I would like to make a presentation to the "How Class Works Conference" on the following. I am looking for suggestions:
Class
dimensions of poverty. To explore why and how poverty is something that
happens to the working class, not some marginal "other" at the bottom
of society.
This is my proposal which I would work from:
If workers are paid a poverty wage they are going to be poor.
Some
of my ideas would include an expansion of my thoughts in the below
Letter to the Editor and the comments which are responses to questions
and comments on what I wrote in the Letter...
Link to my letter:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
Minnesota
politicians, business people and even labor "leaders" are concerned
that raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage would be too hard on
"small businesses."
There is a solution to this concern if "small business" is really their concern.
Exclude all the relatives of the owners of small businesses from Minimum Wage enforcement and protection.
Let
the owners of "small businesses" pay their spouses, great
grand-parents, grand-parents, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, aunts,
uncles and cousins whatever wages they want to do their work for them.
Exempt politicians and all their relatives from Minimum Wage
protections, too, and let the people vote on how much politicians should
be paid. In my opinion, politicians shouldn't be paid any more than the
lowest paid workers--- this would provide these politicians to improve
the standard of living for everyone. According to these politicians
people need incentives; what better place to start incentive based pay
than with the pay of politicians?
But,
for all other workers, the Minimum Wage should be nothing less than a
real living wage based on ALL "cost of living" factors which would
provide working people with a decent standard of living.
We
have a billionaire governor, Mark Dayton, whose inherited wealth has
been derived from paying Minnesotans poverty wages for over a century.
There
is a way to reduce the Minimum Wage. Institute universal social
programs providing people with free health care, free child care, free
higher education, low-cost public transportation, controlling the prices
of food, housing, electricity, gas and home heating fuels.
Please
read my "Letter to the Editor" in the Northern Light Region. Share this
e-mail and my "Letter to the Editor" with your friends and fellow
workers:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
By
the way; there isn't a union "leader" in this country who would work
for the pathetically miserly Minimum Wage the Democrats in Minnesota are
proposing.
If we can't get a real living wage out of a Democratic super-majority, what can we ever expect to get from these Democrats?
Even Richard Nixon supported a guaranteed annual income; although he never spoke of a real living income.
But,
with the anniversary on the United Nations' Universal Declaration of
Human Rights coming up on December 10 it would behoove us all to engage
in a discussion about what kind of standard of living and quality of
life working people are entitled to living here in the richest country
in the world.
Is
it right and just that a billionaire Governor like Mark Dayton whose
inherited wealth is derived from poverty wages should be talking about
forcing a miserly poverty Minimum Wage and hundreds of thousands of
Minnesotans assuring the families of these workers will continue to live
in poverty?
Many
of the union "leaders," like Elliot Seide of AFSCME, who are
multi-millionaires themselves have turned their unions into
organizations that are little more than unions on paper as they refuse
to struggle to improve the standard of living of their own members and
force concession contracts down the throats of those paying dues so
"leaders" like Elliot Seide can make Minnesota-nice with billionaire
politicians like Mark Dayton.
What
gives these union "leaders" who won't even stand up and fight for the
workers whose dues go to pay their big, fat salaries the right to claim
they have a right to shove poverty wages down the throats of other
Minnesotans?
Would Elliot Seide or any public workers he represents agree to work for $9.50 an hour? No. So why should anyone else?
Keith
Ellison would never work for $9.50 an hour. His fellow member of
Congress, multi-millionaire Rick Nolan, would never work for $9.50 an
hour.
The
Minimum Wage should be based on all cost-of-living factors; the
cost-of-living factors tracked and monitored by the United States
Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Don't
let a bunch of over-paid labor "leaders" and a billionaire governor
tell you that you should work for poverty wages while they live
high-on-the-hog at our expense.
And
I have a message for all those members of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees who collected signatures on
petitions at the Minnesota State Fair urging that their fellow workers
should be paid a lousy $9.50 an hour poverty wage--- it is workers being
paid these kinds of poverty wages who are paying your wages. Something
you might just want to think about. What's good for the goose is good
for the gander. What makes you think you are entitled to a living wage
but other workers are not entitled to the same living wages? Perhaps at
next Minnesota State Fair you should consider circulating a petition
backing a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" so
all workers have a shot at living decent lives.
