What is Manitoba's New Democratic Party thinking in raising the regressive Provincial Sales Tax?

One has to wonder what the Manitoba NDP is thinking in proposing to raise the most regressive tax of all... the Provincial Sales Tax.

The NDP's decision to increase the provincial sales tax from 7 per cent to 8 per cent will have a particularly negative impact on those on low incomes, on students and on seniors.

What is needed are added stumpage fees on the foreign forestry companies and a very high tax on tonnage for foreign mining companies.

A big increase in the Minimum Wage would add more to revenues than an increase in the sales tax ever would because working people would be able to purchase more; thus increasing revenues which would make it possible to decrease the existing Provincial Sales Tax.

But what is really needed is a huge tax increase on the wealthy which one would expect the NDP to implement on the rich instead of hurting working people.

When will grassroots and rank-and-file activists in the NDP take a stand and begin pushing back against these completely wrong-headed policies of the NDP which jeopardizes their chance to become Canada's major political party? If working people in Manitoba lose confidence in the Manitoba NDP the NDP can kiss their chance for national political power good-bye.

Dane Smith of Growth & Justice responds...

An exchange of views with the head of the foundation funded outfit bringing Van Jones to Minnesota:

I initially sent out this e-mail which made the rounds resulting in over 300 responses:

From: Alan Maki [mailto:alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com]

Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2013 12:23 PM

To: Jane Hamsher; editor@tcdailyplanet.net; Editor Southsidepride.com

Subject: Van Jones is coming to Minnesota--- a former protester converted to the politics of pragmatism touted by Barack Obama and his Wall Street circle of friends

Van Jones is coming to Minnesota.

In the publicity building up his talk it is stated that van Jones has turned from being a protester to a political pragmatist.

Is Van Jones going to be suggesting to Minnesotans that protesting is no longer needed if one becomes a pragmatic politician?

Or, is it the case that if one turns away from protesting making the claim to being a pragmatic politician that the foundation funds will come pouring in in return for leading people away from protesting?

More than ever we need large numbers of people out in the street's protesting and more than ever we need a new political party which joins protests in the streets with the struggle to take political and economic power away from Wall Street to make government serve the requirements and needs of working people.

I wonder; will Van Jones be supporting Governor Mark Dayton's call to raise the salaries of Minnesota Legislators for their part-time jobs to $54,000.00 a year as the poor are handed a "ladder out of poverty" from which all the lower rungs are missing or broken?

Does Van Jones' new found "pragmatism" allow him to make these kinds of observations? If so, does Van Jones' "pragmatism" extend to calling for a new political party like the old socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party or Canada's socialist New Democratic Party?

Does Van Jones' new found "pragmatism" include being able to state that he is fed up with capitalism and these dirty imperialist wars killing our jobs and living standards while preventing solving the problem of poverty lest he loses his foundation funding?

Van Jones is coming to Minnesota--- a former protester converted to the politics of pragmatism touted by Barack Obama and his Wall Street circle of friends--- the very same "philanthropists" from whom Van Jones is receiving his foundation funding.

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

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/


Dane Smith, the President of Growth & Justice, the foundation-funded Democratic Party front group in Minnesota, the organization bringing Van Jones to Minnesota responded...

On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 6:58 AM, Dane Smith wrote:
Dear Alan

Obviously Growth & Justice is not a good fit at all for your philosophy and ideology, and although I think you occasionally make some valid points in your frequent e-mails to me and blasts to  others, we at Growth & Justice simply  disagree with your larger world view, especially your harsh dismissal of any value at all to  free markets and capitalism.

You too have made it abundantly clear that you think our  policy preferences and philosophy  are completely inadequate and just plain wrong, and  I can assure you that  we are not going to change to accommodate your views.   I don’t see any value in taking any more  time to answer these rhetorical questions and these harsh criticisms  of our president and of people like Van Jones.   If you’d like to be removed from our databank and send list, I’d be happy to do that.   If you still want to receive our information, that’s fine, and you can send me your stuff.    But I’m just not going to be able to respond to your criticisms. 


Respectfully

Dane Smith | President
Tel: 651.251.0728 | Mobile: 651.675.6360

Growth & Justice
2324 University Ave. West, Suite 120A
Saint Paul, MN 55114
www.growthandjustice.org
__________________________

Keep up to date with Growth & Justice:
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I have responded...

Dane Smith, President, Growth & Justice;

I appreciate you stating my views are at odds with you and the foundation-funded group you head, and you stating your frank and candid support for a system based on the private ownership of the mines, mills and factories resulting in the exploitation of workers who create all wealth with no small amount of help from Mother Nature. It is this capitalist system of exploitation so opposed by the former socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota Governors Floyd Olson, Elmer Benson and United States Congressman John Bernard which breeds war, racism, political repression as poverty. As you point out, I have no use for the "free enterprise" system of capitalism; but, I still appreciate reading your frequent e-mails and the views you express in your newsletter and newspapers.

I do find it interesting that the newspapers seem to like publishing your views which reflect most of the Democrats holding public office in Minnesota today who consider they have a right to part-time jobs paying a salary of $54,000.00 a year for doing nothing more than defending the interests of the Indian Gaming Industry which employs over 44,000 casino workers in loud, noisy, smoke-filled workplaces at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws just as they protect the interests of the mining companies, the forestry, power generating, big-agribusiness and the banking industry. Just as your views in support of a crumbling capitalist system wreaking so much havoc with the lives of working people are shared by most "leaders" of organized labor who, like you, fail to recognize the continuing class struggle.

And I am sure you and Growth & Justice reflect the views of many in the civil rights organizations who have given up thinking in terms of grassroots movements struggling against racist discrimination in employment, in housing, in public education and for full equality in lieu of the foundation funding they seek to help the few instead of the many. I have noted that you and Growth & Justice support "equity" INSTEAD OF full equality as i do.

