tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43398681752303033272024-02-19T06:38:47.495-06:00The Daily WorkerA "how to" blog for grassroots and rank-and-file working class activists. Building a Marxist-Leninist network one Club at a time. One little raindrop doesn't amount to much; but, let it pour. This blog is a collective endeavor of working class activists involved in the struggles for peace and social & economic justice.Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-77696638444283710742012-10-10T12:02:00.001-05:002012-10-10T12:02:57.105-05:00George Edwards... Communist and rank-and-file working class activist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The working class and people lost a great leader, activist, and fighter for justice and equality this past week when 94 year-old George Edwards died. While his accomplishments were many and will have positive influence on our lives for generations, what those who knew George will remember most was his all abiding humanity. While a lifelong champion of worker's rights, civil rights, and peace, George was as at home with a beer watching the game, gardening, hiking, camping, or visiting friends as he was at a meeting of his beloved steelworker unionists.<br />
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Born in 1918 in South Dakota, his family moved to Tennessee and homesteaded land in what is now the Great Smoky National Park. His father worked in the Indian Service until becoming frustrated with mistreatment of native peoples.<br />
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George obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, then received his graduate degree from Oberlin Seminary, studying to enter the ministry. After completing his studies, George went to work as a machinist at the huge U. S. Steel Works in nearby Lorain, Ohio, making less than $1 an hour. His goal was to set up a "labor church."<br />
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However, he quickly joined the Steelworker's Organizing Committee, which was campaigning to organize that mill, and joined the Communist Party USA, along with many of the other organizers. He was active as a member/leader for the rest of his life.<br />
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Denise Winebrenner-Edwards, George's wife of 31 years, said, "He was absolutely convinced that the only way working people could achieve justice was for the people, not the wealthy, to control our economy. He saw that inherent in capitalism was inequality and injustice and that the system needed to be changed fundamentally to meet the people's needs."<br />
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After winning unionization in 1942, George founded the local union newspaper, the Lorain Labor Leader, founded a veteran's committee, and was part of the local's Political Action Committee. He was elected the local's vice president.<br />
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When America entered World War II, George immediately joined up, fighting to defeat the fascist menace in Europe.<br />
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After victory, he came back, but to a much different political climate. McCarthyism was rearing its ugly head. Still, George was elected to the 1948 United Steelworkers of America (USWA) convention, where he raised the first resolution calling for an African American vice president of the union. Although this wasn't won at that convention, George was a leading part of the movement that achieved that goal at the USWA convention nearly 40 years later.<br />
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For George, the 1950s were difficult times. Hounded by the FBI, spied on, and ostracized at the union he helped found, his name was even chiseled off of the founders' plaque at the union hall. He suffered isolation and tough times, even going through a divorce.<br />
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However, George used this time to become a photographer, setting up a studio in Lorain, became involved in hiking, camping, and became a serious artist, painting and producing metal sculptures. His metal chess sets are highly valued and are on display as gifts in presidential offices in Vietnam and other nations.<br />
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Even in these hard times, George still found ways to fight for justice. Seeing Puerto Rican workers brought in to work at the mill housed in railroad cars on company property, without running water, heat or sanitary facilities, he invited leaders of the Puerto Rican independence movement to Lorain to help the workers understand what rights they had and to push for decent housing. When African American steelworkers were unable to buy homes in still-segregated areas, George purchased homes which he resold to those workers. As the civil rights and peace movements developed, George jumped on board.<br />
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In the '70's, George really began to put his stamp on policy changes that would shift political ground for all of us. Seeing a lack of democracy, a slackening of the fight against the big corporations, in the USWA, George formed the National Steelworkers Rank & File Committee. It pushed for democracy, membership involvement and solidarity. He literally ran the budding rank and file movement from an old mimeograph machine in his front room, almost permanently having blue-stained fingers. Local committees were formed in Steelworker locals across the nation, mainly made up of younger workers.<br />
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The Lorain committee did not come about because George made great speeches, but grew out of what will forever be known as the "Pink Hard Hat" incident. By now, George was a machinist instructor, teaching young apprentices the trade. But the shop foreman was making life hell for the young workers, harassing them in numerous ways, including forcing them to shave beards and cut their hair short (a big deal for those guys in those days). George painted his hard hat pink, stating that it looked like "the boss's bald head."<br />
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He was suspended for his protest, but the union, especially the young workers, rallied to his side and he won his grievance and back pay.<br />
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This was during a time that the mainstream media all trumpeted the "generation gap," the idea that only young folks were progressive and that if you were older, you couldn't possibly relate to young people. Throughout his life, and especially during this period, George showed this concept up for the lie it was. He was beloved by the younger workers and he fought for them, as well as all workers.<br />
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An important principle of the rank and file movement that George often spoke of during this period was: "We have no enemies that are workers. We are fighting for all workers. We need a rank and file movement always, to involve regular workers in the union. It needs to support union leaders when they're right and push them when they aren't!"<br />
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The rank and file movement that George began expanded and won many gains during this period. The right of workers to ratify their own contracts was won, as well as the election of an African American USW vice president. The movement fought against an experimental negotiating agreement that would have ended the union's ability to strike. The well-known Consent Decree, which ended practices of keeping minority workers in the worst, most dangerous and low paid jobs, opened up all jobs to bidding and brought women and minorities into the trades, was a major victory of the movement. All these had George Edwards' fingerprints on them.<br />
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The Steelworkers union began to shift, becoming the progressive union it is today, mobilizing its members, building coalitions, standing up for solidarity with other workers and unions across the globe.<br />
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After retiring, George married Denise Winebrenner and moved to Pittsburgh. Winebrenner, a USW activist in her own right, was elected to the Wilkinsburg City Council.<br />
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Hardly ready to relax and enjoy "golden years," George spoke of these as "the best years of my life." He was a founding member of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) and was a member of SOAR's ruling executive board. With his wife Denise, they formed a local coalition, Wilkinsburg for Change, which stopped privatization of the local elementary school and pushed for better services and more access for the community to local government.<br />
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George was especially proud of the fact that he was "the first one arrested" for sitting in, blocking trucks carrying copies of the Pittsburgh Press, when workers there were on strike. The strike was successful, especially due to the massive solidarity movement.<br />
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Even into his 90s George Edwards was active, mobilizing steel retirees to rallies for health care and retiree security. When Occupy Pittsburgh held demonstrations and news conferences this past year, George was out front, attending and bringing friends.<br />
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Finally, in his late years, George got something he'd never asked for: credit for his work! He used to say, "It's amazing what you can get accomplished if you don't care who gets credit!"<br />
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Certainly, at least for the rest of us, it was wonderful to see some credit finally go his way.<br />
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At the 70th anniversary of the United Steelworkers union in Cleveland last year, George Edwards was honored with a long, very loud, standing ovation. He was recognized for his work and as the only one present who was at the founding USW convention as well as the present one.<br />
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George had just returned from a USW Civil Rights Conference in Cincinnati when he fell into a coma. At that conference, USW President Leo Gerard had honored George, saying, "He was an activist every single day of his life." The comments were occasion for another long, standing ovation, which brought tears to many eyes, including George's.<br />
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George died peacefully. He didn't live that way!<br />
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He is survived by his wife Denise, a son, daughter, and three sisters.<br />
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Denise has asked that those wishing to send flowers instead send donations to SOAR, or Next Generation (USW organization for young workers). Both of these can go to:<br />
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USW-Attn. Sec'r./Treasurer<br />
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60 Blvd. of the Allies<br />
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Pittsburgh, PA 15222<br />
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Donations may also be made, in George's name, to People's World:<br />
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235 W. 23rd St.<br />
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New York, NY 10011<br />
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Jim Centner, national president of SOAR, probably said it best when he said the best way to honor George is to "live life like George, be an activist every day!"Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-40788399716631055112012-09-22T23:09:00.002-05:002012-09-22T23:09:35.503-05:00Part-time faculty pay reaching poverty level<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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by: Michelle Kern </div>
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September 21 2012 </div>
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The American Federation of Teachers recently highlighted the tenuous employment and poor compensation of part-time college teachers in an article titled: "New report blasts working conditions of adjunct faculty."</div>
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The article spotlights findings of two recent reports. In the first, a survey of 500 adjunct faculty found they are frequently hired at the last minute for courses they have little time to prepare for, with little or no support from the institution. They rarely have opportunities for professional development or chances to share in the collegial culture of education.</div>
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The second report, "Dismantling the Professoriate," paints a bleak portrait of the poverty-level wages and lack of professional support for adjunct faculty, who often make significantly less per course than their full-time counterparts:</div>
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"The median pay per course, standardized to a three-credit course, was $2,700 in fall 2010, and ranged from a low of $2,235 at two-year colleges to a high of $3,400 at four-year doctoral or research universities.</div>
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"Part-time faculty respondents saw little, if any, wage premium based on their credentials.</div>
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"Professional support was minimal for part-time faculty members' work outside the classroom and for their inclusion in academic decision-making."</div>
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Grassroots efforts are also drawing attention to the low pay, lack of benefits and lack of support in a field that has come to depend on the presence of a surplus of "freeway flyers," as adjuncts are often called.</div>
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A "crowd-sourced" spreadsheet at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://adjunctproject.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">adjunctproject.com</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>lists data from part-time faculty all over the U.S., on wages, health benefits (or more commonly, lack thereof), access to institutional support, union membership and retirement.</div>
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Budget cuts are often blamed for the over-reliance on part-time adjuncts to handle the bulk of teaching. Budgets have indeed been slashed in education, but data shows at the same time, the non-teaching administrative sector has grown.</div>
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While college administrations often tout the fiscal advantages of using part-time faculty, they don't apply the same logic to their own ranks. Between 1976 and 2005, part-time faculty rose from 31 percent to 48 percent, while part-time administrators declined from 4 percent to 3 percent.</div>
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College administrators' salaries are several levels higher than the wages of adjunct teachers. Although full professors' salaries may seem commensurate with those of administrators, salaries and wages for all teaching staff have not kept pace, even with rising tuition, as reported by the American Association of University Professors.</div>
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The AAUP says tuition rose much faster than full-time faculty salaries, with the greatest gap at public institutions, where tuition and fees grew by 72 percent, accounting for inflation, while professors' salaries rose by less than 1 percent at doctoral and baccalaureate institutions and fell by over 5 percent at master's universities.</div>
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Meanwhile, the AAUP says, between 2006-7 and 2010-11, median presidential salaries jumped by 9.8 percent, adjusted for inflation, while median full-time faculty salaries rose by less than 2 percent."</div>
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In fact most adjuncts have been hired when universities were not facing budget cuts, the AAUP reported .</div>
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At the same time, colleges are increasingly turning toward corporate models and business culture. And corporations and businesses are taking more of a role in diverting public education funds intended for colleges, and instead directing them to private profit. Cheap and surplus labor is the model for an expanding bottom line in Wall Street-driven institutions and the same process has taken hold of our institutions of higher learning, especially in privatization at public universities.</div>
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Without tenure, adjuncts are among the first to be fired when cuts are on the table, just like temps and contract workers across many other fields. This can translate to depressed wages across the board for teaching staff, higher class loads for the remaining faculty (in some cases throwing teaching duties on "stipend" paid graduate students who make even less than adjuncts), and a decrease in dues in the teaching union locals, attacking their ability to fight educational austerity measures.</div>
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Slashing the teaching workforce in education does not cause the economy to grow or save the budgets of universities in the long run. Expanding wages and benefits and teaching opportunities for adjuncts would bring more regional prosperity, increasing the tax base and helping to grow available funds for education.</div>
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The political will must also be found to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, who benefit from the presence of public universities and a well-educated labor force. Full time and part time teaching staff must forge organized and unified fight-backs, to press universities to benefit the teaching staff who attract students to the school. Resisting the privatization of our public resources will also help reverse the trend of making education jobs poverty-level.</div>
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Adjuncts should not view themselves as "the expendables," but as a workforce that now makes up the majority of higher education staff. If there is a union at your college, join it. If the adjuncts are not organized or not part of the existing union, press to become a part of the union or form an adjunct union.</div>
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Organization is the best weapon against capitalism, which has definitely entered the arena of higher education. The future of our working people, teachers and students alike, is at stake.</div>
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<a href="http://www.aft.org/newspubs/news/2012/082412adjuncts.cfm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.aft.org/newspubs/<wbr></wbr>news/2012/082412adjuncts.cfm</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/oc/septoct12dismantling.cfm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.aft.org/newspubs/<wbr></wbr>periodicals/oc/<wbr></wbr>septoct12dismantling.cfm</a></div>
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<a href="http://dbacon.igc.org/Students/students.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://dbacon.igc.org/<wbr></wbr>Students/students.htm</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.adjunctproject.com/us/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.adjunctproject.com/<wbr></wbr>us/</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2011/features/administrators_ate_my_tuition031641.php" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.washingtonmonthly.<wbr></wbr>com/magazine/septemberoctober_<wbr></wbr>2011/features/administrators_<wbr></wbr>ate_my_tuition031641.php</a></div>
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<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Median-Salaries-of-Senior/126455/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://chronicle.com/article/<wbr></wbr>Median-Salaries-of-Senior/<wbr></wbr>126455/</a></div>
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<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/faculty-salaries-barely-budge-2012/131432/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://chronicle.com/article/<wbr></wbr>faculty-salaries-barely-budge-<wbr></wbr>2012/131432/</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issues/contingent/contingentfacts.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/<wbr></wbr>issues/contingent/<wbr></wbr>contingentfacts.htm</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12066" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.corpwatch.org/<wbr></wbr>article.php?id=12066</a></div>
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<a href="http://cio.chance.berkeley.edu/chancellor/sp/privatization.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://cio.chance.berkeley.<wbr></wbr>edu/chancellor/sp/<wbr></wbr>privatization.htm</a></div>
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<a href="http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-public-pays-for-privatization-ucla.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://utotherescue.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com/2012/06/how-public-pays-<wbr></wbr>for-privatization-ucla.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.aft.org/about/resolution_detail.cfm?articleid=1634" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.aft.org/about/<wbr></wbr>resolution_detail.cfm?<wbr></wbr>articleid=1634</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.themillions.com/2012/08/got-an-mfa-teach-high-school.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.themillions.com/<wbr></wbr>2012/08/got-an-mfa-teach-high-<wbr></wbr>school.html</a></div>