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
But,
the award for "The Epitome of Hypocrisy" in all of this discussion over
the Minimum Wage should go to the Leader of the Minnesota State Senate,
DFL'er Tom Bakk who stakes claim to being a leader in the building
trades unions--- Bakk says he wants even less than the pathetically
miserly Minimum Wage being proposed by the Minnesota Democratic
Farmer-Labor Party and its union "partners" and non-profit
foundation-funded front groups of $9.50 an hour because Senator Bakk
feels sorry for the Minnesota hospitality industry--- the casino
managements and those who made the Forbes Fortune 500 "List."
People
have become billionaires as a direct result of paying workers poverty
wages. Had the wealthy been paying workers real living wages no doubt
they would remain mere multi-millionaires.
I
am sick and tired of hearing about the poor "small businesses" who will
suffer if the Minimum Wage is increased to a real living wage--- exempt
the small businesses and the relatives they hire from enforcement and
protection of the Minimum Wage.
Let State Senator Tom Bakk clean the hotel rooms for a poverty wage.
Billionaires
telling workers they should be satisfied with $9.50 an hour. Union
"leaders" who have turned trade unionism into a racket getting big fat
salaries. Politicians who have never worked a day in their lives. All
telling us what the Minimum Wage should be. When do we hear from the
workers and their families who are forced to live in poverty with the
decisions made by all of these people living high-on-the-hog more often
than not on the backs of poverty wage paid workers.
A
poverty Minimum Wage as proposed by Minnesota Democrats with their
super-majority and their front groups like Growth & Justice, Take
Action Minnesota and the AFL-CIO affiliated unions discriminates most
against people of color, women, youth and the elderly. And undocumented
workers suffer as they are at the very bottom when it comes to being
paid poverty wages and new immigrants don't fair much better.
Minnesota
Education endorsed the most reactionary, right-wing Republican State
Representative, Tony Cornish, for re-election. Cornish has been a major
opponent of a living Minimum Wage.
The
AFL-CIO has endorsed Democratic State Senator Tom Bakk time and time
again and Bakk has joined the Republicans in opposing an increase in the
Minimum Wage.
We
all know the unions would be without any paid staff if people like Jim
Gleb and Tamara Jones who rent the scab facilities of the Indian Gaming
Industry had to work for a miserly poverty wage of $9.50 cents an hour
and the foundation-funded outfits would be without any staffs.
Remember,
the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party with its super majority
didn't raise the Minimum Wage a plug nickle in the last legislative
session--- thus providing billionaires with extended super-profits.
All discussions about the Minimum Wage should center around: "Cost of Living" and "Standard of Living."
Perhaps
these union "leaders" who are trying to shove a poverty Minimum Wage
down the throats of working people would like to submit papers for your
consideration on the topic:
Class
dimensions of poverty. To explore why and how poverty is something that
happens to the working class, not some marginal "other" at the bottom
of society.
Michael,
isn't it time to bring your gatherings out into the nitty-gritty of the
class struggle where the discussions will have some real impact outside
the sheltered life of academia?
What we need is a united working class struggle for a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity."
http://fullemploymentnow.blogspot.com/
Also see:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/grand-forks-herald-publishes-my-letter.html
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Sunday, October 27, 2013
More about the Minimum Wage.
Several Minnesota State Legislators--- including Republican Joyce Peppin, an aid to Governor Mark Dayton and a leader of Take Action Minnesota responded to my "Letter to the Editor" I sent them that was published in the Northern Light Region newspaper. I sent them back the following response:
Link to my letter:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
Minnesota politicians, business people and even labor "leaders" are concerned that raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage would be too hard on "small businesses."
There is a solution to this concern if "small business" is really their concern.
Exclude all the relatives of the owners of small businesses from Minimum Wage enforcement and protection.
Let the owners of "small businesses" pay their spouses, great grand-parents, grand-parents, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles and cousins whatever wages they want to do their work for them. Exempt politicians and all their relatives from Minimum Wage protections, too, and let the people vote on how much politicians should be paid. In my opinion, politicians shouldn't be paid any more than the lowest paid workers--- this would provide these politicians with the "opportunity" to improve the standard of living for everyone. According to these politicians people need incentives; what better place to start incentive based pay than with the pay of politicians?
But, for all other workers, the Minimum Wage should be nothing less than a real living wage based on ALL "cost of living" factors which would provide working people with a decent standard of living.
We have a billionaire Governor, Mark Dayton, whose inherited wealth has been derived from paying Minnesotans poverty wages for over a century.
