Uniting People; Building Progressive Power Forum

Minneapolis progressive forum.

My talk is on Part #3 at about 1:12:33

Livestreamed by OccupyMN media:


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Creative Commons remix with attribution
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PART 1:

http://youtu.be/f1-oyEGEM9A


PART 2:

http://youtu.be/-g_L4VxNc5g


PART 3:
http://youtu.be/pY8zVwOg3JI

Green Party community activist Liane Gale challenges Congressmembers Keith Ellison and Rick Nolan when they advocate maintaining a poverty Minimum Wage

Nolan and Ellison join local push for higher Minnesota minimum wage

• Article by: BAIRD HELGESON , Star Tribune
• October 14, 2013
  
• Link: http://www.startribune.com/politics/227749801.html
  

Congressmen Nolan and Ellison said at a discussion in Minneapolis that they support raising the state’s base pay rate to $9.50 by 2015.

Low-income advocates pressing for a higher minimum wage told two Minnesota congressmen Monday that they are falling farther behind on their bills and that the American dream is increasingly out of reach.


“I have paid my taxes and gone to college, yet here I am making $7.25 an hour,” said Darcy Landau, an airport worker. “I owe $80,000 in student loans, and am between a rock and a hard place.”


Advocates are intensifying pressure on Minnesota legislators to raise the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2015, up from a $6.15 base hourly wage for large employers. The fight to raise the minimum wage stands to be one of the most high-profile issues of the upcoming legislative session.


DFLers control the Legislature, and most agree that the state’s base wage should be higher, but they can’t agree how high.
Many rural DFLers don’t want to raise it so high that it hurts businesses in border communities, where rival businesses in neighboring states could gain a price advantage from paying lower wages.


Many Republicans and business groups have fought hard against raising the wage, saying companies will have to operate with fewer workers at the higher wage.


U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, a DFLer who represents northern Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District, said the nation’s economy is evolving rapidly in a way that hurts workers at the bottom end of the wage scale.


“The rich are getting rich, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class are getting crushed,” Nolan told the crowd at a community center in south Minneapolis. “It is the tax policy, the allocation of money in the budget and of course it is the minimum wage. That is the best place to start.”


At $6.15 per hour, Minnesota has one of the nation’s lowest minimum wages. Most Minnesota employers are required to meet the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. About 93,000 Minnesotans earn at or below the federal minimum wage.


Enrique Barcenas, a contract cleaner at a local retailer, said he and others have approached management about raises. While managers remain sympathetic, he said, wages have remained the same.


“With a wage of $8, it is impossible to survive,” Barcenas said. “Words don’t mean much to us because words don’t put food on the table.”


Nolan and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a DFLer who represents Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, support raising the federal minimum wage to $10.50 an hour.


“You have got to be able to feed your family working one job,” Ellison said. “It’s a matter of political will and the decisions we have made that allowed us to drift away from the American dream.”


Ellison urged attendees to contact their state legislators and press for a higher wage. He said the GOP plan of lowering government spending and driving down wages “doesn’t work. It failed.”


Liane Gale, a Green Party activist, criticized Nolan and Ellison for not pressing for an even higher wage, something closer to what many consider a living wage.


“Nine-fifty will not lift anybody out of poverty,” Gale said. “Nine-fifty is not addressing the dignity of any worker here in Minnesota.”


Ellison told the audience that people can debate what the minimum wage should be, “but can we all agree and can we all convince our neighbors to agree the minimum wage needs to go up?”


Gale was not convinced, interrupting: “This is a one-shot opportunity.”


Baird Helgeson • 651-925-5044

An "Open Letter" to Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and the Minnesota DFL on the Minimum Wage.

January 2014

An Open Letter . . .

TO:  Governor Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Legislative Caucus.

FROM:  Your Constituents

Enough!  We are not waiting any longer!

As DFL candidates, you campaigned on a promise to enact legislation that provides low-wage workers a real, living wage — not just a “minimum” wage.

Your campaign language explicitly called for “workers being entitled to living wages!”  It promised a Living Wage Act, but no progress was made in your first super-majority session.