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<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Adjuncts-Working-Conditions/133918/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://chronicle.com/article/<wbr></wbr>Adjuncts-Working-Conditions/<wbr></wbr>133918/</a></div>
Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-33359165548437764672012-08-20T13:52:00.000-05:002012-08-20T13:52:09.497-05:00How capitalism works<div class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
<span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent">How capitalism works explained from a worker's perspective... <br /> <br /> Abba Ramos, a veteran organizer in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union:<br /> <br />
"If they can get a trained monkey to unload that boxcar tomorrow
morning, rest assured, they'll have them over there and they'll have
some bananas for lunch, and you'll be out on the street looking for
work. Simple as that. You've got to remember, they follow only one rule
of economic law, and that's that maximum production-minimum cost yields
the greatest amount of profit. They don't deviate from that."</span></span></div>
Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-76245976711638068242012-08-05T18:10:00.001-05:002012-08-05T18:10:53.186-05:00What we need to do<span class="commentBody" data-jsid="text"></span><br />
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_501efbfddbe2a3871104082">
Just
start leafleting where you work and where you live. I guarantee you
will find some like minds very quickly if you are producing materials
people can relate to. In your community, start with repetitive
leafleting in a two or three square block area. A double-sided 8 1/2 by 11 leaflet is pretty cheap to photocopy. People in your area must read some newspaper?<br /><div class="text_exposed_show">
<br />
I often get invited into peoples homes to meet and discuss things with
their families, friends, neighbors and fellow workers after having a
discussion about the "robbery at the gas pumps" while pumping gas or
"how much longer are we going to be able to afford to eat" while
standing in front of the meat counter in the super-market.<br /> <br />
People are going to have to begin putting their thoughts in writing if
we want people to take us seriously as we seek real change. Only the
written word means anything as far as getting people's attention.<br /> <br /> All of my business cards now ask the question: <br /> <br /> <b>How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?</b><br /> <br /> This question gets to the heart of anti-imperialist education. </div>
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</div>
<div class="text_exposed_show">
<br />Just two or three people thinking along the same lines can get a neighborhood to act. Same at work or in school at a community center in your union or at church. One little raindrop doesn't amount to much but let it pour. <br /><br />We need working class "think tanks and action clubs." Get a few people together who share common problems and this is where social change begins.<br /> <br /> If you distribute things along these lines modified as required, you should be able to find people with open minds:<br /> <br /> This is a very good article: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.counterpunch.org%2F2012%2F08%2F03%2Fsay-goodbye-to-social-security%2F&h=gAQF-ibykAQGbPHL7nZB8vcISoDlNuTSgRuxpKTeIxeaOzQ&enc=AZOHghuY7pQ-P9CpVfqjvgiL2xNauI3oDiNUhX-c8--sKO_iWr3TjK0M51jMXHT8earmfmoFupY11nzFQcv2n_5t43yyhch4A3sdtvb5nMIQFQ&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"><span>http://</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>www.counterpunch.org/2012/</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>08/03/</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>say-goodbye-to-social-secur</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span>ity/</wbr></wbr></wbr></wbr></a><br /> <br /> However one important point is missing and there are several glaring weaknesses.<br /> <br />
Social Security would be secure and could be vastly expanded with real
living benefits paid IF we had a full-employment economy.<br /> <br /> Never
mind economics--- common sense tells us that we can't have millions of
unemployed, under-employed and poverty-wage paid workers not paying into
the Social Security Trust Fund or paying so little because of partial
employment and poverty wages and still expect the Social Security Trust
Fund to remain solvent forever with anything other than very limited
programs and meager, miserly payouts.<br /> <br /> I would also note that
while this writer acknowledges the good work done by economist John
Kenneth Galbraith, he fails to observe what Galbraith believed to be
primary: ending militarism and wars so society could reap the benefits
of "peace dividends" in order to create huge government programs like
National Public Health Care and National Public Child Care which would
create tens of millions of new jobs providing services that are really
needed--- unlike militarism and war which we need like we need holes in
our heads.<br /> <br /> I think this article is good but needs to be strengthened.<br /> <br />
John Kenneth Galbraith was an honest liberal and among the present crop
of intellectuals honesty--- liberal or otherwise--- is difficult to
come by as most seemed to be influenced in their "thinking" more by the
size of their pay-checks than the common good as is readily apparent
from all these phony liberals, progressives and leftist intellectuals
supporting a warmonger like Obama determined to make the working class
pay for Wall Street's imperialist wars through austerity measures such
as cutting and slashing needed social programs--- everything from public
education to Social Security and even Medicaid and Medicare when the
state goal of the Affordable Care Act was supposed to be to strengthen
Medicaid and Medicare... more lies.<br /> <br /> I would also point out that
John Kenneth Galbraith's son, James Kenneth Galbraith, is more on the
progressive side than his father was.<br /> <br /> Here is an excellent article written by James Kenneth Galbraith (written in 2009):<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonmonthly.com%2Ffeatures%2F2009%2F0903.galbraith.html&h=3AQEUQYUDAQFMtC6tQAORfzYeQIbi0s_vIpKre-n75Yv6jA&enc=AZO-0gWm-eRD94RqDt9OSlZJKkIkRsJ7mPfF6EoraTgdbJ1zsyOYrNK7oygEi7mLjgr6rkhurxHI4V8u7my6ddcswzG61Ih9bxdlS2Xr3_EdkA&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"><span>http://</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>www.washingtonmonthly.com/</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>features/2009/</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span>0903.galbraith.html</wbr></wbr></wbr></a><br /> <br /> And more recently--- 2012--- aptly titled, "We told you so:"<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthdig.com%2Freport%2Fitem%2Fwe_told_you_so_20120518%2F%2F&h=OAQEzmWMQAQEVB51QhoXMXRS01g3rMxY3QzkRCYuvayi6Dw&enc=AZMprzYoFE6yXVbxDVJOhjfHIxps2NG6ivhKVYsDhV9NDfaKXSR--5fvkjx2Kl8otbz9pjOzWzbRaVlYHSe7PrbjVU3UTgHwbUNarNATMnfotg&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"><span>http://www.truthdig.com/</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>report/item/</span><wbr><span class="word_break"></span>we_told_you_so_20120518//</wbr></wbr></a><br /> <br />
I would also note that John Kenneth Galbraith never hesitated to bring
Marxists into discussions with him on economic matters which provided
greater insight to problems and served to strengthen democracy while
educating the public.<br /> <br /> John Kenneth Galbraith even wrote a book together with a noted Soviet Marxist-Leninist economist.<br /> <br />
John Kenneth Galbraith constantly pointed out that it was wrong to
think modern societies can have both "guns and butter." This from a man
who had experience managing a war-time economy at the beginning of World
War II.<br /> <br /> Obama has rejected even the most liberal/progressive
economic advice in favor of the reactionary advice he receives from
those most loyal to Wall Street's greedy, parasitical, money-grubbing
interests which always lead to conflict and wars.<br /> <br /> Alan L. Maki</div>
</div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-26169827211797359182012-06-14T06:51:00.002-05:002012-06-14T06:51:43.595-05:00Native Americans left out of economic recovery, as alwaysAlbert Bender, a columnist for News From Indian Country, writing in
the Communist Party's publication--- The People's World, wrote about
Native American unemployment in Indian Country and Obama. I wonder why
so few publications carried this article?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://peoplesworld.org/native-americans-left-out-of-economic-recovery-as-always-2/">http://peoplesworld.org/native-americans-left-out-of-economic-recovery-as-always-2/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h1 class="pageTitle span-12">
Native Americans left out of economic recovery, as always</h1>
<div class="author">
by:
<a class="s-serif" href="http://peoplesworld.org/new-biography-3">Albert Bender</a>
</div>
<span class="date">June 11 2012</span>
<br />
<br />
Up until the past few weeks, there had been a lot of hoopla about a
blossoming economic recovery. Job creation for the early part of the
year had been averaging 200,000 a month. (Keep in mind, though, that
responsible economists maintain that 345,000 jobs per month are needed
for at least two years to get back to even five percent unemployment -
and the latest numbers for May show only 69,000 jobs created.)<br />
<br />
Indian America, looking at the historical record, would have found
little reason to rejoice at the so-called "good economic news." Why?
Because historically, economic recovery, as a national news pundit
recently said, "is growth for white America, but there will still be
three times the unemployment rate for blacks and Hispanics."<br />
<br />
But that statistic can look good, considering that the Native
American unemployment rate would be 10x greater than the white jobless
rate. Indeed, as is well known in Native circles, on reservations across
the nation the unemployment for Native Americans routinely ranges from
80-90 percent - and this has been the economic situation for
generations. For urban Native Americans, the jobless rate averages
around 48 percent. In general, Indian Country is in a permanent
depression even when the national economy is on the upswing.<br />
<br />
But once again it seems the economy was just having another false
start, as in the last couple of years, and now appears at the edge of
falling off the economic cliff. I cannot but take wry satisfaction in a
failing recovery, a recovery that bypasses Native American misery.<br />
<br />
The above quoted statistics of Native unemployment are years old
because reservations in particular and urban Native Americans in
general, incredibly, have been purposely excluded from government
employment data since 2005. To cite a not atypical example, South Dakota
has nine reservations, with unemployment ranging from a "low" of 12
percent on one smaller reservation to 89 percent on the largest
reservation. These figures were last compiled in 2005. South Dakota's
overall unemployment rate is 4.7 percent, exclusive of reservations.<br />
<br />
Native American joblessness is so high, it is off the charts. It is
so staggering and is not compiled because to do so would be an
additional stunning moral indictment of U.S. government treatment of
Native Americans.<br />
<br />
The last absurd excuse given by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics for not collecting American Indian employment data was that
there was no money in the government budget for such compilation.<br />
<br />
This government attitude is highlighted by the fact that as far back
as 1990, in statistical tables from the U.S. Bureau of Census that
contained information on American Indians, African Americans, Asian
Americans and others, the category "American Indian unemployed"
contained, instead of numbers, the letters MD=Missing Data. No other
population had such a classification. Again, this was a shocking, clumsy
attempt to hide astronomical unemployment.<br />
<br />
The position of the Obama administration to combat joblessness in
American Indian communities and others of color is that an economic
recovery will uplift all the jobless; a strong, robust economy will
translate into jobs for all. This simply will not work due to the
institutional racism endemic in American society. The very disturbing
question is who always gets the lion's share of the jobs even when the
economy is on the upswing? Whites have always received a
disproportionate share of jobs.<br />
<br />
To cite an example of who does not get the jobs: In early March, the
mainstream media was touting apparent job gains, but noted that Latinos
were being bypassed. The national jobless rate dropped to about 8.1
percent, but the Latino unemployment rate remained at 10.6 percent. The
white jobless rate dropped to 7.9 percent. Incredibly, the media posed
the question: Why the disparity? - and remarked that economists and
labor experts also weren't sure.<br />
<br />
More absurdity: the 'experts' subsequently stated they simply didn't
know. Whites have always gotten the lion's share of employment. Without
massive employment programs for communities of color, this will
continue. After all, white Americans have for over 200 years had their
own special "jobs programs" - racism. Communities of color, in
particular those of Native Americans, need affirmative action jobs
programs; otherwise, "economic recovery" will do little to remedy Native
American joblessness.Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-68640000657799472772012-04-10T09:58:00.002-05:002012-04-10T09:58:54.499-05:00U.S. imperialism and Harry S. Truman's dirty little secret<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td class="view_t">Education and 4.3 </td> </tr>
<tr> <td class="view_sub_t">Nearly six decades later, many Koreans are still in the dark</td><td class="view_sub_t"> </td><td class="view_sub_t"> </td><td class="view_sub_t"> </td><td class="view_sub_t"> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td height="5"><br />
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr> <td width="5"><img height="25" src="http://www.jejuweekly.com/image2006/default/newsdaybox_top.gif" width="11" /></td> <td bgcolor="EFEFEF"><span style="font-size: 8pt; letter-spacing: -0.3;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 돋움;">Monday, April 09, 2012, 15:03:57</span></span></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="EFEFEF"> <span style="font-size: 8pt; letter-spacing: -0.3;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 돋움;">Lauren Flenniken</span> <a href="http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/mailto.html?mail=contributor@jejuweekly.com"><img border="0" src="http://www.jejuweekly.com/image2006/default/btn_sendmail.gif" /> <span style="color: #666666; font-family: arial;">contributor@jejuweekly.com</span></a></span></td> <td width="5"><img height="25" src="http://www.jejuweekly.com/image2006/default/newsdaybox_dn.gif" width="11" /></td> </tr>
</tbody></table></td> </tr>
<tr> <td height="15">http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2541</td> </tr>
<tr> <td class="view_r" id="articleBody"><br />
Until about a decade ago, Korean Law prohibited people from talking about the Jeju Massacre or anything related to April 3rd or communism. This has resulted in a historical void in regard to the seven years of armed conflict on the island between 1948 and 1954.<br />
<br />
In 1948, shortly after South Korea was established, the South Korean National Assembly passed the National Traitors Act which outlawed the Workers Party of South Korea and vilified any act or persons deemed socialist. <br />
<br />
For nearly 50 years after the Jeju Massacre, Korean citizens could be arrested, beaten, and jailed for merely mentioning it. For nearly four decades, the Jeju Massacre was ignored by the government. And it was only in 1992, with the discovery of the remains of massacre victims in Darangshi cave, that the massacre began to receive national attention. In response, the government ordered the cave sealed as an act to further suppress this horrible scar in Korean history.<br />
<br />
It wasn’t until April 2006 that the survivors and the families of massacre victims received any apology, recognition or compensation when then President Roh Moo Hyun, made the first public apology to the citizens of Jeju and the remaining survivors. However, six years after President Roh’s apology, Korean citizens still do not know the events surrounding what is known by Korean as 4.3.<br />
<br />
In 1987 democracy was brought to Korea which resulted in social and political movements lead by students, journalists, and activists motivated by their desire to uncover the truth surrounding the events of 4.3. In 2000, the South Korean government created the South Korean Truth Commission which was established to investigate these “lost” historical events. Still, many of the facts surrounding the event’s of the Jeju Massacre are little known, if at all, to South Korean citizens. <br />
<br />
In a previous article by The Jeju Weekly dated Jan. 15, 2010 (Issue 17), a history teacher from the mainland stated that the general public does not know about the massacre and choose not to bother themselves with this tragic imagery. However, a younger generation of Koreans seem to disagree.<br />
<br />
Seoul resident Nam Hyuna, 32, stated that she had not been taught anything about the Jeju Massacre before she entered college and even then, she was taught very little. When asked what she knew about the event Nam responded that she “can’t say anything [about 4.3] because there is not enough info about that event. Media and people say different things.” <br />
<br />
Like many other young Koreans, Nam would love to learn more about this important part of Korean history. “It would be great to know [about this] part of Korean history,” she said, adding that she hopes the Korean government will investigate and reveal the truth about 4.3. <br />
<br />
For Jeju residents, knowledge regarding the 4.3 events is more commonplace even though it is not officially taught in school. When asked about 4.3 a local high school student said, “It is very basic knowledge for [a] Jeju person!” but admitted that “it is not regulation curricular” and that when it does come up in school, it is only given a small amount of time in the classroom.<br />
<br />
<em>In researching this story, The Jeju Weekly approached the Ministry of Education for comment about the Jeju Massacre and the national school curriculum, but as of publication The Weekly had not received a reply. — Ed.</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-16666868067584396912012-03-28T18:53:00.005-05:002012-03-28T18:53:04.310-05:00Global Day of Action on Military Spending<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"> <span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=388051237880894&set=o.214237379814&type=1&theater" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span>https://www.facebook.com/</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>photo.php?fbid=388051237880894&</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>set=o.214237379814&type=1&thea</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>ter</a></span></h6><div class="mvm uiStreamAttachments clearfix fbMainStreamAttachment" data-ft="{"type":10}"><div class="UIImageBlock clearfix"><a class="uiPhotoThumb uiAttachmentMedia UIImageBlock_Image UIImageBlock_MED_Image" data-ft="{"type":41}" href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=388051237880894&set=o.214237379814&type=1&ref=nf" rel="theater" target="" title=""><img alt="" class="img" height="99" src="http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/s320x320/541913_388051237880894_100000280620157_1432686_343561542_n.jpg" width="121" /></a><div class="UIImageBlock_Content UIImageBlock_MED_Content fsm fwn fcg"><div class="uiAttachmentTitle" data-ft="{"type":11}"><strong></strong> </div><span class="caption"><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_4f73a0e102f780f46278784">Fwd: Global Day of Action on Military Spending<br />
<br />
Bruce Gagnon blog<br />
TUESDAY, MARCH<span class="text_exposed_show"> 27, 2012<br />
IMPORTANT ACTION DATE COMING SOON<br />
<a href="http://www.space4peace.blogspot.com/2012/03/important-action-date-coming-soon.html" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank"><span>http://</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>www.space4peace.blogspot.com/</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>2012/03/</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span><span>important-action-date-coming-so</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>on.html</a><br />
<br />
'Organize a local action on April 17 in conjunction with groups all over the world calling for an end to militarism. <br />
<br />
Fund human needs! Protect the environment! Convert the military industrial complex to peaceful and sustainable production!<br />
<br />
Join hands around the globe.'<br />
<br />
<span> ..............................</span><wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>.............<br />
<br />
Here for Jeju, Boycott, Samsung that builds the naval base in Jeju, produces and exports arms to the poorer countries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br />
<br />
