The Partisan was the newspaper published by the Peace And Freedom Party State Central Committee and was published regularly from 1994 to 2009.During this holiday gift-giving season, Congress has given King Donald his Space Force. This inspired the following response from the Peace and Freedom Party chair John Reiger.
It’s up, up and away with a new branch of the American military. For now, the Space Force is a branch of the Air Force, but I don’t think it will be long before they try to strike out on their own. The sky is no longer the limit to American militarism, and now space will be militarized. Of course, we’ve been doing this for years: Many “civilian” space missions have had secret military components, some even not-so-secret. But now we won’t even try to pretend that our space exploration efforts are peaceful.
It’s up, up and away with military spending as well. Like all the other branches, this new Space Force will be suctioning money out of the federal budget, leaving nickels and dimes for civilian programs. The military already takes half of the national budget’s discretionary spending, which is the money left over after required spending like Social Security and national debt payments. This new Space Force will be just one more bloated military boondoggle.
Up, up and away with the national debt, too. Almost no one in Washington says no to military spending, no matter how wasteful and counterproductive. The new Space Force can be counted on to follow the usual Pentagon procedure of spreading its spending around to as many Congressional districts as possible, thereby buying yes votes from as many Congress members as possible for Space Force projects.
America is rightly upset about having a racist President, but all Trump is doing with his racist comments is reminding us of our racist past – and our racist present.
The Peace and Freedom Party was founded five decades ago in response to the racism in America at that time. The word “Freedom” in our name refers to the struggle for freedom from racial inequality throughout the country, and to the brave Freedom Riders who journeyed to the US South to work for racial equality. The word “Peace” refers to the effort to end the Vietnam War, and all wars.
Since our foundation, we have consistently stood for racial equality, consistently running racially and culturally diverse candidates for public office. We are proud of our past association with the Black Panther Party, the Brown Berets, the American Indian Movement and other fighters for equality.
The president claims not to have a racist bone in his body. That may be true because the heart, the brain, and the tongue are not bones.
Read more: PFP Chair: On American racism and the Peace & Freedom Party
“The Originals” are indigenous farm workers from Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Chiapas, Mexico, who were forced to migrate north where they worked as campesinos and grew maize, the “original” corn. Because of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the inability to compete with corporate agricultural corn growers, who were dumping millions of tons of U.S.-subsidized corn into the Mexican economy, millions of campesinos were forced off the land.
By 1994, Monsanto developed its own chemicals and seeds to ward off pests and introduced them into the Mexican economy. Today, U.S. corn controls the Mexican processing of corn production in Mexico, forcing migration of more than 18 million Mexicans and Central Americans to the U.S. Since the massive deportations began, hundreds of thousands of campesinos deported from the U.S. chose to work in San Quintin, Baja California, Mexico, just five hours from the California-Mexican Border.
Now working with numerous U.S. corporate growers in Baja, Driscoll and Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce are taking advantage of the hundreds of thousands of deported farm workers in San Quintin, paying wages of less than $5 for each 13-hour workday. Although there are federal wage laws regarding overtime, Social Security, medical coverage, vacation pay and sexual abuse, the Mexican federal government refuses to enforce its mandated labor laws.
Read more: Why we are boycotting Driscoll’s and Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce’s strawberries
The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) Sacramento chapter invites you to bring your signs, banners and red/black strike flags to the 19th annual May Day International Worker’s Day March!
Peace and Freedom Party is one of 25 co-sponsors of the event, a demonstration of the fight for union contracts, jobs, and the rights of workers, immigrants and all people to fair wages, full healthcare and a clean environment.
On May 1 in Sacramento, a march starts from the SEIU 2015 building at 681 West Capitol Avenue in West Sacramento (MAP) at 11am.
From the steps of the capitol at 11:30am, the program of speakers, music and information booths begins.
For a full-sized version of the flyer accompanying this post, please click on the image. For the Facebook event page, click here.
Come on out and celebrate May Day the PFP way! Hope to see you there!
Read more: May Day March in Sacramento: Together We Fight Back
The buzz is that “we” have to “take back” the House and Senate in the November midterm elections. Legendary bluesman Muddy Waters said it best: “you can’t lose what you ain’t never had.” What the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is really telling us to do is to give them Congress, which is a whole other story.
“We” Never Had Congress
Trump has an abysmal 38% approval rating. The Democratic Party in the same independent national poll is even deeper in the abyss with only a 31% approval rating … for at least a dozen reasons:
1.The Democratic Party is consistently far to the right of its constituents. While nearly 75% of Democrats support single-payer health care, President Obama and the Democratic Congressional members didn’t even allow single-payer to get before Congress. Single-payer was rendered “off the table.”
Read more: Midterm Congressional Elections: You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had