There is a way to reduce the Minimum Wage. Institute universal social programs providing people with free health care, free child care, free higher education, low-cost public transportation, controlling the prices of food, housing, electricity, gas and home heating fuels.
Please read my "Letter to the Editor" in the Northern Light Region. Share this e-mail and my "Letter to the Editor" with your friends and fellow workers:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
By the way; there isn't a union "leader" in this country who would work for the pathetically miserly Minimum Wage the Democrats in Minnesota are proposing.
If we can't get a real living wage out of a Democratic super-majority here in Minnesota, what can we ever expect to get from these Democrats?
Even Richard Nixon supported a guaranteed annual income; although he never spoke of a real living income.
But, with the anniversary on the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights coming up on December 10 it would behoove us all to engage in a discussion about what kind of standard of living and quality of life working people are entitled to living here in the richest country in the world.
Is it right and just that a billionaire Governor like Mark Dayton whose inherited wealth is derived from poverty wages should be talking about forcing a miserly poverty Minimum Wage down the throats of hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans assuring these workers, and the families of these workers, will continue to live in poverty?
Many of the union "leaders," like Elliot Seide of AFSCME, who are multi-millionaires themselves have turned their unions into organizations that are little more than unions on paper as they refuse to struggle to improve the standard of living of their own members and force concession contracts down the throats of those paying dues so "leaders" like Elliot Seide can make Minnesota-nice with billionaire politicians like Mark Dayton.
What gives these union "leaders" who won't even stand up and fight for the workers whose dues go to pay their big, fat salaries the right to claim they have a right to shove poverty wages down the throats of other Minnesotans?
Would Elliot Seide or any public workers he represents agree to work for $9.50 an hour? No. So why should anyone else?
Keith Ellison would never work for $9.50 an hour. His fellow member of Congress, multi-millionaire Rick Nolan, would never work for $9.50 an hour.
The Minimum Wage should be based on all cost-of-living factors; the cost-of-living factors tracked and monitored by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Don't let a bunch of over-paid labor "leaders" and a billionaire governor tell you that you should work for poverty wages while they live high-on-the-hog at our expense.
And I have a message for all those members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees who collected signatures on petitions at the Minnesota State Fair urging that their fellow workers should be paid a lousy $9.50 an hour poverty wage--- it is workers being paid these kinds of poverty wages who are paying your wages. Something you might just want to think about. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. What makes you think you are entitled to a living wage but other workers are not entitled to the same living wages? Perhaps at the next Minnesota State Fair in 2014 you should consider circulating a petition backing a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" so all workers have a shot at living decent lives.
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
But, the award for "The Epitome of Hypocrisy" in all of this discussion over the Minimum Wage should go to the Leader of the Minnesota State Senate, DFL'er Tom Bakk who stakes claim to being a leader in the building trades unions--- Bakk says he wants even less than the pathetically miserly Minimum Wage being proposed by the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party and its union "partners" and non-profit foundation-funded front groups like Take Action Minnesota of $9.50 an hour because Senator Bakk feels sorry for the Minnesota hospitality industry--- the casino managements and those who made the Forbes Fortune 500 "List."
People have become billionaires as a direct result of paying workers poverty wages. Had the wealthy been paying workers real living wages, no doubt they would remain mere multi-millionaires instead of having become billionaires.
I am sick and tired of hearing about the poor "small businesses" who will suffer if the Minimum Wage is increased to a real living wage--- exempt the small businesses and the relatives they hire from enforcement and protection of the Minimum Wage.
Let State Senator Tom Bakk clean the hotel rooms for a poverty wage.
Billionaires telling workers they should be satisfied with $9.50 an hour. Union "leaders" who have turned trade unionism into a racket getting big fat salaries. Politicians who have never worked a day in their lives. All telling us what the Minimum Wage should be. When do we hear from the workers and their families who are forced to live in poverty with the decisions made by all of these people living high-on-the-hog more often than not on the backs of poverty wage paid workers.
--
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541
Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com
Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
Link to my letter:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
Minnesota politicians, business people and even labor "leaders" are concerned that raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage would be too hard on "small businesses."
There is a solution to this concern if "small business" is really their concern.
Exclude all the relatives of the owners of small businesses from Minimum Wage enforcement and protection.
Let the owners of "small businesses" pay their spouses, great grand-parents, grand-parents, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles and cousins whatever wages they want to do their work for them. Exempt politicians and all their relatives from Minimum Wage protections, too, and let the people vote on how much politicians should be paid. In my opinion, politicians shouldn't be paid any more than the lowest paid workers--- this would provide these politicians with the "opportunity" to improve the standard of living for everyone. According to these politicians people need incentives; what better place to start incentive based pay than with the pay of politicians?
