Liberation News Voter Recommendations:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Liberation_News/

http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

1. Recommendations for President

2. Recommendations on California Ballot Measures



PRESIDENT: With the two main corporate politicians being pro-war, we recommend that you vote against the war and for healthcare, jobs, and housing through socialism. Listed are the three socialist candidates that have taken the position of immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Liberation News is giving critical support to these campaigns. They are:

JOHN PARKER and TERESA GUITIERREZ of the WORKERS WORLD PARTY (WWP) are recommended in the states where they are on the ballot. These are Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. The Workers World Party with International Answer has been in the leadership of organizing the largest protests against the U.S. war against Iraq.

BILL VAN AUKEN and JIM LAWRENCE of the SOCIALIST EQUALITY PARTY (SEP) are on the ballot in Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Washington. They are recommended in those states.

ROGER COLERO and ARRIN HAWKINS of the SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY (SWP), with the alternate SWP candidates of JAMES HARRIS and Arrin Hawkins, are also recommended in the states where they are on the ballot. They are on the ballot in Washington D.C., Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Washington, Minnesota, Nebraska, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

The nominally socialist Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) as well as the Socialist Party (SP) are also running candidates for president, but Liberation News is not giving them any support.

PFP candidate Leonard Peltier has taken the position in regards to Iraq of “US out, UN in.” Today the UN is occupying the Island of Haiti as part of a US coup against the democratically elected president. For the people of Haiti there is no advantage to being occupied by UN troops rather than US troops. The California State Chair of the Peace and Freedom Party defends this position claiming that sending the UN in doesn’t necessarily mean sending in troops and points out that the Peace and Freedom Party has no position against UN occupations.

Well, Liberation News does have a clear position against UN occupations. UN troops for military occupations, euphemistically called peacekeepers, are there to carry out the will of US imperialism and subvert national sovereignty. From the five million killed by the UN/US aggression against Korea in the 1950s to the 1.5 million Iraqis murdered by UN/US economic sanctions against Iraq, to the present UN/US subversion of democracy in Haiti, the UN is an imperialist tool used in the interest of the powerful capitalist countries around the world.

While Liberation News says that Leonard Peltier was framed and does not belong in prison, we do not support his campaign for president.

Liberation News also opposes the campaign of Socialist Party Candidate Walt Brown. Walt Brown stated in a recent interview, “Obviously, if anyone is going to come online with nuclear weapons, we need to be aggressive, but I would rule out a preemptive strike. You just do a blockade, like we did with Cuba during the Missile Crisis.”

A socialist understanding, however, begins with the right of nations to self-determination, which includes their right to defend their national sovereignty from U.S. imperialism. This is an important lesson of U.S. aggression in Iraq: had the Iraqis not been disarmed by the U.N. inspectors and starvation blockade that killed 1.5 million people there would be better chances that they would not be suffering the way they are now.

It is a further indication of the kind of anti-socialist thinking going on in the leadership of the Peace and Freedom Party that Walt Brown was the other candidate they put on the ballot in for the PFP’s primary elections, running statements by both Walt Brown and Leonard Peltier in their newspaper, the Partisan.

Liberation News also opposes the presidential candidacy of Ralph Nader on the basis that he does not call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

While Green Party Candidate David Cobb does call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, the Green Party itself is a petty bourgeois capitalist party, incapable of ruling in the interests of the working class. This fact is painfully clear in places like Santa Cruz where they have been elected. In this City Green Party City Councilperson Tim Fitzmaurice and the Democrats that the Green Party supports administer over austerity against social programs while defending the police budget and voting for laws that call for police harassment of the homeless.

In states where there are no socialist candidates on the ballot Liberation News suggests writing in JOHN PARKER and TERESA GUITIERREZ of the WORKERS WORLD PARTY (WWP) for the leadership role they have played in the anti-war movement.



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Liberation News Voter Recommendations for the State of California

California Ballot Measures:

PROPOSITION 59: YES, This is a constitutional amendment for public access to government information.

PROPOSITION 60: YES, Candidates receiving most votes from in a party's primary election for state partisan offices cannot be denied placement on general election ballot.

PROPOSITION 60A: NO, This would require the state to earmark any revenues from the sale of surplus property to accelerate the repayment of some existing bonds.

PROPOSITION 61: NO, This is a bond measure for a good purpose, but Liberation News opposes bond measures as a massive rip off of taxpayers that line the pockets of the wealthy. The money from the bonds, however, would go for grants to eligible children's hospitals for construction, expansion, remodeling, renovation, furnishing and equipping children's hospitals.

PROPOSITION 62: NO, This open primary initiative would eliminate ballot access for third parties.

PROPOSITION 63: NO, This initiative would provide more funding for the forced drugging of people deemed mentally ill by the unscientific mental health industry. This would be a minus for people who are given drugs that shorten lives, debilitate mental capacity, and have no positive effect (besides profit). While the money for this initiative would come from taxing millionaires, the main beneficiaries would be the pharmaceutical industry.

PROPOSITION 64: NO, This proposition would limit enforcement against corporate crime.

PROPOSITION 65: NO, Requires voter approval of reductions to local revenues due to changes in the vehicle license fees, sales taxes, and proportionate shares of local property taxes. These are regressive taxes that should not be protected. Liberation News says tax the rich instead.

PROPOSITION 66: YES, This proposition would change the three strikes law by requiring second and third strikes be serious or violent felonies and by narrowing definitions of what crimes are "serious or violent" as well as when two convictions constitute separate strikes. This will all apply retroactively, thus reducing the long sentences some prisoners are now serving for petty crimes. Penalties for some sex crimes against children would also be increased. While Liberation News stands in favor of completely abolishing the three strikes laws, passing this proposition would be a step forward.

