Ending poverty should be primary focus

 

A battle of ideas takes shape in the true tradition of democratic dialog, discussion and debate deserving of democracy.

Note: Following my letter are all the letters to the editor on this issue as they were published in The Bemidji Pioneer.

Published March 29, 2012, 12:00 AM

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100038347/

Ending poverty should be primary focus

 Common sense tells us paying casino workers or any workers poverty wages is going to result in these workers and their families being drowned in poverty.


Common sense tells us paying casino workers or any workers poverty wages is going to result in these workers and their families being drowned in poverty.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands workers suffering adverse health conditions due to being forced to work in these smoke-filled casinos and as a result suffering heart and lung problems, cancers and complications from diabetes are going to be pushed even further into poverty. There are no two ways about this fact of life: working people in this country who become seriously ill are going to become poor seeing as how health care is an even bigger racket and rip-off than these casinos.

I question whether Jourdain, LaRose or Vizenor give two hoots about those people they claim to represent because if they had just a modicum of concern for people, they would immediately halt smoking in their casinos.

Why not expand beyond the casino industry as Nicole Beaulieu suggested in her letter to the editor (March 21)?

Are there possibilities in doing this?

There are myriad possibilities from cooperatives raising vegetables, beef, hogs, chickens and turkeys to reforestation, and fishing cooperatives to green energy production, home building and renovation, manufacturing slot machines to a joint tribal-state venture that would save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, creating thousands of jobs.

Real wealth creation is in mining and manufacturing. Why are the Indian nations systematically and intentionally excluded from these industries? Racism is the only explanation.

I would note the wise words of one candidate for White Earth Nation Chair, Char Lee-Ovaldson, who writes “…The economy needs to be improved. Poverty and unemployment have stifled our voices and have kept our people in hopelessness too long. We need to build a strong economy.”

Well, we all know what a strong economy is. A strong economy is a diverse economy centered on solving the problems of the people by meeting the needs of the people which means paying people real living wages to accomplish this.

Poverty and unemployment are our common problems.

Jobs for all by strictly enforcing the Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance (T.E.R.O.) and Affirmative Action while paying casino workers — and ALL workers — real living wages is the solution.

Will the chairs of the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth Tribal Councils join me in insisting that the minimum wage be indexed to all cost of living factors and inflation?

Alan L. Maki

Warroad, Minn.

The other letters I was responding to in the order they were published:

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100037130/

Published February 26, 2012, 12:00 AM

White Earth’s casino plan misguided

The Red Lake Nation and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, along with other member tribes of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA), are opposed to efforts by the White Earth Band of Ojibwe to develop an off-reservation casino in the Twin Cities.

Contrary to claims by White Earth Chairwoman Erma Vizenor, the White Earth proposal is not at all consistent with federal law or the intent of federal Indian gaming policy.

 By: Arthur “Archie” LaRose and Floyd Jourdain, JR., Bemidji Pioneer

The Red Lake Nation and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, along with other member tribes of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA), are opposed to efforts by the White Earth Band of Ojibwe to develop an off-reservation casino in the Twin Cities. Contrary to claims by White Earth Chairwoman Erma Vizenor, the White Earth proposal is not at all consistent with federal law or the intent of federal Indian gaming policy.

Several years ago, the Red Lake Nation and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe briefly entertained the notion of participating in a tribal-state joint casino venture driven by White Earth. It quickly became clear that the plan was a one-sided effort by the state to exploit our tribal status for its own financial gain. The tribes stood to gain very little, but the state would have gained a foothold in casino gaming that could ultimately lead to unlimited state-sponsored expansion at great cost to us and every other Minnesota tribe. We saw through the plan and withdrew our participation in the State/White Earth effort.

Today, we agree with the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA) view that any effort by any tribe to expand gambling into off-reservation locations is misguided and contrary to the spirit of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), the federal law under which Indian gaming is conducted and regulated. IGRA was intended to create jobs and stimulate economic activity on Indian reservations, where traditional approaches to economic development have failed.

White Earth’s proposal is contrary to long-term tribal interests because it compromises sovereignty, diverts tribal revenues to non-tribal purposes, in violation of federal law and the tribal government’s responsibility to its own members, and sets a dangerous precedent for unwarranted revenue-sharing. By positioning itself as a financing partner offering to develop a casino and share proceeds with the State of Minnesota outside the framework of IGRA, the tribe has waived its sovereign status and put itself on the same level as any private-sector developer.

The premise of the White Earth proposal is that it would address “the extreme disparity in revenues generated by tribal casinos.” Since Indian gaming was intended as a tool for economic development on the reservation, it was never envisioned or intended that tribes would benefit equally. IGRA recognized that each tribe would be operating its gaming enterprises on tribal lands with all the benefits and limitations inherent in those locations. Moreover, the proposal as currently written would not remedy revenue disparities; it would merely increase revenue for one tribe, at the expense of others.

The White Earth bill (Article 1, Section 1) asserts a “lack of significant direct revenue to the state of Minnesota” from tribal gaming. In fact, the intent of Indian gaming was to produce revenue for tribes, not states. The suggestion that the state has a right to tribal gaming revenues is simply wrongheaded and totally inconsistent with the stated intent of IGRA.

Further, both federal law and the rulings of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) have reaffirmed that tribes may not divert gaming revenues to states or cities except to pay for benefits or services provided by those entities.

Those who say that the state has not benefited from Indian gaming are simply wrong. Tribal gaming has been a huge economic asset to Minnesota, and it hasn’t cost state taxpayers a dime. The 41,000 jobs, direct and indirect, created by the tribes were created without state assistance.

Finally, the suggestion that the state would bind itself to an exclusivity agreement for thirty years in exchange for 50 percent of the proceeds of a White Earth-owned casino is patently absurd. There is not a single state in the U.S. that, having entered the casino business, has stopped at one casino. What happens to tribal casinos when Minnesota decides it needs another casino, and then another?

MIGA member tribes take no pleasure in opposing White Earth on this matter. However, the tribe’s proposal is so inimical to the interests of the other tribes in Minnesota that we believe we have no alternative.

Arthur “Archie” LaRose is Chairman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe

Floyd Jourdain, Jr. is Chairman of the Red Lake Nation

                                                                          ####

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100037318/group/Opinion/

Published March 01, 2012, 12:00 AM

Claims political, not substantive

The Minnesota Indian Gaming Association exists to protect the status quo in gaming. That’s not a surprise, given that the most influential members of the organization are the tribes with the most successful casinos.