But, for all other workers, the Minimum Wage should be nothing less than a real living wage based on ALL "cost of living" factors which would provide working people with a decent standard of living.
We have a billionaire Governor, Mark Dayton, whose inherited wealth has been derived from paying Minnesotans poverty wages for over a century.
There is a way to reduce the Minimum Wage. Institute universal social programs providing people with free health care, free child care, free higher education, low-cost public transportation, controlling the prices of food, housing, electricity, gas and home heating fuels.
Please read my "Letter to the Editor" in the Northern Light Region. Share this e-mail and my "Letter to the Editor" with your friends and fellow workers:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
By the way; there isn't a union "leader" in this country who would work for the pathetically miserly Minimum Wage the Democrats in Minnesota are proposing.
If we can't get a real living wage out of a Democratic super-majority here in Minnesota, what can we ever expect to get from these Democrats?
Even Richard Nixon supported a guaranteed annual income; although he never spoke of a real living income.
But, with the anniversary on the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights coming up on December 10 it would behoove us all to engage in a discussion about what kind of standard of living and quality of life working people are entitled to living here in the richest country in the world.
Is it right and just that a billionaire Governor like Mark Dayton whose inherited wealth is derived from poverty wages should be talking about forcing a miserly poverty Minimum Wage down the throats of hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans assuring these workers, and the families of these workers, will continue to live in poverty?
Many of the union "leaders," like Elliot Seide of AFSCME, who are multi-millionaires themselves have turned their unions into organizations that are little more than unions on paper as they refuse to struggle to improve the standard of living of their own members and force concession contracts down the throats of those paying dues so "leaders" like Elliot Seide can make Minnesota-nice with billionaire politicians like Mark Dayton.
What gives these union "leaders" who won't even stand up and fight for the workers whose dues go to pay their big, fat salaries the right to claim they have a right to shove poverty wages down the throats of other Minnesotans?
Would Elliot Seide or any public workers he represents agree to work for $9.50 an hour? No. So why should anyone else?
Keith Ellison would never work for $9.50 an hour. His fellow member of Congress, multi-millionaire Rick Nolan, would never work for $9.50 an hour.
The Minimum Wage should be based on all cost-of-living factors; the cost-of-living factors tracked and monitored by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Don't let a bunch of over-paid labor "leaders" and a billionaire governor tell you that you should work for poverty wages while they live high-on-the-hog at our expense.
And I have a message for all those members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees who collected signatures on petitions at the Minnesota State Fair urging that their fellow workers should be paid a lousy $9.50 an hour poverty wage--- it is workers being paid these kinds of poverty wages who are paying your wages. Something you might just want to think about. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. What makes you think you are entitled to a living wage but other workers are not entitled to the same living wages? Perhaps at the next Minnesota State Fair in 2014 you should consider circulating a petition backing a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" so all workers have a shot at living decent lives.
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-letter-to-editor-on-minimum-wage-is.html
But, the award for "The Epitome of Hypocrisy" in all of this discussion over the Minimum Wage should go to the Leader of the Minnesota State Senate, DFL'er Tom Bakk who stakes claim to being a leader in the building trades unions--- Bakk says he wants even less than the pathetically miserly Minimum Wage being proposed by the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party and its union "partners" and non-profit foundation-funded front groups like Take Action Minnesota of $9.50 an hour because Senator Bakk feels sorry for the Minnesota hospitality industry--- the casino managements and those who made the Forbes Fortune 500 "List."
People have become billionaires as a direct result of paying workers poverty wages. Had the wealthy been paying workers real living wages, no doubt they would remain mere multi-millionaires instead of having become billionaires.
I am sick and tired of hearing about the poor "small businesses" who will suffer if the Minimum Wage is increased to a real living wage--- exempt the small businesses and the relatives they hire from enforcement and protection of the Minimum Wage.
Let State Senator Tom Bakk clean the hotel rooms for a poverty wage.
Billionaires telling workers they should be satisfied with $9.50 an hour. Union "leaders" who have turned trade unionism into a racket getting big fat salaries. Politicians who have never worked a day in their lives. All telling us what the Minimum Wage should be. When do we hear from the workers and their families who are forced to live in poverty with the decisions made by all of these people living high-on-the-hog more often than not on the backs of poverty wage paid workers.
