Save the "Green" St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant

Please circulate this information widely.

My Letter to the Editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (sent 11/27/07)was published on Sunday, December 2, 2007; Page OP4:

Your excellent editorial (Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007) on saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant missed one important point.

For all practical purposes there is little chance of saving this plant unless it is brought under public ownership; free enterprise has failed to save the plant and the jobs.

Tax-payers already have a huge investment in this plant. More tax-dollars should be invested to save this plant and these important manufacturing jobs.

What tax-payers finance they should own.

Minnesota legislators have a fiduciary responsibility to see to it that this plant survives through public ownership.

Alan L. Maki
Warroad, Minnesota

I have also included the Strib Editorial and the Opinion piece for those who might not have seen these.


As anyone can see this is all far from being a “done deal.” Working together we can save this plant and two-thousand jobs.

So far we have made an important effort towards promoting a real dialogue on saving this plant as is evidenced by the Strib finally taking up this question. Less than a year ago I was told by the person in charge of editorials that they would not be taking a position on this issue because it was a “mute” question and the “decision to close the plant was final.” My how things change.

The publication of the Editorial and the Op/Ed piece is a very exciting development. We should seize on this and get as much discussion going in the plant and surrounding community as we can.

Over 6,000 leaflets have now been distributed on the Iron Range between several of the mines Monday and today.

In my opinion, we need to focus on grassroots and rank and file activity because the present union leaderships are completely incapacble of addressing this issue in the kind of fundamental way required... they fear the issue of public ownership. It will be up to them to explain to the memberships what they intend to do to save their jobs and this plant... doing nothing is not an option. Ron Gettelfinger and the UAW-CAP have been shamefully silent on the issue of public ownership even though it is the very last straw. The leadership of the USW has likewise been shamefully silent even though their members rely on this plant remaining open, too. Bob Bratulich probably is still sitting with his feet up on his desk playing computer games… a new desk, same tired approach to workers’ problems. Leo Girard and Carl Pope never bothered returning to the St. Paul plant once the issue of Public Ownership was raised. It is interesting though that the International President of the USW accompanied by the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope have taken the time to visit the St. Paul Plant and call for it being kept open and producing while UAW President Gettelfinger and Bob King hide out in Solidarity House.

I would also note that MN DFL United States Senate Candidate Al Franken has also called for saving the Ford Plant; as has Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Mike Cavlan. James Oberstar has remained silent, as has Amy Klobuchar. The Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party continues to refuse to address this issue--- probably because the UAW and USW leaderships have refused to hold their “feet to the fire.”

Should Cynthia McKinney come into Minnesota as a presidential candidate and spend some time talking to Ford workers and miners on the Iron Range as a candidate the Democratic Party dumped; this could prove to be a disaster for the Minnesota DFL at the polls in 2008.

Perhaps someone will raise the issue of the future of the Ford Plant at the DFL Senate Candidate debate. It will be interesting to see if Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer now finds the courage to address this issue since the editorial board of the Strib has spoken. (Pallmeyer did come out in support of public ownership after this was written). Check out Jack's website: http://www.jackforsenate.org/

Alan


This is my posting on the LabourStart home page on FaceBook (to join just Google up “facebook” and follow the instructions; then do a facebook search for “labourstart”); simply click on the link to go to it. Please feel free to join LabourStart’s FaceBook network. [Note, you may add your comments once you join]:




Topic: Help Us Save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant & 2,000 union jobs




Sisters and Brothers;

Unless we act together the Ford Plant will close soon and two thousand jobs will go down the drain and into the river with it.

It will take the initiative of community activists and rank and file activists from your plant working together to save the Ford Plant and two-thousand jobs. It will require activity on a variety of levels from a variety of partners working in coalition.

I would encourage you to ask the UAW leadership of your local (UAW Local 879) to push the MN DFL to reconsider the legislation Democratic Senator Metzen dropped the ball on after Representative Tom Rukavina successfully pushed it through his Committee in the House. It is important that this Plant and Dam remain intact as one unit.

As you know, the great “free market forces” of capitalism have not been able to keep this perfectly good plant in operation.

This leaves us but one option; the option of Public Ownership. Public Ownership has been used all over the world to save many plants and even entire industries. The New Flyer Bus Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba is one such example.

To be quite frank, our primary concern has to be with saving these two-thousand jobs. The jobs of those presently employed and for generations to come.

No one is considering the tremendous struggle and sacrifice of Ford workers and your union in securing a good place to work as part of the investment. No one is talking about the huge investment taxpayers have made in this Plant and Hydro Dam… not to mention training employees. No one mentions that workers create all wealth and as such are entitled to participate as equals in the decision-making process. The Ford Motor Company never sat down and talked about the future of this plant with workers or tax-payers.

I ask you to take these resolutions to your party precinct caucus meetings in February. Ford workers are scattered all over, even in Wisconsin… we need to reach out for support in order to save this plant. Just clip one of these resolutions to the resolution form.

Two resolutions follow; use the one you feel most appropriate or submit one of your own.

Resolution #1 (Short Version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs

Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation from the workers, the community, or local and state governments;

Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;

Therefore be it resolved (name of union/organization here) supports public ownership should be used to save this plant, hydro dam, and two-thousand jobs.

Resolution #2 (Full version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs

Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation with the workers, the community, or local and state governments;

Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;

Whereas this Plant forms an important an integral component of Minnesota’s industrial base;

Whereas the closing of this Plant will cause very significant economic harm to the local community and the state including placing a strain on already overburdened social services which have already been drastically cut back;

Whereas all conciliatory efforts, as demanded, in favor of the management of Ford Motor Company have been granted by all levels of government under the promise Ford would maintain operations in St. Paul;

Whereas a similar threatened plant closing of the New Flyer Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada during the 1970’sresulted in all levels of government intervening on behalf of the members of the United Automobile Workers union resulting in the public takeover of the operation with continuing successful operation at present;

Whereas “the free market” has not resulted in a solution to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam which powers the plant along with two-thousand union jobs;

Be it resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instruct its State Legislative Caucus to bring forward the previous resolution in the form of legislation supported by the United Auto Workers Union and its members of Local 789 to save the plant and dam intact until a solution is found to continue operations and production;

Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instructs all of its federal, state, and local Twin Cities elected officials to convene a special conference to explore public ownership as the remedy to saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam, and two thousand union jobs;

Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party support public ownership and democratic control of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant with production taking place in the best interests of the workers and the people of the State of Minnesota;

Be it further resolved that public ownership is the only viable means of saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant as all other means have been tried and exhausted;

Be it further resolved that funding is not an issue since any country which can squander billions of dollars on the occupation of Iraq can find the resources for saving this Plant, dam, and jobs;

Be it further resolved that the very significant burden of health care costs for employees be resolved through the State of Minnesota enacting legislation implementing single-payer, universal health care.

Alan L. Maki
Member, Minnesota DFL State Central Committee

and

Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

If you have friends working in casinos please have them get in touch with me.

Twenty-thousand Minnesotans go to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under tribal, state or federal labor laws.

58891 County Road 13; Warroad, Minnesota 56763 Phone: 218-386-2432 Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog; it’s where rank and file activists go for information:Thoughts From Podunk: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Suggestions for how to use these resolutions:

• Take it to your precinct caucus meeting

• Get your union or community organization to support this resolution

• Write a letter to your state legislators supporting this resolution

• Copy and distribute this resolution widely

• Use this resolution as a petition, ask your friends to sign it

• Write a letter to the editor

• Blog this issue

• Post the resolution on web sites

• Discuss this resolution on Internet “list serves”

**************

This leaflet made as a contribution in kind by the:
Iron Range Rank and File Labor Network… concerned and involved members of United Steel Workers locals 1938, 2705, 6860, 2660

All labor and materials for this leaflet have been contributed in solidarity with workers of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant… On the Iron Range we understand the future of our jobs hinge on the future of your jobs. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Maki for taking up this struggle in his capacity as a member of the MN DFL State Central Committee. Without these kinds of community grassroots and rank and file outreach efforts we are all doomed as recent contract “negotiations” in our industries have demonstrated.

Please consider making a contribution to help us put this issue on the front burner where it belongs.

Out of sight… is out of mind.

