Many young and working people were dreading another election rematch between reactionary billionaire landlord Trump and Joe Biden, who struggles to string a coherent thought into words. But now, Kamala Harris has assumed the mantle as the Democratic nominee and has raised hopes that Trump can be defeated in this election.
People’s hopes were buoyed even further when Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz’s history as a former high school teacher and football coach is an effective contrast to Trump’s tech bro running mate, JD Vance.
One of Walz’s progressive credentials includes Minnesota passing a bill giving free lunch to public school students. Walz also implemented free tampons in schools. But what good is any of this if his administration is currently shuttering public schools across the state?
Despite his camo hat and t-shirt, Walz shouldn’t be trusted to represent the interests of working people any more than any other politician from the two corporate parties.
Tear-Gas Tim
To young people fighting police brutality during the George Floyd rebellion, Walz was known as “tear-gas Tim”. After the Minneapolis Police brutally murdered George Floyd, Walz’s Minnesota State Troopers were quickly sent to help city and county police suppress the protests by tear-gassing crowds of peaceful demonstrators.
This escalation eventually led to protesters setting fire to a police precinct (at the time, the burning down of this precinct polled more favorably than either then-President Trump or candidate Joe Biden). Transit workers like myself defied Walz’s order to use city buses to transport non-violent protestors to jail during the George Floyd rebellion.
Walz then mobilized the Minnesota National Guard, who terrorized nonviolent protesters. Just because Republicans wished Walz had ordered the National Guard to fire live ammunition into crowds of protesters, doesn’t diminish the fact that Walz actually did use the full violent force of the state to suppress a mass movement fighting against horrific injustice.
Walz’s actions during George Floyd are similar to how Democrats continue to give military aid and political defense to the Israeli state’s genocidal war in Gaza. There’s no reason to think that as vice president Walz would act any differently.
The Bosses’ Governor
Despite Minnesota’s relatively high corporate income tax rate when compared to other states, Minnesota ranks third in the nation for number of Fortune 500 companies per capita with United Health, Wells Fargo, US Bank, General Mills, Target, Best Buy, and 3M among the big corporations that make Minnesota their headquarters. The executives of these corporations make millions while homeless encampments and under-funded public schools sit next door.
Walz hasn’t done anything to fundamentally change that. In fact, as Governor, Walz appointed the state council that forced my coworkers to accept a weak contract that amounts to a pay cut after inflation. Other workers would tell similar stories about Walz’ role.
A big part of the “regular guy” perception that Walz is trying to cultivate is from his time as a public high school teacher. Meanwhile, Minnesota public schools are suffering from a budget deficit that school admin boards and corporate politicians are using as pretense to cut school services, and to even potentially close entire schools. Between Minneapolis and St. Paul, 500 teacher positions are being cut, potentially forcing schools to combine students across grade levels into one classroom.
The only political force in Minnesota that is demanding the kinds of additional funding needed are the teachers’ unions, particularly Minneapolis and St. Paul educators’ unions. This was on full display during the 2022 MFT-ESP educator strike in Minneapolis. This strike would have been a great opportunity for any politician who champions public schools to struggle alongside the educators’ unions to demand further funding for public schools. However, Walz never once used the authority of the governor’s office and state government to support the striking educators’ demands, nor did he fight for the school board to agree to the union’s terms.
Walz further betrayed Minnesota unions last year when he completely gutted a bill supported by the nurses’ union that would have required hospitals to staff at a higher nurse-to-patient ratio. The Minnesota Nurses Association has long demanded safer staffing by forcing hospitals to increase the number of nurses per shift. However, the hospital bosses—particularly at the Mayo Clinic—oppose this sensible demand because it comes at the expense of their profits, even if it will provide better health care to their patients and safety for their nurses. Walz bent to the pressure of Mayo Clinic’s threats to relocate its billion dollar hospital expansion to another state if the safe staffing bill became law.
We Need A Real Alternative
Tim Walz does not in any way change the character of the thoroughly corrupt and corporate Democratic Party. His everyday working-man persona is only surface deep. His real record is attacking mass movements, betraying unions, and defending corporations. Working and young people don’t have to accept this and should demand a better political alternative that can fight for their interests, independent from any corporate and billionaire influence. That’s why Socialist Alternative endorses independent left-wing presidential candidate Jill Stein, but more importantly it is why we campaign for a new mass workers’ party so we don’t have to settle for the lesser evil in each election.