REBUTTAL: Himelgrin

Marea Himelgrin (himelgri@Free-Net.Mpls-StPaul.MN.US)
Mon, 31 Oct 1994 15:24:26 -0600 (CST) 

Candidate Grams tells us:

>The government must act as a referee, not as a player. Government should set
>the boundaries, leveling the playing field and allowing market forces to
operate >effectively in a competitive environment.

The U.S. government has never been a neutral force, standing above the class
struggle in this country. It functions simply as the executive committee of the
ruling rich, passing laws, waging wars, breaking strikes, and maintaining a
reserve army of unemployed in order to facilitate the exploitation of labor by
those who own the factories, mines and mills.

Speaking before a United Nations conference in March of 1964, Che Guevara
explained that the so-called freedom of competition in the market economy which
Grams is so committed to defend can best be understood as a free fox among free
chickens.

Grams also tells us that his solution is "Families First".

But who is responsible for the destruction of the family? The class that Grams
is itching to serve in the Senate.

 A generation ago one income served to maintain a working class family - today
it takes two incomes and the standard of living of American workers has not
risen since the 1970's. Why is that? Might it be because the bosses have
succeeded in halving the amount of money that we receive for our labor? 

Calls to reinforce the family structure are nothing but hypocritical demagogy by
those who are responsible for its dismantling. The real aim of this rhetoric is
to seek to reverse the social and political gains that women have made as they
have increasingly become economically independent of men. 

Candidate Wynia tells us:

>The American people are tired of this election year rhetoric that claims that
we >can cut taxes and increase spending and magically the budget will balance.

Wynia seems to think that balancing the budget is the primary issue in this
election. But this is nonsense. The big banks that lend money to the U.S.
government consider their loans as assets and they have no intention of killing
their cash cow. They may tinker with the deficit to control inflation, but they
have absolutely no intention of significantly reducing it.

Working people produce enormous wealth in this country - the problem is that it
is stolen from us.  The wealth that factory workers like me produce doesn't go
to advance the standard of living of the majority. It goes in to the back
pockets of the minority who control the means of production.  And because of the
deep crisis of the profit system, we are being asked to work longer hours under
less safe conditions for even less money.

We have to break from the framework of balancing the budget of those who exploit
and oppress us and develop through struggle an independent foreign and domestic
policy.

Independence Party candidate Barkley tells us of Grams and Wynia:

>They engage in blatant hypocrisy and misrepresentation of their opponent with
>no concern for the morality of such actions. There is no talk of the issues and
>sadly, no opportunity for authentic voter interaction with these candidates.

I agree with Barkley that the Democratic and Republican candidates in this race
have contempt for fair elections. They actively collaborate in monopolizing all
public forums for debate and discussion (except this one). I find it interesting
that as voter disgust with the two parties grows, the Democrats and Republicans
seek to tighten their grip on the political process.

But working people don't need a third capitalist party - the kind that Barkley
advocates.  Barkley tells us:

>While our government has grown massive and our nation drifted from our
>founding principles, those principles remain relevant today.

I disagree. The Constitution was written 2 centuries ago to facilitate the
development of capitalists in the North and slavery in the South. A second
American revolution - the Civil War, overthrew the slave holders. We need a
third revolution to overthrow the capitalists now that they have long outlived
their usefulness to humanity.

I do support the Bill of Rights - it reflects the conquests of working people -
from rebellious working farmers in the 18th century to civil rights fighters in
our own times.

Aside from third party mongering, Barkley doesn't really address himself to
issues either. Like H. Ross Perot he puts forward what seem to be simple
solutions to the real problems we face - such as restricting PAC donations to
election campaigns.

But is this in our interests?  It is true today that the money from our unions
goes to support big-business candidates. However, I believe that the time is not
far off when out of the struggles of the working class we will forge our own
political party. And any laws that are passed today restricting donations from
our unions to election campaigns will be used with a vengeance against a labor
party.