For additional information---

An excellent editorial:
http://www.startribune.com/editorials/story/1569611.html

A suggestion on the use of the Plant:
http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1569599.html

My Letter to the Editor of the Star Tribune:

Your excellent editorial (Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007)on saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant missed one important point.

For all practical purposes there is little chance of saving this plant unless it is brought under public ownership; free enterprise has failed to save the plant and the jobs.

Tax-payers already have a huge investment in this plant. More tax-dollars should be invested to save this plant and these important manufacturing jobs.

What tax-payers finance they should own.

Minnesota legislators have a fiduciary responsibility to see to it that this plant survives through public ownership.

Alan L. Maki
Warroad, Minnesota


Additional information can be found on my blogs:

http://capitalistglobalization.blogspot.com/

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/



*********************



From the Sunday, November 25, 2007 edition of the Star Tribune

Editorial: One more chance for Ford plant jobs
Year's extension on plant closing is welcome news

Published: November 25, 2007

JOB LOSSES IN ST. PAUL

• Whirlpool: 600 jobs in 1984

• Amhoist: 700 jobs in 1985

• Control Data: 800 jobs in 1989

• 3M: 180 jobs in 2001

• Ford: 1,000 jobs in 2006-07

The Ford Motor Co. plant in St. Paul is on life support for one more year, providing a glimmer of hope that the eventual reuse of the property might include much-needed manufacturing jobs in the heart of the Twin Cities.

For that to happen, though, state and local officials need to aggressively explore options ranging from convincing Ford to continue operations at the plant to recruiting other manufacturers to the property. Without bold leadership, the plant will close and more jobs will disappear from St. Paul.

At its peak in 1979, the 82-year-old Ford plant had 2,600 employees. Union members recently voted to ratify a new contract to keep 925 Ranger truck plant workers on the job until 2009, or a year longer than had been planned for the plant's closing.

The extension provides more time for creative consideration of possible uses for the plant and surrounding property. Fortunately, some of the important groundwork is underway.

In June, a task force that had been working with a consulting firm approved five potential redevelopment scenarios for the property, two of which include industrial or light industrial use. Ultimately Ford will make the call on the plant and the potential sale of the property, but the company is cooperating with the task force and the city in addressing possible uses and related zoning issues.

On the state level, the Minnesota Legislature established a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle task force in 2006, in part to analyze what it would take to encourage Ford to produce plug-in hybrids at the St. Paul plant.

The best outcome, as argued elsewhere in this section by David Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, would be for Ford to use the plant to produce plug-in hybrid vehicles. Unfortunately, there's been no indication from Ford that it will use the plant in its ongoing hybrid development.

All is not lost if Ford abandons St. Paul for good in 2009, however. The Ford site and a quality Twin Cities workforce could draw interest from other industries. Manufacturing related to wind energy is an emerging part of the economy in rural Minnesota, Iowa and other other states.

St. Paul has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in a steady erosion of its economic base in recent years. Mayor Chris Coleman is quick to point out that the state seems more interested in rural than in urban economic development.

Chopstick factories aside, this is the kind of situation in which the late former Gov. Rudy Perpich would have been at his best, looking at how the Ford problem could be turned into an opportunity.

Today we have a governor with a developing interest in advanced energy technologies, and we have a plant and training facility that could find new life as an urban center for green manufacturing. Let's hope our leaders see the potential before it's too late.

http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1569599.html



David Morris: An electrifying thought for Ford's St. Paul plant
Why close a location when it could be used to produce the plug-in truck of the future?

David Morris

Published: November 25, 2007

In these pages two years ago I urged the Ford Motor Co. to make its St. Paul Ranger plant the centerpiece for a bold new transportation initiative -- a battery-powered vehicle, charged from a household socket, with a backup biofueled engine. Ford's October 2005 announcement that multibillion dollars losses would require "significant" plant closings, potentially including St. Paul's plant, sparked the proposal.

At the time Ford was uninterested, and worse. When the Legislature took up a bill to create a task force to examine the potential for making a plug-in at the St. Paul plant, Ford dispatched an official to lobby against the bill. She was the only one opposed. Both chambers passed the bill unanimously.

In 2005, Ford turned its back on electric-powered vehicles after manufacturing and leasing 1,500 all-electric Rangers to comply with California's electric-vehicle mandate. The mandate was lifted in 2003, and Ford, along with General Motors, began gathering up and crushing their vehicles. Two leaseholders waged a yearlong campaign to be allowed to buy their Rangers. In January 2005, after a sit-in was conducted at a Ford dealership, the company agreed.

In crash tests, the electric Ranger was superior to the gas-engine Ranger. One of the protesters, David Bernikoff-Raboy, a rancher in Mariposa County, Calif., told a local newspaper, "These are great vehicles. Ford is missing a huge marketing opportunity with these vehicles."

In April 2006, Ford decided to close the St. Paul Ranger plant by mid-2008.

That was then, this is now. To paraphrase a famous Minnesotan, the times they are a-changing.

Ford is under new management. Bill Ford is out. Alan Mulally, former head of Boeing, is in.

Ford just announced it would continue to operate the Ranger plant through 2009. Dramatically lower labor costs, a result of halving the workforce at the plant and hiring temporary workers at lower wages, coupled with increased sales due to the higher Canadian dollar, has resulted in profits as high as several thousand dollars per vehicle.

Ford has changed its stance toward electric-powered vehicles. In July, along with the utility Southern California Edison, it announced a collaboration to examine the future of plug-in hybrid vehicles. "By combining strengths, ours in hybrid technology, theirs in energy management, we can consider transportation as part of the broader energy system and work to unleash the potential of plug-in technology for consumers," Mulally said.

GM has announced a major effort to get its new plug-in vehicle, the Volt, on the road in 2010-2012. Several dozen plug-in Priuses are on the roads in Japan, a remarkable turnaround for Toyota, a company that for years used as its tag line in Prius ads: "You never have to plug it in." The company is also developing flexible-fuel technology that could use E85 ethanol for the back-up engine.

These changes can, and should, lead Ford, the UAW and Minnesota to revisit a plan to make the St. Paul plant the basis for a new, green transportation initiative. An electricity-biofueled vehicle makes very good sense. Traveling on electricity costs about a penny a mile, compared with more than 13 cents on gas. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that if every light-duty car and truck in America used plug-in hybrid technology, 75 percent could be plugged in and fueled at night by the electricity grid without the need to construct a single new power plant. Since we use very little oil to generate electricity, electric miles are essentially oil-free miles. If the backup engine were fueled by ethanol or biodiesel, the vehicle could reduce overall petroleum consumption by more than 90 percent.

Minnesota is blessed with plentiful wind resources in virtually all parts of the state. The Achilles' heel of wind energy, as well as direct sunlight, is its intermittence. Electric vehicles can overcome this shortcoming. Their large electric-storage capacity can be charged anytime renewable electricity is available. When needed, the batteries can be tapped to provide power to the house, business, farm or regional grid.

The Ranger may be a suitable candidate for such a vehicle. It costs little. It already boasts the best fuel economy in its vehicle class. Converting it to a plug-in would increase that efficiency three- to five-fold. The Ranger weighs only a little more than the Prius and about the same as the Ford Escape, making it a good candidate for battery power. It has room for a significant battery pack.

That Ford can make a profit now with relatively low production runs of the Ranger may also be helpful in introducing a new type of vehicle. In October, Rangers put up about the same sales numbers (4,800) that GM hopes to achieve in the first year after it introduces the Volt.

The St. Paul plant also boasts a large new training facility, which could become the site for a collaboration between Ford and companies such as 3M and Johnson Controls that could give Minnesota a leg up on becoming not only an assembler of but a supplier of parts to these new vehicles.

To mix my metaphors: The table is set. Will Ford step up to the plate?

David Morris is vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, based in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.

http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1569599.html

Problems of betrayal of working people and progressive coalition continue to mount as MN DFL party hacks pervert the issues and solutions to problems

Two issues demonstrate what is happening in the Democratic Party more than any others as party hacks and the big-money, corporate interests join forces to try to marginalize working people and their problems.

Their reason for doing this is so progressives remain without a power base after Election Day 2008 without any more influence than now.

We saw how the so-called "center" of the Democratic Party turned on those who exposed General Petreas.

