Cynthia McKinney

[Geronimo Pratt]

I may reconsider my stance to not vote in this special occassion where I get my first opportunity to vote with the coincidence that there actually is somebody worth spending my time that day at the ballot box. If some "progressives" had a better comprehension of the U.S. state bureaucracy and the impossibility of McKinney to win the election then I doubt so many would be going coo-coo. If the public conscious actually got to the point where they had knowledge of McKinney's main stances and openly concurred with them, we might as well try to utilize that sort of mass movement for purposes other than the electoral process. I don't even see how McKinney can reason her somewhat radical positions with her persistence on working her way through the political system. Nonetheless, the Obama campaign had pissed me off so much that I am telling people they should vote for McKinney if they are really so excited about a black candidate. I want to hear the opinions of others on this site because I haven't gotten to really talk to other "radicals" about it.

[jake williams]

There's some work that could be productively done "within the system", and I would guess that people you find here will know that, but feel uncomfortable with it and have had a bad taste left in their mouth by it, and many are skeptical about those suggested solutions which are often either intended as or have the effect of restricting or taking the place of more radical, and at least in the minds of some more efficacious, action. For this latter reason you might find some hostility here, I hope not though.

Obama is despicable. McKinney I can't honestly say I've paid much attention to (I'm in Canada is part of the reason), so I don't know the details of what she says or what she intends or what she could do politically.

[RHIZOMES]

Isn't McKinney anti-semitic?

[ckaihatsu]

At the heart of leftist politics is revolution versus reform. Are you one of those who thinks the system can be tinkered with, or "reformed" so as to permanently eliminate class divisions, racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and all other social ills?

If so then you are an idealist who is arguably as bad as any Democrat or Republican, because you spread the illusion that the system can be fixed.

The system cannot be fixed. It needs to be overthrown by the world's working class in a socialist revolution that paves the way for global communism.

--

Another way of putting it is: How long will it take for workers to achieve a classless society by taking the path of reformism?

The answer is: infinity. It will never happen because the dominant force of capitalism is capital, and it will never yield to the working class unless it is forced to, through mass militant actions that lead to revolution.

--

While the issues taken up by leftist candidates are certainly noteworthy and laudable, we cannot put our confidence in the path that these candidates take, because it is not one of empowering working class revolution in the short-term.

In the absence of a solid, militant stance on worker empowerment, the centripetal forces take over, drawing these leftist candidates toward the center (nationalism) on all issues. In order to play the mainstream game they wind up dropping their most class-conscious positions, thereby betraying their initial working class and social minority support.

--

I'm going to follow this post with three postings:

1. The first one is Cynthia McKinney's platform with the Reconstruction Party. Hang onto this for reference, and let's see how much (little) of it she retains as she moves rightward following her official nomination as candidate of the Green Party.

2. The second one is "Cindy Sheehan's Labor Platform", dated the 6th of July.

3. I just went to her campaign's website (now the 21st of July) and found "Cindy Sheehan - On the Issues".


Hey! Look what's missing -- the very first two sections, namely:

"Restore Workers' Rights to Organize & Bargain Collectively"

and

"Repeal Taft-Hartley, Restore the Right to Strike"



If this isn't a case study in revolution vs. reform, I don't know what is.


Chris





--


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[ckaihatsu]

Published on AfterDowningStreet.org (http://www.afterdowningstreet.org)
Cynthia McKinney's Platform
By davidswanson
Created 2008-02-17 22:20

What We Want; What We Believe; What We Need. Now!
Draft Manifesto for a Reconstruction Party

This Draft Manifesto was produced by a group of Reconstruction Party activists who met in New Orleans on Saturday, Jan. 26 in support of the International Days of Action against Neo-Liberalism. This draft is being submitted for wide discussion and amendments to all activists interested in joining the effort to build a Reconstruction Party. Sister Cynthia McKinney participated in this meeting and contributed to this Draft Manifesto.

" . . . whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
Declaration of Independence

In the context of what is perhaps the most important Presidential election in a generation, we feel compelled to add our voices to the deafening silence coming from both the Democratic and Republican parties on the real issues of concern to us. We therefore insert this agenda -- our agenda -- into the current political discourse and assert our readiness to cast our votes on the specificity with which these issues are addressed in the electoral arena. We reject "differences" that will not make a difference and "changes" that will not bring about any change. The vision of the Reconstruction Party encompasses all communities in need of reconstruction.

1. We Want Freedom Now!

We want the power to determine our destiny. We want an electoral system that allows true representation and that ensures that all votes are counted. We want an economic system that provides opportunity, security, and dignity for all. We want an end to all spying on U.S. citizens. We want respect for human rights as the bedrock consideration in all the political deliberations of this country.

We believe that we will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny. We believe that free and fair elections are not possible in the current climate in which electronic voting machines, special interest money, corporate control of the two-party system predominate. In the 2000 Presidential election, an estimated 6 million votes cast were not counted, reflecting a crisis in our voting system and a concrete denial of self-determination.

We need to remove the dominance of special interest money from our elections by instituting public financing of elections that restores true power to the people. We need to eliminate privately owned electronic voting machines and every machine that does not provide a paper ballot. We must never again allow political parties to control the hardware on which official votes are counted (as in Ohio 2004). Voters should never again be told that election results belong to a private company and are not accessible by the public (as in Georgia 2007). And any individuals found to have participated in any act or scheme to deny U.S. citizens their right to vote, or found to have obstructed such right to vote in any way, including the counting of votes cast, should be brought to justice.

Freedom also includes the rights to education, health care, housing, living wages, and freedom from racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, gentrification, and police terror. Therefore, elimination of all health, education, home ownership, and social justice disparities must form the foundation of every plank of any acceptable political and economic platform that seeks to address the real concerns of the peoples of the Americas.