The Minnesota Indian Gaming Association exists to protect the status quo in gaming. That’s not a surprise, given that the most influential members of the organization are the tribes with the most successful casinos.

I have great respect for fellow tribal chairs Arthur “Archie” LaRose (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe chairman) and Floyd Jourdain, Jr. (Red Lake Nation chairman). However, I am disappointed that in their recent article they agreed to defend the policies that have denied meaningful economic opportunities from gaming to all but the few tribes that by accident of geography have locations near the Twin Cities metro area.

The arguments they make are political, not substantive:

They claim that the White Earth Nation’s proposal for a business partnership with the state for a Twin Cities casino would “compromise sovereignty.” That’s false. White Earth is proposing a business partnership with the state of Minnesota. The contractual agreement would apply only to the metro casino – not to any other aspect of tribal affairs. This is not unlike non-casino business arrangements tribes in Minnesota and around the country have made with local and state governments.

They argue that the White Earth proposal is “contrary to the spirit of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).” MIGA wants to reinforce the belief that the courts and Congress were blind to the disparities in gaming revenue. In fact, the spirit of IGRA is that all Native Americans have the opportunity to benefit. What we are proposing is entirely consistent not just with the spirit of IGRA, but with the implementation of the law. There are many examples around the country – including our neighbors in Wisconsin and Michigan – of tribes sharing revenue with state governments. Our proposal would deliver huge economic benefits directly and consistently to White Earth Nation, the state’s largest and poorest tribe. It strengthens the spirit of IGRA – that gaming would be an economic opportunity for all tribes.

Finally, they argue that a partnership with the state would undermine the long-term interests of all tribes. In fact, there are no long-term interests served by imposing the kind of extreme poverty on some tribes that for too long has been our reality. Our long-term interests are in decent housing, good education, quality health care and jobs that pay decent wages.

That is the true spirit of IGRA – the spirit at the heart of MinnesotaWins.

Erma J. Vizenor

Chairwoman, White Earth Nation

                                                                     ####

 

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100037981/

Published March 21, 2012, 12:00 AM

Questions on American Indian poverty must be addressed

The recent opinion by White Earth Chair Erma J. Vizenor responding to the misinformation presented by fellow chairs Jourdain and LaRose, on behalf of MIGA, raises questions needing to be addressed.

The recent opinion by White Earth Chair Erma J. Vizenor responding to the misinformation presented by fellow chairs Jourdain and LaRose, on behalf of MIGA, raises questions needing to be addressed.

Vizenor finally acknowledged what most of us Anishinaabeg have known for years: Casinos have not delivered the “good life” for us all as they were supposedly intended.

While Vizenor addressed poverty, Jourdain and LaRose completely ignored the unemployment creating these disparities. If not for racism, how does one explain the massive unemployment, six to 10 times that of surrounding communities, plaguing our reservations and urban communities? It is clear that some of the main perpetrators of this systematic racism are our own tribal leaders.

Gaming has led to tremendous debt and poverty wage jobs in unhealthy work environments that contribute to the health issues of its workers. Again, this was ignored by chairs Vizenor, Jourdain and LaRose, and more than likely by the other chairs of the MCT due to their special interests with those that refuse to regard our actual needs.

Why should casinos be seen as the only source of income? Why are we so narrow sighted when it comes to diversifying our economic investments? The monopoly of gambling amongst Native Americans amongst tribes seems to be providing an avenue for racist politicians and bureaucrats to maintain their systematic institutionalized racism. They justify it by its means to deprive, and marginalize us to anything but. Yet they always want to attack our interests as if it’s an answer to all of Minnesota’s economic woes, when it barely serves our tribal nations a solution.

Why isn’t Affirmative Action being enforced when it comes to education and employment? Gov. Dayton, here in Bemidji spoke at the BSU’s American Indian Resource Center, promising us he would enforce Affirmative Action. Dayton now proposes billions of dollars in job creation from the Vikings’ stadium, Stillwater bridge, light rail, and downtown Minneapolis renovation. Not one word about enforcing Affirmative Action has been uttered by any politician.

It’s time for Dayton and state legislators to partner with Native Americans in the real economy. Anything less is racism and continued genocide.

I would like to believe Erma Vizenor is sincere in addressing poverty; yet Leech Lake is the only tribe that has called for the enforcement of Affirmative Action by passing a resolution recently to approach these disparities. Yet there is a lot to accomplish.

Nicole Beaulieu

Bemidji

                                                                        ####

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100038347/

Ending poverty should be primary focus

Common sense tells us paying casino workers or any workers poverty wages is going to result in these workers and their families being drowned in poverty. 

Published March 29, 2012, 12:00 AM

Ending poverty should be primary focus

Common sense tells us paying casino workers or any workers poverty wages is going to result in these workers and their families being drowned in poverty.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands workers suffering adverse health conditions due to being forced to work in these smoke-filled casinos and as a result suffering heart and lung problems, cancers and complications from diabetes are going to be pushed even further into poverty. There are no two ways about this fact of life: working people in this country who become seriously ill are going to become poor seeing as how health care is an even bigger racket and rip-off than these casinos.

I question whether Jourdain, LaRose or Vizenor give two hoots about those people they claim to represent because if they had just a modicum of concern for people, they would immediately halt smoking in their casinos.

Why not expand beyond the casino industry as Nicole Beaulieu suggested in her letter to the editor (March 21)?

Are there possibilities in doing this?

There are myriad possibilities from cooperatives raising vegetables, beef, hogs, chickens and turkeys to reforestation, and fishing cooperatives to green energy production, home building and renovation, manufacturing slot machines to a joint tribal-state venture that would save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, creating thousands of jobs.

Real wealth creation is in mining and manufacturing. Why are the Indian nations systematically and intentionally excluded from these industries? Racism is the only explanation.

I would note the wise words of one candidate for White Earth Nation Chair, Char Lee-Ovaldson, who writes “…The economy needs to be improved. Poverty and unemployment have stifled our voices and have kept our people in hopelessness too long. We need to build a strong economy.”

Well, we all know what a strong economy is. A strong economy is a diverse economy centered on solving the problems of the people by meeting the needs of the people which means paying people real living wages to accomplish this.

Poverty and unemployment are our common problems.

Jobs for all by strictly enforcing the Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance (TERO) and Affirmative Action while paying casino workers — and ALL workers — real living wages is the solution.

Will the chairs of the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth Tribal Councils join me in insisting that the minimum wage be indexed to all cost of living factors and inflation?