Image is thanks to the Gangjeong village website, kangjung.com. It is a sign held in Catholic mass, Seoul (informed thanks to Regina Pyon). The sign reads:'Samsung destroys the Gangjeong village and blasts the Gureombi Rock.' A sign held by people in Catholic mass in Seoul</span></div></span><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"><div><div class="fsm fwn fcg">By: <span class="uiAttachmentDetails" data-ft="{"type":12}"><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100000280620157" href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000280620157" id="js_0">Sung-Hee Choi</a></span></div></div></div></div></div></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-7899182102197342222012-01-14T14:06:00.002-06:002012-01-14T14:06:07.808-06:00When will liberals, progressives and leftists become seriously and fully engaged in the electoral process?When will liberals, progressives and leftists actually become fully engaged in the electoral process?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://my.firedoglake.com/alanmaki/2012/01/14/when-will-liberals-progressives-and-leftists-actually-become-fully-engaged-in-the-electoral-process/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://my.firedoglake.com/alanmaki/2012/01/14/when-will-liberals-progressives-and-leftists-actually-become-fully-engaged-in-the-electoral<span class="text_exposed_show">-process/</span></a><span class="text_exposed_show"><br />
<br />
By: Alan Maki Saturday January 14, 2012 12:39 pm<br />
<br />
Rocky Anderson and Jill Stein have just as much of a chance of being elected as Ron Paul. And so does Darcy Richardson.<br />
<br />
You know, losing is losing; it really doesn't matter how much you lose by if you leave behind an organized movement ready to meet the next electoral challenge.<br />
<br />
Ron Paul is a fascist but he and his John Birch Society are not exactly a bunch of dummies--- after all, they have hoodwinked what looks to be thousands of progressives across this country into building a fascist base for them. People who were first hoodwinked into supporting Obama and now, disappointed with Obama, hoodwinked again to support this rotten racist Bircher Ron Paul. <br />
<br />
The important difference between supporting Ron Paul and supporting Rocky Anderson, and most notably Jill Stein and Darcy Richardson, is that you are participating in building a progressive movement that will bode us well beyond 2012.<br />
<br />
If you really want Ron Paul to have a chance at winning why don't all of you Ron Paul supporters just order publications from the racist and anti-Semitic John Birch Society to pass out since Ron Paul's victory would require a mass fascist base? <br />
<br />
Obviously the likes of PDA, Progressives for Obama, Campaign for America's Future are really NOT for building a progressive base in the Democratic Party as they claim or else they would get behind the campaign of a real progressive Democrat like Darcy Richardson who is challenging Obama in the primaries; plus Darcy is not only a true progressive, he is a proven vote-getter. <br />
<br />
While those of you who are spending your time (actually wasting your time organizing a fascist movement that stands in opposition to everything you say you are for by supporting Ron Paul), Darcy Richardson needs 8,000 signatures by January 31 to get on the ballot in Wisconsin.<br />
<br />
We are talking Wisconsin here. I'm sure everyone knows what has been happening in Wisconsin.<br />
<br />
This would require only 80 people collecting signatures for one weekend.<br />
<br />
In terms of dollars this would only cost about $7,000.00 to $9,000.00. This would cover gas, leaflets, food and lodging for 80 people for one weekend of petitioning.<br />
<br />
For less than $10,000.00 we can put someone like Darcy Richardson on the ballot in Wisconsin. <br />
<br />
For less than another $50,000.00 we can then develop real progressive opposition to Obama in the Democratic Primary in Wisconsin.<br />
<br />
Think about this: 600 people contributing $100.00 each could punish Obama in Wisconsin and simultaneously be building the progressive movement; not only in Wisconsin but serve as an example of what progressives can accomplish across the country.<br />
<br />
If the Wisconsin Democratic Party really believed in just the concept of democracy they could have placed Darcy Richardson's name on the Wisconsin primary ballot at no cost to them or anyone. But, the Democratic Party doesn't believe in democracy. What a dangerous thought; that voters casting their ballots at a primary election should actually have more than one person to vote for. Wouldn't that be just the pits to have more than one candidate in a Primary Election?<br />
<br />
When the Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Mike Tate, was asked to place another name on the ballot his response was, "Only Obama's name will be on the Primary ballot... if you don't like it, sue me." I suppose someone is going to ask me to prove this by providing a link?<br />
<br />
Does anyone except Obama supporters who believe Obama has delivered us into a "Wonderful New World" have any reason to believe Darcy Richardson's name should not be placed on the Wisconsin Primary ballot? If anyone has a reason I would like to hear it. <br />
<br />
If there are no reasons not to put Darcy's Name on the ballot then what are we waiting for?<br />
<br />
All it would take is 900 people contributing $10.00 each to put Darcy Richardson's name on the ballot by January 31.<br />
<br />
Are any of you Ron Paul supporters willing to put up the money?<br />
<br />
How about it? Are you willing to pull $10.00 out of your pocket?<br />
<br />
I am guessing that if FireDogLake made a special appeal as was done for OWS and the New Progressive Alliance were to join in and we all made pitches on our blogs, facebook pages and put our e-mail lists into action along with make some quick visits to a few friends we could do this.<br />
<br />
No one would be paid; all we would be doing is covering the expenses for 80 people for one weekend.<br />
<br />
Wisconsin law stipulates that a minimum of 1,000 signatures (and no more than 1,500) MUST come from each one of the 8 Congressional Districts in Wisconsin.<br />
<br />
If someone will volunteer to take on the responsibility of raising the money, I will volunteer to recruit 80 people to go to Wisconsin to place Darcy Richardson's name on the Primary ballot.<br />
<br />
Of course, we could just forget about the fundraising and 80 to 120 people could come together in Wisconsin to help put Darcy Richardson's name on the Wisconsin Democratic Party Primary Election Ballot.<br />
<br />
Come on; are we willing to give real progressive politics a chance?<br />
<br />
Interested? Give me a call---<br />
<br />
-- <br />
Alan L. Maki<br />
Director of Organizing,<br />
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council<br />
<br />
58891 County Road 13<br />
Warroad, Minnesota 56763<br />
<br />
Phone: 218-386-2432<br />
Cell: 651-587-5541<br />
<br />
Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net<br />
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com<br />
<br />
Blog: <a href="http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/</a></span>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-6111054860611485432011-12-18T10:19:00.000-06:002011-12-18T10:19:02.086-06:00It has "occurred" to many of us that something is drastically out of kilter in this country... What are we going to do about it?Cindy Sheehan posted this on her FaceBook wall today:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
"It occurs to me after another "end" to the "war" in Iraq; my son and hundreds of thousands of other people are dead for absolutely nothing good. Dead for lies for profit."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I think this is "occurring" now to many people especially as we see the Iraqi people celebrating U.S. troops leaving their country by burning U.S. flags as the same corporate owned U.S. MainStreamMedia that force-fed us all the lies about why this dirty imperialist war was needed is trying to feed us another lie that "the U.S. flag is being brought home."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Now tax-payer funded mercenaries provided the name of "contractors" have been charged with the effort to "maintain law-and-order" as the Iraqi people complete their civil war over whether multi-national corporations will rob them of their oil using them as sources of cheap labor.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As the great anti-imperialist Mark Twain explained, "I wasn't an anti-imperialist until our government got involved in the Spanish-American War."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Now that it is "occurring" to many people here at home and around the world that this war (an imperialist war) has been fought for the exact same reasons as the Spanish American War--- to secure cheap natural resources and regional domination for "policing" these areas of the world to maintain Wall Street's ability to reap maximum profits, the American people are now getting the bill to pay for it all via the most draconian austerity measures being imposed by Obama, we will no doubt find many people saying, "I wasn't an anti-imperialist until the war in Iraq."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Something to think about: After over one-hundred years we are still paying for this country's very first imperialist war--- the Spanish American War--- and we still have the U.S. military "policing" both the Philippines and Puerto Rico.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The United States government honors Mark Twain with a "Forever" postage stamp without so much as a mention that he was a great anti-imperialist who tried to warn the American people about the need to resist imperialist wars while encouraging us to join the struggles in solidarity with the victims of these imperialist wars lest we become the victims of these dirty imperialist wars ourselves.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
We have had many great anti-imperialists amongst us--- from Mark Twain to General Smedley Butler to W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson and Albert Einstein who the despicable pervert J. Edgar Hoover viciously smeared and attacked for his anti-imperialist activities as "having more Communist friends than Joseph Stalin."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
A dirty, corrupt, profit-driven Wall Street government can only continue to get us involved in imperialist war after imperialist war. Wall Street is our enemy and the enemy of peoples everywhere.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The time has come for the 99% to challenge Wall Street for power.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
A good, solid, united anti-imperialist movement in this country would go a long way towards driving these Wall Street shills like Obama from power.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Anti-imperialist education, organization, struggle and solidarity... Forever.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Mark Twain should be honored with more than his picture on a postage stamp if we are ever going to live in peace and cooperation with the rest of the world.Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-49662109572596174652011-11-03T09:33:00.000-05:002011-11-03T09:33:02.865-05:00Tell Richard Trumka, Leo Gerard, Amy Dean, Joe Hansen and Jimmy Hoffa to get up off their asses and strike while the iron is hot<div><h2 class="uiHeaderTitle">by <a href="http://www.facebook.com/alan.l.maki">Alan L. Maki</a> on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 9:01am</h2></div><div class="mbl notesBlogText clearfix"><div>Now is the time for working people to move into action against Wal-mart with a massive organizing campaign. In my opinion, any campaign to boycott Wal-mart at this time should be in conjunction with a full-scale international union organizing campaign with Wal-mart being taken on by workers across the globe. With Occupy Wall Street spreading across the globe like a prairie fire on a windy day, this would be a perfect time to launch an international campaign to organize Wal-mart workers. Wal-mart is now the largest employer in the world--- what better target for Occupy Wall Street than one of the largest and most profitable of Wall Street's multi-national companies? All the ingredients are now here for a victory--- Wal-mart workers want a union and there is massive anti-Wall Street sentiment sweeping the globe which would make a consumer boycott very effective. I think people like Richard Trumka, Leo Gerard and Amy Dean need to be explaining why they are not thinking along these lines and throwing all their resources into this kind of working class struggle instead of pissing away the money of union members supporting Barack Obama who is obviously Wall Street's president. Wal-mart brings its products into this country by ship in containers from the low-wage areas of the world where these commodities are being produced and the longshore union is in a mode to fight. A consumer boycott and Wal-mart not being able to get its goods off the ships would make for a huge working class organizing victory. Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot.</div></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-44916599461684527432011-10-28T19:36:00.002-05:002011-10-28T19:36:38.333-05:00Four Directions Walk to End Poverty<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Four Directions Walk to End Poverty… make sure you watch the videos</h2></div></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There is a lot of important information here put together by the folks in Winnipeg, Manitoba struggling against poverty. Lots of good ideas for activists in cities all across Canada and the United States. Some really good work going on here… Alan</div></div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">From: Four Directions Walk <fourdirectionswalk></fourdirectionswalk></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Subject: Four Directions Walk Cte meeting – Tues, Nov 1</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Four Direction Walk to End Poverty in Manitoba</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dear Friends, Sisters and Brothers,</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thank you everyone who attended, walked and helped out with this year’s 4DW last Saturday! We’ll be having a meeting to see how things went and make plans:</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Four Directions Walk Committee</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tues, Nov. 1, 4:30 pm</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">St. Matthews Maryland Church</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">641 Maryland</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(Use the South door on McGee)</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong>Everyone is welcome.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Numbers, media, etc.</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This was our largest annual Walk to date; more than 100 people participated including 10 Walkers from the perimeter with another 20 joining along the way.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A larger number of groups participated, swelling the numbers including Occupy Winnipeg, Action 1:21, FemRev Winnipeg, Feed My Lambs (thank you for the food!) and The Urban, among others. We want to thank all the groups that helped out, some of which are not listed here!</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For the first time, we both major newspapers in Winnipeg covered the Walk. The articles are appended, below. Cheryl-Anne Carr, a Walk Committee member, is quoted accurately:</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The problems have been studied long enough, the situations have been looked at long enough, the problem is that there are not enough jobs, and the pay is not high enough. The problem is the province wants to keep people poor so that theres a huge pool of labour that’s frightened and can be used to keep wages down, and prices high. There’s a shortage of housing, theres a shortage of education spaces.”</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Paul Graham with the help of Ken Harasym has produced a 30 minute video of the Walk, which will be broadcast repeatedly on Shaw Cable’s community channel:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://paulsgraham.ca/2011/10/24/video-four-directions-walk-to-end-poverty/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0f6691; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://paulsgraham.ca/2011/10/24/video-four-directions-walk-to-end-poverty/</a></strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Many thanks! This is a must-see!</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There is another video on youtube, but I don’t know who produced it:</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gva-25OyKEU" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0f6691; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gva-25OyKEU</a></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It looks like we’ll have to have another Walk next year, because we had zero response from the government. We invited all elected politicians to listen, not speak). Only Harvey Smith from Winnipeg City Council attended (J Gerbasi and J Browaty sent their regrets they could not attend).</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Of Winnipeg’s MPs, 3 Conservatives sent regrets (Fletcher, Toet and Bateman). Of MLAs, only one Progressive Conservative sent regrets (R Eichler, chair of the caucus).</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If you have qs, we are at 792-3371 or reply by email.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yours For Ending Poverty in Manitoba,</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Four Directions Walk Committee</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* * * * * *</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Anti-poverty rally held at Legislature</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong>By,<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Winnipeg Sun</em>, Saturday, October 22, 2011</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/10/22/anti-poverty-rally-held-at-legislature" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0f6691; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/10/22/anti-poverty-rally-held-at-legislature</a></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(81 internet comments omitted)</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With flags waving and protest signs in the air, people marched from four directions of the city with one message eliminate poverty.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Protesters walked for hours before joining for a rally at the Manitoba Legislative Building Saturday afternoon.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The problems have been studied long enough, the situations have been looked at long enough, the problem is that there are not enough jobs, and the pay is not high enough,” said Cheryl-Anne Carr, Four Directions Walk committee member.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The problem is the province wants to keep people poor so that theres a huge pool of labour that’s frightened and can be used to keep wages down, and prices high. There’s a shortage of housing, theres a shortage of education spaces.”</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The event marked the fourth annual Four Directions Walk to End Poverty. Clothing and food donations were being taken at the rally for the less fortunate.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Protester Terry Weaymouth said he hopes the protest will open people’s eyes to Winnipeg’s poverty problems.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I think everybody’s affected by poverty, especially in my life,” he said. “I grew up in poverty and my friends have been affected by poverty. Its a big issue.”</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shon Villier held up a sign that read Solidarity in different languages.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“We don’t have to live in a society where people are hungry and living in the streets,” Villier said. “We have the resources to share, we have the money and it doesn’t have to be this way.”</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Politics blamed for plight of poor</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Marchers rally at legislature</strong></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong>By: Alexandra Paul, <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Winnipeg Free Press</em>, Sunday, October 23, 2011</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/politics-blamed-for-plightof-poor-132398748.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0f6691; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/politics-blamed-for-plightof-poor-132398748.html</a></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(72 internet comments omitted)</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Under grey skies, about 50 people with banners and placards that called for an end to poverty rallied on the steps of the Manitoba legislature Saturday.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The fourth annual Four Directions Walk to End Poverty saw groups of a dozen or more gather at each of the four cardinal points of the Perimeter Highway and walk through the city to meet at the government seat.