No doubt you also represent most of the environmental organizations who define their activism by how many envelopes they stuff with appeals for financial contributions and the amount of money they get back from these efforts.

I don't see anything wrong with people having different views. In a democracy we share, discuss and debate our differences of opinion.

I appreciate receiving your frequent e-mails because I find out from your publications exactly what direction Minnesota Democrats are heading--- almost always pro-corporate and in line with what Wall Street requires to continue its reactionary agenda of making money from wars abroad while profiting again from the austerity measures shoved down our throats to pay for these dirty imperialist wars which deprive us of the funds we need for human needs... universal social programs which have the potential of solving our many social problems while providing for human needs.

I do find many of the reforms you and Growth & Justice advocate to be worthwhile and deserving of support since I am always for anything that improves the lives, living conditions and standard of living of working people as we try to keep up with the constantly rising cost of living propelled, in the first place, by militarism and wars along with the monopoly domination of the economy and a thoroughly corrupt political system. While most of the reforms you advocate are far too little and way too late--- something is better than nothing and late is better than never.

I am glad you take the time to read my advocacy of more universal and comprehensive reforms intended to help working people cope with the problems capitalism creates for them as we struggle to take power out of the hands of Wall Street and place power where the founders of this country intended--- in the hands of the people even though thoughts of workers in power may have made some of them--- like you--- quite squeamish.

Needless to say, you are quite content being represented by the present Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party and Obama's Wall Street Democrats of which many people are increasingly becoming contemptuous as they feel betrayed and sold out.

I do hope you will share my concerns with Van Jones so he might be able to better address Minnesotans from a more informed point of view in the interest of sparking a much wider discussion and debate.

Perhaps sometimes you would like to have a debate with me concerning these issues or participate in some kind of round-table discussion where we could more publicly share our views and concerns. In this way we could find out more from people from all walks of life with many different views how we might work together to make Minnesota free from poverty and racism? Let me know if you are interested.

Sincerely appreciative of your many liberal and sometimes progressive reform efforts, but not a supporter of any of your pro-capitalist views,

Alan L. Maki



And Dane Smith responds...

Glad to have this respectful response Alan, and as I said, your critiques of private-sector failures have value.   I’m very much a history buff, understand very well the origins of the Farmer-Labor Party and social justice crusades of the left, and understand how those movements helped steer us in the right direction.   As a Unitarian Universalist, I belong to a faith tradition that has been radical since the early 1800s on all manner of human rights and civil rights and environmental movements (although many of these folks were successful capitalists!).   Let’s do keep the communication open and it might indeed be possible to have some sort of public discussion or debate some day.

Dane Smith | President

Tel: 651.251.0728 | Mobile: 651.675.6360

Growth & Justice

2324 University Ave. West, Suite 120A

Saint Paul, MN 55114

www.growthandjustice.org

__________________________

Keep up to date with Growth & Justice:

Blog - Facebook - Twitter - YouTube

DONATE NOW!

My response back to Dane Smith...

Dane,

Below you will find Elmer Benson's obituary which includes a quote from him about him and his wealth which pertains to your statement:

"As a Unitarian Universalist, I belong to a faith tradition that has been radical since the early 1800s on all manner of human rights and civil rights and environmental movements (although many of these folks were successful capitalists!). 

My argument doesn't have the intent to attack capitalists as people but the role of capitalists in society. There were, in fact, a number of capitalist supporters of the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party but most of these capitalists were farsighted enough to understand that the capitalist system had to go. In fact, society needs capitalism and capitalists about as much as my dog Fred needs ticks and fleas. Here is Elmer Benson's obituary:

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-03-16/business/fi-27186_1_minnesota-politics 

The obituary journalist wrote:

After leaving politics, Benson grew wealthy in banking. A television reporter once asked him how his wealth squared with his critical views of capitalism.

"It worked for me," he shot back. "But look at all the thousands of people it hasn't worked for."

Elmer Benson and his fellow socialists and Communists never argued for capitalism as a solution to problems being experienced by workers, farmers, professionals and small business people. Benson and his fellow socialists argued for reforms to assist those suffering and to improve the lives of people as they struggle to replace capitalism with socialism continued. I am not sure how many of Benson's fellow socialists and Communists became "successful capitalists" but we can say that what Elmer Benson declared in his response to the reporter that for every person who attains success (great wealth) additional thousands of people suffer--- because of capitalism.

Here is Benson's obituary as published in the LA Times:

Socialist Elmer Benson Dies at 89 : Radical Played a Prominent Role in Minnesota Politics

March 16, 1985|

MINNEAPOLIS — Elmer A. Benson, an unreconstructed leftist radical who served one stormy term as governor of Minnesota and helped create the Democratic-Farmer-Labor coalition that continues to dominate Minnesota politics, died Wednesday night. He was 89.


Benson, who had been in ill health in recent years, died at Mount Sinai Hospital.


Benson had been state banking commissioner under Gov. Floyd B. Olson, who appointed him in 1935 to serve the 1 1/2 years remaining in the U.S. Senate term of Thomas D. Schall, who died in a car accident.

Then Benson came home to run for governor and won a landslide victory in 1936, only to be turned out by Republican Harold Stassen in 1938.


Although the 1937 Legislature had given Benson--an early Socialist sympathizer--little of what he sought, many of his proposals became law during the 40 years that followed--property tax relief for homesteads; higher income tax rates for high-income individuals and corporations; mandatory workers' compensation coverage for employees; a state Civil Service system; expanded state aid for schools, financed by income taxes; party designation for legislators.


In an interview two years ago, Benson remained an ardent foe of capitalism and called Hubert H. Humphrey "a war criminal." He even had a good word for Josef Stalin.


"Communists are decent people, too. We don't have a monopoly on decency," he said. "Stalin did some things that were pretty rough. But maybe, just maybe, if he hadn't done it, maybe the nation would have been taken over by the worst enemies of mankind--the Nazis."


