Where is the "victory" for working people in Seattle... or Michigan or Minnesota with these so-called "Minimum Wage increases?"

Where is the "victory" here?

Is this something we want for every city, every state and federally?

The New York Times ignores the fact that the Leech Lake Indian Reservation has the highest PRESENT minimum wage in the United States of $10.25 an hour which is better than what workers in Seattle have at present.

This shows how Socialist Alternative and Sawant have played straight into the hands of the Democrats because they failed to fight for a Minimum Wage tied directly to actual cost-of-living factors.

By the time $15.00 kicks in, this will be one more sub-poverty wage for working people.

This is no "victory" in any way, shape or form--- at best, this is one big sick joke played on the working class by a phony "left" group and millionaire labor "leaders" who, for the most part, are overseeing concession contract after concession contract and many of these union "contracts" don't even provide workers with wages of $15.00 an hour.

There is no way that this can be portrayed as a way out of poverty for working people.

there has been no "victory" as a result of any kind of "struggle" here.

More aptly it should be called a very deceptive fiasco the working class has been saddled with from which it will be very difficult to extract itself.

Anyone who thinks $15.00 will amount to anything close to a living--- non-poverty--- wage by the time this takes effect is living in a fairy-tale world of the make believe.

Socialist Alternative has allowed itself to be used by not only the Democrats but the employers who will reap fantastic profits for years to come.

In fact, Michigan Republican Rick Snyder with his Republican super-majority and the Democrats with their super-majority have delivered better Minimum Wage "increases" which will provide workers with more purchasing power than this $15.00 fiasco ever will.

Those who fail to link wages to cost-of-living betray the working class every single time.

The working class is experiencing a "Cost-of-Living Crisis" that no one--- no economist, no labor "leader, no politician of any political persuasion--- can refute; the proof is in every shopping experience at the local grocery store, every time gas is pumped, every time an electric, heating or phone bill is paid, in home mortgages and rents, health insurance bill, college tuition paid.

Only muddle-headed, well-heeled middle-class intellectuals will be savoring this $15.00 Minimum Wage legislation as a "victory."

Inflation, never mind monopoly price-fixing, fueled by militarism and wars, alone, will more than eat up any "gain" made by the time this has been incrementally implemented. 

When it comes to wages there is only one thing workers are concerned about and this is what goods and services they can purchase with their actual take-home pay. This, combined with universal government programs and benefits received, are the only thing that matters when it comes to discussing "standard-of-living" which so many of these phony labor "leaders," politicians and economists are just as loathe to discuss as "cost-of-living" and this "Cost-of-Living Crisis" every single working class family--- bar none--- is living through and experiencing making life for working people so goddamn miserable--- something well-heeled middle-class intellectuals have no comprehension of because these people buy whatever they want, whenever they want with only some mild complaining which to them is part of the show they have to put on to keep up with the Jones... these are the people who will continue to support both the Democrats and Republicans--- these were the real "Reagan Democrats."

Working people need a new political party and it sure as hell isn't Socialist Alternative.

We need to be looking for building a new working class based progressive people's party for peace that will bring forward some kind of "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which understands how militarism and wars are fueling inflation and together with monopoly price-fixing and this massive working class creation of wealth workers are not even sharing in is creating this "Cost-of-Living Crisis" which results in a "Crisis of Everyday Living" for so many millions of working class families being shoved into poverty on a mass scale with the millions already mired deep in poverty getting buried in poverty with racism and discrimination against working class women resulting in the most cruel and anti-human aspects of poverty.

All of this is called, by Marxists, state monopoly capitalism in the era of imperialism--- imperialism, the highest stage of this moribund capitalism which has grown barbaric and cannibalistic, rotten and corrupt to the very core with immoral and unethical politics and government being the way of life with Wall Street lobbyists pulling the strings of the Democrats and Republicans and phony leftists willing to call this $15.00 in Seattle a "victory." 

We shall have to wait to see just what kind of "struggle" this Socialist Alternative will be asking us to join the next time around... You can bet it will be another dead-end alley into which the corporations will end up clobbering the workers. This always has been, and will continue to be, the way of the Trotskyites.

Let us be very clear:

A struggle for a living Minimum Wage is only a victory when workers can purchase more goods and services than they could before the increase.

The Minimum Wage increase the Leech Lake Tribal Council enacted in the here and the now of $10.25 was a real victory--- not so in Seattle, Michigan or Minnesota.

The Leech Lake Nation's Minimum Wage increase, as pathetically miserly as it is in comparison to the enormous profits generated by gaming, resulted in very real increased purchasing power for working class families. Can the same be said for Seattle's, Michigan's or Minnesota's Minimum Wage "increases" which will be incremental and the increased purchasing power lost? 

 

Alan L. Maki

Seattle Approves $15 Minimum Wage, Setting a New Standard for Big Cities

 

NYTimes.com - KIRK JOHNSON - June 2, 2014

 

Mayor Ed Murray of Seattle, right, after the City Council approved a minimum wage that is more than double the federal

minimum. The $15 rate is the highest among the nation’s big cities. - Credit Ted S. Warren / Associated Press