Therefore, we need comprehensive federal investment in low-income families and communities, with an emphasis on people of color. The continuing plight of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors, cases like the Jena 6, the Palmdale 4, the San Francisco 8, the ongoing situation with the country's Black farmers demonstrate the unfulfilled need to address these basic issues for communities across our country.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors specifically need recognition as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs); protection of their right of return, including protection of their right to vote in their home states; and reparations for the losses they incurred due to government abandonment and negligence.

Finally, we need repeal of the Patriot Acts, the Secret Evidence Act, the Military Commissions Act, and other legislation that rolls back bedrock civil liberties.

2. We Want Full Employment Now!

We want the definition of national security to include the general well-being of U.S. citizens and residents. No children in this rich country should be raised below the poverty line.

We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to implement an economic policy that provides an opportunity for every family to have gainful employment at a guaranteed income. No family should remain mired below the poverty level when the head of household works in a full-time job. We believe that workers must be free to organize unions wherever and whenever they choose. We believe that by setting a goal of carbon neutrality within the next 20 years, our country can begin the shifts in investment necessary to fuel an investment renaissance in jobs, energy independence from fossil fuels, and manufacturing.

Unemployment is at a two-year high. We need a living wage. Official statistics fail to capture the immense pain and suffering being experienced by the American people, especially people of color. We need massive infrastructure investments and a greening of our economy that can also put people to work. An end to the illegal and immoral war/occupation of Iraq can provide much needed funding for such an initiative that would focus on rebuilding the skills of every able-bodied American and restoring manufacturing jobs in this country to assist in the greening of our economy. Special emphasis should be placed on a green rebuilding program, consisting of all areas in need plus infrastructure, and especially New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with a massive public works project.

No ethnically identifiable groups should also be economically identifiable. Sadly, today that is not true. Forty-three percent of the poor are Black, and 24 percent of Latinos are poor. We need a specific program agenda that reduces poverty and dismantles existing economic disparities.

We need to promote and enact laws for U.S. corporations that keep labor standards high at home and raise them abroad. Toward that end, it is clear that we need a repeal of NAFTA, CAFTA, the Caribbean FTA, and the U.S.-Peru FTA and justice for immigrant workers, including an end to the guest-worker program riddled with abuses. In that regard, we also need immigration reform that includes amnesty and a path to documentation of those workers who are already in this country, have been here working for years, and who are undocumented. Surely the current policies are little more than union-busting, wage depressing tactics that rob all workers of their dignity and a fair wage for their labor. We need a complete overhaul of our country's labor laws, beginning with the repeal of Taft-Hartley, to ban scabbing, stop the unjust firing of union organizers, and enable workers to exercise their voices at work. Finally, we need justice for victims of corporations that have participated in crimes against humanity, torture, human trafficking, or other illegal activities.

We need equal pay for equal work. It is intolerable that women and minorities performing the same job as white men receive less pay.

3. We Want Reparations Now!

African Americans are now sustaining the worst loss of wealth in U.S. history due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, an estimated $71 billion to $92 billion, according to United for a Fair Economy.

We believe that the U.S. government never kept its promise to former slaves of the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised as restitution for slave labor and the mass murder of Black people. Enduring racial disparities reflect the U.S. government's failure to address the reality and the vestiges of Black poverty in this country. Hurricane Katrina is but a manifestation of the generations of previous neglect combined with current neglect.

A 2003 Harvard University study found that Black infant and maternal mortality rates are 2 and 3.5 times higher than for whites. The New York Times wrote that by 2003 nearly one half of all Black men between the ages of 16 and 64, living in New York City, were unemployed. Dr. David Satcher found in 2005 that 83,750 Black people died from premature deaths for no other reason than that they were Black. And in its 2005 report, United for a Fair Economy told us that it would take 1,664 years to close the home-ownership gap and that on some indices the racial disparities are worse now than at the time of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In its 2006 report, United for a Fair Economy told us that Blacks and Latinos lost ground, and that in order to close the racial wealth divide in our country, it would take the equivalent of a "G.I. Bill for Everyone" that would include comprehensive federal investment in low-income families and communities, with an emphasis on people of color. In its 2007 report, United for a Fair Economy concluded that, while Blacks overwhelmingly vote Democratic, they had little to show for such party loyalty according to the statistics reflecting the State of Black America and the policy initiatives of the Democratic Party in its first 100 hours as a Congressional majority. In 2008, United for a Fair economy concluded that it would take 440 years to close the racial disparity on per capita income.

That one million Black votes were not counted in the 2000 Presidential election is symptomatic of a host of broken promises, the denial of self-determination, and a refusal of both major parties to deal with the vestiges of slavery, racism, and discrimination with which too many families are forced to live today.

We urgently need policies enacted on the federal and local levels that will address the enduring disparities in education, health care, imprisonment, family income, wealth, home ownership, that reflect purposeful malign neglect of communities of color in this country. Further, these public policies must also specifically recover economic losses sustained during the current sub-prime mortgage crisis.

4. We Want Resources for Human Needs Now!

We want budget priorities that satisfy pressing and unmet human needs in health care, education, wealth development, and ending enduring disparities, not that further corporate greed or the war machine. We agree with United Nations representative and the findings of the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that the United States must do more to help those hurricane victims without financial means to rebuild. We want the Federal Reserve nationalized and designated as a Section or Department within the United States Treasury under the direction and supervision of the Secretary.

We believe in full reproductive rights for women -- for legal rights and safe access to comprehensive prenatal and postnatal/infant care; family planning services and contraception, including "morning after" medication; and abortion.