Alan L. Maki

Warroad, Minnesota

                                                                             ####

My letter as originally submitted for publication before being asked by the Editor to cut it down to less than 400 words per The Bemidji Pioneer's requirement:

Submitted for publication in the Bemidji Pioneer Press; permission to edit is extended by the writer.

I read the three letters about Indian Gaming by Red Lake Chair Floyd Jourdain and Archie LaRose, the opinion of Leech Lake Chair Erma Vizenor and the most recent by Bemidji resident Nicole Beaulieu.

How is it LaRose and Jourdain made no mention of poverty?

Vizenor, to her credit, did mention poverty; albeit very superficially.

But Beaulieu hit the nail on the head with her focus on poverty.

Ending poverty should be our primary focus.

But politicians focus on this campaign rhetoric of “jobs, jobs, jobs;” never so much as insisting that these jobs must be real living wage jobs if poverty is going to be ended.

The Chairs of the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth Tribal Councils conveniently omit the fact that amidst the tremendous wealth being generated by their casinos, they are paying casino workers poverty wages. Common sense tells us paying workers poverty wages is going to result in these workers and their families being drowned in poverty. Anyone walking to any of the 7 loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos these tribal councils own can readily see there is no reason casino workers can’t be paid real living wages. In fact, Jourdain, LaRose and Vizenor are directly--- along with the local, state and federal governments are directly responsible for thousands of their own tribal members living in poverty because instead of paying casino workers real living wages they are enabling the owners of the slot machines to run away with the profits.

And anyone with an ounce of common sense understands workers suffering adverse health conditions due to being forced to work in these smoke-filled casinos and as a result suffering heart and lung problems, cancers and complications from diabetes are going to be pushed even further into poverty.

I question whether Jourdain, LaRose or Vizenor give two hoots about those people they claim to represent because if they had just a modicum of concern they would immediately halt smoking in their casinos.

It is strange none of the Tribal Chairs mentioned the need to fully enforce T.E.R.O. (Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance) on the reservations and Affirmative Action off the reservation. Obviously if Native Americans don’t have access to good jobs paying real living wages there is going to be massive racist unemployment driving continued shameful racist poverty.

But, here again, these tribal chairs so focused on casinos to the exclusion of building other enterprises as Beaulieu suggests will not entertain anything outside of casinos because they are afraid to have the presence of real living wage jobs which would force them to pay casino workers more.

Beaulieu raises a most important question: Why not expand beyond the casino industry?

Are there possibilities in doing this?

Minnesotans have subsidized Ford’s St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant to the hilt for many years.

Chair Erma Vizenor claims to have a billion dollars in hand for a joint State-Tribal Casino venture. Where she is getting this kind of money we don’t know since she isn’t paying employees of the Shooting Star Casino real living wages.

Everyone agrees jobs--- good paying, living wage jobs--- are what we need to work our way out of this economic mess the crumbling capitalist economy has us all mired in.

Again, back to common sense.

Why wouldn’t Chair Vizenor suggest to Governor Dayton and State Legislators that a joint Tribal-State venture be created to keep the Saint Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant operating building solar and wind generating equipment or the components for light rail? What about manufacturing slot machines? All could be manufactured simultaneously with this plant. Ford engaged in multi-product manufacturing previously with this plant they now want to knock down since they are producing their Rangers in Thailand.

None of the tribes own their own slot machines. The owners of these slot machines take all the profits right off the top leaving the Indian Nations with nothing but a pile of debt. Debt equals poverty for the people of any nations--- Indian Nations not excluded. Common sense tells us it would be beneficial for the tribes to own their own slot machines.

Real wealth creation is in mining and manufacturing.

I wonder why the iron ore mining and taconite processing industry went to China to get bailed out and subsidized when Erma Vizenor apparently has billions of dollars to invest creating jobs here in Minnesota? Minnesota State Legislators and the Mayor of our largest city apparently have billions to invest in a new Vikings’ Stadium that we need like we need a hole in our heads. And NO new Stadium jobs will be created. The present Stadium employs over 1,900 people; Governor Dayton claims a new Vikings’ Stadium will employ 2,000 people--- no net job gain here.

Saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant from the wrecking ball would create at a minimum of over 2,000 jobs that don’t exist at present time and if the project were managed right under public ownership we would be able to create well over 6,000 new jobs--- jobs at real living wages in a safe and healthy smoke-free environment where real wealth is produced and worker’s rights are protected under state and federal labor laws unlike Minnesota’s 44,000 casino workers forced to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights.

I would note the wise words of one candidate for White Earth Nation Chair, Char Lee-Ovaldson, who writes in the monthly chronicle of the White Earth Nation, Anishinaabeg Today (Feb. 15, 2012 page 5), “…The economy needs to be improved. Poverty and unemployment have stifled our voices and have kept our people in hopelessness too long. We need to build a strong economy.”

I am asking: If there are billions of dollars available to build a new casino and a Vikings’ Stadium; aren’t these same billions of dollars available to create real living wage jobs with those employed manufacturing what our society really needs? If not, we need an explanation of why not.

Mark Dayton came to me begging for my support while seeking votes running for office; I expect that Governor Dayton will be answering my questions posed here.

Racism hurts and harms the victims the worst but the rest of us are suffering, too, as this racism is blinding our society to real solutions to our problems. Poverty and unemployment are our common problems. Jobs for all by strictly enforcing T.E.R.O. and Affirmative Action while paying casino workers--- and ALL workers--- real living wages is the solution.

Will the Chairs of the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth Tribal Councils join me in insisting that the minimum wage be indexed to all cost of living factors and inflation?

To his credit, Archie LaRose did support a resolution demanding Affirmative Action be enforced in Minnesota but his colleagues Jourdain and Vizenor have not joined him; why not?

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

The most bizarre "Dear Alan" e-mail I ever received comes from the AFL-CIO

This is a most bizarre e-mail.

What makes it so bizarre is Richard Trumka is calling on Mitt Romney to fire his adviser for what is obvious wrong-doing but the AFL-CIO has not called on their candidate for re-election, Obama, to do his job and fire Terence Flynn. Instead, the AFL-CIO calls on Flynn to resign.

I guess Richard Trumka knows the candidate he will be spending over $200 million dollars trying to re-elect will do nothing for labor so Trumka calls directly on Flynn to resign rather than insisting Obama fire him.

