Laura, I appreciate this dialog.
You state:
" From your remarks it sounds like we are both fighting for what we believe in. So in conclusion lets agree to be respectful and support each other to make change because our motives are for the betterment of society."
People fight for a lot of different things based on "what they believe in" based on how they view the world and what is going on with their lives.
The question, in my opinion, is not about whether or not we are fighting for what we believe in but rather if we are fighting for what is right.
I authored the single-payer universal healthcare resolution that took us six long years to pass through the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Convention because the President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO motioned for his delegates to remain seated in opposition to single-payer--- faced with an uprising from the rank and file in the affiliated unions, Ray Waldron--- after a vicious campaign of red-baiting me across this state because I called single-payer the first step on the way to socialized healthcare--- dropped his opposition or faced being run out of office in shame and disgrace.
But, the fact remains, this President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO used his position and influence, not to mention resources from the dues of union members to fight single-payer in this most shameful way.
In fact, it was the AFL-CIO's bought and paid for "think-tank," the Campaign for America's Future which sabotaged and derailed the single-payer movement--- Sweeney and Trumka subsidized Roger Hickey's book that was used to undermine single-payer.
I have worked in the labor movement in one capacity or another for over 30 years and those "leaders" like Lane Kirkland threatened to yank local union and local labor council charters for having me on their pay-rolls because of my political beliefs... no better than the bosses we were fighting.
Two articles I wrote about single-payer universal healthcare were circulated on the floor of the last national AFL-CIO convention in your state and some people had the leaflets yanked from their hands as they were distributing them--- this is not democracy nor is it respect for the views of others.
Not only have I worked in the labor movement for over thirty years; I have worked in the Democratic Party in three states and I have worked in the New Democratic Party in Canada.
I have heard John Sweeney praise to high heaven the Canadian workers for having their own political party yet when he came back across the border it was like he had never heard of the New Democratic Party.
Just over these past several months I received a call from labor activists in the state of Virginia to represent a young woman fired from Wal-mart FOR BEING PREGNANT who worked at the Wal-mart Super Store in Portsmouth... Wal-mart then opposed her right to collect unemployment compensation... I asked why they were calling me here in Minnesota--- the answer was, no lawyers or unions would help her fight for her job and her right to unemployment compensation. She won her right to unemployment compensation with me representing her--- I want to know where organized labor is in these struggles of working people to defend their livelihoods and their rights. This is the fight. These are the struggles. We still can't find a lawyer to represent this youn mother-to-be to get her job back--- she wasn't even provided the entitlement of protection under the Family Leave Act!
Talk about the EFCA--- As an elected member of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's State Central Committee I authored a resolution calling for a plank in the MNDFL's "Action Agenda" that legislators should rescind the "At-will hiring; at-will firing" legislation presently on the books--- this legislation is on the books in some 28 states as far as I can determine--- it is the single biggest obstacle to union organizing in this country bar none... even the EFCA could not overcome this. Who opposed my resolution? The "leaders" of the Minnesota AFL-CIO.
Right now here in Minnesota, a resolution supporting the enforcement of affirmative action (Executive Order #11246) has passed many precinct caucuses and county conventions--- this is the most important and fundamental piece of civil rights and human rights law in this country protecting people of color, women and the handicapped which Barack Obama CHOSE NOT TO ENFORCE in dishing out his trillion dollars in "stimulus funds." Who is the main opposition to this resolution passing at the upcoming MNDFL State Convention to be held in Duluth, Minnesota on April 23,24, 25? The Change To Win building trades unions AND the Minnesota AFL-CIO.
I have written Richard Trumka numerous letters about this; no response even though he said at the top of his lungs he was supporting Barack Obama as an act against racism which would benefit working people.
Supporting affirmative action is an act against racism in support of working people--- where is his big loud voice? Silent.
I wonder, if we are all fighting for the same cause.
By-the-way... it was announced that our Roseau County DFL Convention where among other things, members of the MN DFL State Central Committee are elected was going to be held at one place--- well, member of the teacher's union decided they wanted to seize control of the Democratic Party apparatus and to do this they needed to remove me from the State Central Committee; so they changed the time and place without informing anyone except for a select little group of their friends while leaving over 90 of us waiting outside in near zero temperatures for over two hours waiting for the County Convention to begin only to have the County Chair, Ley Soltis whose wife is a teacher, drive up and say, "I forgot to put a notice on the door that we changed the time and place of the convention; sorry; nothing we can do about this now."
You might think I sound like I'm pissed; I am--- because the very people who are supposed to be advancing the movement for real reforms defending the rights and livelihoods of working people and the working class are working against us every step of the way.
You bet I am a Marxist because this thoroughly rotten capitalist system is on the road to oblivion and we are all being dragged down the dark, dangerous, bumpy, curvy road to perdition without any breather in purgatory along the way. Socialism is the working class alternative to capitalism and this is what labor leaders should be talking about in addition to real reforms.
I don't know of any other advanced capitalist country in the world where organized labor chooses to cow-tow to the political parties of the bosses and a bunch of dumb donkeys.
Do the American people want socialized health care? Well, I haven't heard any people using the VA, Indian Health Service or any of the services of our National Public Health Services calling for the dismantling of these socialized healthcare programs... nor do I see many people calling for shutting down our public schools--- if we couldn't teach 300 million people to read in write in private-for-profit schools; why would any thinking person possibly believe that private-for-profit health insurance can provide the American people with the health care they are ENTITLED to as a human right by birth? How can you or anyone else say the American people don't want socialized healthcare when, like single-payer, it is kept off the table by politicians who boast to the world that we live in the greatest "bastion of democracy?"
Here in Minnesota, many Democrats in their precinct causes have passed this resolution, or something similar, after I toured all 87 counties promoting this:
"No-fee/no-premium, comprehensive, all-inclusive, pre-natal-to-grave, universal, national public healthcare; publicly financed, publicly administered and publicly delivered."
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