Why did Bill Fletcher omit the fact he is one of the ffive initiators of the Progressives For Obama?
Why did Bill Fletcher, Jr. omit the fact he is supporting Barack
Obama for re-election?
Why hasn't Bill Fletcher asked the most basic and fundamental question:
How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for you?
Bill Fletcher, Jr. and his fellow "progressives for Obama" continue to duck the question:
What have these people done "to hold Barack Obama's feet to the fire" as they promised they would do?
Fletcher has created arguments based on his own strawman creations in order to knock down instead of responding to real questions and problems.
Alan L. Maki
Bill: My frustration with the Left when it comes to electoral politics
Written by Bill Fletcher Friday, 06 April 2012 22:30
I was recently asked to participate on a panel regarding the Left and electoral politics. I declined. For many people this may seem strange since I have been a very strong proponent of the Left looking at electoral politics strategically. Well, that is all true but I have encountered a problem and maybe you can help me resolve it.
Most Left “debates” on electoral politics take a very predictable route. It looks something like this:
Electoral politics will not bring about socialism and freedom.
The Democrats have consistently sold us out. They are the party of the rich.
The Republicans and the Democrats are two wings of the same evil bird of prey.
We need an alternative.
Therefore, either:
Abstain from electoral politics and wait till the masses, in their millions rise up against capitalism, or…
Create a pure, anti-corporate (if not anti-capitalist) third party right now and start running in elections even if we do not have a snow-ball’s chance in hell of winning.
What I have found striking about this line of thought, and the so-called debates that unfold around it, is that they are actually un-political and lack any sort of concrete analysis.
Let’s be clear so that we do not have a needless exchange. Electoral politics under democratic capitalism will not result in our freedom. Second, the Democrats are not the party of the working class. So, now that we have that out of the way, what do we do?
Electoral politics is a field of struggle. It is an arena. On that arena, however, we on the Left can do two things: participate in the struggle for popular power and raise issues that have the possibility of gaining greater attention. Much of the Left focuses on the latter and ignores the former. Many who focus on the struggle for power, however, abdicate being Left altogether. Therein exists the challenge.
Given the undemocratic nature of the US electoral system, a concrete analysis of the USA (rather than other countries) means that we have to grapple with what it means that in most elections independent, third party candidacies fail and are viewed as spoilers. There are certainly historical exceptions, but those exceptions prove the general rule. This means that a concrete examination of US electoral politics must focus on the notion that a third party movement on the Left will more than likely result from an “insurrection” within the Democratic Party and a major section of its base (with the character of such an “insurrection” being more of a united front rather than a pure, Left challenge). This is to be counterposed with the idea that such a party arises out of nothing, or to put it in its best case, out of generalized popular discontent.
So, if we on the Left really want to discuss electoral politics we must examine a concrete question: what do we do in the USA given the nature of the electoral system? If your answer is to simply raise the red flag of radicalism to see who salutes, with all due respect, you are not serious about politics; you are stuck in the world of pure ideology.
The larger challenge for the Left in electoral politics is conducting the fight, in and through our mass organizations, for the recognition of the need for an independent, progressive program that represents the interests of the downtrodden and the dispossessed. We should not start with organization in the abstract, but with program. We then need to figure out under what conditions we run people within Democratic Party primaries and under what circumstances we run independently. Always, I should add, recognizing that this is a fight within the context of democratic capitalism for structural reforms, thereby laying the basis for the longer-term struggle for socialism...
…That is, if we are interested in the fight for power rather than just being ‘correct.’ But, alas, it will mean that we will need to get a bit untidy in the alliances we will need to build.
Show me a ‘purist’ revolution and I will show you a bridge that you can buy for almost nothing.
Published in Bill Fletcher
Bill Fletcher
Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a longtime labor, racial justice and international activist. He is an Editorial Board member and columnist for BlackCommentator.com and a Senior Scholar for the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. He is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and a founder of the Black Radical Congress.
Fletcher is the co-author (with Fernando Gapasin) of Solidarity Divided, The Crisis in Organized Labor and A New Path Toward Social Justice (University of California Press). He was formerly the Vice President for International Trade Union Development Programs for the George Meany Center of the AFL-CIO. Prior the George Meany Center, Fletcher served as Education Director and later Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO.
Fletcher got his start in the labor movement as a rank and file member of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America. Combining labor and community work, he was also involved in ongoing efforts to desegregate the Boston building trades. He later served in leadership and staff positions in District 65-United Auto Workers, National Postal Mail Handlers Union and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Fletcher is a graduate of Harvard University and has authored numerous articles and speaks widely on domestic and international topics, racial justice and labor issues.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Hmmmmmmmm... what's on my mind this morning?
What's on my mind this morning... hmmmmmmm.
Like you, I am repeatedly invited to campaign fundraisers, debates and public forums, greets and meets, etc.
Like you, I seldom go because the candidates and their backers refuse to address any meaningful issues or concerns with anything other than meaningless rhetoric.
These politicians refuse to address the issues of casino workers so I just send them a "thanks for inviting me but.
The turnouts for these things keep getting smaller and smaller until now we seldom see the usual "party hacks" at these events making sure anyone who has the nerve to ask a real question get mocked, made fun of or if someone persists in demanding an answer these hacks jostle the previously invited guest out.