This "center" is now taking clear aim at the issues holding together the progressive forces inside and outside the Democratic Party.

These issues are:

1. Ending the war in Iraq

2. Single-payer, universal health care

Below are two examples and my responses:

The war:

Published November 28, 2007 12:19 am - Brian Melendez, chair
Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party

Link: http://www.mankatofreepress.com/letters/local_story_332001910.html

In Response — Coleman’s lack of action on Iraq speaks louder than words


Brian Melendez


In a recent letter published by The Free Press, Minnesota GOP Chair Ron Carey took aim at Democrats and their position on the war in Iraq.


How ironic. When most Minnesotans want a responsible end to this war, and when Democrats like the First District’s Rep. Tim Walz are working to safely and responsibly redeploy our troops from Iraq, Sen. Norm Coleman continues to stand in the way, supporting this failed president and his war in Iraq.

Coleman was elected in 2002 as a strong supporter of President Bush and the war in Iraq. Not until the war became unpopular did Coleman publicly express doubt.

But express doubt is all that he did. Actions speak louder than words, and when it comes to the war in Iraq, Coleman says one thing but does another.

Despite claiming that it’s time for a change of course, Coleman consistently supported this failed president and the war in Iraq, voting 10 times this year alone against changing course or setting a timeline for bringing troops home.

No matter what he says in front of the cameras, Coleman walks into the Senate and casts vote after vote for what the president wants and against what Minnesotans want.

But Minnesotans need real leadership in Washington — leadership to end this war and to change the direction of our state and our nation.

Unfortunately, Coleman does not provide leadership; he simply follows the orders of the president and vice president who hand-picked him to run for Senate.

Minnesotans are ready to end this war, Sen. Coleman. What are you going to do about it?

Brian Melendez, chair

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party


My response:

To the Editor, Mankato Free Press;

I read the article by Brian Melendez concerning Norm Coleman's support for this dirty war for oil and regional domination in Iraq.

As far as I am concerned the position taken by Brian Melendez and the DFL Congressional delegation is not that much different from Norm Coleman's position.

These Democrats have voted to continue funding this war that is robbing us of our own needs for housing, education, and health care.

They also voted to give Bush the right to go to war based upon lies and deceit.

I would point out that during the last DFL state convention I made a motion to suspend the rules of the convention in order to formulate a clear position in opposition to this war; Brian Melendez opposed this motion. Now, here comes Brian Melendez talking about "re-deploying troops" when he should be clearly calling for cutting all funding for this war and bringing these troops home immediately.

Alan L. Maki
Member, MN DFL State Central Committee, Roseau County


Single-payer, universal health care:

Joel Clemmer,



This one you just sent me… are you saying this is the resolution passed at the 2006 State Convention; or, is it one you intend to submit at the upcoming caucus in February?



What I would like to know is if the one passed at the 2006 state convention used the term “single-payer”?


As you are fully aware, the resolution passed with 72% delegate support at the 2006 Minnesota State Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Convention called for "single-payer, universal health care."



This is all getting very interesting. What I can’t understand is why not one single reporter has asked any of the candidates for U.S. Senate where they stand on H.R. 676; nor has a single reporter stuck the resolution from the last MN DFL state convention under their noses asking where they stand.



Also, why is the word “affordable” in the title of the resolution you have attached? Who authored this resolution with that word “affordable” in the title?

UNIVERSAL, AFFORDABLE SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE


Whereas, 475,00 Minnesotans don’t have health insurance, a situation that increases their risk of illness, death, and financial insecurity; and

Whereas, a single payer system is the only system of health care that can dramatically reduce administrative costs, provide quality universal coverage with comprehensive benefits and control health care spending.

Therefore, be it resolved that_____________ supports and works for a universal, single payer health care system in Minnesota.

Have you looked at the MN DFL website and what they have for health care under the action agenda? It says nothing about single-payer. It talks about “affordable health insurance.”



It has been difficult enough getting people out to vote because they feel like all politicians are being deceitful and dishonest. What you people are doing by bringing the term “affordable” back into this discussion is setting things up for a reactionary “compromise” claiming it is the best you can get instead of mobilizing people to bring pressure to bear to force the politicians to do what is right and you are going to subvert the national movement for H.R. 676 in the process. But, that is what you want to do for Hillary, isn’t it?



The fact is, Minnesotans are fully in support of “no fee, comprehensive, all-inclusive [from prenatal to dental and eyes to prescriptions], single-payer, universal health care that is publicly administered and publicly financed.” Thousands of people in Roseau County signed petitions stating this already almost 8 years ago! If we were to re-circulate that same petition today support would be even stronger.



I find it very insulting that you, the MUHCC, and the MN DFL will now work together in collusion with these reactionary ultra-right elements in the MN DFL in the name of being “progressive” while you are undermining what the delegates to the last DFL state convention voted for. Not only that, but you are being completely inconsiderate of all those outside the DFL who have a right to have a say on this health care issue, too.



I expect the resolution passed by the last MN DFL state convention by an overwhelming 72% of the delegates to be posted on the MN DFL web site verbatim and not dishonestly twisted and perverted to please those who are pandering to the insurance companies, HMO’s, doctors, and hospitals.



It is pathetic that you and Melendez and these other party hacks would go to such lengths to undermine the vote of the convention.



How convenient you have this “new” resolution ready to go which is in opposition the resolution of the last state convention.



Every step of the way you people are manipulating and maneuvering in opposition to what the majority of the people want even after they have voted.



I am going to take your resolution, together with what is presently on the DFL website, and I am going to go across this state just weeks before the election exposing this betrayal of the people just like Huntley did in opposing single-payer just prior to the last election as he tried to work with the Republicans. I anticipate a very close election as it is and 150,000 leaflets talking about this betrayal could very easily determine the outcome in some close races selectively targeted. Do you people really think you can continue to betray Minnesotans and get away with it?



Every step of the way you people are undermining every single thing working people need… whether it is the betrayal of the auto workers losing there jobs at Ford or refusing to address the deplorable and disgraceful situation that has over 20,000 Minnesotans going to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws to continuing to fund this dirty war in Iraq as you sit in silence as our fresh water aquifers up here in northern Minnesota are destroyed by peat mining and the taconite industry.



What the hell is the matter with you people that you can not just accept what people are telling you they want?



I have been calling people to come out for the precinct caucuses and they are already telling me to go to hell… that they are a waste of time… they tell me they take their time to draft resolutions based on what they feel is needed to solve their problems and if the resolutions don’t go missing they end up being ignored.



You can count on me talking about that word “affordable” now being injected in order to create an atmosphere enabling the profiteers to continue ripping people off.



It is pathetic and shameful the way you people are playing games with peoples’ lives.



I don’t want to hear from anyone during this election that I am not being “a team player.” You people are the ones who are on the corporate team.



You organize “debates” for the candidates and you have to protect them from the public by not allowing people to ask their own questions. What a farce.



If the Democrats can hand over more than a trillion dollars to the Bush administration to murder people in Iraq and create so much human misery they provide the funds for free health care for its own people.



Joel, everyone knows that you are nothing but a liar, just like Melendez, when you say you don’t have the copy of the resolution 72% of the delegates voted for… you people wrote your “new” resolution with the 2006 resolution in hand carefully analyzing how you had to write it in order to create the right wording so you could say you are living up to what the delegates want. Very clever… all you are doing is playing the rest of us for suckers and fools.



Alan L. Maki
Member, MN DFL State Central Committee



This is what happens when we fail to adequately educate, organize and mobilize around the problems working people are experiencing while advancing concrete solutions to our problems as we leave the political field open to these kinds of shysters always looking to maneuver, manipulate and control.

We see these big-money, corporate interests who are the dominant force in the Minnesota DFL represented by the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, the MN DFL Business Caucus, and the "Summit Hill Club" who tell us the solution to all of our problems is to simply "Pass out our leaflets, contribute your money, vote Democrat, and leave the thinking to us because we are going to take care of you after we get elected." Ya; sure, you betcha.



I wrote the following letter to the Editor which has now been published in numerous newspapers:

Letter to the Editor Grand Rapids Herald:

The war in Iraq continues with no end in sight.