SEATTLE - The City Council here went where no big-city lawmakers have gone before on Monday, raising the local minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum, and pushing Seattle to the forefront of urban efforts to address income inequality.
The unanimous vote of the nine-member Council, after months of discussion by a committee of business and labor leaders convened by Mayor Ed Murray, will give low-wage workers here — in incremental stages, with different tracks for different sizes of business — the highest big-city minimum in the nation.
“Even before the Great Recession a lot of us have started to have doubt and concern about the basic economic promise that underpins economic life in the United States,” said Sally J. Clark, a Council member. “Today Seattle answers that challenge,” she added. “We go into uncharted, unevaluated territory.”
But some business owners who have questioned the proposal say that the city’s booming economy is creating an illusion of permanence. The fat times and the ability to pay higher wages, they warn, will not go on forever.
“We’re living in this bubble of Amazon, but that’s not going to go on,” said Tom Douglas, a prominent restaurateur in Seattle, referring to the local boom in jobs and economic growth from hiring at Amazon, the online retailer, which has its headquarters here. Mr. Douglas said the new law will inevitably result in costs being passed on to consumers. “There’s going to be some terrific price inflation,” he said.
The measure has the support of Mr. Murray, who ran last year on a pledge to raise the wage to $15 and made it one of his first priorities in office.
Cheers and jeers repeatedly erupted in the City Hall meeting room, which was packed with supporters of the plan, who often interrupted speakers in the 90-minute debate before the vote with chants.
“We did it — workers did this,” said Kshama Sawant, a socialist who campaigned for a $15 minimum wage when she was elected to the Council last year. Ms. Sawant sought to accelerate the carrying out of the measure and to strip out a lower youth wage training rate, but the council rejected her proposals.
The vote, economists and labor experts said, accentuates the patchwork in wages around the country, with places like Seattle — and other cities considering sharply higher minimum pay, including San Diego, Chicago and San Francisco — having economic outlooks increasingly distinct from those in other parts of the nation. Through much of the South, especially, the federal minimum of $7.25 holds fast.
Eight states plus the District of Columbia have already increased their minimum wages this year, the most to have done so in a single year since 2006, and at least eight other states and municipalities could put minimum wage ballot measures before voters by November. But it is the scale of ambition that is catching the attention of economists, labor leaders and business owners.
“In past rounds of minimum wage increases, proposals sought chiefly to restore the value of the minimum wage lost to inflation over the decades,” said Paul Sonn, the general counsel and program director at the National Employment Law Project, a New York-based group that supports raising the minimum wage. The increases in places like Seattle, Mr. Sonn said, go beyond playing catch-up. “The $15 proposals make real gains,” he said.
Economists who study the minimum wage are not sure of the effect of having sharply different levels — in some places, it is twice that of others. Though records are a bit uncertain, people who track minimum wage law say the range of mandated minimums, lowest to highest, is the largest it has been since a national minimum was established by Congress in 1938.
“Nobody has studied a doubling of the minimum wage — that’s outside our experience,” said Dale Belman, a professor of labor and industrial relations at Michigan State University and co-author of a coming book about the minimum wage.
Individual workers and business owners in and around Seattle are unsure of the implications. Washington State already has the highest state minimum wage in the nation, $9.32, but more than 24% of Seattle residents earn hourly wages of $15 or less, according to the city, and approximately 13.6% of Seattle residents live below the federal poverty level.
Under the plan approved on Monday, the hourly wage will rise to $15 by 2017 for employers with more than 500 workers that do not provide health insurance, and by 2018 for those large employers who do. The minimum will be phased in through 2021 for smaller employers.
In its early years, the law allows employers to include tips as part of a workers’ compensation in reaching the minimum, but that provision is phased out over time.
“The short-term side of it says it’s attractive,” said Mickey Adame, a bartender who works in Bellevue, Washington’s fifth-largest city, which is just outside Seattle, and the new $15 wage boundary. “But I think people in Seattle aren’t going to tip as much, knowing the servers are getting paid $15,” added Mr. Adame, who lives in Seattle and is trying to start a music record label called Sounder Music, for which his tip jar, he said, is crucial. “If I had to pick an answer, I would say I think I’ll make more in Bellevue.”
Ms. Sawant, in her comments to the Council and the crowd, did not take the tone of someone who was savoring a victory. The fight for workers’ rights and economic fairness, she said, is not over.
“We have fought to the last day, the last hour, against all the loopholes demanded by business,” she said. “The attempts of business to undermine $15 will continue,” she said, as would the battle to “turn the tide against corporate politics.”
She added: “$15 in Seattle is just a beginning. We have an entire world to win.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/us/seattle-approves-15-minimum-wage-setting-a-new-standard-for-big-cities.html?rref=us&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&pgtype=article

-- 

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

 

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Cell: 651-587-5541

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

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

Anishinaabeg are an economic force in Bemidji

From Bemidji Pioneer...

Anishinaabeg are an economic force in Bemidji

By Curtis and Nicole Buckanaga on May 31, 2014 at 11:16 p.m.

Bemidji is losing its sense of community.

Bemidji has become an economic hub that thrives on the poverty of the Anishinaabeg.

This city is essentially taking advantage of social service programs, low-income subsidies and fines from Anishinaabeg that have been criminalized by poverty by discrimination.

Racist discrimination stimulates a large portion of Bemidji's economy.

Thousands of us working class Anishinaabeg spend our hard-earned money within this city; therefore, we need to be conscious and dignified and entertain a comprehensive boycott that identifies workforces of certain businesses that do not reflect the demography of Bemidji.

Bemidji is a city in denial of its normalized, systematic and institutional racism. The tides of apathy are receding that have been contrived by corrupt and oppressive state, local and tribal politicians who sit shiftlessly in elected positions and are fundamentally manipulating our downtrodden, traumatized people.

We Anishinaabeg are an economic force here; therefore, we need to assert ourselves to achieve the quality of life we struggle for against the absurdities of racism and ignorance every day as we live and shop here in Bemidji.

We don't have to spend our money where they won't hire us, or even where they don't treat us with respect.

We should hit them in their pockets and support those businesses that do respect us as human beings.

Due to the three largest Ojibwe nations in this state surrounding the city of Bemidji, as well as the numerous Anishinaabeg who travel here to seek work and a better quality of life, Bemidji is a highly populated with us Anishinaabeg. Not to mention the thousands of surrounding reservation residents who venture into the city every day for goods and services only to witness that we are not equitably integrated into the workforce.

It is only reasonable that our people occupy one job for every four jobs here in Bemidji.

Why? Because we need jobs, too. We deserve a decent quality of life, too. We deserve a chance and opportunity, too.

After all, Bemidji is historically an indigenous community.

We shared this community with our white counterparts, taught them how to live off this land and shared our languages. We, Anishinaabeg, need to support one another to reclaim our dignity and our identity within our community here in Bemidji because to us, this is still our Bemichiigamaag, our home; where we need stand together to assert our right to living wage jobs.

Curtis and Nicole Buckanaga

Bemidji


http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/anishinaabeg-are-economic-force-bemidji

Michigan workers get a better Minimum Wage out of Republicans than what they get from Democrats.

The Michigan Republican super-majority approved a Minimum Wage, signed into law by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, far higher than most states with Democratic super-majorities and was only 25 cents less than what the Dumb Donkeys here in Minnesota provided for workers. So, where is this great big difference between the two parties?

http://time.com/121917/michigans-governor-snyder-signs-bill-raising-minimum-wage/

So, we have Minnesota at $9.50 way into the future with prices rising; Michigan at $9.25 and Leech Lake Indian Reservation at $10.25 with Democrats in Seattle trying to give workers a big shaft claiming they support $15.00 (a decade into the future).