Dear Alan,

Mitt Romney’s labor adviser, Peter Schaumber, has gone too far. The inspector general of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that improper, unethical disclosures of privileged information to Schaumber were used to benefit his consulting practice and attack the NLRB—the federal agency tasked with protecting workers’ rights.¹

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, says the concerns raised in the inspector general’s report are “very serious and involve potential criminal implications.”² 

How candidate Romney responds to these findings is a test of his character. Will Romney embrace Washington insiders who trade on confidential and even attorney-client privileged information? Or will he demand they abide by the same ethical standards the rest of us—the 99%—pride ourselves on and expect others to live up to? 

Please join the AFL-CIO in demanding that candidate Romney renounce Peter Schaumber’s involvement with these ethical breaches and fire him immediately. 

According to the report of the NLRB’s Office of the Inspector General and news reports, here’s what we know about Romney adviser Peter Schaumber:

• He was named to the NLRB by President George W. Bush and served until Aug. 27, 2010. After he left the agency, Schaumber marketed himself as a “consultant” with “[NLRB] agency connections.” During that time, he did press work to attack the NLRB and the modest workplace protections workers have.²
   
• Schaumber benefited from the improper and unethical receipt of confidential, inside information to support his anti-worker consulting business and his press work aimed at giving the NLRB a bad name. The inappropriate disclosures were made to Schaumber from his former staffer, Terence Flynn—who remained at the NLRB and became a board member.¹
  
• Flynn acted as Schaumber’s mole inside the agency, feeding him internal, confidential, attorney-client privileged information. According to the IG report, this broke government ethics rules. Flynn needs to resign immediately, and Romney needs to hold Schaumber accountable.^1,3

Join the AFL-CIO in calling on candidate Romney to immediately dismiss Schaumber from his campaign.

This funneling of privileged information is an outrageous example of how the 1% gets things done at the 99%’s expense. If candidate Romney allows Peter Schaumber to remain as an adviser, it will speak volumes about the value he places on ethics in government officials. 

Merely firing Schaumber isn’t enough: Candidate Romney needs to make it clear his campaign will not tolerate those who benefit from unethical conduct.
Thank you for all the work you do.

In Solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

1    http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/sites/democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/
files/documents/112/pdf/letters/DOCFlynnTransmittal.PDF
2    http://www.salon.com/2012/03/27/team_romneys_alleged_labor_mole/singleton/
3    http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/Statement-by-AFL-CIO-President-
Richard-Trumka-On-Ethical-Violations-by-NLRB-Member-Terence-Flynn

Global Day of Action on Military Spending

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=388051237880894&set=o.214237379814&type=1&theater

Fwd: Global Day of Action on Military Spending

Bruce Gagnon blog
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2012
IMPORTANT ACTION DATE COMING SOON
http://www.space4peace.blogspot.com/2012/03/important-action-date-coming-soon.html

'Organize a local action on April 17 in conjunction with groups all over the world calling for an end to militarism.

Fund human needs! Protect the environment! Convert the military industrial complex to peaceful and sustainable production!

Join hands around the globe.'

...........................................

Here for Jeju, Boycott, Samsung that builds the naval base in Jeju, produces and exports arms to the poorer countries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

By: Sung-Hee Choi

Oil and Obama. We are all being played for fools as the robbery at the gas pumps continues.

We are all being played for fools. Why would Obama approve "exploration" for oil if he didn't intend to approve the drilling? Only a complete dunces and Obama sock-puppets would believe this crap.

In my opinion, if Wall Street is going to be allowed to dictate an economic policy dependent on oil then that oil should be derived from our own supplies.

These environmentalists who protest drilling and then turn around and support this rotten and corrupt capitalist system instead of supporting the building of a more environmentally friendly economic system which begins to rely more and more on environmentally friendly electric production really need to reconsider how stupid they sound.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-oks-oil-exploration-along-atlantic-coast-not-171200647--abc-news-politics.html

Obama and his die-hard sock-puppet supporters who have made excuses for Obama that reforms aimed at creating better lives and living conditions must take place though "baby steps" and incrementalism" refuse to regognize Obama is destroying our living standards in leaps and bounds and then turns around and engages in "baby steps" and "incremental steps" like this to hoodwink us into accepting environmental destruction as part of the destruction of our living standards as Wall Street parasites continue to bank their profits.

We have seen the "baby steps" and "incremental steps" now being used to send oil from the Tar Sands to Texas to be exported for profit while we are told we must suffer in silence the robbery at the pumps as Obama tries to hoodwink us that we need to increase oil production here in order to lower the price of gass.

What we need is clear.

* Stop exporting oil and flood the U.S. market with so much oil the price goes down.

* Jail those profiting from speculation on the oil future's market.

* End all talk about war with Iran.

* Implement an energy policy that fully integrates solar, wind and hydro into local and regional energy grids.

* Nationalize the entire energy industry under democratic public control of the people. There are plenty of local and regional electric co-operatives to serve as the base for such an initiative.

* Take profits out of energy production and distribution; this is the only way to go.

Making energy production, distribution and use people and environmentally friendly would create millions of new real living wage jobs while pushing down the price of oil, gas and electricity.

Are U.S. workers "middle class" or poor?

The student loans like the home loans, car loans and all the other consumer debt--- all bubbles waiting to pop--- are the result of the system, Wall Street's rotten capitalist system, refusing to pay working people real living wages based upon all cost of living factors.

Wall Street believed it had a fail-safe racket for keeping wages down while making money off the interest charged on these debts while leading people to believe they were living a "middle class" life-style.

What this amounted to was Wall Street making people believe they were well off when they were really poor. Real, real poor.

Debt is poverty.

Pushing people out of their homes through foreclosures and evictions is just one more way for Wall Street to get the miserly wages already paid back.

Make no mistake; these greedy Wall Street bastards already own everything and they aren't satisfied--- they still want more.

Obama is working out a deal to "restructure" mortgages in a way that will not only allow Wall Street bankers to take back homes but take everything else people own.

Many working people who have already lost their homes still have massive student loans and huge credit card debts to pay off not to mention other big-ticket items like cars, boats, snowmobiles, motorcycles, All-terrain vehicles, etc.; they are never going to be able to afford to pay this debt back--- not in one life-time or even two.

What will be next? if you want more credit your children will have to agree to pay?

Millions of people now have debt with nothing to show because they were forced to use credit cards to purchase even their food.

Instead of fighting for real living wages, working people followed the lead of a bunch of pathetic and useless labor leaders who never questioned any of this let alone led any kind of struggles required for wages (Social Security and Unemployment benefits) which should have been based on all cost of living factors.

Wages, not credit cards, should have been paying for all of this--- the cost of higher education included. In lieu of real living wages, universal social programs should have been in place to provide the basic necessities of life.

