Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

With the California Supreme Court's rejection on 8/7/03 of all the lawsuits attacking the recall election of 10/7/03, the recall of the worst governor in California history, Gray Davis, and the effective demise of one capitalist party in California, the Democrats, is guaranteed.

With the California Supreme Court's rejection on 8/7/03 of all the lawsuits attacking the recall election of 10/7/03, the recall of the worst governor in California history, Gray Davis, and the effective demise of one capitalist party in California, the Democrats, is guaranteed.

For constant updates on the recall legal aspects and candidates, see:

http://www.rtumble.com

and

http://www.calvoter.org

The same day that the California Supreme Court made possible this milestone in history, the friends of anti-labor Democrat Gray Davis, the bureaucratic misleaders of the janitors' union, shoved a sellout labor contract down the throats of the janitors of San Francisco , forcing the janitors to pay co-payments for health care for the first time in 30 years. See

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/08/07/state2102EDT0230.DTL

These labor lieutenants of capitalism sold out their union members and by supporting a governor who proudly supports the death penalty, prison concentration camps and private energy companies, they sold out the entire workingclass.

With the recall of Gray Davis, we are witnessing the long overdue effective end of one party of capitalism in California, the Democratic Party. We do not need 2 twin parties of capitalism; one is bad enough.

Peace & Freedom Party, a socialist party, promises to have candidates on the ballot, and 3 have taken out initial papers so far. See

http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/recall_cand.htm

and

http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/recall_cand_status.pdf

The Green Party also promises to have candidates, and one, Pete Camejo, is definitely running for governor.

So far, Camejo has not actively campaigned on the prison issue and it is the prison issue that is of greatest importance to the workingclass. The only thing the ruling class and its twin parties, the Democrats and Republicans, have to offer the workingclass is prisons, and its accompanying death penalty. The prison system is bankrupting the state and is the clearest example of how reactionary the twin parties of capitalism and capitalism at this stage are.

For more on the prison system, see:

http://www.criticalresistance.org

and

http://www.cjcj.org/cpp/index.php

The other big issue concerning the workingclass is the tax giveaway to the private utilities, carefully monitored by Harvey Rosenfeld, the author of the pro-consumer Prop 103 concerning auto insurance rates, and the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rates at

http://www.ftcr.org

or

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org

Davis' latest giveaway to the insurance companies this month is described in the press release at:

http://www.ftcr.org/insurance/pr/pr003519.php3

The energy scams are well-described at:

http://www.ftcr.org/utilities/rp/rp002193.pdf

The economy is in major crisis, causing both the major change in the janitors' union contract, and the demise of the California Democratic Party with the well-deserved recall of its proud representative, Gov. Davis.

The moment millions of us have waited for has finally arrived: The Democrats are being tossed into the dustbin of history. We must and will do the same to its twin evil, the Republican Party, for they also have absolutely nothing to offer the workingclass.

We can and must vote for the Recall of Gray Davis and the replacement of Davis with a candidate who calls for abolishing the death penalty, the prison-concentration camp system and private utility companies, and is in favor of rehabilitation and school construction instead of punishment and for public power.

We must also vote No on Prop 54, the latest scapegoating trash on the ballot, which will be on the Recall ballot.

www.criticalresistance.org

Asta La Vista Davis

by Ahnold Saturday, Aug. 09, 2003 at 1:31 PM

Finally, California might get some decent leadership.

Arnold

by 4 da gov Saturday, Aug. 09, 2003 at 2:08 PM

Will he win? Well, he'll bring new voters to the polls--we saw this in Minnesota with Jesse [Ventura]. People who never voted will find it cool to vote for Arnie, and even though they might not be the most sophisticated participant in the process, they'll probably intuit that a vote isn't just a thumbs-up statement. It means something. Yelling "I bought your video" doesn't really put an actor in your debt, but shouting "I voted for you" somehow does.

In any case, it'll change a few minds about the possibilities of politics. All their life they saw politicians as nothing more than nerdy bloodless grinbots, and now here's this guy: a giant with a gap-tooth smile smoking a Montecristo the size of Gray Davis' shinbone. Heck yeah!

Only in America. And I say that as a good thing. Which reminds me: like all typical examples of American craziness, this will just HORRIFY the Europeans.

American craziness?

by Meyer London Saturday, Aug. 09, 2003 at 2:24 PM

Arnold may appeal to American craziness, but he is at least as much a product of central European craziness as he is of the domestic variety. I remember back about 15 or 16 years ago, when former UN head Kurt Waldheim was exposed as an ex-Nazi or Nazi sympathizer who served as an officer in WWII, how Arnold lept to his defense. This happened in the time period between the election of Bush I and his swearing in - late 1988 or early 1989. Arnold, who held joint citizenship in Austria and the US, said that as far as he was concerned, he had three presidents - Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Kurt Waldheim. Waldheim at that time was President of Austria.

Arnold is an Icon.

by he'll win easily Saturday, Aug. 09, 2003 at 2:26 PM

The man has never done anything half way. He's a world class body-builder with more Championships than you can shake a stick at. He's produced one blockbuster hit movie after the next. He's made fortunes in business, real estate and restaurants. He can only be good for Cali. My only regret is that he can never run for the Presidency.

4 da gov

by arnold fan Saturday, Aug. 09, 2003 at 2:30 PM

I can vouch for that final point. Last week, I was at a family gathering where a European aunt held forth disdainfully on "that horrible Schwarzenegger."

Schwarzenegger offends Old European sensibilities because he's a flamboyantly macho American, of course, but there's more to it than that. He's an American by choice, a native of Old Europe who left the Continent for America in 1968, when he was in his early 20s, and became a U.S. citizen just 20 years ago. His is a classic immigrant success story, a reminder that America is the land of opportunity while Europe is a place opportunity-seekers flee.

Schwarzenegger would not be the first actor to become governor of California, of course; that distinction belongs to Ronald Reagan, who followed up his two terms as governor (1967-75) with a stint as president of the United States. Alas, under current law Schwarzenegger is ineligible for the presidency because he was not born a U.S. citizen.

Maybe it's time to amend the Constitution to allow foreign-born citizens to serve as president, so long as they have held American citizenship for at least 14 years (the current provision requires 14 years' residency as well as native citizenship). If this were done within five years, Schwarzenegger could run in 2008 to succeed President Bush. Just imagine President Schwarzenegger standing astride the world stage, towering over the puny likes of Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder. Those guys would start to long for the good old days of George W. Bush.

Arnold Fan's enthuiasm for fascists

by Meyer London Saturday, Aug. 09, 2003 at 2:55 PM

Maybe you should listen to your European aunt, Arnold Fan - she sounds like she is on to something. Arny combines the worst of American oafishness, ignorance, prejudice and cowboy buffonery with classic Euopean fascist tendencies. If you really like that kind of thing maybe you could persuade Boris Yeltsin or General Pinochet to run for President once you get the Constitution amended. They are a little elderly, but probably less gone in the head than their co-thinker, Ronnie Reagan was.

Meyer

by arnold fan Saturday, Aug. 09, 2003 at 3:22 PM

We buried my European aunt last week. People who believed as she did had been dead for years. It was WAY past time.