| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Greg Butterfield" |
| Date: |
09 Jul 2004 08:58:31 AM |
| Object: |
No to Bush Lite, Yes to Independent Workers' Campaign |
WWP CANDIDATES SAY:
NO TO BUSH LITE, YES TO AN INDEPENDENT WORKERS' VOICE
If Sen. John Kerry were the subject of a beer ad, it might go
something like this: "Bush lite--fewer promises, same bad taste."
Let's get real. Democratic candidate Kerry is no savior of poor and
working people. He's hardly a "lesser evil" at all. While the
Democratic Party's voting base-people of color, women,
lesbian/gay/bi/trans people, labor and other working-class people-is
steadily moving in an anti-war, anti-corporate direction under the
blows of the Iraq occupation and the economic crisis, Kerry is busily
trying to drag everyone in the opposite direction.
What a difference 12 years makes. In 1992, then-Democratic candidate
Bill Clinton promised a peace dividend, a massive jobs program,
national health care, an end to the persecution of lesbians and gays
in the military, and much more. Of course, he betrayed every single
one of these promises when he came to office. Clinton's strategy was
to pose as a progressive while carrying out the right-wing agenda of
the capitalist ruling class for war, privatization and repression.
Fast-forward to 2004. John Kerry isn't even bothering to make those
kinds of promises to get elected. He's openly pro-war and
pro-occupation. He pays lip service to gay rights and immigrant
rights, but opposes same-sex marriage and supports police roundups of
immigrant families. Kerry and the Democratic leadership are counting
on people's fear and anger at George W. Bush to override common sense
and make them vote for their candidates, whose program is
fundamentally the same as the current Commander-in-Thief.
It's no secret that Bush and the clique around him are dangerous.
Millions of progressive people feel obliged to hold their noses and
vote for Kerry in Nov ember to get Bush out. But the truth is, Kerry's
goals are nearly indistinguishable from Bush's.
Kerry's support among Black, Latin@, Asian, Arab and Native voters is
weak, and with good reason. Kerry has surrounded himself with a nearly
all-white retinue. He either hasn't seriously addressed the issues of
highest concern to the oppressed communities and other workers--like
jobs, health care and education--or else he has taken an opposite
position, like his support for the occupation of Iraq.
Kerry has given workers and progressive people plenty of reasons to
oppose him.
* Trying to shore up support among Latin@s, Kerry addressed the
National Council of La Raza June 29, promising a "comprehensive
immigration reform bill in his first 100 days as president" for undoc
umented workers to get citizenship more easily. Hours later, he
stabbed immigrants and Latin@s in the back.
Speaking on the Telemundo TV network, Kerry said he opposed issuing
drivers' licenses to undocumented workers, the same position taken by
right-wing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even worse, he came
out in support of the racist raids by the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (now part of the so-called Department of
Homeland Security) that are terrorizing immigrant families from Texas
to California. (Los Angeles Times, July 1)
* Also June 29, Kerry spoke at a meeting of Jesse Jackson's
Rainbow/PUSH organization, his first attempt to reach out to a Black
civil rights organization. Kerry tried to ride the coattails of the
40th anniversary of the civil rights law of 1964, but the best promise
he could come up with was a tuition tax credit for college students
and a vague promise to give additional federal aid to states that keep
tuition increases below the inflation rate. (Chicago Tribune, June 30)
If Kerry were serious about supporting the Black community, this would
have been the perfect opportunity to announce a massive jobs-creation
program to address the double-digit unemployment facing African
Americans. But no. Not a word, either, about the heinous police
brutality against Stanley Miller, a Black man, captured on videotape
in Los Angeles. No apology for his support of the racist war of
aggression against Iraq, or for the fact that he wants to keep U.S.
military personnel--overwhelmingly working class and youths of
color--in that occupied country indefinitely. No change in his
position to send even
more youths to kill and die in Iraq.
Earlier, Jesse Jackson complained that while he was prepared to
campaign for Kerry, he had not been asked to. The truth is that Kerry
doesn't want his campaign to be associated with the memory of the
great civil rights struggles or any progressive movement, including
Jackson's populist challenges to the Democratic Party mainstream in
1984 and 1988. Reverend Jackson, we have a proposal for you: Come and
campaign with us, the candidates who embrace this legacy and are
really fighting for jobs, peace and social justice!