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I came all the way from the Perimeter at Headingley,” said Neil Adams, a community worker from the North End. “I told people on the way here, who were honking their horns on Portage Avenue, to honk for better housing, better water and more wages.”</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The annual event draws together a coalition of anti-poverty groups that believe it is a lack of political will that keeps welfare rates low and the working poor dependent on food banks.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The problem is the government wants to keep people poor so they’ll have a pool of cheap labour,” organizer Cheryl Ann Carr said.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“We’ve talked to hundreds of people and put together a justice charter, and we can eliminate poverty in this province and we can do it quickly,” Carr said.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The charter is a six-point plan that calls for housing, expanded health care, jobs and annual incomes to be human rights. It also calls for an end to racism, sexism and all forms of discrimination. The sixth demand is for proportional government and pay cuts to match the average workers wage and benefits for all MLAs.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lutheran Urban Ministry collected sweaters, coats, shoes and boots to distribute at the rally.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another group was handing out food next to a sign that read, Feed My Lambs.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Walkers began at St. Mary’s Road and the Perimeter in the south, Portage Avenue at the Perimeter in the west, Main Street at the Perimeter in the north and Pembina Highway at the Perimeter in the south.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The major problem we face in this city and in this province is poverty… What it requires is for some level of government action to do something about it,” Coun. Harvey Smith (Daniel McIntyre) said.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He pointed to municipal housing programs in cities like Calgary that could be adopted in Winnipeg to cut the rate of homelessness.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Longtime poverty advocate Nick Ternette said he puts the blame for a lack of political will squarely on the shoulders of the provincial government.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The NDP has paid no attention to poverty issues in an effective way. During the election campaign, I asked one cabinet minister (if he supported) a guaranteed annual income and he said No. A single person on social assistance gets $481 a month; thats $4 a day for food. It hasn’t increased in over a decade,” Ternette said.</div></div></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-46341921201718915062011-10-09T09:01:00.000-05:002011-10-09T09:01:01.969-05:00You say you want a revolution.. but want to fore-go reforms; dialog with a one of the leaders of the "leaderless" Occupy Wall Street movement<span style="font-size: small;"><span>This is a post made on FireDogLake--- my comment is at the end.</span></span> <div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span>In my opinion, it is strange to first talk about occupying Wall Street then occupying a park near Wall Street and then not talking about the need to occupy the mines, mills and factories that the Wall Street coupon clippers own.</span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span> </span><br />
<span>Are we talking about building a movement capable of challenging Wall Street for power or are we simply talking about creating a militant looking front that plays well for Barack Obama's re-birthed and perverted sense of populism aimed at getting himself re-elected so he can kick us under the bus as he continues to carry out Wall Streets thoroughly reactionary Wall Street agenda of more wars abroad paid for through austerity measures imposed on the working class here at home.</span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
<span>Here we go again with a new New Left agenda under the guise of "occupy everything" as long as it's a public square or public park; when what we need is to re-build the historic popular front of working class liberals, progressives and leftists fighting and struggling for real change as we prepare the ground to put and end to capitalism and bring forward the socialist alternative.</span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<span> </span></span> <br />
What the moment requires is a strong anti-capitalist, anti-monopoly coalition--- recognizing the parasitical exploiters, profiteers and warmongers of Wall Street as our enemy--- struggling in the streets, in our communities, in our schools and in our places of employment backed up by a progressive people's party carrying forward an anti-monopoly agenda aimed at taking political and economic power out of the hands of Wall Street coupon clippers.<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Alan L. Maki</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://my.firedoglake.com/luckymw/2011/10/08/occupy-wall-street-defining-the-undefinable/#comment-124">http://my.firedoglake.com/luckymw/2011/10/08/occupy-wall-street-defining-the-undefinable/#comment-124</a></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">«</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Try And Catch The Wind</b></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Occupy Wall Street: Defining The Undefinable</b></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">By: LUCKYMW</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Saturday October 8, 2011 12:48 am</span></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class=""><img alt="" class="photo_img img" height="208" src="http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/293660_10150413497126337_703206336_9841263_1981723975_n.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 493px; padding: 0px;" width="320" /><span class="caption"></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Occupy Everything" (Photo: Yung GrassHopper)</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Occupy Wall Street is about revolution, not reforms.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The movement is about creating a democracy based on mutual respect, compassion, and looking out for each other’s best interests.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>It is all-inclusive to people of any political party and all voices are welcome to the debate as to how to replace the existing corporate/government co-dependency which results in 99% of the people being excluded from the opportunity to succeed on a level playing field.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>We have a list of grievances that was generated by Occupy Wall Street in NY, and those issues are all on the table for discussion in a democratic fashion in order to create solutions.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>We have only a horizontal hierarchy to prevent one person’s agenda from skewing the needs of the group.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>This is not a political movement, it’s a social movement in which we are now first getting to know one another while we’re beginning a national conversation to rectify the position we’ve been put in by the monolithic Wall Street machine that has purchased our representative government.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>We are aware that this movement will take time to grow and for that conversation to synthesize the specific changes we democratically choose to take effect.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>We are committed to no set timetable, we’re here for as long as it takes and for as long as people stay unified in this shared vision.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Right now we are engaging in direct non-violent action so that we can show our sense of strength and purpose in order to attract more voices to the conversation.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>This is not an anti-capitalist campaign, nor do we seek to destroy capitalist institutions.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The goal is to create a new paradigm in which we all enjoy the promises made to us in the Constitution, not just the crumbs left to us by the privileged class.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>We are only seeking to benefit from our labors and protect our rights to liberty, health, education, and the pursuit of shared prosperity.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><b>My response---</b></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1165628923572950806"><br />
<li><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Alan Maki </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>October 9th, 2011 at 6:09 am</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span><i>«</i></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>LUCKYMW,</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Could you post the complete “list of grievances” you have referred to?</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I travel quite widely and often through the Great Lakes Region talking to working people about their problems and the solutions to these problems.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>You talk about “occupying” everything. Shouldn’t we be concerned with “occupying” public offices with politicians who will advance an alternative to Wall Street’s agenda of imperialist wars abroad paid for through austerity measures here at home?</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I find it interesting you unequivocally state that this is NOT an anti-capitalist movement and on the other hand you claim this is a revolutionary movement and not about reforms.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>You say you are prepared to occupy for as long as it takes. Fine. But, can people being evicted from their homes wait that long? Can people who are unemployed “wait” for a job until your, as so far claimed but not stated “list of grievances” are addressed and resolved?</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>By the way, I really have to wonder what kind of “grievances” you have if these “grievances” don’t include reforms aimed at solving the problems working people are experiencing.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Quite frankly, what you have written here demonstrates that you don’t understand the relationship between reforms and revolution nor do you seem to understand that working people need a political party to advance their agenda relating to what they struggle and fight for in the streets, in their communities and at work.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>You talk about “occupying everything” but I don’t see any suggestions that closing mines, mills or plants be “occupied” to prevent lockouts in labor disputes nor when mines, mills and plants are designated to be closed while Wall Street ships the jobs to low-cost labor areas overseas.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Wall Street’s Ford Motor Company has determined— without community and worker participation— that it will close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant here in St. Paul, Minnesota later this year as it has begun production of the Ford Ranger in Thailand. Has Occupy Wall Street discussed occupying this plant to save it from the wrecking ball to make way for a housing project that only the well-heeled Wall Street coupon clippers will be able to afford?</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I think it is quite clear this Occupy Wall Street movement has all the traits and earmarks of an anarchist operation the Obama supporting trade union leadership just loves to promote to “prove” its militancy as it tries to shove Wall Street’s Obama down our throats for a second shafting.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I find it interesting that a movement claiming to be in opposition to Wall Street hasn’t mouthed one single word in opposition to Wall Street’s hand picked and financed president without so much as asking the American people the question: How is Barack Obama’s Wall Street war economy working for you?</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>How interesting you call for broader participation in the decision-making process by the people but fail to acknowledge that Wall Street manipulates and controls us to their profit seeking, profit gouging end through the control they have in the corporate boardrooms and through its control of our public institutions including local, state and national public office.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I don’t think you know what the hell you want.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Most people in this country do see Wall Street as their enemy. Most people— working people— have a pretty good idea of the kind of country they want even if you don’t want to acknowledge what most Americans want because it doesn’t fit in with your stated ideas of “revolution without reforms.”</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>I do know what most people in this country want. And I challenge you or anyone else to prove me wrong. In fact, I challenge you to place this before your “General Assembly” for discussion to see what people have to say. This is nothing more than what I have written down in my notes from talking to people in their homes, at work, in grocery stores and at gas stations. Place it before the “General Assembly” for discussion to see if people agree:</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>A people’s program for real change…</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Peace— end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and shutdown the 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil protecting Wall Street’s interests.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* A National Public Health Care System – ten million new jobs; free health care for all.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* A National Public Child Care System – three to five million new jobs; free child care for all working families.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Works Progress Administration – three million new jobs; repair, restore and build new infrastructure.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Civilian Conservation Corps – two million new jobs protecting and restoring to health our ecosystems.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Public Ownership of the 58,000 mines, mills and factories closed by Wall Street – twenty-five million good paying, decent union jobs.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Tax the hell out of the rich and cut the military budget by ending the wars to pay for it all which will create full employment.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Enforce Affirmative Action; end discrimination.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* What tax-payers subsidize in the way of businesses, tax-payers should own and reap the profits from.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Defend democracy by defending workers’ rights including the right to collective bargaining for improving the lives and livelihoods of working people.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Roll-back and freeze the price of food, electricity, gas and heating fuels; not wages, benefits or pensions.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Defend and expand Social Security.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>* Wall Street is our enemy.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a real change.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The time has come for working people to break free from Wall Street’s “two-party trap.” We need a working class-based progressive people’s party.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Peace + tax the rich = millions of new jobs at real living wages putting people to work solving our social problems which will solve our economic problems… Redistribute the wealth. Put people before Wall Street profits.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><br />
</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>How is Barack Obama’s Wall Street war economy working for you?</span></span></div></li><br />
</div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-18974994593857000482011-08-14T09:24:00.002-05:002011-08-14T09:24:54.411-05:00Fake Political Crisis and Real Economic Crises - A Call for Leadership and for Action<br />
<div class="uiHeader uiHeaderBottomBorder mbm" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0.5em;"><div class="clearfix uiHeaderTop" style="zoom: 1;"><div><h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="color: #1c2a47; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Fake Political Crises and Real Economic Crises - A Call for Leadership and for Action</h2></div></div><div class="clearfix" style="zoom: 1;"><div class="mbs uiHeaderSubTitle lfloat fsm fwn fcg" style="color: grey; float: left; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 5px;">by <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=703206336" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Alan L. Maki</a> on Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 3:13pm</div><div class="uiHeaderSubActions rfloat" style="float: right;"></div></div></div><div class="mbl notesBlogText clearfix" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; word-wrap: break-word; zoom: 1;"><div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class=""><img alt="" class="photo_img img" src="http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/295526_10150347732591337_703206336_9358072_6739907_n.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 493px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><span class="caption"></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">"<em><strong>There is no way to fund what we must do as a nation without bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The militarization of our foreign policy has proven to be a costly mistake. It is time to invest at home</strong></em>."</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Fake Political Crises and Real Economic Crises - A Call for Leadership and for Action</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">August 03, 2011</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong></strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>AFL-CIO Executive Council Statement</strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>Washington, DC</strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">The United States is in a continuing and severe jobs crisis. Our economy is growing at less than 2 percent per year, and growth is slowing. Official unemployment is 9.2 percent and rising-driven now by mass layoffs of teachers, first</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">responders and other public employees. The real unemployment rate is almost twice as high-once labor market dropouts and involuntary part-time work are taken into account.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">It doesn't have to be this way. There are real solutions to the jobs crisis, but real solutions require government action.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Yet Washington is inexplicably focused on measures that will make the situation worse-both in the short and long run. Our nation's leaders are offering working people the choice between bad and worse policies. Instead of addressing our profound economic crisis, they are adding to it an unending series of fake political crises.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Real wages have been stagnant for three decades and are now falling. The housing market, the largest market of any kind in our country, continues its downward slide, driven by the collapse of an enormous bubble. Millions of American families have been or will be thrown out of their homes by banks, guaranteeing that this drag on our economy will continue for the foreseeable future. Our trade deficit keeps growing. We invest less and less in our nation's infrastructure while unemployment in construction is nearly double the national average. Veterans return home and struggle to find work. Our education budgets at every level are shrinking, and fewer and fewer of us have adequate health insurance or a pension.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Republican congressional leaders have made their agenda crystal clear-paralyze the government and hold our economy hostage until a multitrillion-dollar ransom is paid to their contributors in the form of tax cuts for the wealthy and for multinational corporations. They will not rest until they have succeeded in dismantling the American government and the American Dream-so their wealthy contributors can be sure that their taxes will remain the lowest in the developed world for the remainder of their days.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Unfortunately, far too many Democrats have been either silent or complicit in the Republicans' scheme. We expect Democrats at every level of government to stand tall for progressive principles, working families and the American labor movement. We need their leadership-not their excuses or apologies.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">But this agenda has been clear for years. The congressional Republicans are doing nothing more than escalating the Bush agenda-using the disingenuous rhetoric of fiscal responsibility to transfer wealth to the rich, dismantle the social safety net and increase the deficit. If our country is going to have a bright and fair future, we need a completely different direction-toward a high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy, driven by investment in our workforce and our infrastructure, and our public services.