This enormous economic mess we are now experiencing, along with the heavy debt the bankers and the politicians of both major political parties have saddled us with, can be summed up very simply: The capitalists have taken all the profits and left the working class with all the problems.
There are only two sources of wealth: Labor and Mother Nature.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands that if you allow labor to be continually exploited and Mother Nature to be repeatedly abused and raped there will be severe consequences.
We are now reaping the consequences for allowing this parasitical monster of state-monopoly capitalism to have spun its web of corruption in the form of a cannibalistic military-financial-industrial complex which now threatens to consume and destroy our families, our communities, our State and our Nation while wreaking havoc in other lands.
Enough!
The time has come to put the needs of people before corporate profits.
There is only one alternative; for working people to come together to build a new society on the foundation created by the socialists of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.
We need to fight and struggle to re-establish the liberal, democratic and progressive socialist traditions for which Minnesota is known around the world.
We have complex problems before us… but, any country which can spend trillions of dollars on wars to steal the oil of other nations, and trillions of dollars bailing out corporations and bankers looking for using socialism to solve the problems of their own creation as they have sought to prop up their rotten capitalist system--- which they have touted to the world as being the best--- at our expense… This Nation can now come up with the resources to use socialism to solve the problems for the rest of us, too.
What is good for the goose is, in this case, is even better for the gander.
Let Barack Obama and John McCain volunteer to go off exploring the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for Osama Bin Laden; we have better things to do.
Our first priority is to end these dirty wars for oil and redeploy those funds--- as we bring home the troops--- to creating a world class socialized health care system which will create millions of new jobs; five messes the money-grubbing Wall Street coupon clippers and their bought and paid for politicians created, all solved at the same time by ending these dirty imperialist wars for oil and regional domination--- we get health care not warfare, and we begin to solve the problem of unemployment--- and when we put people to work in this way we begin to create a new--- functioning--- people oriented, cooperative, socialist economy where democracy will flourish because it will require the full participation and involvement of all people working together in order to succeed.
Second, without further delay, we need to establish the State Bank of Minnesota to accomplish for our State what the State Bank of North Dakota was set up, by workers and farmers, to do--- fund enterprises to keep people working.
Third, we need a minimum wage which is a real living wage arrived at by the calculations of the United States Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development--- based upon the real figures relating to the real cost of living and this minimum wage should be required by legislation to be updated quarterly right along with the release of all economic indicators to assure a quality life and decent standard of living for all working people and their families.
We have finally come to the point where even the parasitic bankers and the exploiting industrialists now concede that only socialism can bail them out of this horrible mess and solve their problems... capitalism has reached the end of the line and the only thing now to be had from the system is unending human misery.
At the point where society has to pay to clean up the corrupt mess these parasitic predatory lenders and financial institutions have created, this is the time to say:
Enough!
What tax-payers finance, tax-payers must own.
If Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs do not like these terms, these greedy pigs should make the trip to their off-shore banks in the Cayman Islands and make withdrawals from their accounts to pay to solve their own problems.
The time has come to roll up our sleeves, come together, and get to work quickly before this entire rotten system collapses---like the I35-W Bridge--- and crushes us all while leaving our children and grandchildren with the clean-up and the bills.
I firmly believe working people can run our country and our state better than any of the big-business politicians being funded by the corporate lobbyists.
Effectively using the tools of public ownership and nationalization combined with modern, scientific planning for the common good, we can put people to work in decent jobs at real living wages... we hear it all the time just before Election Day: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs... but we never see the jobs, and if we do, these jobs are poverty wage jobs no one can live on.
I intend to run for Governor of Minnesota in 2010.
I invite all working people who think that it is possible to create something better than the mess we are now in, to come together and work from where socialist Governors Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson left off in trying to create a just and decent society where people live and work in harmony with Mother Nature, to join with me, in establishing the Minnesota Party to give the bankers, the mining, forestry and power generating industries along with the industrialists and big-agribusiness a real run for their money.
Let’s run these parasites that have been living off of our labor and destroying Mother Nature right out of our state. We can get along just fine--- even better--- without them.