The small turnouts seldom make it worthwhile to waste the expense of gas to attend so I send them something like this:
I can't make your event because our resources have to be used fighting for the rights of casino workers.
However, I would like to know why these candidates who have received a tremendous amount of funding from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, have been silent on the plight of over 40,000 casino, hotel/motel, restaurant, convenience stores, bars and theme park workers comprising the Indian Gaming Industry here in Minnesota who are forced to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos and places of employment at poverty wages and without any rights have remained silent on this issue, and the issues of poverty, unemployment and racism on Indian reservations and in urban centers with large concentrations of Native Americans living?
I put this same question to DFL politician Tarryl Clark at a meeting during the NetRoots Nation National Convention in Minneapolis and she ducked answering my question by claiming she is working on the problem "quietly" and then she tried to explain that this was an issue of "sovereignty" just as most MNDFL politicians try to evade this criminal injustice. The problem is the DFL is responsible for drafting these "Compacts" which intentionally excluded the workers from having any rights in the Indian Gaming Industry as a favor to the casino owners, managements and the owners of the slot machines--- none of whom are Indians, but rather very wealthy white mobsters.
Whoever heard of a "sovereign nation," any sovereign nation, being allowed to deprive working people of their most basic and fundamental human rights--- the right to organize to protect and defend their quality of life and standard of living with a voice at work?
In creating these hideously racist "Compacts" from which everyone except Native Americans benefit, the DFL schemed to make sure it would derive huge campaign contributions for its racist white politicians who then have turned around and excluded Native American Indians from the political process.
How many Native American Indians do we see sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature or among Minnesota's Congressional Delegation or on city councils or county commissions or township boards or school boards even though the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association has flooded DFL coffers with tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions?
Don't people find it strange that the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association would pump so much money into the campaigns of racist white politicians who turn then their backs in racist indifference to the massive racist poverty created by massive racist unemployment and the racist poverty caused from poverty wages which are enforced by these racist "Compacts" which intentionally deny casino workers the right to organize in order to attain a decent standard of living which the Treaties are supposed to assure forever?
Furthermore, I would like to know the positions of these candidates running for public office on enforcing Affirmative Action in employment in line with Federal Executive Order #11246 since these large pools of unemployed among Native Americans and all people of color are causing severe problems and misery for the victims of racist discrimination while pushing all wages down?
Do any of these candidates support closing the loop-holes permitting Affirmative Action to be evaded here in Minnesota?
Quite frankly, not many Minnesotans bother attending these candidate forums because they know these worthless politicians are just sticking their hands out for campaign contributions and they will evade answering these "tough" questions concerning their lives and living conditions.
Until we are able to free ourselves from this two-party trap set for us by the wealthy, fewer and fewer people will be participating in this corrupt and rotten political process.
Politics in Minnesota has been turned into one big circus as a result of the enormous influence by the monied interests--- especially the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association whose Executive Director is a racist, anti-labor, anti-union white man, John McCarthy, who has grown enormously wealthy directly from the massive poverty of the Indian people.
John McCarthy and his group of high-paid lobbyists dish out campaign contributions to all of these racist politicians with one hand as fast as they can to purchase their loyalty to injustices and then John McCarthy--- the owner of Tony Doom Supply Company which manufactures all kinds of election paraphernalia from yard signs to business cards and pens and pencils and bumper stickers--- takes back as personal profit the campaign contributions his high-paid lobbyists hand out. All of this goes on at the expense of Native American people and by the time McCarthy and all these other greedy bastards get their hands on the revenues from Indian Gaming the only thing left for Indian people is the poverty caused by massive debt as the huge pool of unemployed people on the Indian Reservations assures casino workers will remain mired in poverty. After all, when casino workers are paid poverty wages, they and their families are going to be poor--- any school child can figure this out.
The fact is, the one and only way Native Americans are ever going to get anything of substance out of the Indian Gaming Industry is when all casino workers are paid real living wages.
Corrupt and incompetent elected officials created tribal governments in their own image and now these tribal governments try to pass off the idea that these tribal governments are a part of "sovereign" Indian Nations when in fact these tribal governments are just as thoroughly rotten and corrupt as the Minnesota State Legislature or the Bemidji City Council or the United States Congress.
One can look at any of the tribal governments in Minnesota and all you see is the same kind of creeps and sleeze you see sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature or in the United States Congress.
Check it out, Red Lake has its thoroughly corrupt Floyd Jourdain, Leech Lake has its Archie LaRose, Bois Forte has its Kevin Leecy.
Kevin Leecy is in a league all by himself. He beats the crap out of his wife, politicians "fix" the charges so he gets off, and then he goes before state legislators telling how money is needed to help counsel for spousal abuse programs and when he gets the money he hires his creepy friends who he knows will support him to run the counseling program. If this isn't the definition of a "racket" I don't know what is.
Kevin Leecy is also the Vice-chair of the National Indian Gaming Association which is nothing but a front for organized crime.