Except for a few people and organizations, no one is talking about a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage tied and adjusted to actual cost-of-living factors.

In the meantime, even fewer people are willing to talk about the "Cost-of-Living Crisis" the entire working class finds itself entangled and ensnared in.

David Barron

David Barron... Obama's (and the Democrat's [and the Republican's]) choice for an important federal 1st Circuit Court of Appeals judge.

Is this the kind of judge you want to see appointed to the federal bench "defending" the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights? A judge who justifies murder and assassination without trial by drone.

And we are supposed to vote for these Dumb Donkeys out of fear who the Republicans might appoint to federal judgeships?

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-justice-dept-reveal-drone-memo-214537996--politics.html

Even Judge Robert Bork ends up looking good compared to this evil-doer Barron who lacks any semblance of ethics and respect for human life... he has a complete disdain for the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights... Barron doesn't even understand the most basic and fundamental concepts of justice associated with Due Process.

Thomas Jefferson must be twisting in his grave on this one.

A letter to Wade Hudson, for Left Forum panelists and participants.

Mr. Wade Hudson,

First of all, allow me to thank you for your invitation to participate in this important discussion. As you are aware, many people, like myself, who would like to be present at the "Left Forum" are unable to attend for a variety of reasons. So, I am providing my input to this discussion here.

I would like to call to your attention my blog on full employment. You may want to share this information with the panelists. I would send this to them directly if I had their e-mail addresses:

http://fullemploymentnow.blogspot.com/

I would also encourage you to check out the Uniting People blog: 

http://unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com/

I would also point out to you that working people struggling for their livelihoods and their rights confront a very significant hurdle in this country where "At-will Employment," instead of "Just Cause," is the "law-of-the-land" which for all practical purposes means that workers who participate in these campaigns for jobs and real living wages and for rights and a voice at work more often than not end up losing their jobs and their livelihoods in violation of their very rights supposedly protected by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights and their rights so clearly articulated in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights--- all kinds of "rights" on paper but these rights seldom enforced.

Most unions in our country today are mere paper unions presided over by millionaire labor leaders whose first priority lacking rank-and-file movements is dues collection with little to no responsibility for defending the rights and livelihoods, not to mention the jobs, of the workers they are collecting dues from to pay their big fat salaries.   

Here in Minnesota, there is the case of a Minnesota State Employee that has been hounded and harassed to no end by management simply for availing herself of the "Family and Medical Leave Act" who has now been fired. Her "crime" is that she appealed to the United States Department of Labor to enforce her rights... and, this woman is a member of a union whose leadership has done not one single thing to represent her after she has been paying union dues for years. The U.S. Department of Labor has written that the best they can do for her is see to make sure her employer, the State of Minnesota, has posted the proper signage while citing that she is now the target of harassment by her employer but claiming that defending her in court would be too taxing on the Department's resources. Again, all kinds of "rights" on paper but never any enforcement to protect workers' livelihoods--- their jobs.

Liberals like Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and those liberals like Hubert H. Humphrey and their modern-day counterparts like those in the Congressional Progressive Caucus such as Keith Ellison and all these foundation-funded outfits and the millionaire union leaders are real slick when it comes to articulating "support" for workers to get votes--- they play the "bait and switch" game; but, like Eleanor Roosevelt who pushed for passage of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights she moaned and cried when some nations insisted on including actual enforcement measures... the result being "rights" on paper and paper unions like AFSCME more concerned with collecting dues than defending workers' rights and livelihoods. 

I am sure there must even be a law somewhere that declares unions must actually strive to enforce the contracts they negotiate with employers for which they collect dues, eh? But, who enforces such laws on paper?

Then you have the hideous Indian Gaming Industry which no Democrat or their "partners" dare to attack for fear of losing billions of dollars in campaign contributions even though almost two-million workers employed at over 350 of these casino operations spread out across the country are forced to work in these loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws which protect the rights (at least on paper) of all other workers in this country. This is an industry run by and for wealthy white mobsters which only leaves Native Americans mired in poverty causing massive debt as racist employment practices of businesses and corporations assure this hideous Indian Gaming Industry has a huge pool of impoverished and unemployed workers who have been forced to live on reservations creating a huge pool of cheap labor--- quite convenient, don't you think? Obviously no liberal Democrat could imagine such a set-up is intentional, unless of course one owns up to the fact that it was the great liberal humanitarian, Hubert H. Humphrey, who was the primary author of the "Communist Control Act" which assured business and industry a complacent and docile union leadership that would collaborate and become manageable.

Perhaps you would be interested in hearing the story of Nancy Beaulieu, a Native American woman with a family to feed, fired from her job at the huge Northern Lights Casino--- owned by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Walker, Minnesota? I would note, that in spite of the Leech Lake Tribal Council's most despicable record in regard to workers' rights and livelihoods, the tribal council--- Leech Lake Business Organization (LLBO)--- was recently forced by the people to increase its Minimum Wage to $10.25 an hour, more than the Democrat's suggested $10.10 poverty Minimum Wage and the "raise" Minnesota's Democratic super-majority provided to workers of $9.50 in a long-term "installment plan" which only goes to prove that when people struggle they can win.
Democrats campaigned on the promise (the "bait") of a real living Minimum Wage; once elected workers got "the switch," another poverty Minimum Wage--- one big reason why we need a working class based progressive people's party as an alternative to these worthless Democrats. 

In my opinion, jobs and a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage will only be won when we come to grips with the fact that we must struggle to free ourselves from this two-party trap as part of the struggle to better the lives and livelihoods of working people. These Dumb Donkeys provide us with no protection from Wall Street parasites who further enrich themselves from the super-profits they reap from poverty wages and the suppression of all wages by using both unemployment and poverty wages as a lever of government. 

I am taking the liberty of posting this letter to you on my blog:  http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/


I would note that here in Minnesota we have two very important rank-and-file formations. One in the United Steelworkers Union (USW): "Hard Rock Miners." The other in AFSCME: "Our AFSCME."


