Republicans are rabidly against any forms of nationalization or public ownership; Democrats are all for the "free market," too.
Democrats and Republicans--- except for a teeny-weeny, small little handful of liberal, progressive and left wing Democrats--- here in Minnesota joined together to oppose using public ownership to save the Saint Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant which employed two-thousand workers and they gave away the publicly owned hydro dam which powered the manufacturing operation for over 85 years to a Canadian multi-national corporation to rip-off the people and profit from.
But, wait!
Public officials, Democrats and Republicans--- in Fosston, Minnesota voted, at the regular City Council meeting on September 9, 2013, to pay $350,000.00 to purchase the privately owned Fosston Golf Course from millionaire Greg Mireault in order to bring it under public ownership; why? To "save the jobs!"
Typical of the government's screwed up priorities.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
For a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace & Prosperity."
We
need a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace &
Prosperity.”
The
time has come to fulfill the dreams and promises that were intended
to be part of the New Deal reforms initiated by Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Henry A. Wallace and Frances Perkins. This legislation
would include:
*
Make the president and Congress legislatively required to attain and
maintain full employment.
*
A Minimum Wage that is a real living wage based on all cost-of-living
factors.
*
A National Public Health Care System (12-million new jobs).
*
A National Public Child Care System (4-million new jobs).
*
Restore Works Progress Administration [WPA] (5-million new jobs).
*
Restore Civilian Conservation Corps. [CCC] (3-million new jobs).
*
Restore Comprehensive and Employment Training Act [CETA] (3-million
new jobs).
For
the price we pay for militarism and wars we can achieve full
employment putting people to work solving the problems of the people
and society.
If
a “peace dividend” isn't enough to pay for this legislation then
tax the hell out of the rich to pay for the rest.
Unless
we make the president and Congress legislatively responsible for full
employment we will never achieve full employment because it is easier
for these politicians to campaign on promises of “jobs, jobs, jobs”
and then doing nothing once elected.
Working
people without jobs are going to be poor.
Working
people employed at poverty wages are going to be poor.
Full
employment will assure Social Security is adequately funded with
programs expanded and benefits increased to what's a real living
income.
We
can't achieve full employment without peace because these dirty wars
kill jobs just like they kill people.
We
will need a massive groundswell of support from the grassroots to
achieve this kind of reform because Democrats and Republicans are
beholden to Wall Street whose vultures profit from militarism and
wars the same way they profit from unemployment which pushes wages
down thereby driving profits up.
Alan
L. Maki
Founder
and Chair,
Minnesotans
for Peace and Social Justice
58891
County Road 13
Warroad,
Minnesota 56763
Phone:
218-386-2432
Cell
phone: 651-587-5541
For more information check this
out:
Sisters and Brothers, Fellow Workers;
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.
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 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:
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:
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
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Two views. Which way for organized labor and the working class.
Then check out this; has Richard Trumka responded to the problems of the working class and the problems we as a Nation face:
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
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Re: Syria; to bomb or not to bomb.
September 4, 2013
Letter to the Editor, submitted for publication to the International Falls Daily Journal (259 words) [Permission to edit as seen fit is granted.]
These Congressional hearings to be held to determine whether or not Syria should be bombed by the United States is turning into one big fiasco and farce, almost like a circus, since the real issues aren't even being broached.
Letter to the Editor, submitted for publication to the International Falls Daily Journal (259 words) [Permission to edit as seen fit is granted.]
These Congressional hearings to be held to determine whether or not Syria should be bombed by the United States is turning into one big fiasco and farce, almost like a circus, since the real issues aren't even being broached.
Something no one wants to talk
about:
What exactly created the current violent unrest in Syria?
George W. Bush and his administration used Shiite militias in Iraq against Sunni insurgents, which helped trigger the Shia-vs.-Sunni dimension of Syria's civil war.
This had been a civil war with leftists the United States government didn't like on the verge of bringing down Assad much the way George Washington defeated the British.
The CIA has used ethnic strife to inflame animosities to the point of violence since the end of World War II. The CIA's first objective in destabilizing foreign governments deemed to be "enemies" of the United States was to foment religious and ethnic violence.