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">There is no way to fund what we must do as a nation without bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The militarization of our foreign policy has proven to be a costly mistake. It is time to invest at home.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Our unfair and inadequate tax system is at the heart of what is wrong with our economy and our society. Our government gives away tax breaks to billionaires and corporations while letting our infrastructure deteriorate and cutting aid for heating oil for the poor. We cannot build a competitive economy, pay our bills as a nation or address out-of-control economic inequality until we adopt a fair system of taxation.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Instead, policymakers are obsessed with cutting government spending with a meat ax-heedless of the consequences for our economy or our compassion.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">In an economy beset by mass unemployment, inadequate demand, tight credit and asset deflation, massive cuts in government spending will be disastrous-particularly cuts that cause layoffs or reduce Americans' incomes, such as cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These deep cuts could easily catapult our economy straight into a double-dip recession, if not a Great Depression. And we run the risk of dragging the rest of the global economy down with us.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">In an economy that runs chronic trade deficits of more than a half-trillion dollars a year and that has lost more than 50,000 manufacturing plants in the last 10 years, the last thing we should do is rush to pass more trade agreements built on the model that led to the hollowing out of U.S. manufacturing-like the Korea, Colombia and Panama agreements. And we need to reform our tax code to end the incentives and rewards for offshoring jobs-not lock in a corporate tax code that only taxes U.S. earnings, essentially inviting companies to move operations offshore and placing responsible employers at a disadvantage.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">In an economy where tax revenues have hit a modern low of 14.9 percent of GDP and where the wealthy have seen the greatest income gains and the lowest tax rates since the Great Depression, there is absolutely no economic rationale for cutting tax rates or continuing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. In an economy where real wages have been falling for a generation, why would we go all out to silence workers, deprive them of basic workplace protections, defund the agencies that protect us, interfere with those who seek to enforce the laws and cozy up to foreign governments where workers are murdered with impunity when they try to organize?</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Working people do not want a kinder, gentler or more reasonable version of the policies that caused the economic crisis, that dismantled the American Dream and that have undermined our democracy for a generation. We demand a completely different approach-we want jobs, prosperity, fairness and, most of all, a future for all of us.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Today, we must fight against the destructive ideas in play in Washington and in our state capitals. That is why the labor movement's voice is clear-we oppose any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits-no matter where they come from and that includes the Oval Office. We need a tax code that asks the rich to pay their fair share. We oppose corporate tax reform that is merely "revenue neutral" amid calls for "shared sacrifice." We oppose the Korea, Panama and the Colombia free trade agreements. And we will fight with every means we have against those who would take away the right to vote through a new generation of poll taxes and literacy tests.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">But we cannot build a future by watering down bad ideas-or even by stopping them. Working people demand a politics of real solutions. Of good jobs-on the scale needed to make a difference. Of investment in our future-in our infrastructure, our health, our schools, our people. Of fair taxes and fair trade. And, most of all, a future where working people have a voice in our republic, in the workplace and the voting booth. </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">America wants to work, and we need a political system that will deliver on that urgent imperative. Today, real solutions are at hand, and in the months ahead, we are going to fight for them. </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">We will unite not only workers and our unions but a broad base of allies behind a comprehensive initiative that will invest in America, provide opportunity for all, ensure dignity through work and save our social safety net. We must build on and expand vital partnerships with women's, civil rights and minority organizations, and environmental, immigration, low-income, senior and faith groups. We also will strive to build alliances with business where possible, such as the work we have done together with a wide range of business groups to support investment in our nation's infrastructure.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">We will promote a job creation agenda that will include direct federal investment as an alternative to tax cuts. A jobs agenda that will respond to the continuing high unemployment rates suffered by workers in the construction industry, the bleeding of jobs in the manufacturing sector, and the hemorrhaging of employment in the state and local government sectors. We will fight for:</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">- Maintaining income support and consumer spending, including extending the current federal extended benefits program for the unemployed, which expires in December; </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">- Rebuilding and modernizing critical national infrastructure to promote strong economic activity, including a robustly funded, multiyear Surface Transportation Act that expands our highway and bridge system and addresses the transit jobs crisis, and by creating an infrastructure bank that funds good jobs and helps rebuild our manufacturing base through standards and tools that will enhance the domestic supply chain; </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">- Enforcing our trade laws, fighting against China's currency manipulation to help our manufacturing base recover, and renewing a robust, long-term Trade Adjustment Assistance Act ; </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">- Establishing a program of countercyclical assistance to create and stabilize jobs in state and local governments, including adequate federal aid and permanent programs of direct local job creation and federal Medicaid matching rates that reflect fluctuations in unemployment rates; </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">-Helping the unemployed and families threatened with the loss of their homes; </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">-Adopting a fair tax system, including an end to tax breaks for companies going offshore and a financial transaction tax that asks those who caused the financial crisis to help pay for its consequences; </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">-And for every good idea that creates jobs and helps us take on the great challenge of rebuilding the American Dream.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Most of all, this is a time when everyone who cares about our future must stand together. We must organize, and we must have vision. The labor movement calls upon all who see a future for America that is better than our past to join us. It is time not for compromise but for vision, not for downsizing our dreams, but for seizing our future.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Contact: Amaya Tune (202) 637-5018</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><em><strong>I am providing some background on what used to be the AFL-CIO position on conversion; we need to know why this work has not continued (please share this information widely):</strong></em></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>Breaking Ranks: On Military Spending, Unions</strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>Hear a Different Drumme:</strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1352&context=articles&sei-redir=1#search=%22afl-cio%20conversion%20committee%20winpisinger%22">http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1352&context=articles&sei-redir=1#search=%22afl-cio%20conversion%20committee%20winpisinger%22</a><br />
<strong><br />
</strong><br />
<strong><br />
</strong><br />
<strong>Newspaper article</strong>:</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-02-20/business/9001150187_1_afl-cio-president-lane-kirkland-president-bush-vetoed-legislation-converting">http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-02-20/business/9001150187_1_afl-cio-president-lane-kirkland-president-bush-vetoed-legislation-converting </a></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>Winpisinger Speaks Out</strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong><em></em></strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong><em>An Interview with the President of the </em></strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong><em></em></strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong><em>International Association of Machinists </em></strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong><em></em></strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>and Aerospace Workers</strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">"Any conservative who thinks that this country is going to continue on the armament binge we've been on now for several years, better have another thought. The country can't afford it, we're bankrupting ourselves in every other area of our activity by these insane deficits that are generated by that kind of obscene military spending."</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1989/03/interview-winpisinger.html">http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1989/03/interview-winpisinger.html</a></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>AFL-CIO industrial unions</strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>call for rebuilding America</strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">"They are restructuring our</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">jobs, our workplaces and our</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">lives. We want to construct the</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">framework on which to build</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">a political economy founded</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">on the values of peace and</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">prosperity, not war and poverty."<br />
William Winpinsinger</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">See page #3:</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.library.gsu.edu/dlib/iam/getBrandedPDF.asp?issue_id=1951&year=1983">http://www.library.gsu.edu/dlib/iam/getBrandedPDF.asp?issue_id=1951&year=1983</a></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">These should be companion volumes for this discussion:</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class=""><img alt="" class="photo_img img" src="http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/294099_10150347721546337_703206336_9357913_1900710_n.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 493px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><span class="caption"></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class=""><img alt="" class="photo_img img" src="http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/294685_10150347730781337_703206336_9358032_6847823_n.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 493px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><span class="caption"></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Let's all be asking this important question:</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you? </strong></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class=""><img alt="" class="photo_img img" src="http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/293942_10150347739241337_703206336_9358217_4464916_n.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 493px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><span class="caption"></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Elmer Benson; socialist Governor of Minnesota elected on the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party ticket. The working class can break free from the "two-party trap." </div></div></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-71589612682257668532011-06-12T12:21:00.000-05:002011-06-12T12:21:13.355-05:00The question we need to keep asking...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">As liberal, progressive and left working class activists we should strive to make sure the entire politics of this country begins to revolve around how the American people answer this one basic and fundamental question:<br />
<br />
<b>How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?</b></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">- Ask this question in letters to the editor.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">- Post it on your refrigerator, on bulletin boards at work, in churches and community centers.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">- Use it on protest signs at vigils and demonstrations.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Most people will tell you that this economy is not working very well for them. After finding out why it isn't working very well for them we can begin to put together a program to turn this country around in creating the kind of country we really want.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">This is such a basic and fundamental question as we approach the 2012 Elections that it is dishonest to be engaged in politics not asking this question of the American people.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">--</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Alan L. Maki</b></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Director of Organizing,</div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council</div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">58891 County Road 13</div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Warroad, Minnesota 56763</div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</div><div original_target="tel:218-386-2432" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Phone: <a href="tel:218-386-2432" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #bb3300;" target="_blank" value="+12183862432">218-386-2432</a></div><div original_target="tel:651-587-5541" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Cell: <a href="tel:651-587-5541" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #bb3300;" target="_blank" value="+16515875541">651-587-5541</a></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</div><div original_target="mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Primary E-mail: <a href="mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #bb3300;" target="_blank">amaki000@centurytel.net</a></div><div original_target="mailto:alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">E-mail: <a href="mailto:alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #cc6633;" target="_blank">alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com</a></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</div><div original_target="http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Blog: <a href="http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #bb3300;" target="_blank">http://thepodunkblog.<wbr></wbr>blogspot.com/</a></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-71389325641940641022011-06-09T21:00:00.002-05:002011-06-09T21:00:29.645-05:00Greetings from Walkerville... the class struggle continues<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong>Greetings from Walkerville</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong>Phil Neuenfeldt, Wisconsin State AFL-CIOpresident, < </strong><a href="http://www.wisaflcio.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.wisaflcio.org/</a> > <strong>sends an update on the actions around Wisconsin’s Walkerville.</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong><br />
</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Day six of the Walkerville tent city protest has seen overwhelming support from Wisconsin workers, students and community members. Over the course of the week, thousands of Wisconsinites have gathered on the cement blocks lining the Capitol Square in order to call attention to Gov. Walker and his legislative allies’ destructive budget proposals—proposals which will cripple Wisconsin’s schools, health care system and communities.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Many have said that they are surrounding the Capitol to bear witness to their elected officials’ decisions and to let their Representatives know that the people of Wisconsin are preparing to take back their government back this summer.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“Walkerville is a way to focus the spotlight on Gov. Walker and Sen. Alberta Darling’s budget that will devastate higher education, public education and Wisconsin as we know it,” explained Michael Rosen, President of AFT Local 212, and professor at the Milwaukee Area Technical College. Rosen traveled to Walkerville on Wednesday to spend the night.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">About 150 tents have sprung up around the Capitol since Saturday June 4, when the Walkerville tent city was erected.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Stephanie Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, brought her son, Nicholas to Walkerville. “We are here to tell Scott Walker that his attack on Wisconsin’s unions, middle class, and communities will not stand.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The people are coming together here in Walkerville to fight for a just budget and for an economy that works for all.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Each day in Walkerville has had a theme, complete with educational programs to inform citizens on the budget and how it will impact their everyday life. Public services, health care, education and higher education have all been a theme of the day. Many local musicians have taken to the stage on State Street to show their support for the protestors and entertain the family-friendly crowd.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“As Wisconsinites, we cannot standby in silence while our friends, family and neighbors suffer at the hand of Governor Walker’s bad choices for our state,” explained Dian Palmer, President of SEIU Health Care Wisconsin and a public health nurse from Milwaukee who has been spending multiple nights in Walkerville. “I am here because what I have heard from Governor Walker does not represent the Wisconsin that I believe in or that my fellow Wisconsinites believe in. And I am here to bear witness and ensure that our leaders do right by education, healthcare and programs for senior citizens.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong>Walkerville Events</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong><br />
</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">On Health Care Day, nurses and home care patients took on a mock Scott Walker in the fight for quality health care in a play boxing match. Candice Owley, President of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, took to the ring in order to ensure quality care for all of Wisconsin.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">On Public Services day, state and county employees held a mock town-hall listening session</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">< <a href="http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/wisconsin-state-afl-cio-blog/2011/06/walkerville-mock-listening-session-.htmlwith" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/wisconsin-state-afl-cio-blog/2011/06/walkerville-mock-listening-session-.htmlwith</a> > characters of Gov. Walker, David Koch, Sen. Glen Grothman and Sarah Palin. On Sunday, Wisconsin teachers held a citizen speak-out:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">< <a href="http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/wisconsin-state-afl-cio-blog/2011/06/teachers-rally-walkerville.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/wisconsin-state-afl-cio-blog/2011/06/teachers-rally-walkerville.html</a> ></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Last Monday, fire fighters, farmers and cops lead a march of thousands to call for a fair and just budget. Read more about it here:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">< <a href="http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/wisconsin-state-afl-cio-blog/2011/06/fair-budget-march-walkerville.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/wisconsin-state-afl-cio-blog/2011/06/fair-budget-march-walkerville.html</a> ></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As the winds blew in last night Walkerville residence took refuge by patronizing local businesses as they waited out the storm. After the storm, Walkerville citizens returned to their tents, tucked-in for the night and continued to raise awareness of Gov. Walker’s bad budget choices.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong>More information on Walkerville</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong><br />
