Why does Ken Martin refuse to answer these questions if he wants to be the next MNDFL Chair:

Please circulate widely. If a candidate refuses to answer questions don't vote for them. These are very simple questions.

      Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:42:07 -0500

      From: "Alan L. Maki" <amaki000@centurytel.net>

      Reply-To: "Alan L. Maki" <amaki000@centurytel.net>

      Subject: Questions about your positions

      To: ken@kenmartin.org

Mr. Ken Martin, candidate for Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Chair;

1. Do you support divestment from Israel?

2. What is your position regarding the 41,000 Minnesotans being forced to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws?

3. Do you support Mark Dayton's call for a state owned and operated casino to compete with the Indian Gaming Industry?

4. What do you intend to do to make sure Affirmative Action (as distinct from non-discrimination) is enforced in Minnesota?

5. Do you support socialized health care?

6. Are you for the repeal of "at-will hiring; at-will firing" legislation?

7. What specific steps would you take as the State Chair of the MNDFL to make sure Native American Indians are elected to the state legislature and become part of Minnesota's congressional delegation?

8. Could you provide me a copy of the redistricting plan you support for Minnesota?

Thanks,

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:

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Looking for a good article for a Club education project? Here it is.

Cuba bows to pressure to reform its economy

By Marc Frank in Havana

Financial Times
December 13 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6fc6374-06d9-11e0-8c29-00144feabdc0.html#axzz187qw6wgg

Rising debt charges are forcing Cuba to reshape its Soviet-
style economy, with leading creditor China among those
cheering on the changes.

A Cuban Communist party congress, scheduled for April, will
discuss and likely ratify policies that are already starting
to be implemented. These include cutting 20 per cent of state
workers, cutting social benefits, eliminating state
subsidies, improving Cuba's trade balance and liberalising
rules for small business and foreign investment.

ChartCuba, which is the subject of a strict US embargo and is
excluded from most international lending organisations,
depends on China as a creditor of last resort. Its proposed
reforms are remarkably similar to those typically required
under International Monetary Fund bail-outs - although
privatisation of state assets is not on the agenda.

In a recent closed-door meeting of 500 senior officials
chaired by Raúl Castro, president, Cuba's economy minister,
Marino Murillo, reportedly stated that mounting debt and the
need for fresh credit had left the government no choice but
to put its economic house in order.

A video of the November meeting, called to discuss plans for
next year's congress, is making the rounds of Havana's elite.
Cuba faces rising principal and service charges over the next
five years and simply does not have the money to meet them,
Mr Murillo, reportedly said on the video.

Cuba last reported its foreign debt at $17.8bn in 2007. Most
analysts agree it now exceeds $21bn, or close to 50 per cent
of gross domestic product and 30 per cent more than annual
foreign exchange revenues. Many creditors have tired of
Cuba's debt reschedulings. China is a relatively new member
of Cuba's creditor club, having provided billions in loans
over recent years. But it is now Havana's biggest creditor
and second largest trading partner, after Venezuela.

According to a number of people familiar with the video, Mr
Murillo specifically talks about the need to repay China on
time. Plans to develop oil refineries, ports, railways, the
nickel industry and power generation will require billions in
fresh credit.

Mr Castro's point man for economic reform reportedly argues
in the video that state-run companies should be freed from
government administration and defends plans to shift hundreds
of thousands of workers to 'non-state' jobs such as small
businesses, farms and co-operatives.

'Mixed-capital companies, co-operatives, farmers with the
right to use idle land, rented property landlords, self-
employed workers and other forms that contribute to raise the
efficiency of social labour must be recognised and
encouraged,' adds a 32-page discussion document prepared for
the congress, which will set out Cuba's social and economic
policies through 2015.

Cuba is counting on China and Venezuela to provide fresh
development credit. Some of its debts to Beijing will be
backed by Venezuelan oil as collateral. A diplomatic cable,
released by WikiLeaks last week, describes a US diplomat's
breakfast meeting with the commercial attachés from Cuba's
biggest trade partners. 'Even China admitted to having
problems with getting paid on time,' the cable reported.
'[Officials from] France and Canada responded with ‘welcome
to the club'.'

According to Asian diplomats in Havana, Chinese and even
Vietnamese officials have repeatedly 'suggested' Cuba
modernise and offered their assistance. Discussion documents
for next year's congress, the Murillo video and government
statements all indicate that Havana may finally be heeding
their advice.