--
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541
Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com
Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 25, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
What is Obamacare?
Obamacare. It isn't even "insurance reform." It is more accurate to say that Obamacare is the governmental enforcement of the unfair and unjust for-profit driven health care system. What we have with Obamacare is a claim that "free-market" health care is the best health care system in the world so the government is helping us by shoving it down our throats through Obamacare instead of providing real health care reform which would be a National Public Health Care System that uses a means of financing that is publicly administered and which would be publicly delivered just like public education. It took one hell of a fight to win public education in this country and it is going to take an even bigger fight to win real health care reform. obamacare is simply one more way to redistribute the wealth in this country by robbing the poor to fatten the rich. Doctors, health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry will profit from Obamacare as labor "leaders," Democratic Party hacks and over-paid media pundits sow confusion and try to mislead people into thinking that Obamacare is some kind of "reform" when it is a thoroughly reactionary ploy to hoodwink and further fleece the American people.
The situation in Elsipogtog; international solidarity required.
Re: Labour and democratic solidarity with the national liberation struggle in Canada
Dear Friends, Sisters and Brothers,
The Aboriginal peoples in Canada have never given up fighting for their full national rights and stolen lands. They continue to feel the full weight of the racist, non-Aboriginal State through police violence, incarceration, discrimination in health and education, jobs and so on.
The police act with the encouragement of the Capitalist State authorities. The State in Canada embodies the interests of the giant corporations who own Canada and its resources. The State expresses the views of the financial and industrial oligarchy, a few hundred extremely wealthy families.
For three years, the Mi'kmaw Aboriginal people in New Brunswick have asked for consultation with the government about the extraction of natural gas from their land by means of "fracking," with no result.
Two days ago, Canada's federal police, the RCMP, violently attacked a mainly Aboriginal protest against fracking. The protest was part of a large campaign against fracking in New Brunswick encompassing 28 organizations. Mayors in the region voted 16-1 in July to ask the government to impose a fracking moratorium (rogerannis.com), so this is not only an Aboriginal rights protest. The attack was an attempt to divide and conquer the anti-fracking movement, using anti-Aboriginal racism and smears.
Fortunately for people who support the Truth, the police failed to find and destroy several excellent videos (below). It is possible to write with some confidence about the event. A detail here or there may be wrong, but the overall picture is quite clear.
The Elsipogtog First Nation is located close to where fracking could take place. It is the largest First Nation in New Brunswick, with 80 per cent unemployment, a mainly young population and a severe housing crisis - up to five families sharing one home.
Since at least July, RCMP officers began to flood the area. You can see them on video (below), telling people they can't park or encamp near a community cemetery, a pretty inviolable place for any society and one the community wanted to protect. The protests continued to build, including a blockade to protect the sovereign claim of the Elsipogtog First Nation.
On October 17, at least two hundred heavily armed RCMP used extreme brutality, threats and mass arrests against about 80 peaceful protesters near Elsipogtog. The RCMP had police dogs and pointed rifles at the protesters. They beat people with truncheons and trampled women. They used pepper spray and "non-lethal" bullets against children, women and Elders. They pinned people to the ground and punched their faces while making arrests.
It is a falsehood when the RCMP claim their bullets are not lethal. People in Northern Ireland know better. The RCMP official responsible for making such a claim to the media ought to face discipline for making such a self-serving and false statement. They were lucky no one was killed or severely injured.
The RCMP first arrested people at a Warrior encampment, away from the injunction area. The RCMP officers pointed 60 rifles of various calibre at people while arresting 18 unarmed people, including a media photographer. The police allege one protester was armed and fired a gun during their assault, but this is unproven. Arresting warriors who are "protectors of the people" made it easier to arrest the other protesters.
The videos show that the violence was 100% caused by the police. No one claims there was violence before the police attack. The damaged police property - a few burnt police cars - pale in comparison to the criminal RCMP assault. The violence and mass arrest were contrived, pre-meditated.
The main purpose of the RCMP's raid was to make an unsupported allegation that collectively smeared and scandalized the entire anti-fracking movement. It is a dirty police smear to say that weapons allegedly found in the protest camp posed a danger to society, without any supporting evidence. Yet but the baseless allegation was dutifully reported widely by the bourgeois press. This is unacceptable and Stephen Harper must discipline the responsible police official immediately, or it will be clear that he agrees with the collective smear tactic.