A new study by Democrats themselves puts the economic cost of the Iraq occupation at $1.6 TRILLION, or $21,000 per family. Every single penny has been wasted - not to mention the human cost to Americans and Iraqis and global hatred of the USA.

Why would Democrats want to give Bush one penny more?

This war makes no sense at all.

We could use this money to create a world-class, no-fee, comprehensive, all inclusive--- from prenatal to eye and dental along with all medications, single-payer, universal health care system which would be publicly administered and publicly financed; such a health care system would even be the envy of Canadians.

We could also use some of this money to establish a federal bank to take over the mortgages of working class families facing home foreclosures, lower the interest rates to something reasonable like 3% so people have homes to live in.

We would have enough money left over to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant through public ownership; saving 2,000 jobs as we protect one of the main pillars of Minnesota’s industrial base.

And, we would still have money left over; maybe a few road repairs could be made.

Why are politicians constantly telling us there is no money for these things we need when they have all this money to continue a war based upon lies and deceit? Even Alan Greenspan has stated this war is about oil and regional domination.

We are paying a terrible price for this war in so many ways: the death and destruction, not to mention paying through the nose every time we fill our gas tanks.

Let your Congressman/Congresswoman and United States Senators know it is time to stop all funding for this war in Iraq.

The only way to support the troops is to bring them home now.


Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Unless people begin to speak out vigorously now that election activities are upon us and people are thinking and focusing on issues and problems; we are going to continue to get saddled with ultra-right governments and it doesn't make any difference if these ultra-right governments are Democrat or Republican in name. What matters is that the peoples' progressive agenda for social change be placed up front and center stage.

Ultra-right governments, whether of the Democratic or Republican variety--- they serve their corporate masters and the military-financial-industrial complex; they have but one main aim: to place the burden of all the problems on the backs of working people as they squeeze the working class of every last drop they can get out of us in quest of their ultimate goal: profits.

When asked by a group of well-heeled businessmen in Oregon to speak about World War I, the famous American writer, John Reed--- author of "Ten Days That Shook The World" and "Insurgent Mexico" and a founder of the modern day socialist movement, upon being introduced as the main speaker who would explain what the war was all about; Reed rose to speak and said, "PROFITS;" he then sat down. The ultra-right agenda remains the same 85 years later: PROFITS.


Something to think about while sitting around the dinner table as you are waiting to be evicted from your home.

If you are going out shopping for Christmas or Hanukka gifts, you might want to consider putting a few movies on your shopping list:

"Reds" the powerful movie about John Reed and the "Ten Days that Shook the World."

"Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story" about the socialist chosen to be the greatest Canadian.

"Bethune" starring Donald Sutherland as the heroic communist Canadian, Dr. Norman Bethune.

A couple good books you might want to put on your gift-giving list:

Working Class USA: The Power and the Movement by Gus Hall, Minnesota's most famous "Red" Finn and Finnish-American author

"Super Profits and Crises: Modern U.S. Capitalism" by Victor Perlo the most respected Marxist economist of the 20th Century

You will need Perlo's book to understand this book, which I highly recommend, "The Age of Turbulence" by Alan Greenspan

Amandla

I have been watching this development in South Africa for some time. I would agree with Bill Fletcher that this movement in South Africa bears watching and even experimenting with here in the United States. I can see where lessons learned might be very useful in Canada, too.

"Amandla": A new voice from within the South African
Left




By Bill Fletcher

November 25, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-11/25fletcher.cfm

A very unusual and exciting project was launched in
South Africa this past June. Amandla
(www.amandla.org.za), an on-line and hard-copy journal,
emerged from within overlapping sections of the South
African Left. At a point when the radical Left
internationally desperately needs innovative theory,
Amandla appeared on the scene as a means for the
summation of the South African experience and a
mechanism for badly needed debate within that
significant movement.

I have admired the South African Left for years. Yet
the South African Left has been torn by its own
internal contradictions. Those who have aligned
themselves with the South African Communist Party have
tended to favour the continuation of the tripartite
alliance of the African National Congress, the Congress
of South African Trade Unions, and the South African
Communist Party, despite the grip that neo-liberalism
has held on the ANC-led government [note: the reasons
for this situation go beyond the scope of this
commentary]. Separate from this section of the South
African Left can be found at least two other
components: smaller radical Left political parties,
normally very critical of the tripartite alliance; and
an altogether different amalgam of groupings that tend
to be what can be described as the South African social
movement Left (e.g., anti-HIV/AIDS; Clean water
movements; anti-poverty). To a great extent these
different components of the South African Left have all
but ignored each other except and insofar as they have
attacked one another, sometimes with an unnerving
intensity.

Into this mix has stepped Amandla, which has served as
a political project to promote dialogue within and
between different segments of the South African Left.
The two issues that have been published are quite
fascinating in their breath. Most interesting has been
the fact that the South African Communist Party, which
tended to shy away from even acknowledging a Left
outside of the tripartite alliance, has had an
important presence in this project through interviews
and articles, including by leading members.

Amandla is important for those of us in the USA both
for giving us insight into the thinking within South
Africa, as well as for, hopefully, inspiring us to do
likewise in the USA. In terms of giving us insight into
South Africa, the South African Left, regardless of any
problems it faces, remains among the most vibrant on
the planet. It is confronting issues of national and
regional economic development in the face of
imperialism, as well as attempting to address the
challenge of building a pro-socialist movement in a
post-liberation society. The latter is noteworthy for
many reasons, not the least being that the South
African Left often finds itself up against former
comrades, individuals who know all the right words and
phrases of the Left, but who use them to advance a
different set of class interests.

In reading Amandla I found myself thinking equally
about the situation in South Africa and in the USA.
Amandla may become a vehicle for a reconfiguration of
the South African Left, at least over time. The result
of such a reconfiguration is impossible to predict, but
the active debate and engagement of different political
tendencies could result in a very different practical
working together and operational unity. It might,
perhaps, result in the gelling of a new
national-popular bloc that advances 21st century
politics against neo-liberalism.

In the USA, though there are significant magazines and
websites, there is nothing quite comparable to Amandla,
and this is a serious loss for us. Much of the
sectarian banter that so many of us have experienced at
one point or the other over the last thirty years has
drifted away like an echo in a cave, yet this has not
meant that serious, principled exchanges emerge that
result in a heightened practical and strategic unity.
Magazines and websites exist that are normally
sponsored by a group or core which may open their pages
to the point of view of another tendency, but that is
qualitatively different from the sort of movement
intervention that Amandla potentially represents in
South Africa.

Readers should not look at Amandla through the eyes of
a voyeur, but rather through the eyes of members of the
radical Left on this side of the 'pond' who are seeking
knowledge and analysis of the situation in Africa, but
also as those attempting to draw lessons for how we can
qualitatively change the state of the US Left.
Publications have historically had the potential, and
actuality, to serve to challenge and, in some cases,
change the discourse in movements. Drawing from that
lesson we should ponder, in turning the pages of
Amandla, whether we would benefit from such a project.

-------------------------------------------------------
--

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is an international and labor writer
and activist. He is a Senior Scholar with the Institute
for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, and is the
immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum. He can
be reached at papaq54@hotmail.com

Save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant

Sisters and Brothers;

Unless we act together the Ford Plant will close soon and two thousand jobs will go down the drain and into the river with it.

It will take the initiative of community activists and rank and file activists from your plant working together to save the Ford Plant and two-thousand jobs. It will require activity on a variety of levels from a variety of partners working in coalition.

I would encourage you to ask the UAW leadership of your local (UAW Local 879) to push the MN DFL to reconsider the legislation Democratic Senator Metzen dropped the ball on after Representative Tom Rukavina successfully pushed it through his Committee in the House. It is important that this Plant and Dam remain intact as one unit.

As you know, the great “free market forces” of capitalism have not been able to keep this perfectly good plant in operation.

This leaves us but one option; the option of Public Ownership. Public Ownership has been used all over the world to save many plants and even entire industries. The New Flyer Bus Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba is one such example.

To be quite frank, our primary concern has to be with saving these two-thousand jobs. The jobs of those presently employed and for generations to come.