We believe the United States has a responsibility to alleviate human suffering at home and abroad. We believe it is shameful that U.S. children suffer from malnutrition and that U.S. mayor's report to us that homelessness and hunger have intensified in our cities. While food prices are rising and food banks report decreased supplies, our children suffer from worms and the physical stature of U.S. residents is now declining because of childhood malnutrition. According to the 2007 CIA statistics, the United States ranks 42nd in the world in infant mortality and 45th in life expectancy. We believe that the US dollar should be managed in the public by representatives of the people, not by private bankers meeting in secret.

We need to reject forced, coerced, or uninformed medication and sterilization. We need a universal access, single-payer, health care system. Americans should be able to purchase drugs from other countries if the price is cheaper, and the U.S. should negotiate with drug companies to provide cheaper drugs for all U.S. residents.

We need an education system that prepares our children for lifelong learning and that prepares adults to survive and thrive in a global economy. We need subsidized higher education; no student should graduate from college or university tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. We need affordable childcare in order to facilitate lifelong learning by parents. We need an end to the criminalization of our children in school. The Jena 6 and Palmdale 4 incidents, along with thousands of other incidents that take place in schools across our country, demonstrate that administrative measures are not taken when they could be to prevent the criminalization of our children. It is clear that current practices merely feed an insatiable criminal justice system building prisons, not for restorative justice, but for profits.

We need equal access to institutions and programs that help families build wealth. In 2004, 76 percent of Whites owned their own home, compared to 49.1% of Blacks and 48.1% of Latinos. Both African-Americans and Latinos have been disproportionately hit by the higher-cost loans that characterize sub-prime lending. Just in the sub-prime mortgage crisis alone, Latino families have lost between $76 and $98 billion, due to predatory lending practices on the part of lending institutions.

We need affordable housing for the working class and homeless throughout this country struggling to make ends meet. We oppose the senseless destruction of public housing in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Housing is a fundamental human right that we must protect and extend.

We need to stop giving outrageous sums of money to the Pentagon. The Pentagon cannot balance its books and admits to having "lost" $2.3 trillion. It claims it can't balance its books because its computers don't communicate with each other. However, even after having spent $20 billion to make the computers talk to each other, they still cannot, and hence, Department of Defense books cannot be properly audited. By canceling increased funding for the F-22 and weaponizing space, we would have $1.4 billion to devote to basic needs. A careful examination of corporate and millionaire welfare, combined with elimination of Pentagon waste, would yield at least an additional $99 billion that could be put to better use.

We need to repeal the Bush tax cuts and take appropriate steps to regain control over our monetary system because they both have contributed to the current economic crisis facing our country.

We need to defend and strengthen laws ensuring clinic access and that expand services to women and children fleeing domestic violence.

We need a Department of Peace that would put forward projects for peace all over the world. We should deploy our diplomats to help resolve conflicts through peaceful means. In the meantime, the Pentagon must oversee the orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from the more than 100 countries around the world where they are stationed. We should deploy our Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild infrastructures and communities here and abroad.

5. We Want to Stop the War at Home Now!

The decision by Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown to prosecute the San Francisco 8 is chilling in the message it sends about impunity in the face of clear police wrongdoing. The San Francisco 8 (several of whom were members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense), are being prosecuted and investigated by the very same police officers that committed torture against them decades ago. Obviously not satisfied with the 32 Black Panthers killed by law enforcement by 1973, a decision has been made to continue targeting Black Panther members in another way.

We want the hundreds of political activists falsely imprisoned by COINTELPRO and similar programs from the 1960's to the present to be released from prison immediately. We want full disclosure on all the government's spying and destabilization programs and for restitution to be provided to victims of these governmental abuses and their families for the suffering they have long endured.

In addition, members of the general public have become targets for police repression, including Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, and other easily identifiable minorities. By 2004, Cincinnati had seen 18 young people murdered at the hands of brutal cops. Louisville, Kentucky saw seven young Black males killed in four years. In New York City, three unarmed Black men were killed within a period of 13 months. In fact, the book Stolen Lives lists the names of over 2000 people killed by police during the 1990s. Unfortunately, it is clear that the poor and people of color are disproportionately affected by the disproportionate application of force by law enforcement. Adding insult to injury, offending police officers are rarely if ever punished.

We believe that disparities in sentencing and in the criminal justice system as a whole can be overcome with political will to change the policies and punish those guilty of the racial profiling that often result in disparate treatment at each step of an encounter with the criminal justice system.

In study after study, the dismal performance of the criminal justice system against people of color has been documented. Policies designed to close the disparities in sentencing and treatment at the hands of the criminal justice system must be implemented with more than deliberate speed.

6. We Want an End to the War on Drugs Now!

We want an end to unequal justice in this country! We want an end to toxic spraying and military deployments in other countries. We want an end to the assault on our civil liberties. We want an end to the lies of the U.S. government around its own participation in the spread of drugs into poor communities in this country. We want an explanation of why a CIA rendition aircraft crashed in Yucatan with 3.2 tons of cocaine on board. After the crack cocaine epidemic and what we now know of U.S. government complicity therewith, we want to know if the U.S. government is fighting or fueling the use of drugs in its so-called War on Drugs.

We believe that the war on drugs provides cover for U.S. military intervention in foreign countries, particularly to our south, and that this increased militarization is used to put down all social protest movements in countries like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and elsewhere. We believe that unequal justice is epitomized in the U.S. prosecution of the so-called War on Drugs. We believe that the United States has the most expensive, most repressive, least effective drug policy in the industrialized world. And it is this drug war that has helped the United States incarcerate a higher percentage of its own people than any other country in the world. We believe that the War on Drugs is waged largely against the poor and the resultant massive incarceration serves the profit-motive of prisons whose stocks are traded on Wall Street. The War on Drugs has become a war on truth, taxpayers, civil liberties, and higher education for the poor and middle class, and sadly, it has also become a war on treatment, addicts, and reason.