All it would take, you said, was for Minnesotans to give the DFL a super-majority. Well, we voters delivered it to you!  You have it! But now, instead of advancing Living Wage legislation, the DFL is floating another “minimum wage” bill that will just perpetuate poverty wages for many Minnesota workers!

For years, the DFL leadership has claimed Republicans were the lone obstacle to establishing a Living Wage in our state. That obstacle has been removed. You are now in the driver’s seat!

We, the workers of Minnesota, gave you the legislative votes to enact the Living Wage legislation you promised us.

We expect you now to do so.  You could call it “The Minnesota Living Wage Act of 2014.”


Most importantly, we need to begin with a realistic dollar amount. Living Wages need to be calculated based on realistic levels of cost-of-living. U.S. Census data suggests at least $15 per hour; while, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), hourly wages of $22 and $26 at 40 hrs/week are needed to cover basic necessities. When making decisions on determining basic needs for a dignified life, the testimony from low-income Minnesotans should also be taken into consideration.


 A Living Wage must also be subject to regular cost-of-living adjustments. The Consumer Price Index is our best indicator, and it should be used to adjust a new Minnesota Living Wage level quarterly or at least semi-annually.

If you should fail to enact such legislation, we will assume that you were just baiting us with nice-sounding campaign rhetoric, and that you are pulling a switch on us by simply advancing more employer-friendly “minimum wage” legislation, that does nothing to alleviate the hardships of Minnesota’s working poor.

Perhaps you think any increase is better than nothing.  We don’t!


Minnesota has long been considered a progressive bellwether.  Do something significant now for her working men and women. It is what everybody morally deserves  —  the prospect of a dignified life.


Be courageous. Lead our state — and our nation — in securing the right of every worker to earn a decent living.

 
It can begin with the Minnesota Living Wage Act of 2014.


You can make it happen!


Sincerely,

Your fellow Minnesotans 

(as the undersigned, with our signatures attached herein)

Song writing contest... first prize $300.00

Protest-Marching Song-Writing Contest

When we sing together, we experience a sense of solidarity, sisterhood, brotherhood and unity. 
The purpose of this contest is to create a new song, or songs, that can be sung by many and to help build 
a huge, new coalition of people who want to change the big shortcomings of our present society - 
joblessness, inequality, homelessness, poverty, pollution, militarism or multiple topics. 
Therefore, the songs chosen will be copyrighted as free, can be distributed by anyone, published by anyone, 
sung by anyone and everyone, and the authors will be recognized.

FIRST PRIZE $300
SECOND PRIZE $200
THIRD PRIZE $100

Songs must be radical.
Songs must have at least three verses.
Lyrics must be original.
Tunes may be original or taken from any well-known song.
Hip-hop is ok.

Great songs that authors can find on the internet for review include "Bread and Roses", "Solidarity",

"We Shall Overcome" and "This Land is Your Land".

Ending date for submissions:
March 31, 2014

All entries should be submitted to:
Maggie Phair
6916 Langdon Avenue

Van Nuys, CA 91406

Writing a "Letter to the Editor."

A number of people have asked me to expand my thoughts about "Letters to the Editor" and how to use them more effectively... do you have additional ideas?

Write, and write often.

If one newspaper won't publish your letter send it on to the next newspaper.

http://let2editor.blogspot.com/

New Progressive Alliance takes a stand for a Living Wage

Check out this post about living wages:

http://www.newprogs.org/

How big of a carbon footprint is left by Wall Street's Military-Industrial Complex? Might peace be the main solution to climate change?

Signs displayed by Coleen Rowley at a recent demonstration in Minnesota against the Keystone Pipeline.




http://canadiandimension.com/articles/5890/

Climate change and the military-industrial complex

Alan Maki | January 26th 2014 | 2

This letter was written in reply to our recently published interview with Noam Chomsky about climate change. You can read the original Chomsky interview HERE.


The one important aspect of climate change the Left keeps missing is the fact that Wall Street’s very lucrative military-industrial complex leaves the largest carbon footprint of any industry.


So, why have the peace and environmental movements, along with most of the Left, failed to make this important connection?