Again, I do hope you will share my thoughts with the panelists participating in your "Left Forum" presentation which I am attaching here as you request it to be circulated widely:

a National Jobs for All Coalition

Invitation to discussion on
An Economic Bill of Rights: Reform or Revolution?
At
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 52 West 59th St., NYC
Saturday, May 31, 2014, 3:10-4:50PM, Room 9681, John Jay College

Abstract: In his Annual Message to Congress in 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt held that under modern economic conditions the traditional Constitutional guarantees of political and civil rights were insufficient “to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” It was necessary therefore to add a Second or Economic Bill of Rights whose guarantees would include employment at living wages, housing, medical care, education and old age security, among others. At the time this was a comprehensive set of rights, but it is incomplete in this time of environmental crisis. The rights framework has important political advantages: at once compatible with traditional American values and Constitutional guarantees and at the same time encouraging demands on the part of the people for unattained rights. FDR held that useful, living-wage work was “the most fundamental [right], and the one on which the fulfillment of the others in large degree depends.” On the one hand, employment assurance can be seen as an extension of traditional Constitutional guarantees and compatible with the vaunted American work ethic, hence reformist. At the same time, full employment—especially if it is tied to the necessity of greening the economy--has the potential for altering relationships between labor and capital, hence for transforming or revolutionizing the nation's political economy.

Panelists: Sheila Collins; Philip Harvey; David Woolner; Trudy Goldberg; Chair, Gregory N. Heires
Sheila D. Collins -- Executive Committee, National Jobs for All Coalition; Professor Emerita of Political Science, William Paterson University
Gregory N. Heires -- Sr. Assoc. Ed., Public Employee Press, DC 37, AFSCM; blogger atwww.thenewcrossroads.com , and a Portside labor moderator
Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg -- Chair, National Jobs for All Coalition; Professor Emerita of Social Policy, Adelphi University
Philip Harvey, Professor of Law and Economics, Rutgers School of Law; Executive Committee, National Jobs for All Coalition
David B. Woolner -- Senior Fellow and Hyde Park Resident Historian, The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute

Left Forum is the largest annual conference of the broad Left in the United States. Each spring thousands of conference participants
leftforum.org | left forum is on facebook and Twitter | mailto:leftforum@leftforum.org | 212-817-2003
come together to discuss pressing local, national and global issues; to better understand commonalities and differences, and alternatives to current predicaments; or to share ideas to help build social movements to transform the world.
This year's theme of Left Forum is "Reform and/or Revolution: Imagine a World of Transformative Justice.” Speakers include Harry Belafonte, Angela Davis, Cornel West, and over 1,000 more.

Please register online at www.leftforum.org 

*** Please forward widely ****


-- 

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/

Casino workers stabbed in the back by the Michigan AFL-CIO and their Democratic Party partners

I can't help but wonder what Mother Jones would have thought about a group of unions in West Michigan raising funds for "Labor Fest" by organizing bus tours to the Little River Casino where casino workers are forced to work in a loud, noisy, smoke-filled casino at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws and then to see an advertisement for this fund-raising venture published in a labor newspaper, "Progress," edited by a Democratic Party candidate for public office, Michael Johnston?

I will be going to the meeting of the Labor Fest organizing committee today at 5:30 pm being held at the Kent-Ionia Labor Council Hall at 918 Benjamin N.E. in Grand Rapids, Michigan seeking an explanation.

So far, the head of this despicable "fund-raising venture" told me that if we didn't like it we, the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council, should put up the funding for Labor Fest.

Now, why would we even consider consider donating a penny to a bunch of trade unionists whose only goals and objectives are to elect a bunch of worthless Democrats who placed workers in this mobster infested and controlled Indian Gaming Industry in this position in the first place?

The Indian Gaming Industry is a perfect example of what workers get from Wall Street's two-party trap where the Democrats and Republicans collude and connive to destroy the rights and the livelihoods of working people from which the employers reap super-profits.

Not once has the "labor" newspaper--- Progress, formerly the Grand Valley Labor News--- ever so much as mentioned one single problem workers in the Indian Gaming Industry are experiencing.

Why do we get no better from a "labor" newspaper than what we get from the corporate dominated mainstream media?

And why do we find a huge advertisement for this sickening "fund-raising" venture in this "labor" newspaper which hides its reactionary agenda behind articles supporting Mother Jones?

It is just this kind of hypocritical duplicity which has given labor unions a black eye making organizing in this period so difficult... no understanding of solidarity or an injury to one is an injury to all.

I invite Patty Kramer, a UAW member and one of the leads in promoting this hideous fund-raising event along with the Editor of "Progress," Michael Johnston a retired member of the Michigan Education Association, to respond and explain.

"West Michigan Labor Fest" is typically nothing more than a cheer-leading even for the Democrats.

The AFL-CIO, Democrats and the Indian Gaming Industry enjoy a partnership--- a partnership from which workers get nothing but a kick-in-the-ass as Democrats reap huge campaign contributions from the Indian Gaming Industry and the Indian Gaming Industry reaps huge super-profits from exploiting the workers employed in this hideous industry.

Tell the Dumb Donkeys to go to hell.

The Democrats have become very adept at perverting the meaning of very basic words in the English language like "progressive" and even "peace."

Give these people a dictionary not your votes. 

Perverting and distorting the meanings of words fits in very well with their "bait-and-switch" scams.

They say they are for single-payer universal health care; they deliver Obamacare, the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010."

They ran on a platform of making the Minimum Wage a real living wage; we got another poverty wage.

Obama and the Democrats promised to help Main Street; they bailed out Wall Street as home foreclosures continue to soar.

Every single working class family in this country is the victim of "cost-of-living crisis;" Obama and the Democrats allow and encourage the prices of everything from food to gas, home heating fuels to soar as the only thing they use the economic levers of government to control (depress) are wages while corporate profits reach unregulated and under-taxed record levels.  

Then there was the promise of "jobs, jobs, jobs;" what we got was more unemployment and jobs with lower wages and less benefits as the Democrats refuse to rescind and repeal this hideous "At-Will Employment;" refuse to ban scabbing and employer lock-outs with massive cuts in unemployment compensation and food stamps.

Protection of the environment was another promise--- militarism and these dirty imperialist wars are leaving behind the largest carbon footprint destroying our living environment.

We were promised by Obama an open and transparent government--- what we got was a government cloaking its undemocratic and murderous schemes in secrecy combined with the most outrageous litany of never-ending lies, deceit, cover-up and political repression. 

The worst "BAIT-AND-SWITCH" scheme we got from the Democrats has been the promise of peace; all we get is increased militarism and war on top of war.

I wouldn't bother to walk across the street to vote for another Democrat.

These "progressive" Democrats are just a bunch of phonies and scam artists just like Obama who they supported.

