I am going to place in writing what many people are thinking.

I responded to an "interview" of a Socialist alternative member in Philadelphia concerning this "15 or Fight" movement:


http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2014/03/07/qa-socialist-alternative-member-on-fight-for-15-minimum-wage/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=qa-socialist-alternative-member-on-fight-for-15-minimum-wage


I'm not all that concerned with what members of this Trotskyite Socialist Alternative sect has to say since they didn't show up to support the struggle to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant nor have they ever taken a position in support of casino workers struggling for their rights.


After years of badmouthing anyone working with grassroots activists inside the Democratic Party all of a sudden this outfit joins with the Democrats and their foundation-funded front groups and hacks to bring forward the same old classless crap as the Democrats only upping their poverty wage.


I expected Minnesota Greens to support this "15 or Fight" initiative since they too refuse to enter the struggle for casino workers' rights and they joined with the Ford Motor Company to kill 2,000 jobs, demolish the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and give the Ford Hydro Dam to a multi-national conglomerate to profit from.


Quite frankly, I support any improvement in the Minimum Wage. For working people, any Minimum Wage higher than $7.25 is a "better" wage.


Are we building a movement for a "Better Minimum Wage" or are we building a movement for the Minimum Wage to become a real "Living Wage?"


If we are for a "better" Minimum Wage I would suggest we just accept what the Democrats are willing to give us as part of their scam to get votes. $7.75 would be a good place to settle since it is most likely what we are going to get. Perhaps the Democrats will agree to legislation creeping up gradually $9.50 after a few years. That will get people off their backs through 2016.


I have noticed neither Socialist Alternative nor the Democrats have taken note of the $10.25 Minimum Wage that the Leech Lake Tribal Council has legislated for all tribal employees--- including casino workers. As far as I know, this is the highest Minimum Wage in the country that universally enforced. $10.25 is better than what the Democrats offer and it is more than what this tiny sectarian Trotskyite sect or the Greens will ever win.


If "better" is what we are after, I would suggest joining with most of the Democrats and their partners among the millionaire labor leaders, their front groups like Take Action Minnesota and Working America, and all these muddle-headed, upper-middle class pundits and hacks for whom politics is a form of sport because touch football is to tough and grueling in advancing a $9.50 Minimum Wage--- after all, $9.50 is better than $6.15 or $7.25 or $7.75 and we don't have to fight.


This was my response in PhillyNow:



Leave it to a small Trotskyite sect to join the Democrats to advocate a Minimum Wage that is less than a real living wage in relation to the actual “cost-of-living.”


For sure $15.00 an hour is better than $7.25; but, $15.00 an hour is still a poverty wage.



Are we seeking a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage or are we seeking a Minimum Wage that is a “better wage?”


$7.75 better than $7.25.


$9.50 is better than $7.75.


$10.10 is better than $9.50.


$15.00 IS BETTER THAN $10.10.


But, being a “better” Minimum Wage does not make the Minimum Wage a “living wage.”


Are we seeking to boost the Minimum Wage incrementally or are we seeking to establish a just Minimum Wage based on actual “cost-of-living” factors?


The one and only way to judge wages are in comparison to “cost-of-living;” right?


Everything else supports some kind of improved Minimum Wage or amounts to very superficial comparisons.
The person being interviewed for this article just casually tosses in mention of “cost-of-living” as if it is just one more factor to consider in relation to establishing the Minimum Wage.


“Cost-of-living” is not just another factor; it is the primary factor in determining what is a living and just wage.
For a working class family, the one and only relationship is that between wages and what it costs to live— cost-of-living; what can be purchased with wages paid.


$15.00 an hour and a few credit cards maxed out gets a working class family a decent “standard-of-living”… until bankruptcy hits.


This is the old Walter Reuther ploy— get workers by on wages and credit cards and workers will think they are doing good. It wasn't coincidental Walter Reuther surrounded himself with Trotskyites; his self-serving leadership "qualities" and working class betrayals required this kind of left-sectarian support.


If people are satisfied with replacing one poverty wage with another poverty wage that is up to them.
People willing to get by on $15.00 an hour and a few maxed out credit cards does not amount to a real living wage.


The only way to arrive at a real living wage is to legislatively tie the Minimum Wage directly to the actual “cost-of-living” based on the factors tracked by United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics findings compiled for the Consumer Price Index consisting of 8 categories each with 200 sub-categories.


This would then have to be tied to the real inflation rate for the basic necessities of life working class families purchase:


Food.


Clothing.


Rents/Mortgages.


Health care costs.


Transportation costs.


Child care costs.


Home/Auto Insurance.


Electricity.


Home heating costs.


Cost of higher education.


The government has failed to control any of these costs choosing, instead, to leave working class families at the mercy of the Wall Street monopolies fixing prices from which they derive super-profits in the same way these monopolies derive super-profits from any wages that are poverty wages.


On top of this base living Minimum Wage indexed to inflation there would be periodic increases allocated for an improved “standard of living.”


This all needs to be included as part of a reform package intended to upgrade the “New Deal” to meet today’s problems.


Included in such a reform package would be the need for a Basic Income Guarantee because any Minimum Wage that does not include a job with 40 hours of work still won’t provide a real living wage.


Also required would be a Full Employment Act mandating the president and Congress to attain and maintain full employment since workers without jobs are going to be poor.



We need a 21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity which would include these three basic reforms as an upgrade to the New Deal reforms.


Peace would have to be part of the package since it will be impossible to implement full employment without a huge “Peace Dividend.”


The government will have to create socially useful and necessary jobs to put everyone to work through programs like the WPA, CCC and C.E.T.A.because private enterprise and the free market have failed to overcome massive unemployment.


There are two things the American people desperately need:


Real health care reform and child care. Both provide massive job-creating opportunities. Both put people to work providing people what they need for improved lives and livelihoods.


A National Public Health Care System would create over 12-million new jobs putting people to work providing the American people with free health care through a network of community and neighborhood based health care centers.


A National Public Child Care System would put another three to five million people to work providing the American people with free child care.


Both of these programs would cost less than what we pump into the Military-Industrial Complex, squander on these never-ending dirty imperialist wars and what it is costing us to maintain over 800 U.S. military bases dotting the globe on foreign soil protecting Wall Street’s interests, assets and profits these greedy Wall Street “investors” seek to maximize their profits exploiting cheaper labor in the process of raping Mother Nature.



Both health care and child care should be based on the model provided by public education:


Public funding.


Public Administration.


Public delivery.


When all is said and done we need an anti-monopoly coalition and a broad-based working class based progressive people’s party capable of winning reforms AND challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.


We shouldn’t waste our time with these tiny, sectarian Trotskyite sects which opportunistically latch on to an issue in a less than honest manner because we have credible examples of actual anti-monopoly coalitions and parties that have worked— including the old socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and its Farmer-Labor Association… both of which were smashed, after tremendous success, by government repression ordered by Wall Street.