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
and
Candidate for Governor of Minnesota
Former member: Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Democrats Need to Take a Stand
Helen Thomas says in her Op/Ed piece reprinted below people are looking for “answers;” I think working people are looking for answers along with real solutions to long-festering problems which are creating havoc with their lives and untold human misery.
Now that Minnesota has a veto-proof DFL dominated State Legislature there are no excuses for not delivering on real solutions to peoples’ problems:
· Single-payer universal health care
· Saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant through public ownership
· Reform of unemployment compensation laws making it so employers don’t have the upper hand in the Appeals Process
· A moratorium on all home foreclosures and evictions
· A substantial increase in the Taconite Tax
· A substantial increase in stumpage fees
· A halt to peat mining in the Big Bog in Minnesota’s Pine Island State Forest
· Legislation to protect the Mississippi Headwaters
· Halt the contamination of our streams, rivers and lakes by United States Steel’s MinnTac operation
· Real property tax reform
· Slash college tuitions
· Protect the rights of Minnesota’s more than 20,000 casino workers who the MN DFL shamefully threw into smoke-filled working environments at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws
Working people are expecting the MN DFL to move swiftly and decisively in the upcoming legislative session as it opens in February; working people expect the MN DFL to work in their favor after years of corporate greed attacking working class families and dominating the political landscape.
Let the corporate CEO’s do the crying for a change; tax corporate profits to the hilt to pay for everything.
Give the Republicans and the corporate CEO’s real reasons to cry.
Every working man and woman is watching what the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party is going to do with its veto proof powers… if the MN DFL can’t come through for working people now there is no reason for working people to continue making the trip to the polls on Election Day… at least not to pull the DFL lever.
This upcoming legislative session will be seen as a test drive by Minnesota working class voters… Are you listening Senator Jim Metzen and the DFL members of the Senate Committee on Business, Industry and Jobs… you had better do what is required to save these 2,000 jobs of those employed at the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant… those 2,000 workers have families to feed, clothe, house and PAY TAXES… they have the VOTE, too.
Here is a little “To Do List.” I would encourage everyone to start calling Senator Jim Metzen the Chair of the Senate Committee on “Business, Industry and Jobs” along with his colleagues on the Committee insisting that SF 607 (Legislation to help save the Ford Plant, Hydro Dam and 2,000 jobs) be brought back for reconsideration by the Committee:
S.F.607
Sponsor: Senator Richard J. Cohen
Motor vehicle manufacturing plant maintenance requirement.
What you can do:
* Please contact the following Minnesota State Senators and request that SF 607 be reconsidered.
* Please ask these Senators how they voted the first time, and if they will bring this legislation forward for reconsideration.
Remember, there is now a veto proof State Legislature here in Minnesota and this Committee is completely dominated by DFL Senators.
Start calling, the new legislative session is set to open in February
The following Democrats are on the Senate Committee on Business, Industry and Jobs:
Senator James Metzen, Chair: 651-296-4370 ; Home: 651-451-0174
Lisa Sarne is Senator Metzen’s Legislative Assistant: lisa.sarne@senate.mn
United Automobile Worker Local 879 helped initiate this legislation… contact: Bob Killeen, Secretary-Treasurer: rjkuaw879@yahoo.com
Senator Kathy Saltzman, Vice Chair: 651-296-4166
Senator Tom Bakk: 651-296-8881
Senator Terri Bonoff: 651-296-4314
Senator Jim Carlson: 651-297-8073
Senator Ron Latz: 651-296-8065
Senator Steve Murphy: 651-296-4264
Senator Linda Scheid: 651-296-8869
Senator Rod Skoe: 651-296-4196
Senator Dan Sparks: 651-296-9248
Senator David Tomassoni: 651-296-8017
Here are the Republican members for what its worth…
Republicans:
Senator Dick Day: 651-296-9457
Senator Chris Gerlach: 651-296-4120
Senator Joe Gimse: 651-296-3826
Senator Amy Koch: 651-296-5981
Senator Geoff Michel: 651-296-6238
Senator Thomas Neuville: 651-296-1279
Senator Julie Rosen: 651-296-5713
Ok, here is Helen Thomas’ Op/Ed piece…
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 10:15 PM
To: Alan Maki
Subject: Democrats Need to Take a Stand By Helen Thomas
Note reference to single payer.
