Minnesota Socialist
The people of Minnesota are looking for the best ways to resist the crushing oppression of capitalism.
Hello Friends and Comrades,
This week I’m a little bit behind so I’m going to keep it short and sweet (maybe not…)
We tried to tackle issues with a focus on Minnesota for the most part this month. Our first special since our last newsletter was an interview entitled The Case For A Minnesota Socialist Party. In this special we spoke with Tom Wyatt-Yerka who ran for Minnesota House of Representatives as a DFL endorsed candidate in District 16A. During the interview Wyatt-Yerka talks about why “now may be a good time to start the formation for a state-wide Democratic Socialist Party.” Three key elements inform that perspective. Firstly the time is ideal because no third party currently has major party status in Minnesota and progressive policies are “more popular than they have been in a hundred years.” Minnesota itself is also ideal because it “has a long history of socialist and populist movements” and “the most successful third party in the history of the United States with the Farmer Labor Party.” Strategy is the final piece of the puzzle and Wyatt-Yerka says this year is when we should compete in local races and work on building a framework to take a third party statewide in the future.
One individual running an independent local campaign is Gabrielle Prosser who is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Minneapolis City Council Ward 11. We spoke for the next special about the campaign. Prosser is a member of BCTGM (Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union) and has been speaking with workers at their doorsteps about the conditions that we face and the need to organize independently from the bosses and their two parties. Inflation and attacks on wages are two big concerns for workers right now and Prosser says we need to “go through our unions to transform them into the kind of fighting units we can use to advance our position.” Prosser also points to an “erosion of morality that really bothers people” where the capitalist dog eat dog system pushes people towards drugs, gambling and other harmful behaviors. We also discussed a recent trip to Cuba and the importance of that country’s workers and farmers Government. Prosser said the Cuban people she spoke with were very interested in the workers struggle in the United States.
Here in Minneapolis one struggle that has been going on for a long time has been erupting into more visible conflict and struggle between the people and the powers that be. That is the struggle to stop the demolition of the Roof Depot and instead convert the building into an indoor Urban Farm and Community Center with rooftop solar. Recently the struggle has had two big wins including the dropping of charges against those that occupied the Roof Depot site in February. Also the Minnesota state legislature has set aside money to help in the transfer of the site from the city to the local community.
Before these two wins took place I spoke with Chairman of the American Indian Movement (AIM) Twin Cities, Mike Forcia. We spoke about the history of AIM, the LANDBACK movement, Red Road Village, and a bit about the Defend the Depot movement in SNV Special Interview: AIM To Defend The Depot. Red Road Village is a plan to End indigenous homelessness in Minneapolis by giving the 6 acre East Phillips Park to the indigenous community. Forcia said when he was told the Mayor does not have the ability to give back a city park he said “the land was so easily taken but yet you set up all of these obstacles [to getting it back] and that is part of the systemic racism we are living in.” Even with so many obstacles put in the way AIM and other community members continued to push for land in the city of Minneapolis to be given back to the indigenous community for things like “apartment buildings, green jobs, a theater, a cinema, a pool, a school” and other important institutions for the community.
Today (Monday May 22nd) I will be attending court to support Mike Forcia who is being targeted by City Council Member Michael Rainville for a protest and filming at a Minneapolis City Council meeting.
Building solidarity is the key to creating the kind of world we all want to see. A world where people have education, housing, food, and healthcare. A world where the economy is set up to benefit workers instead of allowing a small group of the super rich to rip us off through inflation, reductions in wages, layoffs etc.
Solidarity will even be the basis of how we confront the horror of war under Capitalism. Because true solidarity does not allow for any scapegoat among other working people. The blame for our situation does not lie with working people in other countries, nor with trans people, or unhoused people or immigrants. In the example of the United States it lies firmly with “The capitalist masters of America and their political tools at Washington.” This is what long time Minnesota resident Farrell Dobbs said in his 1948 speech as the Socialist Workers Party candidate for President. In Farrell Dobbs End Capitalism To Stop War: Socialist News And Views # 46 we hear of the cycle of Capitalism which is “war, depression, inflation, and again war.” Why does Dobbs say that the Capitalists and politicians drive us towards war? Because “in their minds, peace is identified with the demands of organized workers for a larger share of the products of their toil, for a greater degree of security.”
The plan for the Capitalists is not just to try to stave of depression by increasing the armaments economy but to use war to justify ever increasing attacks on “democratic rights and civil liberties” domestically as a way to attack and hobble the labor unions and thus help to undercut organized solidarity among workers.
Ultimately Dobbs says the only solution to the “twin monsters” of war and military dictatorship associated with it is the establishment of a Workers and Farmers Government.
It is my belief that we must stand-up for each other and organize to build solidarity within our unions, between our unions and also within our neighborhood and community organizations. Only in this way can we do as Dobbs says at the end of his speech and “bind [our] ranks together with a socialist program, and begin the march to a world where we and our children can live in peace as free human beings without poverty and without fear!”
SOLIDARITY,
Nick Shillingford, Host: Socialist News and Views
(PS Nurses with Minnesota Nurses Associate continue to FIGHT for a safe staffing bill called the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act at the Minnesota Legislature even though a carve out has been made for Mayo Clinic at the demand of Gov. Walz and under blackmail from Mayo.)