No one is considering the tremendous struggle and sacrifice of Ford workers and your union in securing a good place to work as part of the investment. No one is talking about the huge investment taxpayers have made in this Plant and Hydro Dam… not to mention training employees. No one mentions that workers create all wealth and as such are entitled to participate as equals in the decision-making process. The Ford Motor Company never sat down and talked about the future of this plant with workers or tax-payers.

I ask you to take these resolutions to your party precinct caucus meetings in February. Ford workers are scattered all over, even in Wisconsin… we need to reach out for support in order to save this plant. Just clip one of these resolutions to the resolution form.

Resolution #1 (Short Version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs

Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation from the workers, the community, or local and state governments;

Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;

Therefore be it resolved public ownership should be used to save this plant, hydro dam, and two-thousand jobs.

Resolution #2 (Full version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs

Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation with the workers, the community, or local and state governments;

Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;

Whereas this Plant forms an important an integral component of Minnesota’s industrial base;

Whereas the closing of this Plant will cause very significant economic harm to the local community and the state including placing a strain on already overburdened social services which have already been drastically cut back;

Whereas all conciliatory efforts, as demanded, in favor of the management of Ford Motor Company have been granted by all levels of government under the promise Ford would maintain operations in St. Paul;

Whereas a similar threatened plant closing of the New Flyer Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada during the 1970’sresulted in all levels of government intervening on behalf of the members of the United Automobile Workers union resulting in the public takeover of the operation with continuing successful operation at present;

Whereas “the free market” has not resulted in a solution to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam which powers the plant along with two-thousand union jobs; (over please)

Be it resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instruct its State Legislative Caucus to bring forward the previous resolution in the form of legislation supported by the United Auto Workers Union and its members of Local 789 to save the plant and dam intact until a solution is found to continue operations and production;

Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instructs all of its federal, state, and local Twin Cities elected officials to convene a special conference to explore public ownership as the remedy to saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam, and two thousand union jobs;

Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party support public ownership and democratic control of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant with production taking place in the best interests of the workers and the people of the State of Minnesota;

Be it further resolved that public ownership is the only viable means of saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant as all other means have been tried and exhausted;

Be it further resolved that funding is not an issue since any country which can squander billions of dollars on the occupation of Iraq can find the resources for saving this Plant, dam, and jobs;

Be it further resolved that the very significant burden of health care costs for employees be resolved through the State of Minnesota enacting legislation implementing single-payer, universal health care.

Alan L. Maki
Member, Minnesota DFL State Central Committee

and

Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

If you have friends working in casinos please have them get in touch with me.

Twenty-thousand Minnesotans go to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under tribal, state or federal labor laws.

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog; it’s where rank and file activists go for information:

Thoughts From Podunk:

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Suggestions for how to use these resolutions:

• Take it to your precinct caucus meeting

• Get your union or community organization to support this resolution

• Write a letter to your state legislators supporting this resolution

• Copy and distribute this resolution widely

• Use this resolution as a petition, ask your friends to sign it

• Write a letter to the editor

• Blog this issue

• Post the resolution on web sites

• Discuss this resolution on Internet “list serves”


**************

This leaflet made as a contribution in kind by the:
Iron Range Rank and File Labor Network… concerned and involved members of USW Locals 1938, 2705, 6860, 2660

All labor and materials for this leaflet have been contributed in solidarity with workers of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant… On the Iron Range we understand the future of our jobs hinge on the future of your jobs. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Maki for taking up this struggle in his capacity as a member of the MN DFL State Central Committee. Without these kinds of community grassroots and rank and file outreach efforts we are all doomed as recent contract “negotiations” in our industries have demonstrated.

Please consider making a contribution to help us put this issue on the front burner where it belongs.

Out of sight… is out of mind.

Prez on the Rez Presidential Forum; Why I don't support Kucinich

I keep getting asked by "liberals" and "progressives" why I don't support Dennis Kucinich for President.

I can no longer remain silent on the issue of Dennis Kucinich.

"Progressives" and "liberals" keep asking me why I continue taking these little ridiculing pokes at Kucinich.

I don't support Kucinich for several reasons---

One, he is as phony as any of the other contenders for the Democratic Presidential nomination who is nothing more than a ringer thrown into the race as part of the scheme to keep the "left" in the two-party trap;

Two, he has a horrible record when it comes to the struggle against racism and for integration in his own Congressional District having refused to support busing for integration and open housing; Kucinich quite literally runs away from the struggle against racism even though racism is by far the most serious problem in our country;

Three, here you have Dennis Kucinich, the darling of the "left," participating in a Presidential Forum and refusing to address the issue of the rights of casino workers even though I spoke with several of his top staff people and informed them of the terrible conditions casino workers are forced to endure.

I was not opposed to Kucinich participating in this "Prez on the Rez Presidential Forum"; however, Kucinich had a responsibility as a self avowed "progressive," to take up the issues of importance to some two-million casino workers forced to work under the most Draconian conditions in this country since the days of slavery. And, Like racist chattel slavery, these Draconian conditions have been imposed by local, state, and federal legislation and "regulated" under statute.

Now, if Dennis Kucinich does not have the moral or political courage and common human decency to stand up on an issue like this which affects some two-million American workers--- many of whom are Native Americans and people of color, many of whom are young women of child-bearing age, many of whom are poverty stricken elderly workers, others who are among the millions of undocumented workers; but, all who are workers going to work in these "right-to-work colonies," where their workplaces are filled with second-hand smoke, where these workers have no rights what-so-ever there is something terribly wrong with this.

It is bad enough that both Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani both have accepted enormous campaign contributions from the Fertitta family and the management of Station Casinos, one of the most "mobbed up" casino operations and promoters of these racist, anti-labor casino "Compacts" like the "Compact" now before the Michigan Legislature which would create one more "right-to-work colony" just south of Grand Rapids, Michigan--- the Gun Lake Tribal "Compact;" this is bad enough. But then to have the most "progressive" of the Democratic Party candidates refusing to address this issue of the most blatantly anti-labor and institutionalized form of racism is the epitome of obscene.

For my stand on this issue I am attacked on web sites and in blogs behind those who write anonymously attacking me... these attackers range the entire political gamut from the head of the Ku Klux Klan to the John Birch Society to leaders of the Green Party to the head of the Communist Party USA to those like Brian Melendez the cowardly Chair of the Minnesota Democratic farmer-Labor Party to the President of the Michigan AFL-CIO and the Floor Leader of the Michigan legislature, Democrat Steve Tobacman.

The United Steel Workers Union says they want to organize casino workers, yet the candidate they endorse, Dennis Kucinich, has the unmitigated gall to stand up and talk about "sovereignty" and "wounded knee" while refusing to address the issue of these racist and anti-labor "Compacts"--- in fact, Kucinich has run away from this issue just as he ran away from fighting for busing to achieve the integration of Parma's Public Schools and just as he ran away from the issue of racist covenants in Parma, Ohio... a "white city" with-in Cleveland where two-bit loan-sharks and bookies dominate the political landscape. As far as I know USW President Leo Girard never attempted to convince Kucinich to address the issues surrounding these "Compacts" which gives us a little hint about what kind of representation casino workers could expect to get for their dues money from the USW and AFL-CIO affiliated unions.

I would point out that for over twenty years the entire Democratic Party has been running away from the real issues surrounding these "Compacts:" racism and anti-labor bias. The Democrats are motivated by huge campaign contributions. Anyone just has to look at the campaign contributions the 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton, has received from the Fertitta's.

I can understand the attacks from the right I am subjected to; however, what explains the attacks from the "liberal," "left," and "progressive" communities I am being subjected to over this issue? Perhaps some kind of "shame" on the part of these people that they have lacked the moral or political courage to address this issue because they would not be able to justify their involvement in the Democratic Party without speaking up... and to speak up would mean being attacked by a bunch of two-bit mobsters and thugs who are profiting so heavily from the creation of these "right-to-work colonies" which now dot our national geographic and political landscape; and, if these mobsters have their way these "right-to-work colonies" will become part of our National Forests as the Department of Interior turns over the management of some of the most beautiful National Forests to Tribal "management"... the same Tribal interests who have served as a front for these mobsters to operate these highly profitable and lucrative casinos in "right-to-work colonies" with next to no regulation, no over-sight, nor any accountability with all kinds of scams and schemes in play producing crooked table games, skimming of casino profits, money laundering and tax-evasion.


