Solidarity with the People of Haiti

A statement of the Socialist Party USA

The Socialist Party USA stands in solidarity with the people of Haiti after the devastating earthquake that hit the island. Estimates of the dead are more than one hundred thousand and significant parts of the capital city Port-au-Prince's infrastructure have been destroyed. The full extent of the damage will not be known for days and the country seems certain to be thrust into a humanitarian crisis even more serious than the one that exists on a daily basis.

While this disaster has natural origins, it occurred within a nation that had already been ravaged by capitalism. Haiti is a model case for the failure of the neoliberal economic model and the negative legacies of US militarism in the region.

Read the full statement here.

National Day of Action to Defend Education

A statement of the Socialist Party USA

The Socialist Party USA (SP-USA) endorses the call for a National Day of Action to Defend Education to be held on March 4th, 2010. SP-USA locals through out the country will participate in organizing political actions in defense of education. The SP-USA endorsement is part of a national call made by student groups responsible for recent campus occupations and student protests in California and New York City.

The call for protest is a response to recent actions by State and Local governments to reduce education budgets as a way to fill in budget gaps. At least 26 states are implementing cuts to K-12 education programs, including Illinois whose cuts will make more than 10,000 children ineligible for early childhood education and Massachusetts, which carried out deep cuts on a number of early care programs. Cuts in other states will result in tuition increases, school closings, privatization, the elimination of after-school programs, and general restrictions on access to higher education.

The SP-USA opposes all cuts to education. We believe that access to free, high quality, public education at all stages of life is a fundamental human right. As such, we fully support the call for a national day of action in order to express our opposition to the education cutbacks taking place throughout the nation.

Read the full statement here.

Faith and Socialism Holiday Greeting

By Josh Hatala of the Socialist Party Faith & Socialism Commission

The Holidays are a time filled with stark contradictions. While most religions offer inspiring messages of peace and love, commercial enterprises attempt to put a price tag on every human emotion and social relation. But the shiniest presents in the world can¿t hide the raw inequalities that exist in our country and across the globe. This Holiday season, as a member of the Faith and Socialism Commission, I ask you to consider what really matters - our communities, our planet and the cause of social justice.

Read the full statement here.

Response to Obama's Surge in Afghanistan

A statement of the Socialist Party USA

On December 1st, President Obama has announced that he will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The justification is paper thin. Far from creating security, the occupation itself has created a state of lawlessness in Afghanistan. The fraud ridden reelection of the puppet Karzai regime has put popularity for the US mission in Afghanistan through the floor, and further inflamed anger in the middle east. Far from building Afghan sovereignty, Obama's policy is to deepen support for an illegitimate regime with tight associations with oil companies, drug lords, and warlords. Americans are waking up to the fact that, like the occupation of Iraq, this occupation isn't making us any safer, nor is it bringing development, democracy, security, or women's rights to Afghanistan. Rather, it is killing Afghan civilians and U.S./ NATO troops while stealing badly needed funds from housing, jobs, healthcare, and climate protection.

Even before the election, Obama refused to counter McCain's assertion that the surge in Iraq had worked. Instead he said US policy should turn toward Afghanistan. One year into his administration and we are on course to double the number of troops in Afghanistan from Bush Administration levels.

The anti-war movement is slowly and painfully learning several important lessons. First, that these occupations do not represent the mistaken policies of a peace-loving government, but rather are due to a global system emanating from Washington that can only be addressed in their entirety. And second, the Democratic Party will not move one inch toward a less belligerent policy.

Read the full statement here.

The Hyde Amendment and Obama’s Health Care Bill

The Hyde Amendment and Obama’s Health Care Bill
Two Wrongs Make a Disaster for Abortion Rights
A statement of the Socialist Party Women’s Commission

A major provision of the health care bill being put forward by the Obama administration -- and opportunistically maneuvered through the House of Representatives, and next the Senate, by the Democratic leadership -- shows just how disregarding the US government continues to be when it comes to abortion rights.

