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Divorce the Democrats

Dear Editor: Thanks for covering the May Labor Party Advocates meeting in Seattle in the article "With Friends Like These..." (June/July 1994) The rest of that thought "... Who needs enemies" is an apt description of the Democratic Party. It is high time that the leadership of the labor movement admits what many of its rank and file know to be true: sellout Democratic politicians are the enemies of working people, and the Democratic Party is a threat to our survival and well being.
Mike Blain's characterization of the relationship between Labor and the Democratic Party as an abusive relationship is a good one. The sick co-dependency of labor leaders with the Democrats is wrecking the lives of brother and sister union members and hurting our children. Everyone from Washington Governor Mike Lowry to Seattle Mayor Norm Rice to almost our entire congressional delegation trumpeted NAFTA as good for Washington business and good for labor. Yet, Washington has been one of the hardest hit states in terms of NAFTA-related job losses. It's time to do what we would tell any battered spouse to do, get the hell out while we are still alive. Let's stop the domestic violence against labor and divorce the Democrats.
In this fall's election campaign, politicians line up to plead that, without labor's vote, they couldn't get elected. They are right. We have the power, and it is time to use it for our benefit, not theirs. What do we have to lose by the demise of the Democratic Party? Who needs its attacks on public workers, welfare moms, immigrants, youth of color, and labor unions? I am a member of Labor Party Advocates who disagrees strongly with LPA's announced strategy of building a Labor party while continuing to support the Democrats. Local, state, and national labor orgnizations need to run independent labor candidates now, candidates who will make laws for us and aggressively expose the pro-business and anti-labor program and practices of the Democratic and Republican parties.
We can and will win out, because a labor party will represent the interests of the overwhelming majority of people, not the privileged few.
Fred Hyde
Member, AFSCME Local 304

Support Solar Inventors

Dear Editor: I would especially like to thank you for carrying the article about Doug Wood and his solar steam project. (August/ September 1994) I wish to second what he has to say. I am also an inventor in solar technology, and have had the exact same problems of market closure, deprivation of capital, and campaigns to discredit. One such invention is a solar cooker with rapid cooking time. One other invention I'm marketing is the concept of preheating air by solar energy prior to combustion. In effect, instead of mixing cold air with fuel, you now mix hot air. It is the principle of solar power turbocharging, and if hooked up to all the refineries in the U.S. it would bring the U.S. off foreign oil within a few years. Nationwide there are over 7000 patents on solar energy, don't tell me that none of them are profitable, they are. The good news is that many of these patents are now expiring, past their 17 year limit, so much of this Jimmy Carter-era research is now coming into the public domain, available for small business. The bad news is that large corporations did indeed buy up the patent rights and shelve the technology.
It is very obvious why these solar inventions were shelved, just like the oil companies shut down the nation's streetcar system during the Eisenhower administration. Large corporations already have extensive investments in existing technology, and such a radical "free enterprise" competition would cause bankruptcy of existing investment, such as what has happened with nuclear power.
We are kidding ourselves if we think governments can do everything, private industry needs to kick in somewhere, and solar is just like any other business, employing people, paying taxes, selling products, quality control, etc.... if the industry was ever given a chance.
If I and other inventors do not have that opportunity, we will be forced to go overseas, and take the jobs with us. There is no reason why the Northwest could not become the hub of alternative energy manufacturing.
Martin E. Nix



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Contents on this page were published in the December/January 1995 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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