The policies of President Reagan also brought a feisty response.


"The tax program the federal government passed last year?" he said then. "Why, it's exactly what they said it was--taking from the poor and giving to the rich."


Benson also said he never forgave himself for agreeing to the 1944 merger of the Farmer-Labor and Democratic parties into the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the dominant force in Minnesota politics since then.


President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked for the merger and Humphrey helped bring it about.


"I think it was a mistake because the party became part of a larger party that's been taken over by political hacks," Benson said.


Benson split with Humphrey by backing Henry A. Wallace as the Progressive candidate for President in 1948. However, it was Humphrey's support of the Vietnam War that most upset Benson.


"Humphrey was a war criminal," he said. "He was the chief ballyhoo artist for the war. I remember him saying, 'This is America's greatest moment and I'm sure glad to be part of it.' "


After leaving politics, Benson grew wealthy in banking. A television reporter once asked him how his wealth squared with his critical views of capitalism.

"It worked for me," he shot back. "But look at all the thousands of people it hasn't worked for."

Alan L. Maki

Van Jones is on his way to Minnesota thanks to the foundations.

Van Jones is coming to Minnesota--- a former protester converted to the politics of pragmatism touted by Barack Obama and his Wall Street circle of friends

Van Jones is coming to Minnesota.

In the publicity building up his talk it is stated by the foundation-funded outfit bringing him that Van Jones has turned from being a protester to a political pragmatist.

Is Van Jones going to be suggesting to Minnesotans that protesting is no longer needed if one becomes a pragmatic politician?

Or, is it the case that if one turns away from protesting making the claim to being a pragmatic politician that the foundation funds will come pouring in in return for leading people away from protesting?

More than ever we need large numbers of people out in the street's protesting and more than ever we need a new political party which joins protests in the streets with the struggle to take political and economic power away from Wall Street to make government serve the requirements and needs of working people.

I wonder; will Van Jones be supporting Governor Mark Dayton's call to raise the salaries of Minnesota Legislators for their part-time jobs to $54,000.00 a year as the poor are handed a "ladder out of poverty" from which all the lower rungs are missing or broken?

Does Van Jones' new found "pragmatism" allow him to make these kinds of observations? If so, does Van Jones' "pragmatism" extend to calling for a new political party like the old socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party or Canada's socialist New Democratic Party?

Does Van Jones' new found "pragmatism" include being able to state that he is fed up with capitalism and these dirty imperialist wars killing our jobs and living standards while preventing solving the problem of poverty lest he loses his foundation funding?

Van Jones is coming to Minnesota--- a former protester converted to the politics of pragmatism touted by Barack Obama and his Wall Street circle of friends--- the very same "philanthropists" from whom Van Jones is receiving his foundation funding.

Obama's advice to students...

Obama advises students to patiently work in silence as Wall Street profits from wars and the rest of our problems...

President Barack Obama gave the commencement address to the graduating class of the Ohio State University at Ohio Stadium on May 5, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio.

"I dare you, Class of 2013, to do better. I dare you to do better," Obama said.

Obama also urged the students to "reject these voices" that warn of the evils of government, saying:

"Still, you'll hear voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works; or that tyranny always lurks just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can't be trusted.

"We have never been a people who place all our faith in government to solve our problems, nor do we want it to. But we don't think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government...

The cynics may be the loudest voices—but they accomplish the least. It's the silent disruptors—those who do the long, hard, committed work of change—that gradually push this country in the right direction, and make the most lasting difference."

Yes; those in power like Obama want everything to be out of sight and out of mind.

Obama and these politicians just love those foundation-funded flowers who pull people into thinking the process of change must take a long, long time.

Wall Street gets what it wants when it wants it but the rest of us must be patient and work in silence for change that will come in some distant future.

Just follow Obama's lead and everything will be okay--- ya; sure, you betcha. War after war; hit lists for drone attacks; growing joblessness and rising poverty; the fiasco of Obamacare instead of real health care reform; rising food prices; soaring gas prices; heating bills you need to put on your credit card; electric rates increase by leaps and bounds as you cut your usage; immigrant workers from Mexico treated as criminals by a bunch of anti-Latino racists and bigots which include members of the U.S. Congress...

And all of this calls for working in silence?

What kind of "community organizer" was Barack Obama?

Really? People are just supposed to "bite the bullet" and put up with all this crap no matter how much they are hurting in spite of the fact we working people who create all wealth?

Tell Barack Obama to tell his Wall Street merchants of death and destruction who profit from wars to patiently wait for their next war because the needs of the people for jobs, a quality public education, decent housing, an end to racist discrimination and inequality, the right to breath fresh air and drink clean water are more pressing than any of these dirty imperialist wars.

We have seen how Barack Obama works by the way he has pushed forward with this Trans-Pacific Partnership--- Wall Street works quickly in secrecy and silence behind our backs and without any participation from the American people and Obama thinks we are so stupid to believe that we will not rise up and loudly resist this corporate corruption of our government and Wall Street's arrogance in hogging the wealth like a bunch of greedy pigs feeding at the public trough with their bribed politicians like Obama and the rest of these Democrats and Republicans who never object to spending for wars but ALWAYS object to spending for human needs.

The entire scenario makes me sick and it's time to tell these Wall Street politicians, "We are fed up!"

And we need to tell them "we are fed up" in a loud, boisterous, militant and united way in which political and economic power is taken away from Wall Street and placed in the hands of "we the people."

Obama would just love it if all of us would sit in silence as he works from his "hit list" on the desk in the Oval Office murdering innocent people--- most of whom are children and their mothers.

Obama's advice to these graduating university students is worth about as the high-priced diplomas they received for which they will end up never paying off their student loans for the rest of their lives as they find jobs at poverty wages at Wal-mart, Target, Burger King or some loud, noisy, smoke-filled casino of the Indian Gaming Industry at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws.

