We need real "Full Employment" legislation to hold the politicians accountable.

It is very important to note that Congressman John Conyers is pushing a "jobs bill" which he has intentionally mis-named a "full employment" bill.

I am all for supporting Conyer's legislation but it must be referred to as a "jobs bill" not a "full employment bill" because it is very modest in its goals and objectives as compared to the real unemployment AND under-employment we have in this country at this time which requires so much more.

I would also note that as far as single-payer goes, Conyers betrayed us on single-payer in the same way he betrayed us on prosecuting the Bush and Cheney gang (he also had Cindy Sheehan arrested when she showed up with a crowd at his office simply for insisting that he make good on his promise to seek the prosecution of Bush and Cheney). Conyers let the war criminals go free and had the proponent of peace arrested.

Conyers' political career is coming to a very sad ending after decades of participation in progressive struggles because he and his wife have been engaged in some of the worst kind of political corruption and bribery. (His wife was convicted and given a very light prison sentence and Conyers was not prosecuted--- probably because in return he refused to seek the prosecution of Bush and Cheney and in return for his betrayal of single-payer (HR 676) when his continued support would have really mattered.)

Nothing Conyers pushes receives much support--- not even from his own Congressional Progressive Caucus let alone the rest of Congress and Obama.

In J. Edgar Hoover's words directed towards Conyers in his earlier years--- Conyers has been successfully "neutralized" at the time he and his wife succumbed to corporate bribes.

I wouldn't be surprised if Conyers and his wife were intentionally offered the bait (the bribes) in order to undermine his credibility and to "neutralize" them; but, the facts are what they are--- they took the bribes as his wife admitted.

I did contact Conyers' office about the mis-naming of his jobs bill and his aide told me it was a "matter of semantics and one's perception." Another of his aides contacted me last week to ask me about the "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity." I told her that Conyers would be the very last person I would want to discuss this with.

I have personally known John Conyers for many years and it saddens me to have to say these things about him but as far as his usefulness as a progressive politician, and a leftist at that, those days are over.

Conyers has, willingly, become part of a thoroughly rotten and corrupt political system.

In fact, there isn't one single member of the U.S. House or U.S. Senate who can be counted on to bring forward the "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" (or whatever it might be called). We need to build the movement which creates and brings forward a new kind of people's politicians from within the ranks of grassroots activists to bring forward and push this kind of legislation. Given such a movement, we could probably convince a few members of the House and Senate to support such measures but a three fingered man who lost his other fingers in an industrial accident could probably still count those members of the House and Senate on his three-fingered hand.

As the most progressive member of the Minnesota State Senate, David Tomassoni, told me: "We have to work our way out of this economic mess." Full employment is key to solving our numerous problems, including the economic problems which come with massive unemployment--- all of our problems resulting from Wall Street's greed which is part and parcel of this political corruption.

I believe you will find there are very few people around--- other than Wall Street's over-paid pundits and bribed politicians--- who will disagree with the concept of what is embodied in this suggested "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity; but, like everything else in this country there is a massive chasm between what most Americans want, the kind of country they want to live in--- and what we are getting out of the present Wall Street government: a kick in the head.

I would note that with the Canadian New Democratic Party, we not only have an example of an alternative kind of politics, but a very honest and un-corrupted kind of politics in spite of its many problems derived from ideological controversies.

If anyone wants to read about what an honest government really looks like, I would suggest reading the book by Howard Pawley, the former Manitoba Premier: "Keep True; my life in politics." Honest government amidst corporate Wall Street and Bay Street corruption and rule is possible. And numerous real reforms from which working people's lives are improved is possible. Just as real health care reform is possible--- provided the right kind of struggles are waged by the right kind of organizations, unions and political parties.

No matter what criticisms anyone may have about Canada's socialist New Democratic Party which is now on the precipice and verge of taking national political power--- the NDP has provided honesty in government. And given the corruption in North American politics today, this is a very major achievement--- a true people's victory over political corruption which proves that the people united can move forward even when dirty money seems to be in complete control and domination of the political process.

By bringing people together--- liberals, progressives and leftists--- around the most unifying issues of our times confronting our most pressing problems we can make real change. Something like the "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" can help us build this kind of required movement.

Those people who decide to stand by politicians like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Conyers will not be part of any movements for real change.

Minnesotans had great hopes for Congressman Keith Ellison. Once again, those hopes have been dashed by another Democrat posing as a "progressive." Ellison is in a perfect position to bring forward real Full Employment legislation and he refuses to do so. If Congressman Ellison would push such legislation as vigorously as he has supported Obama's drive to wars we would have a piece of legislation to unite people around. Such is not the case so we have to initiate the movement and write the legislation and elect a new kind of politician to public office as we mobilize people to take to the streets with this kind of demand insisting this is the kind of country we want to live in. Only peace can provide full employment--- Democratic Congressman Wright Patman pointed this out as did Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace as they, along with the left-led unions of the CIO and a broad-based people's movement pushed the "Full Employment Act of 1945." Their activities accomplished a great deal--- forcing the United States Senate to support the Act. Now we have to complete this task. 