Now they will be trying to pass off Hillary Clinton as a "progressive" pushing the politics of the country so far to the right that it provides a political atmosphere where it is impossible to tell a Democrat from a Republican. 

Our only hope is to break free from this two-party trap in challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.

In my opinion, what real progressives, liberals and the left need to unite around is a "21st Century Full-Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" based on the promises so eloquently articulated in the "United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights," but never delivered. 

The time has come to build a new working class based progressive people's party that will bring forward, and deliver, peace, jobs, equality and justice for all.

Capitalism and its most corrupt advanced imperialist stage is done for... only socialism, people working together for the common good placing people and the environment before profits will save us.

Just tell these Dumb Donkeys to go to hell. 

Alan L. Maki

Check out the recording of the National Conference Call on the Minimum Wage

https://soundcloud.com/karmagal/minimum-wage

A National Approach for Making the Minimum Wage a Living Wage Join Us for a 2-Hour Conference Call Discussion Sunday, April 27, 2014 8-10pm ET / 7-9pm CT / 6-8pm MT / 5-7pm PT Telephone Call-in: 857-232-0157 • Access Code: 353711 Panel Cindy Sheehan, California Peace & Freedom Party Gubernatorial Candidate Lena Buggs, Minnesota Green Party, State House District 65-A Legislative Candidate Alan Maki, Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council Theresa Sanchez, Union Steward, Local #1, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Frank “Pancho” Valdez, retired trade unionist, Green Party activist Curtis Buckanaga, Asst. to District III Rep. for Leech Lake, Ojibwe Reservation Bill Leumer, former President IAM Local 565, Labor Fightback Network Steering Committee member Mel Rothenberg, founding member of Chicago Political Economy Group, co-author of "A Permanent Jobs Program for the U.S.: Economic Restructuring to Meet Human Needs." Moderator: Devon Nola, Justice Party of New York Each panelist will give a 5-minute presentation during the first hour. The second hour will be open to discussion with Q&A between callers and panelists. Sponsored by: Uniting People for Peace, Equality, Full Employment, Universal Healthcare and Environmental Protection Contact info: Tel: (203) 402-8745 E-mail: unitingpeople1@gmail.com Blog: www.unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com FaceBook: www.facebook.com/USlivablewage A bold livable wage policy must be viewed as a “keystone” fiscal mechanism that will trigger subsequent structural changes in the U.S. economic system to achieve an equitable distribution of wealth and income for all members of our society.

This Sunday evening...

 

A National Approach for Making the Minimum Wage a Living Wage

Join Us for a 2-Hour Conference Call Discussion

Sunday, April 27, 2014

8-10pm ET / 7-9pm CT / 6-8pm MT / 5-7pm PT

Telephone Call-in: 857-232-0157 • Access Code: 353711

Panel

Cindy Sheehan, California Peace & Freedom Party
Gubernatorial Candidate

Lena Buggs, Minnesota Green Party, State House District 65-A Legislative Candidate

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

Theresa Sanchez, Union Steward, Local #1, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union

Frank “Pancho” Valdez, retired trade unionist, Green Party activist

Curtis Buckanaga, Asst. to District III Rep. for Leech Lake, Ojibwe Reservation

Bill Leumer, former President IAM Local 565, Labor Fightback Network Steering Committee member

Mel Rothenberg, founding member of Chicago Political Economy Group, co-author of "A Permanent Jobs Program for the U.S.: Economic Restructuring to Meet Human Needs."

Moderator:
Devon Nola, Justice Party of New York


Each panelist will give a 5-minute presentation during the first hour. The second hour will be open to discussion with Q&A between callers and panelists.

Sponsored by:

Uniting People for Peace, Equality, Full Employment, Universal Healthcare and Environmental Protection


Contact info:

Tel: (203) 402-8745

E-mail: unitingpeople1@gmail.com

Blog: www.unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/USlivablewage


A bold livable wage policy must be viewed as a “keystone” fiscal mechanism that will trigger subsequent structural changes in the U.S. economic system to achieve an equitable distribution of wealth and income for all members of our society.

Help launch a national campaign to make the Minimum Wage a real living wage.

Politicians, employers and unions have banded together in Seattle just like the Democrats, unions, foundation-funded outfits and church groups here in Minnesota joined with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce (the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's "Business Caucus" or Summit Hill Club) to rob workers of a real living Minimum Wage that was promised in return for workers voting for these Democrats... workers have been the victims of an elaborately concocted "bait-and-switch" scheme.

Since this Democratic Party coalition is now insisting that any employer paid compensation packages like health care, dental care, eyes and hearing, child care and higher education subsidies be considered part of the Minimum Wage we need to talk about the need for all of this to become legislation for government universal social programs rather continuing to be ripped off by the for-profit sectors providing these services to workers while gouging workers thus turning this struggle for a living Minimum Wage into a farce and a sham where employers continue to reap super-profits from poverty wages as these other service providers also reap super-profits from this trough of poverty wages--- what a scam these employers are scheming to plan.

It would seem to me that this would be a good time to bring forward the need for universal social programs as the way to counter what the employers (and apparently unions?) are demanding in the way of health, etc. care being considered part of the Minimum Wage.

For example, there is no way a Public Health Care System--- socialized health care should cost any more a month than Social Security. A Public Child Care System, too. Both working just like our public schools--- publicly financed, publicly administered and publicly delivered. Way cheaper than the present for profit health care system.

So, you tell them to institute public universal social programs (everyone in) for each type of "compensation package" they want deducted from the $15.00.

But, this is where the "$15.00" movement has been very short sighted. This movement is working with a false figure derived from the U.S. Census Bureau (which only use four cost-of-living categories) instead of the Consumer Price Index of the United States Department of Labors' Bureau of Labor Statistics (which monitors EIGHT categories and 200 sub-categories).

It won't surprise me if all the union "leaders" don't agree with the employers on this because they have worked hand-in-hand with these same employers to force concession contracts down their own member's throats and SEIU has engaged in the practice of offering employers sweetheart contracts in return for union dues.

Here in Minnesota, ALL of the AFL-CIO and Change To Win affiliated unions supported the switch pulled by the Democrats for $9.50 an hour and they were even going to bring in Richard Trumka to support this but Trumka backed out when he knew there was going to be resistance at the rally they had planned for the Humphrey Center at the university of Minnesota where he was going to be greeted by demonstrators exposing the "bait and switch" pulled by the Democrats, the foundation-funded outfits, labor leaders and the churches... most likely the "$15.00" movement will face the exact same coalition in Seattle and elsewhere.