We need an end to mandatory minimum drug sentences. We need a budget focused on prevention and treatment. The law should include legal regulation of drugs. We need legalization of industrial hemp as a cash crop. We need drug laws based on the truth. According to the drug policy reform group Efficacy, from 1984 to 1996, California built 21 new prisons, and 1 new university. California state government expenditures on prisons increased 30% from 1987 to 1995, while spending on higher education decreased by 18%. This trend is echoed in every state of the nation. Clearly, we need a drug policy that is based on truth, compassion, prevention, and treatment. We need laws that franchise citizens of the United States without regard to incarceration status. No non-violent drug offender should suffer permanent or temporary disfranchisement of voting and other citizenship rights due to entanglement in the current system of criminal injustice.

We need to end the funding of Plan Colombia and Plan Mexico and other militarized "plans" enacted that fund and support a failed drug policy at home and abroad.

7. We Want to End Prisons for Profit Now!

We want an end to privatization of prisons and prison health services. We want an end to the racism that serves as an engine of growth for a profit-driven prison system. We want an end to prison labor schemes that are little more than corporate subsidies that provide little training or rehabilitation for inmates. We want reconciliation, transformation, preparation, rather than incarceration based on retribution and vengeance. We do not want race and class to serve as the primary determinants of punishment. And we want an end to the death penalty.

We believe that the prison-industrial, criminal injustice complex of today still operates in many respects as a vestige of slavery. And just as punishment was meted out disparately for Blacks and whites during slavery, these conditions persist today. For example, in the state of Virginia, a white person could only be sentenced to death for murder, but slaves could be sentenced to death for 71 offenses. Today, according to "Minding the Gap," despite higher drug use by White Illinois teens, African American youth who make up 15.3% of Illinois's youth population, are 59% of youth arrested for drug crimes, 85.5% of youth automatically transferred to adult court, 88% of youth imprisoned for drug crimes, and 91% of youth admitted to state prison. Disparities permeate the system from the laws enacted, to those who enact the laws, to those who enforce and interpret them.

Paul Street reports in Black Agenda Report, "one in three Black males will be sent to state or federal prison at some point in their lives compared to one in six Latino males and one in seventeen white males." Writer Tim Wise writes, "According to FBI data, the percentage of crimes committed by African Americans has remained steady over the past 18 years, while the number of Blacks in prison has tripled and their rates of incarceration have skyrocketed."

Clearly, it is time to rethink prison policy and the criminal justice system upon which it rests. Just as prisons for profit underscored profit-maximizing strategies, we need to explore new terrains for justice-maximizing policies, including prison abolition. We need public policy solutions that focus on reconciliation and restorative justice. Racism should not be rewarded with profits.

8. We Want an Environmental Protection Policy that Works Now!

We want the range of production and consumption policies enacted by our policy makers to reflect the limits of the finite resources that sustain life on this planet. We want our forests protected and restored; we want sustainable resource use and reuse, and we want less waste to dispose. We want renewable energy and we don't want policies that pit food production against energy production. We want drinkable and clean water, soil, and air. We want to live within our resource means.

We believe that the production and pervasiveness of toxic chemicals in our environment is dangerous and must be stopped. We believe that workers should not be exposed to toxic work conditions. We believe that communities should be preserved and that local economies using local resources should be encouraged. We must put an end to child labor, forced labor, and other illegal or unethical activity included in the goods we consume: for example, Coltan (Columbite-Tantalite) and other minerals mined with slave labor and torture in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and the 5 million deaths, political instability, and misery associated with pursuit of unfettered access to the mineral used in our computers, cell phones, and other electronic gadgets."

We need air, land, water, climate, production and consumption policies that reflect the real limits within which we must live. We need an entirely new paradigm that encourages us to produce green, local, and fairly; most importantly we need true, representative government that serves the needs of the people over that of corporations so that these policies can become law.

9. We Want an End to Militarism Now!

We want all U.S. troops stationed in other countries around the world to come home. We want all homeless veterans off the streets and in veterans' homes. We want the promise kept to veterans of free health care for a lifetime. We want military recruiters out of our schools and off our campuses. We call for an end to funding for war, products for war, preparation for war, intelligence for war or funds used to destabilize other countries, or to maintain or expand U.S. military presence at home or abroad. We call for an end to the expanding police state at home.

We believe that the United States has taken a dramatic turn against human rights and the rule of law by now permitting arrest and detention without charge, torture and spying without court oversight, prosecutors free to tape conversations between lawyers and their clients. We believe that the so-called "peace dividend" after the Cold War was stolen by the imposition of the War on Terror that is being waged against the people. War profiteers reap their profits while legislation passes that threatens to categorize as terrorists those who are innocent citizens. We believe it is wrong that the overwhelming amount of resources put into our foreign and security policies engage the world through military force.

We need the billions of dollars currently spent on militarizing domestic and foreign policies, and in weaponizing space to be spent on human needs and to alleviate human suffering.

10. We Want Peace Now!

We want to live in a peaceful world where the global community considers the United States a key partner for peace and development. We want the United States to adopt the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Rights, recognizing that we cannot have peace until we start with our own history here at home. We want the United States to be a leader in research, development, technology, and innovation in the things that uplift people and help us to live more harmoniously with natural forces of this planet.

