an Obama Administration without very huge battles:

Link: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20081012/D93P0I680.html

Efforts on global warming chilled by economic woes

Oct 12, 10:22 AM (ET)

By DINA CAPPIELLO

WASHINGTON (AP) - The economic free fall gripping the nation may bring down one of the main environmental objectives: capping the greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.

Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate, and both presidential candidates, continue to rank tackling global warming as a chief goal next year. But the focus on stabilizing the economy probably will make it more difficult to pass a law to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. At the very least, it will push back when the reductions would have to start.

As one Republican senator put it, the green bubble has burst.

"Clearly it is somewhere down the totem pole given the economic realities we are facing," said Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy Corp., an electricity producer that has supported federal mandates on greenhouse gases. Duke is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an association of businesses and nonprofit groups that has lobbied Congress to act.

Just months ago, chances for legislation passing in the next Congress and becoming law looked promising. The presidential candidates support mandatory cuts and a Democratic majority is ready to act on the problem after years of the Bush administration's resisting federal controls.

But the most popular remedy for slowing global warming, a mechanism know as cap-and-trade, could put further stress on a teetering economy.

Under such a system, the government would establish a market for carbon dioxide by giving or selling credits to companies with operations that emit greenhouse gases. The companies can then choose whether to invest in technologies to reduce emissions to meet targets or instead buy credits from other companies who have already met them.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., said that in light of the economic downturn, a bill that would give polluters permits free of charge would be preferable.

"The first way we can control program costs is by not charging industrial emitters," said Boucher, who released a first draft of a bill this past week with the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. Giving away right-to-pollute permits was one of the options.

Other Democrats, however, see a cap-and-trade bill - and the government revenues it would generate from selling permits - as an engine for economic growth. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama supports auctioning off all permits, using the money to help fund alternative energy.

"If you see this as a job creation opportunity for the U.S. to develop the products that are then sold around the world, then you should be optimistic about what the impact of passage would mean for the American economy," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.

Conservative Republicans who were never fans of a law to curb greenhouse gases have used the economic downturn as a rallying cry.

Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the senior Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, in a blog entry this month criticized 152 House members for releasing a set of principles to tackle global warming in the midst of the economic turmoil.

"The current economic crisis only reinforces the public's wariness about any climate bill that attempts to increase the costs of energy and jeopardizes jobs," Inhofe said.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, took the argument a step further when he said the Boucher-Dingell bill could lead the country "off the economic cliff."

But even supporters of federal regulation of greenhouse gases acknowledge that something has to give given the state of the economy.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a lead sponsor of a Senate bill to curb greenhouse gases that failed this year, acknowledged that the economy could delay when reductions in carbon dioxide would start.

Warner told the AP that any bill should allow the president to decide.

"We must continue to think and devise a piece of legislation that will enable the president of the United States to control timing ... dependent on the president's analysis for the ability of the economy to assume the financial burdens," he said.

The U.S. is not alone. As the economic crisis has spread to markets across the globe, work to curb greenhouse gases elsewhere has stalled.

Earlier this past week, Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N. climate panel, said discussions about global warming solutions were "on the back burner." Pachauri shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for their work on climate change.

"I'm absolutely sure that climate change will be the last thing people will think about at this point in time," he said. "Sooner or later, they will come back to it."

The upside is that in hard economic times, and with high energy prices, the amount of pollution in the air tends to decline.

That will slow global warming somewhat, but there are already enough heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere to cause the temperature to rise.

"I really wish that the science of global warming would look at the newspaper, and say we have an economic crisis so the Earth will stop warming," said Dave Hamilton, director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program. "But that is not going to happen."

Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

PRISONERS OF WAR

2008-09-30T15:14:00.002-05:00

Below is an interesting discussion taking place on the web site of the Campaign for America's Future.

PRISONERS OF WAR

Campaign for America’s Future

STAFF
By Robert Borosage
September 30th, 2008 - 10:27am ET

OurFuture.org Staff

September 30, 2008

On September 29, Congress revolted against the $700 billion price tag of the proposed bailout of Wall Street. The day before, that same Congress passed without murmur—unanimously in the Senate—a $700 billion budget for the Pentagon in 2009. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has shattered the conservative illusions about deregulation and market fundamentalism. But the equally costly illusions about America’s role as an “indispensable nation” policing the globe go without challenge. We remain prisoners of war.

Most Americans have no sense of the cost and scope of America’s role as globocop. We sustain what Chalmers Johnson calls an “empire of bases” across the globe – over 700 active bases in more than 30 countries. Our navy polices the world’s oceans. We task our military to maintain “dominance” not only in our own hemisphere, but in Europe, the Persian Gulf and Asia. Our intelligence “plumbing in place” engages in covert activities throughout the globe. We are the only nation with the capacity to airlift expeditionary forces rapidly and in large numbers across the globe. We are now devoting some $12 billion a month to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

President Bush has declared a “Global War on Terror,” a so-called “long war,” without limits or exits. Our Defense Secretary complains that the military is displacing the desiccated State Department as America’s representatives across the world.

The cost of sustaining this commitment is staggering. The Pentagon’s budget itself represents more than half of all discretionary spending—everything the government does, outside of entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, and interest on the national debt. At $700 billion, it is about equal to that spent by the rest of the world combined on the military. But the actual cost of our military is strewn throughout the budget. Add in the cost of our veterans, the arms aid in the State Department budget, Homeland Security, and more—and actual spending climbs over $1 trillion a year.

Our military has no rival, but we grow ever less secure. There are three fundamental reasons for this.

As carpenters know, if you only carry a hammer, lots of things start looking like a nail. Maintain a global military constantly engaged across the world, and it will find things to do. As one conservative Southern Senator once said, “the greater ability we have to go places and do things, the more likely we are to go there and do them.” Neo-conservatives dream of the military remaking the Middle East. Humanitarians demand that it act to stop genocide or atrocities from Rwanda to Darfur. Global corporations insist that it challenge pirates and rogue states that are posing an increasing nuisance to shipping.

Thus, the fanatics that launched the airplanes against the World Trade Towers are turned into warriors; the very real threat they pose transformed into a Global War on Terror. This not only helps justify the “war of choice” against Iraq, surely the most costly national security debacle since Vietnam. It also distracts us from a sensible strategy against al Qaeda and its allies. As http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/2007/RAND_OP168.pdf “>the Pentagon’s own think tank, the Rand Corporation concluded in a recent study, the very concept of a “war on terror” isn’t only a distraction; it is detraction from a sensible strategy. By elevating al Qaeda into global warriors, it inflates their importance, and aids their ability to recruit. At the same time, it scorns the real measures needed to counter al Qaeda—intelligence cooperation, financial constraints, and alert and aggressive policing. Worse, it undermines the broad challenge that must be made to engage Islam, to rally the forces of moderation, and to isolate the extremists.

The second problem is the obverse: things that don’t look like nails get ignored. America’s priorities are badly distorted. Abroad, as Defense Secretary Gates acknowledged, generals and admirals displace our diplomats. Arms sales dominate our foreign assistance programs. At home, our country is literally falling apart from lack of investment in a modern, energy efficient infrastructure. We spend tens of billions each year to project our military power into the Persian Gulf, but fail to invest in the renewable energy and conservation at home that could reduce our dependence on foreign oil, generate jobs here in the U.S., and help capture the green markets that will be the growth markets of the future. We are a wealthy country, so in fact, we probably could afford to sustain military spending at current levels. But we can’t do so, and slash taxes on the wealthy and the corporations, without starving basic investments here at home, even as we rack up record deficits.

Worse, the military has no answer to the major threats to our security: a growing global indebtedness that can’t be sustained, the rise of India and China as economic powerhouses, catastrophic climate change and the growing resource struggles that will be far more destabilizing than Islamic terrorists, an integrated global economy of ever greater instability. Worse, the attention devoted to military misadventures like Iraq gets in the way of addressing these looming threats.

The third problem is the contrast between the Republic we are trying to secure and the national security state that has been built to police the globe. War augments the power of the executive. War and military threat justify secrecy, covert operations, disdain for constitutional limits and checks and balances. President Bush claims the right to launch preventive war on any nation in the world, to wiretap Americans without warrant, to designate them an enemy combatant and arrest them without reasonable cause, to hold them without review. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, rendition and torture have shamed America during the Bush years. But the lawlessness of the national security state – and the trampling of our own liberties in the name of security – did not begin in 2000. Bush has merely taken to the extreme prerogatives claimed by presidents over the last decades.

But the myths that sustain our military—and the lobbies that promote military spending—are politically unassailable. Both major party presidential candidates pledge to increase the size of the military and project higher military spending in the future. Both support an increased military occupation in Afghanistan, ignoring the history of fierce Afghani resistance to foreign occupation that confounded Britain at the height of its empire, and the Soviet Union right off its borders. The financial crisis and coming recession is forcing a great reckoning in America. But to date, there is no serious challenge to our priorities, or to America’s commitment to policing the globe. The presidential debate on foreign policy featured disputes about Iraq, about Georgia, about Afghanistan, about the economic crisis. But our basic global strategy, our spending priorities went without question or comment.

Economic crisis, like hanging, has a way of concentrating the mind. The financial crisis and the harsh recession likely to follow will spark a fundamental debate about America’s economy. But the debacle in Iraq has not had the same effect on the foreign policy debate. A challenge to America’s global strategy will not come from Washington. It won’t come from the national security managers of either party. It can only come if citizens build a democratic movement willing and able to demand the debate that we need.

Join the discussion below

Militarism and the economy

By Alan Maki | September 30th, 2008 - 2:54pm GMT

The presidential "race" is a one-sided fiasco... Barack Obama is the "chosen one" by the military-financial-industrial complex of Wall Street coupon clippers.

Obama has of late been showing his true allegiances to Wall Street--- even disregarding the fact that Warren Buffett and Goldman-Sachs are his best "bundlers"--- Obama simultaneously calls for increasing military expenditures and "belt-tightening." Obama has done all but call for reinstatement of the draft which won't endear him to his young constituency who will be marching off to war rather than going to college.

You talk about a recession. Capitalism is going to fall, and this baby is going to fall hard. It is going to come crashing down in the worst economic depression in human history... the writing is clearly on the wall.

You seem eager to offer advice on saving this rotten system which has brought humanity so much misery.

Rather than worrying about saving this system we should only be worried about bringing about the needed reforms to help working people sustain and main their livelihoods and the best standard of living as capitalism leaves the stage.

There is no way to have "guns and butter" as they say.

You and John Sweeney along with other progressives signed a statement concerning this crisis... now, what resources are you going to make available for working people to launch the necessary struggles where they work and in the communities where they live to fight for the reforms you outline?

John Sweeney has stated on numerous occasions his intent is to save capitalism... it makes little sense to try to save a system in which these kinds of economic crisis are an inherent and inseparable part of the system where these kinds of problems, and worse, are only going to be replicated time and time again.

Our message to the Wall Street coupon clippers should be: Take care of your own mess, it is your system not ours; you and the generals should go hold baked-good sales to finance the solution to problems of your own making.

The centers of finance want to use socialism to bail them out of their problems; well, what is good for the goose, is good for the gander. As long as it is now widely recognized that socialism is the only solution to problems, it is time to demand socialized health care as an immediate reform--- this will be good for the health of all people and it will free up trillions of dollars to begin building a people centered green, peaceful, cooperative socialist economy as an alternative to this profit driven, dog-eat-dog, war and poverty economy of capitalism.