The RCMP is obviously trying to conceal its own violence by lying about alleged dangers from the protesters, who were and are overwhelmingly peaceful. This is a dirty canard. Offensively, the RCMP is smearing Aboriginal people and environmentalists as "terrorists." For years, Harper's ministers and government officials have called environmentalists and Aboriginal rights activists "terrorists." Such lying smears are a big step towards fascism in Canada.
Very welcome and needed solidarity rallies took place across Canada and in other countries almost immediately (at least 30 on the same day, including blockades in Ontario and Quebec). The police attack needs to reverberate through all of the labour and democratic movements to strengthen solidarity for the full rights and just claims of Aboriginal peoples.
During their attack, the police acted with impunity, swaggering and ordering people around. As you can see in the videos, it is the people who are free, liberated because they have lost all fear from the brutal police and their State. One shouted "shoot me." They know they are right, and they are. ("Elsipogtog: Tensions, anger, and courage 17 October", below.)
The RCMP inflicted this violence against people who have a sovereign and legal right to be where they are. The Mi'kmaw Aboriginal people in the Atlantic provinces were not starved into signing treaties that "extinguished" land ownership, the practice followed on the Prairies (in international law, duress invalidates such concessions).
This is more than a shameful attack on protesters concerned about fracking. This is a racist, criminal attack by the Capitalist State where Authorities should be Charged. Powerful people need to face charges.
The RCMP and its boss Stephen Harper must no longer act with impunity, protected by the deep, ingrained racism of Canada's capitalist oligarchy. All of Canada's people's movements need to make this plain, and so do the opposition parties in parliament.
The 40 people arrested included most of the Elsipogtog First Nation leadership, including Chief Arren Sock.
The mass arrest is a blatant violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed to all people in Canada, an attempt to demonize peaceful protesters. It is a racist act protecting the profits of the fracking corporations operating in New Brunswick. It is a criminal, state-terrorist campaign to put profit before nature, people and science.
This concerns more than the international solidarity of non-Aboriginal workers with Aboriginal workers, because they are paid worst and hired last. This concerns the right of nations to determine their future and about the very existence of Aboriginal nations in Canada, the matter of continuing genocide through lethal discrimination and denial of rights.
If readers, like me, are appalled at the brutal police-state gang-up in Elsipogtog, please urge your union or group to condemn this attack and to express full solidarity with the democratic rights of Aboriginal nations and all people in Canada.
Canada can and will stop being a prison house of nations. How Canada resolves the national liberation struggle in our own country can be a beacon for all countries. But first, we have to ensure that the RCMP have no place at peaceful protests.
We have to build the solidarity movement. We have to fight for the full equality of Aboriginal nations. We have to fight for the rapid end to racism that weakens the unity of workers in Canada. Trade unions need to be in the front line of this struggle.
In Solidarity,
Darrell Rankin
Manitoba office, Communist Party of Canada - Manitoba
* * * * * *
Here is a link to a good story by a media photographer, arrested by the RCMP. His arrest was a far greater injury to press freedom than the justified anger behind the temporary confiscation of today's Global TV equipment, which may have been part of the uncritical reporting of the RCMP character assassination of the protesters. http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/
Below are relevant, short videos about the situation in Elsipogtog.
The best written summary of the nation's determination and position, announced with massive, enthusiastic support on Oct. 1, 2013. Click on "show more" below the video to read the full text.Elsipogtog Chief and Council Resolution - Eviction Notice(length 2:40)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The most popular video - well done!The last 48 hours tell us a lot about the next 2 years in Canada(length 1:46; 80,000+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The start of the police attack, which ended in extreme violence and injuries to protesters. Elsipogtog: RCMP move in on peaceful protesters 17 October(length 2:22; 2 ,000+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
During the police attack - pushing and shoving. Police bossing, kicking, pepper spraying, swaggering. Police dogs and guns. People who are liberated because they have no fear in fighting for what is right.Elsipogtog: Tensions, anger, and courage 17 October(length 4:38; 3,000+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Much later in the day, the police retreat. The spirit of resistance by the people is unbroken.Elsipogtog: Ending to standoff with RCMP(length 1:35; 600+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Dignity, respect for all, democracyNews Conference Elsipogtog june 18th 2013 peace keepers, about SWN (length 2:54 - part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Elsipogtog, News Conference, part 2, about SWN and Protest Peace Keepers(length 21:08)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Elsipogtog Frack Off(length 3:33 - 7,000+ views)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Elsipogtog: Unity(length 8:10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Showing the unity of all the people in support of the protest against fracking.Elsipogtog: Chief Aaron Sock arrives to blockade site(length 5:56, 1,000+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
A most excellent explanation of the gang-up by the police, big business politicians and the legal system against the protesters. July 2013:Elsipogtog Female Native Amy Sock very upset that Judge ordered Warrior Chief John Levi to Jail
(length 4:57)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
RCMP telling people they cannot visit their community's graveyardElsipogtog: Undoing RCMP Harassment July 22, 2013(length 5:17)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Dear Friends, Sisters and Brothers,
The Aboriginal peoples in Canada have never given up fighting for their full national rights and stolen lands. They continue to feel the full weight of the racist, non-Aboriginal State through police violence, incarceration, discrimination in health and education, jobs and so on.