We believe that another United States is not only possible, but necessary! But, the two parties of corporate rule are not offering this vision of peace and partnership. We believe that an explicit rejection of the policies of political and economic destabilization that we have witnessed played out on the African Continent, in Latin America (particularly in Venezuela and in Bolivia), in the Caribbean and the Muslim world, and in Asia is urgently needed.

We need an end to all wars and occupations by U.S. forces, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need an immediate cessation of funding for war. We need prosecution for all individuals guilty of violating the law, including having committed or authorized crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, torture, or war crimes. We need a complete renunciation of the pre-emptive war doctrine. We need an end to all wars and war's utility. We need to dismantle the apparatus that implements schemes of regime change around the world, and that instead assists in self-determination of all peoples. Sadly, the Bush - Pelosi war policy is a formula for endless global conflict, deterioration of the rule of law among nations, and growing impoverishment, indebtedness and evisceration of civil liberties at home.

Conclusion

Already, calls are being made that the end of race in American politics has arrived due to the phenomenal success at the polls of Democratic Presidential candidate Barrack Obama. None other than Dick Morris, former Clinton Presidential advisor, noted, "Obama -- by winning in a totally white state -- shows that racism is gone as a factor in American politics." On CNN, Bill Bennett commented, "[Obama] never brings race into it. He never plays the race card. Talk about the Black community -- he has taught the Black community you don't have to act like Jesse Jackson; you don't have to act like Al Sharpton. You can talk about the issues." It is clear from the statistics that all working families without regard to race or ethnicity are hurting. But families of color are hurting the most. Let us not fail to speak out in our own name and to organize around these fundamental programmatic planks so that we can forge and win solutions to the problems facing our communities, our country, and our world.
Source URL: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/31112

[ckaihatsu]

Cindy Sheehan Labor Platform - Pelosi opponent's labor agenda is second to none - Cindy for Congress!

The Organizer <[email protected]> Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 9:08 AM
To: List Suppressed <Recipient>

July 6, 2008
Pelosi opponent's labor agenda is second to none


Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan is running to unseat the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives. Unlike Nancy Pelosi, Sheehan is a working class mother, whose son Casey was killed fighting this rich man's war. Here is the program Cindy Sheehan will fight for as a member of Congress.

CINDY SHEEHAN'S LABOR PLATFORM

Cindy Sheehan recognizes the historic significance of unions in building a strong working/middle class in America. Courageous union activists and organizations have brought about the end of child labor and the advent of the 40-hour week, benefits and living wages, among other positive changes.

* Restore Workers' Rights to Organize & Bargain Collectively

The right to organize unions, bargain freely and strike when necessary is being destroyed by employers and their representatives in government.
Today, nearly 1 out of 10 workers involved in union organizing drives is fired illegally by employers who wage a campaign of fear, threats and slick propaganda to keep workers from exercising a genuinely free choice. That is why union membership is declining. And as union membership falls so do the wages of all working people, union and non-union alike.

I support the repeal of all laws that prevent unions from organizing new members and bargaining collectively. All employees of federal, state and local governments must have full collective-bargaining rights.

* Repeal Taft-Hartley, Restore the Right to Strike

The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 severely restricts the activities of unions in favor of the employers. It was initially vetoed by then-president Harry Truman (D-Mo.). More Democrats joined Republicans in voting to override the veto than voted against the act. Yet most labor unions and labor leaderships continue to support Democrats.

I will work actively to repeal Taft-Hartley because coming from a working-class background, I believe it is a basic human right to be able to use collective strength and will at the bargaining table, as workers need to be protected from the avarice of employers and the government.

The right to strike of all workers in the United states -- including local, state and federal employees -- is a fundamental principle of the workers' movement that must be safeguarded. The right to withhold one's labor is a basic human right that our government should guarantee to all working people, including to those in the military.

All scabbing must be banned, and no workers should be fired without just cause.

* Repeal All "Free Trade" Agreements

Another international and national workers' struggle that I support is the struggle to repeal "free trade" agreements. Such trade treaties are designed to depress wages and oppress workers in every country that are signed parties to these agreements.

Fair trade that respects the rights of workers and enforces these rights through unions and binding collective-bargaining agreements -- along with enforceable and sustainable environmental protections -- must be put into place.
A worker who makes shoes, cars or any other goods should receive the same livable pay and benefits in whatever country he or she is employed. Wages and working conditions should be equalized to the highest standards, not the lowest common denominator.

* For Single-Payer Healthcare and Affordable Housing

Issues that affect the working-class population of the 8th District and the nation are healthcare and affordable housing. I support H.R. 676, which takes the insurance companies out of the healthcare equation and creates a universal, single-payer healthcare system.

Affordable housing is being destroyed from New Orleans to San Francisco's Bayview/Hunter's Point neighborhood -- and the resulting gentrification is pushing our neighbors of color out of the city, which threatens the dynamic diversity of San Francisco.
The current price of fuel and food makes it difficult for working-class and poor residents to sustain a reasonable standard of living. They must not lose their homes to real estate speculators. Moreover, if one lower-income home is destroyed, it must be replaced with another comparable home.
I support the passage of any bill guaranteeing a one-for-one replacement, and I urge more help for people under a certain income level who are losing their homes and who were victims of predatory lenders. Unemployment benefits and food-stamp benefits should also be extended in this precarious economy.

* For Immigrant Workers' Rights

As a person whose ancestors immigrated to the United States from Scotland and Germany to give their families and succeeding generations the opportunity for economic equality, I believe in compassionate and humane treatment of immigrant workers.

Immigrant workers should have the right to join unions regardless of their legal status. All undocumented immigrants, whether employed or not, should have a swift and expedited path to legalization in the form of Green Cards.
The Guest Worker programs introduced in recent years with bipartisan support are designed to make indentured servants out of our brothers and sisters from Mexico, Central and South America and to benefit employers unwilling to pay a living wage or benefits to employees.