Hopefully Congress is now going to completely explore these dirty deeds and the Syrian people will come to understand how they have been used by the CIA as part of Washington's plans to dominate the oil and gas fields along with the pipeline distribution system of this region.
Aren't all these dirty wars about defending Wall Street's assets and investments or to help these Wall Street vultures secure and accrue the wealth of other nations?
Just on its surface it is morally wrong to discuss whether or not we should bomb a country that has done nothing to hurt us. Since when has bombing anyone helped them?
What exactly created the current violent unrest in Syria?
George W. Bush and his administration used Shiite militias in Iraq against Sunni insurgents, which helped trigger the Shia-vs.-Sunni dimension of Syria's civil war.
This had been a civil war with leftists the United States government didn't like on the verge of bringing down Assad much the way George Washington defeated the British.
The CIA has used ethnic strife to inflame animosities to the point of violence since the end of World War II. The CIA's first objective in destabilizing foreign governments deemed to be "enemies" of the United States was to foment religious and ethnic violence.
Hopefully Congress is now going to completely explore these dirty deeds and the Syrian people will come to understand how they have been used by the CIA as part of Washington's plans to dominate the oil and gas fields along with the pipeline distribution system of this region.
Aren't all these dirty wars about defending Wall Street's assets and investments or to help these Wall Street vultures secure and accrue the wealth of other nations?
Just on its surface it is morally wrong to discuss whether or not we should bomb a country that has done nothing to hurt us. Since when has bombing anyone helped them?
Alan L. Maki
Founder and Chair,
Founder and Chair,
Minnesotans for Peace and Social
Justice
58891 County Road 13
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
AFL-CIO convention to discuss change.
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.
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 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:
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:
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.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
John Kerry strikes a blow against democracy.
John Kerry hammers democracy and takes a poke at "We The People" who are thoroughly fed up.
Speaking to State Department personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that "this little thing called the Internet makes it much harder to govern."
What is interesting is that most of the media has not even so much as questioned Kerry or insisted he go into more detail about this remark which is a direct attack on democracy.
Obviously, Kerry and Obama and the Democrats and the Republicans are arrogantly insisting that they have the right to run the government according to Wall Street's dictate without any input into the decision-making process from "we the people."
If we look at how the Democrats and Republicans run their own political parties we get a clue about how they want to run the government--- by manipulation and scheming in order to control people and movements completely free from any form of real citizen participation, transparency and oversight and without any consideration for democracy, the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights or the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It is the epitome of hypocrisy that we have the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, trotting the globe "on our dime" lamenting efforts of citizens to participate in their governments as all these other Wall Street bribed politicians, the mainstream corporate controlled media and the over-paid capitalist Sooth-sayers/pundits along with the muddle-headed middle class "intellectual" supporters of Obama all boasting to the world that the United States is the world's greatest bastion of democracy.
Talk about "irony."
We are getting a good strong dose of what Obama meant when he wrote this article about "Renewing American Leadership" back in 2007 for Foreign Affairs Magazine:
http://wallstreetsfriend.blogspot.com/2011/04/renewing-american-leadership-by-barack.html
Wall Street insists on its "right" to dictate without interference from the working class based upon its greedy appetite for profits obtained through exploitation, rape and robbery.
If people object and protest against this Wall Street dictate here at home or abroad, in the eyes of these Wall Street vultures like John Kerry, the people--- we the people--- become difficult to control.
We must exercise all of our rights using protests in the streets backed up at the ballot box.
We need to use the Internet to organize a political party of "We The People" fed up with wars, unemployment, poverty, lack of access to health care, racism and inequality along with the destruction of our living environment.
Barack Obama and John Kerry have apparently become concerned that "We The People" may decide to use the Internet in exercising our right to revolution.
Instead of welcoming the Internet as a harbinger of direct citizen participation in the decision-making process of a working democracy, John Kerry laments citizens having the knowledge required to participate in their own governments--- come on, really; is this kind of representative of the United States of America we want traipsing the globe "on our dime?" Let Wall Street pay the tab for its own propagandists.
Speaking to State Department personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, on Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that "this little thing called the Internet makes it much harder to govern."