To win a real living Minimum Wage is going to take a campaign that is willing to educate workers about what the real "cost-of-living" actually is based on the fact working class families are experiencing a "cost-of-living crisis" and that the Minimum Wage needs to be tied to both increases in the "cost-of-living" and to inflation which are not the same... monopoly price-fixing is the main reason prices rise and the spending on militarism and wars is the main reason for inflation.

The prices of the basic necessities of life are now under the pretty much complete control of the monopolies.

Obviously the Democrats and their partners, the coalition mentioned above, with their wars on the one hand and "economic populism" full of "bait-and-switch" (single-payer deliver Obamacare; living wage deliver poverty wages, etc.) on the other hand don't want to talk about "cost-of-living," "cost-of-living crisis" or militarism and wars which are making us all poor as austerity measures are being shoved down our throats to pay for all this militarism and wars instead of Public Health Care and Child Care Programs, CCC, WPA and CETA as well as a Conyers type job creation program.

Not coincidentally, this same Democratic Party coalition which stood opposed to single-payer and smashed the single-payer movement is now using the same strategy to smash the $15.00 movement.

Notice that the people's movements were sucked into supporting half-measure reforms in both situations when the demands should have been very clear--- a National Public Health Care System and a Minimum Wage legislatively tied to the "cost-of-living" automatically increased for rising prices and inflation with periodic increases providing for an improved standard-of-living.

We have also failed to define small business as distinct from big-business and family owned businesses like the mom-and-pop convenience store--- there is no way an employer of 15 or more people can't afford a real living wage of between $22.00 and $26.00 an hour which the Minimum Wage would be if using the BLS' CPI. The solution should be obvious for the legitimate small business which employs mostly family members--- just eliminate Minimum Wage enforcement; if someone wants to pay their spouse, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandpa and grandma $1.00 an hour let them. But all this crap with wealthy people buying franchises and then claiming they can't pay a living wage is a bunch of bullshit. Here in Minnesota, the main opponent to raising the Minimum Wage was State Senator Tom Bakk, a building trades union official in his past life, who cried big crocodile tears for the group homes, hotels, motels bars and restaurants.

What is a small business? Does anyone really know except the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (LOL!): 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_business 

A little sarcasm to make a point:

If any industry or business legitimately can't pay the Minimum Wage, certainly no union has any business trying to organize them--- using the logic being pushed by the AFL-CIO. If Target and Wal-mart along with McDonald's and Taco Bell can't afford to pay employees real living Minimum Wages this means unionization would kill them, too--- and this of course is the argument used by big business all the time. So, hey; just phase out unions and implement a government social contract covering all workers except those employed in legitimate family operated small businesses of under 15 employees.

Should a union even be allowed to organize any company defined as a "small business" that can't afford to pay a real living Minimum Wage because using this logic of exempting small business from the full Minimum Wage would lead anyone pushing this notion that unionization of that business would for sure kill the business just like management would surely claim--- and always does; but somehow miracles always happen and the business survives unionization.

I can show you hundreds of businesses with fewer than 25 employees that are unionized--- each of the managements claimed unionization would kill their business; and here they are celebrating 25th and 50 years and longer of being in business.

Unionization of a small business is going to cost that business well over $35.00 an hour and if this doesn't kill a small business how would paying employees a Minimum Wage of $22.00 to $26.00 an hour kill these small businesses?

What we are facing is a union leadership that is demanding dues for raising the living standards of the entire working class--- these union "leaders" in pushing these poverty Minimum Wages of $9.50 and $10.10 are essentially saying, "If we don't get a cut of rising wages, we don't give a fuck if you people stay poor."

Look at who we had pushing the poverty Minimum Wage of $9.50 through the Minnesota legislature and signed into law by the governor:

All Democrats with a Democratic super-majority where Republicans had no say and could only cry:

A corporate/business lawyer in the State House, Representative Paul Thiessen.

A big-shot from the building trades union in the State Senate, Tom Bakk.

And a billionaire Governor, Mark Dayton, whose wealth is derived from the poverty wages of the Dayton-Hudson Company, now Target Stores. 

Of course, the millionaire labor leaders of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council and their state counterparts, millionaires like Eliot Seide of AFSCME, wouldn't be able to shove all these concession contracts down their members throats if there was a focus on "cost-of-living" and the true state of affairs where every single working class family is experiencing a "cost-of-living crisis."

Did you ever hear Richard Trumka so much as mention this "cost-of-living crisis" that is a reality for every single working class family?

Are we just supposed to keep our mouths shut in the name of some kind of desired "unity" as to what is really going on as these Democrats and their hacks jerk us around?  



We need to get this all figured out... join the National Conference Call...

http://unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-national-approach-for-making-minimum.html

Don't forget to check out and join the FaceBook pages, also:

https://www.facebook.com/events/763527720348169/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

https://www.facebook.com/USlivablewage?notif_t=fbpage_fan_invite

Check out my "Letter to the Editor" on the "Bait-and-Switch" politics of the Democrats:

http://www.ifallsjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/beware-of-the-bait-and-switch/article_cfd312be-7955-57eb-8120-fa4b44cb4e3d.html

Did anyone really believe that Seattle's employers would not come back fighting this proposed increase in the Minimum Wage to $15.00 an hour? Is this not the same community where the police were turned loose to savage working people who came out to peacefully protest against these trade agreements and the same city where the police beat the hell out of the Communist-led unemployed demonstrations of the 1930's and sent the police out to viciously attack the IWW soap-box speakers who tried to explain the need for the working class to fight for their rights and livelihoods and the same politicians who tried to have the police beat into submission the longshore workers led by Harry Bridges and the city that turned the HUAC hearings into a vicious attack on the CPUSA, organized labor and students? And isn't Seattle the same city that sent police thugs out to try to bust the organizing efforts of Boeing workers initially led by Wyndham Mortimer who had led the organizing drive that forced General Motors to sign a contract with the UAW?

What was expected from Seattle's ruling class when it was suggested the Minimum Wage should be $15.00?

Isn't it obvious to anyone that this struggle to raise the Minimum Wage to a real living wage is going to have to be a well thought out, coordinated national struggle in which the leadership arises from the grassroots working class communities and rank-and-file activists?

That the struggle for a living Minimum Wage is connected first and foremost to "cost-of-living" and the "cost-of-living crisis" for working class families is the most important aspect of this struggle... what the Minimum Wage dollar figure will be established at follows from this and not the other way around.