This provision would expand the scope of the Hyde Amendment -- that nasty piece of national legislation that since 1976 has prohibited the use of federal funds for abortion -- to include private health insurance plans partially subsidized by the federal government. This means that additional millions of women would be denied abortion as one of their health care options. Its inclusion in the health care bill is an outrageous capitulation by the Obama administration to the Catholic Church, religious fundamentalists, and Congressional conservatives and hypocrites of both the Democratic and Republican parties. We must fight back: No national health care system that denies the right to abortion on demand! Repeal the Hyde Amendment!

Read the full statement here.

Vote No on Obama-care! Healthcare is Our Human Right!

A statement of the Socialist Party USA

While citizens in most other industrialized nations enjoyed the benefits of publicly administered healthcare from the aftermath of WW II forward, Americans have suffered under a healthcare system dominated by private corporations. For-profit healthcare has produced negative health outcomes at all levels of the system. More than 48 million people have no health insurance, 30 million more are underinsured and 6 out of 10 Americans report that they have either delayed or deferred a necessary medical procedure in the last year. Americans are more than ready for publicly-run healthcare that guarantees access at all levels of the system.

Unfortunately, the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, The Affordable Healthcare for America Act (HR 3962), and the proposals being considered by the Senate will not provide the relief Americans so desperately need. Instead, these reforms were shaped and, in some cases, authored by the very same private interests who have spent decades collecting massive profits by restricting access to care. As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama sensed the growing public anger about healthcare and scored many popularity points for promising "universal healthcare coverage". Once in office, after taking millions from the healthcare lobby, his rhetoric shifted to the neoliberal promise of "choice and competition" in healthcare.

Read the full statement here.

Response to the November 3, 2009 LGBTQ Referendum Results

A statement by Jim Sanders, Chair of the Socialit Party Queer Commission

Referendums effecting the lives of LGBTQ people were on ballots all over the country this week. A few of the higher profiled ballot questions included:

'''Voters in Maine''' overturned by approximately 53 to 47 percent, a law passed by the Maine legislature that established same-sex marriages in order to end marriage inequality in Maine. The failure to attain marriage equality in Maine is particularly disheartening, but the fact that 47 percent of the voters in Maine supported marriage equality is significant.

Read the full statement here.

Honor the memory of Rosie Jiménez

A statement of the Socialist Party Women’s Commission

Take to the Streets on Saturday, October 3rd!
Honor the memory of Rosie Jiménez: Demand the Repeal of the Hyde Amendment; Abortion Access for All Women!

On October 3, 1977, Rosie Jiménez, from McAllen, Texas-- a low-income 27 year old mother of a 5 year old daughter-- died from complications arising from an unsafe abortion. Due to the Hyde Amendment, banning the use of Medicaid funds for abortion, Ms. Jiménez was forced to choose between diverting money from her college education to the cost of a clinic abortion, and having a cheaper procedure. For the sake of a future as an educated, self-supporting single-parent, she risked the more dangerous alternative. Rosie Jiménez was the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment. Her death came only weeks after this statute took effect, and days after the first anniversary of its initial passage.

Read the full statement here.

Statement in Solidarity with the People of Honduras

A statement of the Socialist Party USA

The Socialist Party USA condemns the coup recently carried out in Honduras by the military and backed by a section of the Honduran elite. We call for the immediate reinstatement of democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. We also support the call made by pro-Zelaya protesters to have all charges against Zelaya dropped. Finally, we demand an independent investigation into the brutality and murder carried out by the Honduran military while repressing pro-Zelaya protests.

Read the full statement here.

Statement on Iran

A statement of the Socialist Party International Commission

The brutal repression of the popular upsurge against Iran's ruling clique of Islamic clerics only postpones the inevitable. Iran's theocracy has lost the confidence of its people, as militant protests continue on the streets of Tehran.