Millions of Americans are still paying on medical/nursing home debts.

Only complete fools would expect that working class families foreclosed would be able to repay any of this other debt.

During the depression of the 1930's there was a similar situation and no one wants to talk about the results with the big bankers ending up owning everything from kitchen sinks to homes and farms.

Obama is helping the Wall Street bankers gobble up the rest of the wealth they couldn't lay claim to during the last depression while expecting us to be so dumb to pay for Wall Street's dirty imperialist wars.

Politicians keep talking about "jobs, jobs, jobs;" the problem is the only jobs they ever create are poverty wage jobs.

Not one single politician dares to talk about the need to tie and index wages--- especially the minimum wage , Social Security and unemployment benefits--- to all cost of living factors.

The "middle class" standard of living--- one great big hoax--- has been the result, not of wages, but the result of credit combined with poverty wages.

I challenge anyone to dispute this.

Fixing What Is Wrong With Our Economy

The AFL-CIO says what is wrong with the U.S. economy stems back 30 years.

On its face this is a blatantly and patently false statement.

If the real facts be told the problem goes back to when this land and its resources--- the wealth of an entire continent--- were stolen from First Nation Peoples. But, no one it seems ever wants to go back this far because we would have to right a lot of wrongs in moving forward with a real agenda for change.

This is when the most massive accumulation of wealth began with the most savage and bestial acts leading to indentured servants and slavery then the further massive accumulation of wealth from the brutal exploitation of the working class as industrialization began with further massive accumulation of wealth taking place during recessions, depressions and horrible wars.

Okay; forget the past like the AFL-CIO wants us to do. Don't even discuss the events of the late 1940's and early 1950's when labor had its head chopped off losing the ability to think with muddle-headed charlatans pretending to be labor leaders appointed by capital to head up the new "labor movement."

Let's just forget that the left-wing led unions organized the mines, mills and factories and since 1948 the "leaders" of organized labor haven't been able to organize their way out of cheap brown paper bags let alone flimsy card-board boxes manufactured in India and China in defending the gains of the past while limiting their "leadership" to closing their eyes to the never-ending assault on the living standards and rights of working people leading to the point where we now have labor "leaders" who have been "educated" at the leading universities attended by the likes of Barack Obama where they, like Obama, were trained to manage capitalism to Wall Street's benefit.

These are labor leaders who talk about a mythical "middle class" because their standard of living derived from betraying the working class puts them in league with the well-heeled over-paid middle class intellectuals in the universities and think tanks whose job it is to keep working people confused and disoriented--- which includes convincing working people Obama is on their side when he is on the other side.

Okay; forget past history. For a moment just pretend what these over-paid, well-heeled labor "leaders" with PhD's have to say: Our problems started thirty years ago.

Well, how come labor was unable to effectively respond to what was, and is, going down?

The fact is, these labor "leaders" comprising the leadership of 57 unions in this country all support this rotten capitalist system.

Richard Trumka and Leo Gerard will attack me but they don't have the courage to debate me. Leo Gerard even launched into a vicious public personal attack on me in his trade-mark red-baiting tradition. But, when Leo gerard sees me in person as he did at the NetRoots Nation Convention in Minneapolis he runs the other way. Just a bunch of big-mouth chicken shits cackling and scratching for scraps from the bosses is all these fraudsters are.

If these two-bit, half-assed, university degreed labor "leaders" were one bit concerned with the plight of working people and working class whose dues pay their big fat salaries they would have occupied, and held their winter meeting, in the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant demanding Obama bring forward policies that would keep the plant operating under public ownership and agreeing to do the same with the more than fifty-thousand closed and shuttered mines, mills and factories in this country where millions of workers have lost their jobs as Wall Street vultures sought out cheap labor markets overseas.

Where are the working people in this country clamoring to become "competitive" with Germany or China or competitive with workers anyplace in the world? I see no working people demanding the "right" to become "competitive" with their brothers and sisters in other lands. What I do see and hear are working people demanding an end to Wall Street's dirty imperialist wars so a big, huge peace dividend can be spent creating jobs for the unemployed solving the problems of the working class like free access to health care and child care befitting a civilized society. Yet we don't read one word from these worthless union bureaucrats about the adverse impact of militarization and wars on the economic well-being of this country; not one single word.

Just as there is not a mention of the racist impact of unemployment in communities of people of color requiring the enforcement of Affirmative Action. Not a mention of Affirmative Action during this winter meeting taking place at a luxurious hotel in Florida where just blocks away there is massive poverty created because so many people are either unemployed or forced to work for poverty wages.

These labor fakers talk about the need to "index the minimum wage" but they lack the moral or political courage to defy the employers represented so effectively by Barack Obama by calling for indexing the minimum wage to all cost of living factors collected by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. These over-educated labor "leaders" are so damn dumb they don't understand workers paid poverty wages are going to be poor no matter how many poverty wages jobs the employers who own Obama create.

Their stupidity doesn't stop or end with failing to advance the demand for a real living--- non-poverty minimum wage indexed to inflation and all cost of living factors in order to achieve a decent standard of living for all working people.

No; their stupidity, their unanimous stupidity, extends to turning around and endorsing Obama for re-election without asking the workers they are supposed to be paid to represent the most basic and fundamental question which would need to be answered: How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?

Richard Trumka and Leo Gerard are so concerned about "covering Obama's backside" they don't even notice Obama and the Democrats working with the Republicans shoving the shaft up the working class' collective ass.

These degenerate morons like Richard Trumka and Leo Gerard who will remain silent as our fellow workers and their children are slaughtered in these unconstitutional, illegitimate, illegal and dirty imperialist wars around the world defending Wall Street's access to cheap resources including labor also turn their backs on our own working class now engaged in a daily struggle for survival which they don't understand because their style of lavish living which mirrors that of the rich and famous combined with the brainwashing they received at the hands of Wall Street's selected professors who in their ivory towers have no understanding beyond book-reading of what poverty, racism and war is. and even less understanding of just how rotten this capitalist system is which is the very "heart of the problem."

Here we have labor "leaders" pretending to represent millions of workers still apologizing for capitalism while ignoring its most barbaric and cannibalistic stage of imperialism supporting the this Wall Street charlatan, Barack Obama--- the epitome of everything in the world that is evil.