Subject: Democrats Need to Take a Stand By Helen Thomas
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/345962_thomas04.html
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
January 4, 2008
Democrats Need to Take a Stand By Helen Thomas
After seven years of the Bush administration, who in
the U.S. does not want to see a dramatic change in the
nation's leadership?
For that reason the Republican candidates have an
uphill battle, since most of them have not distanced
themselves sufficiently from the failed stewardship of
President Bush.
On the Democratic side, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New
York and Barack Obama of Illinois say they are the true
advocates of change. But they are short on specifics.
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina is more
definitive on one issue at least, saying he would bring
U.S. combat troops home from Iraq within 10 months.
He also is on the attack against poverty, corporate
greed, war profiteering and free trade pacts that cost
U.S. jobs.
Clinton emphasizes her 'experience' in the White House
as first lady, saying this makes her the best candidate
to bring about change.
But in 2002 as war clouds gathered, Clinton aligned
herself with the administration on a critical vote
giving Bush the green light in Iraq.
And four months ago she voted for the resolution that
could have paved the way for an attack on Iran.
The resolution - sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-
Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. - designates the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate recently
defused the threat of war by reporting that Iran in
2003 dropped plans to build a nuclear arsenal.
Of the Democrats' three top presidential seekers,
Clinton appears to be the least inclined toward
dramatic change on foreign policy.
But she may be able to trump Obama, whose campaign is
based on 'hope' and 'optimism' - ephemeral terms at a
time when the voters may be looking for solid answers
to America's pressing problems.
That's what the 2008 election is all about: answers.
All the candidates should be pinned down on how they
feel about Bush's concept of pre-emptive war;
wiretapping without a warrant; waterboarding and other
forms of torture; and the policy of 'rendition' -
sending prisoners to jails abroad where they are
subject to abusive interrogation while being held in
limbo.
The presidential hopefuls also should be quizzed on the
lack of real oversight of CIA activities and immunity
for the telecom companies that have cooperated with the
administration's wiretapping schemes.
Their views are needed on privatizing the war with
thousands of gun-slinging mercenaries employed by
Blackwater and other private security firms. Assigned
to protect U.S. diplomats, they're paid handsomely -
some as much as $1,500 a day and more.
The candidates also should offer specifics on how they
will provide medical care for the 47 million Americans
without health insurance.
A single-payer system - much like what we have with
Social Security - is the most comprehensive solution,
but the candidates are avoiding it in favor of tweaks
to the haphazard, luck-of-the-draw coverage we have
now.
Bush is trying to go green - belatedly - but the
environment and the future of the planet are issues
that have been neglected far too long.
There is also the economy, and the inroads that
globalization and free trade have made on U.S.
production capacity and the livelihoods of U.S.
workers. Manufacturing has fled the country and
globalization has proved to be a race to the economic
bottom rather than a boon for U.S. jobs.
And how about the unscrupulous mortgage lending
practices that yielded rampant housing foreclosures?
At this point, questions are in greater supply than
answers: Which of the candidates buys Bush's biggest
tax cuts for the richest Americans? What about how
federal agencies have been politicized while the
traditional, apolitical civil service has been gutted?
The candidates won't even touch the highly
controversial issues of capital punishment and gun
control. And you don't hear much about abortion rights
and gay marriage.
Those wedge issues have given a lift to conservatives
in the past. But now, they are nowhere near the top of
the agenda.
Once we get the answers on issues that do matter from
our would-be presidents, then we can all honestly wish
for peace on Earth in 2008.
_____
Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-
mail: helent@hearstdc.com.
Alan L. Maki
Member, MN DFL State Central Committee
Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
Looking for some interesting reading which is also a handbook for activists?
Check out: “Always Bring A Crowd; The Story of Frank Lumpkin, Steelworker” By: Beatrice Lumpkin
Find out how rank and file steel workers abandoned and sold out by their union fought International Harvestor and Wisconsin Steel and won their fight for justice and human dignity against powerful corporate interests. Frank Lumpkin looked for a leader… found none… and took on the task of leadership himself.