Dennis appeared at the Morongo Reservation in the California Desert

August 23, 2007

Morongo Indian Reservation, Cabazon, California

Prez on the Rez - Presidential forum

In Background – Mark Trahant, Editor, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Mary Ann Andreas, Vice Chair, Morongo Band of Mission Indians

Robert Martin, Chair, Morongo Band of Mission Indians

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Kalyn Free, President, INDN’s List Education Fund.

Dennis Kucinich appeared at the Morongo Reservation in the California desert on August 23rd 2007 for Prez on the Rez. Talking to the leaders of 65 Indian nations, Kucinich received a standing ovation when he told the leaders to go back to the reservations and tell their people that there is someone running for president who understands their hearts. Kucinich talked about Indian sovereignty, gaming, and the hearts still buried at 'Wounded Knee'.

Not once in his talk during the "Prez on the Rez Forum" did Kucinich, the great "progressive," address the issue of "sovereignty" and the some 400 casino "Compacts" which have created "right-to-work colonies" and left over two-million workers employed in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under tribal, state or federal labor laws.

I find something really bizarre in a political process where a Presidential candidate feels at ease talking about his "UFO" experiences but can't address the problems of these racist, anti-labor casino "Compacts" which have created "right-to-work colonies" all over this country leaving two-million workers to be used as a "club over the heads" of all other workers to drive wages down while casino workers themselves are the targets of all kinds of health care insurance scams led by Wayne Newton and his quacking white duck promoting AFLACK.

If casino workers in Manitoba, Canada can work under union contract receiving real wages in smoke-free casinos which make so much money it pays for health care and education... there is something terribly wrong with Kucinich remaining silent on the issues surrounding these casino "Compacts;" "Compacts" which are an integral part of the racist campaign of genocide First Nations Peoples have been subjected to since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth rock.

Something to think about this Thanksgiving Day as you are sitting around the dining room table and the topic of discussion turns to politics and issues of racism and labor.

I don't see any politicians sitting in smoke-filled legislative offices or chambers; why should casino workers be FORCED to endure such unhealthy, life-threatening working conditions.

I would, also, point out to Mr. Kucinich that workers employed without any rights in the workplace have no rights of any kind in the communities where they live.

The $1.6 trillion dollar question...

The $1.6 trillion dollar question...

A new study by Democrats themselves puts the economic cost of the Iraq occupation at $1.6 TRILLION, or $21,000 per family. Every single penny has been wasted - not to mention the human cost to Americans and Iraqis and global hatred of the USA.

Why would Democrats want to give Bush one penny more?

I bet someone really creative could come up with a nice set of posters, leaflets, buttons, sample letters to the editor, resolutions, and petitions for an effective tabling effort around these three sentences.

I am thinking if we combined a strategy focused on these three sentences while suggesting that this money could be better used to:

* Establish a national bank to take over home mortgages to provide working people with low interest mortgages to save their homes from foreclosures; and, finance the building of low rent public housing;

* Bring the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and Hydro Dam under public ownership in order to save 2,000 jobs; and

* Provide the start-up costs to finance a single-payer, universal health care system…

We can turn this country around.

This is just the ticket towards building our movement the way it really needs to be built--- person by person, neighborhood by neighborhood, school by school and workplace by workplace.

A very good place to begin this tabling effort would be at your local supermarket or food co-op while building up to local precinct caucus meetings… this is how you can meet a lot of concerned and politically active people who might be willing to help build this effort with you.

I am forwarding this idea around to activists with Minnesotans for Peace and Social Justice

Please join me in forwarding this e-mail to everyone on your e-lists.

This is the kind of activity that could take on the effect of a little snowball rolling down a steep, long hill on a warm spring day. If each and every person who participated in the demonstrations against the war on October 27 were to take up this kind of initiative we could put an end to this dirty war and change our country for the better.

Not one more penny, not one more vote for this dirty war.

Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

A Request for Answers from the American Indian Caucus of the MN DFL

Note: This e-mail was sent to the MN DFL American Indian Caucus

From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]

Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 1:59 PM

To: 'mnfirebuster@yahoo.com'; 'lwmpls@visi.com'

Cc: 'gdubovich@usw.org'; 'nnosal@uaw.net'

Subject: A few questions...

Chair Strong and Co-Chair Waterman-Wittstock;

Please note: The questions I would appreciate answers to are in Bold.

Could you provide me with a position paper, or the position of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party American Indian Caucus, on the situation with casino workers?

You are probably aware that more than 20,000 Minnesotans are going to work in these smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under tribal, state or federal labor laws.

In the United States more than four hundred Native American owned (and growing) casinos have been created under the terms of these special “Compacts” employing over two-million workers.

Does the caucus have a position on how to correct this problem? If, in fact, you agree it is a problem?

I would note that one of your “missions” is to increase citizen/voter participation in the political process; as I am sure you are well aware, when workers are employed without any rights in the workplace they can not have the right to fully participate in the political process because they are always at the mercy of an employer who can fire them at will if the participation is deemed contrary to what is deemed in the best interest of management.

I have been describing these areas created by these “Compacts” as “racist, anti-woman, anti-labor, anti-union, right-to-work colonies;” Would you agree with me?

Also, could you tell me the position of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party’s American Indian Caucus concerning the proposal to turn much of the National Forests over to Tribal Management? Would you foresee this as a prelude to casino/resort complexes being established in our National Forests?

Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party American Indian Caucus

Link:

http://www.dfl.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={23BDE200-8019-4330-93BD-C19DC7C68AF3}

The mission of the American Indian Caucus is to:

• Elect Democrats and recruit American Indian candidates;

• Include, inform, empower, and educate all American Indian people in the political process;

• Increase voter participation;

• Provide resources, forums and information to Democratic and DFL-endorsed candidates in Minnesota;

• Provide services that enhance and support Tribal sovereignty in Minnesota.

Contact:

Donovan Strong, interim chair
E-mail: mnfirebuster@yahoo.com

Laura Watermann-Wittstock, interim co-chair
E-mail: lwmpls@visi.com

Sincerely,

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

Member, Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

Casino-resort pitched for Muskegon; workers' rights and environmental concerns ignored

I want to point out that not once has any news media explored the conditions which casino workers are forced to work under; Not once any place in the United States of America. Out of some 400 casinos, employing some two-million workers spread out across this country, one has to wonder why not one single politician nor a single reporter from print, radio, or television media has ventured to explore this question concerning the issues surrounding casino workers.



I posted this on the Great Lakes Town Hall Forum:

http://www.greatlakestownhall.org/bulletin/reports.php?forumid=1&topicid=861&sid=3b329ab3ea5c26a289e350ff63f75a87#starttopic





Casino/Resort on shoreline in Muskegon, Michigan
Alan Maki (Warroad, Minnesota)

On this site I have been reading about how concerned everyone is about saving our Great Lakes and protecting the shorelines yet there is never any mention of "projects" as they begin so people can have their say.

Why?

Here is a big casino resort going up in Muskegon, Michigan.

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7254524


Casino-resort pitched for Muskegon

Updated: Oct 23, 2007 10:39 PM CDT

MUSKEGON -- Word is spreading for plans of a $2.5 billion tribal casino and resort in Muskegon.

The casino, if built, would sit on 70 acres along Lakeshore Boulevard.

The developer, Archimedes Group LLC, says the casino is the catalyst for the project. But the master plan entails an entire resort with a water park, hotels, restaurants and shops.

As a result, 5,000 jobs would be created.

The plan was unveiled Monday night in a closed meeting with community leaders. It has been in the works since 2003 when voters passed a non-binding ballot proposal supporting the concept of a casino.

Since then, developers have been waiting for the local Native-American tribe - the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians - to get federal recognition.

The next step will be getting the land in trust, which could take years.

The end goal, they say, is to revitalize Muskegon and make it an attraction spot. It is an idea that sounds good to city leaders, too.

"We want people to come here and when they leave we want them to feel a sense of loss. We want them to come back," Dick Anderson of Archimedes Group LLC told 24 Hour News 8.

"When you look at a project like this that is brining in how many thousands of people...those visitors can turn into be investors," said Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington. "I think you need to take a look at those types of things."

He adds investment in the downtown area can be a great thing, keeping the community around and bringing in tourism.