The police act with the encouragement of the Capitalist State authorities. The State in Canada embodies the interests of the giant corporations who own Canada and its resources. The State expresses the views of the financial and industrial oligarchy, a few hundred extremely wealthy families.
For three years, the Mi'kmaw Aboriginal people in New Brunswick have asked for consultation with the government about the extraction of natural gas from their land by means of "fracking," with no result.
Two days ago, Canada's federal police, the RCMP, violently attacked a mainly Aboriginal protest against fracking. The protest was part of a large campaign against fracking in New Brunswick encompassing 28 organizations. Mayors in the region voted 16-1 in July to ask the government to impose a fracking moratorium (rogerannis.com), so this is not only an Aboriginal rights protest. The attack was an attempt to divide and conquer the anti-fracking movement, using anti-Aboriginal racism and smears.
Fortunately for people who support the Truth, the police failed to find and destroy several excellent videos (below). It is possible to write with some confidence about the event. A detail here or there may be wrong, but the overall picture is quite clear.
The Elsipogtog First Nation is located close to where fracking could take place. It is the largest First Nation in New Brunswick, with 80 per cent unemployment, a mainly young population and a severe housing crisis - up to five families sharing one home.
Since at least July, RCMP officers began to flood the area. You can see them on video (below), telling people they can't park or encamp near a community cemetery, a pretty inviolable place for any society and one the community wanted to protect. The protests continued to build, including a blockade to protect the sovereign claim of the Elsipogtog First Nation.
On October 17, at least two hundred heavily armed RCMP used extreme brutality, threats and mass arrests against about 80 peaceful protesters near Elsipogtog. The RCMP had police dogs and pointed rifles at the protesters. They beat people with truncheons and trampled women. They used pepper spray and "non-lethal" bullets against children, women and Elders. They pinned people to the ground and punched their faces while making arrests.
It is a falsehood when the RCMP claim their bullets are not lethal. People in Northern Ireland know better. The RCMP official responsible for making such a claim to the media ought to face discipline for making such a self-serving and false statement. They were lucky no one was killed or severely injured.
The RCMP first arrested people at a Warrior encampment, away from the injunction area. The RCMP officers pointed 60 rifles of various calibre at people while arresting 18 unarmed people, including a media photographer. The police allege one protester was armed and fired a gun during their assault, but this is unproven. Arresting warriors who are "protectors of the people" made it easier to arrest the other protesters.
The videos show that the violence was 100% caused by the police. No one claims there was violence before the police attack. The damaged police property - a few burnt police cars - pale in comparison to the criminal RCMP assault. The violence and mass arrest were contrived, pre-meditated.
The main purpose of the RCMP's raid was to make an unsupported allegation that collectively smeared and scandalized the entire anti-fracking movement. It is a dirty police smear to say that weapons allegedly found in the protest camp posed a danger to society, without any supporting evidence. Yet but the baseless allegation was dutifully reported widely by the bourgeois press. This is unacceptable and Stephen Harper must discipline the responsible police official immediately, or it will be clear that he agrees with the collective smear tactic.
The RCMP is obviously trying to conceal its own violence by lying about alleged dangers from the protesters, who were and are overwhelmingly peaceful. This is a dirty canard. Offensively, the RCMP is smearing Aboriginal people and environmentalists as "terrorists." For years, Harper's ministers and government officials have called environmentalists and Aboriginal rights activists "terrorists." Such lying smears are a big step towards fascism in Canada.
Very welcome and needed solidarity rallies took place across Canada and in other countries almost immediately (at least 30 on the same day, including blockades in Ontario and Quebec). The police attack needs to reverberate through all of the labour and democratic movements to strengthen solidarity for the full rights and just claims of Aboriginal peoples.