This book is destined to become a movie like “North Country.”
Now that Minnesota has a veto-proof DFL dominated State Legislature there are no excuses for not delivering on real solutions to peoples’ problems:
· Single-payer universal health care
· Saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant through public ownership
· Reform of unemployment compensation laws making it so employers don’t have the upper hand in the Appeals Process
· A moratorium on all home foreclosures and evictions
· A substantial increase in the Taconite Tax
· A substantial increase in stumpage fees
· A halt to peat mining in the Big Bog in Minnesota’s Pine Island State Forest
· Legislation to protect the Mississippi Headwaters
· Halt the contamination of our streams, rivers and lakes by United States Steel’s MinnTac operation
· Real property tax reform
· Slash college tuitions
· Protect the rights of Minnesota’s more than 20,000 casino workers who the MN DFL shamefully threw into smoke-filled working environments at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws
Working people are expecting the MN DFL to move swiftly and decisively in the upcoming legislative session as it opens in February; working people expect the MN DFL to work in their favor after years of corporate greed attacking working class families and dominating the political landscape.
Let the corporate CEO’s do the crying for a change; tax corporate profits to the hilt to pay for everything.
Give the Republicans and the corporate CEO’s real reasons to cry.
Every working man and woman is watching what the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party is going to do with its veto proof powers… if the MN DFL can’t come through for working people now there is no reason for working people to continue making the trip to the polls on Election Day… at least not to pull the DFL lever.
This upcoming legislative session will be seen as a test drive by Minnesota working class voters… Are you listening Senator Jim Metzen and the DFL members of the Senate Committee on Business, Industry and Jobs… you had better do what is required to save these 2,000 jobs of those employed at the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant… those 2,000 workers have families to feed, clothe, house and PAY TAXES… they have the VOTE, too.
Here is a little “To Do List.” I would encourage everyone to start calling Senator Jim Metzen the Chair of the Senate Committee on “Business, Industry and Jobs” along with his colleagues on the Committee insisting that SF 607 (Legislation to help save the Ford Plant, Hydro Dam and 2,000 jobs) be brought back for reconsideration by the Committee:
S.F.607
Sponsor: Senator Richard J. Cohen
Motor vehicle manufacturing plant maintenance requirement.
What you can do:
* Please contact the following Minnesota State Senators and request that SF 607 be reconsidered.
* Please ask these Senators how they voted the first time, and if they will bring this legislation forward for reconsideration.
Remember, there is now a veto proof State Legislature here in Minnesota and this Committee is completely dominated by DFL Senators.
Start calling, the new legislative session is set to open in February
The following Democrats are on the Senate Committee on Business, Industry and Jobs:
Senator James Metzen, Chair: 651-296-4370 ; Home: 651-451-0174
Lisa Sarne is Senator Metzen’s Legislative Assistant: lisa.sarne@senate.mn
United Automobile Worker Local 879 helped initiate this legislation… contact: Bob Killeen, Secretary-Treasurer: rjkuaw879@yahoo.com
Senator Kathy Saltzman, Vice Chair: 651-296-4166
Senator Tom Bakk: 651-296-8881
Senator Terri Bonoff: 651-296-4314
Senator Jim Carlson: 651-297-8073
Senator Ron Latz: 651-296-8065
Senator Steve Murphy: 651-296-4264
Senator Linda Scheid: 651-296-8869
Senator Rod Skoe: 651-296-4196
Senator Dan Sparks: 651-296-9248
Senator David Tomassoni: 651-296-8017
Here are the Republican members for what its worth…
Republicans:
Senator Dick Day: 651-296-9457
Senator Chris Gerlach: 651-296-4120
Senator Joe Gimse: 651-296-3826
Senator Amy Koch: 651-296-5981
Senator Geoff Michel: 651-296-6238
Senator Thomas Neuville: 651-296-1279
Senator Julie Rosen: 651-296-5713
Ok, here is Helen Thomas’ Op/Ed piece…
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 10:15 PM
To: Alan Maki
Subject: Democrats Need to Take a Stand By Helen Thomas
Note reference to single payer.