Kevin Leecy is also the Chairman of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council which perverts and distorts--- they call it "education"--- the meaning of the Treaties and "sovereignty" to make them both jibe with enforcing the corruption and racism of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association: http://www.minnesotahumanities.org/Uploads//Why%20Treaties%20Matter,%20Chariman%20Kevin%20Leecy.pdf
Conveniently, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council never tackles the questions concerning the major employment injustices of the Indian Gaming Industry and refuses to take a stand insisting that Affirmative Action be enforced while distorting the main intent of the Treaties which was to assure a decent standard of living for Native American Indians through the right to work.
A wife-beating crooked and corrupt Kevin Leecy is protected by law enforcement and a court system and the politicians elected by campaign funds distributed by the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.
And, oh yes; Kevin Leecy is also heads up the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association which has as its Executive Director John McCarthy.
And this entire racist and corrupt process is wrapped and packaged in "Indian traditions." Just read this article ghost written by John McCarthy passed off as having been written by the wife-beating Kevin Leecy:
http://www.casinoenterprisemanagement.com/articles/april-2012/bucking-trend-strong-year-weak-economy
Does anyone find it strange that not one single newspaper, not one single radio station nor one single television station will do a news story about the wages and working conditions of workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry forced to work in these loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws?
Well, check out how many advertisements for these casino operations you see and hear in the same newspapers, radio and television.
What a racket!
Yes, a racket. A racket that resulted from a brain fart mobster Meyer Lansky had after he was kicked out of Cuba looking for places to put his slot machines where he wouldn't have to pay taxes or be scrutinized by government officials or police agencies other than those he was able to pay-off with bribes.
It is all about "the American way" of free enterprise, eh?
Indian Gaming among the two fastest growing industries here in the United States. Indian Gaming is right up there in expansion among an otherwise suffering economy, right up there with Goodwill Industries.
The Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party promises "jobs, jobs, jobs" but did you ever think your next job was going to be working in a smoke-filled casino without any rights or for another poverty wage paying outfit like Goodwill Industries?
Like you, I am repeatedly invited to campaign fundraisers, debates and public forums, greets and meets, etc.
Like you, I seldom go because the candidates and their backers refuse to address any meaningful issues or concerns with anything other than meaningless rhetoric.
These politicians refuse to address the issues of casino workers so I just send them a "thanks for inviting me but.
The turnouts for these things keep getting smaller and smaller until now we seldom see the usual "party hacks" at these events making sure anyone who has the nerve to ask a real question get mocked, made fun of or if someone persists in demanding an answer these hacks jostle the previously invited guest out.
The small turnouts seldom make it worthwhile to waste the expense of gas to attend so I send them something like this:
I can't make your event because our resources have to be used fighting for the rights of casino workers.
However, I would like to know why these candidates who have received a tremendous amount of funding from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, have been silent on the plight of over 40,000 casino, hotel/motel, restaurant, convenience stores, bars and theme park workers comprising the Indian Gaming Industry here in Minnesota who are forced to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos and places of employment at poverty wages and without any rights have remained silent on this issue, and the issues of poverty, unemployment and racism on Indian reservations and in urban centers with large concentrations of Native Americans living?
I put this same question to DFL politician Tarryl Clark at a meeting during the NetRoots Nation National Convention in Minneapolis and she ducked answering my question by claiming she is working on the problem "quietly" and then she tried to explain that this was an issue of "sovereignty" just as most MNDFL politicians try to evade this criminal injustice. The problem is the DFL is responsible for drafting these "Compacts" which intentionally excluded the workers from having any rights in the Indian Gaming Industry as a favor to the casino owners, managements and the owners of the slot machines--- none of whom are Indians, but rather very wealthy white mobsters.
Whoever heard of a "sovereign nation," any sovereign nation, being allowed to deprive working people of their most basic and fundamental human rights--- the right to organize to protect and defend their quality of life and standard of living with a voice at work?
In creating these hideously racist "Compacts" from which everyone except Native Americans benefit, the DFL schemed to make sure it would derive huge campaign contributions for its racist white politicians who then have turned around and excluded Native American Indians from the political process.
How many Native American Indians do we see sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature or among Minnesota's Congressional Delegation or on city councils or county commissions or township boards or school boards even though the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association has flooded DFL coffers with tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions?
Don't people find it strange that the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association would pump so much money into the campaigns of racist white politicians who turn then their backs in racist indifference to the massive racist poverty created by massive racist unemployment and the racist poverty caused from poverty wages which are enforced by these racist "Compacts" which intentionally deny casino workers the right to organize in order to attain a decent standard of living which the Treaties are supposed to assure forever?
Furthermore, I would like to know the positions of these candidates running for public office on enforcing Affirmative Action in employment in line with Federal Executive Order #11246 since these large pools of unemployed among Native Americans and all people of color are causing severe problems and misery for the victims of racist discrimination while pushing all wages down?
Do any of these candidates support closing the loop-holes permitting Affirmative Action to be evaded here in Minnesota?
Quite frankly, not many Minnesotans bother attending these candidate forums because they know these worthless politicians are just sticking their hands out for campaign contributions and they will evade answering these "tough" questions concerning their lives and living conditions.
Until we are able to free ourselves from this two-party trap set for us by the wealthy, fewer and fewer people will be participating in this corrupt and rotten political process.