I oppose the militarization of the border and the funding of ICE and other governmental agencies set up to terrorize immigrant workers, who are driven to the United States by the "free trade" and "structural adjustment" policies implemented by Democrats and Republicans.
All these policies are aimed at privatizing the economies of the immigrants' countries of origin in the interests of the multinational corporations. Peasants driven from their lands and workers laid off from their jobs in the public sector or in nationally owned industries are forced to flee to the United States in a desperate quest to feed their families.

* For Free and Quality Education

Free and quality education is a basic human right from infants in day care to students in universities. Working parents should be entitled to safe and stimulating day care for their infants and, as in most industrialized countries, university education should be free for those who qualify for and want to avail themselves of it. Until we institute such a program, all university students should be given very liberal repayment terms for their student loans that come with very low interest rates.

In lieu of university education, which not every student qualifies for, or desires, there should be support of apprenticeship programs and state and federal job training for those who want to learn a skill that doesn't involve putting on a U.S. military uniform and learning how to kill other people.

We should bring our troops home from all countries where our troops are deployed to promote occupation, corporate greed and empire.

No Child Left Behind -- a Democratic as well as Republican plan -- should be repealed, and teachers, schools and school districts should be free to respond to the needs of their classrooms and communities and not be limited to teaching to stringent performance-based tests in order to receive federal money.

NCLB is also a recruiting tool for the U.S. military, as it allows military recruiters into schools and permits the schools to administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test, which is a military competence test. NCLB does not prepare our children for university. It is aimed at privatizing poorly performing schools while also funneling students directly to the military.

* For Job Creation

For decades, making tools of war or paying for wars of aggression has consumed most of our federal budget, many times long after the wars have ended. Little has been invested in the basic infrastructure of our country, where our bridges and levees are failing. Students attend crumbling schools, and there are potholes the size of bathtubs in our roads.

The budget of the Pentagon must be slashed and the trillions of dollars being poured into the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan must end and a federal job-creation program similar to the WPA must be put into place. The workers in these jobs must be paid the prevailing wage, and the jobs must be created in partnership with relevant unions.

Deregulation of airlines, telecommunications, media, energy, banking, insurance and other industries has created a dangerous and unhealthy environment for working people and for our entire society. The deregulation of these industries has allowed the corporate profiteers to destroy proper oversight and health and safety regulations.

* Regulate the Media

The deregulation of the media and telecommunications industry has not only cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, it has intensified the monopolization of the media. The media conglomerates (Fox, Murdock, Clear Channel and others) are able to manipulate the media and destroy local programming. This has prevented the public from getting independent news and information, particularly on the effects of deregulation, privatization and war.

I will oppose multiple ownership of newspaper, cable, broadcast, internet and all other media operations.

I will require that all license holders of commercial television and radio stations carry and promote local programming, with stiff penalties, including loss of licenses, if they violate these rules. I also will support revoking their licenses if they have a record of violating local, state and federal labor laws by illegally firing and discriminating against workers for union activities.

I also support federal funding for public labor-community broadcast and internet systems, including Wi-fi and other technologies, to allow the use of these new communication technologies for all working people, especially for low-income workers.

* Stop Deregulation and Privatization

The present financial crisis has been fueled by the elimination of all financial regulatory measures, particularly by the repeal in 1999 of the Glass-Steagall Act (GSA), which in 1933, in the immediate aftermath of the Great Depression, had separated investment and commercial banking activities. The repeal of GSA -- which was demanded by the corporate elite -- was supported actively by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and other leaders of the Democratic Party.

The Federal Reserve System does not represent consumers, workers or the public. I support elected community-labor boards in which there will be accountability from those running our financial system.

The drive to privatize and contract out jobs is a threat to our workforce. It undermines standards -- including the merit system -- and has replaced them with nepotism and corruption. It has become a norm today for contractors to pay off Congresspeople to obtain contracts.

I oppose all privatization of federal jobs and will require that all funds disbursed by the federal government go only to government agencies, not to private contractors.

I support the U.S. Postal System and oppose all efforts to privatize it through contracting-out operations, including joint ventures with private corporations. I will support Congressional investigations, with managers and workers placed under oath, to examine the health and safety conditions in the USPS that have led to the "going postal" incidents across the country, including in San Francisco.

I support legislation making it illegal to force workers into jobs with independent contractors in which employers such as FedEx use the "independent contractor" status to prevent unionization and to transfer the costs of unemployment, social security and workers' compensation to the individual worker.

I also will investigate and eliminate the massive cost-shifting by the insurance industry of workers' compensation costs. Millions of injured workers are now forced to go on SSI and State Disability or to publicly funded hospitals, thereby shifting these costs to the state. I will initiate and organize Congressional hearings on these issues and put employers, insurance executives and workers under oath to expose and change these schemes. I also support criminal penalties for the conspiracies to shift such costs to the federal government.

* For a National Energy System, For a Mass Transit System

The growing environmental and energy crisis cannot be solved under private ownership of the energy companies. We need a mass transportation system administered by public-labor-community boards throughout the United States.

This will be financed by the nationalization of the oil, gas, and other energy companies -- all of which have thwarted mass transportation to keep profits flowing to their corporate stockholders.

The United States must build a system of bullet trains linking all parts of the country. The auto assembly plants could be converted into plants that build the trains and infrastructure needed for transforming qualitatively our energy and transportation systems and for rebuilding our country.

I support federal funding for local community-based solar and wind systems where feasible to provide an alternative to fossil fuels, and will oppose the use and subsidy of nuclear energy. When elected, I will submit legislation that will require that all federal funding of energy projects provide for prevailing wages and allow full unionization of workers.

