Instead of helping these working people whose hard labor feeds the rest of us, Iowa's government is putting more effort into getting one of them to just shut up. The Iowa Department of Transportation has ordered Larry Ginter to take down a sign he erected on his farm that says "BRANSTAD & HOG FACTORIES = ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL DAMAGE."
Iowa governor Terry Branstad claims through his spokeswoman that he "supports small farmers" and Department of Transportation officials say they only want the sign down because it violates the state's billboard laws. Ginter put the sign up to protest the governor's policies favoring corporate agriculture and he believes it's the message, visible from the highway, that they want to get rid of. He plans to leave it right where it is.
Ginter's been a fighter for the interests of working farmers like himself for quite a few years now. A couple of weeks ago Ginter wrote me a letter describing what farmers are up against.
"Many family farm hog producers are quitting," he writes. "I am holding on but my production costs are higher than the price I receive from the packer. Many of us feel collusion is occurring between those agribusiness conglomerates and the packers. We can't prove it and we have asked the Attorney General to investigate but that may be like spitting into a strong headwind."
Ginter and other farmers went to Clinton's agriculture summit in Ames but found it to be nothing but "a controlled show," he wrote.
"The President did take questions from the audience but it was very selective when they saw our protest T-shirts. Ha! I finally stood up but was totally ignored."
Ginter wrote that he wanted to talk about "the austerity programs imposed upon countries like Mexico, Brazil, Central America. The forced switching of staple food production to cash grains for export is a grave moral question. It's criminal, talk about three strikes and you're out. How many sins has Yankee Imperialism inflicted upon the underdeveloped world? Every nation on earth is under debt bondage and with wages and raw material underpriced the toilers of the world must fight for economic and political justice."
Fighting for economic and political justice is exactly what Ginter does and that's why Clinton didn't want to hear him speak and why Branstad wants his sign to come down. These politicians, one a Democrat, the other a Republican, represent wealthy farmers and capitalist agribusiness for whom the farm crisis is just an opportunity to get richer. Speculators at the Chicago Board of Trade, for example, made millions as news of the flooding sent grain futures soaring.
The real issue is not the weather, but the right of working farmers to a decent income. They are a crucial ally of the wage workers who must build an unbreakable bond with them in a common fight against a shared enemy - the exploiting class.
So keep your sign up Larry Ginter and keep on swinging.