Labor NPC Campaigns thread

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

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Amanda Huggenkiss speaks in St. Paul, Minnesota
Safety protocols are in place. Mask wearing and social distancing is mandatory. The campaign event is streamed live by the MN Labor Party.

Why do we care so much about politics, anyway? Why should someone even care enough to give up their precious time and spend it on something that is seen as either so boring or so hostile? Why should we even care about decisions made by those at the top?

Because it is in times like these, in times of great crisis, that we recognize two things.

The first is that we should care about politics because we have seen that it matters. It is not far away. When the government takes a great effort, great outcomes are possible. In the Coronavirus Pandemic, we experience these outcomes in our daily lives. But there is another thing.

We have experienced that everything is politically feasible if we only want it strongly enough. The government has proven that it can act and that it is willing to spend large amounts of money in times of crisis. So let’s deal with the climate crisis! Let’s deal with the housing crisis! Don’t let anyone tell you that it is not possible or that there is no money. There is money for everything when we see the need to spend it. That is why it is important who is in power. And that is why it is important to make sure that those who are in power are proud Labor people!

After the pandemic, we have the once-in-a-century opportunity to ask ourselves whether we will go back to the same old, same old, or whether we want to use this time of unique solidarity to build a new normal, a normal which is more environmentally friendly, which is fairer, which is more inclusive. Labor is the only party that can fight for those ideals. Who else should fight for them?

The Federalist Party is dragged further and further to the right by an extremist movement that concerns me very much. I am shocked that the spirit of conspiracy theorists and other right-wing extremists has found its way into the House of Representatives. There are forces in the Federalist Party that are in denial of the existence of climate change. They are insensitive and hurtful towards racial minorities and transgender people, as they have rediscovered the dog-whistle as a political tool and compare transgender people with drug addicts. They have opposed mask-wearing and our great joint fight against the virus. They believe that they have a right to hurt people under the banner of so-called freedom. These forces are on their way to corrupt the party from within. Let’s face it: A proponent of these ideas has become the face of the Federalist Party. Don’t get me wrong, there are honorable, good people in the Federalist Party. But as long as they refuse to find a way to fight these forces, the party as a whole is unelectable.

And our other competitors? If the Liberals or the Democrat Alliance get in power, the first who will profit are the richest of the rich! In every developed nation, the pandemic has unfairly hurt the lower and middle-class people. The people who stand the frontline in the healthcare sector. The people who have lost their jobs or their businesses. The teachers who have to work so hard while they receive too little. During that time, millionaires and billionaires across the globe have maximized their profits and enjoyed unforeseen profits! They don’t need an additional Christmas gift in the form of a big tax cut. They need to take responsibility!

I am proud that our fabulous First Minister Truman, who has served our great region of Frémont so much, has always been there when the rights and interests of the underprivileged and the middle-class had to be protected. Now, sadly, there is only one Truman in this world. But if the next Labor governor of this state is only one percent the caliber of our first minister, then this state of Minnesota is served extremely well. That means that we can overcome the great challenges that lie ahead us. That means that change can happen. And with Labor, it will happen.

(1) © Carl Clifford via Wikimedia

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

Amanda Huggenkiss speaks in Cleveland, Ohio
Safety protocols are in place. Mask wearing and social distancing is mandatory. The campaign event is streamed live by the OH Labor Party.

As a native Minnesotan, born and raised, I am always happy to be in Ohio. There are few places in this country where I feel as if I’m home than in Ohio. Well, I admit, there are few differences between our states - you have milder winters, we produce better musicians. But the people are of the same kind, of the same spirit. It is that working-class in which we were raised, the spirit that any undertaking, how challenging and enormous it might be, can be successful through the power of solidarity, and that is what the Labor Party believes: Solidarity for everyone!

The last time I spoke on behalf of Labor, there was quite an outrage about the comments that I made about one of our competitors. But no outrage can deny that there is a certain member of the house of representatives - we all know who is meant - who is running amok, no lip service can unsay the things the member has said or undo the things the member has done. Labor believes in the equality and dignity of the human being. So when I see bigotry and discriminatory behavior, I speak out about it. I am a Labor man, so I cannot do otherwise.