Just keep your mouth shut and endure the pain and suffering--- just the kind of advice one would expect from anyone carrying out Wall Street's reactionary imperialist agenda.

Minnesota State Legislators have decided to give themselves a pay increase as the rest of us suffer the austerity measures these politicians impose on us.

So; Minnesota State Legislators are going to raise their own pay... hmmmm. And what have they done to deserve a pay increase?

I assume other politicians across the country are looking to raise their own pay, too? Shouldn't all workers have the right to decide if they are entitled to a pay increase?

Maybe we, as tax-payers, should figure out what we need to do to "lock-out" politicians just like employers are doing when their employees seek better pay and benefits?

What is most interesting is that all of these politicians no matter which party are so "concerned" about tax-payers when they are running for office but after getting elected what do they do? They raise their own pay which is going to cost tax-payers money; but when it comes to:

1. Raising the minimum wage to a real living wage for all workers which would not cost tax-payers one single penny these same politicians get miserly and cheap.

In fact, this would add new revenue since workers employed at real living wages would be paying more in taxes.

2. Anti-scab legislation wouldn't cost tax-payers one single penny.

In fact, this would save tax-payers a lot of money as far as not having to provide food stamps, etc.

3. Anti-lockout legislation wouldn't cost tax-payers one single penny.

In fact, employed workers add revenue to state coffers; save in policing, etc.

4. The enforcement of Affirmative Action wouldn't cost tax-payers one single penny.

Politicians raising their own pay like the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party state legislators are proposing will cost tax-payers a bundle.

The bottom line is this:

What have Minnesota State Legislators done to improve our lives, our livelihoods and the general well-being of Minnesotan and our living environment to deserve a raise--- should legislators' pay be based on "merit" what would these politicians be worth to their bosses... Minnesota tax-payers?

I bet most tax-payers would say these politicians aren't worth what they are already being paid.

Minnesota State Legislators are working for the mining, forestry, power generating, banking and big-agribusiness industries--- yet none of these industries are getting tax increases to cover the pay of the politicians who work for THEM instead of US--- we the people.

If Minnesota politicians want a pay increase, let them increase the pathetically low present taconite tax on the mining industry and stumpage fees on the forestry industry to pay for their pay increases.

We have to remember that every time these politicians give themselves a pay increase we are taking pay cuts because their pay increases come right out of our pay-checks.

Do you want to take a pay cut so a bunch of worthless and corporate bribed Minnesota state legislators who don't give two-hoots as to whether or not you:
* have a job?
* have a decent home to live in?
* your children get a quality public education?
* you have adequate health care?
* have healthy and safe air to breath and clean water to drink? 

Like with funding these dirty wars, there is always enough money for politicians to give themselves a raise.

Stalin, Herbert Romerstein and the Chechens.

Given all the publicity around the Boston Marathon bombing it seems one spin-off has been the creation of sympathy for "the poor abused Chechens" who had their lives uprooted by the big bad Stalin.

Well, here is my response:

What do you think of Roosevelt "re-locating" Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II? I would think Stalin had a more legitimate reason in trying to disband Nazi Chechen sympathizers.

And how did Churchill handle Nazi collaborators in England? Bang, in the middle of the night.

Do you trust Nazi sympathizers and Nazi collaborators? If you do you should welcome the Boston Bombing because the FBI and CIA have been allowing these Nazi sympathizers and Nazi collaborators into this country for many decades.

By the way, it was Roosevelt who turned away at least one boat load of Jews who were forced to "re-locate" by Hitler along with millions of other Jews and Gypsies who Hitler was forcing to "re-locate" to concentration camps--- with silence from the West.

Quite frankly, I think Stalin and the Red Army did us a favor in using the ten cent solution and the hangman's noose as they pushed into Nazi occupied regions.

This guy, Herbert Romerstein, has been the mastermind who used billions of our tax dollars to help these Nazi sympathizers and Nazi collaborators and even outright Nazi butchers find homes and good-paying jobs in this country as they have secretly plotted to re-establish fascism:

http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/facultyID.9/profile.asp

The fact of the matter is, many of these Chechens want the "right" to set up their own little fascist dictatorship based on the Hitlerite "model," and apparently the FBI and CIA have been helpful to them in supporting their "aspirations."

Speaking of being uprooted; my Dad, my uncles and millions of other people from all over the world had their lives uprooted and moved into the fields of battle having to fight these Nazi bastards--- that the United States government has given them haven and refuge makes me sick especially since over 80 members of my family were uprooted and re-located from their homes in Poland and re-located to concentration camps from which they never returned.

None other than Franklin D. Roosevelt, after meeting with Stalin, was forced to admit that "Stalin isn't such a bad guy considering the problems he was faced with from Hitler's fascist hordes"... which included many of these Chechen collaborators of which these two "sweetheart" Boston Bombers were from such a family and had been indoctrinated and fed Hitlerite hate. Figure it out, if these "two normal Boston Boys" hadn't been raised on the most vile hate how would they ever have come up with the idea to hurt so many innocent people? Such demented minds aren't created in a few days or even several months--- it takes years "nurturing" such hate. Like Hillary Clinton is so fond of saying--- "... it takes a village."

Yes; one is either raised in a village respecting love and peace or one is raised in a village promoting hate, bigotry, racism and war.

If these two "sweethearts" are typical of the "Boston normal" in the neighborhoods where they were raised, Bostonians should all hang their heads in shame.

By the way, we saw the hate spewed from all these little sects of Nazi collaborators re-located to this country by the FBI and CIA with the help of Herbert Romerstein where they found homes in Boston when Boston public schools were integrated and racist hate exploded like a bomb.

I'm wondering why as much emphasis isn't placed on the "re-location" of First Nation's Peoples to Indian Reservations?

Kate Middleton shows off baby bump

Well, the Brits are going to have another parasite to support:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/kate-middleton/10008761/Kate-Middleton-shows-off-baby-bump-in-Mulberry-coat.html

The FBI could infiltrate Occupy Wall Street to destroy the voice of the people and while they were wasting resources trampling on the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights they gave these "sweethearts" two years to plot the bombing of the Boston Marathon.