These phony labor leaders have the audacity and unmitigated gall to talk about correcting "our mistakes" when referencing this capitalist economy that is on the skids to oblivion even though working people had no part in any of the decision-making processes. But now these labor fakers take up the line pushed by Obama talking about "our mistakes." Mistakes my ass. There have been no "mistakes;" this has been Wall Street's agenda all along; an agenda pushed along by both Democrats and Republicans enabling Wall Street coupon clippers to stick their greedy fingers into every single aspect of our lives in quest of greater profits.

And here we go again--- it is election time--- with these labor "leaders" calling for "tax the rich" when they refused to mobilize their memberships to implement and enforce the needed legislation required. 

Once again being election time, all problems are blamed on the Republicans as we are supposed to be led to the polls believing "Obama understands" our problems and what needs to be done. This statement is one big crock of shit completely devoid from the reality of the working and living conditions being imposed by Wall Street as these labor leaders try to lead us anywhere and everywhere except to a united struggle against our enemies--- Barack Obama, the Democrats and Republicans all nothing but puppets on strings manipulated Wall Street--- to defend and protect our rights, livelihoods and living standards.

This bunch of labor fakers must take us all for complete dumbies as they talk about outsourcing jobs. Obama's largest bundlers--- and biggest bunglers--- are the ones continuing to close down the mines, mills and factories in this country.

The Chinese never took one single job away from one single U.S. worker--- Wall Street shipped the jobs to China by design and intent in quest of maximum profits. This is the nature of parasitic imperialism.

There is only one solution beyond the needed reforms like a real living minimum wage indexed to the cost of living and inflation, real health care reform and a national public child care system required to help workers survive--- socialism; workers' control of the economy--- nationalization under public ownership of the mines, mills and factories.

Instead of working class leaders guiding us into struggle to defend our rights, livelihoods and standard of living we have 57 over-paid union bureaucrats paid for with the dues of union members who are working for our class enemy--- Wall Street.

Obama is part of the problem not part of the solution.

And with all the money these over-paid capitalist sooth-Sayers are paid to hoodwink working people into voting for Obama, the best reason they can come up with is that Obama isn't as bad as the Republicans even though Obama has been worse than Bush.

There isn't one specific step outlined in this statement that would lead towards solving any of the problems being experienced by working people and the working class--- not even a call for a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.

Furthermore, these fools parading around as labor "leaders" don't even have any promises from Obama in hand that would help working people before endorsing him for re-election.

Rank-and-file working class activists need their own think tanks and action centers which need to focus on the politics and economics of livelihood.

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








AFL-CIO Says 30 Years of Policies for the 1% Caused
Crisis, Outlines Steps to Fix Economy

By Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Now
March 14, 2012

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Economy/Council-Says-30-Years-of-Policies-for-the-1-Caused-Crisis-Outlines-Steps-to-Fix-Economy

The crash of 2008 and the Great Recession were
inevitable consequences of three decades of economic
policies designed by and for Wall Street and the
wealthiest Americans. At the heart of the problem, says
the AFL-CIO Executive Council, was:

    the hollowing out of American manufacturing, the
    growing dysfunction of our financial sector and a rapid
    increase in economic inequality, all of which crippled
    the growth engine of the U.S. economy.

In a broad statement today at its annual winter meeting
in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., on "How to Fix What Is Wrong
with Our Economy," the council details the step-by-step
policy decisions by business and government and the
rise of corporate power over the past decades that
brought the economy to its knees.

The council says President Obama has shown he
understands the problem.

He has said clearly that 'we are not going back to an
economy that's all about outsourcing and bad debt and
phony profits,' we cannot return to a 'bubble and bust'
economy propped up by 'fleeting bubbles and rampant
speculation.'

The statement outlines several significant steps that
need to be taken to build an economy that can compete
with world economic powers like Germany and China and
that works for all, including:

    Significant investment over the next decade in
    education and apprenticeship programs for young
    people, infrastructure, energy, manufacturing,
    transportation, skills training and new
    technologies;

    A fair share from Wall Street and the wealthiest
    Americans, who have benefited most from the
    economic policies of the past 30 years-pass a
    financial speculation tax, let the Bush tax cuts
    for the wealthy expire and tax capital gains at the
    same rate as ordinary income;

    Tackling the problems of wage stagnation and
    economic inequality by reforming labor laws so that
    all workers who want to form a union and bargain
    collectively have a fair opportunity to do so,
    making full employment the highest priority of our
    economic policy, increasing and indexing the
    minimum wage, shrinking the trade deficit and
    eliminating incentives for offshoring;

    Reviving U.S. manufacturing by bringing the trade
    deficit under control, enhancing Buy America
    safeguards, aggressively enforcing trade laws and
    ending incentives for offshoring;

    Once again regulating Wall Street, eliminating tax
    advantages for leveraged buyouts and finding other
    ways to favor strategic investment over short-term
    speculation;

    And working toward a global New Deal that
    establishes minimum standards for the global
    economy, prevents a race to the bottom, creates
    vibrant consumer markets in the global South and
    creates new markets for advanced U.S.
    manufacturing.

In other jobs and economy action today, the council
urged Congress to reject the cynically named JOBS Act,
which aims to deregulate Wall Street, and a measure (S.
1747) that would strip overtime pay protection from
large numbers of high-tech workers. The Computer
Professionals Update Act would affect computer systems
analysts, computer programmers, software engineers and
other high-tech employees and, as the Congressional
Research Service says, "effectively eliminate[s]
overtime protection for all IT professionals." Instead,
the council said, Congress should "update and index the
overtime salary thresholds so workers do not lose
overtime protection as wages and salaries rise with
inflation."
_______________

AFL-CIO Executive Council Statement Text

Fixing What Is Wrong With Our Economy

March 14, 2012

http://www.aflcio.org/About/Exec-Council/EC-Statements/Fixing-What-Is-Wrong-With-Our-Economy

The economic policies that led to the financial crash
of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession should have
been permanently discredited by their epic failure.
Instead, the Republican presidential candidates are now
resurrecting the same failed policies and pretending
the crash never happened.

America cannot afford to go down this path again. If we
want to fix what is wrong with our economy, we have to
learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them.

The crash of 2008 and the Great Recession were
inevitable consequences of three decades of economic
policies designed by and for Wall Street and the
wealthiest Americans. At the heart of the problem was
the hollowing out of American manufacturing, the
growing dysfunction of our financial sector and a rapid
increase in economic inequality, all of which crippled
the growth engine of the U.S. economy.