I would suggest that you add socialism to your otherwise very good list of needed reforms which will help working people through this mess.

Add in socialized heath care together with your call for moratoriums on foreclosures/evictions and restructuring the mortgages and this will free up enormous resources and funds for all the social programs we need.

I like your idea about insisting on tax-payers getting equity in any bailout too--- what tax-payers finance, tax-payers should own. Getting equity and ownership in industries and mines, mills and factories should be seen as part of the process of socialization which needs to take place... this is a good place to start.

People can get along just fine without Wall Street.

My question remains, what resources is the Campaign for America's Future, the AFL-CIO, Change To Win and these other organizations willing to make available to create the kind of organized rank and file/grassroots upsurge that it will take to win these kinds of reforms? Certainly your organizations should be able to pony up at least as much as is being pumped into supporting Barack Obama... let Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs take care of funding their own candidate... we need to prepare to do battle with the Obama Administration.

If I were you, I would put a lot more emphasis on ending these dirty oil wars and the need to cut military spending while transferring this wealth towards social programs.

Pumping all this money into war and militarism is like taking money from your billfold and tossing it into the ocean. Those bankers, financiers and Wall Street coupon clippers reaped massive profits from militarism are the same ones who now cry to tax-payers for help; they ironically created a big part of their own mess largely because they fed like pigs at the trough of militarization.

You might want to consider forgiveness of all student loans, too... this would have the effect of getting billions of dollars back into the economy. Maybe suggest that these student loans be paid back at fifty-cents on the dollar without interest into some kind of "green economic development fund."

Here is what you called for. These aren't the kind of demands a group of thirty-five people just sign their names to and mail to Congress expecting a bunch of millionaires working for billionaires to implement; these are fighting words requiring a real struggle if you are serious about winning such reforms:

We urge the Congress to insist on some basic conditions
for any bailout.

1. Public Oversight. This kind of power can never be
centralized in a single individual - much less one who
did not even stand for election. Any funds must be
controlled by an independent entity, with consumers and
workers given seats on its board. Congress should be
empowered to name independent monitors and to approve
all board members.

2. Protect the Taxpayer. The Treasury bill would have
taxpayers buying paper that nobody else wants at prices
far above its current value. If a firm wants to auction
off its toxic paper to the US Government, taxpayers
should get equity in that firm equal to any amount paid
in excess of the paper's value. This will deter
profitable firms from using the government as a dumpster
for their toxic paper. And it will insure that if the
bailout works and the firms become profitable,
taxpayers, not simply bankers, benefit from the upside.

3. Curb the casino. This crisis was caused because
sensible regulations of the banking system that worked
for dozens of years were dismantled or went unenforced.
No bailout can go forward without requiring the
necessary regulation to insure this does not happen
again. Any institution, which receives assistance,
should agree to come under a microscope going forward in
terms of disclosure requirements, and it should have
stringent capital requirement imposed upon it.

4. Invest in the real economy. Ending the bankers strike
is not sufficient enough to avoid the recession into
which we have been driven. Major public investment in
new energy and conservation, rebuilding schools and
infrastructure, extending unemployment and food stamps,
helping states avoid crippling cuts in police and health
services - is vital to get the real economy moving and
put people back to work. No bailout should proceed
without being linked to support for a major public
investment plan to get the economy going.

5. Hold CEOs and Boards of Directors Accountable. Wall
Street CEOs shouldn't be pocketing millions while
taxpayers are forced to bail them out. Any firm that
applies for relief must agree to cancel all stock option
programs and CEOs should have stringent limits placed on
their compensation until the Company has repaid all
taxpayer assistance.

6. Aid the victims, not just the predators. Both bankers
and home owners made foolish bets that home prices would
keep rising. Many homeowners, however, were misled by
predatory lenders into taking mortgages that they didn't
understand and couldn't afford. It would be simply
obscene to help the predators and not those that they
preyed upon. No bail out of the banks should take place
without measures to help people in trouble stay in their
homes. Explicit provisions should ensure use of the full
array of financial and legal tools available to the
government to stop foreclosures and restructure home
mortgage loans for ordinary Americans, including
amending the bankruptcy code to allow judges to modify
mortgages. Where workouts are not feasible, people
should be allowed to stay in their homes as renters.

 Robert Borosage, co-director, Campaign for America's Future

 John Sweeney, president, AFL-CIO

 Andy Stern, president, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

 Gerald McEntee, president, Am. Fed. of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)

 Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

 Larry Cohen, president, Communications Workers of America (CWA)

 Dennis Van Roekel, president, National Education Association (NEA)

 Leo Gerard, president, United Steelworkers (USW)

 Maude Hurd, national president, ACORN

 Nan Aron, president, Alliance for Justice

 Amy Issacs, national director, Americans for Democratic Action

 Kevin Zeese, executive director, Campaign for Fresh Air & Clean Politics

 John Podesta, president, Center for American Progress Action Fund

 Deepak Bhargava, president, Center for Community Change

 Deborah Weinstein, executive director, Coalition for Human Needs

 Donald Mathis, president, Community Action Partnership

 Jane Hamsher, firedoglake.com

 James D. Weill, president, Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)

 Brent Blackwelder, president, Friends of the Earth

 John Cavanagh, director, Institute for Policy Studies

 Sarita Gupta, executive director, Jobs with Justice

 Wade Henderson, president, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

 Carissa Picard, esq., president, Military Spouses for Change

 Sally Greenberg, executive director, National Consumers League

 Christine L. Owens, executive director, National Employment Law Project

 Gary Bass, executive director, OMB Watch

 Adam Lioz, program director, Progressive Future

 Joanne Carter, executive director, RESULTS

 William McNary, president, USAction

 Paula Brantner, executive director, Workplace Fairness

 Dan Cantor, executive director, Working Families Party

 Mark Lotwis, executive director, 21st Century Democrats

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Phone: 218-386-2432

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

P.S.--- I have written my Blue Dog Congressman Collin Petersen and my Senator, Amy "Republican Lite" Klobuchar telling them I have added my name to this impressive list of endorsers along with the demand for socialized health care and raising the minimum wage to a real living wage and raising Social Security payments because the more wealth we can pry away from the bankers and Wall Street coupon clippers and put into the pockets of working people who will spend, spend, spend, the better things will be all the way around... the quicker this can be done the better; plus the less money Democrats will have to spend trying to fix this mess :)

Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Support the Windsor University Faculty Association

2008-09-28T09:16:00.001-05:00

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Support the Windsor University Faculty Association

We support the Windsor University Faculty Association in their quest for justice and human dignity as they struggle, not only to defend the own rights and livelihood, but workers everywhere who struggle for justice and dignity.

Just across the border in Michigan, adjuncts employed by Northern Michigan University have no rights, are paid sub-poverty salaries, have no health care, no child care and have not had a raise in years in spite of escalating food and gas prices and huge debts incurred in obtaining their own educations with pitifully little in the way of receiving upgrading in their teaching skills. The WUFA, in struggling for their own rights against a very anti-labour Administration/Management sets an example for those employed in universities like Northern Michigan University and universities everywhere.

As workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry who are forced to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without ANY rights under state or federal labor laws--- where these corrupt managements completely ignore even the most basic international labor laws--- we are especially appreciative of the WUFA setting a stellar and exemplary example of how to struggle for the rights of labour.

We support a quick negotiated settlement with the Windsor University Faculty Association [WUFA] and we urge you to get back to the negotiation table. The University of Windsor works because WUFA does; we teach, research and counsel. Faculty, sessionals, and librarians are the hearts and minds of the University of Windsor.

We urge you to drop your demands for concessions on wages, benefits, working conditions, and promotion, tenure, and renewal, and offer WUFA members a fair and equitable contract that embodies the principal of sector parity, that embraces employment equity, and that preserves the quality of education at the university. we urge you to end this strike, which hurts your students, your members, and the reputation of the University of Windsor.

We urge working people everywhere to support the struggle for justice and dignity being waged by the Windsor University Faculty Association by clicking onto the CUPE web site and signing on to a statement of solidarity condemning the shameful actions of the Administration of the University of Windsor in trying to weaken the Windsor University Faculty Association.

Click on to the CUPE web site to show your support for the Windsor University Faculty Association in their struggle for justice:

http://cupe.ca/action/cupe-supports-wufa

In addition to the struggle of the WUFA, we appreciate the Canadian Union of Public Employees bringing this struggle to our attention with a request for solidarity,

Yours in the struggle,

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 CR 13
Warroad, Minnesota USA 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell Phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

CUPE supports Windsor faculty

The Faculty at the University of Windsor is now entering its second week of strike.

In the hope of helping WUFA get a fair deal, Paul Moist offered CUPE’s support to WUFA’s bargaining team. “We offered them our support dealing with their strike campaign and we had a very positive relation with the committee, said Moist. I hope they can benefit from CUPE’s vast experience in the post-secondary sector. This is a perfect example of public sector workers who need our support in these crucial times.”

On campus, CUPE locals 1001, 1393, 4580 and 1281 are coalition partners, working closely with WUFA.

WUFA president, Professor Brian E. Brown said “Too much misinformation has been released by the university giving an entirely unjust view of the situation. The truth is that 47% of our Faculty are part time staff. They are underpaid, overworked and increasingly treated as casual labour. We can’t attract and keep the best new faculty with uncompetitive salaries and poor working conditions. Pay equity and employment equity imbalances are important issues that have to be addressed.”

Brown also noted both the Graduate Student Society and the University of Windsor Students' Alliance have voted to support WUFA. "Too much is at risk at this institution. Students and faculty have united to preserve quality education at the University of Windsor."

Chinese dairy knew milk fault weeks before recall

2008-09-13T08:26:00.002-05:00

This opinion piece needs no introduction. The Iron Range Club of the Communist Party USA believes this opinion piece by Alan Maki is written in the best traditions of the "red" Finns of the Iron Range and working class journalism in advocating for a better world.

The Iron Range Club of the Communist Party USA urges Communist Party Clubs everywhere to discuss and circulate this opinion piece far and wide.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Chinese dairy knew milk fault weeks before recall

Does anyone really believe, that the "market economy" and capitalist thinking introduced and pushed by deviant and corrupt Chinese leaders whose perverted world outlook has been shaped by backroom payoffs in the same manner as received by any American politicians from the Wall Street coupon clippers working in league with the likes of capitalist sooth-sayers such as Alan Greenspan in the name of the wonderfully sounding "harmonious development," which is said to be part of "Chinese culture," as the right-wing, reactionary Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation "educate" a "new generation" of Chinese youth in "business administration," rather than, the Communist Party of China doing its job in educating the working people and peasants in Marxism where socialist humanism is elevated to the highest level, can escape these kinds of atrocious, uncaring and anti-human aspects of a "free market economy" as working people are told, for some unstated reason--- and without any basis or substance to back it up--- that working people will have to wait for twenty to one-hundred years to attain their very basic and fundamental human rights?

It is because the "leaders" of China have pushed down, rather than raised up, the working class and peasantry to suit the interests of the profit gouging capitalist corporations of the West, that China now finds itself entangled in the same web of corruption and working class repression as any capitalist country... including the most corrupt and repressive of them all--- the United States of America.