I’m surprised neither Chomsky nor Canadian Dimension brought this important connection forward in this interview.


How much of what is produced from the Tar Sands will be consumed by the Military-Industrial Complex?
One aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class carries three million gallons of aircraft fuel. Fuel for just 80 aircraft.


The U.S. typically deploys six of these aircraft carriers during manoeuvres, conflicts and wars. This alone is one heck of a carbon footprint and we still have to figure out what kind of carbon footprint is created manufacturing these aircraft carriers and planes.


And this example is just the tip of the melting iceberg.


Consider all the mining and manufacturing which goes into producing for militarism and wars – what kind of carbon footprint is created in preparation for wars, by wars and rebuilding in the aftermath of wars?


There is a point to be made about global warming and militarism and wars which leads me to conclude that the most effective way to fight global warming and climate change is to fight for peace by “beating swords into plowshares.”


For some reason all these foundation-funded peace organizations and environmental organizations don’t want to acknowledge that the Military-Industrial Complex bears primary responsibility for global warming and climate change. Perhaps because the “great philanthropists” funding the foundations profit so handsomely from militarism and wars?


If changing out light bulbs contributes to ending global warming and climate change, can you imagine the contribution peace would make towards this effort?


It seems our environmental and peace movements could use what the great labour leader and working class revolutionary, William Z. Foster, advised “a good strong dose of anti-imperialist education,” connecting all the dots.


Alan Maki am the Director of Organizing for the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council. I am also one of the founders of Minnesotans for Peace and Social Justice.

2 comments

• We are so indoctrinated in “support our troops ” and the culture of military domination that we don’t even discuss peace and total nuclear disarmament with China and others.
  It seems that “jobs” and the wealth of our industry and industrialist/stockholder class is more important than survival of the species.
  
  #1. Posted by Herbert A. Davis in davisherb@wisper-wireless.com on January 27th 2014 at 8:58am
  
  
• Thanks as always, Alan, for telling the truth. The graphic of the American soldier watching oil wells burn pretty much sums up what’s leading America to ruin. Here’s hoping Canadians will wake up to the damage being done in the Alberta oil patch and by the lethal material it is producing, and rise up against the corporate behemoths which are systematically buying that great nation.
  
  #2. Posted by Anthony Noel in North Carolina, United States on January 28th 2014 at 10:47am

Let's agree not to cause the wealthy to suffer severe anxiety and depression by raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage all at one time; the billionaires couldn't survive shock therapy.

Median income in Minnesota and in the United States according to the U.S. Census Bureau:

Median household income, 2008-2012

Minnesota $59,126

United States $53,046

Now; we are hearing a lot from politicians like Minnesota's billionaire governor Mark Dayton, these millionaire labor leaders and the foundation-flowers like Kathleen Blake from Take Action Minnesota that $9.50 or $10.10 is a “good place to begin increasing the Minimum Wage to what they claim will eventually get everyone to a real living wage.

Their claim, is the same claim we here from the employers, that raising the Minimum Wage too quickly will hurt the economy.

So; what do they propose?

They propose saving the economy on the backs of the poorest of the poor.

Let us set aside and ignore the argument that the economy should be saved by the richest of the rich. The rich are very touchy; they don't like to hear this kind of talk. Talking this way sends them into fits of rage and depression. They might pick up and leave Minnesota; or, heaven forbid, they might pack up and leave the United States altogether. So, let's spare the rich the agony that comes with the suggestion that they should be relieved of their wealth through some kind of socialist wealth redistribution scheme.

Remember--- it is the claim of these wealthy employers in the first place that raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage all at one time would destroy the economy... and, let us not forget their concern for the poor small businessman for whom they don't seem to have much concern for when their monopoly price-fixing scams drive these poor small business people out of business or the high rents they charge these small business people are more than their profits can sustain. I am sorry, I am getting off track here into side issues.

Let me return to the main topic I was intending to respond to: the idea that the Minimum Wage should only be increased gradually and in increments.

It isn't like working people have any right to lay claim to the surge in profits these employers have mysteriously been lavished with.