What is interesting is that most of the media has not even so much as questioned Kerry or insisted he go into more detail about this remark which is a direct attack on democracy.
Obviously, Kerry and Obama and the Democrats and the Republicans are arrogantly insisting that they have the right to run the government according to Wall Street's dictate without any input into the decision-making process from "we the people."
If we look at how the Democrats and Republicans run their own political parties we get a clue about how they want to run the government--- by manipulation and scheming in order to control people and movements completely free from any form of real citizen participation, transparency and oversight and without any consideration for democracy, the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights or the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It is the epitome of hypocrisy that we have the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, trotting the globe "on our dime" lamenting efforts of citizens to participate in their governments as all these other Wall Street bribed politicians, the mainstream corporate controlled media and the over-paid capitalist Sooth-sayers/pundits along with the muddle-headed middle class "intellectual" supporters of Obama all boasting to the world that the United States is the world's greatest bastion of democracy.
Talk about "irony."
We are getting a good strong dose of what Obama meant when he wrote this article about "Renewing American Leadership" back in 2007 for Foreign Affairs Magazine:
http://wallstreetsfriend.blogspot.com/2011/04/renewing-american-leadership-by-barack.html
Wall Street insists on its "right" to dictate without interference from the working class based upon its greedy appetite for profits obtained through exploitation, rape and robbery.
If people object and protest against this Wall Street dictate here at home or abroad, in the eyes of these Wall Street vultures like John Kerry, the people--- we the people--- become difficult to control.
We must exercise all of our rights using protests in the streets backed up at the ballot box.
We need to use the Internet to organize a political party of "We The People" fed up with wars, unemployment, poverty, lack of access to health care, racism and inequality along with the destruction of our living environment.
Barack Obama and John Kerry have apparently become concerned that "We The People" may decide to use the Internet in exercising our right to revolution.
Instead of welcoming the Internet as a harbinger of direct citizen participation in the decision-making process of a working democracy, John Kerry laments citizens having the knowledge required to participate in their own governments--- come on, really; is this kind of representative of the United States of America we want traipsing the globe "on our dime?" Let Wall Street pay the tab for its own propagandists.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
A Town Without Pity
A Town Without Pity
Sunday, August 11, 2013 3:40:14 PM
Sunday, August 11, 2013A Town Without Pity
------ Original Message ------
From: Alan Gilbert
Date: 8/11/2013 1:58 AM
To: democratic-indv@du.edu;
Subject: [Democratic-indv] An elite without pity...
An elite without pity...
In America, a fabulously wealthy elite, more swollen than the robber barrens, eats unceasingly - takes food stamps from the poor - and scorns those who suffer, here and abroad. In the New York Times, Charles Blow has a true - and therefore remarkable - column on Washington as "A Town Without Pity." In it, he speaks of the Congressional representatives and others as "pariahs," as people who blame, he says, the very poor. That a tendency like this exists among the leaders of a supposed affluent society - a society whose representatives trumpet their Christianity while scorning the poor (Jesus preached for the poor, as his own words and the great philosopher Hegel remind us) - is repulsive. The rich are parasites or exploiters (even those innovators who also make some important contributons). They live off the labor of others and dominate the government as a particular tyrannical - oligarchic in Aristotle's terms - interest.
In addition, they are often sociopaths who have no concern for and blame others ("blaming the victim" - with indigenous people, the enslaved, the poor, the unemployed and the homeless as emblems - is a widespread elite trope). America is rapidly becoming, in high places, an odious society. (see Paul Krugman's reflections, invoking Michal Kalecki, on the war against Keynsian policies - science be damned - instituted by the rich here).
***
Obama has been forced by Edward Snowden to call for some balancing of the spying Bush-Obama apparatus he now heads (the Times says here, echoing an elite attempt to evade the law, that he has eschewed only "brutal interrogations" - the right word is torture which American and international law bars; again, it is remarkable that Blow's words appear in the Times. Still, Obama has concern for ordinary people and his Presidency is pretty well all that holds the American elite, in itself, from the starkest villainy.