This problem of contaminated milk powder went on for weeks making hundreds of babies sick simply because working people and peasants in China have been removed from the decision making process and no longer feel free to bring forward and report this kind of wrong-doing... no different than the more than two-million casino workers employed here in the United States in the Indian Gaming Industry who--- working without ANY rights--- have even less rights than Chinese workers and peasants; who, too, like Chinese workers, are now too intimidated and bullied to tell law enforcement agencies about prostitution, drug dealing, loan-sharking, and the illegal gambling operations that are now bringing corruption even to the youth in American high schools as these illegal betting rings operating out of the casinos make pay-offs to high school quarterbacks and pitchers to throw the games and manipulate point spreads for these bookies to make profits.

As both socialist Minnesota Governors, Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson, repeatedly pointed out, it is the epitome of naivete, to think or suggest, that the corruption which permeates every facet of our lives--- from the church to the schoolroom to the corporate boardrooms to the offices of mayors and the Sate Houses and Halls of Congress--- can be eliminated as long as capitalist greed is the dominant force and motivator of any society.

Both Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson were very clear on this point: For humanity to rise above the corruption and decadence of capitalist society, a new system of cooperative socialism would have to be brought into existence by working people and farmers, united, who were sincere in desiring real change... the Minnesota Farmer Labor Party, like the Chinese Communist Party tried to make the needed change--- both met stiff opposition from the same very powerful capitalist class of Wall Street coupon clippers.

One would think that working class Communists and peasants in China would have come forward already and said the same thing Barack Obama is saying about the situation here regarding eight long years of the Bush-Cheney Administration--- the most corrupt in American history: ENOUGH.

Simply taking these crooked and corrupt culprits in the management of this Chinese dairy enterprise out in a cow pasture and putting a bullet in their heads is not enough... because those who do the bribing and foster the corruption are being placed on a pedestal and elevated to positions of high power and influence.

Chinese workers--- like workers, peasants and farmers everywhere--- need to get rid of capitalism rather than give in to the perversions of "market socialism" and "new thinking," which are nothing more than code-words for allowing capitalism and all forms of exploitation and corruption to thrive.

Again, as Barack Obama has pointed out, "You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough."

The same thing can be said of "harmonious development" and "market socialism" which is nothing more than putting lipstick on someone like Sarah Palin... call it what you will, capitalism is still capitalism... capitalism is the same corrupt, rotten system no matter what pretty words are used to try to disguise it... no different than a pretty face with lipstick intended to hide what comes out of the mouth as the most backward and reactionary ideas of warmongers and the Wall Street coupon clippers of the military-financial-industrial complex who have built state-monopoly capitalism into a vast web of imperialism now infecting even socialist China with its poisonous corruption.

Certainly, if the American people "have had enough," the Chinese people don't want more of what we want to get rid of.

Alan L. Maki

Chinese dairy knew milk fault weeks before recall

Sep 13, 7:22 AM (ET)

By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese dairy that sold milk powder linked to kidney stones in infants and one death knew weeks before it ordered a recall that the product contained a banned chemical, the Health Ministry said Saturday.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday that the dairy, Sanlu Group Col, was ordered to stop production as the number of sick babies rose to 432.

A Health Ministry statement gave no indication why Sanlu Group Co., China's biggest milk powder producer, failed to warn consumers immediately. Employees who answered the phone Saturday at the ministry's news office and at China's product safety agency said they had no more information.

In August, Sanlu's testing revealed melamine in the milk powder, a ministry statement said. Melamine is a toxic chemical used in plastics that contaminated pet food last year.

The ministry did not say when Sanlu alerted authorities about its findings but the dairy ordered a recall Thursday of 700 tons of formula made before Aug. 6.

A New Zealand dairy cooperative that owns part of Sanlu said Friday it believed none of the tainted powder was exported.

Kidney problems in infants were reported as early as mid-July but authorities failed to launch a food safety investigation, Xinhua said in a separate report. Another news report said the dairy received complaints as early as March.

Investigators are questioning 78 people about the contamination, which occurred when dairy farmers added melamine to the milk, possibly to make its protein content appear higher, Xinhua said. Melamine is rich in nitrogen and standard tests for protein in bulk food ingredients measure nitrogen levels.

The incident reflects China's enduring problems with product safety despite a shake up of its regulatory system following a spate of warnings and recalls about tainted toothpaste, faulty tires and other goods.

The biggest group of victims is in China itself, where shoddy or counterfeit products are common. Infants, hospital patients and others have been killed or injured by tainted or fake milk, medicines, liquor and other products.

The number of infants suffering kidney stones after being fed Sanlu formula has risen to 432, Xinhua said. It did not give a breakdown of where in China the cases were.

Xinhua cited a Gansu provincial health department spokesman as saying he received reports on July 16 that 16 infants under a year old, all of whom drank Sanlu milk, were suffering a rare kidney ailment. He said the Health Ministry launched an epidemic survey.

"However, there seemed no food and safety survey had been done. Otherwise, the health, and even lives, of many infants could have been saved," Xinhua said.

A Sanlu manager quoted by the newspaper Beijing News said the dairy received complaints in March and June but could not track down the problem.

Another Sanlu manager quoted Friday on the Web site of a leading Chinese business magazine, Caijing, said it refrained from making an announcement because some grocers refused to return tainted powder. The report did not say why that prevented a warning.

Sanlu buys milk from a nationwide network of suppliers that includes 60,000 family farms, according to the company's Web site.

In Taiwan, officials said they had seized thousands of pounds of milk powder produced by Sanlu after Beijing authorities notified them the product was tainted.

Liu Fang-ming of the Taoyuan county government said the shipment, which arrived in June, contained 55,115 pounds of milk powder, but only 21,660 pounds have been recovered so far.

Officials did not say whether any of the milk powder, which is used in baby milk formula and baked goods, had been consumed in Taiwan.

Taiwan has not reported any illnesses from the powder.

It was China's second high-profile case in four years involving harmful baby formula.

In 2004, more than 200 infants suffered malnutrition and at least 12 died after being fed phony formula that contained no nutrients. Some 40 companies were found to be making phony formula and 47 people were arrested.

---

Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao in Beijing contributed to this report.
Posted by The creators of China and Socialism Blog.

Save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and save jobs on the Iron Range

2008-08-26T22:57:00.002-05:00

PICKET LINE

TO SAVE THE FORD PLANT, HYDRO-DAM AND 2,000 UNION JOBS

FOR GREEN MANUFACTURING IN A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY THROUGH PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 3:00-6:00 PM

St. Paul FORD TWIN CITIES ASSEMBLY PLANT

FORD PARKWAY

ST. PAUL

GREEN JOBS NOW!

This action also takes place during the RNC. The picket line is

sponsored by the Coalition for Public Ownership of the Ford Plant and

is supported by the Climate Crisis Coalition of the Twin Cities. With

Ford’s TCAP having been given a reprieve with the postponement of the

plant closing to the end of 2011, there is still time to pressure

local authorities to make the right decision. With all of the

government handouts and tax breaks the auto industry has been given

over the years, in addition to the hydro-electric dam it was

graciously given at the behest of the Army Corps of Engineers, it’s

safe to assume that we each own a piece of it by now anyway. So why

not public ownership? If Ford’s board of directors and shareholders

can’t run it properly and keep it open as a vital part of the local

economy, then the manufacturing facility and hydro-dam should be taken

over in the public interest. The assembly line can be retooled and

converted for either the production of wind harvesters or clean

electric train engines and carriages and the dam can provide clean

power for the community. So spread the word and bring your friends to

this important action.

****************************************

THE NEXT 3CTC ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM

PROPOSALS TO SAVE THE FORD PLANT

HEAR WHAT MEMBERS OF THE WORKERS MOVEMENT HAVE TO SAY

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 7:00 PM

MAYDAY BOOKS

301 CEDAR AVENUE SOUTH

WEST BANK, MINNEAPOLIS

SPEAKERS:

Alan Maki — Organizer, Casino Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union Organizing Committee

David Riehle — Local Chairman, United Transportation Union 650

Michael Wood — Coalition for Public Ownership of the Ford Plant & Gus Hall Action Club

Christine Frank — Volunteer Coordinator, Climate Crisis Coalition of the Twin Cities

Is the working class getting screwed?

2008-08-17T13:36:00.004-05:00

This is a good discussion taking place on the web site of the "Campaign for America's Future."

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008083315/new-signs-middle-class-collapse#comment-7518

By Isaiah J. Poole

August 15th, 2008 - 6:24am ET

A hearing in late July on the middle-class squeeze by the congressional Joint Economic Committee did not get much attention at the time, but a warning at that hearing by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that what's happening to the middle class is not just a squeeze but a "collapse" is resonating in the wake of this week's bad economic news.

Sanders is arguing for "bold and aggressive" measures to address that collapse in an interview on "Meet the Bloggers," the weekly Brave New Foundation program which will stream live at 1 p.m. today. I will be featured on the program with Amanda Logan at the Center for American Progress.

Thursday's reports on consumer inflation and unemployment claims reveal the latest blows delivered to working-class families by the current economic downturn. Consumer prices going up at an annual rate of 5.6 percent last month, far above the 3.1 percent average increase in income. At the same time, the number of people receiving unemployment claims is 3.42 million, the highest level in almost five years.

With these trends, the legacy of Bushonomics is poised to add one more item to its legacy: "stagflation," the combination of a stagnant economy and rising unemployment that had conservatives in the late 1970s indicting President Jimmy Carter and Democrats in Congress as failures on the economy.

The difference between the 1970s and today is that families earning five-figure salaries enter this dangerous economic period facing record economic disparity.

"I do think this is one of the most underreported issues of the past 10 years," Sanders told the Joint Economic Committee on July 24. "The reality is that in many respects the middle class of this country is collapsing. The vast majority of our people have seen a decline in their standard of living," while those at the top of the income ladder are beneficiaries of a wealth gap between the very rich and the middle class that has not been seen since the late 1920s.

One of the witnesses at the hearing, Elizabeth Warren, a Leo Gottlieb professor of law at Harvard Law School, said that while inflation-adjusted median household income has declined by $1,175 since 2000, basic expenses for average families have increased by more than $4,600.

"Seven years of flat or declining wages, seven years of increasing costs, and seven year of mounting debts have placed unprecedented stress on the ordinary families. By every critical financial measure, these families are losing ground. Without changes in critical economic policies, the strong middle class that has been the backbone of the American economy and the American democracy is in jeopardy," she testified.

The case keeps getting stronger for a new, bold change in economic policy explicitly designed to help working-class families regain their footing. Sanders will outline his ideas on the Meet the Bloggers program, which will be available for on-demand viewing after the live streaming.

Response from Alan Maki:

Let's get something straight...

By Alan Maki | August 17th, 2008 - 1:32pm GMT

Are we talking about the "middle class" or the "working class?

These are two different classes.

You seem to insinuate that "working class" people reach "middle class" status when their incomes rise to a certain level. This simply is not true.

However, for the sake of argument, giving you the benefit of doubt, what is the dollar figure at which a "working class" family becomes "middle class" based upon actual "cost of living factors" because this is what determines "standard of living," not some very abstract claim to being "middle class."

I think you are evading a very important and fundamental concept here... what is at issue is what kind of income does it take for working class families to live above the poverty line... in other words, are only some working class families entitled to be able to afford the necessities of life while others are not; and, thus, we consider those working class families with incomes to provide the necessities of life, "middle class?"