Ohio needs a Labor-governor because Labor is the party of good work. I know the good people of Ohio are unbribable, but it’s the holiday season and I have a present for you. With the Red-Green New Deal, the Labor Senate has, despite fierce opposition from the right, marked the beginning of a new prosperous era of industry. The New Public Works Administration will create lots of unionized, high-paying jobs. And these are good jobs because they will have an impact on our world. Workers have always strived to create a better world for the following generations. Never in the history of this country have there been jobs created that are so effective and important in fulfilling that goal than the jobs of the NPWA. This law is a victory for the working-class in Atlasia and the working-class in Ohio.

Change - political change, yes, but more important for Ohio, the economic change - is inevitable. But decline is not. For too long, politicians have looked at once prosperous places in decline and said to themselves, ‘Well, priorities are priorities, changes are necessary, tough luck y'all!’ Yes, sometimes, changes are necessary. Sometimes, they are irreversible. But proud industrial cities like Cleveland do not have to be victims of this change. They must be included in this change. They are not an obstructor of a fairer, more climate friendlier economy, they can be an agent of it! The people are not the means of the economy. The economy must serve the people! Labor has understood that, and that is why it is so important to vote for Labor in your state's election.

Labor will always protect the workers and the unions. It will always fight to give power to the people. The pandemic has hit this country and the world hard. While lower- and middle-class families are struggling, the top 1% sees unforeseen profits. The people we have relied on at this time are not billionaires, but the people at the front-line. In hospitals. In the schools. At the counters. We now have the chance to be the most transformative generation in centuries. We can decide whether we will go back to the old normal, or whether we will build a society that is fairer for everyone, in which the value of work is respected again, in which we value the people. This fight begins with Labor.

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

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Amanda Huggenkiss speaks in Toledo, Ohio
Safety protocols are in place. Mask wearing and social distancing is mandatory. The campaign event is streamed live by the OH Labor Party.

Christmas is around the corner, but unfortunately, what is for many people the most favorite time of the year will feel rather strange these days. What should normally the time in which we for a short time forget our concerns and our trouble with this stressful world and focus on those people who make us happy and who we love, this time, our celebrations are overshadowed by those very concerns and we are very likely not to see as many people as we would have liked to. We are in an exceptional situation. It is the priority of Labor to set the course early so that we come out stronger after the pandemic than we were when we went in.

Most recently, the Senate has finally passed a law that will create lots of unionized, high-paying jobs across the state, also here in Ohio. This bill will be an important factor to stop the decline of various former industrial cities, include those sites in our countries enduring process to establish a greener and more sustainable economy, and give thousands, if not millions, of people new opportunities. Labor government across the country will make the economy fulfill the needs of the people again, not the reverse.

The Senate has also passed another Labor bill which will eliminate the lending cap for credit unions and thus give small business owners to cushion the negative impacts of the pandemic. This will prevent the economy to completely start anew once the pandemic is over and it will save thousands of jobs across the country. Labor is also fighting for a bill that would if it becomes law, have a direct impact on the housing market of Toledo, as it would expand rental subsidies for low-income and disabled Toledoans.

This is not set in stone. Those bills are waiting to be passed. I think they will be passed, but that’s the thing about politics and voting: All the ideas are there, but we need good people in the government to express them, to fight for them, and to pass them. The only way to ensure that the people who make the decisions are going to be on the side of the disadvantaged, on the side of the unions, on the side of the working people, is by voting for the Labor ticket.

After the pandemic is over, we do not just want to return to the old normal. For most of us, the old normal was not sufficient. This is our time to prepare for a better normal, a fairer, more inclusive normal. Labor has worked hard in recent months to ensure the successful transition from the old to the new on the federal level. This task must continue on the state level. So please, good people of Ohio, vote Labor, because it is in your interest.

(1) © NorthernMagnolia via Wikimedia

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

Amanda Huggenkiss speaks in Lima, Ohio
Safety protocols are in place. Mask wearing and social distancing is mandatory. The campaign event is streamed live by the OH Labor Party.

Lima tells the story of many industrial cities in the rust belt. Once a proud, prosperous, blue-collar working-class city, it has been in steady decline for the last decades. Wages have dropped. Rents have risen. The cost of living has exploded. This did not happen overnight, it was a steady process and too many eyes have looked away. We cannot be content with this situation, but it is not too late. When you vote for the Labor ticket, you vote for a plan that stands on two pillars. The first pillar is a strong welfare state that takes care of the weak and those who were left behind. The second pillar is a transition to a fairer, more environmentally friendly economy that can create prosperity that is not bound to finite resources. In recent weeks, Labor has sponsored successful bills that address one of those two issues.