</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">For pictures of Walkerville click here: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisaflcio/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisaflcio/</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">For Walkerville stories click here: <a href="http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/</a> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">To donate to help the Walkerville, tent city run click here:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://wi.aflcio.org/statefed/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=8853d778-e839-4967-982e-c4ca49b2d26c" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://wi.aflcio.org/statefed/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=8853d778-e839-4967-982e-c4ca49b2d26c</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">For live updates from Walkerville visit the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wisaflcio" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/wisaflcio</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Twitterpages: <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/wisaflcio" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/#!/wisaflcio</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong>Press Clips From Walkerville</strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong></strong></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Wisconsin Protesters Erect ‘Walkerville’ Tent City To Protest Scott Walker’s Budget Cuts, Hufftington Post.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In Wisconsin, Legislative Urgency as Recall Threat Looms, New York Times:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/us/politics/08wisconsin.html?_r=3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/us/politics/08wisconsin.html?_r=3</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Friendly Spirit Prevails in Walkerville, Wisconsin State Journal:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_75c648fa-8f6e-11e0-a928-001cc4c03286.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_75c648fa-8f6e-11e0-a928-001cc4c03286.html</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">CNN in Walkerville:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.criticalmention.com/ctv3-1/landing_email.php?type=email&video=true&random_string=67b2d92dedfb1f74df9b4c7a1e8950f9" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.criticalmention.com/ctv3-1/landing_email.php?type=email&video=true&random_string=67b2d92dedfb1f74df9b4c7a1e8950f9</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong>Check out my blog: <a href="http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/</a></strong></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-92151015856445623862011-06-01T22:57:00.002-05:002011-06-01T22:57:37.688-05:00Rising prices of food and gas spell defeat at the polls for Obama and the Democrats<div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Two things that resonate with, and impact, almost every American--- except for the super-rich who profit from skyrocketing prices--- are the skyrocketing prices, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">with no end in sight, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">of food at the grocery store and gas at the pump. </span></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Democrats have failed to halt the rising prices and they will pay dearly for this inaction at the polls. </span></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It won't be long before the Tea Party and Republican demagogues use these issues and make use of popular prejudices and use false claims and promises in order to gain power if government action isn't taken to roll-back and freeze the prices of food and gas.<br />
<br />
These rising prices turn everyday living into a crisis for most working class families.</span></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-9612110654138097432011-05-26T11:51:00.001-05:002011-05-26T11:51:41.654-05:00Enough!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Enough!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Governor Dayton,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">First of all I want to say that I agree with the above comment about saving the wild rice because by saving the wild rice from destruction we are protecting human health and saving ourselves, too. Plus, you and the DFL talk a lot about "jobs, jobs, jobs" and "business, business, business;" yet, in the wild rice there are many jobs being created through environmentally friendly real "green" businesses. I think it is deplorable you have not publicly scolded DFL State Senator Tom Bakk for tacking on this racist, anti-jobs, anti-small business environmentally irresponsible rider to this legislation that is part and parcel of a long-standing campaign of genocide against First Nations Peoples. You call yourself a liberal, Governor Dayton. Do what a good liberal would do and show some leadership in standing up to racism, for jobs and for a "green" economy.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Now---</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Run this by the tax-cutting, anti-tax, "fiscally responsible" Republicans, the DFL business caucus and the DFL Summit Hill Club:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">When people are unemployed they shouldn't have to pay any taxes--- income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes. A government that can't organize a full-employment economy while there is so much needed to be done doesn't deserve the support of unemployed workers.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Tell the Republicans to forgo their legislative salaries and become "volunteers."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Get on the phone to Obama and tell him to end these dirty wars and send the money to Minnesota.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Tax the casinos to resolve the state's debt.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Come on, man, stand up for your liberal ideals. Get a back-bone.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">These budget battles are a reflection of our true priorities.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">End the wars; don't just tax-the-rich--- tax-the-hell out of the rich.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Stop playing games with these Republicans and business Democrats from the DFL Business Caucus and the Summit Hill Club.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Gather together a "People's Lobby" in support of a "People's Budget."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Get the Minnesota AFL-CIO to get people on buses from every county... bring in liberal, progressive and left-minded Minnesotans to deck these Republicans and the wealthy elite of the Democratic Party.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Stand up and fight for your liberal beliefs; no compromises with these greedy pigs who want to feed at the public trough and then cry about "fiscal responsibility."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">There is only one way Minnesotans are going to get jobs and that is when you turn the State of Minnesota into the employer of first choice putting the unemployed to work solving the pressing problems of the people.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">You also might consider joining with those of us looking for a working class based peoples party as an alternative to the thoroughly rotten and corrupt Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">By the way; why was Ken Martin, the head of the Minnesota DFL, in Iowa campaigning against Tim Pawlenty when he should have been right here in Minnesota standing at your side mobilizing to defeat the filthy rich?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">You are now traveling across Minnesota talking with Minnesotans. Great! This is what Jeffersonian democracy is supposed to be all about.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Let me suggest that you ask each and every Minnesotan a very basic and fundamental question which you can convey their answers to your buddy, Barack Obama:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">If you get as far north as Warroad, stop on in; the coffee is always on and there are some chocolate chip cookies my grand-kids made to munch on.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Maybe over coffee and cookies we can discuss why you have reneged on our agreement; we supported you, and you haven't fulfilled your end of the deal--- we need to know why; it's all about accountability. Between a "red" Finn and a good liberal I'm sure you understand what I am getting at.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Alan L. Maki</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Director of Organizing,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 27px;">Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council</span>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-5938797046114186832011-04-30T08:53:00.004-05:002011-04-30T08:54:05.024-05:00Can Obama win in 2012? By Alan L. MakiOnce people feel they have been betrayed by a politician they don't go back. <br />
<br />
If Obama remains in the race it simply means fewer people will be voting. Had people believed Obama and the Democrats were real opposition to the Republicans they would have turned out in droves for the 2010 Election.<br />
<br />
In fact, you can talk to people anyplace--- where they are being robbed at the gas pumps, having their pockets picked at the local supermarket, walking down the cracked, crumbling and uneven sidewalks, at work, in community centers or the local union hall, sitting in their cold, unheated living rooms because they can't afford to heat their homes and pay the mortgage or in the state park camping--- no matter where you go these days, you are not going to find "happy campers."<br />
<br />
If there are those who don't believe, just do your own survey by going to your local supermarket and stand at the meat cooler near the hamburger and say to someone: "Pretty soon we aren't going to afford to eat any more; these prices are ridiculous." Say this to ten people; let me know what they say. Then go to the fruits where the bananas are and say, "Look at the prices; can you afford these things?" Again, let me know what the first ten people say. Then take your voter survey out to the gas station and say to a few people, "When is this robbery at the pumps going to end?" Let me know how people respond.<br />
<br />
Let's be clear-minded here and not influenced by the Democratic Party hacks who are working the social networking sites posing as real people using 40 or 50 phony names bullying, badgering and intimidating people with this crap like, "If you don't support Obama you are going to be saluting Donald Trump." <br />
<br />
Most people never voted for Obama in the first place; they voted against the Republicans because their livelihoods were already deteriorating and they were war-weary and just plain fed-up. Does anyone really believe that people are happier today because their standard of living has improved? Are people any less war-weary? If you want to know the answer, just ask people: <br />
<br />
"How is Obama's war economy working for you?"<br />
<br />
Obama doesn't dare ask voters this question; his die-hard supporters and Democratic Party hacks just loathe this question being asked.<br />
<br />
Yet, this question is the most honest and forthright question that can be asked of anyone in this country because the answers tell us exactly what people are thinking. <br />
<br />
The fight between the Democrats and Republicans for votes will be for a share of fewer voters. The Republicans are relying on this although the Republicans have moved so far to the right many of their own people are not turning out to vote, either.<br />
<br />
Also, Obama by his own admission, is no liberal. <br />
<br />
I am not nit-picking terms here. It is important we understand where everyone is coming from ideologically because it pretty much tells us what we can expect from people and the organizations and movements they "lead."<br />
<br />
Obama is a neo-liberal which makes him as reactionary as reactionary can be. <br />
<br />
By his own admission, Obama is ideologically a "pragmatist" very typical of the Wall Street crowd, as is the labor leadership in this country; and, unfortunately, much of the leadership of the peace, civil rights, environmental and women's movements are ideological pragmatists making it virtually impossible for even the littlest of reforms to be won.<br />
<br />
In my opinion the entire results of this election in 2012 will be determined by what the liberal-minded voters do; Obama has lost the majority of progressive and left voters for sure and he seems to pretty much have lost the liberal voters who are the most important block in this country when it comes to voting and building movements for progressive change which at this point includes the need to build an alternative party reflecting the aspirations of people who want a United States of America that is for peace, social and economic justice.<br />
<br />
This is the very best time for liberals, progressive and the left to begin building a new party that offers a real alternative to Wall Street's two parties because we really don't have to worry about being called "spoilers" even though that tag shouldn't bother us because we have the right to vote for the kind of country we want; but, as things presently stand, it is those who continue to support Obama who are the real spoilers because they cling to Obama--- a loser.<br />
<br />
While it is always possible in life for what appears to be impossible to happen, all common sense should tell us a President with three wars hanging around his neck as his major "accomplishments" with rapidly rising prices for food, gas, home heating fuels and electricity coupled with huge unemployment, massive home foreclosures and evictions and the freezing and reductions of wages and benefits is not going to be getting voted in again. Politically the odds of Obama getting elected again are virtually nil. <br />
<br />
Unless you believe Obama can win without liberals, progressives and left voters turning out to vote for him on Election Day, Obama can't win. In fact, the election isn't even going to be close; Obama will be trounced and trampled at the polls.<br />
<br />
Even if Obama can win on Election Day he deserves to have every liberal, progressive and leftist working to defeat him because he does not represent or reflect the kind of country we want.<br />
<br />
Here is my choice for 2012:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82015215170">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82015215170</a><br />
<br />
Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan might not be able to win on Election Day 2012; but, neither can Barack Obama... I will, however, be voting for the kind of country I want as a left-wing working class voter. And this is my right. I am not going to be badgered, bullied and intimidated into voting for a rotten Wall Street war-monger. I didn't tell Nixon to take his Vietnam war and shove it up his ass only to be bullied into voting for another warmonger--- Barack Obama.Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-14351943993266980762011-04-12T15:07:00.000-05:002011-04-12T15:07:42.163-05:00This is the way to mix it up with politics and street heat...<p$1>"Angry that Congress appears ready to take away autonomy granted to the city in the last several years, Mayor Vincent Gray and six Council members, including the chairman, were among 41 people arrested Monday outside the Capitol while protesting the changes."<br />
<p$1><b><br />
DC mayor arrested protesting budget restriction</b>s<br />
<p$1><p$1>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110412/ap_on_re_us/us_budget_dc_anger<br />
<p$1><p$1>AP – Mayor Vincent Gray is searched by Capitol Hill police after being arrested on Monday, April 11, 2011, …</p$1><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtmy82xmZdS1OIyfJN-gVpa_jYihiWEP3m4cTsou2iC1Ow3qvZbGFmrsx1KWBS1Z2CCZzB_vmHOl1C6nBFSTl-CnJs0ufNLQbPoxPaezfBrjXYr168Ame_YfXA4xiK6TYwaiLb0gMNvXn/s1600/capt.ecfd1611464c479eaca5dddb3b146332-ecfd1611464c479eaca5dddb3b146332-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtmy82xmZdS1OIyfJN-gVpa_jYihiWEP3m4cTsou2iC1Ow3qvZbGFmrsx1KWBS1Z2CCZzB_vmHOl1C6nBFSTl-CnJs0ufNLQbPoxPaezfBrjXYr168Ame_YfXA4xiK6TYwaiLb0gMNvXn/s1600/capt.ecfd1611464c479eaca5dddb3b146332-ecfd1611464c479eaca5dddb3b146332-0.jpg" /></a></div><p$1><p$1><p$1>By JESSICA GRESKO, Associated Press <br />
<p$1><p$1>WASHINGTON – Leaders in D.C., including the mayor, took to the streets to protest congressional control of the nation's capital, blocking traffic and getting arrested over a federal budget deal expected to impose renewed restrictions on the city.<br />
<p$1><p$1>Angry that Congress appears ready to take away autonomy granted to the city in the last several years, Mayor Vincent Gray and six Council members, including the chairman, were among 41 people arrested Monday outside the Capitol while protesting the changes. Seven hours later, they were released from jail.<br />
<p$1><p$1>D.C. has a city government, but its budget and laws are subject to Congressional review. Congress has had control over the city since it was founded. District officials say Washington was used as a pawn in last week's budget bargaining, with new restrictions part of the price of a deal.<br />
<p$1><p$1>On Tuesday, Gray called on civic associations, religious groups and other organizations to make their voices heard. He made an analogy to the protests in Egypt and Libya, where he said citizens' voices led to change.<br />
<p$1>"Why are we the sacrificial lamb?" Gray asked.<br />
<p$1><p$1>The district restrictions that were part of the budget deal reached Friday were "completely unacceptable," Gray said.<br />
<p$1><p$1>"We needed to make a statement," Gray said after his release from jail.<br />
<p$1>The city will likely be unable to spend its own tax dollars on abortions for low-income women. It may also be banned from spending city money on needle exchange programs believed vital to curbing the spread of HIV in the district, where the disease is considered an epidemic. Also back: a school voucher program favored by Republicans.<br />
<p$1><p$1>Washington had enjoyed more freedom in the past four years when both the House and Senate were controlled by Democrats, the party traditionally more friendly to pleas of autonomy from the heavily Democratic city.<br />
<p$1><p$1>When Republicans took control of the House in January, the city readied for changes. Still, city leaders said they are outraged that Washington appears to have been used as a bargaining chip.<br />
<p$1><p$1>"If this isn't taxation without representation, I don't know what is," the mayor said before being arrested.<br />
<p$1><p$1>He and Council members, dressed in business attire, sat down in the street outside a Senate office building. U.S. Capitol Police arrested them, cuffing their hands behind them with plastic loops, and loaded them into police wagons to cheers from the crowd.<br />
<p$1><p$1>They were cited for blocking the street with an unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor that can be resolved by paying a $50 fine.<br />
<p$1><p$1>Gray said after he was released that he was proud to be part of the demonstration and would continue to fight the restrictions, but wasn't specific.<br />
<p$1><p$1>Gray became the second D.C. mayor to go to jail while advocating for home rule. Sharon Pratt Kelly was arrested during a statehood protest in August 1993. Gray also was a council member before becoming mayor, so he is familiar with the home-rule fight.<br />
<p$1><p$1>Ilir Zherka, the executive director of D.C. Vote, a nonpartisan group that lobbies for more independence for the district, said his group doesn't intend to let the budget pass this week without a fight.<br />
<p$1><p$1>"We're not going to accept that they decided to throw the District of Columbia under the bus," Zherka said.<br />
<p$1><p$1>But while the news is considered a setback for the capital city and its 600,000 residents, the restrictions wouldn't be new.<br />
<p$1><p$1>The city's ability to spend money on abortions for low-income women has seesawed over the last two decades. When Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency, in 1993 and 1994 and again in 2009 and 2010, the city has been able to spend its own money to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid. When Republicans have controlled at least one branch of government that ability has been taken away.<br />
<p$1><p$1>The fact that Congress will likely re-impose the ban on abortion funding wasn't a shock to Tiffany Reed, the president of D.C. Abortion Fund, a non-profit organization that makes grants to poor women to pay for abortions, which can cost $300 to $500 or more. Reed said her group, which helped pay for more than 300 abortions a year, had expected the ban to be re-imposed, but she was angry Congress had stepped in again to local affairs just as the lifting of the ban was beginning to take effect.<br />