-- 

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/

Obamacare

Over the last three weeks, I have attended 8 meetings in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan about Obamacare. In general these meetings of been "information sessions" and defense of Obamacare. But one thing comes through at these meetings, all of them, very forcefully: people are insisting on single-payer, Medicare for All or some form of socialized health care with sentiment in support of socialized health care--- a National Public Health Care System growing--- with both the single-payer supporters and defenders of Obamacare trying their damnedest to stifle any discussion about socialized health care.

Both the single-payer advocates--- and, personally, I support single-payer as long as it is pushed as a step towards a National Public Health Care System.

I find it interesting that the advocates of single-payer who are Johnny-come-latelies to the ideas of Canada's Tommy Douglas are twisting Tommy Douglas' ideas about single-payer to fit their narrow motives and agenda.

Tommy Douglas did NOT bring single-payer health care to Saskatchewan. Tommy Douglas' government of socialists was socializing Saskatchewan's health care system when his opposition got scared in seeing the tremendous support Douglas and his socialist colleagues in Saskatchewan were receiving right across Canada which resulted in a reform agreement that became Canada's single-payer health care system with Tommy Douglas continually advocating for socialized health care up until he took his last breath from his deathbed.

If we look closely at who the leading defenders of Obamacare are, we find they are the foundation-funded groups who are continually cautioning us to "be patient;" that "change comes slow" and we should be satisfied with "baby steps" and "incremental reforms."

The fact is, Obamacare will help some people but most people will suffer in one way or another from Obamacare.

This has been a hallmark of the Obama Administration and the Democrats throughout the entire Obama period: Help a few people and get these people selfishly clamoring in defense of a few minor reforms which are part of legislative packages that harm and hurt far more people than they help with Wall Street profiteers raking in the profits.

The foundation-funded outfits serve as a kind of "pressure release valve" preventing the anger of the people from taking on major universal reform initiatives that would be of benefit to everyone like the New Deal reforms and Civil Rights legislation.

The foundation-funded outfits want us to believe that a struggle for a National Public Health Care System is some kind of far-fetched, pie-in-the-sky idea put forward by liberals, progressives and leftists who have no connection with reality. Of course, these foundation flowers receive their pay-checks from the "great philanthropists" who are none other than the greedy Wall Street bastards who profit from all of our problems be the problems related to health care, poverty wages, unemployment, racism or war.

So, these foundation flowers have a vested interest, which they NEVER disclose as they counsel us to be satisfied with itsy-bitsy baby steps and incremental reforms (and most of the time the "reforms" are more in line with Wall Street's reactionary agenda setting us all back instead of moving us all forward together)when what is really required are massive governmental universal social programs not these "market driven reforms" like Obamacare.

We need cast aside the "advice" from these foundation-flowers and launch and initiate struggles for a National Public Health Care System--- if we agree to settle in the midst of struggle as Tommy Douglas and his socialists did, temporarily, for some kind of Canadian-type single-payer system this is one thing.

But lets not get sucked into supporting and defending small bits and pieces of Obamacare when most people will suffer from it.

We need to view the struggle for jobs in the same way. Let's not get sucked into believing John Conyers is putting forward "full employment legislation" (which, by the way Obama and most Democrats don't support) when he is actually bringing forward a good job creating program but only for a very small number of the total number of people unemployed. But, at least Conyer's jobs bill doesn't contain anything that will harm or hurt any working people as it helps some people.

Obama could have brought forward piecemeal reforms helping only a small number of people without huring and harming most people instead of the for-profit driven Obamacare but he chose not to.

Just like we need to launch a struggle for a National Public Health Care System we need to initiate and launch a struggle for full employment legislation.

In fact, more than any other reforms, a National Public Health Care System would create millions of new jobs--- some 12 to fifteen-million new jobs--- if we pushed for a New Deal type solution by advocating for a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would require Congress and the president to be legislatively required to attain and maintain full employment.

Common sense alone should tell us that we can solve our unemployment problems by putting people to work solving the problems of the people and our entire society.

Why would anyone oppose putting fifteen-million people to work providing the American people with free health care through a massive network of community and neighborhood health care centers instead of our tax-dollars financing these barbaric wars, militarism and over 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil protecting Wall Street's interests and assets which justifiably belong to other people?

Only these foundation-flowers whose paychecks are derived from these Wall Street "philanthropists" could concoct illogical reasons why we should reject the notion of reforms coming in "incremental" and "baby-steps" and even such reactionary legislation as Obamacare being passed off as "reform" when the only thing the "Affordable Care Act" really is is a piece of job-killing legislation which should rightfully be called by its proper name: the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010."

The doctors also profit big-time from Obamacare.

