For the Poor and Against the War

Several hundred people — black, white, grey hairs, college kids and toddlers — gathered July 8 under the trees at the Burnet Woods gazebo in Clifton to rally support for raising the minimum wage in Ohio. John Edwards, 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate and former senator from North Carolina, was the keynote speaker for the Ohioans for a Fair Minimum Wage Coalition, which is seeking to place a constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot this fall.

Edwards has been focusing on poverty issues since he and Sen. John Kerry came up short in the 2004 campaign, and this week he was visiting Ohio and Arizona to help boost minimum wage campaigns. The Burnet Woods crowd was filled with AFL-CIO members and supporters, ACORN backers (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Democratic Party officeholders and office seekers, neighborhood residents and others.

Opponents of a minimum wage increase in Ohio rely on two fallacies, Edwards said — that only a small number of workers, mostly high school kids, are paid minimum wage and that a wage hike would hurt the state’s economy. In fact, about 719,000 Ohio workers (14 percent of the state’s workforce) would directly or indirectly benefit from an increase in the minimum wage, which currently is $5.15 an hour both in Ohio and on the federal level. The constitutional amendment, if passed, would raise Ohio’s rate to $6.85 an hour and index it in the future to the rate of inflation.

Secondly, Edwards and other speakers pointed out, states that raised their minimum wage to above the federal level have actually seen higher employment and payroll growth in small businesses than federal minimum wage states, including Ohio. Since Congress last raised the federal minimum wage in 1997, 20 states have raised their minimum wages and coalitions are pushing ballot initiatives in seven others.

(For more information on the studies that produced these wage and employment figures, visit www.policymattersohio.org.

For earlier CityBeat coverage, see “The Minimum We Can Do,” issue of Jan. 4.)

Cincinnati will join other cities in anti-war protests, possibly including nonviolent civil disobedience, Sept 21-28. Declaration of Peace is a nationwide campaign that aims to get people to declare peace and pressure the Bush regime to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by March 19, 2007, the fourth anniversary of the invasion. The Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center is coordinating the local effort.

Ideas under consideration include a public fast, widespread leafleting and counter-recruiting at military recruiting stations and in front of schools. For more information or to get involved, contact Kristen Barker at kristen@ijpc-cincinnati.org.

While waiting for the protests, it’s time to pledge your vote for peace. Voters for Peace is organizing voters to sign its commitment, which says, “I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or president who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign.” Then call Cincinnati City Councilman John Cranley, a Democrat running for Congress in Ohio’s 1st District, and ask where he stands. For more information about the campaign, visit www.votersforpeace.us.

Ghiz Strikes Back
City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz filed suit July 10 in a bid to keep a casino gambling initiative off the Nov. 7 ballot. The suit alleges that Ohio Learn and Earn misrepresented its primary purpose when it submitted its petition language, which lists the purpose as establishing a scholarship program and doesn’t refer to the casinos that would be allowed as its funding method. The tactic allows Ohio Learn and Earn to use “false, misleading and deceptive conduct” when it collects voter signatures on the petitions, the lawsuit states. The suit also alleges Ohio Learn and Earn failed to disclose that it’s paying for the petition effort, a disclosure required by state law.

The PAC faces an Aug. 7 deadline to collect 323,000 signatures from registered voters to place the issue on the Nov. 7 ballot. Earlier this year Ghiz mounted her own petition drive to add Cincinnati to the gambling proposal, but it was dropped after legal challenges by Ohio Learn and Earn. Ghiz says her lawsuit was partially inspired by the tactics Ohio Learn and Earn used.

“Turnabout is fair play,” she says. “I didn’t know about this stuff until they did it to us to keep us off the ballot. That made me go and research exactly what the law says.”

Blog Keeps Up
If you missed CityBeat‘s Porkopolis blog earlier this week, you missed the latest purge at WAIF (88.3 FM) and efforts to save the community radio station. Don’t wait for the daily newspapers. Visit citybeatporkopolis. blogspot.com and get today’s news today.

This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2006.