The Peace and Freedom Party
California's only ballot status Socialist
Party
Now is the time to register Peace and Freedom Party for the 2012 Elections!
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If you want:
• An end to imperialist War(s)
• Jobs, not corporate bailouts
• Schools, not jails
• Healthcare for All
Read about the Peace and Freedom Party:
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/*
Register Peace and Freedom Party today.
online at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections
or by picking up a form at a local library or DMV.
* Become active in your local voting precinct
& neighborhood with other Peace and Freedom
supporters. Contact us at 323-960-5036 or e-mail: PeaceandFreedom@mail2world.com
* Are you an involved activist on one of the issues
of the PFP platform? Perhaps you or someone you
know would like to run for office on the PFP party
platform. Contact 323-960-5036 or e-mail:
PeaceandFreedom@mail2world.com
The survival of humanity requires a transition
away from run-amok, gangster capitalism to
an economy that meets the needs of the people,
a socialist economy "of , by , and for the people"
Voters in California! Register today for the
PEACE AND FREEDOM PARTY!
For more information about registering to vote in California, you can visit the Secretary of State's website at http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm.
In addition to providing materials and services in English, California also provide services to voters who require assistance in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Some of these services include multilingual voter registration telephone hotlines and translated election materials. For more information, go to http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections_multi.htm.
The World Socialist Web Site features daily news and analysis written from a socialist perspective, and commentary on the arts, culture, history, and politics. It is published by the International Committee of the Fourth International.
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For Your Iinformation:
Recent California WSWS articles
California’s budget crisis:
a historical overview
By Jack Cody
28 February 2011
Recently elected California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, is continuing the austerity policies of his Republican predecessor. As working class Californians brace themselves for deep cuts in education and social services, it is worthwhile to look back at how the state with the highest number of billionaires found itself in a situation of recurrent fiscal crises.
Contrary to many claims, California’s fiscal problems are not the result of administrative excess. Rather, the state has been at the center of the transformation of the American economy from a system of producing socially useful commodities to one in which wealth is transferred to the financial class without going through the intermediate process of production.
Read the rest of this article by using the link here.
(The following comment from the Peace and Freedom Blog posting of WSWS article below.)
Comment: The fraudulent game of “lesser evil” politics again bears fruit for the corporate and capitalist elite, this time in California. “Progressives” and organized labor again devoutly supported the Democratic Party candidate Jerry Brown against “evil” Republican Meg Williams. Common “bi-partisan” pro-capitalist values are again asserted to further destroy working people: Property Rights is asserted over Human Rights, greed is rewarded over economic justice. In announcing the new austerity budget, the notion of taxing off-shore oil was taken “off the table”. – Jeremy Wells
California governor begins term proposing
massive austerity budget
By Dan Conway
13 January 2011
On Monday, newly installed California governor Jerry Brown released his proposal to resolve the state's $24.5 billion budget deficit. The Democratic governor's budget is far more draconian than those of his predecessor, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The proposed measures include nearly $12 billion in spending cuts, including in welfare, child health care, and higher education. The remaining portion would largely be made up through the extension of regressive tax increases, which would have to be approved by voters in the special election later this year in June.
Read
the rest of this article by using the link here.
Proposed California budget
slashes education
By David Brown
21 February 2011
Amid looming budget deficits, school districts across California are preparing to fire teachers, close schools, cut programs, and increase class sizes, to cover reduced state funding. Each school district is required to complete a three-year budget forecast and warn teachers who may be laid off by March 15. Due to uncertainties in the state’s budget, however, the districts need to draft multiple budgets to account for different possible levels of state funding.
Like Democratic and Republican governors across the country, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is trying to force workers to pay for the economic crisis, while corporations make record profits. In Wisconsin these attempts have already led to mass protests, as tens of thousands of workers and students from around the state converged on the state capital, Madison, and staged sit-ins in the state legislature to demonstrate their opposition.
Read the rest of this article by using the link here.
World
Socialist Web Site
Read daily, subscribe:
www.wsws.org
The Breakdown of Capitalism and the fight for Socialism in the United
States
Program of the Socialist Equality Party
6 September 2010
The following document was adopted by the First National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US), held August 11-15, 2010 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
A pdf version of this program is available for download here. (Note: Print the 20 page pdf version for easier reading and study.)
For information on how to join the Socialist Equality Party, click here.
The Economic Crisis and its Social Impact
1. The world capitalist system is ensnared in its greatest crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The financial turmoil that began in September 2008 with the sudden failure of Wall Street icons has metastasized into a global economic breakdown. For decades the apologists of capitalism have proclaimed that American-style “free enterprise” is the most perfect form of economic organization. They ignored the many signs of the approaching crisis, while the corporate-controlled media celebrated the reckless financial speculation and irresponsible self-enrichment that define the business activities and personal lifestyles of the ruling class. When the disaster finally struck in 2008, the US government intervened with a desperate infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars to save the banking system from collapse. The president of the United States publicly acknowledged that the survival of the capitalist system was at risk. The emergency bailout protected the wealth of rich investors but failed to contain the crisis.
2. The Obama administration’s claim that it has “broken the back” of the recession is a self-serving lie, told by cynical politicians who are convinced that the people can be made to believe anything. The reality of growing social distress is not so easily concealed. Approximately 26 million people in the United States are jobless or unable to find full-time work. Half of those counted on the official unemployment rolls have been out of work for six months or longer. This is the highest long-term unemployment rate since the 1930s. Young people, burdened with debts that they accumulated to pay for their education, graduate from college unable to find decent-paying jobs, or any work at all.
3. Foreclosures are driving one million workers out of their homes every year. The income of American workers, which had been in decline since the early 1970s, is now plunging. There has been a wave of wage-cutting since the onset of the recession. Millions of working class families cannot make ends meet. Those unable to pay their bills on time are treated with inhuman brutality. In cities like Detroit, the utility corporations routinely cut off gas and electricity to impoverished workers, leading to the deaths of scores of people throughout the country.
Read the full text here:.SEP Program Topic Headings
* The Economic
Crisis and its Social Impact
* The Historic Decline of American Capitalism
* The Failure of the Obama Administration
* The Bankruptcy of Liberalism and the Democratic Party
* American Workers and Socialism
* Socialism is the Only Way Forward
* The Basic Social Rights of the Working Class
> The right to a job
> The right
to a livable income
> The right to leisure
> The right to decent and affordable housing
> The right to utilities and transportation
> The right to high-quality health care
> The right to education
> The right to a healthy and safe environment
> The right to culture
* The Social
Rights of Workers vs. Corporate Power and the Capitalist State
> For the expropriation of the banks and financial institutions
> For the nationalization of major corporations
> For workers control
> For social equality
* Political and Democratic Demands
> Defend democratic rights
> Oppose militarism and war
> Defend the rights of immigrant workers
* The Political Independence of the Working Class
> For new organizations of working class struggle
> For a workers government
*The International Unity of the Working Class
* Build the Socialist Equality Party! Build the Fourth International!