This is a no win argument about "saving the middle class."

The fight needing to be waged is for a minimum wage that is truly a real living wage where one person in a four-person household can work 40 hours a week and the family has the necessities of life... as should be scientifically defined by the United States Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics in league with the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This pitting worker against worker has got to end; it is a no win situation for the entire working class because under this rotten economic system of capitalism the majority of the working class is always living in poverty; and the tendency will always be towards dragging all workers' standard of living down.

In the final analysis we are talking about: the "Standard of Living" of the working class; and rising the entire working class up from poverty.

This makes it absolutely essential that progressives fight for a minimum wage that is based on the scientific calculations of what is a real living annual income.

Depending on the performance of the economy considering ALL cost of living factors which can now be scientifically calculated, according to Alan Greenspan, on a weekly basis, the minimum wage should be legislatively tied to these factors--- all workers should be brought up from poverty; and, as progressives, we should only be concerned with bringing those on the bottom up first... not in maintaining some kind of undefined "middle class" status for anyone.

Workers create all wealth with some substantial help from Mother Nature--- who isn't doing much better than the working class, which no one should find surprising given the greedy corporate drive for maximum profits ... after over two-hundred years of capitalist accumulation of this wealth I think it is time to change things.

Casino workers need two jobs; one job going in debt trying to support a family; another job to pay for gas to get to the first job... I imagine if the facts be told, this is the same situation most working class folks find themselves in... and this is what has to change.

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Most companies in US avoid federal income taxes

2008-08-13T09:57:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Most companies in US avoid federal income taxes

Below is a very short story from the Associated Press, published in BusinessWeek.

This headline says it all: Most companies in US avoid federal income taxes.

This is a very interesting story.

Al Gore talks about "taxing what we burn; not what we earn," conveniently evading the question of taxing wealth.

Workers create ALL wealth--- with the exception of Mother Nature's unique form of help, the working class really does create ALL wealth... this is scientific truth; something which has been known for hundreds of years yet seldom mentioned except by Marxists.

People wonder why there is never any money for things we need--- socialized health care, public education, housing, public libraries, parks and recreation, road and bridge maintenance and infrastructure and child care; well, this story provides a big part of the answer... corporations are allowed to get away with stealing the wealth created by the working class without so much as even having to pay any taxes on this wealth.

This is by design... United States Senator Carl Levin doesn't have to look too far to find out how it is that U.S. corporations are absconding--- running off in secrecy--- without paying any taxes... Levin needs only look in the mirror because Democrats worked in a bi-partisan manner creating this opportunity for corporations to steal the wealth of our Nation; wealth created by the working class... stealing this wealth without even having to pay any taxes.

The CATO Institute has been the primary architect of such reactionary and regressive tax policies and working in cahoots with Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck positions in government agencies and legislative staffs have been stacked with those who have been trained to have a mind-set to carry out this robbery in a manner even slicker than the robbery taking place at the gas pumps.

Of course, the politicians--- Republicans and Democrats--- are both feeding like pigs at the trough... at our expense.

Marxists, like myself, refer to the Democrats and Republicans as being the two-headed monster of big-business for a reason; and this is one of those reasons.

After reading this, no one should wonder why Democratic and Republican politicians tell us no-fee, comprehensive, all-inclusive, single-payer universal health care which is publicly financed and publicly administered is not affordable.

Well, when corporations can get away without paying a dime in taxes as the billion-dollar CEO's and Wall Street coupon clippers walk off with the profits is it any wonder nothing is left for government to meet the needs of society for things like health care, education and housing?

Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands that whatever wealth is created by the working class with Mother Nature's unique contribution, that is all society has to work with... when it comes to wealth there is one pie, no more.

How that pie gets divided up is what working people need to get concerned about.

It is not just big-business sticking their greedy fingers in the pie before it cools as they try to grab what they can without getting caught... the working class is supporting a monstrous military-financial-industrial complex of state-monopoly capitalism which is growing more expensive by the day to support as imperialist wars are waged for oil and to secure cheap labor markets.

Karl Marx pointed out long ago that when a Nation takes the wealth which has been collectively created by the working class and pumps this wealth into military spending and wars, that one might just as well take the money from your your pocket and throw it out into the ocean.

Capitalism has spun a web for the working class and the capitalist parasites are having a feast--- the working class is the victim and it is time for working people to tear this web apart and break free.

Now since it is close to Election Day, Senator Byron Dorgan talks about these corporations having to "pay their fair share." What a hypocrite; for years the guy has closed his eyes, covered his ears, and twiddled his thumbs knowing full well this was all taking place... we all knew it.

We expect the Republicans to do this; the Democrats on the other hand keep getting elected because, like Dorgan and this bunch of Democrats--- in order to get our votes they claim they are different from Republicans, when, in reality, the only difference is the Republicans do what they say they will do for the corporations and Democrats lie about what they say they will do for working people while after getting elected, the Democrats wring their hands and say they don't know how to stop the Republicans from doing what they said they were going to do.

The time has come for working class political independence. This is why I support the campaigns of Cynthia McKinney for President and Cindy Sheehan for United States Congress.

There is no such thing as a free bus ride... big-business is along for the ride without paying the "FARE;" and, no matter how anyone looks at it this scheme and way of doing things is not "FAIR."

This article published in BusinessWeek proves that the working class is paying the entire "F-A-R-E." And this, by design of both Republicans and Democrats, is not "F-A-I-R."

It is all about wealth; it is all about "fare" and "fair." Give the Democrats a dictionary, not your vote.

Something to keep in mind: To top it off, these same corporations paying no taxes, can't even pay workers real living wages--- and, they turn around and fight tooth-and-nail to prevent the minimum wage from becoming a real living wage.

If this doesn't provide some food for thought around the dinner table in working class households I don't know what would...

Alan L. Maki

The Associated Press

August 12, 2008

Most companies in US avoid federal income taxes

By JENNIFER C. KERR

WASHINGTON

Unlike the rest of us, most U.S. corporations and foreign companies doing business in the United States pay no federal income tax, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, and about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

An outside tax expert, Chris Edwards of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said increasing numbers of limited liability corporations and so-called "S" corporations pay taxes under individual tax codes.

"Half of all business income in the United States now ends up going through the individual tax code," Edwards said.

The GAO study did not investigate why corporations weren't paying federal income taxes or corporate taxes and it did not identify any corporations by name. It said companies may escape paying such taxes due to operating losses or because of tax credits.

More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts.

The GAO said it analyzed data from the Internal Revenue Service, examining samples of corporate returns for the years 1998 through 2005. For 2005, for example, it reviewed 110,003 tax returns from among more than 1.2 million corporations doing business in the U.S.

Dorgan and Levin have complained about companies abusing transfer prices -- amounts charged on transactions between companies in a group, such as a parent and subsidiary. In some cases, multinational companies can manipulate transfer prices to shift income from higher to lower tax jurisdictions, cutting their tax liabilities. The GAO did not suggest which companies might be doing this.

"It's time for the big corporations to pay their fair share," Dorgan said.

The future of the "Employee Free Choice Act"... card check

2008-08-12T11:18:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Card Check

This should be posted everywhere for discussion.

Labor supporters of Barack Obama have made "card check" the primary basis for their support for Obama and the Democrats and it know appears attaining even "card check" from Barack Obama and the Democratic Party is in doubt.

What does everyone think of this coming from George McGovern, one of Barack Obama’s most progressive supporters?

Does this portend what is in store from "Progressives for Obama" on other issues?

Do “Progressives for Obama” have anything to contribute concerning this little “whammy” from the Democratic Party?

I wonder how John Edwards responds to McGovern? What about Hillary Clinton? Anyone heard from Barack Obama regarding this Wall Street Journal op/ed piece by George McGovern whose support he has enthusiastically received?

This raises important questions of to what extent lobbyists exert influence over politicians, like George McGovern, even when these politicians are no longer in office.

This op/ed piece by George McGovern should also serve to explain to "Progressives for Obama" that when it comes to working class ideas, policies and solutions to problems there is one heck of a chasm between big-business monopoly interests and the interests of the working class in the Democratic Party.

Like any other pro-labor reforms, card check faces an uphill struggle, even though it has been put forward as the centerpiece of organized labor's reason for endorsement of Barack Obama.

John Sweeney and Andrew Stern along with those who advised us that the closing of the St. Paul Ford Plant was a “done deal” have told us that card check will become reality with a Barack Obama Administration and Democratic Party majorities in the House and Senate… even on the one and only pro-worker policy these people have held out to working people as a reason to “vote Democrat;” this one pro-working class policy is far from a “done deal” should Obama and Democratic majorities be elected in the House and Senate.

This raises the question: Was George McGovern pressured by “team Obama” to come forward with this opposition to card check?

“Blue-dog” Democrats voiced their opposition to card check long ago, something Sweeney and Stern have ignored even as they pump millions of dollars of workers' hard earned money into supporting these reactionary shills.

To think, with all the hard-earned dues of union members being pumped into the campaigns of Obama and Democrats--- including Blue-dog Democrats--- working people will not even be able to leave the voting booth confident they are getting card check as part of the deal in return for their votes; this is shameful.

All these millions of dollars of union members might better be spent organizing a grassroots, rank and file movement against “at will hiring; at will firing” in twenty-eight states, including Minnesota and Michigan.

Better yet, organize such struggles as part of the campaign for national "card check" legislation so even when enacted, "card check" will not be undermined by “at will hiring; at will firing.”

What is most interesting, when I brought forward a resolution on the issue of “at will hiring; at will firing” (in opposition) before the State Convention of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party; Ray Waldron, the President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, along with his sidekick, Mark Froemke, organized the opposition and even after the resolution was seconded to thunderous applause... Waldron was quick to bring his floor workers into action twisting the arms of "union leaders" not to vote for the resolution I introduced calling on Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State's Legislative Caucus in the Minnesota to rescind “at will hiring; at will firing” legislation.

In Michigan, UAW President--- Ron Gettelfinger, in spite of my request to him, has refused to authorize the UAW's lead lobbyist, Nadine Nosal, to undertake a campaign among Democratic Party legislators and the "labor governor," Jennifer Granholm, in opposition to “at will hiring; at will firing.”

I bet even George McGovern is opposed to “at will hiring; at will firing.”

Not one single elected Democratic Party state legislator in any state where it exists, has had the courage to challenge “at will hiring; at will firing.”

“At will hiring; at will firing” is the real impediment to union organizing that even “card check” legislation will not be able to overcome.

Not once have we heard one peep from John Sweeney or Andrew Stern concerning “at will hiring; at will firing” for the simple reason that the pro-business, anti-labor Democrats we all know to be lurking in dark corners would come out of the woodwork like termites getting a good dose of Chlordane. These are Democrats The AFL-CIO and Change to Win put in office.

By the way… card check will not apply to some two-million workers employed in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages in the Indian Gaming Industry… this industry enforces its own Draconian version of “at will hiring; at will firing” claiming this state legislation in Michigan and Minnesota as their guide in “labor-management” relations.

I think we should find out what Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan have to say about all of this.