Fidel Castro, former president, recently praised China's
'rectifications' and told university students: 'China is
worth studying.'

'Cuba is prepared to take advantage of China's experience in
developing reform and opening up,' Ricardo Alarcón, a long-
time politburo member, added while visiting China last month.
Such words will surely be welcomed in Beijing as it ponders
further loosening its purse strings.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010

A Communist Party Club's activities.

A Communist Party Club's activities over a period of time should include all of these things routinely and cooperatively worked into everyone's schedules in one way or another: 

• Developing and implementing fundraising, political and issue campaigns
• Planning and managing press conferences, meetings and other events
• Recruiting, educating and training activists
• Public and on-air speaking and issue advocacy for candidates and causes
• Managing web-sites, blogs, and other online communications media
• Mobilizing call-in, letter-writing, leafleting, tabling and canvassing efforts
• Writing press releases and articles for broadcast and print media
• Fundraising with "friends of the Club"
• Designing and implementing action alerts, and training citizen lobbyists
• Online organizing via blogs, websites, social networks, and other applications
• Advance work for hosting book tours, press conferences, and events
• Managing legislative relations, outreach/coalition building and mobilization
• Consulting with officials and activists on policy, strategy, and tactics
• Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting
• Newsletter, leaflets and online publishing: writing, editing and distribution
• Managing simultaneous projects but not so deeply involved in so many projects it kills the Club. Choose one or two issues to focus on long term, and be prepared to respond in a timely way to immediate issues that come up.


Leaflets can easily be created by using letters to the editor submitted and published by members and friends. These leaflets can be distributed in the name of the Club or simply as: concerned citizens.


Every Club meeting should include:


- Marxist-Leninist Education
- Planning for action
- Fundraising activities 


These suggestions come from the Hardwood Creek Trail Club-CPUSA in Minnesota.

Have a bunch of "assholes" hi-jacked the CPUSA?

From Political Affairs:


"It must be said that, by any measure, the achievements of the Obama Administration and the outgoing Congress have been impressive. The health care bill is the most significant piece of social legislation since Medicare. The stimulus package saved the country from a second great depression. The financial reforms should prevent a repeat of the worst Wall Street practices in the future. All this was done in the first two years of a young President’s first term. And yet many who supported Obama in 2008 stayed home in 2010, not seeing the compelling reasons or the hope that they felt two years ago."


Does anyone really believe this:


The health care bill is the most significant piece of social legislation since Medicare.


Or, does anyone with half a brain other than Obama's hacks really believe this?


The stimulus package saved the country from a second great depression.


In fact, these are words taken right out of the "talking point" memos being widely distributed by Democratic Party hacks hoping to find someone, anyone, even assholes, who will believe this crap.


Poverty continues to rise as unemployment and underemployment at poverty wages climbs to levels that even if Rosy Scenario were to appear nude no one would give her a second thought or a second glance; the poverty index is out of sight in this country with over 95 million people, working class families, now living in poverty unable to obtain the very basic necessities of life. We are not talking about numbers and statistics; we are talking about living breathing human beings for whom the struggle to survive on a daily basis is now a very real crisis of everyday living and this "Communist" publication called Political Affairs has degenerately morphed into an American version of the French "l'Humanite;" a sick joke-book for the coupon clipping Wall Street yuppie crowd both enamored with the flying saucer seeing little wimp from Cleveland, Dennis Kucinich.


Who the hell is the "left" if it does not include the Communist Party USA as its leading voice? Which means it is up to the CPUSA to provide real alternatives in a timely manner to the problems being experienced by working people instead of cow-towing to the "lead" of a pathetic Wall Street flim-flam man and con artist extrodinaire.


Is it rally too much to expect of a Communist Party to place before an angry Nation the idea that in order to create an economy putting the needs and requirements of working people before corporate profits that and alternative agenda of ending these dirty imperialist wars and taxing the rich and corporate profits to put people back to work employed at jobs solving the immediate problems of the people and society is too much to expect when we have known for four years that the kind of regressive legislation now being offered as a bi-partisan compromise was going to be placed on the table instead of free lunches for hungry school children? Any Marxist knows that you put unemployed people to work solving the problems of the people with the government becoming the employer of first choice to solve the kind of capitalist economic mess we are confronting as a Nation.

