We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

WE need to break the back of institutionalized racism if Minnesota is going to move forward…

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  • Alan L. Maki

    The business interests controlling the MN DFL refused to allow a full discussion of the issues confronting Minnesotans at the State Convention in Duluth... Mark Dayton was nominated from the floor by Greg Paquin a Native American Indian union pipefitter and Melendez, completely ignoring Robert's Rules of Order, refused to allow his nomination to stand. If delegates wanted the right to vote for Dayton at the convention this was their right and no one else's. Mark Dayton was not even allowed the courtesy of entering the convention even though he was nominated and there were hundreds of seconds to the nomination.
    Both Kelliher and Entenza have a proven track record of the inability to stand up to the Republicans and the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association which forces more than 40,000 Minnesotans to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws and the union bosses who are completely out of touch with the rank-and-file of their memberships work in cahoots with the Democrats and the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association to perpetuate these injustices and the Minnesota AFL-CIO works in league with the racists who control the MN DFL preventing the enforcement of affirmative action on public works projects... these union bosses are now split between supporting Entenza and Kelliher who have not lifted one little finger in opposition to this institutionalized racism while Mark Dayton has stepped forward and stated in no uncertain terms that he will push ahead with a state-owned casino challenging the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association's injustices towards all working people including Native American Indians who suffer most at the hands of these casino managements. Dayton has also made it clear that affirmative action is the law of the land and he will see to it that all Minnesota Departments and agencies enforce its implementation... neither Entenza nor Kelliher have had the moral or political courage to do this while the DFL State Central Committee held its meeting in Bemidji, Minnesota where the largest public works project, the Bemidji Regional Event Center, is going up without the implementation of affirmative action while a notoriously racist, anti-labor, union busting outfit, VenueWorks, has been hired to manage the facility, again without implementing affirmative action.
    Minnesota has a large Native American Indian population and there isn't one single Native American Indian among the more than 200 state legislators and the leadership of the Minnesota DFL has enforced this racism through its undemocratic control and manipulation... both Kelliher and Entenza have been a party to this institutionalized racism in their "leadership" capacities. This institutionalized racism has prevented a progressive blooming that Minnesota is known for. Anyone who challenges this institutionalized racism deserves to be elected. This institutionalized racism has created the fertile ground for the most reactionary politics--- in both the Democratic and Republican parties to thrive--- thus leaving us saddled with the mess we are in where our public institutions are literally crumbling, falling apart... and in the case of the I-35 Bridge, falling down. Racism helps breed the kind of corruption that has taken hold over the years.
    If Dayton doesn't win in the primary I'll look for a principled minor party candidate to vote for--- unfortunately the Green Party has shown itself to be just as racist as the leadership and most of the politicians in the Minnesota DFL--- we saw this with Rhoda Gilman's racist attacks on Jeff
    Hayden, and her racist attacks on Jeff Hayden helped set the stage for affirmative action not getting enforced in Minnesota because Jeff Hayden has been one of the few state legislators trying to push this issue forward with no support from Margaret Anderson-Kelliher or Matt Entenza.
    Even the Communist Party USA has dirty hands when it comes to institutionalized racism in Minnesota as its National Committee member, Mark Froemke, working at the behest of the AFL-CIO pushed the vile racist Collin Peterson down the throats of 7th Congressional District Delegates by preventing Curtis Buckenaga from being nominated by 7th Congressional District delegates to challenge Collin Peterson who is getting away with boasting that he is "more conservative than my Republican opponent."
    The Minnesota DFL, the Minnesota State Legislature and obviously the Republican Party is mired in a cesspool of institutionalized racism and if Mark Dayton can lead the way out of this swamp as the only thing he does it will have been worth it to elect him.

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