It isn't like labor is creating this enormous wealth.

It isn't like the problem with the economy stems from these employers hoarding this wealth. These super-rich people couldn't all have “hoarding disorders.”

We live in a country where millionaire labor leaders like to live in harmony and without any strife or struggle between them and the billionaire employers.

You know, we should all be friends; go to the same country clubs, golf courses and resorts--- go along to get along.

Alright.

Here is the deal.

We should decide how long it will take until poverty-waged workers (I know, I know; the proper term is low-wage workers; poverty is such a nasty and upsetting word--- the rich create the poor then can't stand to look at them or hear about their problems [they especially don't want to hear about any problems relating to “cost-of-living”]).

Back to this gradualism and incrementalism that is the “normally accepted” pace of reforms.

It isn't like the Minimum Wage should have been raised to a real living wage since the Minimum Wage Laws were first established back in 1938 or so; right? The pace of reform needs to be slow and very gradual so there is no noticeable impact on profits--- whenever this would be by the time the number crunchers decide?

So; here we go.

Here is my suggestion.

We agree on a date specific at which time the Minimum Wage will become a real living--- non-poverty--- wage.

This could be five years from now--- it could be one-hundred years from now; depending on how gradual and incremental we want the “reform” to be.

In the mean time; lets all come to an agreement that what we will do is all make the exact same sacrifice to save this rotten capitalist economy.

Whether we start with Minnesota's present Minimum Wage of $6.15 an hour or Barack Obama's suggestion of $10.10 an hour--- anyone else have a figure to pull from the hat?

We all agree to accept whatever wage is agreed to and anything and everything above this wage--- including salaries, bonuses and profits--- will be deposited in some kind of federal credit union where these funds will be deposited to be used to finance job creation programs; we are all for creating jobs, right?

Then we just pay everyone the Minimum Wage we all agree on. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, eh?

We don't want to leave the unemployed without income--- and we for sure don't want to pay these lazy bastards for not working.

Or, another solution would simply be to put all wages, salaries, bonuses and profits in a pot and divide it all up every year and we should end up with everyone making somewhere around the “median income.”

Come on, Governor Dayton, Richard Trumka and Bill Gates--- are you willing to make the sacrifice you are willing to saddle poverty-waged workers with?

Median income in Minnesota and in the United States according to the U.S. Census Bureau:

Median household income, 2008-2012

Minnesota $59,126

United States $53,046

$53,046.00 sounds like a pretty good income to me.

How movements can be initiated.

Working people can initiate movements and have greater say in existing movements.

Here is what we often do:

1. Write a Letter to the Editor;

2. Send the Letter to the Editor to politicians;

3. Turn the Letter to the Editor into Precinct Caucus resolutions, resolutions for different organizations;

4. Turn the Letter to the Editor into a petition or statement for others to sign;

5. Turn the Letter to the Editor (often two or three letters on the same topic but from slightly different perspectives) into leaflets;

6. Use all the above for tabling with banners;

7. Use the Letters to the Editor as a call to meetings, pickets and demonstrations.

8. Use the Letter to the Editor as an outline for talks, speeches, forums and debates.

9. Use the Letter to the Editor as a platform to run for public office.

10. Always conscious of trying to build a movement.

The thing is to be persistent and never give up until you get what you are after or unless you lose... if you lose, then try to merge your work with another ongoing struggle so all is not lost.

"Kitchen table" issues require working people coming together around the kitchen table creating organizations which become part of larger movements. Try to fill all four chairs around the kitchen table.

Obviously there are fairly well organized movements for peace, a living wage, health care reform we can all plug into.

Other issues are out there that movements need to be built around from the ground up.

I guess we have to think in terms of every person a "citizen lobbyist" but it sure would help if we had a massive "People's Lobby" we could all plug into that was serving notice on politicians that we intend to build a political party that would be part of our movements challenging Wall Street for political and economic power so we could finally get the kind of country we can all be proud to live in.

In my opinion, and what I have found, is that when you are willing to write down your views and sign your name for the public to consider, you immediately gain credibility.

Try writing a Letter to the Editor and experiment with the above suggestions.