Developers say a prime example is the Lake Express Ferry that travels across Lake Michigan from Muskegon to Milwaukee.

They say travelers land in Michigan and disperse, and they would like to give them reason to stay.

"The potentiality along the shoreline is unbelievable. We want to put Muskegon on the map in the right way. Simple," said Anderson.

****************

Now, here we go again. Shorelines destroyed by development with the sole motive being profit.

Here we go again with another "Compact" where Native Americans are fronting for mobsters and big-business.

Here we go again with 5,000 more workers being forced to work in a smoke-filled casino at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws without any voice at work or in their communities.

Here we go again with everyone looking the other way because here comes a company promising 5,000 jobs but not telling us exactly what these jobs will pay.

Here we go again with a bunch of politicians working for big-business and the mobsters who control the one-armed bandits.

Here we go again with people sitting in silence.

I suppose we will be hearing from those who have posted on this list that this is all going to be done in an environmentally friendly, green manner.

Here we go again, a Native American tribe only now seeking "recognition" after big-business and mobsters need them for a front for their environmentally destructive, profit generating scam.

No body invests 2.5 BILLION DOLLARS without anticipating huge, huge, profits.

That this entire scheme began with this company financing the local election is shameful and disgusting. Let an independent party try to gain ballot access and the Democrats and Republicans scream bloody murder. Here we have a corporation buying an election that includes making sure nobody knew about the real plans. So much for democracy.


Follow-up:


Re: Casino/Resort on shoreline in Muskegon, Michigan
Is the media telling the full story?
Alan Maki (Warroad, Minnesota)

In response to this news story referenced above, I sent the following and there has been no response from the media. None; Zilch.

My response to the News 8 story:

Here we go again. Another casino where big business has set out to find a group of Native Americans to front for another casino operation where 5,000 workers will be employed in a smoke-filled casino at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws without any voice at work or in the communities where they live.

No one from the media even asks how much these jobs will really pay. No one from the media questions the effects of human beings being forced to work in a smoke-filled casino in spite of all the billboards and public service announcements from the American Cancer Society and the Health and Lung Foundation.

Dangle 5,000 jobs in front of a poverty stricken community without telling people all the facts and call this "democracy" and "freedom."

Oh, what about all the talk of protecting our beaches and shorelines? Yes, protect them until corporate profits can be made.

Where does a corporation come up with $2.5 billion dollars for a casino anyways when this government refuses to fund single-payer, universal health care?

If a corporation has this kind of investment funds available to build another casino, maybe this says something about the need to tax corporate profits to create real jobs and provide things people really need.

"Freedom of the press;" give me a break.

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

St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant... resolutions & a leaflet

I have distributed these two sample resolutions:


Resolution 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs



Where as Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation from the workers, the community, or local and state governments;



Where as this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;



Therefore be it resolved public ownership should be used to save this plant, hydro dam, and two-thousand jobs.









Resolution 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs



Where as Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation with the workers, the community, or local and state governments;



Where as this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;



Where as this Plant forms an important an integral component of Minnesota’s industrial base;



Where as the closing of this Plant will cause very significant economic harm to the local community and the state including placing a strain on already overburdened social services which have already been drastically cut back;



Where as all conciliatory efforts, as demanded, in favor of the management of Ford Motor Company have been granted by all levels of government under the promise Ford would maintain operations in St. Paul;



Where as a similar threatened plant closing of the New Flyer Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada during the 1970’sresulted in all levels of government intervening on behalf of the members of the United Automobile Workers union resulting in the public takeover of the operation with continuing successful operation at present;



Where as “the free market” has not resulted in a solution to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam which powers the plant along with two-thousand union jobs;



Be it resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instruct its State Legislative Caucus to bring forward the previous resolution in the form of legislation supported by the United Auto Workers Union and its members of Local 789 to save the plant and dam intact until a solution is found to continue operations and production;



Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instructs all of its federal, state, and local Twin Cities elected officials to convene a special conference to explore public ownership as the remedy to saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam, and two thousand union jobs;



Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party support public ownership and democratic control of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant with production taking place in the best interests of the workers and the people of the State of Minnesota;



Be it further resolved that public ownership is the only viable means of saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant as all other means have been tried and exhausted;



Be it further resolved that funding is not an issue since any country which can squander billions of dollars on the occupation of Iraq can find the resources for saving this Plant, dam, and jobs;



Be it further resolved that the very significant burden of health care costs for employees be resolved through the State of Minnesota enacting legislation implementing single-payer, universal health care.

Suggestions for how to use this resolution:

* Take it to your precinct caucus meeting

* Get your union or community organization to support this resolution

* Write a letter to your state legislators supporting this resolution

* Copy and distribute this resolution widely

* Use this resolution as a petition, ask your friends to sign it

* Write a letter to the editor

* Blog this issue

* Post the resolution on web sites

* Discuss this resolution on list serves

Alan L. Maki

Member, Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee




A rank and file group from Ford UAW Local 879 distributed the following leaflet in the Plant last Thursday and Friday:

Why we should
VOTE NO!
on the new contract

Ford cries broke, but they have the highest paid executives. While we are being asked to tighten our belts because of their mistakes, they're still getting fat off our labor. While Ford was taking record losses last year, the top seven executives brought in well over $63 million in compensation. Before Ford makes any cuts to rank-and-file living standards or keeps full-time workers at TPT wages, they should first drastically cut executive pay and open their books for everyone to see.

Ford cries broke, but invests billions in new plants all over the world. Ford publicly announced in 2006 a 6-year project to invest $9.2 billion in Mexico and invested billions more to expand production in Romania, Thailand Brazil, etc. All these investments overseas came from profits made by our labor – but now they say we have to take historic concessions to save the company and save our jobs.

New hires will make $14 an hour with reduced benefits.
This contract condemns our children and grandchildren to have a worse life than we do, even if they never work in auto. What happens in auto sets the standard elsewhere. The rest of Corporate America will use these concessions to demand that their workers take pay cuts, while they laugh all the way to the bank.

Still no healthcare for Temporary Part-Timers
While the contract will keep the Ranger plant open until September 30, 2009, most of us will have to continue as temporary part-timers – with no health benefits and at lower wages, even though we do full-time work.

Retirees will lose guaranteed medical coverage and pay more for it. The VEBA retiree medical fund was given only 57% of what it needs and is NOT protected against bankruptcy. More than half is in Ford stock or notes, or promises to pay over the next 15 years. The VEBA's directors can decide to increase charges and reduce benefits.

Many more jobs will be lost.
Every promise of job security includes the language "based on market-related conditions," and Ford can still eliminate shifts and "temporarily" idle plants whenever it wants. Chrysler announced 12,000 job cuts a week after signing the contract. The contract says that TPTers and full-timers with seniority will get preferential hiring at jobs at other Ford plants – but where are we going to work if they're cutting thousands more jobs?

WE DON'T HAVE TO ACCEPT THIS!
The UAW has a tradition of fighting heroically to make gains for its members (see pg 12 of local 879's "Autoworker," Oct/Nov 2007 < http://www.uaw879.org/documents/auto8-9-07.pdf >). Why has the UAW not done a thing to stand up to Ford and protect the gains made in the past? Why is the union making these historic concessions without even putting up a fight?

By voting no, we can send a message to Ford and the UAW leadership that we won't accept these concessions and that we reject this race-to-the-bottom! We can send a clear message that we want a fighting union that cares more about its members' bottom line than the Ford's.

In the face of the industry-wide crisis, the only way we can hold back wave after wave of attacks is to mount an all-out drive to unionize the un-organized, lower paid autoworkers, both in the U.S. and internationally.

However, our current leadership has shown no willingness to do this. In fact, their refusal to stand up for their own members jobs, wages, and benefits makes the union an un-attractive option to disgruntled workers at Toyota, Honda, or other non-union companies. Why pay union dues, struggle, sacrifice, and risk your job to form a union, if the leaders are going to turn around negotiate wage cuts and layoffs for you? We need to build a rank and file opposition movement to take our union back and rebuild the fighting traditions which birthed the United Auto Workers.