We need to take a reading of where Barack Obama and all Democrats stand on this entire scenario before Election Day because with the price of gas, there is no use making a trip to the polls on Election Day if we aren’t going to get something for our votes… on the Red Lake Nation Indian reservation here in northern Minnesota people make sure they at least get turkey or a tank of gas for making the trip to the polls because they know they won’t get anything else from their votes… all working people should learn a lesson from Red Lakers.

For anyone who really wants to know what kind of government working people can expect to get from the Democratic Party, just ask Democrats running for public office to do as George McGovern has done with "card check;" state their positions in writing on “at will hiring; at will firing.”

John Sweeney and Andrew Stern are said to be fuming after reading George McGovern's op/ed piece, printed below, in the Wall Street Journal... and justifiably so.

But, at least George McGovern is not going into public office... while Barack Obama and his mixed-bag of Democrats are.

Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Shreck has lobbied hard against "card check," too; this grouping of law firm/lobbyists of choice for big-business which has become a primary component of state-monopoly capitalism and its slavish support for AIPAC is also the major backer and booster of Barack Obama.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121815502467222555.html

OPINION

My Party Should Respect Secret Union Ballots

By GEORGE MCGOVERN

August 8, 2008; Page A13

As a congressman, senator and one-time Democratic nominee for the presidency, I've participated in my share of vigorous public debates over issues of great consequence. And the public has been free to accept or reject the decisions I made when they walked into a ballot booth, drew the curtain and cast their vote. I didn't always win, but I always respected the process.

Voting is an immense privilege.

That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor.

The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak.

The key provision of EFCA is a change in the mechanism by which unions are formed and recognized. Instead of a private election with a secret ballot overseen by an impartial federal board, union organizers would simply need to gather signatures from more than 50% of the employees in a workplace or bargaining unit, a system known as "card-check." There are many documented cases where workers have been pressured, harassed, tricked and intimidated into signing cards that have led to mandatory payment of dues.

Under EFCA, workers could lose the freedom to express their will in private, the right to make a decision without anyone peering over their shoulder, free from fear of reprisal.

There's no question that unions have done much good for this country. Their tenacious efforts have benefited millions of workers and helped build a strong middle class. They gave workers a new voice and pushed for laws that protect individuals from unfair treatment. They have been a friend to the Democratic Party, and so I oppose this legislation respectfully and with care.

To my friends supporting EFCA I say this: We cannot be a party that strips working Americans of the right to a secret-ballot election. We are the party that has always defended the rights of the working class. To fail to ensure the right to vote free of intimidation and coercion from all sides would be a betrayal of what we have always championed.

Some of the most respected Democratic members of Congress -- including Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, George Miller and Pete Stark of California, and Barney Frank of Massachusetts -- have advised that workers in developing countries such as Mexico insist on the secret ballot when voting as to whether or not their workplaces should have a union. We should have no less for employees in our country.

I worry that there has been too little discussion about EFCA's true ramifications, and I think much of the congressional support is based on a desire to give our friends among union leaders what they want. But part of being a good steward of democracy means telling our friends "no" when they press for a course that in the long run may weaken labor and disrupt a tried and trusted method for conducting honest elections.

While it is never pleasant to stand against one's party or one's friends, there are times when such actions are necessary -- as with my early and lonely opposition to the Vietnam War. I hope some of my friends in Congress will re-evaluate their support for this legislation. Because as Americans, we should strive to ensure that all of us enjoy the freedom of expression and freedom from fear that is our ideal and our right.

Mr. McGovern is a former senator from South Dakota and the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate.

Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Framing issues... Framing ideas... Framing solutions to our problems

2008-08-05T11:48:00.003-05:00

Alan Maki's Blog on the official Barack Obama Campaign Web Site:

Link:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/alanmaki/gG5z8Y

Alan L. Maki (Warroad, MN)

Frank Marshall Davis Roundtable for Change

Framing issues... Framing ideas... Framing solutions to our problems

By Alan L. Maki -

Aug 5th, 2008 at 11:46 am EDT

My good friend Sam Webb has published a very important piece of work. I am posting it below followed by a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt and something of mine published in the Madison, Wisconsin "Capital Times."

As you will probably note, Sam Webb emphasized the positive with the Obama campaign to the exclusion of the negatives and the requirements for uniting people for change.

I share Webb's confidence that Obama is going to win; and, I share Webb's enthusiasm for dumping the Republicans.

I don't just think Obama is going to win... I think Barack Obama is going to win in a great big landslide simply because the American people are just so darn fed up with Bush and the Republicans.

I also think that those who are counseling us to "hold back until after the Election" are dead wrong; Barack Obama, the community organizer, understands and appreciates the fact that "out of sight is out of mind." Barack Obama, the community organizer, understands that during an Election is the perfect time to "make political hay" in bringing concerns forward. We shouldn't be timid; we for sure shouldn't be holding back in our thoughts or our actions. In fact, with-holding our thoughts and opinions and suppressing our actions at this crucial time can only be to the benefit of John McCain.

People, working people, are fed up for a reason... actually a whole lot of reasons which Webb didn't get around to mentioning and I do in my follow-up letter to the Madison, Wisconsin "Capital Times" and in my previous commentary on this blog which I re-publish below... followed by what I think are some good suggestions for action which anyone can participate in.

But, whether or not this Obama victory benefits working people and the working class is another matter; as Carl Winter, who Webb quotes so often, drew our attention to while he was the Editor of the Daily World... the newspaper that replaced the Daily Worker and the Worker which Frank Marshall Davis read and circulated among his friends and fellow activists.

Here is Sam Webb's excellent article in the People's Weekly World. For some reason Webb has had a lot of difficulty grappling with the Obama campaign; I don't know why:

Elections ’08: embracing the moment

Author: Sam Webb

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 08/01/08 13:46

The expected presidential nomination of Barack Obama is a path breaking and historic achievement from many standpoints, not least the struggle for equality and against racism. Obama’s nomination leaves an enduring mark on every aspect of our nation’s culture – a culture steeped both in racism and anti-racism.

Eugene Robinson, a columnist for the Washington Post, had this to say:

“A young, black, first-term senator—a man whose father was from Kenya, whose mother was from Kansas and whose name sounds as if it might have come from the roster of Guantanamo detainees—has won the marathon of primaries and caucuses to become the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. To reach this point, he had to do more than outduel the party’s most powerful and resourceful political machine. He also had to defy, and ultimately defeat, 389 years of history.”

The breaking of this barrier says much about the candidate but it also speaks volumes about the American people. While it augurs well for our country’s future, it must be very disconcerting for the ruling class – that class which has been the main architect and beneficiary of racism for nearly four centuries.

People crossed racial and gender barriers in numbers that many of us didn’t think possible only a few months ago. Some said an Obama nomination was impossible, that it would never happen, and that white voters would never pull the lever for a Black presidential candidate. But the primaries proved that the doubters were wrong.

Breaking barriers

The Clinton campaign also broke barriers. Her concession speech was stirring as well as profound in many ways. While we had disagreements (and stated them) with the racist text/subtext in her campaign, it is also true that she captured the imagination of millions of women who in their own lives encounter gender barriers and oppression in the home, work and community. I am not sure if we have taken full measure.

Her candidacy dissolved male supremacist notions disfiguring the thinking of men and plowed away barriers preventing women from playing a full and equal role in every aspect of social life. The struggle for full equality of women won’t necessarily be easy going forward, but Clinton’s campaign did take the fight to higher ground.

Decent and democratic minded people are rightfully celebrating the breaking of these barriers. Imagine how enthused the depression-era communists – those who gave their lives to Black/white unity and equality at a time of legalized segregation and lynching with impunity — would be about these turn of events.

Soberness in politics is essential, but it should be combined with passion, hope, excitement and images of a just and peaceful future. If we are going to err with respect to the significance of the moment and the potential of the coming elections, it is better to err on the side of passion and hope.

Anti-racism at a new level

Most, I suspect, underestimated the growth of anti-racist feeling among white people to one degree or another. Consider this statement by Loree Suggs, executive secretary of the Cleveland building trades, in reference to Obama:

“Go back to your locals. Now is the time to unite. We cannot let any bias or racial thoughts get in the way. If your members have any problem with racial bias, tell them to get over it for all time, but especially now for this election, get over it. We must put Barack Obama in the White House and, if we don’t, we are in deep trouble.”

This may not be typical of changing sentiments of white people in general and white unionists in particular, but it isn’t atypical either. Mass thinking is changing. Again, to quote Robinson,

“[T]he amazing thing isn’t that there were instances of overt, old style racism during the campaign, it’s that there were so few. The amazing thing is that so many Americans have been willing to accept – or, indeed, reject – Obama based on his qualifications and his ideas, not on his race. I’ll never forget visiting Iowa in December and witnessing all white-crowds file into high school gymnasiums to take the measure of a black man – and, ultimately, decide that he was someone who expressed their hopes and dreams.”

While I don’t think that we have fully digested the political meaning of this turn of events, we can still say that the readiness of so many white voters to cast their ballot for an African American candidate in the presidential primaries gives confidence that the struggle against racism in its ideological and material forms can proceed on higher ground and in a bolder fashion.

Beware of rigid concepts

Tightly sealed political categories in this moment are not useful. It is said, for example, that Obama is a centrist or, worse still, a bourgeois politician. But aren’t categories of this kind, even if they capture some aspects of reality, too closed to be useful in a dynamic situation?

Political categories should allow for complexity, contradictions, transitions and new experience. If this is true in general then it is even truer at this moment when politics are fluid and social actors (individuals and social groups) are in motion?

Isn’t it possible for a social group or an individual to occupy more than one political space? Isn’t there something to be said for Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci’s concept of “contradictory consciousness?” Shouldn’t we think twice before embracing cut and dried assessments of social actors that not only fail to capture complexity of their politics, but also impede our political imagination to creatively elaborate strategic and tactical positions?

Assessments of candidates should be informed by their political formation and sensibilities, the movement that has sprung up around a candidacy and the overall context of these elections, including the presence of a powerful right-wing attack machine. Rather than pigeonholing Obama, for example, as a centrist or bourgeois politician, it may be more useful to characterize him as a potentially transformative political figure, much like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr. were. None of them were revolutionaries, but they each had a keen appreciation of the moment in which they lived, they each interacted with the larger movement of their time and they each understood the necessity of expanding and giving new content to democracy and citizenship rights, albeit in the context of their times.

It isn’t ordained that Obama will fit into this category, either, but it is also far too early to foreclose that possibility. Life and struggle will decide.

Appreciating political realities

There is a tendency – especially among some on the progressive and left part of the political spectrum — to nitpick every single position of this or that candidate, including Obama. Some people on the left were apoplectic over Obama’s speeches to AIPAC and a Cuban American group in Miami. It is true that there is much in each speech that the left would disagree with, but at the same time we should look for positive openings that the speeches offer, if not now, then in the event of an Obama presidency. Unfortunately, looking for openings, by the way, isn’t something that the left is skillful at doing, especially in the electoral arena.

There should be an appreciation of this broad popular movement that has arisen around Obama’s candidacy. It has diverse currents and trends, including sections of the ruling class – all of which have to be taken into account. This campaign is also up against a very powerful right-wing attack machine – not to mention powerful and reactionary corporate interests.

What is more, to win, the campaign has to reach out to independents and disaffected Republicans. Without winning a section of them, a landslide victory is improbable.

The broader movement should give some wiggle room to this path-breaking candidacy. Obama is not running for city council in Berkeley or a safe congressional seat. Instead he is running for the highest national office in 50 states and in every region of the country.