The Socialist Party USA stands with the people of Iran in demanding an immediate end to arbitrary rule and the holding of genuinely free and open elections. We believe that the complete separation of religious institutions and the state is an essential prerequisite for a democratic society. Every resident of a nation should have the same rights and privileges, no matter what her or his religious belief may or may not be.

Read the full statement here.

Statement on the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion

A statement of the Socialist Party Queer Commission

Remember Stonewall?
Do we even know what Stonewall meant?

The Stonewall Inn, a gay and lesbian neighborhood bar with a large number of African American and Latino patrons, was also well-known as a safe space for those who did not conform to gender norms: butch lesbians, effeminate gay men, and transsexual and transgendered persons before the terms were in popular use. All of these factors brought the police to Stonewall in 1969 for the purpose of illegally raiding the bar, and arresting its occupants -- an action not unknown in New York in the 1960s.

Read the full statement here.

May Day 2009 -- Stop the War at Home

A statement of the Socialist Party Women’s Commission

Stop the attacks on immigrant workers, on the unemployed, on students, on working people swindled by the banks, on women facing all the consequences of human service budget cuts, on veterans of U.S. wars and occupations. Enough!

We demand an end to the policies and practices of the U.S. government that ignore our right, and deny us our ability, to survive.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, and Mexico who are casualties of U.S. and U.S. –funded wars of conquest and occupation (including the so-called “war on drugs”).

Read the full statement here.

Message to all Workers on Their Day

A Socialist Party USA Statement

On this International Workers Day, the majority of the workers find themselves in a great dilemma. It is obvious that free trade and deregulation have caused millions to lose their jobs. Even the United States, once the major economic power of the world, is in the process of an economic collapse. Today, more than ever, is a time to consider casting off the chains of capitalist crisis.

The truth is that the majority of the workers understand very well the economic depressions are a permanent part of capitalism. The majority of the workers are intellectuals in an organic way. Without any type of formal economic education, they know what is going on because they are forced to live capitalist economics. It is irritating to hear so many socialist intellectuals pontificate that all workers have to do is realize that they are being exploited and it will light their revolutionary fire. Workers understand that they are being exploited, what is lacking is the organizational means to ignite the spark...

Read the full statement here.

Wars Abroad, War at Home

Wars Abroad, War at Home
Building a Socialist Feminist Response to U.S. Militarism and the Global Economic Crisis
A joint statement of the Socialist Party Women’s Commission and War at Home Committee

In this period of rising unemployment and economic turmoil, an increasing number of people are being drawn to radical concepts and are ready to consider radical strategies for social change based on the link between the severe problems we face at home, the actions of the U.S. military world-wide, and the destructive nature of global capitalism.

Clearly, what we face right now are not only wars abroad, but also a war at home. In both cases, masses of people are living under siege as a result of actions by the U.S. government to perpetuate the inhumane capitalist system. In both cases, a collective, activist, response is called for: a response consisting of energetic, grassroots organizing based on a coherent analysis, a radical program, and internal democracy rooted in socialist feminist principles and practice...

Read the full statement here.

Obama at Le Juene

Obama at Le Juene -- Military Occupation or Soft Power in Iraq and Afghanistan?
A Socialist Party Statement written by Billy Wharton, Editor of The Socialist

New York, NY: The war and occupation of Iraq has been a brutal affair. Casualties estimated to range as high as one million Iraqis, atrocities associated with Abu Ghraib prison and the introduction of violence to the everyday lives of millions of Iraqis all highlight the abject failure of US military ambitions. While a road away from these politics of pre-emptive strikes and military occupation is welcome, the Socialist Party USA calls for more immediate actions. We demand the immediate and unconditional removal of all US military forces from both Iraq and Afghanistan.

US President Barack Obama argued correctly today that the military occupation of Iraq, "cannot be sustained indefinitely" and that America could no longer see the war "in isolation" from what he identified as other national priorities such as solving the economic crisis. Yet, as the saying goes, the devil is often in the details. Obama’s plan calls for the removal of US combat brigades by August 31, 2010 but, he also intends to leave 35-50,000 US trainers, counterinsurgency troops and military advisers in the country until the end of 2011...