<p$1><p$1>"It gives me a lot of rage quite frankly," she said. "I'm really disappointed in our pro-choice president that he allowed this to happen."<br />
<p$1>As for a possible reintroduction of a ban on city money for needle exchanges, it would be a step back. Congress prohibited the city from using its own money for the programs for two decades beginning in the late 1980s.<br />
<p$1>Other groups stepped in to provide the service with private dollars, but it is a widely held belief that the city's inability to pay for needle exchange led to an increase in the number of residents contracting HIV. <br />
<p$1><p$1>Approximately 3 percent of city residents are currently living with HIV or AIDS, a level considered by health officials to be epidemic.<br />
<p$1><p$1>When the ban was lifted in 2007, the city invested money in community programs that collected 300,000 used syringes in the last year. People who work at the city's three needle exchange programs say they aren't sure how they will cope if the city is again unable to provide money.<br />
<p$1><p$1>"It would be nothing short of disastrous," said Cyndee Clay, executive director of HIPS, an organization that works with sex workers and drug users and is currently exchanging about 8,000 needles a month. "I don't understand why they're doing this to us."<br />
<p$1><p$1>Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's representative in Congress, said she has not yet seen the actual language in the budget but has been told the abortion rider and school vouchers are in. Norton, a Democrat who is not allowed to vote on the House floor, said she doesn't believe needle exchange is part of the deal, but she said she won't be sure until she sees final language.<br />
<p$1><p$1>"We got bargained away," Norton said of the budget deal. "I don't know for what."<br />
<p$1>___<br />
<p$1>Associated Press writer Ben Nuckols contributed to this report.</p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1></p$1>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-64574568621199202312011-04-08T18:53:00.002-05:002011-04-08T18:53:34.570-05:00Resolution Calling for Re-ordering of PrioritiesResolution Calling for Re-ordering of Priorities:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas Minnesota is faced with a $5.028 billion budget shortfall; and,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas past budget cuts have resulted in painful reductions in essential services and future cuts would further erode the quality of life for and, in fact, endanger the lives of many citizens; and,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas many cities and communities in Minnesota are laying off police, firefighters, teachers and other essential employees; and,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas past budgets have been balanced by cutting social services, under investment in essential infrastructure, and other measures that push the crisis onto local governments and the poor; and,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas Minnesota taxpayers even during these times of economic crisis and fiscal austerity are poised to pay the equivalent of the entire state biennial budget, more than $35 billion over the next two years, for their share of the Defense Budget of the Federal government; and,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas Minnesota taxpayers alone have already spent more than $27.5 billion, and will spend $8.4 billion more over the next two years for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas 58 cents of every dollar of federal discretionary spending is devoted to military purposes; and,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas military spending priorities at the national level negatively impact budgets and quality of life at all levels of government and society; and, <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Whereas our nation desperately needs to better balance its approach to security to go beyond military defense and include the economic, social, and environmental needs of our communities, state, and nation;<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Therefore be it resolved that we, the Legislature of the State of Minnesota call on Senators Klobuchar and Franken, and Representatives Walz, Kline, Paulsen, McCollum, Ellison, Bachmann, Peterson and Cravaack as well as Congressional leadership and President Barack Obama, to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Approved [date]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
By Jack Nelson-Palmeyer and Bill HiltyAlan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-18911375640349430562011-03-28T13:00:00.003-05:002011-03-28T13:00:39.316-05:00Losing Our WayI would encourage everyone to photocopy this article and pass it it out at every demonstration across the country along with the unity program on the top of my blog. Post it on every union bulletin board and every break-room and lunch-room. Post it on every church bulletin board and in every school. This op-ed column should form the basis for discussion groups. It is unfortunate that this column is Bob Herbert's last column for the New York Times.<br />
<br />
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=1<br />
<br />
Op-Ed Columnist New York Times<br />
<br />
Losing Our Way<br />
<br />
<br />
By BOB HERBERT<br />
<br />
<br />
Published: March 25, 2011<br />
<br />
So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home. <br />
<br />
<br />
Damon Winter/The New York Times<br />
<br />
Bob Herbert<br />
Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.<br />
<br />
Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone. <br />
<br />
The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely. <br />
<br />
Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is grim. Since there is just one job available for every five individuals looking for work, four of the five are out of luck. Instead of a land of opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a place of limited expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this week that graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not making very much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family. <br />
<br />
There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion. <br />
<br />
Americans behave as if this is somehow normal or acceptable. It shouldn’t be, and didn’t used to be. Through much of the post-World War II era, income distribution was far more equitable, with the top 10 percent of families accounting for just a third of average income growth, and the bottom 90 percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history now. <br />
<br />
The current maldistribution of wealth is also scandalous. In 2009, the richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the nation’s wealth. The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively held just 12.8 percent. <br />
This inequality, in which an enormous segment of the population struggles while the fortunate few ride the gravy train, is a world-class recipe for social unrest. Downward mobility is an ever-shortening fuse leading to profound consequences. <br />
<br />
A stark example of the fundamental unfairness that is now so widespread was in The New York Times on Friday under the headline: “G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether.” Despite profits of $14.2 billion — $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States — General Electric did not have to pay any U.S. taxes last year. <br />
<br />
As The Times’s David Kocieniewski reported, “Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.” <br />
<br />
G.E. is the nation’s largest corporation. Its chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look at this cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully committed to the best interests of working people. <br />
<br />
Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and income inevitably result in enormous imbalances of political power. So the corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home. <br />
<br />
New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed. <br />
<br />
<br />
•<br />
<br />
This is my last column for The New York Times after an exhilarating, nearly 18-year run. I’m off to write a book and expand my efforts on behalf of working people, the poor and others who are struggling in our society. My thanks to all the readers who have been so kind to me over the years. I can be reached going forward at bobherbert88@gmail.comAlan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-31764408733651466872011-03-22T18:14:00.002-05:002011-03-22T18:21:36.017-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHDzy-j7tRiXKWhpF2cc-UbL9yNad3LCdZX9osE6P8_rSYCgO_-GNrXzvPh4NonxErdFmxKr_gPvc7SbDR6mFPh330BCY8Tt2rqIMUV4UJQxRUFVC6EH0llEtAdZjo3kWk4TutKnBolI2/s1600/DefendWorkersRights.BringWar%2524%2524Home.ruggles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="215" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHDzy-j7tRiXKWhpF2cc-UbL9yNad3LCdZX9osE6P8_rSYCgO_-GNrXzvPh4NonxErdFmxKr_gPvc7SbDR6mFPh330BCY8Tt2rqIMUV4UJQxRUFVC6EH0llEtAdZjo3kWk4TutKnBolI2/s320/DefendWorkersRights.BringWar%2524%2524Home.ruggles.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD7kaf1y3ce9HsG4amton0Hug68-7dGQG-qRl8U-v7d2ja7yqA-yxa_-6JuTxffX5mtv-06RhS4aY92IAVfeU74em37o6dy4_iO6optm4JaSQYMlsz4ZF6y_GL67aYieOQf7V2dP3yMkxt/s1600/197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD7kaf1y3ce9HsG4amton0Hug68-7dGQG-qRl8U-v7d2ja7yqA-yxa_-6JuTxffX5mtv-06RhS4aY92IAVfeU74em37o6dy4_iO6optm4JaSQYMlsz4ZF6y_GL67aYieOQf7V2dP3yMkxt/s320/197.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSMQ9Qx6XObPTu5VxqN3g0pKfpdt3YU5yl5pKJZpt7C23EC0R18Hodiwow9L7mO6XqsJLiXDmYaDIq_lBYPXsUR55ygo1_UXGC0MEhFujPgCbl1SuV_S5F9_-ZVrjHGcSjYoe3UlHe3MR/s1600/249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSMQ9Qx6XObPTu5VxqN3g0pKfpdt3YU5yl5pKJZpt7C23EC0R18Hodiwow9L7mO6XqsJLiXDmYaDIq_lBYPXsUR55ygo1_UXGC0MEhFujPgCbl1SuV_S5F9_-ZVrjHGcSjYoe3UlHe3MR/s320/249.JPG" /></a></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-20483188281622411392011-03-16T09:19:00.002-05:002011-03-16T09:19:44.735-05:00Dare to struggle! Dare to win!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: left;"><div class="uiHeader uiHeaderBottomBorder mbm" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0.5em;"><div class="clearfix uiHeaderTop" style="display: block;"><div><h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="color: #1c2a47; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">They said it in the1930's and again in the 1960's--- Dare to struggle; dare to win!</h2><h2 class="uiHeaderTitle" style="color: #1c2a47; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </h2></div></div><div class="clearfix" style="display: block;"><div class="mbs uiHeaderSubTitle lfloat fsm fwn fcg" style="color: grey; float: left; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 5px;">by<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=703206336" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Alan L. Maki</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 9:01am</div></div></div><div class="mbl notesBlogText clearfix" style="display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">At the district, state, regional and national level most of the high-paid union leaders are completely worthless as this working class upsurge and struggle has proven them to be little more than loyal Democratic Party hacks willingly controlled by the AFL-CIO's national executive board interested in trying to make sure working people are pushed out of the streets demanding real change as they are defending their rights and livelihoods.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Shamefully, Richard Trumka has refused to clearly articulate how these dirty imperialist wars--- yes, Wall Street's dirty imperialist wars--- are robbing us of the means to fund our social programs: from public education to health care to fire protection and anti-poverty programs like the Community Action program. </div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Why is it so goddamn hard for Richard Trumka to ask the working people he addresses: How is Obama's war economy working for you?</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">In fact, Obama's war economy is making us all poor.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Even the most simple minded amongst us understand that a nation cannot spend on wars and militarism to the tune of billions upon billions of dollars year after year all financed on money borrowed at exorbitant interest rates from Wall Street bankers and expect to have money left over to finance the social programs required by a civilized society where people are entitled to the human rights of jobs, housing, education, health care, child care, adequate food and access to transportation. </div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">We might just as well take the wealth of our Nation and toss it out into the ocean if we are going to use it to fight these dirty wars that no one wants and no one supports except for the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction who profit.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">How can any nation fight war after war and maintain over 800 military bases on foreign soil with a huge naval fleet patrolling all the oceans of the world protecting Wall Street's interests abroad and expect to have resources to finance universal social programs at home? It can't be done. Every two-bit half-assed fascist dictator from Mussolini to Hitler, Franco and Tojo have tried it along with every single U.S. President since Franklin D. Roosevelt; it doesn't work. It can't work. And even if it did work it shouldn't be done.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">The American people are fed up. We have had it with Wall Street and its wars abroad and its war on us here at home.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Now is no time to back out of this fight.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Richard Trumka and these worthless union leaders are trying tell people, "Okay, we have had our say. We don't want to rock the boat and upset our Democratic Party partners and allies we can work with them and negotiate concessions in wages and benefits. We don't need to get into all this left wing talk about taking money from the military budget to finance human needs. We can't be talking about "defense" spending, a national issue, when the issue is state budgets."</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Why the hell can't we talk about military spending during discussions of state budgets? Whose pockets is all of this money coming out of? It sure the hell isn't coming from taxes on the rich and corporate profits.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Working people fight these goddamn wars. Working people die in these goddamn dirty wars. And it is working people who pay for these goddamn filthy imperialist wars. Wall Street profits; working people suffer all the way around.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">And now along comes Richard Trumka telling us we can't have a say in whether or not our tax dollars go to finance public education and to create public health care and public child care systems instead of paying for wars.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Let Richard Trumka go with the generals and hold bake good sales and sell candy bars and flower seeds from door-to-door to finance this military madness while we take the billions of dollars now being wasted on these dirty rotten wars and use this money to build a socially just and decent society.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">What kind of labor "leaders" who live in the wealthiest country in the world where every single bit of this wealth has been created by workers, far too few of whom are members of unions because Trumka and his kind are afraid of a fight, and agree to concession contract after concession contract and now these cowards are trying to tell working people to clear the streets and don't talk about turning our country on the path to peace as they try to trick people into voting for this worthless piece of crap, Barack Obama--- again, as if once wasn't more than enough? </div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Stay in the streets; create a new political party that will reflect and fight for what is ethically, morally, socially and economically just--- dare to struggle; dare to win! </div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Now is the time to finish what was begun in the 1960's.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Now is the time for the American people to build an anti-monopoly people's front to take on and defeat Wall Street.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Since 1948 Wall Street has dictated how we must live and work and go to war; it is time for this way of doing things to come to an end. If for no other reason than we cannot afford the heavy price<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em><strong>we the people</strong></em> pay.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong>Defend democracy.</strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong>Defend workers' rights to collective bargaining--- not to bargain away what has been won over the years; but, to improve the lives and livelihoods of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class=" fbUnderline" style="text-decoration: underline;">ALL</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>working people.</strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong>Roll-back and freeze prices, not wages.</strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong>Spend our money on human needs, don't finance Wall Street's wars and greed.</strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande',tahoma,verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><em>For a real change, let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.</em></div></div></div></span></span>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-92061742336111243242011-03-14T10:28:00.002-05:002011-03-14T10:28:14.306-05:00Some frank talk about why the struggles for workers' rights are fizzling out---<h2 class="date-header"><span>Monday, March 14, 2011</span></h2><a href="" name="6494007173003682642"></a> <h3 class="post-title entry-title"> Some frank talk about why the struggles for workers' rights are fizzling out--- </h3><div class="post-header"> </div>Right-to-work is definitely a big problem but the unions have refused to address the issue of "at-will hiring; at-will firing" in 28 states that is the main impediment and obstacle to union organizing.<br />
<br />
Plus, since we are all talking about "workers' rights;" we have in this country over 350 casinos/hotels/resorts/restaurants comprising the Indian Gaming Industry employing over two-million workers in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any voice or rights under under state or federal labor laws which the AFL-CIO has enabled through its cooperation with the Democratic Party in creating the "Compacts" bringing this industry into existence in this way for the sole purpose of trading off workers' rights for campaign contributions to the Democratic Party.<br />
<br />
Quite frankly, we casino workers warned that what exists in the Indian Gaming Industry, when it comes to workers' rights, would become the pattern for all workers in this country.<br />
<br />
I don't feel good looking at Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio saying, "I told you so." But, while Obama gave the momentum to these attacks on labor with his dictatorial freeze on the pay of federal government employees which has been picked up by the Republicans in further attacking all public employees and workers which will for sure hit workers in the private sectors of the economy, now might be a good time to consider the plight of two-million casino workers because you have two-million workers for whom the jobs of other workers looks pretty darn good which means employers have a huge pool of cheap labor to hire from should there be widespread strikes--- and keep in mind that many of these casino workers are unemployed teachers, miners, workers from the pulp and paper mills and the auto industry... quite a talented pool of two-million workers who would just love to improve their lot in life from going from a minimum wage job to making $14.00, $20.00 and $30.00 an hour and they don't care if they have any union--- or rights--- because these are the conditions they have been forced to work under for over 25 years as the teacher and teamster pension funds bankrolled the creation of this hideous Indian Gaming Industry as people wearing union jackets and buttons pull the levers of the one-armed bandits completely oblivious to the conditions of work for casino workers and the hundreds of thousands living in the resulting poverty on Indian Reservations as the owners of the one-armed bandits abscond to Florida, Las Vegas and the Caribbean Islands with their tax-free loot.<br />
<br />
All the while our Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council has been speaking out for:<br />
<br />
1. An end to these dirty wars so we can finance human needs;<br />
2. A National Public Health Care System;<br />
3. A National Public Child Care System;<br />
4. An end to "at-will hiring; at-will firing;"<br />
5. A real living minimum wage based upon the actual cost-of-living factors;<br />
6. The enforcement of Affirmative Action and an end to racism;<br />
7. End the wars and tax-the-rich to pay for everything; after all, all this wealth was created by working people in the first place. <br />
<br />