And that is why, my friends, I am quite confused by the recent attacks of the Liberals and the Democrat Alliance. The liberal congressman is traveling around the country moaning about issues that Labor is already taking care of! He is making all sorts of claims about how the Red-Green-New-Deal is supposedly destroying jobs. Now, Lima knows something about vanishing jobs. The decline of rust belt cities like Lima has not begun after politicians suddenly cared about the environment. It began much earlier when businesses and corporations suddenly decided to move their production elsewhere because they were not willing to pay decent wages. If the congressman had actually read the bill, he would have seen that it does the reverse--it creates good, high-paying jobs in Atlasia. The man also claims that the new clean energy sector will create fewer jobs than the traditional industry sectors. I don’t know about you, but this man seems confused because the equation is very simple. Fossil fuels are a finite resource, so there is only a finite number of jobs that could be created in that sector. Renewable energy has much more potential for expansion, so it will create many more jobs. And not only that: Labor has guaranteed through the Social Energy Fund that these jobs are well-paid. This is a measure the good people of Ohio directly benefit from.

A day before, the congressman has called for rent assistance programs for low-income households. Then this fella from the Democrat Alliance joined him and stated that it would be a great idea to do something for poor and disabled Atlasians. Their ideas are so great that Labor has already packed these measures in a bill that has passed the house just this month. And here’s the thing about this bill - I am talking about the Housing Reform Act - none of that was included in the original bill. The original bill was very poorly written, and it took a Labor member to completely rewrite it.

So if you ever asked yourself why all the Labor candidates are doing this - why we are still fighting so hard even if we are already the strongest political force in this country - there is your answer. If you want the rights of the weakest in our society protected, if you want the unions protected, if you want a sound and robust welfare program, then you need to vote Labor, for it is only the Labor party that puts those concerns first, for those are our top priorities.

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

To be displayed on billboards in Nevada, Oregon, Minnesota, Connecticut, Georgia and the City of Houston until Election Day.

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

(1)

Amanda Huggenkiss speaks in Duluth, Minnesota
Safety protocols are in place. Mask wearing and social distancing is mandatory. The campaign event is streamed live by the MN Labor Party.

Sometimes, campaigns get nasty. I’m the last to deny that. But if someone thinks that getting away with lies should be normal in politics, all decent citizens and politicians have to stand up. I am going to give you my recount about our little spat with the Liberals and then you make up your mind about who is right.

I was in Ohio the other day when this liberal congressman made this bizarre claim that a transition to a clean energy sector will kill jobs. I criticized that statement in Ohio because the people there know very well that the jobs there have not been vanishing only since politicians started to care about the climate but since our economy wants to get things produced on cheaper markets because they do not want to pay the good wages that the highly-skilled people in the industrial regions of Atlasia deserve. Then the friend of the congressman made the bizarre claim that Atlasians are laid-off because their jobs are given to foreigners.

Duluth, you have a proud industrial history, but you also had a tragic economic decline. You know that the jobs which were lost in the seventies and the eighties are not lost because they were taken by immigrants. They are lost because they are gone. They are lost because companies did not need them anymore. On the one hand, this was due to technological developments. On the other hand, this was because the companies did not want to pay good wages for Atlasian workers.

If someone says that the foreigners are taking your jobs, they do not actually mean it. They want you to be angry at someone else because they do not want you to be angry at them, for they have no solution to the problem.

Labor does not need to provoke hate towards any human being, because Labor has a solution to the problem. Just recently, Labor has passed the Red-Green-New-Deal, which will begin a new era of Atlasian industry.

With heavy investments in green energy, the government will invest in a sector with near-endless expansion potential. Green energy will provide more jobs than antiquated energy has ever done for it relies on finite resources. In the green energy sector, every qualified worker will find a job. Also, the Deal has put the biggest energy companies in public hands and thus ensured that the business decisions of these companies will be made on behalf of the people of Atlasia. Labor has created thousands, if not millions, new, well-paid, unionized jobs. I am certain that soon, many people listening will call themselves proud NPWA-workers.

Labor is not about rhetoric, it is about actions. Some of our competitors think they can pander to you by telling you that water is wet and important. Labor does not have to do that. We do not have to sing songs about how good we are. We do not have to attack our opponents based on lies and invented policy positions. Do not get distracted by that. The only two things that matter is what we have done so far and what we want to do. The Labor ticket in your state will fight with us to give the economy back to the people and to create a more inclusive and fairer society. Our legislative accomplishments speak for themselves, but our task is not over.