* For Civil Rights and Privacy Protection

I oppose terrorism in the workplace. The constant harassment and discrimination against union members and unorganized workers by the corporations and multinationals who own and control all the wealth in the United States and around the world should not be tolerated.

Workers are subject to heightened discrimination when they are injured on the job. Many injured workers are fired illegally by the employers. The use of the Transport Workers Identification Credentials (TWIC) Act to discriminate against transportation workers with previous criminal records must be stopped.

I am opposed to the organized destruction of our privacy and civil rights. I support the repeal of the so-called "Patriot Act" and other "anti-terrorism" acts that were supported by both the Democratic and Republicans parties -- and by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, in particular.

I am committed to defending the right of workers to privacy and condemn spying by employers on their private lives. I oppose the special identity cards for transportation workers and all forms of electronic information-gathering used to discriminate against union organizers, injured workers or workers with disabilities.

I will work to eliminate the massive intrusion into our lives by the drug-testing industry. Using arbitrary drug tests, hundreds of thousands of workers have been fired, and many have suffered retaliation for union activity.

Use of private drug-testing companies should be eliminated. There needs to be strict regulation of any testing of workers on the job.

I oppose the use of criminal drug laws to jail millions of working people. The use of drugs by individuals is a public healthcare problem that will not be resolved by spending billions of dollars on the prison industry.
The corporatized and privatized prison industry holds untold numbers of workers who have been incarcerated because of their race, sexual orientation or nationality. This prison system warehouses millions of working men and women for the sake of profits for the prison industry and in repayment for their contributions to the Democratic and Republican parties.
This is my labor platform, that I will fight for as a member of Congress.

In solidarity,

Cindy Sheehan

For more information about Labor for Cindy, or get involved in this important campaign to elect Cindy Sheehan to Congress, go to www.cindyforcongress.com or call 415 621 5027. Online contributions are welcome.

[ckaihatsu]

ON THE ISSUES

WHAT DOES CINDY SHEEHAN STAND FOR?

For Repealing All "Free Trade" Agreements
Another international and national workers' struggle that I support is the struggle to repeal "free trade" agreements. Such trade treaties are designed to depress wages and oppress workers in every country that are signed parties to these agreements.

Fair trade that respects the rights of workers and enforces these rights through unions and binding collective-bargaining agreements -- along with enforceable and sustainable environmental protections -- must be put into place. A worker who make shoes, cars or any other goods should receive the same livable pay and benefits in whatever country he or she is employed. Wages and working conditions should be equalized to the highest standards, not the lowest common denominator.

For Single-Payer Healthcare and Affordable Housing
Issues that affect the working-class population of the 8th District and the nation are healthcare and affordable housing. I support H.R. 676, which takes the insurance companies out of the healthcare equation and creates a universal, single-payer healthcare system.

Affordable housing is being destroyed from New Orleans to San Francisco's Bayview/Hunter's Point neighborhood -- and the resulting gentrification is pushing our neighbors of color out of the city, which threatens the dynamic diversity of San Francisco. The current price of fuel and food makes it difficult for working-class and poor residents to sustain a reasonable standard of living. They must not lose their homes to real estate speculators. Moreover, if one lower-income home is destroyed, it must be replaced with another comparable home.

I support the passage of any bill guaranteeing a one-for-one replacement, and I urge more help for people under a certain income level who are losing their homes and who were victims of predatory lenders. Unemployment benefits and food-stamp benefits should also be extended in this precarious economy.

For Immigrant Workers' Rights
As a person whose ancestors immigrated to the United States from Scotland and Germany to give their families and succeeding generations the opportunity for economic equality, I believe in compassionate and humane treatment of immigrant workers.

Immigrant workers should have the right to join unions regardless of their legal status. All undocumented immigrants, whether employed or not, should have a swift and expedited path to legalization in the form of Green Cards. The Guest Worker programs introduced in recent years with bipartisan support are designed to make indentured servants out of our brothers and sisters from Mexico, Central and South America and to benefit employers unwilling to pay a living wage or benefits to employees.

I oppose the militarization of the border and the funding of ICE and other governmental agencies set up to terrorize immigrant workers, who are driven to the United States by the "free trade" and "structural adjustment" policies implemented by Democrats and Republicans. All these policies are aimed at privatizing the economies of the immigrants' countries of origin in the interests of the multinational corporations. Peasants driven from their lands and workers laid off from their jobs in the public sector or in nationally owned industries are forced to flee to the United States in a desperate quest to feed their families.

For Free and Quality Education
Free and quality education is a basic human right from infants in day care to students in universities. Working parents should be entitled to safe and stimulating day care for their infants and, as in most industrialized countries, university education should be free for those who qualify for and want to avail themselves of it. Until we institute such a program, all university students should be given very liberal repayment terms for their student loans that come with very low interest rates.

In lieu of university education, which not every student qualifies for, or desires, there should be support of apprenticeship programs and state and federal job training for those who want to learn a skill that doesn't involve putting on a U.S. military uniform and learning how to kill other people.

We should bring our troops home from all countries where our troops are deployed to promote occupation, corporate greed and empire.

No Child Left Behind -- a Democratic as well as Republican plan -- should be repealed, and teachers, schools and school districts should be free to respond to the needs of their classrooms and communities and not be limited to teaching to stringent performance-based tests in order to receive federal money.

NCLB is also a recruiting tool for the U.S. military, as it allows military recruiters into schools and permits the schools to administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test, which is a military competence test. NCLB does not prepare our children for university. It is aimed at privatizing poorly performing schools while also funneling students directly to the military.