Politics in Minnesota has been turned into one big circus as a result of the enormous influence by the monied interests--- especially the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association whose Executive Director is a racist, anti-labor, anti-union white man, John McCarthy, who has grown enormously wealthy directly from the massive poverty of the Indian people.
John McCarthy and his group of high-paid lobbyists dish out campaign contributions to all of these racist politicians with one hand as fast as they can to purchase their loyalty to injustices and then John McCarthy--- the owner of Tony Doom Supply Company which manufactures all kinds of election paraphernalia from yard signs to business cards and pens and pencils and bumper stickers--- takes back as personal profit the campaign contributions his high-paid lobbyists hand out. All of this goes on at the expense of Native American people and by the time McCarthy and all these other greedy bastards get their hands on the revenues from Indian Gaming the only thing left for Indian people is the poverty caused by massive debt as the huge pool of unemployed people on the Indian Reservations assures casino workers will remain mired in poverty. After all, when casino workers are paid poverty wages, they and their families are going to be poor--- any school child can figure this out.
The fact is, the one and only way Native Americans are ever going to get anything of substance out of the Indian Gaming Industry is when all casino workers are paid real living wages.
Corrupt and incompetent elected officials created tribal governments in their own image and now these tribal governments try to pass off the idea that these tribal governments are a part of "sovereign" Indian Nations when in fact these tribal governments are just as thoroughly rotten and corrupt as the Minnesota State Legislature or the Bemidji City Council or the United States Congress.
One can look at any of the tribal governments in Minnesota and all you see is the same kind of creeps and sleeze you see sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature or in the United States Congress.
Check it out, Red Lake has its thoroughly corrupt Floyd Jourdain, Leech Lake has its Archie LaRose, Bois Forte has its Kevin Leecy.
Kevin Leecy is in a league all by himself. He beats the crap out of his wife, politicians "fix" the charges so he gets off, and then he goes before state legislators telling how money is needed to help counsel for spousal abuse programs and when he gets the money he hires his creepy friends who he knows will support him to run the counseling program. If this isn't the definition of a "racket" I don't know what is.
Kevin Leecy is also the Vice-chair of the National Indian Gaming Association which is nothing but a front for organized crime.
Kevin Leecy is also the Chairman of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council which perverts and distorts--- they call it "education"--- the meaning of the Treaties and "sovereignty" to make them both jibe with enforcing the corruption and racism of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association: http://www.minnesotahumanities.org/Uploads//Why%20Treaties%20Matter,%20Chariman%20Kevin%20Leecy.pdf
Conveniently, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council never tackles the questions concerning the major employment injustices of the Indian Gaming Industry and refuses to take a stand insisting that Affirmative Action be enforced while distorting the main intent of the Treaties which was to assure a decent standard of living for Native American Indians through the right to work.
A wife-beating crooked and corrupt Kevin Leecy is protected by law enforcement and a court system and the politicians elected by campaign funds distributed by the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.
And, oh yes; Kevin Leecy is also heads up the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association which has as its Executive Director John McCarthy.
And this entire racist and corrupt process is wrapped and packaged in "Indian traditions." Just read this article ghost written by John McCarthy passed off as having been written by the wife-beating Kevin Leecy:
http://www.casinoenterprisemanagement.com/articles/april-2012/bucking-trend-strong-year-weak-economy
Does anyone find it strange that not one single newspaper, not one single radio station nor one single television station will do a news story about the wages and working conditions of workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry forced to work in these loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws?
Well, check out how many advertisements for these casino operations you see and hear in the same newspapers, radio and television.
What a racket!
Yes, a racket. A racket that resulted from a brain fart mobster Meyer Lansky had after he was kicked out of Cuba looking for places to put his slot machines where he wouldn't have to pay taxes or be scrutinized by government officials or police agencies other than those he was able to pay-off with bribes.
It is all about "the American way" of free enterprise, eh?
Indian Gaming among the two fastest growing industries here in the United States. Indian Gaming is right up there in expansion among an otherwise suffering economy, right up there with Goodwill Industries.
The Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party promises "jobs, jobs, jobs" but did you ever think your next job was going to be working in a smoke-filled casino without any rights or for another poverty wage paying outfit like Goodwill Industries?
Friday, April 13, 2012
Yesterday we buried our good friend Gregory W. Paquin who was murdered by the FBI and Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver
Yesterday we buried our good friend Greg Paquin who because of his determined struggle to enforce Affirmative Action in the most racist city in America— Bemidji, Minnesota— was targeted and harassed to no end by the racist power structure with the FBI and the Minnesota Public Safety Commission using the racist Beltrami Prosecutor Tim Faver to carry out their racist agenda.
This bunch of racists in the power structure targeted Greg Paquin with a vindictive vendetta and utilized the same government resources it used to enforce discriminatory racist employment practices that should have been used to jail drug dealers; but Tim Faver is known to be personally profiting from the drug dealing in Beltrami County where he has been known to refuse to prosecute these drug dealers and members and leaders of the Native Mob who have been terrorizing people living on Indian Reservations.
