The Peace and Freedom Party: Founded on Anti-Americanism

Discoverthe Network.org ^ | 8-11-2004 | David Yeagley

[Pendragon_6]

PEACE and Freedom Party Phone :510-465-9414

http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/Platform.htm

(In Case You Want to Puke on Them, p6)

PEACE AND FREEDOM PARTY

Phone :510-465-9414 URL : http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/Platform.htm

RESOURCES

Socialist and feminist political party based in California Nominated Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver for U.S. President in 1968 Nominated convicted killer Leonard Peltier for U.S. President in 2004 Supports open borders and an end to deportations of illegal immigrants

Established on January 23, 1967, the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) describes its founders as "people who wanted to vote for something they could support." According to PFP, this ruled out candidates of both major parties and required a party that was more radical. With the stated goal of "build[ing] a mass based socialist party throughout the country," PFP nominated Black Panther and convicted rapist Eldridge Cleaver as its candidate for U.S. President in 1968. In his role as the Panthers' "minister of information," Cleaver called on black men to "pick up the gun." (Before he died in 1998, Cleaver told Sixty Minutes that if Americans had listened to him and Black Panther leader Huey Newton in the 1960s, there would have been a "holocaust" in America.) After a shootout with Oakland police officers following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968, the PFP Presidential candidate was charged with assault and attempted murder. His parole was revoked, and he fled the country in November 1968.

Professing its commitment "to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality," PFP seeks to "organize toward a world where cooperation replaces competition." It envisions the socialist ideal of "a world where all people are well fed, clothed and housed; where all women and men have equal status; where all individuals may freely endeavor to fulfill their own talents and desires; a world of freedom and peace where every community retains its cultural integrity and lives with all others in harmony."

To achieve these utopian goals, PFP calls for the creation of a massive centralized government to oversee and regulate every aspect of people's lives. "We want a socialist economy," says PFP. " . . . Under capitalism, millions of people are jobless, homeless, often hungry, and without proper medical care. Even those with decent jobs live with the fear of war, nuclear destruction, and environmental pollution of our food, air and water."

Defining itself as a "feminist and socialist" entity, PFP considers American society to be oppressive to women and minorities. It boasts that its members have been "a leading force fighting against rip-off schemes by big business" by participating in "countless labor union strikes and boycotts."

Since 1968, PFP has run hundreds of candidates for public office. Very few have won, though some have been elected to city councils, school boards, and special district boards in California. Below are some of PFP's demands of the U.S. government:

Double the minimum wage, and index it to the cost of living. "We demand a legally mandated annual paid vacation of at least 4 weeks.

We demand paid parental leaves and time off work for childcare."

Guarantee the right of all workers to organize and to strike; forbid striker replacement.

Guarantee "socially useful jobs for all at union pay levels."

Ensure "equal pay for equal work, and for work of comparable worth" (thereby making government the arbiter to determine the relative societal importance of each job).

Institute a 30-hour work week for 40 hours' pay and the abolition of forced overtime. Guarantee a "dignified income for those who cannot work."

Provide a "Universal Basic Income" to alleviate poverty and homelessness.

"Tax the income and assets of the rich to meet human needs."

Establish "social ownership and democratic control of industry, financial institutions, and natural resources."

"The United States should take the initiative toward global disarmament by eliminating [its own] nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Abolish the Central Intelligence Agency.

Abolish the death penalty.

Repeal the "Three Strikes" law.

Provide "free access to a full [public] education for every person at any point in life . . . through the university level. . . .

Teach the history of workers' struggles and labor's creation of society's wealth and progress."

Restore and strengthen bilingual education.

Ban "school voucher schemes."

Protect "the right to gay marriage and partners' benefits."

Guarantee "free high-quality health care for everyone, including birth control, abortion, pre-natal and childhood health care."

Guarantee "free abortion on demand." "Eliminate for-profit health care."

Place "price controls on drugs and medical technology."

Legalize marijuana, decriminalize drug use, and make substance abuse treatment freely available.

Provide a "living wage and full union rights for any prison labor."

End U.S. political and military intervention everywhere.

Do not deploy weapons in space.

Abolish all English-only laws and policies, including those of private employers.

The Peace and Freedom Party states that it "opposes the restrictions on our civil liberties caused by the unconstitutional Patriot Act, the actions of the Homeland Security Department and by the 'Justice' Department." With regard to the issue of immigration, PFP laments that "immigrant workers are hounded by government authorities, worked and housed in substandard conditions by unscrupulous bosses, and blamed by Republican and Democratic demagogues for society's problems." As a remedy, the Party states:

"We call for open borders. We demand an end to deportations of [illegal] immigrants.

We demand full political, social and economic rights for resident non-citizens." To this end, PFP endorsed the 2002 Market Workers Justice Campaign of the activist coalition Communities in Solidarity with Immigrant Workers.

This campaign called for increased wages and benefits for Korean and Latino immigrant workers, including those living illegally in the United States.

Continued

[Sthitch]

After reading this, I still am not sure how they are different from the democrat party.

[Caged in Canuckistan]

Ah yes, tax the productive to reward the lazy...and what, pray tell, would the socialists do in order to keep the productive from moving elsewhere?

[Richard Axtell]

There is good in everyone, I believe. Here, we see that this party has stumbled upon the perfect solution to America's immigration problems. Simply implement all of this parties economic iniatives, (doubled minimum wage, 40 hour pay for 30 hours work, no layoffs, etc.) and the economy of the United States will evaporate, and no real reason for anyone to come here will remain. Massive emigration will become a problem to the new Stalinist rulers of America, and unless they build a wall around the continental US, the population will flee the economic disaster their policies will have wrought. But illegal immigration will be a thing of the past, along with America in general.