I wouldn't count on the doctors or any of their organizations, including PNHP, launching real struggles for either single-payer or socialized health care because they join the Wall Street crowd in reaping huge profits from Obamacare as they further gouge the American people.

That even Obama refers to Obamacare as his "signature" piece of legislation for which he wants us to remember his tenure in office should serve to remind us all that Obama's only commitment is to Wall Street--- and Wall Street is our common enemy.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/165392/perceived-need-third-party-reaches-new-high.aspx

 

October 11, 2013

In U.S., Perceived Need for Third Party Reaches New High

Twenty-six percent believe Democratic and Republican parties do adequate job

by Jeffrey M. Jones

This article is part of an ongoing series analyzing how the government shutdown and the debate over raising the debt ceiling are affecting Americans' views of government, government leaders, political parties, the economy, and the country in general.
PRINCETON, NJ -- Amid the government shutdown, 60% of Americans say the Democratic and Republicans parties do such a poor job of representing the American people that a third major party is needed. That is the highest Gallup has measured in the 10-year history of this question. A new low of 26% believe the two major parties adequately represent Americans.

The results are consistent with Gallup's finding of more negative opinions of both parties since the shutdown began, including a new low favorable rating for the Republican Party, and Americans' widespread dissatisfaction with the way the nation is being governed.
The prior highs in perceived need for a third party came in August 2010, shortly before that year's midterm elections, when Americans were dissatisfied with government and the Tea Party movement was emerging as a political force; and in 2007, when the newly elected Democratic congressional majority was clashing with then-President George W. Bush.
A majority of Americans have typically favored a third party in response to this question. Notably, support has dropped below the majority level in the last two presidential election years in which Gallup asked the question, 2012 and 2008. Support for a third party was lowest in 2003, the first year Gallup asked the question. That year, 40% thought the U.S. needed a third party, while 56% believed the Republicans and Democrats were doing an adequate job.
Republicans, Democrats Equally Likely to See Need for Third Party
Republicans (52%) and Democrats (49%) are similar in their perceptions that a third party is needed. In fact, this marks the first time that a majority of either party's supporters have said a third party is needed.

GALLUP ANALYTICS: Sign up to learn how you can access Gallup's global database >

As would be expected, a majority of independents -- those who profess no initial allegiance to either party -- have always said the U.S. needs a third party. Seventy-one percent currently hold that view, which has been exceeded twice before, in 2007 and 2010.
Implications
Given the inability of the Republican and Democratic parties to agree on the most basic of government functions -- passing an annual budget to pay for federal programs -- it is perhaps not surprising that the percentage of Americans who believe a third party is needed has never been higher.
However, the desire for a third party is not sufficient to ensure there will be one. Structural factors in the U.S. election system and the parties' own abilities to adapt to changing public preferences have helped the Republican and Democratic parties to remain the dominant parties in U.S. government for more than 150 years. Third parties that have emerged to challenge their dominance have not been able to sustain any degree of electoral success.

Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Oct. 3-6, 2013, with a random sample of 1,028 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by region. Landline and cell telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.
Samples are weighted to correct for unequal selection probability, nonresponse, and double coverage of landline and cell users in the two sampling frames. They are also weighted to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, population density, and phone status (cellphone only/landline only/both, and cellphone mostly). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2012 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older U.S. population. Phone status targets are based on the July-December 2011 National Health Interview Survey. Population density targets are based on the 2010 census. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
View methodology, full question results, and trend data.
For more details on Gallup's polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com.

What working people need to understand about debt and debt ceilings.

What hardly anyone understands is that the deficit is a direct attack on the living standards of working people upon whose back the interest on the debt is financed since the rich aren't being taxed to the hilt as they should be. And all these over-paid pundits like Paul Krugman evade talking about this truth.

Jimmy Carter: Today’s middle class was my administration’s poverty level

Check out this Associated Press video of Jimmy Carter speaking. Very insightful comments. Media across the world has picked up his comments. Rosalyn Carter's comment at the end in the video is even more insightful:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/news-video/video-carter-middle-class-today-resembles-pasts-poor/article14739090/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/08/jimmy-carter-middle-class/2941391/


OAKLAND, California (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House.

Carter offered his assessment of the nation's economic challenges Monday at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Oakland — the first of five cities he and wife Rosalynn plan to visit this week to commemorate their three-decade alliance with the international nonprofit that promotes and builds affordable housing.

The recent economic downturn revealed that families living in even comparatively well-off, but expensive regions like the San Francisco Bay Area are economically insecure, Carter said.

"Even in one of the wealthiest parts of the world there is a great deal of foreclosures and now a great deal of people who are fortunate to own their own houses owe more on them than the houses are worth in the present market, and that's all changed in the last eight years," Carter said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Taking a break from framing windows at a new 12-unit town house development in a section of East Oakland where Habitat already has built or repaired 115 homes, the 89-year-old former Democratic president said the federal government is investing less in affordable housing at a time of greater need.

