A thought from Podunk:
We need to break free from this two-party trap by establishing a working class based progressive people's party for peace, social and economic justice in this country if we want any significant change.
Perhaps a good first step towards political independence would be if we united liberals, progressives and the left in some kind of "people's lobby" for peace, social and economic justice behind a program and platform for ending these dirty imperialist wars and using the resulting peace dividends to finance real health care reform where we would see single-payer as a first step towards a national public health care system which would create some three-million new jobs right off the bat with another ten-million jobs down the road, making full employment a legislative mandate, create a national child care system, defend and expand Social Security, protect and defend Mother Nature.
What do you think?
Leave a twig for the birds to perch on... don't let the capitalists do your thinking for you... if you are in the neighborhood, stop on in; the coffee is always hot and the cookie jar is full... looking forward to the day when the real decisions in America are made by working class families gathered around the kitchen table... new postings daily...Yours in the struggle...Alan L. Maki
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Do we need a Democratic Party version of Michele Bachmann or a clone of Congressman Collin Peterson?
Michele Bachmann has announced she will not be seeking re-election to Congress--- a bit of good news; but, the Democrat running is no better than Bachmann. The Democrat, Jim Graves, has made millions from exploiting workers forced to work in poverty wage jobs. Jim Graves talks about "middle class" and "living wage jobs" yet pays thousands of hotel/motel workers poverty wages.
Why would unions support a poverty wage paying employer who denies workers their rights like Jim Graves for public office?
Yet, here are the unions backing Jim Graves who is every bit as conservative as Michele Bachmann on most issues:
AFSCME Council 5
Education Minnesota
Minnesota AFL-CIO
National Education Association
SEIU Minnesota State Council
United Steelworkers
This makes about as much sense as the Michigan unions who backed the racist, corrupt and anti-labor supporter of right-to-work--- Roy Schmidt who won election as a Democrat but switched to being a Republican which he really was all along.
What good does it do working people to elect Jim Graves another Democrat like ultra-conservative Collin Peterson?
But, then, again; look at Education Minnesota which backed a worthless, ultra-right wing reactionary like Republican Tony Cornish for the Minnesota State House.
Working people are caught in this two-party trap with one jaw labeled Democrat and the other jaw labeled Republican and we need to be figuring out how to free ourselves from this dangerous two-party trap set for us by these Wall Street parasites.
Michele Bachmann was for maintaining a poverty minimum wage; Jim Graves pays thousands of his employees poverty wages.
A living wage is a wage based on all cost of living factors.
If Jim Graves supported a living wage as he claims he does he would be paying his employees a real living wage based on all cost of living factors but Jim Graves supports, and only for political expediency, the same pathetic and miserly minimum wage "championed" by the AFL-CIO and Democrats which, if workers are "lucky," would see the minimum wage increased by two-bits in the here and now... but, Jim Graves won't voluntarily increase the pay of his own poverty waged workers--- not even by two-bits.
Plus, Jim Graves supports the hideous Indian Gaming Industry which employs some 44,000 workers in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos all of whom are receiving poverty wages enforced by no rights under state or federal labor laws in an industry in which a bunch of white mobsters own everything from the slot machines and table games to the hotels, motels, bars, restaurants, convention and entertainment centers and theme parks and resorts leaving Native Americans owning nothing but a great big pile of poverty-creating debt... and Jim Graves hypocritically talks about how he is for "human rights."
When 1,300 American Crystal Sugar Company workers were locked out of their jobs here in the Red River Valley where was Jim Graves? Did anyone see or hear of this Democrat Jim Graves advocating for anti-scab and anti-lockout legislation? No.
Why would unions support a poverty wage paying employer who denies workers their rights like Jim Graves for public office?
Yet, here are the unions backing Jim Graves who is every bit as conservative as Michele Bachmann on most issues:
AFSCME Council 5
Education Minnesota
Minnesota AFL-CIO
National Education Association
SEIU Minnesota State Council
United Steelworkers
This makes about as much sense as the Michigan unions who backed the racist, corrupt and anti-labor supporter of right-to-work--- Roy Schmidt who won election as a Democrat but switched to being a Republican which he really was all along.
What good does it do working people to elect Jim Graves another Democrat like ultra-conservative Collin Peterson?
But, then, again; look at Education Minnesota which backed a worthless, ultra-right wing reactionary like Republican Tony Cornish for the Minnesota State House.
Working people are caught in this two-party trap with one jaw labeled Democrat and the other jaw labeled Republican and we need to be figuring out how to free ourselves from this dangerous two-party trap set for us by these Wall Street parasites.
Michele Bachmann was for maintaining a poverty minimum wage; Jim Graves pays thousands of his employees poverty wages.
A living wage is a wage based on all cost of living factors.
If Jim Graves supported a living wage as he claims he does he would be paying his employees a real living wage based on all cost of living factors but Jim Graves supports, and only for political expediency, the same pathetic and miserly minimum wage "championed" by the AFL-CIO and Democrats which, if workers are "lucky," would see the minimum wage increased by two-bits in the here and now... but, Jim Graves won't voluntarily increase the pay of his own poverty waged workers--- not even by two-bits.
Plus, Jim Graves supports the hideous Indian Gaming Industry which employs some 44,000 workers in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos all of whom are receiving poverty wages enforced by no rights under state or federal labor laws in an industry in which a bunch of white mobsters own everything from the slot machines and table games to the hotels, motels, bars, restaurants, convention and entertainment centers and theme parks and resorts leaving Native Americans owning nothing but a great big pile of poverty-creating debt... and Jim Graves hypocritically talks about how he is for "human rights."
When 1,300 American Crystal Sugar Company workers were locked out of their jobs here in the Red River Valley where was Jim Graves? Did anyone see or hear of this Democrat Jim Graves advocating for anti-scab and anti-lockout legislation? No.