Where have the "leaders" of the AFL-CIO been as we have been raising our voices in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan? Not only shamefully silent; but, standing with the Democrats supporting a Wall Street charlatan like Barack Obama and reaping windfall profits for pension funds directly off the poverty of workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry and off the poverty of Native American Indians.<br />
<br />
We call on working people to get rid of these phony labor "leaders" like Richard Trumka and Leo Gerard and those labor"leaders" who are now trying desperately to undermine the struggles of the very workers whose dues pay their big fat salaries and now want to lead workers into the dead-end alley of supporting a bunch of Democrats every bit as worthless as Barack Obama looking after Wall Street's interests as well as any Republican, and every bit as spineless as Minnesota's liberal Democratic Governor, Mark Dayton. <br />
<br />
It is time to consider a general strike as a means to turn this country around but the well-being and welfare of all workers and all working people will have to be considered for a real change.<br />
<br />
Don't expect workers who have been handed the dirty end of the stick to support selfish demands that will only benefit the few. And don't expect that as long as these dirty wars are being waged and financed with our tax-dollars that we will consider anything less than a demand to end these dirty wars to fund human needs coupled with taxing the hell out of the rich.<br />
<br />
Also, among the reasons this struggle is fizzling out is the role of the Trotskyites who are trying to once again shove themselves into leadership positions by proclamation and the stupid leaflets they are passing out... anyone seen the crap from Socialist Alternatives--- their recent leaflet distributed in Wisconsin disgracefully doesn't even mention the need to end these dirty wars as a means to pay for the social programs--- what kind of socialists are they? These Trotskyites pulled the exact same kind of crap during the Minneapolis Teamsters' Strike of 1934. <br />
<br />
Alan L. Maki<br />
Director of Organizing,<br />
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing CouncilAlan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4339868175230303327.post-69059851561995094802011-02-18T09:25:00.000-06:002011-02-18T09:25:57.016-06:00Workers' Rights Here and Abroad; why we need Communist Clubs--- the "think tanks" and action centers of the working class<div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This article, <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Workers' Rights Here and Abroad---</strong> being published all over the place to confuse and intimidate and manipulate and control workers--- clearly articulates the official ideology of the U.S. labor movement throughout its long history except for a period from around 1930 to 1947 when the CIO was a powerful influence led by the "left," most notably the Communist Party USA which weilded substantial influence among working people with rank-and-file activists rising to become important leaders in leading union positions, including, Harry Bridges, Wyndham Mortimer, Phil Raymond and leaders of the CPUSA like William Z. Foster, James W. Ford, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Earl Browder and writers like Frank Marshall Davis... to name just a few. </div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Note: This article appeared in newspapers all over the United States; it was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Feb. 17, 2011. <a href="http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/116361909.html">http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/116361909.html</a></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Also, note: Spending on the wars is never mentioned as a major contributing factor to the budget crisis every state faces or is already experiencing. No mention of money for people; not for war.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Another note: check out the good dose of "red baiting" for extra measure--- "It's a throwback to 19th-century America, when strikes were suppressed by force of arms. Or, come to think of it, to Mubarak's Egypt or <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">communist Poland and East Germany</strong>."</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A most important note, the real issue to Harold Meyerson:</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"Newly elected Republican governors, however, may reach the same conclusion Walker did and use the recession-induced fiscal crisis to achieve a partisan political objective: <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">removing unions, the most potent force in the Democrats' electoral operation, from the landscape</span></strong>. "If we just stop and cure the pension problem, we have not gone far enough," Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal said at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend."</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Democratic Party gets its money from Wall Street and its "foot soldiers" and votes from organized labor along with very substantial funding which drains union coffers to assure labor doesn't use its formidable financial resources and organizational strength to start its own political party like organized labor has in Canada with the socialist New Democratic Party.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">My comment:</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This dangerous ideology of "pragmatism" posing as liberalism inthis artiicle enables Wall Street through the Democratic Party to manipulate and control labor---</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">What kind of crap is this? The Democrats can cut wages and benefits better than Republicans?</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">"Democratic governors such as California's Jerry Brown and New York's Andrew Cuomo have proposed scaling back public services, pay, and benefits without going after workers' fundamental rights to bargain. The right to bargain is clearly a separate question."</strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"Liberalism" and "pragmatism" are not one and the same thing; though they can be, and often are.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It must be noted that Obama and the Democrats have prepared the soil for this attack--- by both Republicans and Democrats--- on the working class, not only in Wisconsin but all across the United States by:</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">1. Spending on wars instead of human needs and universal social programs.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">2. Pushing through the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010" instead of single-payer universal health care or the more comprehensive and better alternative a National Public Health Care System leaving health care to remain a "bone of contention" in labor management disputes.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">3. By Obama's freezing of federal government employees' wages.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">4. By refusing to enact the Employee Free Choice Act which would have given labor the opportunity to push its agenda more agressively from a position of strength. In fact, it was the refusal of Obama and the Democrats to implement--- with acquiescence and passivity and approval in the form of making up excuses for Obama from the AFL-CIO leadership that the defeat of EFCA has led now to labor being vulnerable to these attacks across the country, and let us make no mistake in understanding that if these attacks on teachers and other public sector employees and their unions are a success, all working people will suffer and the attacks on private sector unions will increase to untold proportions--- and the pressure is at a high level as it is right now.<br />
<br />
5. Through attacks on Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Not to mention attacks on the anti-poverty programs like the Community Action Programs which are an integral part of what little remains of the "war on poverty."</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It is unfortunate the left and progressive movement lacks a real independent publication like the Daily Worker or the National Guardian as we face these difficult dangers and problems ahead; but, since we don't have these kinds of publications it means that each of us has to take the responsibility of thinking these these kinds of things through and sharing our ideas to stimulate the broadest discussions possible in order to counter these most reactionary ideas like in this aricle being pushed in the name of liberalism, progressivism and even leftism.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">What is most urgently required is a good strong dose of anti-imperialist education in the working class movement explaining the relationship between wars and the capitalist economic crisis, the crisis of every-day-living working people are now forced to endure in order to try to survive and the austerity measures being forced on us by Wall Street and it various political surrogates from Obama and the Democrats to the Republicans, the Tea Party crowd and the Birchites and their racist, fascist ilk like Ron and Rand Paul who hide behind "libertarianism."</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Here is the article meant to poison the minds of working people which requires a swift response from the left (the Communist Party USA is not up to the task, unfortunately; a problem we are trying to correct)---</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=workers_rights_here_and_abroad"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"></strong>http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=workers_rights_here_and_abroad</a></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Workers' Rights Here and Abroad</span></strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Workers toppled a dictator in Egypt, but might be silenced in Wisconsin.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Harold Meyerson</strong> | February 17, 2011 | web only</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Wisconsin teachers protest budget cuts at the state capitol. (Flickr/markonf1re)</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In Egypt, workers are having a revolutionary February. In the United States, by contrast, February is shaping up as the cruelest month workers have known in decades.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The coup de grace that toppled Hosni Mubarak came after tens of thousands of Egyptian workers went on strike beginning last Tuesday. By Friday, when Egypt's military leaders apparently decided that unrest had reached the point where Mubarak had to go, the Egyptians who operate the Suez Canal and their fellow workers in steel, textile, and bottling factories; in hospitals, museums and schools; and those who drive buses and trains had left their jobs to protest their conditions of employment and governance. As Jim Hoagland noted in The Washington Post, Egypt was barreling down the path that Poland, East Germany, and the Philippines had taken, the path where workers join student protesters in the streets and jointly sweep away an authoritarian regime.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">But even as workers were helping topple the regime in Cairo, one state government in particular was moving to topple workers' organizations here in the United States. Last Friday, Scott Walker, Wisconsin's new Republican governor, proposed taking away most collective bargaining rights of public employees. Under his legislation, which has moved so swiftly through the newly Republican state legislature that it might come to a vote Thursday, the unions representing teachers, sanitation workers, doctors and nurses at public hospitals, and a host of other public employees, would lose the right to bargain over health coverage, pensions, and other benefits. (To make his proposal more politically palatable, the governor exempted from his hit list the unions representing firefighters and police.) The only thing all other public-sector workers could bargain over would be their base wages, and given the fiscal restraints plaguing the states, that's hardly anything to bargain over at all.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">You might think that Walker came to this extreme measure after negotiations with public-sector unions had reached an impasse</strong>. In fact, he hasn't held such discussions. "I don't have anything to negotiate," Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week. To underscore just how accompli he considered his fait, he vowed to call in the National Guard if protesting workers walked off the job or disrupted state services.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It's a throwback to 19th-century America, when strikes were suppressed by force of arms. Or, come to think of it, to Mubarak's Egypt or <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">communist Poland and East Germany</strong>.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Now, it's not as if our states don't have fiscal crises to address, and Walker insists that it's Wisconsin's empty till that has driven him to curtail workers' rights. But there are other options.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Democratic governors such as California's Jerry Brown and New York's Andrew Cuomo have proposed scaling back public services, pay, and benefits without going after workers' fundamental rights to bargain. The right to bargain is clearly a separate question</strong>.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Newly elected Republican governors, however, may reach the same conclusion Walker did and use the recession-induced fiscal crisis to achieve a partisan political objective: <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">removing unions, the most potent force in the Democrats' electoral operation, from the landscape</strong>. "If we just stop and cure the pension problem, we have not gone far enough," Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal said at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The real goal of the American right is to reduce public employee unions to the level of private-sector unions, which now represent fewer than 7 percent of American workers. Walker's proposal not only confines public-sector unions to annual bargaining over wage increases but restricts the increases for state employees to raises in the consumer price index and compels every such union to hold an annual membership vote to determine whether the union can continue to represent workers. It clearly intends to smash these unions altogether.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Which would yield what? Our unions have already been decimated in the private sector; the results are plain. Corporate profits are soaring, while domestic investment, wages, and benefits (particularly at nonunion companies) are flat-lining at best. With nobody to bargain for workers, America increasingly is an economically stagnant, plutocratic utopia. Is everybody happy?</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">American conservatives often profess admiration for foreign workers' bravery in protesting and undermining authoritarian regimes. Letting workers exercise their rights at home, however, threatens to undermine some of our own regimes (the Republican ones particularly) and shouldn't be permitted. Now that Wisconsin's governor has given the Guard its marching orders, we can discern a new pattern of global repressive solidarity emerging -- from the chastened pharaoh of the Middle East to the cheese-head pharaoh of the Middle West.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Harold Meyerson's Washington Post column runs on Wednesdays. This one originally ran here.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Harold Meyerson is the editor-at-large at The American Prospect and a columnist for The Washington Post. Click here to read more about him.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Comment by Alan Maki:</strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The labor movement has been "led" by those adhering to the imperialist ideology of "pragmatism" since 1947 making it very easy for employers and the government as well as the Democrats to manipulate and control labor. This particular article is a very dangerous article and needs to be refuted; especially this idea:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"Democratic governors such as California's Jerry Brown and New York's Andrew Cuomo have proposed scaling back public services, pay, and benefits without going after workers' fundamental rights to bargain. The right to bargain is clearly a separate question."</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This comes from one of the AFL-CIO's "partners," American Prospect.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Look what they say about themselves in their "mission statement:"</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/about_tap/our_mission">http://www.prospect.org/cs/about_tap/our_mission</a></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"At the same time, we take seriously our role as a forum for constructive debate and civil argument about ideas across a wide range of the center-left political spectrum. We don't have a party line, because we believe that robust, challenging internal debate, as well as honest and respectful engagement with philosophical conservatism, will strengthen our ideas, resolve weaknesses, and find the basis for compromise that leads to change."</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"...honest and respectful engagement with philosophical conservatism, will strengthen our ideas, resolve weaknesses, and find the basis for compromise that leads to change."</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">From Wikipedia:</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The American Prospect is a monthly American political magazine <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">dedicated to liberalism</strong>. It bills itself as a journal "of liberal ideas, committed to a just society, an enriched democracy, and effective liberal politics"[1] which focuses on U.S. politics and public policy. Politically, the magazine is in support of modern American liberalism, similar to The New Republic and <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">The Nation</strong>, which likewise <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">target an intellectual audience</strong>.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The magazine was founded in 1990 by <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Robert Kuttner, Robert Reich, and Paul Starr</strong> as a response to the perceived intellectual ascendancy of conservatism in the 1980s. Originally it published quarterly, then bimonthly. In 2000, thanks to a grant from the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, it became biweekly.[2] Financial and logistical difficulties ensued, and the magazine moved to its present monthly format in spring 2003. Kuttner and Starr share the title of Editor with Mark Schmitt, who is also the magazine's executive editor. The online version of the magazine includes an active blog, as well as blogs by Dean Baker and Adam Serwer.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In 2010, The American Prospect was the recipient of Utne Reader magazine's Utne Independent Press Award for Political Coverage.[3]</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The magazine's alumni include Jonathan Chait, Jonathan Cohn, Joshua Green, Joshua Micah Marshall, Jedediah Purdy, Chris Mooney, Matthew Yglesias, Michael Massing, Joe Conason, Michael Tomasky, Ezra Klein, and Scott Stossel.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Recent executive editors have included (from oldest to latest) Michael Tomasky, <strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Harold Meyerson</strong>, and Mark Schmitt.</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"></strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">In March 2010, "The American Prospect" entered into a publishing partnership with <span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Demos</span>, a public policy research and advocacy center.</strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"></strong></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Alan L. Maki</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Director of Organizing,</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;" /></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">and</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;" /></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Co-Chair,</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Lake-of-the-Woods Communist Club (Minnesota-Manitoba-Ontario)</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;" /></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">58891 County Road 13</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Warroad, Minnesota 56763</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Phone: 218-386-2432</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Cell Phone: 651-587-5541</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Check out my Blog:</div><div style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/">http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/</a></div>Alan Makihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08567949617963833763noreply@blogger.com0