"The disparity between rich people and poor people in America has increased dramatically since when we started," he said. "The middle class has become more like poor people than they were 30 years ago. So I don't think it's getting any better."

Years of tax breaks for the wealthy, a minimum wage untethered from the inflation rate and electoral districts drawn to maximize political polarization have reduced the quality of life for all but a small fraction of Americans and imperiled the nation's standing as "a real superpower," he said.

"The richest people in America would be better off if everybody lived in a decent home and had a chance to pay for it, and if everyone had enough income even if they had a daily job to be good buyers for the products that are produced," said Carter, looking relaxed in a baseball cap, blue jeans and white sneakers.

Habitat for Humanity was founded in Georgia, the home state of the Carters. They first joined a Habitat for Humanity work site in 1984 in New York and have spent a week every year working on construction sites in the U.S. and abroad.

Grand Forks Herald publishes my "Letter to the Editor" about the need for a "“21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity.”

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/274770/


Published October 03, 2013, 05:15 AM

Alan Maki, Warroad, Minn. letters: Government should focus on creating jobs

Alan Maki of Warroad writes in about the government and jobs. By: Alan Maki, Grand Forks Herald

WARROAD, Minn. — Another election must be around the corner because politicians are talking, again, about “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

This talk is the epitome of hypocrisy, coming as it does from politicians who refuse to make themselves legislatively accountable for attaining and maintaining full employment.

And these same politicians also have the gall to assure employers they’ll be able to pay workers sub-poverty minimum wages.

Think about this:

Why do most people work?

Don’t most people work so they won’t be poor?

Like “jobs, jobs, jobs,” the minimum wage is being kicked around by mean-spirited, self-serving politicians who first refuse to create the jobs they talk about and then they saddle millions of workers and their families with a sub-poverty Minimum Wage.

Try raising a family on a minimum wage of $6.15, $7.25, $9 or even $10 an hour. Just try.

Any schoolchild knows that if you pay people a poverty wage, they are going to be poor.

And common sense tells us workers without jobs are going to be poor.

The government should spend money on creating jobs —- jobs paying real living wages — rather than on militarization, foreign military bases, wars and occupations.

The other thing we hear politicians talk about is health care. These same politicians have platinum-grade health insurance, compliments of the taxpayers.

If we had a National Public Health Care System which was operated, administered and funded like public education, we could put 15 million people to work at real living-wage jobs in neighborhoods and community health care centers, providing the American people with free platinum-grade health care just like the politicians get at our expense.

What we need is a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity.” At last, it would make politicians accountable for their rhetoric when it comes to jobs, the minimum wage and health care.

Alan Maki

---

Maki is director of organizing for the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council.

Tags: in the mail, opinion, updates

1945 was an important year for the working classes of Great Britain and the United States.

Some people want to forget that in Great Britain in 1945 the working class coming out of World War II, led by the Communist Party, was full determination to fight for its rights and was able to muster the strength and the power to complete much of the progressive agenda that the working class in this country was also seeking but here in this country the working class was confronted by a massive Wall Street assault of governmental repression resulting in a huge and prolonged setback that put an end to the expansion of New Deal reforms and with an unrelenting and vicious red-baiting attack chopped off labor's head while sowing greater division between the Communist and Socialist parties.

The New Left joined this attack on the working class as it tried to replace working class Marxist ideology with muddle-headed upper middle class interpretations of Marxism. and this goes on today with these super-revolutionary New Leftists having taken up with Obama and his Wall Street imperialist agenda trying to make people believe the Democratic Party and its politicians are the vehicle for change when nothing could be further from the truth.

We should look back at history to 1945 to figure out why the British working class won in 1945 what the U.S. working class did not. There are important lessons to be learned.

Our setbacks began with the defeat of the "Full Employment Act of 1945."

It is dishonest to deny this history. We don't learn this history to our own detriment.

What is involved in the concept of a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity?"

“21^st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”

Mandatory full employment--- make the president and Congress legislatively responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment like what was called for in the “Full Employment Act of 1945” which was authored by liberal Texas Democrat Wright Patman.

Put America to work creating jobs solving the problems of our people and society. This is what was envisaged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Vice-president, Henry A. Wallace, his Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins and his trusted adviser Harry Hopkins, the architect of job creating public works programs.

What we are advocating is nothing new. We don't have to “re-invent the wheel.” We are advocating restoring the New Deal to what it was intended to be and completing its unfinished agenda cut short by vicious Wall Street attacks on the working class.

Elanor Roosevelt worked to assure that all of this was included in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Winning this legislation will take re-creating the historic coalition of liberals, progressives and leftists who struggled for, and won, the New Deal together with a new working class based progressive people's party.

Raise the Minimum Wage based on cost of living factors indexed to inflation with regular increases to improve standard of living.

Jobs programs...