VOTE NO to layoffs!
VOTE NO to VEBA and attacks on our retirement benefits!
VOTE NO to two and three tiered wage schemes!
VOTE for full-time pay and benefits for all full-time workers! VOTE for full healthcare benefits for everyone! VOTE for workers needs before corporate greed!

Leaflet produced by the 879 Votes No Campaign
If you agree, help spread the word and get in touch!



Check out United Auto Workers Local 879 website:

http://www.uaw879.org/



"The Auto Worker" UAW Local 879 Newsletter:

http://www.uaw879.org/autoworker.htm




http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_2886

Station Casinos

Mr. Todd R. Bice; Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck: Attorney of Record for Station Casinos;



Mr. Bice, before I begin, please allow me to congratulate you on recently being chosen one of the finest attorneys in America; I am sure you, your distinguished law firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck along with your clients like Station Casinos and the very fine American--- Frank Fertitta who heads up Station Casinos, are very proud of your accomplishments. It is not every day such a shameful, ignoble and infamous figure like Frank Fertitta can land the defense of such a distinguished and respected attorney.



I am in receipt of a very ambiguous letter from you dated October 24, 2007. My response to you with this e-mail is based upon having received this threatening letter.



Because I have written so widely on this issue, I can not comment on the specific “posting” you are referring to since you do not provide the posting in its entirety. Therefore, I deny your allegations as unfounded.



As you, Station Casinos and Mr. Fertitta are aware, moderators often edit postings for length and other things; this is their prerogative--- just as any editor may “edit” a letter submitted for publication.



As far as I am aware, neither you, your law firm, the management of Station Casinos, nor Mr. Frank Fertitta have attempted to answer or respond to anything that I have said on any television or radio programs or written on the Internet, in newspapers or magazines. As you know, this is a fantastic country to live in where “freedom of the press” is very respected… in fact, as the political candidates financially supported by Mr. Fertitta often boast: America is the world’s greatest bastion of democracy.



Neither you nor Mr. Fertitta should be surprised to find inaccuracies in anything concerning the involvement of Station Casinos and the Fertitta Family in the gaming business. Mr. Fertitta has an obligation to truthfully write of his own involvement in the gaming business over the years if he wants to have his associations and activities accurately portrayed. I am sure you are well aware of investigations into Frank Fertitta’s relationship, and participation in, the gaming industry over the years--- including many allegations of illegal and inappropriate activities… or, has Mr. Fertitta not been quite so frank with you concerning his involvement in the gaming industry… your client has some obligation to set the record straight given all the information about him in the media and on the Internet and what people are saying about him… first person statements, etc. are just as factual as any newspaper story.



You seem to rely on “newspaper reports” in defending your client; and what has been published in newspaper reports. I guess I am not as fond as you that newspapers always provide us with all the facts.



Take the issue of the Gun Lake Tribe “Compact” in Michigan and the role of newspapers. These newspapers do not always tell us everything, do they? For instance, the Grand Rapids Press has covered this story of this “Compact” very extensively--- as I am sure you will agree. However, the Grand Rapids Press never asked your client who is partnered with the Gun Lake Tribe about the issue of casino workers being employed in a smoke-filled work environment at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws. Isn’t the impact of second hand smoke on the lives of the thousands of employees who will be employed in this casino a legitimate issue a newspaper the size of the Grand Rapids Press with a circulation in the immediate area from which employees will be hired significant enough that at least one little story on the obituary page should have been warranted given the high turn over of casino employees?



Oh, and your clients forgot to bring before the Michigan House Regulatory Committee a complete listing of all job categories along with the amount each specific job will pay and what the benefits will be. This is just one small indication of how newspapers do not always provide the complete picture for us. Just as the newspapers forgot to mention that Governor Granholm never considered the plight of casino workers in negotiating the “Compact” with the Gun Lake Tribe which is partnered with your client--- Station Casinos.



Then there is the little matter of the forty organizations supporting this Gun Lake Casino “Compact”… State Legislators never asked for the complete list, the Grand Rapids Press never questioned why they never asked for this list; I asked but didn’t receive. None of this was deemed “newsworthy” for the Grand Rapids Press or any other newspaper… so, when you rely on newspaper clippings not being available for me to support what I have said and written, I would just point out that more often than not there appears to be much more to most stories than what newspapers publish. For instance, what would you say to your clients allowing me to have access to all the files maintained on them by the “regulating agencies” you refer to and those maintained on them by the United States Department of Justice?



When you speak of these “regulating agencies” you really make me laugh. I have spoken at length to those responsible for “regulating” the gaming industry, including the past Attorney General for the State of Minnesota and the Commissioner of Public safety as well as State Representative Dave Olin who is the former Pennington County Prosecutor. I have also spoken extensively to those employed in these regulatory agencies” in Michigan. Come on, really, Mr. Bice, after receiving an award for being one of the best attorneys in America, do you really expect me to be impressed that these “regulatory agencies” are really protecting the integrity of the gaming industry and casino patrons? As you know, they do not protect casino workers.



Mr. Fertitta is a public figure. He has made himself a public figure. Mr. Fertitta has sought out media attention and the media has sought him out. It is not my concern that Mr. Fertitta has been less than forthcoming about his entire involvement in the gaming and casino industry… Mr. Fertitta seems to have an unusual and unique manner in projecting his public image; he would rather ignore that which many people might find offensive while promoting an image as a mere father looking to do the best by his children and leave them a nice little nest egg for the time when he passes through the pearly gates. As you are aware, Mr. Fertitta has another side to him and his involvement with the gaming industry over the years he prefers not to speak about and apparently Michigan’s Governor and State Legislators prefer not to question him about.



I am sure Meyer Lansky’s attorneys would have made the same arguments in defense of their client which you make for your client.



May I ask if you are representing any other parties in this matter other than the Fertittas and Station Casinos? Are you representing the Gun Lake Tribe? Are you representing the Kansas City Mob?



Your letter is very ambiguous and you fail to provide the complete transcript of the posting you refer to. I do not save these postings, nor do I view them. Like a press release, the moderator, like the newspaper editor, reserves the right to edit and the right to publish or not to publish. Have you addressed this problem with the moderator of the list serve in question? You definitely have not provided me with the complete posting so I can determine what your concerns might be.



Let me conclude by reminding you that neither you, nor your client/s have attempted to correct anything which you allude to that may be incorrect by way of posting a rebuttal. Plus, you ambiguously conclude your letter with threats against me. You state at the beginning of your letter you do not understand my concern in this matter; I think my concern is obvious. You further state that once I take certain steps, this will clear the way to resolving other problems; again, you are ambiguous--- do your clients want to negotiate a healthy working environment, just wages and decent benefits for those who will be employed in the new Gun Lake Casino?



I am forwarding this to Gary Garbarino who is the Legislative Assistant to State Representative Steve Tobachman, the Majority Floor Leader of the Michigan House. I assume, Mr. Tobachman will pass this e-mail on to Governor Granholm and the Michigan Senate Majority Leader so all can see just what kind of a heavy handed approach they can expect from their “partners” with this Gun Lake Casino “Compact.”



You may not like my characterization of all of this, but it is almost like a bunch of hoodlums and mobsters have hired an attorney working for a prestigious law firm, sporting fancy attire along with little plaques hanging on his wall boasting of legal reputation and prestige in trying to silence anyone who dares to speak out in defense of the rights of casino workers. I wonder what these mobsters and hoodlums might do next since this hasn’t worked.



Let me also remind you that your clients intentionally initiated a campaign based upon lies, deceit, omissions, and a complete obfuscation of the real facts concerning the Gun Lake Casino Compact. Station Casinos and Frank Fertitta could have come before the Michigan House Regulatory Committee with open hands, they chose not to; the assumption any thinking person would come to is that the decision not to come with open hands is because those hands are severely soiled--- if not completely dirty. I would be more than willing to question Mr. Fertitta before the appropriate Michigan Legislative Committees in order to resolve this matter; this would give Mr. Fertitta the opportunity to set the record straight. Seeing as how Mr. Fertitta feels he is so angelic in stature he will have no problem “passing through the eye of the needle” on his way to Heaven, I assume he will not need an attorney sitting by his side in order to help him answer my questions and respond to my concerns.



Please acknowledge receipt of this letter.



Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council



58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net



Check out my blog:



Thoughts From Podunk



http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/