Earth Day 2013

I remember the first Earth Day. I spoke at four rallies in four different cities in Michigan on the same day. In each speech I pointed out that "... labor with quite a little help from Mother Nature creates all wealth with capitalists, in the process of exploiting labor and raping Mother Nature destroying our living environments..."

Things haven't changed for the better since that first Earth Day back in 1970 and the source of our problems remain the same. Wall Streets greedy drive for maximum short-term profits is the primary source of our problems and the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction with their insane militarism and dirty imperialist wars are leaving behind the largest carbon footprint of them all.

The history of Earth Day is often distorted as Earth Days more and more become controlled and manipulated by the corporate community boasting of how "green" they have become with very few environmental activists aware of the environmental problems workers have to confront in their workplaces and and in the communities where they live.

I can remember the first Earth Day workers speaking about the terrible conditions in their workplaces with dangerous chemicals, all kinds of noxious and deadly fumes and the health hazards of second-hand smoke.

The first Earth Day had a very strong class component as well as exposed the special hazards to women, infants, children and the very racist aspect of many environmental health hazards in the workplace and communities.

Because of corporate sponsorship, many of the foundation-funded environmentalists refuse to discuss the class aspects relating to environmentalism on Earth Day or any other day--- this needs to be challenged and changed because if an industry is contaminating and polluting the environment chances are, the workers in those places of employment are suffering the worst health consequences.

Two-million casino workers are employed in the hideous Indian Gaming Industry in smoke-filled casinos across this country and chances are good environmentalists will not have the decency or the moral and political courage to address this issue.

Silence because the Democrats get hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the Indian Gaming Industry.

Even the Green Party is not immune from this corruption as we have seen in northern Wisconsin where Green Frank Koehn works hand in hand with the Indian Gaming Industry yet remains silent when it comes to casino workers being forced to work in smoke-filled casinos in his own back-yard with his "Waters Edge" environmental project funded by the Indian Gaming Industry promoting "sky blue waters and clean fresh air."

Gaylord Nelson wasn't afraid to speak up for the rights of workers to be employed in health working environments at work or in the working class communities where workers live.

Look at this pathetic, shameful and disgusting corporate-sponsored "history" of Earth Day--- not one single mention of environmentalism in the workplace:

http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement

In fact, it was in 1970, the year of the first Earth Day, that the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was created.

And 43 years later, casino workers are employed in loud, noisy smoke-filled casinos where OSHA isn't even enforced!

I have in front of me, "The Environmental Handbook," which was used to organize the first Earth Day from which Wall Street was a no show.

Today Wall Street is manipulating and controlling Earth Day the same way it manipulates and controls the politics of our country through the Democratic and Republican parties--- and even some elements in the Green Party.

Wisconsin's United States Senator Gaylord Nelson must be twisting and turning and screeching in his grave knowing that the very Wall Street culprits responsible for polluting and contaminating our places of employment and the communities where we live which combined are taking us on the road to the hell which is in store for us we barrel down this road of smoke-filled casinos, global warming and climate change.

The "man from Clear Lake" would be deeply disappointed with the corporate sponsorship of Earth Day 2013 and the foundation-funded environmentalists who craft their words and their actions in anticipation and preparation for getting their next grant.

I wonder what the "man from Clear Lake" would have to say about United States Steel naming its deadly brew of toxic waste held in its tailing pond in Mountain Iron, Minnesota the "Clearwater Reservoir?"

From Governor Gaylord Nelson to Governor Scott Walker... with Wall Street in charge the world is going the way of Wisconsin... Am I the only one who is fed up?

April 22nd is upon us once again...

Happy Earth Day!

If we want our children and grandchildren participating in Earth Days we sure as heck better intensify our struggles to be free from capitalism because the only "green" these Wall Street vultures know about is money "green."

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

Looks like the "ladder out of poverty" Obama handed to the poor is missing a few rungs.

Looks like the "ladder out of poverty" being provided to the poor by Obama and the Democrats is missing a few rungs:

http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-u-s-ranks-2nd-in-child-poverty-2/

Interesting; Finland has top notch health care (free) and top notch education (including through university all free). Too bad Finland also has mega multi-national Pory (http://www.poyry.com/) advising the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan DNR's on power generating, mining and forestry issues when we should be learning about health care and education from Finland. Perhaps the politicians being bribed by Poyry could at least ask them for connections about how to solve poverty, better our schools and reform health care? 

I wonder what percent of their budgets Iceland and Finland spend on militarization and wars?

Perhaps when Van Jones comes to town he will have some comments on this Minnesota Arms Spending Alternative Project:

http://www.mnasap.org/

I wonder why Democratic Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton hasn't taken the initiative to get all the Governors together to tell Obama we need a war on poverty not drone wars killing poor children?

I wonder where child poverty stands in relation to these other Nations for the sovereign Indian Nations? Probably would be way off the chart.

Wouldn't it be something if we could see countries rated on where they stack up when it comes to "democracy?" No doubt the United States and Canada would be tied for first place. Too bad boasts of "democracy" can't fill the bellies of hungry children.

Something to think about:

Poverty wages and racist discrimination in employment cause poverty.

-- 

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

The time is now for the creation of a National Public Bank.

The Obama-loving foundation flower Amy B. Dean is claiming the "far left" and the "far right" agree that the big banks should be busted up.

It is interesting to note that Amy Dean considers Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown to be "far left."

What a convenient way to write off the ideas of real liberals, real progressives and real leftists by calling Sherrod Brown "far left."

What foundation flower Amy B. Dean is also doing in writing off real liberals, real progressives and real leftists by calling Sherrod Brown "far left" is writing off what many of us liberals, progressives and leftists propose as the solution to the banking crisis brought on by corruption and a collapsing international capitalist economy--- nationalizing the entire banking industry by bringing the banks under public ownership.