During their attack, the police acted with impunity, swaggering and ordering people around. As you can see in the videos, it is the people who are free, liberated because they have lost all fear from the brutal police and their State. One shouted "shoot me." They know they are right, and they are. ("Elsipogtog: Tensions, anger, and courage 17 October", below.)
The RCMP inflicted this violence against people who have a sovereign and legal right to be where they are. The Mi'kmaw Aboriginal people in the Atlantic provinces were not starved into signing treaties that "extinguished" land ownership, the practice followed on the Prairies (in international law, duress invalidates such concessions).
This is more than a shameful attack on protesters concerned about fracking. This is a racist, criminal attack by the Capitalist State where Authorities should be Charged. Powerful people need to face charges.
The RCMP and its boss Stephen Harper must no longer act with impunity, protected by the deep, ingrained racism of Canada's capitalist oligarchy. All of Canada's people's movements need to make this plain, and so do the opposition parties in parliament.
The 40 people arrested included most of the Elsipogtog First Nation leadership, including Chief Arren Sock.
The mass arrest is a blatant violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed to all people in Canada, an attempt to demonize peaceful protesters. It is a racist act protecting the profits of the fracking corporations operating in New Brunswick. It is a criminal, state-terrorist campaign to put profit before nature, people and science.
This concerns more than the international solidarity of non-Aboriginal workers with Aboriginal workers, because they are paid worst and hired last. This concerns the right of nations to determine their future and about the very existence of Aboriginal nations in Canada, the matter of continuing genocide through lethal discrimination and denial of rights.
If readers, like me, are appalled at the brutal police-state gang-up in Elsipogtog, please urge your union or group to condemn this attack and to express full solidarity with the democratic rights of Aboriginal nations and all people in Canada.
Canada can and will stop being a prison house of nations. How Canada resolves the national liberation struggle in our own country can be a beacon for all countries. But first, we have to ensure that the RCMP have no place at peaceful protests.
We have to build the solidarity movement. We have to fight for the full equality of Aboriginal nations. We have to fight for the rapid end to racism that weakens the unity of workers in Canada. Trade unions need to be in the front line of this struggle.
In Solidarity,
Darrell Rankin
Manitoba office, Communist Party of Canada - Manitoba
* * * * * *
Here is a link to a good story by a media photographer, arrested by the RCMP. His arrest was a far greater injury to press freedom than the justified anger behind the temporary confiscation of today's Global TV equipment, which may have been part of the uncritical reporting of the RCMP character assassination of the protesters. http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/
Below are relevant, short videos about the situation in Elsipogtog.
The best written summary of the nation's determination and position, announced with massive, enthusiastic support on Oct. 1, 2013. Click on "show more" below the video to read the full text.Elsipogtog Chief and Council Resolution - Eviction Notice(length 2:40)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The most popular video - well done!The last 48 hours tell us a lot about the next 2 years in Canada(length 1:46; 80,000+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The start of the police attack, which ended in extreme violence and injuries to protesters. Elsipogtog: RCMP move in on peaceful protesters 17 October(length 2:22; 2 ,000+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
During the police attack - pushing and shoving. Police bossing, kicking, pepper spraying, swaggering. Police dogs and guns. People who are liberated because they have no fear in fighting for what is right.Elsipogtog: Tensions, anger, and courage 17 October(length 4:38; 3,000+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Much later in the day, the police retreat. The spirit of resistance by the people is unbroken.Elsipogtog: Ending to standoff with RCMP(length 1:35; 600+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Dignity, respect for all, democracyNews Conference Elsipogtog june 18th 2013 peace keepers, about SWN (length 2:54 - part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Elsipogtog, News Conference, part 2, about SWN and Protest Peace Keepers(length 21:08)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Elsipogtog Frack Off(length 3:33 - 7,000+ views)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Elsipogtog: Unity(length 8:10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Showing the unity of all the people in support of the protest against fracking.Elsipogtog: Chief Aaron Sock arrives to blockade site(length 5:56, 1,000+ views)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
A most excellent explanation of the gang-up by the police, big business politicians and the legal system against the protesters. July 2013:Elsipogtog Female Native Amy Sock very upset that Judge ordered Warrior Chief John Levi to Jail
(length 4:57)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
RCMP telling people they cannot visit their community's graveyardElsipogtog: Undoing RCMP Harassment July 22, 2013(length 5:17)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?