Kerry has uttered not one word about the scandalous 2000 Florida
elections that publicly exposed the disenfranchisement of thousands of
African American voters. When members of the Congressional Black
Caucus were seeking the support of just one senator to support their
petition challenging the Florida vote that gained Bush the presidency,
Kerry and the other 99 senators were nowhere to be found.
* Kerry is moving to assure the super-rich and the corporate
monopolies that he will carry out their goal of world domination, only
with more finesse and savvy than Bush. A new Kerry policy paper,
reported in the July 2 Boston Globe, documents these aggressive plans
that echo the current occupier of the White House. They include
"forceful action" against Iran, full support for Israel's construction
of a 425-mile apartheid wall to imprison the occupied Palestinian
population, and a pledge to isolate Yasser Arafat and other
Palestinian leaders.
Add this to Kerry's earlier threats to Cuba, Venezuela and other
sovereign countries trying to remain free of U.S. domination. Add it
to his June 29 pledge of support for the new U.S.-puppet regime in
Iraq: "I believe it is critical that the president get real support,
not resolutions, not words, but real support of sufficient personnel,
troops and money, to assist in the training of security forces in
order to be able to guarantee a rapid real transition, and most
importantly, in order to provide adequate security on the ground."
Kerry's message is clear: more war, more money for the Pentagon, more
body bags. Anyone feel a draft?
* The Democratic Party is moving to block candidates to the left of
Kerry from getting on the ballot, even if they have successfully
navigated the biased state laws designed to keep third parties off. On
July 2, Ralph Nader, who is running a progressive reform campaign,
accused Kerry and the Democrats of "dirty tricks" to keep him off the
ballot in Arizona. Based on a minor technical error in the complicated
petitioning process, the Democrats got a judge to invalidate 70
percent of the signatures gathered by Nader supporters and ban him
from the November ballot. The pro-war Democratic leadership fears
Nader will attract rank-and-file Democrats with his anti-war platform.
(Associated Press, July 3)
These are only the most recent offenses. Don't forget that Kerry, who
is from Massachusetts and who takes the lesbian, gay, bi and trans
community's support for granted, opposes same-sex marriage rights.
Don't forget that this former federal prosecutor voted for the USA
Patriot Act and, unlike more than 300 cities around the countries, has
not demanded its repeal. Don't forget how he showed his contempt for
the whole working class earlier this year when he willfully skipped a
Senate vote on extending unemployment benefits. His vote would have
passed the amendment; instead it went down to defeat, and millions of
jobless workers have suffered.
What about Boston? This major city in Kerry's home state is the site
of the Democratic National Convention, where he is expected to become
the party's official nom inee. Has Kerry done anything to address the
pressing issues for workers and oppressed peoples there? No, he
hasn't.
Kerry hasn't taken a stand against the racist forces, led by Mayor
Thomas Menino and City Council President Michael Flaherty, who are
trying to re-segregate the city's public schools under the slogan
"return to neighborhood schools."
With one call to Menino and Gov. Mitt Romney, Kerry could end the
stonewalling that has prevented Boston school bus drivers and
monitors, teachers, firefighters and others from getting a decent
contract. All he would have to do is threaten to pull the DNC out of
Boston. Instead the Democratic Party and Kerry campaign are putting
pressure on the unions to accept a rotten compromise. So far, the
unions are standing tough with community support.
No one should be surprised that the "progressive" Kerry is so
indifferent to the struggles of people of color, LGBT people and union
workers on his own turf. After all, Kerry is a wealthy member of the
ruling class in that old-money state. His wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, is
a billionaire and heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune. If Kerry becomes
president, his family will be the richest ever to occupy the White
House.
That's why workers need their own voice in this election, the Workers
World Party election campaign: John Parker, an African American man
from Los Angeles, for president, and Teresa Gutierrez, a Latina
lesbian from Queens, N.Y., for vice president.
We are two workers, two people of color, two socialists, two longtime
fighters against war and for the rights of all poor and working
people. We stand for everything Kerry does not: Immediate withdrawal
of the troops from Iraq, abolishing the Pentagon, same-sex marriage
rights TODAY, a massive program to create living-wage union jobs, and
much more.
Join us in the streets of Boston July 25 for the National March on the
Democratic Convention to Bring the Troops Home Now, sponsored by the
ANSWER coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism). We'll be there,
not to pressure Kerry to be more "reasonable," but to help expose him
as the corporate stooge he is. We'll be there to join with all those
who are organizing an independent fight-back movement. That's the best
way to change the political climate, no matter who is in the White
House.
John Parker & Teresa Gutierrez
Workers World Party candidates for president and vice president
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