For Job Creation
For decades, making tools of war or paying for wars of aggression has consumed most of our federal budget, many times long after the wars have ended. Little has been invested in the basic infrastructure of our country, where our bridges and levees are failing. Students attend crumbling schools, and there are potholes the size of bathtubs in our roads.

The budget of the Pentagon must be slashed and the trillions of dollars being poured into the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan must end and a federal job-creation program similar to the WPA must be put into place. The workers in these jobs must be paid the prevailing wage, and the jobs must be created in partnership with relevant unions.

Deregulation of airlines, telecommunications, media, energy, banking, insurance and other industries has created a dangerous and unhealthy environment for working people and for our entire society. The deregulation of these industries has allowed the corporate profiteers to destroy proper oversight and health and safety regulations.

For Regulating the Media
The deregulation of the media and telecommunications industry has not only cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, it has intensified the monopolization of the media. The media conglomerates (Fox, Murdock, Clear Channel and others) are able to manipulate the media and destroy local programming. This has prevented the public from getting independent news and information, particularly on the effects of deregulation, privatization and war.

I will oppose multiple ownership of newspaper, cable, broadcast, internet and all other media operations.

I will require that all license holders of commercial television and radio stations carry and promote local programming, with stiff penalties, including loss of licenses, if they violate these rules. I also will support revoking their licenses if they have a record of violating local, state and federal labor laws by illegally firing and discriminating against workers for union activities.

I also support federal funding for public labor-community broadcast and internet systems, including Wi-fi and other technologies, to allow the use of these new communication technologies for all working people, especially for low-income workers.

For Stopping Deregulation and Privatization
The present financial crisis has been fueled by the elimination of all financial regulatory measures, particularly by the repeal in 1999 of the Glass-Steagall Act (GSA), which in 1933, in the immediate aftermath of the Great Depression, had separated investment and commercial banking activities. The repeal of GSA -- which was demanded by the corporate elite -- was supported actively by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and other leaders of the Democratic Party.

The Federal Reserve System does not represent consumers, workers or the public. I support elected community-labor boards in which there will be accountability from those running our financial system.

The drive to privatize and contract out jobs is a threat to our workforce. It undermines standards -- including the merit system -- and has replaced them with nepotism and corruption. It has become a norm today for contractors to pay off Congresspeople to obtain contracts.

I oppose all privatization of federal jobs and will require that all funds disbursed by the federal government go only to government agencies, not to private contractors.

I support the U.S. Postal System and oppose all efforts to privatize it through contracting-out operations, including joint ventures with private corporations. I will support Congressional investigations, with managers and workers placed under oath, to examine the health and safety conditions in the USPS that have led to the "going postal" incidents across the country, including in San Francisco.

I support legislation making it illegal to force workers into jobs with independent contractors in which employers such as FedEx use the "independent contractor" status to prevent unionization and to transfer the costs of unemployment, social security and workers' compensation to the individual worker.

I also will investigate and eliminate the massive cost-shifting by the insurance industry of workers' compensation costs. Millions of injured workers are now forced to go on SSI and State Disability or to publicly funded hospitals, thereby shifting these costs to the state. I will initiate and organize Congressional hearings on these issues and put employers, insurance executives and workers under oath to expose and change these schemes. I also support criminal penalties for the conspiracies to shift such costs to the federal government.

For a National Energy System, For a Mass Transit System
The growing environmental and energy crisis cannot be solved under private ownership of the energy companies. We need a mass transportation system administered by public-labor-community boards throughout the United States.

This will be financed by the nationalization of the oil, gas, and other energy companies -- all of which have thwarted mass transportation to keep profits flowing to their corporate stockholders.

The United States must build a system of bullet trains linking all parts of the country. The auto assembly plants could be converted into plants that build the trains and infrastructure needed for transforming qualitatively our energy and transportation systems and for rebuilding our country.

I support federal funding for local community-based solar and wind systems where feasible to provide an alternative to fossil fuels, and will oppose the use and subsidy of nuclear energy. When elected, I will submit legislation that will require that all federal funding of energy projects provide for prevailing wages and allow full unionization of workers.

For Civil Rights and Privacy Protection
I oppose terrorism in the workplace. The constant harassment and discrimination against union members and unorganized workers by the corporations and multinationals who own and control all the wealth in the United States and around the world should not be tolerated.

Workers are subject to heightened discrimination when they are injured on the job. Many injured workers are fired illegally by the employers. The use of the Transport Workers Identification Credentials (TWIC) Act to discriminate against transportation workers with previous criminal records must be stopped.

I am opposed to the organized destruction of our privacy and civil rights. I support the repeal of the so-called "Patriot Act" and other "anti-terrorism" acts that were supported by both the Democratic and Republicans parties -- and by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, in particular.

I am committed to defending the right of workers to privacy and condemn spying by employers on their private lives. I oppose the special identity cards for transportation workers and all forms of electronic information-gathering used to discriminate against union organizers, injured workers or workers with disabilities.

I will work to eliminate the massive intrusion into our lives by the drug-testing industry. Using arbitrary drug tests, hundreds of thousands of workers have been fired, and many have suffered retaliation for union activity.

Use of private drug-testing companies should be eliminated. There needs to be strict regulation of any testing of workers on the job.

I oppose the use of criminal drug laws to jail millions of working people. The use of drugs by individuals is a public healthcare problem that will not be resolved by spending billions of dollars on the prison industry. The corporatized and privatized prison industry holds untold numbers of workers who have been incarcerated because of their race, sexual orientation or nationality. This prison system warehouses millions of working men and women for the sake of profits for the prison industry and in repayment for their contributions to the Democratic and Republican parties.



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