The racism of Tim Faver, Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp and Beltrami County Judges has been well documented by the foundation-funded Minnesota ACLU Racial Justice Task Force headed up by Audrey Thayer and her staff, which in spite of having spent over one-million dollars documenting Tim Faver’s racist policies using these viciously racist vindictive vendettas against civil and human rights activists like Gregory W. Paquin to try to stymie the movements for racial equality in Northern Minnesota.
Tim Faver jumped at the opportunity created by the FBI to maliciously— under color of law— prosecute Greg Paquin based on the most vicious rumors and lies initiated by the FBI itself in, what is fast becoming a pattern of repressive behavior aimed at destroying the most basic freedoms in this country protected by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
In fact, these foundation-funded outfits like the Minnesota ACLU’s Racist Justice Task Force are serving as the cover enabling this racist and repressive atmosphere and activity to continue because they lead people to believe something is being done to try to resolve these problems when nothing in fact is being done; they are part of the larger scheme of things to enable this racism in employment.
Audrey Thayer, when recently questioned during a public forum as to what the results have been for all these years of “collecting data” has resulted in, hid behind that old excuse in evading an answer, “I am not at liberty to discuss what actions are being taken,” when everyone knows no action to end this institutionalized racism in northern Minnesota directed at Native American Indians is being taken.
Audrey Thayer sat in the courtroom smiling as Greg Paquin was being maligned and framed by Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver without so much as decrying this perversion of justice and gross act of repression directed towards Greg Paquin that culminated in Greg’s death.
Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver and Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp should be charged with the murder of Greg Paquin. These racist bigots should be removed from public office. Greg Paquin has not been their first victim and he will not be their last.
Anyone can sit in any Beltrami County courtroom on any day of the week at any time to witness the racism in the Beltrami County Court system as racist repression against Native American Indians is delivered under the guise of justice.
The FBI and Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver spun a campaign of racist hate against Greg Paquin which resulted in his death.
A federal grand jury investigation should be convened to determine all of the culprits responsible for civil rights and trade union activist Greg Paquin’s death at age 49.
Greg Paquin was a founder of the Native American Labor Union #12 and a determined activist organizing and demanding Affirmative Action in employment be enforced as a way to begin alleviating the disgraceful poverty plaguing Indian Reservations and urban Native American communities.
Greg Paquin became well known for making a very simple, yet very profound observation:
“Working people without jobs are going to be poor.”
Greg went on to point out that the majority of Native American Indians are working class people suffering unemployment on the huge Indian Reservations of northern Minnesota with unemployment rates ranging from 65% to 85%.
Gregory W. Paquin, a member of the Plumber’s and Pipefitter’s Union-AFL-CIO, initiated and led a grassroots effort to enforce Affirmative Action when the largest public works project in Northern Minnesota since the Great Depression, the Bemidji Regional Event Center (now called the Sanford Center), got underway without one single Native American Indian being employed in this sixty-million dollar boondoggle where individual wheelbarrows were rented to the contractors for $60.00 a day and individual sledgehammers were rented to the same contractors for $10.00 a day for over two years.
Greg continually pointed out that Native American Indians are being used as a pool of cheap labor to push all wages of all workers down. Greg’s research exposed how Native Americans are systematically being denied employment in the public and private sectors in Minnesota.
After reading Stewart Acuff’s book, “Getting America Back To Work,” in which Acuff calls on each and every worker to become a “warrior for justice,” Greg with his friends organized a new political party, “Warriors for Justice.”
For his activities in trying to get Affirmative Action enforced, Gregory W. Paquin, was targeted by the FBI working in cahoots and collusion with the Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver and Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp for a vicious and vindictive racist vendetta which ended up killing Greg Paquin.
Greg’s best friend, Curtis Buckanaga, a leader of grassroots efforts to improve the lives and living conditions of Native people declared at Greg’s funeral that a powerful movement to end racism and enforce Affirmative Action will continue being built in memory of Greg Paquin.
Greg Paquin’s remains were laid to rest by his family and friends in the Northbird Family Plot located in a peaceful forest setting beside a river on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation as his spirit soared like an eagle.
[Note: A photo journal of pictures taken at Greg's funeral will be forthcoming.]
Greg’s blog can be read at: http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/
I should point out that as a result of the bogus racist conviction on trumped up charges Greg Paquin was framed on resulting in imprisonment that included the intentional denial of health care for treatment of his diabetes which contributed to his death, part of the probation which Greg Paquin was placed on is that he must not blog for a period of ten years. Greg was ordered by a Beltrami County Judge not to continue working on this blog. And the Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union and its Racial Justice Taskforce did not see this as a problem involving Greg being denied his constitutional rights.
Let me be very explicit what has happened here...
Let me be very explicit what has happened here...
Let me state, again:
It is the responsibility of the United States Department of Justice to explain how and why Greg Paquin died.
The FBI initiated a campaign of hate through its “investigation” of Gregory W. Paquin.
The FBI was well aware that its very vindictive racist vendetta against Greg Paquin would spin out of control resulting in Greg’s death.
It is know up to Eric Holder to explain Greg’s death to the American people.
I do find it very interesting that there are those who are going through so much trouble trying to prevent the awareness of this.
Make no mistake, the FBI intentionally set in motion a campaign of hate spiraling out of control like a snowball rolling down a long, steep hill on a warm spring day getting bigger and bigger the faster it rolls until there was no way to stop the racist hatemongers.
