Author: Bob Richard

Q & A with Roseanne Barr

On October 23, Presidential candidate Roseanne Barr received an inquiry from the Russian periodical Moskovsky Komsomolets. Here are the reporter’s questions and Roseanne’s answers.

My name is Andrey Yashlavsky, I’m a journalist and I work with one of the most popular Russian Moscow-based newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” ( www.mk.ru ) with circulation about 2 mln. copies. Of course we have a great interest towards US presidential election 2012. And we understand that America isn’t only Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney. You’re Peace and Freedom Party’s 2012 presidential nominee – so we would like to ask you some questions.

1) What’s a goal of your campaign?

I’m running to raise consciousness. So many essential issues are not being addressed by the two major candidates. In fact, fake issues are being stressed as a distraction, the prime example being the alleged “threat’ posed by Iran. Specifically, I’m running to remind people that their Government is in the hands of a duopoly comprised of two corrupt parties, which take turns plundering, then being kicked out of power, and then returning when the voters tire of being plundered by the “other face” of the Ruling Class.

Flyer for November 4 in Oakland

Click on the image to download the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) document (two flyers per sheet of letter paper).


Cindy Sheehan Speaks on Socialism and Elections

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Cindy Sheehan in Berkeley, November 4

Vice Presidential candidate Cindy Sheehan will discuss socialism and the 2012 election on Sunday morning, November 4 in North Oakland.

When: Sunday, November 4 from 10:30am to 12:30pm
Where: Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph, Oakland (MAP)
What: Forum on socialism and the 2012 elections
Sponsor: Institute for the Critical Study of Society and the Peace and Freedom Party
Contact: Gene Ruyle at 510-428-1578 or eruyle – at – csulb.edu
Cost: free (but hat will be passed for donations to Niebyl Proctor)

Transgender Rights

Statement from the California State Chair of the Peace and Freedom Party

October 26, 2012

The Peace and Freedom Party stands by the introduction to our platform plank on sexual orientation, which states, “We work for a society without gender stereotyping or bias, where all people enjoy equal rights and respect.”

The long-time basic Peace and Freedom Party position is strong opposition to bullying, discrimination, oppression and baiting directed against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals, and strong support for the demand for total equality.

We hold as a fundamental principle the equality of all people regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. We do not believe that any group is inclined to be more intelligent, moral, or worthwhile, or any less so. While we organize against acts of exploitation, we reject the notion that any group is more or less likely to be sexually exploitative than any other.

We have recently been asked to clarify our position on the rights of transgendered people in public facilities. If restrooms are labeled “men” and “women,” should self-identifying females who retain male sexual organs be allowed to use the ladies room?

We say, “Yes.” Since public restrooms bear signs allowing attendants of the opposite sex to accompany disabled people into those facilities, how can the presence of a different sexual organ be in itself harmful? On the other hand, we can think of plenty of cases in which a person’s outward physical appearance of being a member of the opposite sex could cause great danger to that individual. If deranged sports fans attack people wearing regalia of the opposing team at a ballgame, imagine what they might do to a person wearing lipstick in the men’s room. We must protect the rights and safety of transgendered people by allowing them to use public facilities as they see fit.

Gender identity and sexual orientation are among the issues that are used to divide the working class. We need to unite against the real exploiter, the capitalist class, that controls our lives and throws our social relations into turmoil.

Kevin Akin
State Chair
California Peace and Freedom Party

Sacramento Worker’s Voter Guide

Click on the image of page 1 to download the Adobe Acrobat (pdf) document. Print on both sides of letter (8.5 x 11) paper, then fold once. This version is for distribution in Sacramento. For use elsewhere in California, click here.


Page 1 of Voter Guide

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No on Proposition 35

Well into the 21st century, indentured servitude persists in several forms, mainly in agriculture, the garment trades, sex work, and domestic service. The current name for it is human trafficking. As both socialists and feminists, we work to end all coercive relationships, including trafficking.

We therefore oppose Proposition 35, the so-called CASE Act (for “Californians Against Sexual Exploitation”). It would do very little good and significant harm.

Human trafficking can’t be ended by measures like this, no matter how sincerely their proponents wish for that result. It can only be ended at the source, by fighting for jobs, decent wages, and safe working conditions for everyone — and by helping workers everywhere organize and fight for themselves — so that no one needs to accept being trafficked.

Short of this long-term goal, we should also work for specific reforms that would actually help the victims of trafficking. Those who want out of their indentures should be offered shelter, education, health care, jobs, and protection from reprisals. Workers imported into this country illegally should be free from the threat of deportation. The capitalists who profit from indentured labor (which is to say the capitalist class as a whole) should pay for these services.

Instead, Prop. 35 rests on two premises. First, trafficking in sex workers is fundamentally different from trafficking in other industries. Second, the right way to reduce crime is to drastically increase mandatory penalties. Both ideas are mostly wrong.

This measure would increase mandatory prison terms for all human trafficking offenses. Mandatory minimum sentences are a bad idea in general. Judges need the ability to fit sentences to the crime and the circumstances.

It would increase sentences even more for sex trafficking than it does for trafficking workers in other industries. This distinction doesn’t exist in current law. Adding it won’t help end sexual exploitation.

It would expand the definition of sex trafficking of minors to include “inducement” and “persuasion” as well as outright coercion. This subjects ordinary pimps, who are small time street criminals, to the same draconian treatment as brothel owners who employ indentured workers. They are not the same.

It would require sex traffickers to register as sex offenders. Sex offender registration laws may get votes at election time, but they have been proven not to stop crime and can prevent people who sincerely want to rebuild their lives from doing so.

It would require everyone convicted of a sex offence (not just traffickers) to report every internet user name and internet service provider they use. This provision is an unconstitutional attack on internet privacy.

Prop. 35 does offer some protection to trafficked sex workers in the form of immunity from prosecution for offenses they commit under duress or coercion. It also aids in the prosecution of traffickers by preventing evidence of prostitution from being used to attack the credibility of witnesses. It provides for a token amount (a whole two hours) of training for police officers. And it would increase the money from fines available to an already existing victim and witness protection fund, but only when traffickers can be convicted (notoriously hard to do) and when fines can actually be collected from the criminals.

But these acceptable provisions are overwhelmed by the almost exclusive focus on sex trafficking as something fundamentally different from trafficking in general, by the damage to civil liberties, and by making mandatory minimums even worse than they are now.

Approving Prop 35 would give the public a false sense of accomplishment that it is doing something about modern day indentured servitude. In fact this practice would continue essentially unabated. The California Peace and Freedom Party urges you to vote no on Prop. 35.