Universal health care--- 15 million jobs

universal child care--- 5 million jobs

WPA--- infrastructure, schools, community centers, high speed rail and affordable mass transit

CCC--- reforestation, flood control, dams and levees and environmental safeguards and clean-up

CETA--- training for WPA, CCC, green technology, computer training for all, etc.

Build homes for the homeless based on the Habitat for Humanity model as a government program

Build and Repair infrastructure

Retirement age reduced to 55.

More vacation time--- 3 weeks minimum with pay for everyone.

Reduced work week 32hrs with 40hrs pay.

Social Security, increase benefits and expand programs.

The right to a job is the most fundamental and basic human right; workers without jobs are going to be poor.

Increase Food Stamp benefits and pay farmers to produce instead of paying farmers not to produce.

Increase unemployment compensation from time of unemployment to back to work with unemployment compensation a real living income based on cost of living.

Enforce Affirmative Action until a level playing field is achieved for people of color, women and the handicapped.

Pay for it all with:

“Peace dividends” derived from ending militarism and wars.

A hefty tax on the rich.

A tax on Wall Street transactions.

Double the employer portion of the Social Security tax.

A tax on natural resource extraction: taconite tax, stumpage fees, oil, gas, etc.

All funding processed through a federal public bank like the State Bank of North Dakota.

Picking up where the New Deal left off.

In addition to the “21^st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity” there is going to have to be additional legislation to:

* Place a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.

* Create no-interest student loans and forgive all interest debt on existing student loans.

* Roll back prices and initiate price controls on food, electricity, gas and home heating fuels.

* Remove all sales taxes on food and clothing.

I was asked to write a guest blog on Cindy Sheehan's blog...

Here is the link:

"We need a living wage"

http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2013/09/we-need-living-wage-guest-blog-by-alan.html

Letter to the Editor submitted for publication in Labor World. Minimum Wage and Full Employment.

September 24, 2013



Letter to the Editor submitted for publication in Labor World.

One of the most heated and controversial topics that will come up before the new session of the Minnesota State Legislature will be around the Minimum Wage and what the Minimum Wage should be. Presently Minnesota's Minimum Wage is a pathetically miserly wage of $6.15 an hour--- just try living on that.

As pathetic as the Minimum Wage is miserly, the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party with its super-majority ended the last session without raising the Minimum Wage a plug nickle. So much for this party's concern about working people.

But, the real question is: How should the Minimum Wage be established?

As Democrats squabble among Democrats and then Republicans and Democrats squabble between them over the Minimum Wage all for self-serving political expediency, one fact remains: workers paid poverty wages are going to be poor which means hundreds of thousands of working class families will be living in poverty here in Minnesota.

And then these same politicians imposing these poverty wages will squander tax-dollars to fund studies to find out why people are poor.

Anyone can hear what the politicians themselves are saying about the Minimum Wage by listening to this news story on Minnesota Public Radio:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/09/16/politics/minimum-wage-legislature

The foundation-funded outfit, Jobs With Justice, recently sent this out:

Dear Alan, 

The federal minimum wage is set at $7.50 per hour. But we all know that isn't a living wage. $7.50 an hour isn't nearly enough to meet the minimums of life. It's not enough to make sure there's food on the table for families. And it's not enough to put a roof over the heads of the millions of working poor in our country.
D.C. residents recently fought for retail workers to get a raise to $12.50 an hour, California legislators are well on their way to increasing their state minimum wage to $10, and Minnesota leaders just announced that they are considering a bill to raise their minimum wage to $9.50.
If it were up to you – what would you set minimum wages at to ensure they are also living wages?

Even this group just doesn't get it.

As this article from the Minnesota AFL-CIO proves, even this labor body just doesn't get it when it comes to the Minimum Wage:
http://www.mnaflcio.org/press/fight-minimum-wage-increase-will-continue

Common sense, and a basic sense of human decency and justice, requires that the Minimum Wage should be legislatively tied to all cost-of-living factors indexed to inflation with periodic increases to improve the standard of living of working class families.

Why should any worker be forced to work at a job that doesn't provide a real living wage based on all cost-of-living factors as determined by the United States Depart of Labor's (over) Bureau of Labor Statistics?

If employers don't want to pay real living wages let them do the work themselves.

I find it rather ironic we never hear politicians talking about “cost-of-living” and “standard-of-living” when the Minimum Wage is being discussed.

Of course we never hear about the super-profits employers derive from paying workers poverty wages.

And, we never hear from politicians how severe unemployment pushes all wages, including the Minimum Wage, down.

What we need is a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity” which would legislatively mandate that the president and Congress be responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment with real living wage jobs and then we would see all wages rise.

The Minnesota State Legislature with a DFL super-majority should pass such a resolution and pass it on to President Obama and all members of Congress. After all, what are the three top issues of every single DFL candidate for public office? "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs." It is rather hypocritical to talk about jobs to get elected and then once elected not make yourself accountable for creating these jobs.

If anyone would like to refute me as to how the Minimum Wage should be established I would be happy to participate in public debates--- anytime, anywhere.