Greg Paquin was murdered as a result of this campaign of hate.
Greg Paquin was murdered “under color of law.”
This is exactly what J. Edgar Hoover intended when he set out to “neutralize” those in the movements for peace, social and economic justice.
Greg Paquin pushed the struggle for racial equality in employment to new heights in Minnesota as he creatively engaged people of all races in the struggle to enforce Affirmative Action with very powerful and wealthy forces standing to lose a great deal of the super profits they derived from racism; and, for this the powers that be snuffed out his life.
Yesterday we buried our good friend Gregory W. Paquin who was murdered by the FBI and Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver
Yesterday we buried our good friend Greg Paquin who because of his determined struggle to enforce Affirmative Action in the most racist city in America--- Bemidji, Minnesota--- was targeted and harassed to no end by the racist power structure with the FBI and the Minnesota Public Safety Commission using the racist Beltrami Prosecutor Tim Faver to carry out their racist agenda.
This bunch of racists in the power structure targeted Greg Paquin with a vindictive vendetta and utilized the same government resources it used to enforce discriminatory racist employment practices that should have been used to jail drug dealers; but Tim Faver is known to be personally profiting from the drug dealing in Beltrami County where he has been known to refuse to prosecute these drug dealers and members and leaders of the Native Mob who have been terrorizing people living on Indian Reservations.
The racism of Tim Faver, Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp and Beltrami County Judges has been well documented by the foundation-funded Minnesota ACLU Racial Justice Task Force headed up by Audrey Thayer and her staff, which in spite of having spent over one-million dollars documenting Tim Faver's racist policies using these viciously racist vindictive vendettas against civil and human rights activists like Gregory W. Paquin to try to stymie the movements for racial equality in Northern Minnesota.
Tim Faver jumped at the opportunity created by the FBI to maliciously--- under color of law--- prosecute Greg Paquin based on the most vicious rumors and lies initiated by the FBI itself in, what is fast becoming a pattern of repressive behavior aimed at destroying the most basic freedoms in this country protected by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
In fact, these foundation-funded outfits like the Minnesota ACLU's Racist Justice Task Force are serving as the cover enabling this racist and repressive atmosphere and activity to continue because they lead people to believe something is being done to try to resolve these problems when they are part of the larger scheme of things to enable this racism in employment.
Audrey Thayer sat in the courtroom smiling as Greg Paquin was being maligned and framed by Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver without so much as decrying this perversion of justice and gross act of repression directed towards Greg Paquin that culminated in Greg's death.
Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver and Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp should be charged with the murder of Greg Paquin. These racist bigots should be removed from public office. Greg Paquin has not been their first victim and he will not be their last.
Anyone can sit in any Beltrami County courtroom on any day of the week at any time to witness the racism in the Beltrami County Court system as racist repression against Native American Indians is delivered under the guise of justice.
This bunch of racists in the power structure targeted Greg Paquin with a vindictive vendetta and utilized the same government resources it used to enforce discriminatory racist employment practices that should have been used to jail drug dealers; but Tim Faver is known to be personally profiting from the drug dealing in Beltrami County where he has been known to refuse to prosecute these drug dealers and members and leaders of the Native Mob who have been terrorizing people living on Indian Reservations.
The racism of Tim Faver, Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp and Beltrami County Judges has been well documented by the foundation-funded Minnesota ACLU Racial Justice Task Force headed up by Audrey Thayer and her staff, which in spite of having spent over one-million dollars documenting Tim Faver's racist policies using these viciously racist vindictive vendettas against civil and human rights activists like Gregory W. Paquin to try to stymie the movements for racial equality in Northern Minnesota.
Tim Faver jumped at the opportunity created by the FBI to maliciously--- under color of law--- prosecute Greg Paquin based on the most vicious rumors and lies initiated by the FBI itself in, what is fast becoming a pattern of repressive behavior aimed at destroying the most basic freedoms in this country protected by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
In fact, these foundation-funded outfits like the Minnesota ACLU's Racist Justice Task Force are serving as the cover enabling this racist and repressive atmosphere and activity to continue because they lead people to believe something is being done to try to resolve these problems when they are part of the larger scheme of things to enable this racism in employment.
Audrey Thayer sat in the courtroom smiling as Greg Paquin was being maligned and framed by Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver without so much as decrying this perversion of justice and gross act of repression directed towards Greg Paquin that culminated in Greg's death.
Beltrami County Prosecutor Tim Faver and Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp should be charged with the murder of Greg Paquin. These racist bigots should be removed from public office. Greg Paquin has not been their first victim and he will not be their last.
Anyone can sit in any Beltrami County courtroom on any day of the week at any time to witness the racism in the Beltrami County Court system as racist repression against Native American Indians is delivered under the guise of justice.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Harry S. Truman's dirty little secret
| Education and 4.3 | ||||
| Nearly six decades later, many Koreans are still in the dark | ||||
| http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2541 | ||||
| ||||
Saturday, April 7, 2012
What Must Be Said
The poem that has caused such controversy the world over:
What Must Be Said
Why do I stay silent, conceal for too long
What clearly is and has been
Practiced in war games, at the end of which we as survivors
Are at best footnotes.