Example of a Letter to the Editor that has helped to influence a movement and served as a catalyst to spark a movement:

Where is the real minimum wage?

Published 9:00am Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Albert Lea Tribune

http://www.albertleatribune.com/2013/12/where-is-the-real-minimum-wage/

Holiday shoppers and voters should beware of the bait and switch.


Bait and switch is an illegal advertising gimmick in the retail world; but, in politics bait and switch has become the way of life, the new normal.

For example: Obama campaigned for the Democratic Party’s nomination telling everyone, everywhere he went, he was for a single-payer universal health care system like they have in Canada; this was the bait.

Once elected, Obama pulled a switch and delivered Obamacare/Romneycare or as it should be known, the Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010.

Another example: Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Gov. Mark Dayton campaigned for office saying he would raise the minimum wage to a real living wage — this was the bait. Once elected, Dayton, a multibillionaire, is now pushing a miserly increase in the minimum wage which would keep the minimum wage a poverty wage — the switch.

Buyer (voter) beware of bait and switch.

The Minnesota DFL Party has a super-majority. Republicans have no say about anything; all they can do is cry.

We should at least be able to get a real living minimum wage out of these Democrats corresponding to actual cost-of-living factors as tracked and monitored by the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics — the minimum wage should also be indexed to inflation with periodic increases to improve the living standards of working people.

Working people are entitled to this in return for their votes, especially from a political party which makes the claim that it is for labor.

If there are any obstacles the Democrats are encountering that would prevent them from implementing a real living — non-poverty — minimum wage, I would like to hear what the impediment is.

Alan L. Maki

director of organizing

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Warroad

The above Letter to the Editor led to this Open Letter to the Governor of Minnesota being drafted with the participation and agreement by many people. It is now being circulated:

January 2014

An Open Letter . . .

TO:  Governor Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Legislative Caucus.

FROM:  Your Constituents

Enough!  We are not waiting any longer!

As DFL candidates, you campaigned on a promise to enact legislation that provides low-wage workers a real, living wage — not just a “minimum” wage.

Your campaign language explicitly called for “workers being entitled to living wages!”  It promised a Living Wage Act, but no progress was made in your first super-majority session.

All it would take, you said, was for Minnesotans to give the DFL a super-majority. Well, we voters delivered it to you!  You have it! But now, instead of advancing Living Wage legislation, the DFL is floating another “minimum wage” bill that will just perpetuate poverty wages for many Minnesota workers!

For years, the DFL leadership has claimed Republicans were the lone obstacle to establishing a Living Wage in our state. That obstacle has been removed. You are now in the driver’s seat!

We, the workers of Minnesota, gave you the legislative votes to enact the Living Wage legislation you promised us.

We expect you now to do so.  You could call it “The Minnesota Living Wage Act of 2014.”

Most importantly, we need to begin with a realistic dollar amount. Living Wages need to be calculated based on realistic levels of cost-of-living. U.S. Census data suggests at least $15 per hour; while, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), hourly wages of $22 and $26 at 40 hrs/week are needed to cover basic necessities. When making decisions on determining basic needs for a dignified life, the testimony from low-income Minnesotans should also be taken into consideration.

 A Living Wage must also be subject to regular cost-of-living adjustments. The Consumer Price Index is our best indicator, and it should be used to adjust a new Minnesota Living Wage level quarterly or at least semi-annually.

If you should fail to enact such legislation, we will assume that you were just baiting us with nice-sounding campaign rhetoric, and that you are pulling a switch on us by simply advancing more employer-friendly “minimum wage” legislation, that does nothing to alleviate the hardships of Minnesota’s working poor.

Perhaps you think any increase is better than nothing.  We don’t!

Minnesota has long been considered a progressive bellwether.  Do something significant now for her working men and women. It is what everybody morally deserves  —  the prospect of a dignified life.

Be courageous. Lead our state — and our nation — in securing the right of every worker to earn a decent living. 

It can begin with the Minnesota Living Wage Act of 2014.

You can make it happen!

Sincerely,

Your fellow Minnesotans 

(as the undersigned, with our signatures attached herein)

My thoughts on the struggle against sulfide mining.