Yes; IMHO is always said before an asshole makes a comment.

Has anyone heard any suggestion from the CPUSA whose Economics Commission is supposed to be on the job finding these very alternatives?

Another article in this used-to-be Communist journal written by none other than the self-described "lonesome hobo" himself,  the lead economic expert (LOL!!!!) for the CPUSA declares:

IMHO: Can the left offer a real alternative?

by: JOHN CASE 13.dec

IMHO -- if you really recommend voting no on the tax deal, you need to have a practical, immediate alternative to the immediate impacts on unemployment, and tax rises for workers that will otherwise take place.

According to the "Urban Dictionary" here is the definition of IMHO:

IMHO
	Supposedly "in my humble opinion", this is always said before someone makes an asshole comment that is not at all humble. Much like "no offense" precedes an offensive comment.

If, if, if...

If, if, if… this "iffy" article was published in The Nation Magazine. The name of the writer is unimportant because this pretty much reflects universally held views (excuses) by those supporting Barack Obama and the "good" Democrats as opposed to the "bad" Democrats without naming the "good" Democrats because from day-to-day their names change depending on who gets the biggest corporate payoffs from the Wall Street crowd. So far, organized labor has never been able to match the corporate payoffs so working people have been victimized every step of the way over the last two years... check it out:

If we on the left want Obama and the Democrats to strongly back a progressive agenda, we have to make them do it. If there had been a strong progressive movement such as existed in the 1930s demanding universal healthcare, pro-union policies, increases in the minimum wage, a crash program to create a green infrastructure for energy and transportation and, yes, a progressive tax policy, we wouldn't need to be having this discussion today. Instead of complaining about Obama we ought to be working our tails off to build a real movement that will ultimately force him and a recalcitrant Congress to do the right thing.

The problem with all of these “if’s” is that the writer never tells us how these powerful movements of the 1930’s ever came to be built and who organized these movements.The writer should have went on with his “if’s” to say: If we had a large and strong People's Front to stand up to Wall Street we would have the kind of movement required to push Obama, the Democrats and even many Republicans to do the right things... but, liberals, progressives, the left--- and most importantly, the working class which is mainly liberal with many progressives and a growing left-wing--- is completely in disarray and unorganized; inundated in mass confusion because working class ideas are not getting out there. Anger in this country is definitely growing by the day.

Even though we are told we are all socialists now, Marxist ideas and analysis are not entering the proverbial "public square.

We hear a lot of talk about inequality; yet, the very Marxist point of view that is capable of challenging the very capitalist system which creates this inequality is not being heard even though we are told that Obama is some kind of Marxist--- more lies and confusion added to the pot because Marxists are not being provided a forum to bring forward our views. 

Of course, if we had a large, strong and vibrant Communist Party USA Marxist leaflets, newspapers, pamphlets and books would be circulated and distributed widely in working class communities and places of employment, schools, community centers, churches and at the local supermarket--- if, if, if.  

If we had a large, strong Communist Party USA capable of initiating and helping to organize a broad People's Front we could win the ideological war against Wall Street just as this war was being won in the 1930's. 

If, the Communist Party USA was doing its job of educating the working class as to the real and true nature of capitalism and the consequences of its highest and most barbaric and cannibalistic stage of Wall Street's imperialism we would be winning the struggles for real change. Real change means real reforms improving the lives of working people instead of saddling us with having to pay to solve the problems created by Wall Street's greedy, money-grubbing, filthy rich coupon clippers through austerity measures while bankers are making huge profits from the deficit.

After all, the Nation's debt is the bankers' profit. So, deficits really do matter because if the rich are going to get tax-breaks in one way or another workers are going to have to pay for these deficits made huge by wars and militarism. Oh, yes; no one is asking the all important question of working people... 

If we had a strong and vibrant Communist Party USA the question would be asked of every working class family:

How is Obama's war economy working for you? 

If we had a Communist Party USA that was on-the-ball it would be explained to working people how these imperialist wars are making us all poor while Wall Street coupon clippers get rich.

If we had a strong Communist Party USA it would have been thoroughly and completely explained why Barack Obama is no friend of the people because he works for Wall Street's interests which can never be one and the same with the interests of the working class.