***
Occupy - and in the future, hopefully a much stronger version - are the only things that will reestablish a modicum of wellbeing in America. We are a society which has always progressed through such movements from below (the Revolution, the abolitionists led by John Brown and Frederick Douglass, the women's suffrage movement, the union movement, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movements and the like).
***
Blow cites a Wall Street Journal poll and a study by Susan Fiske at Princeton alleging:
“'The stereotypes of poor people in the United States are among the most negative prejudices that we have. And people basically view particularly homeless people as having no redeeming qualities — there’s not the competence for anything, not having good intentions and not being trustworthy.'”
Fiske's report, as recounted by Blow, makes prejudice too democratic (though speaking unclearly or ambiguously this central issue, she also speaks very well on prejudice and her relationship with Gordon Allport's work here). But most of us want health care. Most of us want decent jobs, Most of us know that the danger of poverty is one accident, one hospital bill, one lay-off away...
The elite has manipulated elections, gerrymandering districts and often disenfranchising the poor. The right to vote is not actually a right, not sacrosanct (one major party from the very white Justice John Roberts to every Republican state legislature/Governor is a standing attack on it).
Perhaps this turn away from the condescension of the elite (as human beings, the elite need to be stopped and require pity) is why Blow's article made the Times.
***
Nonetheless, "A Town Without Pity" makes the need for movements from below glaring.
‘A Town Without Pity’
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: August 9, 2013
America was once the land of Lady Liberty, beckoning the world: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Today’s America — at least as measured by the actions and inactions of the pariahs who roam its halls of power and the people who put them there — is insular, cruel and uncaring.
In this America, people blame welfare for creating poverty rather than for mitigating the impact of it. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in June found that the No. 1 reason people gave for our continuing poverty crisis was: “Too much welfare that prevents initiative.”
In this America, the House can — as it did in July — pass a farm bill that left out the food stamp program at a time when a record number of Americans, nearly 48 million, are depending on the benefits.
In this America, a land of immigrants, comprehensive immigration reform can be stalled in The People’s Branch of government, and anti-reform mouthpieces like Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan can warn that immigration reform will be the end of the country.
And in today’s America, poverty and homelessness can easily seep beneath the wall we erect in our minds to define it.
A December report by the United States Conference of Mayors that surveyed 25 cities found that all but 4 of them reported an increase in requests for emergency food aid since 2011, and three-fourths of them expected those requests to increase in 2013.
The report also found that 60 percent of the cities surveyed had seen an increase in homelessness, and the same percentage of cities expected homelessness to increase in 2013.
But poverty isn’t easily written off as an inner-city ailment. It has now become a suburban problem. A report this week by the Brookings Institution found that “during the 2000s, major metropolitan suburbs became home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in America.”
Nor can economic insecurity be written off as a minorities-only issue. According to survey results published last month by The Associated Press:
“Nonwhites still have a higher risk of being economically insecure, at 90 percent. But compared with the official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty.”
How did we come to such a pass? Why aren’t more politicians — and people in general — expressing outrage and showing empathy?
Part of our current condition is obviously partisan. Republicans have become the party of “blame the victim.” Whatever your lesser lot in life, it’s completely within your means to correct, according to their logic. Poverty, hunger, homelessness and desperation aren’t violence to the spirit but motivation to the will. If you want more and you work harder, all your problems will disappear. Sink or swim. Pull yourself up. Get over it. Of course, that narrow conservative doctrine denies a broader reality: that there are working poor and chronically unemployed — people who do want and who do work and who do want to work, but who remain stuck on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
In this regard, Republicans have all but abandoned the idea of compassionate conservatism and are diving headlong into callous conservatism.
But another problem may be more broad-based: the way that many Americans look at the poor with disgust.
As Susan Fiske, a Princeton professor who has studied people’s attitudes toward the poor for more than a decade, told me on Friday:
“The stereotypes of poor people in the United States are among the most negative prejudices that we have. And people basically view particularly homeless people as having no redeeming qualities — there’s not the competence for anything, not having good intentions and not being trustworthy.”
Fiske’s research shows that people respond not only to the poor and homeless with revulsion, but they also react negatively to people they perceive as undocumented immigrants — essentially anyone without an address.