In fact, for many cities across this country, cities are not even allowed to enact Minimum Wage legislation.

Already, most of the states with Democratic super-majorities have enacted Minimum Wage "increases" which once again makes government the enforcer of poverty for millions of working class families. This also needs to be exposed that these Democrats, no different from the Republicans are using the levers of government (legislation) to enforce poverty--- thus assuring not only the poverty of millions; but a huge pool of impoverished workers intended to pressure all wages. down.

Going at this rate it won't be long before all workers are in the same boat as workers employed in the loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos of the Indian Gaming Industry at exclusively poverty wages without any rights or any voice at work.

Of course, all workers in this country are employed under terms of "At-Will Employment except for the 13% employed under union contract although even these workers are finding that these same millionaire union "leaders" who shove concession after concession contract down their throats are finding their contract rights failing to be enforced through grievance procedures. here in Minnesota, where AFSCME kicked off the drive for a $9.50 Minimum Wage is now telling members who are victims of discrimination and harassment on the job to "go hire your own attorney we don't go beyond the two step grievance process." 

-- 

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/

Workers paid poverty wages are going to be poor.

Does anyone else but me think that it is strange that these AFL-CIO unions claim they are supporting workers in the fast food industry, Wal-mart and Target workers in their struggles to get better wages when these same unions come along and support these poverty Minimum Wages like $9.50, $10.10 or like in Wisconsin where the Democrats were pushing for $7.60?

If the Minimum Wage was a real living wage directly tied to all cost-of-living factors the wages of these workers would rise to providing a decent standard of living... all of which begs the question, why haven't all of these workers been brought into the struggle to increase the Minimum Wage to a real living wage?

Then the working class would be struggling united, together.

How does it make sense to split the working class as the AFL-CIO has done?

Let's have one great big push to raise the national Minimum Wage so it is legislatively tied to all cost of living factors tracked by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, then index this to inflation with periodic increases to improve the standard of living of working class families.

The Democrats and their AFL-CIO partners are making these ridiculous claims that $9.50 and $10.10 are lifting millions of workers out of poverty. How can this possibly be when $9.50 and $10.10 are poverty wages? Workers are going to remain in poverty if paid a poverty wage.

Here we are with corporations boasting higher profits than ever and the Democrats and the unions refuse to fight and struggle for making the Minimum Wage a real living wage. This is disgraceful.

It's time for grassroots and rank-and-file activists to step forward and take control on the movement for making the Minimum Wage a real living wage.

The movement for a real living Minimum Wage continues to run into snags---

Politicians, employers and unions have banded together in Seattle just like the Democrats, unions, foundation-funded outfits and church groups here in Minnesota joined with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce (the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's "Business Caucus" or Summit Hill Club) to rob workers of a real living Minimum Wage that was promised in return for workers voting for these Democrats... workers have been the victims of an elaborately concocted "bait-and-switch" scheme.

Since this Democratic Party coalition is now insisting that any employer paid compensation packages like health care, dental care, eyes and hearing, child care and higher education subsidies be considered part of the Minimum Wage we need to talk about the need for all of this to become legislation for government universal social programs rather continuing to be ripped off by the for-profit sectors providing these services to workers while gouging workers thus turning this struggle for a living Minimum Wage into a farce and a sham where employers continue to reap super-profits from poverty wages as these other service providers also reap super-profits from this trough of poverty wages--- what a scam these employers are scheming to plan.

It would seem to me that this would be a good time to bring forward the need for universal social programs as the way to counter what the employers (and apparently unions?) are demanding in the way of health, etc. care being considered part of the Minimum Wage.

For example, there is no way a Public Health Care System--- socialized health care should cost any more a month than Social Security. A Public Child Care System, too. Both working just like our public schools--- publicly financed, publicly administered and publicly delivered. Way cheaper than the present for profit health care system.

So, you tell them to institute public universal social programs (everyone in) for each type of "compensation package" they want deducted from the $15.00.

But, this is where the "$15.00" movement has been very short sighted. This movement is working with a false figure derived from the U.S. Census Bureau (which only use four cost-of-living categories) instead of the Consumer Price Index of the United States Department of Labors' Bureau of Labor Statistics (which monitors EIGHT categories and 200 sub-categories).

It won't surprise me if all the union "leaders" don't agree with the employers on this because they have worked hand-in-hand with these same employers to force concession contracts down their own member's throats and SEIU has engaged in the practice of offering employers sweetheart contracts in return for union dues.

Here in Minnesota, ALL of the AFL-CIO and Change To Win affiliated unions supported the switch pulled by the Democrats for $9.50 an hour and they were even going to bring in Richard Trumka to support this but Trumka backed out when he knew there was going to be resistance at the rally they had planned for the Humphrey Center at the university of Minnesota where he was going to be greeted by demonstrators exposing the "bait and switch" pulled by the Democrats, the foundation-funded outfits, labor leaders and the churches... most likely the "$15.00" movement will face the exact same coalition in Seattle and elsewhere.

To win a real living Minimum Wage is going to take a campaign that is willing to educate workers about what the real "cost-of-living" actually is based on the fact working class families are experiencing a "cost-of-living crisis" and that the Minimum Wage needs to be tied to both increases in the "cost-of-living" and to inflation which are not the same... monopoly price-fixing is the main reason prices rise and the spending on militarism and wars is the main reason for inflation.

The prices of the basic necessities of life are now under the pretty much complete control of the monopolies.

Obviously the Democrats and their partners, the coalition mentioned above, with their wars on the one hand and "economic populism" full of "bait-and-switch" (single-payer deliver Obamacare; living wage deliver poverty wages, etc.) on the other hand don't want to talk about "cost-of-living," "cost-of-living crisis" or militarism and wars which are making us all poor as austerity measures are being shoved down our throats to pay for all this militarism and wars instead of Public Health Care and Child Care Programs, CCC, WPA and CETA as well as a Conyers type job creation program.

Not coincidentally, this same Democratic Party coalition which stood opposed to single-payer and smashed the single-payer movement is now using the same strategy to smash the $15.00 movement.

Notice that the people's movements were sucked into supporting half-measure reforms in both situations when the demands should have been very clear--- a National Public Health Care System and a Minimum Wage legislatively tied to the "cost-of-living" automatically increased for rising prices and inflation with periodic increases providing for an improved standard-of-living.