This well-heeled middle-class writer from The Nation is, quite frankly, wrong in stating the "left" wants a progressive agenda advanced in this country because most all liberals, progressives and the left want a progressive agenda advanced in this country. The writer is probably wrong because he is without any connections to the working class--- the class creating all wealth. But, if there was a strong Communist Party USA we would all know who creates all the wealth and where all of this wealth goes and why because Marxism explains the labor is the Father of all wealth and Nature is the Mother and how capitalists get rich exploiting labor while raping Mother Nature. Members of the Communist Party USA join Clubs--- working class "think tanks" and "action centers." These Communist Party Clubs are what make the Communist Party USA strong and when these Clubs don't exist because a leadership of working class betrayal is at the helm pushing Obama down the throats of working people like this well-heeled, muddle-headed, middle-class intellectual with all of his "ifs" but not honestly explaining why the "ifs" exist, then the Club structure of the Communist Party USA falls apart and the working class is weakened without any ability to fight-back against Wall Street's thoroughly reactionary agenda by bringing forward this progressive alternative The Nation writer tells us is needed which all of us already knew before he wrote this worthless piece intended only to support Barack Obama's and the Democrats' Wall Street agenda... which ultimately supports the Republicans.   

Marxist ideology remains the only challenge to capitalist ideology and economics.

Marxism is the politics and economics of livelihood.

Daily Worker special: Workers invoke eminent domain to keep plant open

TAUNTON, Mass. (PAI) - "Eminent domain," the governmental power to take private property, with appropriate compensation, for public use, has been used over the years for economic development, urban renewal and other reasons. 

Now, for the first time ever, it may be used at the behest of a union, United Electrical Workers Local 204, to keep a factory running and workers on their jobs. 

That scene has unfolded in Taunton, Mass., where a profitable foreign-owned company, Esterline, wants to shut its Haskon Aerospace plant. There, 100 workers make specialized silicone rubber seals and gaskets for military and civilian airplanes. 

Esterline, which earned $120 million last year, wants to close the profitable plant, auction off its machines and move its operations to non-union factories in California and Mexico. The company's scheme mobilized the local, which represents the employees at the Haskon plant. Speaking of Esterline, "They'd rather scrap the equipment than allow us to stay in business," Local 204 President Scott Marques told one reporter. 

The conglomerate first offered the right of first refusal on buying the plant to the workers, but then - when they and the union accepted - it reneged on the deal.  That's because Local 204 pointed out that Massachusetts law requires any employer closing up shop to pay for three months' medical care for each worker. 

Esterline then said it would cut the agreed-upon severance package for each worker by $143,000. The union termed that "regressive bargaining" and filed labor law breaking charges with the National Labor Relations Board. 

The charges didn't stop Esterline from going ahead, so the workers enlisted Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank and Democratic Sen. John Kerry. Their letters and campaign against the closure fell on deaf ears at Esterline headquarters. 

So now UE, an independent union whose Chicago local gained national attention for a sit-in at a "green windows" plant whose owner was forced to close when a big bank that got bailout money pulled the plug, is taking another drastic step. It's asking Taunton to use "eminent domain" powers to seize the plant and its equipment, before Esterline spirits all the jobs away.  Taunton's attorney is analyzing if the town can use eminent domain to seize the plant and the equipment, thus saving the machines and the jobs.  Taunton's council asked Esterline to delay its final plans until the attorney reports his findings. There's been no response from the firm.

Workers invoke eminent domain to keep plant open.

What do you think of this?

Should workers be thinking in terms of taking over the more than 3,700 closed mines, mills and factories in this country and producing what society needs?

What does Karl Marx have to say about the "ownership" question?

Phil Raymond, the primary organizer of auto workers in Michigan told a group of Oldsmobile workers in Lansing, Michigan in 1971: 

"In the 1930's we fought to build the unions in order for workers to get better pay and working conditions; your struggle will be to become the owners of these plants and the auto industry. Wyndham Mortimer signed the first union contract for the UAW with General Motors. Since 1948 the UAW and other unions have been moving backwards instead of forward."

A few years ago that Oldsmobile plant was leveled to the ground by General Motors leaving workers without a future.

Suggested reading: 

The Communist Party and the Auto Workers Unions 

Illinois University Press 

[Note: You can find this book used online very cheap or ask your library to obtain it through inter-library loan.] 

Communist Party USA leader Gus Hall called for using the power of eminent domain to save jobs.

Suggested reading:

Working Class USA by Gus Hall

This blog is just getting started... stay in touch.