If some people’s impulse is to turn up a nose rather than extend a hand, no wonder we send so many lawmakers empty of empathy to Congress. No wonder more people don’t demand that Congress stand up for the least among us rather than on them.
As Fiske so aptly put it: “It seems like Washington is a place without pity right now. A town without pity.”
***
For the table on attitudes accompanying Blow's article, see here.
Alan Maki
9:48 AM (1 minute ago)
to uniting_people, ZZZ, Karen, chblow, Alan, rep.phyllis.ka., rep.tom.anzelc, sen.david.toma., Alice, Andrea, Andrew, Anna, Barb, Ben, Bob, Bob, Bob, Brian, Bud, Carlos, Carly, Carolyn, Chris, Cindy, Connie
I want to thank Robin Hensel for bringing this to our attention.
Just so we are all on the same page... this discussion revolves around this article, A Town Without Pity" and the links included:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/opinion/blow-a-town-without-pity.html?_r=0>
And note; I have sent this to Charles Blow.
Several important points I think Alan Gilbert misses here. Plus what Charles Blow, writing in the New York Times, doesn't tell us about these numbers and the very important number of "8%" that Charles Blow leaves out for some reason (a "reason" kind of like a New York Times' "reason?").
First of all, if you add up all the numbers from the chart Blow provides, less the 24% (all the numbers add up to 87%; what happened to the other 13%?) you get a very good figure that 63% of the American people do have a very good grasp of poverty.
But; and this is a very important "but." But Charles Blow leaves out the number "8"--- 8%. 8% is the number of people who feel that ALL the reasons minus the 24% are responsible for poverty--- so, 71% of the people have a very good grasp of what causes poverty and demonstrate an empathy for the poor.
Most likely if one were to include the 24% this majority would say they are part of the problem, too. If you have to scratch your head thinking about this you probably aren't going to understand much about poverty.
We aren't told the races (nor class) of the people interviewed since the numbers indicate there is an almost complete lack of understanding of the relationship between racism and poverty... if you don't have a job or you have a poverty wage paying job you are going to be poor. Well, guess what? Because of racist discrimination in employment practices without Affirmative Action being enforced people of color, in a society dominated by racism, are going to be poor.
One should read this article by Charles Blow directly from the New York Times' website <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/opinion/blow-a-town-without-pity.html?_r=0> and follow through on EACH and EVERY link encountered in order to get a better understanding of the issue itself--- plus, get an understanding why one has to "read between the lines" and question every single article or op-ed piece that appears in the New York Times and "how polls are conducted" in a tainted way to begin with.
For instance; why weren't people asked if capitalism creates poverty?
Why weren't people asked if so few people being so extremely rich causes poverty?
Why weren't people asked if these dirty wars are creating poverty?
Something happened to 5% of the people in this poll--- what is with this? Is it possible 5% of the people wanted these other three questions asked before they answered the pollsters?
Charles Blow could have referred to the last article written by his former colleague at the New York Times, Bob Herbert; why didn't he? He didn't want to get the ax like Herbert did? An interesting question when it comes to what kind of "freedom of the press" we have in this country since the New York Times makes the boast that it is the best reflection of "freedom of the press" and apparently a lot of people buy into this hype because we all use the New York Times as a point of reference more often than not.
But, here is what Charles Blow missed:
Losing Our Way by Bob Herbert...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=0>
Now, Minnesota politicians in the state legislature--- Democrats (with their huge super-majority) and the minority Republicans who have been relegated meaningless and without any decision-making status what-so-ever except what the Democrats grant to them which is essentially acceptance of the Republican agenda!--- have a kewl and nifty little committee they call "Ladder Out Of Poverty."
But, their perverted sense of what a "ladder" is leaves much to be desired because their "ladder" has only missing rungs and rotten rungs. If one can reach the first rung of their "ladder" the rungs breaks and they fall back down to the bottom and it becomes harder and harder to reach another rung.Charles Blow correctly points out, these politicians don't understand poverty and have no empathy for the poor.