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



58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763

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

21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity

Let's put it in the public square for discussion.

Make politicians accountable for full employment.

We have heard enough idle talk about "jobs, jobs, jobs."

H.R. 671; National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013

Re: H.R. 671, National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013

This is Republican created legislation that Minnesota Democratic Congressman Rick Nolan voted for which passed the U.S. House.

Once again we find Democrat Nolan voting right along with these Republicans who we are told are so rotten we must settle for the "lesser evil" Democrats. Just like with Obama; vote for a Democrat and get a Republican.

H.R. 671 is intended to be a very big part of the continuing increased militarization of our country and our economy.

This is the actual act that passed in the U.S. House which U.S. Congressman Rick Nolan voted for:

http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/761

See this link for definition of "strategic and critical minerals:" 

http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/50xx/doc5043/doc15-entire.pdf

Nolan and the DFL would like to ignore the huge carbon footprint the Military-Industrial Complex and its related industries like mining have here in Minnesota.

In fact, over 40% of all iron ore and other minerals mined here in Minnesota is related to war production, war and rebuilding in the aftermath of imperialist wars of aggression with World War Two omitted.

The foundation-funded environmentalists choose to intentionally ignore this; choosing, instead, to just call this part of the entire carbon footprint.

Combine this mining with processing and production--- including transportation and energy required for mining, processing and production and one begins to realize the huge carbon footprint of this Military-Industrial Complex; and this is before figuring in the actual carbon footprint of the wars themselves. 

Coming from one who claims to be both an environmentalist and a voice for peace, Nolan's letter smacks of the worst kind of hypocrisy, second only to those in the Indian Gaming Industry like Mike Wiggins who feigns concern for the degradation of air quality resulting from mining but forces casino workers to work in smoke-filled casinos without so much as any consideration.

And I would note that the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association and the National Indian Gaming Association have contributed thousands of dollars to Rick Nolan's campaigns.

How can the people win when it comes to peace or the environment when they are backing hypocrites like Rick Nolan?

I would note that Rick Nolan has supported, and in return received support from, Kevin Leecy and Archie LaRose--- to vicious and violent criminals involved in Indian Gaming with Kevin Leecy being the Vice-chair of the National Indian Gaming Association. This is the hypocrite who beat his wife unconscious and Nolan and his DFL buddies saw to it that Leecy was not placed in prison where he belongs.

All of this corruption and violence go hand-in-hand with a terribly sick society with the Military-Industrial Complex at the root of it all. 

Needless to say, the drone industry requires many of these "strategic and critical minerals" as do the slot machines of the Indian Gaming Industry... hence we find these two partners destroying our living environment, exploiting workers and in the case of the Indian Gaming Industry forcing workers to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos without protection from any rights.

And who profits from it all? A bunch of Wall Street merchants of death and destruction and a few racist wealthy white mobsters who own all the slot machines.

What a world we live in.

The Minimum Wage and Social Security are being talked about... we must be on the eve of another election; I guess I will add my two-cents, too.

Please feel free to distribute.

We have been hearing a lot about attacks on Social Security and the Minimum Wage.

Labor has not had the proper response.

Richard Trumka, the President of the AFL-CIO, hailed Jerry Brown increasing the Minimum Wage in California to $10.00 an hour--- but, we needed to read the small print: $10.00 an hour beginning in 2016!
Anyone care to explain exactly what $10.00 an hour will buy you in a state like California with such a high cost of living? And the cost of living will be even higher when this $10.00 an hour kicks in in three years--- 2016.

How much does a loaf of bread cost in California?

How much is a gallon of milk?
How much is a package of hot dogs or a dozen eggs?

How much is peanut butter?

How much is rent?

How much is gas?

How much is electricity?

How much is college tuition?

How much will Obamacare cost?

Why isn't anyone placing this $10.00 an hour and the paltry increases in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 in perspective of what a working class family can purchase with the Minimum Wage?

None of these politicians, the over-paid pundits or the over-paid labor leaders want to talk about "cost-of-living" and "standard-of-living."

Games are being played for political expediency by both Democrats and Republicans.

Here in Minnesota we have the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's leader in the State Senate, Tom Bakk, who boasts in his campaign literature that he was an officer in the Building Trades Unions calling for a pathetically miserly "increase" in the Minimum Wage opposing the billionaire DFL Governor, Mark Dayton's call for increasing the Minimum Wage a dollar an hour more than what Bakk wants it to be--- Bakk is crying the blues for the hospitality industry, billionaire Dayton--- an heir to the Dayton-Hudson-Target Store fortune--- wants to make sure Target Stores get to keep paying employees a poverty wage as profits soar.

And then, tossed into the mix, there is Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson calling for the Minimum Wage to be raised to a miserly $10.00 an hour. Knutson knows better. Knutson comes from a family of Socialists and Communists who taught her about "cost-of-living" and "standard-of-living" yet she kowtows to a bunch of Dumb Donkeys. 