Being right in the right way

Communists and others on the left can and should differ with Obama and other Democratic candidates. But the more important question is how we do it. Carl Winter, a former national leader of the Communist Party, said to me on more than one occasion: “It is not enough to be right, but you have to be right in the right way.” By which I understood Carl to mean that Communists, in advancing our views, have to be not only respectful of other people’s opinions and circumstances, but also to present them in a way that deepens people’s understanding, confidence and unity in the context of our strategic objective.

In order to advance one iota of a pro-people’s agenda, the people’s movement has to elect Obama and to enlarge the Democratic Party majorities in Congress. Without that everything else is wishful thinking.

However the focus in these elections should neither be solely on the candidate nor solely on the movement, but rather on the interactions and connections between the two. We should accent dynamics, fluidity and possibilities of the political process rather than dwelling on this or that shortcoming of either the candidate or the broader movement. If the latter consumes us, if it becomes the main thing, we will miss the forest for the trees.

Sam Webb is chairman of the Communist Party USA. This article is based on excerpts from his latest report on the 2008 elections. For more information: www.cpusa.org.

This appeared in the writings of a professor who trains community activists:

Obama can certainly learn valuable lessons from
President Franklin Roosevelt, who recognized that his
ability to push New Deal legislation through Congress
depended on the pressure generated by protestors and
organizers. He once told a group of activists who sought
his support for legislation, "You've convinced me. Now
go out and make me do it."

As depression conditions worsened, and as grassroots
worker and community protests escalated throughout the
country, Roosevelt became more vocal, using his bully
pulpit-in speeches and radio addresses-to promote New
Deal ideas. Labor and community organizers felt
confident in proclaiming, "FDR wants you to join the
union." With Roosevelt setting the tone, and with allies
in Congress like Senator Robert Wagner, grassroots
activists won legislation guaranteeing workers' right to
organize, the minimum wage, family assistance for
mothers, and the 40-hour week.

The entire article is an excellent read:

http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=1215

My own letter published in the Madison, Wisconsin "Capital Times" is more specific and raises specific points we need to discuss because I am sure Barack Obama, as Sam Webb has suggested, shares many things in common with President Franklin D. Roosevelt; and, one of those things is that even though he may personally agree with much of what we are talking about when we talk about the kind of change we need in this country, there are also very powerful financial forces, many of us call it the "military-financial-industrial complex," in opposition to moving our country in a more progressive direction... and, Sam Webb's article alludes to these problems; that is, a lot of big-businesses are banking that they will be able to exert greater influence and pressure over Barack Obama than can, we--- the people. This is why Frank Marshall Davis always tried to make working people fully aware of the class struggle--- bankers, industrialists, war-profiteers on one side; working people determined to create a better life on the other side.

Keep in mind, this statement by President Franklin D. Roosevelt is of utmost importance:

"You've convinced me. Now go out and make me do it."

We are not in a situation where we have the ability to whisper in Obama's ear our concerns. Barack Obama needs to be able to tell his big-business backers, "Hey, fellas; look here, I got all these people out here yelling and demonstrating and raising heck about their problems... I can't just ignore all these people... I have to discuss with them how we are going to solve their problems."

Unlike President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barak Obama the community organizer, understands we have a job to do in mobilizing grassroots working class activists; and because he received guidance from Frank Marshall Davis he will understand that he has a job to do right now--- get elected President of the United States--- and Obama will understand, that as working people who are suffering the consequences of a rotten capitalist system on the skids to oblivion, we aren't willing to go down with the sinking ship.

Here is my letter published in the Madison, Wisconsin "Capital Times":

Obama needs to offer solutions to get working-class votes

Link to article in Capital Times I responded to:

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/letters/296575

Link to my Letter to the Editor:

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/letters/296575

Alan Maki: Obama needs to offer solutions to get working-class votes

Alan Maki — 7/17/2008

Dear Editor:

I agree with the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka that "labor must battle racism"; however, I don't think racism is the main obstacle to Obama getting the votes of working people.

Trumka recently eloquently rattled off the list of problems working people are experiencing. The problem Obama is having convincing workers to vote for him is that he has not put forward one single solution to any of the problems Trumka listed: "when it comes to protecting jobs, when it comes to protecting pensions, when it comes to health care, child care, pay equity for women, Social Security, Medicare, seeing to it that people can afford to go to college and buy a home -- and restoring the right to collective bargaining ..."

Until Obama clearly brings forward real solutions to the problems of working people he is going to have a very difficult time getting our votes -- and this has nothing to do with racism.

For some reason, Trumka conveniently made no mention of the need to end this war for oil in Iraq. Why not? We cannot have an economy of guns and butter.

Trumka also failed to note the other twin evil of racism: anti-communism.

Anyone who looks at the conservative and right-wing bloggers supporting John McCain sees that the attacks on Obama are both racist and anti-communist.

These attacks center around Frank Marshall Davis, the deceased black journalist and Communist Party member who Obama says was his "mentor." Apparently Joe McCarthy has risen from the grave and intends to go goose-stepping backward over the dead body of one of this country's most courageous working-class journalists.

Richard Trumka had better concern himself with both racism and anti-communism, pernicious forms of hate and bigotry which feed on each other and spell a doomsday scenario for progressive working-class politics.

Alan L. Maki

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Warroad, Minn.

In another article of mine published in a variety of publications around the country, and previously in one of my blog postings on this site, I referred to some specific issues:

It is up to working people to clearly chart the course for progressive change and to unite for change behind the agenda we articulate. We need to make politicians understand that they work for us, not the other way around.

Several very basic changes come to mind that I think about:

1.)In the area of health care we need single-payer universal health care which will be a stepping stone to get us to socialized health care. Obama’s idea of health care “reform” leaves much to be desired; he wants to leave the profit gouging insurance companies, HMO’s, doctors and the pharmaceutical industry in control when most of us know this is what is wrong with the system--- profits come before people; and, it should be the other way around.

2.)We need a minimum wage that is a real living wage. Any job that an employer needs done should provide the worker doing that job a real living wage. The way to arrive at what the minimum wage should be is to use the statistics and calculations of the United States Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on real cost of living factors rather than having some politicians pull a miserly figure out of their hat at election time. If employers don’t like this let them do the work themselves; with the robbery at the pumps it won’t be long before it won’t pay to go to work anyways. What’s Obama’s stand on the minimum wage? I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. We need to seize the initiative and make it clear to him the change we want.

3.)We need to end this dirty war for oil in Iraq; it’s a war that was based upon lies and deceit right from the beginning and it has taken a terrible toll, not only on the people in Iraq, but on us here, too--- to the point where we can say that every bomb dropped and every bullet fired is destroying our society, too. We can’t have a foreign policy which sees wars as solutions to complex problems. As far as I can see Obama doesn’t really offer much change in this area either so we are going to have to take the initiative in charting a course for change as we expect things to be and make our voices heard.

4.)We need to make it clear that in any program aimed at “greening” America through massive government subsidies to business and industry, that what taxpayers finance, taxpayers should own--- including the profits.

5.)Public ownership of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant needs to be considered. Saving two-thousand jobs is a major priority for Minnesotans in this election.

In the end, we should see ourselves and our unity as the surge for change, and stop waiting for Obama or any other politicians to explain what kind of change they are for.

Change should be about solving real problems. The people experiencing these problems, you and me, should be able to articulate the solutions… this is what real change is about.

In a democracy people are supposed to be active participants in movements for social change, not mere cheerleaders clapping and waving placards for politicians mouthing hollow, meaningless platitudes about “change.”

“Yes we can” bring about “change” if we get together where we work and in our communities.

Once again I would note what President Franklin D. Roosevelt told a group of leaders from the Communist Party USA and the Unemployed Councils during his meeting with them:

"You've convinced me. Now go out and make me do it."

Of course, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was referring to Social Security.

I am confident that we will be seeing Sam Webb elaborating on the class struggle aspect of the 2008 Elections as we go along.

I do think that this posting from another blog, in the best traditions of community organizing, is the direction we need to be moving in very quickly if we intend to build a bridge to the Obama Administration:

Help Make A Grassroots Movement Grow... Starting a grassroots movement for change is as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4...

1. Get your friends and neighbors together around the kitchen table.

2. Discuss the problem.

3. Make up some signs saying:

"We are fed up!"

"Stop the robbery at the pumps!"

"No more wars for oil!"

"Tax oil company profits to pay for health care, education, housing!"

"Boycott Mobil/Exxon/Esso!"

4. Head out with your signs for your neighborhood Mobil/Exxon/Esso gas station/convenience store.

The time has come to serve notice on the oil companies that we are fed up with the robbery at the pumps and we aren't going to take it any more.

Education.

Organization.

Unity.

Action.

One little raindrop doesn't amount to much... but, let it pour and all those little raindrops sure add up... talk to your family, friends, fellow workers and neighbors.

Whenever possible purchase Citgo gas and oil products.

The time has come to consider public ownership and nationalization of the oil industry.

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.

Some people have intentionally mis-stated my motives in stating my views so openly on these issues.

The right-wing has been pounding away on my blog here for weeks now. Others, who I consider friends, think I should keep my thoughts to myself until after the Election. In all candor, I don't think suppressing ideas is what is called for. I am not going to be bullied from the right; and I am not going to be bullied into silence by those who call themselves "liberals," "progressives," or "left."

As Bob Dylan sang, "The times they are a changin'"... but, the answers, my friends are not blowin' in the wind... we need open dialogue, discussion and debate.

I would encourage everyone to go out and get the two books by Frank Marshall Davis, "Livin' the Blues" and "The Writings of Frank Marshall Davis" from your local public library... and begin a Frank Marshall Davis Roundtable for Change in your neighborhood.This doesn't have to be anything elaborate... sitting on lawn chairs out in the back-yard or gathering in a local coffee shop or restaurant. Think of the Frank Marshall Davis Roundtable for Change as an alternative to the big-business "think-tanks" like the Heritage Foundation or the Cato Institute or RAND... as working people and community activists and labor and community organizers we need our own think tanks.

In his recent book, "The Age of Turbulence," Alan Greenspan repeatedly points out how important his weekly get-to-gethers with the thoroughly reactionary Ayn Rand were to shaping his thinking, his outlook and developing a strategy for American business to dominate the world. We see, and are experiencing, where we are at today as a result of letting the Alan Greenspans of the country do our thinking for us.

In view of the attacks from the right-wing we shouldn't cower or with-hold our thoughts; as President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated on numerous occassions, and as his wife--- the heroic Eleanor Roosevelt--- continued to say in response to right-wing racist and anti-communist attacks long after President Roosevelt's death:

"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself..."

Madame Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, a close friend of labor leader Harry Bridges and the first woman secretary ever appointed to such a high-level government position--- appointed Secretary of Labor by President Roosevelt--- was even more forceful in her response to the never-ending, vicious, right-wing attacks emanating from big-business circles, calling Frances Perkin's advocacy of social programs like Social Security and socialized health care "straight from the pages of the Communist Manifesto;" Madame Secretary Perkins courageously responded to these vicious right-wing attacks hurled at her from the likes of the American Medical Association and the Nazi sympathizers like Henry Ford, "I would much rather see these programs as legislation helping people rather than remaining as words on the pages of a pamphlet."