Starting in the 1980s, corporate America decided to
boost profits by shipping U.S. jobs overseas. NAFTA and
the admission of China into the World Trade
Organization (WTO) accelerated the drive to relocate
production to "export platforms" in foreign countries
that would ship goods back to the U.S. market.
Corporations that sent jobs overseas became forceful
proponents of a "strong" (overvalued) dollar, which
enhanced the profitability of their overseas operations
but at the same time made much of the U.S.
manufacturing sector uncompetitive and led to perennial
U.S. trade deficits.

Also by the 1980s, the U.S. financial sector was
failing to perform its essential function of channeling
savings to productive investment in the real economy.
Financial firms on Wall Street focused instead on
making a quick buck by stripping assets from existing
businesses and downsizing their workforces, and on
various forms of complex financial engineering that had
little economic value. Financial firms also provided
critical support for a "strong dollar" policy that
diverted productive investment away from the U.S.
manufacturing sector toward overseas operations.  By
the eve of the crash of 2008, the manufacturing sector
had shrunk to half its 1960 size, while the financial
sector had doubled in size and accounted for 40 percent
of corporate profits.

The deindustrialization of America and the substitution
of speculation for productive investment were not
accidents, they were not inevitable, and they were not
the outcome of natural forces.  They were the
predictable results of mistaken policy choices made by
politicians of both parties for more than a generation.
These policy choices had victims with first and last
names: millions of displaced workers, shuttered
factories and hollowed-out communities across the
country hobbled by shrinking tax bases that no longer
could support vital public services.

Both deindustrialization and the dysfunction of finance
contributed to a remarkable rise in economic inequality
starting in the late 1970s. Trade deficits and
offshoring wiped out millions of well-paying, middle-
class jobs, and the threat of offshoring held down
wages for all workers. But a long list of other
deliberate policy choices also played key roles in the
rise of inequality. These included the abandonment of
full employment in favor of fighting inflation, the
prolonged attack on workers' right to organize and
bargain collectively with their employers, the erosion
of the minimum wage and other labor protections and
massive tax cuts for the wealthy.  In the end, nearly
two-thirds of the pre-tax income gains after 1979 were
captured by the richest 10 percent and more than half
was captured by the richest 1 percent.

The experience of the past 30 years shows that rising
inequality is bad not only for workers, but also for
the economy as a whole. Less affluent households tend
to spend more of their income, generating more economic
activity, while more affluent households tend to
consume less. Wage stagnation undermines political
support for the levels of taxation necessary to support
public investment in things like roads and schools,
which underpins future economic productivity. And high
levels of inequality are associated with political
decision-making that leads to slower growth. In short,
the upward redistribution of income throws sand in the
gears of the economy.

The combination of all these policy mistakes caused the
growth engine of the U.S. economy to sputter. Starting
in the early 1980s, the economy's average annual growth
rate slowed considerably in comparison with the postwar
period. The expansion of the Bush years was the weakest
since World War II in terms of output growth,
investment growth, employment growth and wage growth.
In fact, the Bush expansion was the first since World
War II in which real income for the typical middle-
class family actually declined. There was clearly
something wrong with the U.S. economy long before the
crash.

The weakness of the economy was temporarily papered
over by a bubble in real estate prices at the turn of
the 21st century, which was made possible by the
deregulation of Wall Street. Instead of broad-based,
sustainable growth fueled by rising wages and
investment, the U.S. economy was artificially inflated
by complex financial engineering that made credit more
easily available and exposed the entire economy to
enormous risk. The bubble allowed working families to
maintain their standard of living, despite stagnant
wages, by borrowing against the value of their homes
and going deeper into debt. But of course households
could not keep increasing their debt loads forever.
When the real estate bubble finally burst, the house of
cards came crashing down and working people were once
again forced to pay for the sins of Wall Street with
their homes, their dreams and their children's futures.

We are still digging our way out from the rubble of the
crash. It typically takes years to repair the damage
from the collapse of speculative asset bubbles. When
the U.S. real estate bubble burst, households lost more
than $10 trillion in wealth from the plunge in housing
and stock prices, and they were heavily indebted to
begin with. Even today, households are still digging
their way out of debt, and it may take years for them
to see daylight. This helps explain why progress toward
closing our jobs deficit has been so difficult, and why
the economic recovery is still so fragile.  Another
drag on the recovery has been the loss of 765,000 jobs
at the state and local levels between 2007 and 2011,
more than in any modern downturn.

The Republican presidential candidates not only failed
to learn anything from Wall Street's mistakes, they now
want to double down on more of the same. They propose
to deregulate the financial sector yet again, pass more
trade agreements that encourage the offshoring of U.S.
jobs, suppress wages by intensifying the assault on
unions, prioritize inflation-fighting over full
employment and perpetuate overvaluation of the dollar
and the U.S. trade deficit. We already tried this
approach, and it already failed spectacularly.

The Republican candidates pretend that tax cuts for
corporations and the wealthy are the answer to wage
stagnation and the economic crisis, but the Bush years
taught us that these obscenely wasteful tax cuts only
make the problem worse. They are the equivalent of
eating our seed corn, because they starve the kind of
public investment in education, infrastructure and
innovation that is indispensable for long-term economic
growth.

President Obama has shown that he understands the
problem. He has said clearly that "we are not going
back to an economy that's all about outsourcing and bad
debt and phony profits," we cannot return to a "bubble
and bust" economy propped up by "fleeting bubbles and
rampant speculation," and we "must make sure such a
crisis never happens again."  He has called for
rebuilding an economy "built to last" through a
sustained program of public investment in
infrastructure, education and innovation. He has called
economic inequality the "defining issue of our time"
and sounded the alarm at the decline of the American
middle class over the past 30 years. He has opened a
national conversation about encouraging businesses to
bring jobs back to the U.S. instead of shipping jobs
overseas. He has acknowledged that America can no
longer "serve as the consumer engine for the entire
world," and called on trading partners that run trade
surpluses every year to rebalance their economies by
consuming more of what they produce.

What we need now is an economic program as serious and
far-reaching as the problem President Obama has
correctly diagnosed. We must start by shifting the
focus of U.S. economic policy from one of maximizing
the competitiveness and profitability of corporations
that happen to maintain headquarters somewhere on U.S.
territory to one of maximizing the competitiveness and
prosperity of the human beings who live and work in
America.

First, if we want to be competitive with Germany and
China in the 21st century, we will need trillions of
dollars in productive public investment over the next
10 years in affordable education and apprenticeship
programs for young people, who have suffered greater
income loss than any other demographic; infrastructure;
energy; manufacturing; transportation; skills training
and upgrades; and new technologies; all of which have
been starved by successive rounds of tax cuts for the
wealthy and inaction on long-term federal investment
initiatives. Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans,
who have benefitted most from the economic policies of
the past 30 years, will have to start paying their fair
share. We need to pass a financial speculation tax, let
the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire, tax capital
gains at the same rate as ordinary income and establish
a minimum effective tax rate of 30 percent for
households earning more than $1 million.