Foundation flower Amy Dean and her "far left" buddy Senator Sherrod Brown--- along with conservative George Will and a bunch of right wing members of Congress--- propose busting up the banks in the way "Ma" Bell Telephone was "busted up: "bad for workers and bad for consumers and bad for society.

Ma Bell should have been nationalized and brought under public ownership; not busted up into uncontrollable and unmanageable rackets now ripping off consumers and driving down the standard of living of workers employed in the industry.

What we need is a National Public Banking System similar to the State Bank of North Dakota with corresponding State Banks as proposed by our friend Virg Bernero during his campaign for Michigan Governor.

United States Postal Outlets could become the branch offices along with automated banking machines in all public facilities and everyone would have convenient access to banking through their home computers. This is not some kind of sci-fi dream; in the United Kingdom the private banking industry is already operating this way through their postal system so there would be no problem with a public banking system providing the same kind of services.

I addition, we would be getting a handle on the real wealth created by workers now being horded by these Wall Street banksters and financial parasites.

We simply don't need these "money managers;" put them to work at a teller window in the United States Post Office or put them in jail where they really belong.

It would be foolish and stupid to bust up the banks and create even more of these crooked and corrupt banksters and allow them to feed like parasites of the wealth created by workers as they manage an expanding corruption of their creation of our political and economic system.

Union pension funds, Social Security, Rail Road Retirement, veterans and unemployment benefits as well as food stamps and Medicare/Medicaid and all kinds of government funds could be the financial foundation for a National Public Banking System--- why would we want to bust up the banks making it even more difficult to gain control over the wealth created by the working class?

To begin with, Congress should pay back the more than three-trillion dollars it has stolen from the Social Security Trust Fund--- this public capital could then be used to build a National Public Health Care System and a National Public Child Care System and unlike the money stolen from the Social Security Trust Fund which these "far right" and "far left" Republicans and Democrats have squandered on wars for which we get not one single penny in return, "we the people," would at least be left holding two universal social services of benefit to everyone instead of the body count from wars.

The "Peace Dividends" derived from electing a real liberal, progressive and left electoral coalition backed by a "People's Lobby" bringing an end to these unending dirty imperialist wars being waged in our name and paid for by our tax-dollars and the blood of so many innocent people in other lands would constitute the largest deposit in the National Public Banking System which could then be used to fund everything we know we need as a people for the benefit of society instead of using tax-dollars trying to bolster and salvage the "free market economy." 

Let Amy B. Dean and her fellow foundation flowers wilt on the stem so we can pick off the dead-heads and properly dispose of the diseased seeds so they don't get carried off by corrupt political winds like Monsanto's genetically modified seeds.

If we as real liberals, real progressives and real leftists begin to advance these kinds of ideas and organize for real change we will grow a political and economic system worthy of being branded as "democracy."

A National Public Banking System will pave the way for a real "people's recovery" from this economic mess Wall Street has saddled us with that is wreaking so much havoc in the lives of working people.

Wall Street gives us the shaft while shoving austerity measures down our throats--- thus making huge profits each way using the private banking system to carry out its reactionary agenda.

When public infrastructure goes private

Mr. Hiltzik,

I found your article very interesting:

http://articles.latimes.com/print/2013/apr/12/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20130412

What I don't understand is why, after bringing the U.S. Postal Service into this discussion, you fail to advocate the obvious...

The United States Postal Service should be providing us with internet service which would result in lower rates for users while providing revenue the U.S. Postal Service needs and it would have the advantage of saving and creating jobs.

A publicly owned national fiber-optic data network is what we really need.

Alan L. Maki

Will the hypocrisy of environmentalists and greed and corruption of the Indian Gaming Industry bring ruin to the Penokee Hills in northern Wisconsin?

There is so much hypocrisy in the environmental movement which is headed up by muddle-headed middle class intellectuals who make their livings from foundation grants and who have no concern for working people.

The fact of the matter is, these "philanthropists" who contribute to the foundations which are funding most of the environmental organizations like Save the Waters Edge are the very robber barons who derive their profits exploiting workers and raping Mother Nature as they lord over the mining, forestry and power generating industries along with the Indian Gaming Industry.

Take a look at the environmental movement underway to save the Penokee Hills in northern Wisconsin.

A very noble effort is being made to protect the environment and ecosystem from destruction by an iron ore mining project.

What I don't understand is why the same scientific methodology, logic, reasoning, facts and empirical evidence don't apply to the second-hand smoke and noise levels in the casinos in the Indian Gaming Industry like the Bad River Casino at the base of the Penokee Hills where workers are forced to work for poverty wages and without any rights especially when the solutions are so simple:

1. Put up "No Smoking" signs. (Cost: $50.00 for "No Smoking" signs.)

2. Turn down the volume. (Cost: $0.00. Just turn down the volume controls.)

It seems where profits are at stake, being the mining industry or the Indian Gaming Industry, profits always come before human health and the environment.

Does the environment in the workplace matter to environmentalists?

Does it make any sense to protect people from the predicted pending environmental catastrophe this iron ore mining would supposedly pose to human health and the environment only to kill the very people being protected from iron ore mining in smoke-filled casinos?

Does it make any difference if a worker goes deaf because of loud noises in a casino or working on a crusher?

I predict the environmentalists will fail to halt the iron ore mining in northern Wisconsin's Penokee Hills because their own hypocrisy will be used by the proponents of iron ore mining to discredit them.

I spend a lot of time fly-fishing the trout streams of the Penokee Hills but how could I possibly work with these "environmentalists" whose leader is a Green Party politician--- Frank Koehn--- who is in the pocket of the Indian Gaming Industry, and other such hypocrites who have no concern for the health of workers in the Indian Gaming Industry?