It is the alleged right to first strike
That could annihilate the Iranian people–
Enslaved by a loud-mouth
And guided to organized jubilation–
Because in their territory,
It is suspected, a bomb is being built.
Yet why do I forbid myself
To name that other country
In which, for years, even if secretly,
There has been a growing nuclear potential at hand
But beyond control, because no testing is available?
The universal concealment of these facts,
To which my silence subordinated itself,
I sense as incriminating lies
And force–the punishment is promised
As soon as it is ignored;
The verdict of “anti-Semitism” is familiar.
Now, though, because in my country
Which from time to time has sought and confronted
The very crime
That is without compare
In turn on a purely commercial basis, if also
With nimble lips calling it a reparation, declares
A further U-boat should be delivered to Israel,
Whose specialty consists of guiding all-destroying warheads to where the existence
Of a single atomic bomb is unproven,
But through fear of what may be conclusive,
I say what must be said.
Why though have I stayed silent until now?
Because I think my origin,
Which has never been affected by this obliterating flaw,
Forbids this fact to be expected as pronounced truth
Of the country of Israel, to which I am bound
And wish to stay bound.
Why do I say only now,
Aged and with my last ink,
That the nuclear power of Israel endangers
The already fragile world peace?
Because it must be said
What even tomorrow may be too late to say;
Also because we–as Germans burdened enough–
Could be the suppliers to a crime
That is foreseeable, wherefore our complicity
Could not be redeemed through any of the usual excuses.
And granted: I am silent no longer
Because I am tired of the hypocrisy
Of the West; in addition to which it is to be hoped
That this will free many from silence,
Prompt the perpetrator of the recognized danger
To renounce violence and
Likewise insist
That an unhindered and permanent control
Of the Israeli nuclear potential
And the Iranian nuclear sites
Be authorized through an international agency
Of the governments of both countries.
Only this way are all, the Israelis and Palestinians,
Even more, all people, that in this
Region occupied by mania
Live cheek by jowl among enemies,
In the end also to help us.
What Must Be Said
Why do I stay silent, conceal for too long
What clearly is and has been
Practiced in war games, at the end of which we as survivors
Are at best footnotes.
It is the alleged right to first strike
That could annihilate the Iranian people–
Enslaved by a loud-mouth
And guided to organized jubilation–
Because in their territory,
It is suspected, a bomb is being built.
Yet why do I forbid myself
To name that other country
In which, for years, even if secretly,
There has been a growing nuclear potential at hand
But beyond control, because no testing is available?
The universal concealment of these facts,
To which my silence subordinated itself,
I sense as incriminating lies
And force–the punishment is promised
As soon as it is ignored;
The verdict of “anti-Semitism” is familiar.
Now, though, because in my country
Which from time to time has sought and confronted
The very crime
That is without compare
In turn on a purely commercial basis, if also
With nimble lips calling it a reparation, declares
A further U-boat should be delivered to Israel,
Whose specialty consists of guiding all-destroying warheads to where the existence
Of a single atomic bomb is unproven,
But through fear of what may be conclusive,
I say what must be said.
Why though have I stayed silent until now?
Because I think my origin,
Which has never been affected by this obliterating flaw,
Forbids this fact to be expected as pronounced truth
Of the country of Israel, to which I am bound
And wish to stay bound.
Why do I say only now,
Aged and with my last ink,
That the nuclear power of Israel endangers
The already fragile world peace?
Because it must be said
What even tomorrow may be too late to say;
Also because we–as Germans burdened enough–
Could be the suppliers to a crime
That is foreseeable, wherefore our complicity
Could not be redeemed through any of the usual excuses.
And granted: I am silent no longer
Because I am tired of the hypocrisy
Of the West; in addition to which it is to be hoped
That this will free many from silence,
Prompt the perpetrator of the recognized danger
To renounce violence and
Likewise insist
That an unhindered and permanent control
Of the Israeli nuclear potential
And the Iranian nuclear sites
Be authorized through an international agency
Of the governments of both countries.
Only this way are all, the Israelis and Palestinians,
Even more, all people, that in this
Region occupied by mania
Live cheek by jowl among enemies,
In the end also to help us.
Greg Paquin, a friend and fighter for equality, social and economic justice has died; largely because of Greg's efforts the struggle for equality in employment will continue in Minnesota.
Greg Paquin died yesterday; the victim of a most hideous vicious and vindictive governmental campaign of repressive and racist harassment carried out in retaliation for Greg's persistent demand that Affirmative Action be enforced in Minnesota.
Greg initiated and led the fight to try to get Affirmative Action enforced during the construction of the Enbridge Pipeline and the Bemidji Regional Event Center (now completed and called the Sanford Center) in Bemidji, Minnesota.
I first met Greg after he first called me to ask if I would join with him in trying to build a movement to get Affirmative Action enforced in Minnesota. Greg had researched the issue very thoroughly.
He asked me if there was a good book to read about organizing. I gave him a copy of "Always Bring A Crowd" about steelworker Frank Lumpkins. What stood out in Greg's mind about this book is that Lumpkins had looked for someone to lead the struggle to save the jobs and pensions of his fellow workers and found no one so he decided he would have to become that leader. Greg told me he would have to do the same thing because all the people who should be helping lead the struggle to get Affirmative Action enforced were doing nothing as unemployment on the local Indian Reservations was not just hovering at between 65% and 85% but climbing.