Second, to encourage domestic investment and lay a
stronger and more stable foundation for long-term
growth, it is essential that we tackle the problems of
wage stagnation and economic inequality. This will
require reforming our labor laws so that all workers
who want to form a union and bargain collectively have
a fair opportunity to do so, making full employment the
highest priority of our economic policy, increasing and
indexing the minimum wage, shrinking the trade deficit
and, again, eliminating incentives for offshoring.

Third, we need to start making things in America again.
We cannot hope to revive U.S. manufacturing without
bringing our trade deficit under control, which means
ending the overvaluation of the U.S. dollar and
combating currency manipulation by our trading
partners.  We will also need to enhance Buy America
safeguards, aggressively enforce our trade laws and end
incentives for offshoring in the tax code and in our
trade agreements.

Fourth, we need to shrink our bloated financial sector
and make it serve the real economy once again. We can
no longer afford a financial sector that squanders
scarce resources on unproductive gambling and exposes
the entire economy to the intolerable risk of
speculative bubbles. This means reregulating Wall
Street, eliminating tax advantages for leveraged
buyouts and finding other ways to favor strategic
investment over short-term speculation.

Fifth, if we expect other countries to stop relying on
trade surpluses as their source of growth, we will have
to make it easier for them to rely on domestic incomes
as their source of growth. This will require a global
New Deal that establishes minimum standards for the
global economy, prevents a race to the bottom, creates
vibrant consumer markets in the global South and in the
process creates new markets for advanced U.S.
manufacturing.

We also have unfinished business in digging out from
the rubble of the crash. America wants to work, and
decisive action to close our jobs deficit must not be
delayed any further. An immediate multi-year program of
public investment in infrastructure and clean energy
would draw in business investment and buy time while
households dig their way out of debt. To stop the
foreclosure epidemic and stabilize housing prices,
broad-based reductions in mortgage principal will also
be needed. The U.S. economy cannot recover until the
housing market-the single largest market in the
country-is healthy again, and the banks must be held
accountable for their contribution to the crisis.

One thing is clear: We can no longer rely on household
debt, real estate bubbles, tech bubbles, stock bubbles
or any other kind of bubbles to fuel our economic
growth. We cannot go back to a low-wage, high-
consumption economy. We need bold leadership to draw
the right lessons from the mistakes of the past 30
years and forge a new model of economic growth in which
we make things in America again, workers can form a
union and bargain collectively if they want to, working
people can afford to buy the things they make, the U.S.
economy produces as much as it consumes, everybody who
wants to work can find a good job and prosperity is
broadly shared.
_____________

Economix

Labor's Take on the Economy

By Steven Greenhouse
New York Times
March 15, 2012

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/labors-take-on-the-economy/

ORLANDO, Fla.

When labor leaders talk publicly, it's often to make
angry, off-the-cuff statements to denounce a company
that is taking a tough line on wage increases or to
lambaste a lawmaker who is sponsoring anti-union
legislation.

But when the nation's union leaders gather each winter
at the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s executive council meeting, the
statements they issue are usually far different. They
often approve carefully crafted resolutions that the
labor federation's staff members - some have Ph.D.'s -
have spent weeks preparing in close consultation with
union leaders. Clearly much work and thought went into
the resolution on the economy that the labor federation
approved on Wednesday, titled "Fixing What Is Wrong
With Our Economy."

The resolution is in part cri de coeur on behalf of
embattled workers, but it is mainly a full-throated
liberal-left take on what's ailing the American economy
and what caused those ailments. As one would suspect,
organized labor's analysis is not sympathetic to Wall
Street, deregulation and free trade.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O., representing 57 unions and with
considerable influence on the White House, said that
the recession and financial crisis that the nation
plunged into four years ago were three decades in the
making. The labor group's economic resolution asserted
that the North American Free Trade Agreement, admitting
China into the World Trade Organization and a long-
overvalued dollar had fueled the relocation of American
operations overseas.

Decrying "the hollowing out" of the economy, the
resolution added that by the 1980s the nation's
financial sector was failing to perform its "essential
function" of channeling savings to productive
investment in the real economy, focusing instead on
various forms of complex financial engineering and
"making a quick buck by stripping assets from existing
business and downsizing their work forces."

"The deindustrialization of America and the
substitution of speculation for productive investment
were not accidents, they were not inevitable, and they
were not the outcome of natural forces," the A.F.L.-
C.I.O. said. "They were the predictable results of
mistaken policy choices made by politicians of both
parties for more than a generation."

The labor federation asserted that many factors had
fueled America's growing inequality, including the loss
of well-paying manufacturing jobs, the rise of finance,
"the abandonment of full employment in favor of
fighting inflation," corporate attacks on the ability
of workers to unionize, "the erosion of the minimum
wage" and "massive tax cuts for the wealthy."

"In the end, nearly two-thirds of the pretax income
gains after 1979 were captured by the richest 10
percent and more than half was captured by the richest
1 percent," the resolution said.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. argued that rising inequality was bad
for the economy as a whole, causing less affluent
households to spend more than their income and rely on
borrowing to an unhealthy degree.

"The weakness of the economy was temporarily papered
over by a bubble in real estate prices at the turn of
the 21st century, which was made possible by the
deregulation of Wall Street," the resolution said.
"Instead of broad-based, sustainable growth fueled by
rising wages and investment, the U.S. economy was
artificially inflated by complex financial engineering
that made credit more easily available and exposed the
entire economy to enormous risk."

To restore the economy to health, the labor federation
had several recommendations. First, it said, "if we
want to be competitive with Germany and China in the
21st century, we will need trillions of dollars in
productive public investment over the next 10 years" in
education, apprentice programs, retraining, and
infrastructure for the energy, manufacturing,and
transportation sectors. It added, "We need to start
making things in America again." To revive
manufacturing, it called for bringing the nation's
swollen trade under control and ending "the
overvaluation of the U.S. dollar" as well as "currency
manipulation by our trading partners."

"One thing is clear," the resolution concluded. "We can
no longer rely on household debt, real estate bubbles,
tech bubbles, stock bubbles or any other kind of
bubbles to fuel our economic growth. We cannot go back
to a low-wage, high-consumption economy. We need bold
leadership to draw the right lessons from the mistakes
of the past 30 years."