My thoughts on the fight against this hideous sulfide mining they want to bring to Minnesota:

When former DNR Commissioner under Pawlenty, Gene Merriam, asked to meet with me in Waskish up in the Big Bog about the concerns people had with peat mining that is taking place in the Pine Island State Forest; I showed him pictures I took of a family of four Moose and asked him: What will become of these moose, this is their home?"

Merriam responded, "You are a good photographer. The moose will just have to find a new home."

I then showed him pictures of Timber Wolf tracks I took right in the middle of the land being cleared asking him, "And what about the Timber Wolves?"

Again, his response was, "The wolves will just have to find new homes."

If people want to see and hear how Congressman James Oberstar responded to my questions about the peat mining in the Big Bog which he was a main party to initiating they should request to see the video made by the Humphrey Center where the Freeman Forum sponsored Oberstar as the main speaker and gave him an award for being a good steward of our waters; the theme was, "Water, Water Everywhere."

The video is now "stored away." Made unusable by the University because of the filthy and foul language Oberstar hurled at me simply for asking these kinds of questions of him.

Sitting in the audience were many "dignitaries"--- including Gene Merriam who suggested, "This is not the time or place for such questions."

I would note, that to his credit, after I asked Merriam how he could call the Big Bog "one of Minnesota's crown jewels" and then sign the permit for a foreign multi-national conglomerate to mine peat and drain the bog, our largest freshwater aquifer--- Merriam responded, "I never signed the permit or authorized this peat mining; you are a liar for saying I did this." He made this statement in front of about 150 people.

When I showed him the permit with his signature on it, he responded: "That is my name but not my signature."

He then said, "This concludes our conversation. I will look into this and get back to you within two weeks."

Merriam never got back to me; but, he did resign.

At the "Water, Water Everywhere" forum, Merriam insisted I stop saying he was responsible for the peat mining; asking me, "What more do you want from me, I resigned?"

I told Merriam he had had a responsibility to revoke the permit after he found out that his signature was forged on the permit. He turned around and walked away.

Merriam was a Democratic state legislator at the time Pawlenty appointed him.

It is all the good ol' boys club; Democrat, Republican; it makes no difference.

The Minnesota DNR is a corporate mouthpiece.

It is darn near impossible to find any supporters of this hideous peat mining now going on in the Big Bog. But it goes on anyways over massive opposition.

Merriam summoned me to meet with him in Waskish in front of a crowd of mostly Republicans thinking my opposition to the peat mining would be attacked.

What he found was not one single supporter of the peat mining.

It is going to take one heck of a fight to stop this hideous sulfide mining and playing "Minnesota nice" with these mining companies, the Chamber of Commerce and the politicians isn't going to stop sulfide mining.

These big-business interests don't care about people--- do you think they are going to care about the moose?

The mining companies have swindled thousands of miners out of the pensions they are entitled to and not one single politician has stepped forward to help stop this swindle--- mine after mine, LTV, now National Steel.

One would think these politicians would at least insist these mining companies honor the pensions of workers before they would approve another mining permit of any kind--- but people, the environment, the moose, the Timber Wolves mean nothing to these politicians and the corporations they represent; it's all about profits.

Profits derived from exploiting labor to rape the land; profits shared with the politicians willingly accepting their bribes.

We need to consider what kind of fight and struggle it takes to win anything as we go up against these mining companies and the crooked and corrupt politicians and DNR officials they bribe.

What kind of fight did it take to force these mining companies to recognize the union?

It took a war in the north country to win union recognition.

If it took a war in the woods to win union recognition from these companies, think about what kind of struggle it will take to stop this sulfide mining.

Huge profits are at stake.

In Michigan and Wisconsin the mining companies have hired a bunch of mercenary thugs to defend their interests... just like the mining companies have always brought in these thugs to beat up and beat down workers fighting for their rights and their livelihoods.

In my opinion, this struggle against sulfide mining is more likely to be won by joining with workers who have been swindled out of their pensions by the mining companies and insist that not one more permit to mine is issued until this pension fund swindle has been resolved to the level of all pensioned ever agreed to in the collective bargaining process have been honored and lived up to.

