BY DOUG JENNESS
ST. PAUL, Minnesota - One of the most debated issues in the governor's race here is what steps to take to alleviate the worsening plight of working farm families. The three capitalist candidates in the race have been going after each other hammer and tongs attempting to show who is more truly the friend of farmers.

Norman Coleman, mayor of St. Paul and the Republican contender, got off to a bad start in this contest in demagogy when he suggested that "there is no place for the family farmer in the global economy." After an outpouring of resentment from the countryside, he attempted to recoup by championing the "family farm" and promising to use $150 million of the state's surplus for a one-time payment of next year's first-half farm property taxes.

Hubert Humphrey III, standard-bearer for the Democratic- Farmer Labor Party and the state attorney general, is supporting a temporary moratorium on large factory-style feedlots and a $340- million cut in property taxes as his central proposals.

Jesse Ventura, the Reform Party candidate, also supports a temporary feedlot moratorium and "significant property tax reform" that will "tax farmers on the actual value of their property instead of the speculated value."

Reflecting the emptiness of the proposals from these candidates, the editors of AgriNews, a weekly newspaper oriented to farmers, concluded in an October 23 editorial, "that none of the candidates ideally suit agriculture, and thus no one has earned an endorsement."

`End farm foreclosures'
"I couldn't agree more about these three contestants," Tom Fiske, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor, stated in a letter to AgriNews, which is published in Rochester, Minnesota. "Their proposals are totally inadequate for stopping the loss of farms. They are primarily aimed at dressing up their appearance as candidates.

"However," he continued, "I would like to bring to your attention the proposals that I've been raising in my campaign, which I do think merit support from working farmers and all those who are seriously committed to guaranteeing them the opportunity to continue farming."

Fiske pointed to a four-page statement, "Fighting to Protect Farmers from the Accelerating Crisis," that he distributed to farmers at a state legislative hearing in Sauk Centre on August 27, at a farmers' protest in Worthington on September 19, and at other events.

"First," he stated, "I call for a moratorium on all farm foreclosures. No other candidate on the race has done so."

"I also call for disaster relief sufficient to compensate for the full loss of crops, livestock, land, and buildings," he explained. "The proposals by Congress and other candidates all offer less than this and are therefore inadequate."

"Another measure I've been promoting, sort of an obvious one it seems to me," the socialist candidate said, "is government- funded low interest credit, with preference to those with the greatest need."

Continuing, Fiske explained that he's not for overhauling or reforming the property tax on working farmers as other candidates propose "but for abolishing it. It's a regressive tax, not based on the income farmers make. My tax program is simple, straightforward, and just," the factory machine operator and trade unionist said. "The only tax should be a sharply graduated income tax on the wealthy - on those who live off the labor of working people."

Fiske said that Humphrey and Ventura's call for a moratorium on big feedlots of capitalist farm enterprises (Coleman opposes a moratorium) "is designed to be a crowd pleaser but avoids coming to grips with what should be done to help protect farmers employing only the labor of their own family from the devastating consequences of price deflation. My party advocates that the government guarantee farmers a market and income for the products of their labor - products that have social value - to meet their production costs and have enough left for a decent living."

"The big difference between me and the other candidates," Fiske explained, "is that I don't approach the problem of farmers as another `issue,' but from the standpoint of bing part of the working class that is fighting to protect itself from the consequences of the growing capitalist crisis and that reaches out to fellow producers with proposals that can help weld a fighting alliance."

There are four additional candidates on the ballot for governor - Frank Germann (Libertarian Party), Fancy Ray McCloney (The People's Champion Party), Ken Pentel (Green Party), and Chris Wright (Grassroots Party) - and one write-in, Leslie Davis (Protect the Earth Party).

More coverage for `minor' candidates
The discontent with the DFL and Republicans, partly reflected in the more than 20 percent support Ventura is getting in the polls, and growing fissures in capitalist politics has resulted in the "minor party" candidates getting more media coverage than has been the case here for more than a decade. To be considered "major," a party must garner at least 5 percent of the vote in the last statewide election.

A one-and-a-half-hour debate among the five "minor" parties on the ballot has been broadcast several times on Minnesota Public Radio and was reported prominently in the Minneapolis Star- Tribune.

In addition, the same radio station gave each candidate space for a five-minute statement. KTCA-TV ran a 25-minute "minor party" candidates debate. The Star-Tribune has once a week for the past seven weeks run a question posed by the Minnesota Citizen's Forum with the answers of all eight of the candidates on the ballot.

The City Pages, a local weekly tabloid, which normally avoids mention of the "minor" parties except for an unflattering jab, ran a major feature with substantial interviews and photos of all six of them in its October 21 issue.

Fiske's campaign has also appeared as part of news coverage on KSTP-TV, on a radio talk show, and covered by two campus newspapers. He has presented a number of statements, along with other candidates, on "E-democracy," an Internet candidate's forum.

Fiske told the Militant that in addition to making the rounds of shopping centers and street corners, he has spoken at three high schools, one college campus, several community meetings, and two protests against the racist, anti-Hmong broadcast of a local radio station. He has joined support actions and picket lines of striking Northwest pilots and US West workers. "I've also been to Albert Lea, home to several meatpacking plants, including the large Farmland's cut and kill operation. There, I campaigned and introduced the Militant in trailer parks where a lot of packinghouse workers live."

In addition to Fiske, the Socialist Workers Party is running John Hawkins for lieutenant governor; Heather Wood for U.S. Representative (4th CD); and Michael Pennock for U.S. Representative (5th CD).

Doug Jenness is a member of the United Steelworkers of America.  
 
 
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