The epitome of this hypocrisy is Mike Wiggins, Jr. who is the Chair of the Bad River Indian Nation who says he is concerned that iron ore mining in the Penokee Hills will adversely affect air and water quality when he is the one responsible for subjecting casino workers to second-hand smoke and the sewage problem resulting from the waste created from the casino is polluting the rivers and lakes because he is too cheap to put in the proper sewage system.

Everyone knows the only reason Mike Wiggins, Jr. is opposing the iron ore mining is because the union wages paid to iron ore miners would force Wiggins to pay casino workers a higher wage... Wiggins obviously doesn't care about clean air or clean water or else he would clean up his own act.

I guess I'll have to find a new place to fish... the poor fish are going to die just like casino workers.

The environmentalists are already crying for the fish without shedding any tears for casino workers dying from second-hand smoke created cancers, heart and lung diseases and complications second-hand smoke causes to people suffering from diabetes.

Mike Wiggins, Jr. says he is concerned for future generations should iron ore mining take place in the Penokee Hills. Wiggins can't be all that concerned about future generations because most of the workers employed in the Bad River Casino are young women of child-bearing years and science has proven second-hand smoke is very hazardous to the health of pregnant women, unborn children and nursing mothers and their infants.

Will the hypocrisy of environmentalists and greed and corruption of the Indian Gaming Industry bring ruin to the Penokee Hills in northern Wisconsin?

Obama's drone wars condemned in Canada at New Democratic Party Convention by socialists.

The time has come to talk about the "ownership" question.

Should Wall Street investors be allowed to own the mines, mills and factories or is it time to talk about nationalization under public ownership of the mines, mills and factories?

Alan L. Maki

See response by Immanuel Wallerstein following the article.

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/business/global/wary-of-events-in-china-foreign-investors-head-to-cambodia.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Wary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia

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  Thomas Cristofoletti for The New York Times

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  Thomas Cristofoletti for The New York Times

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  Thomas Cristofoletti for The New York 

Workers, many of whom come from surrounding provinces, enter the main gate of the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone.

By KEITH BRADSHER

Published: April 8, 2013

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Tiffany & Company is quietly building a diamond-polishing factory in Cambodia, a country popularly associated more with killing fields and land mines than baubles.

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China Still Dominates, but Some Manufacturers Look Elsewhere

Some of Japan’s biggest manufacturers are also rushing to set up operations in Phnom Penh to make wiring harnesses for cars and touch screens and vibration motors for cellphones. European companies are not far behind, making dance shoes and microfiber sleeves for sunglasses.

Foreign companies are flocking to Cambodia for a simple reason. They want to limit their overwhelming reliance on factories in China.

Problems are multiplying fast for foreign investors in China. Blue-collar wages have surged, quadrupling in the last decade as a factory construction boom has coincided with waning numbers of young people interested in factory jobs. Starting last year, the labor force has actually begun shrinking because of the “one child” policy and an aging population.

“Every couple days, I’m getting calls from manufacturers who want to move their businesses here from China,” saidBradley Gordon, an American lawyer in Phnom Penh.

But multinational companies are finding that they can run from China’s rising wages but cannot truly hide. The populations, economies and even electricity output of most Southeast Asian countries are smaller than in many Chinese provinces, and sometimes smaller than a single Chinese city. As companies shift south, they quickly use up local labor supplies and push wages up sharply.

While wages and benefits often remain below levels needed to provide proper housing and balanced diets, the manufacturing investment — foreign direct investment in Cambodia rose 70 percent last year from 2011 — is starting to raise millions of people out of destitution. “People along the Mekong River are being lifted out of poverty by foreign investment inflows driven by higher Chinese wages,” said Peter Brimble, the senior economist for Cambodia at the Asian Development Bank.

Only a smattering of companies, mostly in low-tech sectors like garment and shoe manufacturing, are seeking to leave China entirely. Many more companies are building new factories in Southeast Asia to supplement operations in China. China’s fast-growing domestic market, large population and huge industrial base still make it attractive for many companies, while productivity in China is rising almost as fast as wages in many industries.

Foreign investment in China nonetheless slipped 3.5 percent last year, after rising every year since 1980 except 1999, during the Asian financial crisis, and 2009, during the global financial crisis. Still, at $119.7 billion, foreign investment in China continues to dwarf investment elsewhere.

By comparison, investment in Cambodia rose to $1.5 billion. But last year was the first time since comparable recordkeeping began in the 1970s that Cambodia received more foreign investment per person than China.

“People are not looking for exit strategies from China, they’re looking to set up parallel operations to hedge their bets,” said Bretton Sciaroni, another American lawyer here. Among Japanese makers, Sumitomo is making wiring harnesses for cars, Minebea is assembling parts for cellphones and Denso is about to start production of motorcycle ignition components.

Foreign investment also jumped last year in Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.

As companies compete for employees, working conditions in the region are improving. Pactics, a Belgian-run company that is the world’s largest maker of microfiber sleeves for luxury sunglasses, has introduced employee benefits that were previously rare in Cambodia, like medical insurance, accident insurance, education allowances and free lunches.

Because costs are extremely low in Cambodia, where a visit to the doctor may cost only a couple of dollars, overall compensation for each worker is still less than $130 a month. At the company’s factory on the outskirts of Shanghai, workers doing the same tasks earn $560 to $640 a month, including government-mandated allowances, said Piet Holten, the company’s president.

Cambodian workers sew 15 to 30 percent fewer sleeves per day than their Shanghai counterparts, but productivity in Cambodia has been catching up.

“I will never get it up to China, but the cost is less than a third of China’s, and China only gets more expensive,” Mr. Holten said.

Overall monthly compensation for industrial workers has increased as much as 65 percent in the last five years in Cambodia, although from such a low base that workers here remain among the poorest in Asia. A decade ago, workers flocked to newly opened factories in Phnom Penh that posted hiring notices, but “today, you put a notice on a factory and you don’t have anybody come,” said Sandra D’Amico, the managing director of HR Inc. Cambodia, a human resources company.