Subject: Democrats Need to Take a Stand By Helen Thomas
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/345962_thomas04.html
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
January 4, 2008
Democrats Need to Take a Stand By Helen Thomas
After seven years of the Bush administration, who in
the U.S. does not want to see a dramatic change in the
nation's leadership?
For that reason the Republican candidates have an
uphill battle, since most of them have not distanced
themselves sufficiently from the failed stewardship of
President Bush.
On the Democratic side, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New
York and Barack Obama of Illinois say they are the true
advocates of change. But they are short on specifics.
Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina is more
definitive on one issue at least, saying he would bring
U.S. combat troops home from Iraq within 10 months.
He also is on the attack against poverty, corporate
greed, war profiteering and free trade pacts that cost
U.S. jobs.
Clinton emphasizes her 'experience' in the White House
as first lady, saying this makes her the best candidate
to bring about change.
But in 2002 as war clouds gathered, Clinton aligned
herself with the administration on a critical vote
giving Bush the green light in Iraq.
And four months ago she voted for the resolution that
could have paved the way for an attack on Iran.
The resolution - sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-
Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. - designates the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate recently
defused the threat of war by reporting that Iran in
2003 dropped plans to build a nuclear arsenal.
Of the Democrats' three top presidential seekers,
Clinton appears to be the least inclined toward
dramatic change on foreign policy.
But she may be able to trump Obama, whose campaign is
based on 'hope' and 'optimism' - ephemeral terms at a
time when the voters may be looking for solid answers
to America's pressing problems.
That's what the 2008 election is all about: answers.
All the candidates should be pinned down on how they
feel about Bush's concept of pre-emptive war;
wiretapping without a warrant; waterboarding and other
forms of torture; and the policy of 'rendition' -
sending prisoners to jails abroad where they are
subject to abusive interrogation while being held in
limbo.
The presidential hopefuls also should be quizzed on the
lack of real oversight of CIA activities and immunity
for the telecom companies that have cooperated with the
administration's wiretapping schemes.
Their views are needed on privatizing the war with
thousands of gun-slinging mercenaries employed by
Blackwater and other private security firms. Assigned
to protect U.S. diplomats, they're paid handsomely -
some as much as $1,500 a day and more.
The candidates also should offer specifics on how they
will provide medical care for the 47 million Americans
without health insurance.
A single-payer system - much like what we have with
Social Security - is the most comprehensive solution,
but the candidates are avoiding it in favor of tweaks
to the haphazard, luck-of-the-draw coverage we have
now.
Bush is trying to go green - belatedly - but the
environment and the future of the planet are issues
that have been neglected far too long.
There is also the economy, and the inroads that
globalization and free trade have made on U.S.
production capacity and the livelihoods of U.S.
workers. Manufacturing has fled the country and
globalization has proved to be a race to the economic
bottom rather than a boon for U.S. jobs.
And how about the unscrupulous mortgage lending
practices that yielded rampant housing foreclosures?
At this point, questions are in greater supply than
answers: Which of the candidates buys Bush's biggest
tax cuts for the richest Americans? What about how
federal agencies have been politicized while the
traditional, apolitical civil service has been gutted?
The candidates won't even touch the highly
controversial issues of capital punishment and gun
control. And you don't hear much about abortion rights
and gay marriage.
Those wedge issues have given a lift to conservatives
in the past. But now, they are nowhere near the top of
the agenda.
Once we get the answers on issues that do matter from
our would-be presidents, then we can all honestly wish
for peace on Earth in 2008.
_____
Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-
mail: helent@hearstdc.com.
Alan L. Maki
Member, MN DFL State Central Committee
Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
Looking for some interesting reading which is also a handbook for activists?
Check out: “Always Bring A Crowd; The Story of Frank Lumpkin, Steelworker” By: Beatrice Lumpkin
Find out how rank and file steel workers abandoned and sold out by their union fought International Harvestor and Wisconsin Steel and won their fight for justice and human dignity against powerful corporate interests. Frank Lumpkin looked for a leader… found none… and took on the task of leadership himself.
This book is destined to become a movie like “North Country.”
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