PROPOSITION 67: NO, This proposition would raise telephone taxes to pay for emergency medical services. While Liberation News thinks these services should be properly funded, we do not agree with it being done by another regressive tax against the finances of the working class.

PROPOSITION 68: NO, If compacted tribes don't unanimously accept required amendments within 90 days, or if determined unlawful, this authorizes sixteen specified non-tribal racetracks and gambling establishments to operate 30,000 slot machines/gaming devices. Liberation News does not support this blackmail against Indian gaming and sovereignty.



PROPOSITION 69: NO, This would allow forced DNA samples from anyone the police charge with a felony, regardless of if the case is even prosecuted.

PROPOSITION 70: YES, This proposition would recognize the sovereignty of California Indian tribes and give tribal casinos on reservation lands a monopoly on casino gambling in California. This will be in exchange for financial contributions to the state government.

PROPOSITION 71: YES, This proposition would fund stem cell research. While being funded with bonds, something that Liberation News opposes, the defeat of this measure would be seen as a victory for the far right and their crusade against research that is very promising for saving lives as well as bettering the lives of the disabled.

PROPOSITION 72: YES, For healthcare. This proposition forces some employers to pay 80% of healthcare costs. While Liberation News calls for full public coverage through nationalized healthcare, forcing the bosses to pay for more healthcare than they do presently would be a step forward.

PROPOSITION 1A: NO: This is a multi-faceted compromise between Schwarzenegger and the legislature regarding proposition 65 and the impact state changes in regressive taxes have on local treasuries. Liberation News counter-poses 1A to the need for taxes on the rich as well as cuts to war, police, and prison budgets to meet human needs. This proposition will only shuffle some of the bureaucratic control over expenditures.

Voting started October 4. I voted October 6. Anyone who does any planning at all votes by mail, as I always have. I do not have time for Tuesday elections. At least 1/3 of the voters vote by mail and most are permanent absentee voters as that is now possible in California without giving any reason for being absent. In this election, we will probably have more than 1/3 voting by mail as people are hysterical about this election. Once people vote by mail, they usually continue to do so as it is far more convenient. Thus, you can probably now count on 1/2 of the voters voting 30 days before election day.

When are all these socialist organizations going to wake up and make their positions 30 days before election day when we all can start voting by mail, and when most seniors vote as most seniors and many others, like ths writer, vote by mail the first week we can do so?

Vote by mail is now so routine that for November elections, September is campaign month and October is get out the vote month.

I voted for Leonard Peltier because I knew nothing about his ridiculous position on the UN. Otherwise, I would not have voted for him. As to Walt Brown, if he had been nominated, chances are, I would not have been informed as to his reactionary position on Cuba 30 days before election day.

As to Workers World, last I heard they were whining because Jesse Jackson was not running for president. Would you please tell Workers World that the good Democrat Jesse Jackson is an organized crime thug who supports pro-landlord, election-frauding candidates like Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom for mayor of San Francisco, proudly opposes gay marriage in the name of his family values, which include his womanizing and having a child by one of his girlfriends while he is married to someone else. The Democratic Party pays Jesse Jackson to make sure blacks vote Democrat instead of Red.

Since Workers World has a history of promoting Democrats like Jesse Jackson, I will never vote for any of their candidates.

As to the stem cell research bond, it is a bond and that is an excellent reason to oppose it. This bond allows the whole program to be set up without the usual oversight and pro-labor rules applying. I suggest you stick to your principle of opposing all bonds. The Legislature can appropriate funds from the general fund which comes from the progressive income tax or tax the rich.

I strongly suggest that in addition to making all this information available 30 days before election day that the writers of these recommendations run for office themselves. And, when you do run for office, you seriously campaign. That means, if you are in a small enough area, such as a local supervisor's race, you walk or phone every voter in every precinct in your district, identify your supporters, and have precinct captains ready to push your supporters to the polls during Get Out The Vote weekend (GO-TV), the last 4 days of the election, including election day. This is called serious campaigning and it is how every election is won at the local level.

When you have built a local base, then you can seriously win broader based campaigns, such as state assembly and senate, and Congress. Once you have a strong base in Congress, you can be serious about the presidential race. Until you have a base at any given level, all of your candidates are just running protest campaigns.

Yes, this is how a state like Vermont got Bernie Sanders, a bona-fide Socialist, into Congress.

I'm always seeing these P&F people doing their thing, and the Greens doing their thing, registering voters, and pushing slates, but I have not gotten a call from anyone running for local office in my area. I'd be somewhat hands off with a P*F, but I'd consder helping a Green campaign. I can be convinced to change, if the context is right.

This isn't to say that I think electoral politics is the end-all for anything, but, it would be very nice to have a reliable progressive vote in local city councils. If you have a 5 person council, having one reliable vote means that you only need to fight for two more to win. On a 6 person council, it's two to deadlock and three to win.

Moreover, it would be *awesome* to have a class-conscious working class vote on the city councils. One that gets out and does research, and organizes. Within any city in SoCal, there's going to be a few hundred progressive voters, and some can probably enlist for help. So it's completely possible to win, especially if the candidate has any history of volunteer work and some business contacts.

With the likely passing of 1A, we'll be seeing more money down here at the local level. If progressives don't get involved, the money will be spent up by the usual suspects in the usual way: street lamp repairs in nice neighborhoods, road repairs, new plants in the median, painting city hall, new goodies for the city council chamber, a new fire truck, bonuses for staff, etc. What about giving more back to the people who paid those sales taxes in the first place? You know -- the kids who bought popsicles at the liquor store, and the people shopping at Food 4 Less.

That's just my 2c.

BTW, I have been registered both Green and P*F, so I'm on the mailing lists, and on the email lists.