Strikes this winter temporarily crippled numerous Taiwanese-owned garment factories in eastern Cambodia producing simple garments like bathing suits after Japanese factories moved in to make more sophisticated products like business suits and gloves — and offered higher pay and benefits.

At the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone here in central Cambodia, Minebea is trying to attract workers by building a modern, four-story dormitory for 2,000 people with six beds to a room and a large recreation hall — a big change from the plywood houses with thatched roofs in which millions of Cambodians still live. The Laurelton Diamonds unit of Tiffany has already driven pilings for a modern, 95,000-square-foot factory across the street to polish small diamonds, and is seeking international “green building” accreditation for the project.

Employment at the zone is doubling this year, to 20,000 workers, and is projected to redouble to 40,000 in the next several years, said Hiroshi Uematsu, the zone’s managing director.

Skeptics like David J. Welsh, the Cambodia representative of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s Solidarity Center, say that rising food and housing costs prevent many workers from fully benefiting from rising wages. Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said that his industry needed to resist workers’ demands for further pay increases to preserve international competitiveness.

Tatiana Olchanetzky, a manufacturing consultant to companies in the handbag and luggage industry, said that she had analyzed the costs in her industry of moving operations from China to the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. She found that any savings were very small because China produces most of the fabrics, clasps, wheels and other materials required for the bag trade, and these would have to be shipped to other countries if final assembly moved there.

But some factories have moved anyway, at the request of Western buyers who fear depending exclusively on a single country.

While moving to a new country with an unproved supply chain is a risk, Ms. Olchanetzky said, “They think there’s a risk in staying in China, too.”

A version of this article appeared in print on April 9, 2013, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Hello, Cambodia.

 

 

 

  Commentary No. 351, April 15, 2013

                                            "End of the Road for Runaway Factories?"

Ever since there has been a capitalist world-economy, one essential mechanism of its successful functioning has been the runaway factory. After a period of significant accumulation of capital by so-called leading industries (usually about twenty-five years), the level of profit has gone down, both because of the undermining of the quasi-monopoly of the leading industry and because of the rise in labor costs due to syndical action of some sort.

When this happened, the solution was for the factory to "runaway." What this means is that the site of production was transferred to some other part of the world-system that had "historically lower wage levels." In effect, the capitalists who controlled the leading industries were trading increased transaction costs for reduced labor costs. This maintained significant income for them, if nonetheless lower than in the previous period when they still had a quasi-monopoly.

The reason why labor costs were lower in the new location is that the runaway factory recruited labor from rural areas that were previously less involved in the market economy. For these rural workers, the opportunity to work in these runaway factories represented a rise in real income, while at the same time for the owners of the runaway factory these workers were being paid less than those who had been working in the previous location. This is what is called a win-win solution. 

The problem with this seemingly wonderful solution has always been that it was not lasting. After about another twenty-five years, the workers in the new location began to launch syndical action, and the cost of their labor began to rise. When it rose enough, the owners of the runaway factory had only one real option - to runaway once again. Meanwhile, new leading industries were being constructed in zones that had accumulated wealth. Thus, there has been a constant movement of the location of industries of all sorts. Quasi-monopolies after quasi-monopolies! Runaway factories after runaway factories!

It has been a marvel of capitalist adjustment to a long process of constant change of circumstance. This marvelous system has however depended on one structural element - the possibility of finding new “virgin” areas for relocation of runaway factories. By virgin areas, I mean rural zones that were relatively uninvolved in the world market economy.

However, over the past 500 years, we have been "using up" such areas. This can be measured quite simply by the de-ruralization of the world's populations. Today, such rural areas are reduced to a minority of the world's surface, and it seems likely that by 2050, they will be a very, very small minority. 

To see the consequences of such massive de-ruralization, we need only turn to an article in The New York Timesof April 9. It is entitled "Hello, Cambodia." The article describes the "flocking" to Cambodia of factories that are fleeing China because of the rise of wage-levels in China, a previous recipient of such runaway factories. However, the article continues, "multinational companies are finding that they can run from China's rising wages but cannot truly hide."

The problem for the multinationals is that the incredible expansion of communications has caused the end of the win-win situation. Workers in Cambodia today have begun syndical action after only a few years, not after twenty-five. There are strikes and pressure for higher wages and benefits, which they are receiving. This of course reduces the value for the multinationals of moving to Cambodia, or Myanmar, or Vietnam, or the Philippines. It now turns out that the savings of moving from China are not all that great.

The Times article notes that "some factories have moved anyway, at the request of Western buyers who fear depending on a single country." Conclusion of a manufacturing consultant: There are risks of moving to Cambodia, but "there's a risk in staying in China, too." In any case, is there somewhere to move the runaway factory? Or is Cambodia the end of the line?

The bottom line is that the combination of already enormous and still increasing de-ruralization and the rapidity with which workers can learn of their relatively low wages and therefore begin to take syndical action has resulted in a continuing rise in the pay levels of the least skilled workers, and therefore a worldwide negative pressure of the possibilities of accumulating capital. This is not good news for the large multinationals.

This is all one element in what has become the structural crisis of the modern world-system. We are experiencing a combination of ever-increasing austerity pressures on the 99% with a capitalist system that is no longer so profitable for capitalists. This combination means that capitalism as a world-system is on its way out.

Both sides are seeking alternatives - but obviously different ones. We are collectively facing a "choice" over the next decades. One possibility is a new non-capitalist system that replicates (and perhaps worsens) the three essential features of capitalism - hierarchy, exploitation, and polarization. The other possibility is a new system that is relatively democratic and relatively egalitarian. The latter system, one should underline, has never existed in the history of the world. But it is possible.

In any case, Cambodia is not the future of the modern world-system. It represents rather the last vestiges of a mechanism that no longer performs its task in salvaging capitalism.

by Immanuel Wallerstein