No one is talking about the politics and economics of livelihood when it comes to the Minimum Wage or Social Security--- both of which are inseparably linked... as goes the Minimum Wage, so goes Social Security.

If you want a miserly poverty Minimum Wage, Social Security will continue to pay out a pathetic poverty income. You get out what you pay in.

Again, and this needs to be stressed; none of these politicians, the over-paid pundits or the over-paid labor leaders want to talk about "cost-of-living" and "standard-of-living."
Why not?

Because we don't have a national political party bringing these concepts into the proverbial "public square" which democracy requires if we are going to find solutions to our problems.

Pay a worker poverty wages and you have a working class family living in poverty. Any school child understands this.

The best way to protect and expand Social Security is through Full Employment with real living wage jobs and with a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage based on--- and legislatively tied to--- all cost-of-living factors indexed to inflation with regular increases to constantly improve the living standards of working people which would have the impact of pushing all wages and living standards up for all working people. This would result in increased payments into the Social Security Trust Fund which should be held and managed by a National Public Bank and these funds would then be available to help finance a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity"--- the solution to unemployment and any financial problems plaguing Social Security; everyone works and pays in, everyone get a real living income out upon retirement which should be at age 55 for all workers.

What the working class needs to get behind is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity;" legislation that would be brought forward by a new working class based progressive people's party like labor has in Canada with its socialist New Democratic Party. 

I do not understand why Richard Trumka and the fifty-seven members of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council would piddle around with these Democratic Party politicians who are nothing but whores for Wall Street vultures and parasites who are cutting social programs and forcing austerity measures down our throats to pay for what Mark Twain called "dirty imperialist wars."

We need to ask ourselves:

How is Barack Obama's Wall Street war economy working for us?

Chances are, most working people will tell you that it isn't working out very well for them.

In fact, these dirty wars are killing our jobs just like they are killing people and with millions of workers unemployed that means fewer people paying into Social Security.

We need to put America back to work as Stewart Acuff has suggested and the only way to do this is through massive public works jobs programs.

A National Public Health Care System would create some 15-million new jobs providing the American people with free health care through a network of community and neighborhood clinics; instead of a network of health care clinics the Democrats and Republicans are squandering our taxes and resources maintaining over 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil. 

Over one-hundred years after the Spanish American War we still have U.S. troops occupying the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. These dirty imperialist wars don't come cheap and the expensive, undemocratic occupations never end.

The American people need a National Public Child Care System which would create another 5-million new jobs providing working class families--- and all families--- with free child care.

Our system of public education works just fine. It was organized labor and the working class which fought for our system of public education which creates millions of jobs--- National Public Health Care and National Public Child Care would be based on the public education model.

We need the restoration of the WPA, CCC and CETA--- these three public works programs combined would create well over ten-million new jobs.

Paying for all of this would come from "peace dividends" as we end these dirty wars and shut down these foreign military bases. If this isn't enough then tax the hell out of the rich--- make those Forbes 400 Billionaires pay through the nose until they cry.

The wealth being squandered on these dirty wars and that extreme, obscene wealth being horded by these millionaires and billionaires is all wealth that we as working people have created.

We need a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would contain all of this. By putting America to work this is the way we protect, defend and expand Social Security. 

Where are the voices of Richard Trumka and the 57 members of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council when it comes to supporting such legislation? 

We need more than Richard Trumka's bark if we are going to challenge Wall Street for political and economic power--- we need to fight in a way that these Wall Street bribed politicians feel our bite.

We placed before Richard Trumka and the 57 member AFL-CIO's Executive Council, the delegates to the National Convention, the State Feds and local labor councils this statement upon invitation to participate in the discussion and we haven't heard back a word from one single member of the Executive Council or Richard Trumka... we are asking working people to check this out to see if it doesn't make more sense to advocate for a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" instead of going along to get along with a bunch of Dumb Donkeys:

Sisters and Brothers, Fellow Workers;

Uniting People (UP) is a new national organization for Peace, Equality, Full Employment, Universal Health Care and Protection of the Environment. We appreciate the invitation extended by the AFL-CIO to all people and organizations to comment on its White Paper, “Prosperity Economics, Building An Economy For All” by Jacob S. Hacker and Nate Loewentheil, intended to create discussion about the direction of organized labor and the kind of country we all want to live in where peace, social and economic justice for working people prevail.

Democracy--- as well as social, economic and environmental justice--- require no less than a full and broad discussion of these important concerns and issues.

We agree with the concept of “prosperity economics” by “building an economy that works for everyone.”  There are several very basic facts left out of this “White Paper” and it is very hazy, vague and nebulous as to what our concrete and specific goals and objectives are to be and what kind of movement and struggle it will take for the working class--- organized and unorganized together--- to create a prosperity economics for us all.