Wars kill jobs just like they kill people; and these dirty imperialist wars, as anyone can see, also kills freedom and democracy--- one reason why the New York Times columnist, Charles Blow, can conveniently get away with not discussing these issues like his fellow columnist Bob Herbert did. People who are involved in the struggles for peace, full employment, universal health care, equality and defense of democracy are not permitted in the proverbial "public square." Remember, Occupy Wall Street was chased out of the "public square" and silence by billy club swinging police and police firing tear gas and rubber-covered steel bullets at them not to mention the little fact that the Obama Administration unleashed a force of over 500 FBI "Special Agents" to disrupt and disorient the Occupy Movement from within.
Charles Blow never adds up the figures because he would have to explain why, in a country which boasts--- and the New York Times has been the biggest boaster for decades--- that we live in the world's greatest bastion of democracy--- that not only a bunch of uncaring, insensitive politicians are making the decisions in this country, but these politicians--- Obama especially--- are bribed by Wall Street to work for these wealthy parasitical vultures who profit from exploitation to begin with, there profits get a big boost from racism and they reap fabulous super profits from war and they have even managed to profit from the very poverty they create by all kinds of schemes from cutting food stamps and transferring the funding to the lucrative Military-Industrial Complex to enabling Wall Street bankers to reap huge profits just for issuing the plastic debit cards that are now food stamps.
It is not only as Charles Blow states that these politicians are an uncaring and non-empathetic bunch of morons and insinuates they have screwed up priorities; it is because they work for their Wall Street masters whose one and only concern is the bottom line--- PROFITS.
How else can one explain why the billionaire Democratic Governor of Minnesota, backed by the Rockefeller family's wealth, leading a Democratic super-majority would leave the state's Minimum Wage at $6.25 an hour--- lower than Wisconsin with Walker at the helm, and lower than Mississippi or North Carolina--- only Georgia, Wyoming and Puerto Rico have lower Minimum Wages. Even the Virgin Islands have a higher Minimum Wage than Minnesota!
Any little school child can figure out that workers without jobs are going to be poor. And these same schoolchildren understand that workers receiving poverty wages are going to be poor--- concepts that Wall Street bribed politicians and billionaires like Mark Dayton not only don't understand--- but they don't even want to hear this.
What would poverty wage workers workers receive from the Obama Administration and Governor Dayton's Administration if they took to the streets demanding justice? Most likely, instead of the raise America needs, the sharp blow over the head from the policeman's bill club, tear gas and steel covered rubber bullets--- not exactly what one can feed a family on but the way Wall Street intends to try to survive.
Say, has anyone thought to look into the Full Employment Act of 1945 as proposed by liberal Democratic Congressman Wright Patman to see what became of that?
Why is it that not one single member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus would provide me with a copy of the Full Employment Act of 1945 and a transcript of the Hearings--- not even for a fee?
Is there a reason why politicians fixated on "jobs, jobs, jobs" when they want our votes refuse to make themselves accountable for not having full employment? Something to think about, eh? Especially when one considers the callousness of this 24%.
Which begs the question:
Why hasn't the Congressional Progressive Caucus brought forward real Full Employment legislation?
Perhaps if they don't know how to draft Full Employment legislation someone else should and they should run on this legislation as part of their platform for peace, which like poverty, is another word no one among this 24% wants to hear about.
Peace, Full Employment, Living Wages and Full Equality are like four peas in a healthy pod; wars, unemployment, poverty and racism are like four peas in a moldy, rotten pod... the rotten peas in the pod are going to cause the entire pod eventually rot... any home gardener should be able to understand this simple concept even if Obama's "economic advisers" from Wall Street don't understand.
Keep in mind that here in Minnesota, not only did billionaire Dayton and his Democratic super-majority not raise the Minimum Wage at all... they also refuse to enforce Affirmative Action even when it comes to two huge billion-dollar public works projects: the Viking Stadium and the Bridge over the St. Croix--- a joint project with the Scott Walker's Republican super-majority in Wisconsin. Dayton and these Democrats might be able to get away with "blaming the Republicans" for not enforcing Affirmative Action on the billion dollar Bridge over the St. Croix River; but, what is these Democrat's excuse for refusing to enforce Affirmative Action in the building of the billion dollar-plus Viking Stadium? Same excuse for not raising the Minimum Wage to a real living wage? Just what is the excuse? Does the excuse have anything to do with corporate profits and the super-profits derived from racism?