Greg as the Business Manager of the Native American indian Labor Union #12, working pro se, he filed a lawsuit against the State of Minnesota, the racist general contractor Kraus-Anderson, the City of Bemidji and Beltrami County which infuriated these racist public officials and the racist business community.
As a result of Greg's efforts the entire power structure including the FBI along with the Beltrami County Sheriff, Phil Hodap, and Beltrami County Prosecutor, Tim Faver, went on a vicious revenge campaign targeting Greg for the most personal and unrelenting campaign of harassment. Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union watched as Greg was targeted and didn't lift a finger to help even though they could see that Greg's rights were under attack.
The FBI carried out a similar long-term, unrelenting vendetta against Native American Indian activist and long-time Red Lake Nation Chair Roger Jourdain.
Greg was a member of the Plumbers' and Pipefitters' Union-AFL-CIO. Because of the racist leadership of this Union in Minnesota which tried to block entry of people of color and women, Greg founded the Native American Indian Labor Union #12.
This was Greg's blog. A racist Beltrami County Judge ordered Greg not to blog or use the Internet for organizing OR ANYTHING ELSE.
Greg refused to take his blog down. Here is his blog:
http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/
Greg wrote letter to the editors of local newspapers explaining how working people without jobs would remain poor.
Greg challenged the racism in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party as well as in the Building and Construction Trades unions.
Greg read Stewart Acuff's book, "Getting America Back To Work" and he was so intrigued with Acuff's call for working people to become "warriors for justice" he helped to try to start a new party in Minnesota, "Warriors for Justice."
Greg was recently married and he and his wife Kathy were building a new home doing all the work on their own. When I saw Greg last week he was excited about learning how to make cupboards for their new home which he had been working on since last summer and throughout the winter.
I was with Greg when we met with Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton in his office on the day of his Inauguration; Greg took off the necklace he had been wearing and gave it to the Governor. Governor Dayton said he was honored to be given the necklace and counted Greg among his good friends.
Greg Paquin will be missed by his family and friends and all of us struggling for social and economic justice.
Greg initiated and led the fight to try to get Affirmative Action enforced during the construction of the Enbridge Pipeline and the Bemidji Regional Event Center (now completed and called the Sanford Center) in Bemidji, Minnesota.
I first met Greg after he first called me to ask if I would join with him in trying to build a movement to get Affirmative Action enforced in Minnesota. Greg had researched the issue very thoroughly.
He asked me if there was a good book to read about organizing. I gave him a copy of "Always Bring A Crowd" about steelworker Frank Lumpkins. What stood out in Greg's mind about this book is that Lumpkins had looked for someone to lead the struggle to save the jobs and pensions of his fellow workers and found no one so he decided he would have to become that leader. Greg told me he would have to do the same thing because all the people who should be helping lead the struggle to get Affirmative Action enforced were doing nothing as unemployment on the local Indian Reservations was not just hovering at between 65% and 85% but climbing.
Greg as the Business Manager of the Native American indian Labor Union #12, working pro se, he filed a lawsuit against the State of Minnesota, the racist general contractor Kraus-Anderson, the City of Bemidji and Beltrami County which infuriated these racist public officials and the racist business community.
As a result of Greg's efforts the entire power structure including the FBI along with the Beltrami County Sheriff, Phil Hodap, and Beltrami County Prosecutor, Tim Faver, went on a vicious revenge campaign targeting Greg for the most personal and unrelenting campaign of harassment. Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union watched as Greg was targeted and didn't lift a finger to help even though they could see that Greg's rights were under attack.
The FBI carried out a similar long-term, unrelenting vendetta against Native American Indian activist and long-time Red Lake Nation Chair Roger Jourdain.
Greg was a member of the Plumbers' and Pipefitters' Union-AFL-CIO. Because of the racist leadership of this Union in Minnesota which tried to block entry of people of color and women, Greg founded the Native American Indian Labor Union #12.
This was Greg's blog. A racist Beltrami County Judge ordered Greg not to blog or use the Internet for organizing OR ANYTHING ELSE.
Greg refused to take his blog down. Here is his blog:
http://nativeamericanindianlaborunion12.blogspot.com/
Greg wrote letter to the editors of local newspapers explaining how working people without jobs would remain poor.
Greg challenged the racism in the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party as well as in the Building and Construction Trades unions.
Greg read Stewart Acuff's book, "Getting America Back To Work" and he was so intrigued with Acuff's call for working people to become "warriors for justice" he helped to try to start a new party in Minnesota, "Warriors for Justice."
Greg was recently married and he and his wife Kathy were building a new home doing all the work on their own. When I saw Greg last week he was excited about learning how to make cupboards for their new home which he had been working on since last summer and throughout the winter.
I was with Greg when we met with Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton in his office on the day of his Inauguration; Greg took off the necklace he had been wearing and gave it to the Governor. Governor Dayton said he was honored to be given the necklace and counted Greg among his good friends.
Greg Paquin will be missed by his family and friends and all of us struggling for social and economic justice.