The “White Paper” does not clearly articulate our main enemy: Wall Street. The “White Paper” doesn't reflect the fact that we, as working people, are engaged in a social, political and economic struggle for power with the intent to replace Wall Street's dominance over every aspect of our lives--- in our schools, at work and in our communities.

Let's state right up front workers create all wealth but workers have had no say in how this wealth is distributed and used. This needs to change. Democracy requires no less.

Let's also put it right out there before the American people that militarism and wars are squandering the wealth of our Nation to such a large extent we don't have the resources to solve our many domestic problems. These dirty imperialist wars are killing our jobs and our standard of living just like they kill people.

Militarism and wars are a major contributing factor to the world-wide collapsing capitalist economy. No nation can continue to endlessly use the wealth of its nation to prepare for wars and to fight wars. This is sheer insanity.

Wall Street's greedy drive for profits results in wars which exacerbates our problems.  

Detroit goes broke; the rest of our cities are sure to follow as Wall Street wallows in profits. 

Working people go without adequate health care; insurance and pharmaceutical companies get fabulously wealthy. Shorter workweeks/longer vacations with no cut in pay create jobs and would keep us healthier, too.

Our public institutions like public education fall apart, crumble and collapse just like our roads, highways and bridges because we are constantly feeding a war machine intended to fight never-ending wars waged to protect Wall Street's assets and profits.

Prosperity for all begins with the recognition peace is required to achieve full employment. 

Full employment is about the government seeing to it that jobs are created for all at real living wages. It is about putting people to work by creating massive universal social programs like Medicare for All, not job destroying legislation like Obama-care as detrimental to our health and jobs as wars without providing real health care reform while pushing the price of health care up instead of its stated intent to push prices down.  

Eliminating militarism and wars eliminates the largest carbon footprint contributing to global warming and climate change as the Military Industrial Complex wastes our precious resources in a huge, monstrous complex that ruins our environment---  power generation, mining, manufacturing, the resources like oil and gas required to fight wars. Preparation for war, and war itself, creates a mammoth sized carbon footprint destroying our living environment while creating massive joblessness and poverty and ill health for our people as our air, water and land gets polluted.

The Wall Street selected politicians talk about “jobs, jobs, jobs” when their hidden agenda is really “profits, profits, profits” and “war, war, and more war.”

The time has come to make politicians legislatively responsible for full employment and peace because prosperity economics requires: peace and full employment--- a healthy people and a healthy environment.

Therefore, we propose that a central goal of the American labor and working class movement needs to be the building of an economy for all that is inseparably linked to peace and full employment which must include:

A Minimum Wage tied to all cost of living factors indexed to inflation. Jobs or a living income for all.

Medicare for All. Protect, defend and expand Social Security programs.

Legislation prohibiting lockouts and scabbing. Repeal of “At-Will Employment” legislation--- the primary obstacle to worker empowerment and union organizing. 

Price controls are needed for food, gas, home heating fuels and electricity. 

A healthy economy means a healthy living environment and a healthy planet. We need a quality of life index.

The two-party system is a trap for working people. We must free ourselves from the Democrats and Republicans. A working class based people's party is required if we are going to have a prosperity economics that works for all of us. We can learn a thing or two about health care and politics from our Canadian Brothers and Sisters.

We are now at a crossroads. 

We will have an economy that serves Wall Street or we will have an economy that works for the rest of us--- we can't have both just like we can't have both war and full employment.

We encourage the use of the proposed Full Employment Act of 1945 pushed by the CIO unions and authored by liberal Texas Congressman Wright Patman and the associated hearing testimonies to broaden this discussion:

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015081304209;seq=10;view=1up 

We also call to your attention the excellent Op-Ed piece by Bob Herbert, “Losing Our Way,” his last piece in the New York Times (March 25, 2011), which declares:

"The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely."

We ask: What ever happened to William Winpisinger's "Rebuild America Act" and the “peace dividend?” The AFL-CIO should bring back to life its Committee on Conversion--- from military production to producing for human needs; swords into plowshares is what was advocated by the International Association of Machinist's former President, William Winpisinger. Where is this advocacy for peace and reordering our Nation's priorities now?

Thank you for allowing us to offer our critique of the AFL-CIO's “White Paper” and our alternative perspectives.

In solidarity and struggle. Uniting People (UP) for peace, equality, full employment, universal health care and protection of the environment.

Blog: http://unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com/       

Contact by e-mail: uniting_people@lists.riseup.net 

Finding solutions to our problems means building powerful movements backed by our own political party.

We need to get thousands of Americans to endorse the idea of a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity."

This means creating neighborhood and community organizations to go out and educate, organize and unite people into a powerful movement.

Meetings, petitions, letters to the editor, tabling, educational picket-lines, demonstrations.

Most important, we need to talk about all of this with our friends, neighbors and fellow workers where ever we find people. 

Let's really defend and protect Social Security and make the Minimum Wage a real living wage.

Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a change.

As Stewart Acuff says, "Every worker needs to become a warrior for justice."

-- 

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/