I take it that no one will mind me providing a Marxist viewpoint; after all, the New York Times' Paul Krugman just encouraged people to read a Marxist point of view: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/opinion/krugman-phony-fear-factor.html?ref=paulkrugman even though Krugman is more enamored with Keynes.
Anyways; I look forward to further discussion of all of this. And who knows; further discussion might lead to the kind of grassroots and rank-and-file working class mass action that might lead to at least some kind of miserly increase in Minnesota's shameful poverty Minimum Wage. Anyone ever thought of legislatively tying the Minimum Wage to all "cost of living" factors with regular increases that would lead to an improved "standard of living" of living beyond just keeping up with the "cost of living?"
Come on; it's not like I am suggesting Minnesota State Legislators should include casino workers under the protection of the States "Freedom to Breath" legislation and their right to work in smoke-free workplaces like all other workers or extend the protections of state and federal labor laws to workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry.
Alan L. Maki
--
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/
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Grow the union movement with an alternative agenda for labor
Our organization is distributing this in union
circles and beyond in preparation for the AFL-CIO's National Convention
in September:
Sisters and Brothers, Fellow Workers;
Uniting People (UP) is a new national organization for Peace, 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%3Bseq%3D10%3Bview%3D1up
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, full employment, universal health care and protection of the environment.
Sisters and Brothers, Fellow Workers;
Uniting People (UP) is a new national organization for Peace, 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%3Bseq%3D10%3Bview%3D1up
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, full employment, universal health care and protection of the environment.
New Ideas for Labor
Our organization is distributing this in union
circles and beyond in preparation for the AFL-CIO's National Convention
in September:
Sisters and Brothers, Fellow Workers;
Uniting People (UP) is a new national organization for Peace, 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%3Bseq%3D10%3Bview%3D1up
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, full employment, universal health care and protection of the environment.
Sisters and Brothers, Fellow Workers;
Uniting People (UP) is a new national organization for Peace, 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%3Bseq%3D10%3Bview%3D1up
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, full employment, universal health care and protection of the environment.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton manages to get over the 50% hump in his approval rating...
But... Were Minnesotans satisfied with Dayton's refusal to raise the Minimum Wage? I bet if Mark Dayton had to rely on a Minimum Wage job for his income instead of the billions he inherited from his family whose wealth has been derived from paying workers poverty wages he wouldn't be smiling.
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton manages to get over the 50% hump in his approval rating... but what do poverty waged employees get? A kick in the ass from this Democratic Governor.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
A whiff of fascism from Wall Street.
Has anyone noticed the plethora of multi-media presentations--- especially on YouTube--- that are slickly produced under all kinds of names of "organizations" we have never heard of before but mislead people into thinking the "enemy" is always someone or some institution other than Wall Street?
Apparently there is a group of very well-heeled people who have the financial where-with-all to hire Madison Avenue advertising firms using Hollywood theatrics who think they need to re-direct the hit Wall Street has taken from Occupy Wall Street.
No matter what the future of Occupy Wall Street and no matter its problems, this movement did succeed in pointing the finger directly at our enemy--- Wall Street.
And, apparently, now, Wall Street feels the time is right to try to shift the focus and the spotlight from itself to everyone and anyone and anything other than itself to blame our problems on.
You can pay your ten dollars to join any movement that will lead you to take up the fight and the struggle against anyone or any institution other than Wall Street.
Slick as shit! With a good strong whiff of fascism.
Apparently there is a group of very well-heeled people who have the financial where-with-all to hire Madison Avenue advertising firms using Hollywood theatrics who think they need to re-direct the hit Wall Street has taken from Occupy Wall Street.
No matter what the future of Occupy Wall Street and no matter its problems, this movement did succeed in pointing the finger directly at our enemy--- Wall Street.
And, apparently, now, Wall Street feels the time is right to try to shift the focus and the spotlight from itself to everyone and anyone and anything other than itself to blame our problems on.
You can pay your ten dollars to join any movement that will lead you to take up the fight and the struggle against anyone or any institution other than Wall Street.
Slick as shit! With a good strong whiff of fascism.
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