Alan L. Maki

Initiator of the Frank Marshall Davis Roundtable for Change

PWW: A Good Editorial; no concrete suggestions

2008-08-01T11:05:00.008-05:00

The Iron Range Club of the CPUSA had an educational concerning articles and editorials in our press on election issues: the PWW and PA.

After a lively two hour discussion led by our Club's Educational Director, Denise Lehtinen, we concluded that there is far too much in our press that is vague and non-specific.

We think this editorial provides a perfect example of what is wrong. Noted in the article is support for a call from the Obama campaign for people to participate in the platform process of the Democratic Party.

Not once has the PWW, PA, the CPUSA website or blogs provided concrete examples of platform resolutions.

One prominent MN DFL activist and member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee, Alan Maki, was successful in gaining support for three resolutions earlier this year concerning saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant which means protecting jobs here on the Iron Range, too. Not one word in the PWW, PA or on the CPUSA web site. We ask: Why not?

Maki was also the principal proponent and author of the resolution on single-payer universal health care which was overwhelmingly approved by the State Convention of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party; now part of the DFL platform known as the "Action Agenda." Again, no mention in our press. Even this editorial refers to "affordable health care;" whatever this means.

Maki was the author of a resolution on ending the war in Iraq which received majority support by the MN DFL State Convention delegates but failed to garner the necessary threshold to become part of the MN DFL Platform.

Several of our Club members were delegates to the conventions where these platform issues came up for debate.

We made two primary observations during our Club educational:

1.) Our press and publications did not cover these debates and resolutions which are models of exemplary leadership when it comes to bringing working class issues into the Democratic Party. Or any other party, including our own Party;

2.) There is a huge problem when the PWW editorializes for citizen participation in the platform process but provides no concrete examples for us to work with. Using the writings of Gus Hall, Marx and Lenin to guide our Club discussion we came to the conclusion this presents a major problem.

Why is there no guide to action on the very issues our leadership and editorial writers correctly say we need to become involved in?

In this case the editorial calls for citizen participation in the platform process. Great!

Shouldn't this edition of the PWW where this editorial appeared have provided us with examples of numerous resolutions we could be submitting from all over the country?

During our Club's educational we found members were divided among whom they were supporting for president. This is something we should not find surprising because because none of the candidates or parties have what can be called clearly working class agendas and platforms.

The majority of the members of our Club are for Obama. Some for McKinney and Nader. We have not seen this as a problem as some in our National leadership seem to make it out to be.

The real problem is that our National leadership and our publications have not provided leadership on the issues; on the issues our Party should be united in pushing for progressive platforms in all the campaigns. We want to see the working class united on issues not around personalities unless those personalities are clearly linked to a solid working class platform. The issues are of greater importance than individual candidates where the working class struggle is concerned.

This editorial (see below) states:

"Barack Obama’s message of change, unity and hope – in short, a new vision for America — has important democratic and class dimensions that, if reflected in the platform, could energize millions of people to not only vote but also participate in making that vision a reality."

Unless clearly defined by way of platform resolutions there is no real "vision" of anything coming from Obama. Without a progressive working class platform there is empty rhetoric with no class dimensions.

"If reflected in the platform" is a very big "if." If not from our Party, where will this "class dimension" for the platform come from?

A very serious weakness in our Party has been exposed all throughout this campaign and has yet to be rectified. First there was open support for Obama. Then the Party leadership stated non-endorsement of any candidate. Our publications go on endorsing Obama to the exclusion of bringing forward working class issues.

This editorial from the PWW should be reprinted in an upcoming issue. This time with references to specific platform resolutions. There should be coverage in the PWW of how our Party is participating in this call from the Obama campaign for citizens to become part of the process for change.

Iron Range Club of the Communist Party USA

EDITORIAL: A ‘Change America’ platform

Author: PWW/NM Editorial Board
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/25/08 14:45

Under the title “Listening to America,” the Obama campaign issued an open invitation to voters to organize meetings in their homes, union halls, churches and schools this month to discuss what planks should be added to a 2008 “Platform for Change.” In the past, the Democratic Party platform was written by “paid professionals,” the call said. “This year, that’s going to change.”

Most times these platforms are sterile documents to which hardly anyone pays attention. Barack Obama’s message of change, unity and hope – in short, a new vision for America — has important democratic and class dimensions that, if reflected in the platform, could energize millions of people to not only vote but also participate in making that vision a reality.

After eight long years of extreme right-wing rule, the country is hungry for change.

The stark reality of economic insecurity hitting millions of Americans, while the wealth gap grows between the super-rich and everybody else, cries out for redress. A platform for change needs to come down squarely on the side of working-class families.

Certainly a top priority is national investment in job creation — meaningful, necessary jobs like rebuilding schools, parks, bridges and water systems, expanding mass transit and tackling the 21st century environmental and energy challenges, with livable wages, collective bargaining rights, and priority to the hardest hit communities.

Affordable, universal health care, protection and expansion of Social Security and investment in quality public education are also steps in the right direction.

Global problems such as terrorism, poverty, trade issues, climate change and pandemics all need international cooperation that puts people first, not belligerence, “shoot first, ask questions later” and unilateralism. A new vision for America has to put our foreign policy firmly on the side of peace and respect for human rights, worker rights and national sovereignty. That means a speedy withdrawal from Iraq, and de-escalating other conflicts in the Middle East and Asia.

Americans want a government that is really of, for and by the people. A new vision for America must restore democratic Constitutional protections so badly trampled by the Bush administration, and expand hard-won civil liberties and rights. And it must move to curb the rampage of unbridled corporate greed.

That’s a platform for change.

Aaron Street aaron.street@gmail.com SD61 mydfl
Adam Duininck duin0005@umn.edu Director godspeedyourmusictome
Adam Prock adamp@callmeyer.com SD56 adam_prock
Al Juhnke rep.al.juhnke@house.mn Elected/13A aljuhnke
Al Patton pattonaw@charter.net SEC/Finance
Al Uhl awuhl@msn.com SD65 aluhlsr
Alan Maki amaki000@centurytel.net Roseau
Alex Bajwa abajwa01@hamline.edu SD47 alex_bajwa
Alex Cutler cutler@stolaf.edu SD60 wheresthemind
Alexander Falconer falconera@dnc.org Field Organizer alexanderfalconer625
Allison Myhre ajmyhre@prtel.com Staff - field organizer allison_myhre
Amanda Tempel atempel@visi.com CD5 earthabunny
Amy Beckes amybeckes@gmail.com SD59 ab1414
Andy Hauer andyhauer@yahoo.com SD58
Andy O'Leary aoleary@dfl.org Staff/Executive Director
Ann Darby darbyanna2@juno.com CD7 anndrby
Ann Friedrich annfriedrich@msn.com SD62 annfriedrich
Ann Lenczewski lenczewski@aol.com Elected 40B
Ann White awhitepho@msn.com SD64 awhitepho2002
Ardis Wexler judgeardis@aol.com SD41

Beth Lareau beth@lareau.org (CD4) bethlareau
Betsy O'Berry betsyo@visi.com Director
Betty Cozatt eacozatt@aol.com SD45 libbyanne47
Betty Folliard bfolliard@strategypartners.biz SD45 b_folliard
Bill Davis billdavisdfl@msn.com Treasurer billdavisdfl
Bob Coombs recinvst@aol.com SD45
Bonnie Jude jude_bonnie@yahoo.com SD46 jude_bonnie
Bradley Gess bpgess@yahoo.com SD62 bpgess
Brett Buckner brettbuckner@yahoo.com Staff/CD5 Field Director brettbuckner
Brian Bergson quayle01@usinternet.com SD64 adphimn
Brian Melendez brian.melendez@usa.net Chair brian_melendez
Brian Wojtalewitz brian@wojtalewiczlawfirm.com SD20 bwojtalewicz
Bridget Cusick bcusick2004@yahoo.com SD63 bcusick2004
Buzz Snyder snyderbuzz@yahoo.com SD14 snyderbuzz

Carl/Diann Halverson chalvers@pro-ns.net SD48
Carol Woehrer sussk001@tc.umn.edu CD3 carolwoehrer
Cary Coop coop071585 CU25 coop071585
Catherine Dorr cad1951mn@yahoo.com SD59 cad1951mn
Charles Wilson chasmn@hotmail.com SD61 wilsoncharless
Charlie Underwood charleyunderwood@hotmail.com SD62 testimony4peace
Cheryl Gunvalson cgunval@gvtel.com Clearwater
Cheryl Poling chpoling@comcast.net SD42 cherylpoling
Chris Dykstra duckstrap@yahoo.com (SD19) duckstrap
Chris Yard chris.yardmn@gmail.com Winona
Clare Sorman clare_sorman@yahoo.com SD59
Colleen Clark clclark@charter.net Goodhue colleen_2124
Cynthia Andersen cyndym1617@msn.com SD17

Dan Brown dpbrown@pressenter.com SD64 daniel_p_brown
Dan DuHamel dduhamel@mn.rr.com SD59 djd3137
Dan McConnell dan@danmcc.com SD62 danmccmn
Dan Weinand dweinand@gmail.com Director rad_mongoose
Darren Tobolt darrentobolt@yahoo.com SD65 darrentobolt
Dave Lee chair@cd5.dfl.org CD5 cleemn
David Bly davidhbly@yahoo.com Elected/25B davidhbly
David Cohoes david.cohoes@comcast.net SD44 dist442002
David Kaplan dkaplan@dfl.org Staff dkaplan76
David Strand/Cordy Strand dlstrand@msn.com Aitkin dflstrand
David Weinlick dweinlick@dfl.org Staff - Party Affairs Director minnesota_dfl
David Wiesner vsosp@scc.net SD58 vsosp
Deb Hogenson hogenson@swwnet.com Nobles mndonkey
Deb Pitzrick dpitzrick@dflsd42.org SD42 dapitzrick
Del Jenkins deldjenkins@yahoo.com SEC/AA deldjenkins
Denise Anderson specialangell4u@aol.com SD57 thereisanangel4u2
Dennis Schneider denny@dennyls.com SD56 dennyls
Diane Bourgeois dianecb@visi.com SD62 dinaecbourgeois
Don Bye byelawoffice@hotmail.com CD8
Don Jorovsky donjorovsky@msn.com SD50 jorovsky
Donna Cassutt dcassutt@dfl.org; dcassutt@mn.rr.com Associate Chair dcassutt
Donovan Strong mnfirebuster@yahoo.com CU6 mnfirebuster
Doug Ohlendorf ohlen@umn.edu CD3 dougohlendorf
Drew Campbell drcsoup@aol.com SD23
Dusty Trice lakecountrydem@yahoo.com; triced@dnc.org Staff - CD3 lakecountrydem

Earl Netwal enetwal@mn.rr.com (SD62) enetwal
Ed Caffrey eacaffrey@comcast.net SEC/Platform eacaffrey
Ed Mars ed_mars@juno.com SD9
Eileen Weber weber058@umn.edu SD57 weber058
Elizabeth Wefel ewefel@yahoo.com SD64 ewefel
Eric Mitchell ericmitchell55401@yahoo.com SD66 ericmitchell55401
Erica Schumacher ericadfl@yahoo.com SD66 ericadfl
Evan Cordes demongarik@aol.com CD4 demongarik