(1) © Tony Webster via Wikimedia

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

Amanda Huggenkiss speaks in Golden, Colorado
Safety protocols are in place. Mask wearing and social distancing is mandatory. The campaign event is streamed live by the CO Labor Party.

Today, I have met with Colorado Labor Youth and was introduced to their candidates on the Labor ticket. I am grateful for their support in the upcoming parliamentary election, and I have assured them that they have mine. I have much respect for them. Some of them come from places that have never sent a representative to Denver, some have backgrounds that do not grant the privileges and the connections that some of the current political officeholders have benefited from. Labor does not attempt to speak for the disadvantaged or the underprivileged, it lets them speak. It is good to have people in the legislatures who speak for young people, for working men and women, for families, for people of color. But it is better to give those people political power and let them sit in the legislature.

We have also discussed multiple political issues that are important for young people. There is a general sentiment among young people that the preceding generation has taken too much and leaves them a world with conditions which are unfair to them. Above all, they are concerned about climate change. Politicians across the globe have ignored this issue for far too long. It was important that in December, Labor finally passed the Red-Green-New-Deal. It is landmark legislation and a game-changer. Furthermore, Congress has, against opposition from the right, finally decided to end subsidies for fossil fuels and to re-allocate these funds towards green energy. Thanks to Labor, Atlasia flexes its muscles in the fight against climate change.

They also expressed their fears that it may become harder for young professionals to survive at the job market and to find a secure job. They are working harder than barely any generation before them, but often, their work conditions are a mockery. I am glad to have seen Labor in congress fighting against unfair employment practices and I am very happy to see Labor’s efforts to strengthen unions, for unions are the most important entity in the fight for fair and good working conditions.

I am here as a candidate for the parliament, so I will pledge to you to take these issues into the next parliamentary session. But I am also here on the behalf of the Colorado Labor Party. The most important decisions that affect our daily lives are not made in Nyman or in the Frémont Parliament, but on the state and local level. If you want these issues to be represented in your state legislature, voting Labor is the only way to ensure that. I have started my remarks with the report on my meeting with the Colorado Labor Youth’s candidates on the Labor ticket. I have full trust in them. They will take these issues to Denver. They will take these issues to the floor of the legislature. And I am sure that, with Henrique Teller in office, they will write many bills which will receive many signatures from the governor.

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

A M A N D A    H U G G E N K I S S,   M F P,   S P E A K S    I N   C O R D O V A,   A K
Social distance and hygiene measures are in place. Mask wearing is mandatory. The event is livestreamed by the AK Labor Party

When I think of Alaska, I think of towns like these. I think of small communities, scattered all around the coast, with hard-working, honest people. As the son of a union man from Minnesota, I have great sympathy for this attitude. You and the mayor have been very welcoming to me, although I have shown earlier in conversation with your mayor to have no real knowledge of salmon fishing when I asked him where I could buy fresh Alaskan salmon in March. Very inconsiderate of me.

The Labor Party is the Frémont Party because it fights for every community in Frémont. We are there for people in highly-populated cities like San Francisco and we are there for people in rural towns like Cordova. Right now, Frémont Labor is fighting in parliament against the crisis in rural health care. Folks in rural areas like Cordova are struggling to find a doctor and the medical care they need. The Rural Health Act, sponsored by the First Minister himself, will ensure that there will be sufficient doctors in rural areas which will strengthen the communities and make towns like Cordova an even better place to live.

Here’s another Labor bill that will have a direct impact on Cordova and Alaska as a whole. It so happens that your little town is in the Chugach National Forest. Mighty spruces and hemlocks are spread as far as the eye can reach. It is the home of beautiful creatures: Bald eagles, caribous, deers, swans, and black bears. In Congress, Labor has fought for a bill that creates a federal unit that aims to conserve places like these. It will create half a million jobs for the sole purpose of protecting the untouched nature in Atlasia, in Frémont, and Alaska.

The Labor Party is the Frémont Party. We are fighting for progress everywhere while recognizing the uniqueness of all the diverse places in this country. This uniqueness is dear to us. Some of our competitors have also found this politically very profitable. They are running around the country, claiming that something has to be done for small municipalities. They are desperate to stay as vague as possible, trying hard not to copy our stances while attempting to act as an alternative to Labor. Here’s the thing you have to understand: They only bring rhetoric. Labor brings results.