Read the full statement here.

New President -- Same Government

A Socialist Party of Massachusetts Statement

The dissonance between hope and reality with the swearing in of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States is truly an amazing accomplishment of modern propaganda. After eight years, the “anybody but Bush” crowd has finally gotten a new president. Unfortunately, the entire spectrum of political debate has moved to the right. Once we cut through Obama’s fluffy rhetoric about change, and the irrational elation of his liberal supporters, we see very few campaign promises for which we would actually want to hold him accountable.

Under the pretext of a “War on Terror” the United States is fighting a war in Iraq, another in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and sponsoring a third by proxy in Palestine. While oil companies and military contractors are making record profits, corruption and malfeasance in the financial sector has pushed the economy to the edge of an abyss. The capitalist economy and its primary custodian, US imperialism, have remained stunningly rigid despite growing pressure to adapt to this crisis...

Read the full statement here.

Socialists Confront the Economic Crisis

A Socialist Party USA Statement

The current financial crisis is not just a temporary setback, nor is it caused primarily by the lack of regulation in the financial sector. The collapse of the financial sector is indicative of the total failure of the capitalist economy.

In recent years, the leading recipients of the recent bailout have attempted to justify their "Washington Consensus" of decimated social safety nets, massive cuts to wages and benefits, and privatization of public services in the name of mercilessly strict adherence to the "tough love" and "sacrifice" of the "free market". This deregulation and dismantling of any social protections was a logical step for the capitalists represented by the Republican and Democratic Parties.

The call now for regulation of the markets is a hypocritical action by those who continue to promote the "free market" as the solution to all ills. The same power brokers and politicians who demanded the near complete deregulation of the financial sector under "free market" principles, are now calling upon all tax-paying U.S. workers to "come together as Americans" and take "collective responsibility" for their boundless greed and ultimate financial failure under the very standards they themselves imposed...

Read the full statement here.

End the Massacre in Gaza -- No Solution Through Violence

A Socialist Party USA Statement

The Socialist Party USA unequivocally condemns the ongoing Israeli military offensive against the people of Gaza. We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities on all sides and an immediate end to the blockade of the Gaza strip. We encourage US citizens to assist the process of peace in the region by demanding that the US government end all military aid to Israel and other Middle Eastern governments.

The Israeli military is involved in a massacre of the people of Gaza. More than one million people are trapped in the region, penned in by the Israeli Defense Forces on one side and the Egyptian military on the other. Over the past few days, more than 400 people have been killed and thousands more injured as a result of Israeli military aggression. This has resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis which has put the entire population of Gaza at risk. Today, Gaza City is a squalid ghetto under attack by overwhelming military force intent on the inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian people "to the bitter end"...

Read the full statement here.

2008 Massachusetts Ballot Questions

The Socialist Party of Massachusetts takes the following positions on the three statewide ballot questions in 2008.

• Vote NO on Question 1, which would eliminate the state income tax. Eliminating the income tax would require both severe budget cuts as well as increases to regressive taxes such as property taxes and sales taxes. In combination, this would further devastate our communities, already under pressure from harsh neoliberal economics and the mortgage meltdown. The Socialist Party calls for steeply graduated income taxes and other progressive taxes, to fund social services and a livable guaranteed annual income.

• Vote YES on Question 2, which would decriminalize possession of small amounts (one ounce or less) of marijuana. The Socialist Party calls for the decriminalization of all drug use and an end to the destructive and counter-productive “war on drugs”. We view drug abuse and addiction as medical, not criminal, problems, and call for treatment through comprehensive community-based, client-controlled rehabilitation programs.

• Vote YES on Question 3, which would ban dog racing. The Socialist Party recognizes the rights of animals to live free from unnecessary pain and suffering of the sort inflicted upon racing dogs. Opponents of Question 3 argue it would result in lost jobs. We call for full employment policies to create jobs in socially beneficial and non-exploitative industries.