BY JEFF JONES
ST. PAUL, Minnesota - Announcing his campaign as the
Socialist Workers Party candidate for city council, Doug
Jenness said, "The labor movement should demand ...that
Washington and other capitalist governments open their
borders and offer jobs and full rights to fellow toilers
fleeing Kosova. If elected, I would do my best to get the St.
Paul City Council behind such an effort."
Jenness, a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 9198, is running for the seat in the 5th Ward. He announced his campaign April 15. The socialist candidate explained that during his campaign he will "provide a voice to the needs and opportunities of working people. At this moment the paramount issue we face is the escalating assault the U. S. government is carrying out against Yugoslavia."
On April 17 Jenness participated with campaign supporters in a protest action of some 150 people in Minneapolis against the U.S./ NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Jenness's statement on Yugoslavia and calling for independence for Kosova was widely distributed to participants in the action.
On the following day Jenness attended a public meeting in South St. Paul on the growing concentration of a few capitalist monopolies in the processing and distribution of agricultural commodities. "The farmers' mood there was angry, especially at the government," Jenness told the Militant.
"Clearly, farmers need a price guaranteed by the government that allows them to make a living," Jenness said. "Many farmers are calling for mandatory reporting of prices the packing houses pay for hogs. I think this is a good proposal. And to back it up, farmers ought to join together with trade unionists and consumer organizations to form watchdog committees that will probe into the prices the packers pay, the price that packers sell processed pork to supermarkets, and supermarket prices. Organizing to try to throw light on this can help expose that the packers and the owners of supermarket chains are the real profit makers. It will undercut attempts to pit workers and farmers against each other over prices. And it will also lay the basis for organizing a broad range of forces to press the food monopolies to open their books."
Jenness will go with fellow unionists on a union-organized bus to Des Moines, Iowa, on May 1 in solidarity with strikers at Titan Tire.
The "nonpartisan" election for city council is set for September 14.
Jeff Jones is a member of the International Association of Machinists.