We have also failed to define small business as distinct from big-business and family owned businesses like the mom-and-pop convenience store--- there is no way an employer of 15 or more people can't afford a real living wage of between $22.00 and $26.00 an hour which the Minimum Wage would be if using the BLS' CPI. The solution should be obvious for the legitimate small business which employs mostly family members--- just eliminate Minimum Wage enforcement; if someone wants to pay their spouse, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandpa and grandma $1.00 an hour let them. But all this crap with wealthy people buying franchises and then claiming they can't pay a living wage is a bunch of bullshit. Here in Minnesota, the main opponent to raising the Minimum Wage was State Senator Tom Bakk, a building trades union official in his past life, who cried big crocodile tears for the group homes, hotels, motels bars and restaurants.

What is a small business? Does anyone really know except the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (LOL!):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_business

A little sarcasm to make a point:

If any industry or business legitimately can't pay the Minimum Wage, certainly no union has any business trying to organize them--- using the logic being pushed by the AFL-CIO. If Target and Wal-mart along with McDonald's and Taco Bell can't afford to pay employees real living Minimum Wages this means unionization would kill them, too--- and this of course is the argument used by big business all the time. So, hey; just phase out unions and implement a government social contract covering all workers except those employed in legitimate family operated small businesses of under 15 employees.

Should a union even be allowed to organize any company defined as a "small business" that can't afford to pay a real living Minimum Wage because using this logic of exempting small business from the full Minimum Wage would lead anyone pushing this notion that unionization of that business would for sure kill the business just like management would surely claim--- and always does; but somehow miracles always happen and the business survives unionization.

I can show you hundreds of businesses with fewer than 25 employees that are unionized--- each of the managements claimed unionization would kill their business; and here they are celebrating 25th and 50 years and longer of being in business.

Unionization of a small business is going to cost that business well over $35.00 an hour and if this doesn't kill a small business how would paying employees a Minimum Wage of $22.00 to $26.00 an hour kill these small businesses?

What we are facing is a union leadership that is demanding dues for raising the living standards of the entire working class--- these union "leaders" in pushing these poverty Minimum Wages of $9.50 and $10.10 are essentially saying, "If we don't get a cut of rising wages, we don't give a fuck if you people stay poor."

Look at who we had pushing the poverty Minimum Wage of $9.50 through the Minnesota legislature and signed into law by the governor:

All Democrats with a Democratic super-majority where Republicans had no say and could only cry:

A corporate/business lawyer in the State House, Representative Paul Thiessen.

A big-shot from the building trades union in the State Senate, Tom Bakk.

And a billionaire Governor, Mark Dayton, whose wealth is derived from the poverty wages of the Dayton-Hudson Company, now Target Stores.

Of course, the millionaire labor leaders of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council and their state counterparts, millionaires like Eliot Seide of AFSCME, wouldn't be able to shove all these concession contracts down their members throats if there was a focus on "cost-of-living" and the true state of affairs where every single working class family is experiencing a "cost-of-living crisis."

Did you ever hear Richard Trumka so much as mention this "cost-of-living crisis" that is a reality for every single working class family?

Are we just supposed to keep our mouths shut in the name of some kind of desired "unity" as to what is really going on as these Democrats and their hacks jerk us around? 



We need to get this all figured out... join the National Conference Call...
http://unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-national-approach-for-making-minimum.html

Don't forget to check out and join the FaceBook pages, also:
https://www.facebook.com/events/763527720348169/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

https://www.facebook.com/USlivablewage?notif_t=fbpage_fan_invite

Check out my "Letter to the Editor" on the "Bait-and-Switch" politics of the Democrats:
http://www.ifallsjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/beware-of-the-bait-and-switch/article_cfd312be-7955-57eb-8120-fa4b44cb4e3d.html


Did anyone really believe that Seattle's employers would not come back fighting this proposed increase in the Minimum Wage to $15.00 an hour? Is this not the same community where the police were turned loose to savage working people who came out to peacefully protest against these trade agreements and the same city where the police beat the hell out of the Communist-led unemployed demonstrations of the 1930's and sent the police out to viciously attack the IWW soap-box speakers who tried to explain the need for the working class to fight for their rights and livelihoods and the same politicians who tried to have the police beat into submission the longshore workers led by Harry Bridges and the city that turned the HUAC hearings into a vicious attack on the CPUSA, organized labor and students? And isn't Seattle the same city that sent police thugs out to try to bust the organizing efforts of Boeing workers initially led by Wyndham Mortimer who had led the organizing drive that forced General Motors to sign a contract with the UAW?

What was expected from Seattle's ruling class when it was suggested the Minimum Wage should be $15.00?

Isn't it obvious to anyone that this struggle to raise the Minimum Wage to a real living wage is going to have to be a well thought out, coordinated national struggle in which the leadership arises from the grassroots working class communities and rank-and-file activists?

That the struggle for a living Minimum Wage is connected first and foremost to "cost-of-living" and the "cost-of-living crisis" for working class families is the most important aspect of this struggle... what the Minimum Wage dollar figure will be established at follows from this and not the other way around.

In fact, for many cities across this country, cities are not even allowed to enact Minimum Wage legislation.

Already, most of the states with Democratic super-majorities have enacted Minimum Wage "increases" which once again makes government the enforcer of poverty for millions of working class families. This also needs to be exposed that these Democrats, no different from the Republicans are using the levers of government (legislation) to enforce poverty--- thus assuring not only the poverty of millions; but a huge pool of impoverished workers intended to pressure all wages. down.

Going at this rate it won't be long before all workers are in the same boat as workers employed in the loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos of the Indian Gaming Industry at exclusively poverty wages without any rights or any voice at work.

Of course, all workers in this country are employed under terms of "At-Will Employment except for the 13% employed under union contract although even these workers are finding that these same millionaire union "leaders" who shove concession after concession contract down their throats are finding their contract rights failing to be enforced through grievance procedures. here in Minnesota, where AFSCME shamefully kicked off the drive for a $9.50 Minimum Wage and is now telling members who are victims of discrimination and harassment on the job to "go hire your own attorney we don't go beyond the two step grievance process." And even during the grievance process next to nothing is done by the union grievers who often even go into the grievance process never having talked with the worker they are supposed to be representing--- they simply get the "details" from management.

Is it logical to expect that union "leaders" who refuse to even adequately represent their own members can be expected to lead the struggle for a real living Minimum Wage?

--
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/