Faith Kidder faith@plethora.net SD62 kidderfaith
Fredric Markus fmarkus@mn.rr.com SD61 markusfredric

George Greene unclegeo@bstock.com SD46
Georgiana Ruzich grsrb1@peoplepc.com CD3
Grace Kelly dflgracekelly@yahoo.com Director dflgracekelly

Harry McClanahan harrym@pragmaticsolutions.com SD44 harrymcclanahan
Howard Bass hbass@basspeck.com SD35 hbass1959

Jack Harris jackharris@mn.rr.com SD41
Jackie Stevenson jaxter34@aol.com DNC
Jacob Nelson politics@duskwave.net SD40 jnelson83
Jaime Tincher jtincher@dfl.org Staff - Voter File jaimetincher
Jamie Edwards soul_2_soul_revisited@yahoo.com Director soul_2_soul_revisited
Jan Weir janweir@chartermi.net Blue Earth weir1941
Jane Anderson jgaanderson@yahoo.com SD43 jgaanderson
Jane Dewing jldewing@earthlink.net SD44
Jane Kay janekay@bitstream.net SD43 jck2ski
Jane Miles janemmiles@msn.com CD2 jmjm55077
Janet Krueger janet.krueger@prodigy.net Olmsted puppy_play
Jason Barnett jasonbarnett@earthlink.net SD65 jsnbarnett
Jason Ruud ruudjr@juno.com (req 12-05-06)
Jean Schiebel gigi@tcq.net SD46
Jeanette Martimo jeanettemartimo@yahoo.com SD/CU7 jeanettemartimo
Jed Burkett jed@bitstream.net SD61 jed_dfl
Jeff Larson jdlarson@frontiernet.net SD16 jdlarson_99
Jennifer Edstrom jedstro@comcast.net SD45 jedstro2
Jeremy Kalin jeremy@kalin.com Elected/17B jnkstudio
Jerry Gilkeson mndemocrat@comcast.net SD63 fireflite58
Jess McIntosh jmcintosh@dfl.org Staff/ Communications Director
Jim Bryant jbryant@democrats.com SD67 kc5vdj
Jodi Sterud jssd11@yahoo.com SD11 jssd11
Jodie Benson sergeantdog@yahoo.com SD35 sergeantdog
Joel Bergstrom jpelebergstrom@yahoo.com SD60 joelebergstrom
Joel Jenson jjensen@jjensenlaw.com SD44
Joel Johnson joel.johnson@house.mn (req 12-05-06)
Joelle Riley jriley@lernerbooks.com SD58 joelleriley
John DeSantis john.desantis@charter.net SD32
John Miller peersupport@earthlink.net SD65
John Schultz SEC/Finance Chair ddddave91
John Sherman jsherman@visi.com SD66 jsherman602
Joyce LeClaire jleclaire@charter.net Sherburne c_jleclaire
Judi Gauch jgauch@charter.net SD23 magauch_56003
Judith Gibson judith@juno.com SD66 judiuth1
Jules Goldstein jgold@ties2.net SEC - Constitution julesgolds
Julianne Johnston julieannetj@msn.com SD54
Julie Albrecht julie.albrecht@gmail.com Beltrami juliemaealbrecht

Kareesha Lewis klewis@dflsd42.org SD42 kaylewisdfl
Karla Sand karlaviolets@hotmail.com SD55
Katherine Speer kcspeer@myclearwave.net Director kcspeer
Kathleen Murphy mkathleenmurphy@msn.com kathleenmurphy7
Kathy Farmer kathy_sd25@yahoo.com SD25 kathy_sd25
Kathy Nelson nelso309@umn.edu Director kathynelsondfl
Keesha Gaskins sixfngrs@yahoo.com Director sixfngrs
Ken Beck javalive@charterinternet.com CD2 maxamostetonia
Ken Reine reine_ken@yahoo.com Isanti reine_ken
Kim Kang kkang@qwest.net SD33 kimdakang
Kristi Gottwalt k_gottwalt@hotmail.com SD37 kristianne320

Larry Fonnest dawnviewt@yahoo.com SD45 dawnviewt
Laura Askelin cursedmonkeypaw@charter.net Olmsted cursedmonkeypawthing
Laura Nelson lauranelson@gmail.com SD66 l_nelson20@gmail.com
Laura Nevitt lmn1215@yahoo.com SD64 lmn1215
Laurel Resman laurel_resman@yahoo.com Mille Lacs Laurel_resman
Laurie Hilty lhilty@frontiernet.net SD8 ljh55735
Laurie Pryor lauriepryor@yahoo.com SD42 lauriepryor
Loki Anderson lokileague@yahoo.com SEC/Constitution lokileague
Lori Olson lorio@wiktel.com Director lorio56701
Lori Sellner lorisell@sleepyeyetel.net CD1 lorisell
Lorrie Adams lorrie.a.adams@charter.net SD19 adams_lorrie
Lucy Garrity lgarrity217@comcast.net SD39
Lynn Wilson lwilson154@charter.net Olmsted lwilson154

Mairie Sullivan brigidswells@yahoo.com SD64
Marc Asch marc@asch.org (SD53) marcasch
Marcia Ferris earthylady_brainerd@yahoo.com Crow Wing earthylady_brainerd
Marge Hoffa travalfie@aol.com CD3 travalfie
Margie Hoyt neolotus@gmail.com Watonwan margie_hoyt
Mari Pokornowski mariurnessp@yahoo.com SD18
Marjanas Callery marjanac@comcast.net SD56 doccallery
Mark Frederickson prairiefire4@earthlink.net Olmsted
Mark Viste markviste@yahoo.com SD46 markviste
Martha Wigmore newdlwig@mindspring.com CD6 martha_wigmore
Mary Anne Bryndal mabryn@comcast.net SD42
Mary Markwardt SD46 mmarkwardt1031
Megan Thomas thom0286@umn.edu Affirmative Action meganjanethomas
Michael Dean mpdean2002@yahoo.com SD66 mpdean2002
Michael Lewis demozine@hotmail.com SD64
Michelle Bonnett zoemakes5@yahoo.com SD38
Mike McIntee mmcintee@mac.com allnews364
Mike Meuers riverlot@paulbunyan.net Beltrami
Mike Rothman rothmans@mn.rr.com SEC/Constitution dflcommission
Mike Spellman spellman5593@msn.com SD53 spellmadem
Mohamed Jibrell mjibrell@mn.rr.com (req 12-05-06)

Nakiesha Mabrey nixnmm@yahoo.com SD58 niq4mydfl
Nancy Larson nanlars@ll.net or nanlarspottie@yahoo.com DNC nanlarspottie
Nancy Schumacher nancy236@msn.com CD6 ndsdfl
Nena Street nena.street@gmail.com CD5 nenastreet
Nick Kimball nkimball@dfl.org Staff/Communications nicholaskimball
Niel Ritchie nritchie@tcq.net Director
Norbert Gernes ngernes@yahoo.com SD42 ngernes
Norm Hanson rosevillehan3@aol.com SD54

PJ Voysey pjvoysey@yahoo.com SD37 pjvoysey
Pam McCrory mccrorypam@yahoo.com or skeeters@paulbunyun.net SD4 mccrorypam
Pamela Blixt pgblixt@comcast.net SD62 pgblixt
Paul Hoffinger paulhoffinger@aol.com SD38
Paul Jasmer PJasmer@CSBSJU.EDU SD14
Paul Wright paulw@hutchtel.net CD7
Peggy Hanson mjhanson@acegroup.cc Fillmore phanson.fillmore
Peter Berglund berglund463@hotmail.com SD54
Peter Wyckoff motowndemocratii@yahoo.com Stevens motowndemocratii
Phil Castrovinci philcastro44@yahoo.com Olmsted philcastro44
Polly Philblad pphilblad@mn.rr.com SD50 koffeekrazy

RT Grels rtgrels@comcast.net SD39 baldur7
Rebekah Smith smithrebekah@yahoo.com SD61 smithrebekah
Reggie Edwards reggiesara@aol.com Director
Ric Studer gandharva1@yahoo.com SD15 gandharva1
Rich Kramer rjfkramer@aol.com SD67 eastsidekramer
Richard Blake rkblake13@yahoo.com Itasca rkblake13
Richard Carlbom rcarlbom@dfl.org CD6 Field Organizer sixthcdfield
Rick Moran rickmoran@yahoo.com SD58 rickmoran
Rick Nelson rnelson@faegre.com CD3
Rick Stafford rickatmpls@msn.com DNC
Rita Albrecht ritaalbrecht@charter.net ritaplus3
Robert Young Walser seasongs@spacestar.net SD60 bobyoungwalser
Rod Halvorson halvorrod@yahoo.com Ramsey halvorrod
Rodney Olsen rolsen6376@visi.com SD64 rolsen6376
Ron Mazurowski teacherron@msn.com SD56 ronmazurowski
RoseAnn Zimbro rzimbro@dfl.org Staff/Outreach roseannezimbro
Ruthann Rintala Sawanson ruthann@ars-services.com SD59

Sally Burns sallymb@aol.com SD42 sallymburns
Sam Nelson snelson2@tds.net Kandiyohi
Sara Reller s7r4@insani-x.com SD65 nadia_moadib
Scott Wells sdwells1@yahoo.com SD15 sdwells1
Sean Broom sdbroom1982@yahoo.com MYDFL
Sharon Rickert sharon@holoweb.com (CD6)
Shawn Groth ssng12@hotmail.com Rice
Shelley Madore madore@frontiernet.net Elected/37A shelley37a
Sky Miles skylarkmiles@msn.com SD39 smiles5199
Steve Nelson srnelson@paulbunyan.net srnelson2003
Steven Linnerooth stevendl2000@yahoo.com Chisago stevendl2000
SuJay Rao srao@gac.edu Nicollet sujayrao02476
Sue Moravec sue@mn.rr.com SD34
Sue Moravec suemoravec@comcast.net SD34 suemoravec
Sue Moravec suemoravec@comcast.net SD34 suemoravec
Sunday Alibi sundaebobo@yahoo.com SD47 sundaebobo
Susan Rego regofam@earthlink.net Secretary regofam
Susette Skog family4peace@msn.com SD38 sskog1

Ted Anderson Staff
Terri Griffiths tjgriffiths@charter.net SD7
Terry Kroke tlkroke@yahoo.com Clay tlkroke
Therese Barnett therese1b@yahoo.com Rice
Thomas Kurhajetz thomaskurhajetz@frontiernet.net Pine krhjtz
Tim Bonham t-bonham@scc.net SD62 t_bonham_scc
Tim Morse tim@morse.net CD4 timber6as7
Tim Ward tim@wardo.net SD56 wardo78
Tina Liebling tliebling@charter.net Elected/30A tliebling
Tom Hamilton baldeagl18@comcast.net CD5 baldeagl7856
Tom Laforce tmforce@aol.com tom_laforce
Tom Ross tomeross@comcast.net SD43 arthurpendragone
Tony Doom tony@tonydoom.com SD21

Vici Oshiro vicio@visi.com (SD40)
Vicki Wright vickiwright@comcast.net; vwright225@comcast.net SD38 wrightvh
Vincent Lynch mowercountydfl@smig.net Mower vincent_lynch2002
Vivian Votava oldladyslater@yahoo.com SD56 oldladyslater

Wayne Pulford wlpulford@yahoo.com Director wlpulford