Moose and Timber Wolves are victims that can not fight back; rank-and-file miners and their families know how to fight like hell for their rights, their livelihoods and a safe and healthy working environment at work and in their communities.

A few so-called "environmentalists" have sown division between working people who should be natural allies in this struggle.

At the very center of this struggle to put an end to sulfide mining is the class struggle. And, in my opinion, it is on this basis that this struggle should be waged.

Jobs, like pensions, are a very important issue on the Iron Range which has become the Appalachia of the north.

More jobs could be created in the existing mining industry than what will ever be created by sulfide mining.

The work week in the taconite industry could be reduced with workers receiving forty-hours pay; the retirement age could be reduced--- provided the mining companies are forced to honor pensions; vacations could be extended.

Existing jobs at the casinos, Wal-mart, Target, McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Menard's, etc. could be turned into real living wage jobs--- by either raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage or union contracts. Workers with benefits like real vacations will create more jobs in all of these workplaces.

There is no reason why every job that needs to be done should not be a "good job."

Again, it is rank-and-file union members who can push these campaigns forward for a real living Minimum Wage and to organize--- are the environmentalists opposing this sulfide mining willing to pitch in and do their part in return for miners and all workers and their families joining this struggle?

If this struggle against sulfide mining is going to be won everyone concerned is going to have to re-think and adjust to a position of what is the basis of greatest possible unity.

There is no way this struggle will be won with "environmentalists" pitted against miners and jobs.

Look around you; what success have these environmental organizations like the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, Sierra, Audubon, Izaak Walton League had? Their only "success" has been in fundraising to pay their staffs.

It is time to re-think what it is going to take to stop this sulfide mining as part of this struggle.

I also think it does no good to antagonize the Iron Range DFL delegation in the State Legislature--- probably the only real friends working people have down there in the Cities... I believe most are seriously concerned about jobs and are probably not being bribed by the mining companies... they should be engaged and pushed to confront the realities of what it will take to create more jobs in the the existing taconite industry and the need for a real living Minimum Wage. They should be pushed to become part of the struggle to honor the pensions or no more expansion of mining in Minnesota.

State Senator David Tomassoni has been one of a very few Minnesota legislators with the courage to stand up for the unemployed, he brought forward legislation for a "People's Bailout," he has stood with working people losing their homes to foreclosure, he has been in the forefront of Citizens United... it seems to me he, and his constituents--- hard rock miners--- have more to gain by standing up for what is right on this sulfide mining issue. But this won't happen until everyone is willing to sit down and discuss all of this.

Tom Rukavina has fought like no other politician in modern Minnesota history for the rights and livelihoods of working class Minnesotans. Does that mean he should be cut slack on this sulfide mining issue? No; but he should be extended the courtesy of being a full participant in this dialog and discussion about how to create jobs, protect and defend pensions in the context of protecting and defending the environment.

Some kind of public roundtable discussion needs to be organized on the Iron Range to discuss all of this with all parties and opinions from a working class perspective involved.

I have disagreed with Tomassoni and Rukavina on several issues but calling them names like the "Iron Range mafia" isn't going to do any good.

It is the same corporate interests promoting this hideous sulfide mining who are behind the pension fund swindles, preventing every job from being a "good job" and who oppose a real living Minimum Wage.

This issue will not be resolved in these Environmental Impact Statement hearings now being manipulated by the DNR for the sake of big-business employed lobbyists who just love to see this kind of animosity from which their business--- and profits--- thrive; lots and lots of money for them to make as long as this continues to play out in such a way that divides working people.

I am sure the well-heeled crowd from the foundation-funded environmental outfits will never understand the class basis for this kind of struggle... but others should.

After all, these foundation-funded outfits receive a lot of their funding from whom?

The great "philanthropists" who are the robber barons of the mining and forestry industries:

The Rockefeller Brothers Foundation.

The Ford Foundation.

The Blandin Foundation.

The Northwest Foundation.

And... surprise, surprise; from our billionaire Governor's personal foundation.