Category: Peace and Freedom Party

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

Fall 2012 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. For distribution in Sacramento, click here.


Page 1 of Voter Guide

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Spring 2012 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.


Page 1 of Voter Guide

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Why Vote Peace and Freedom Party

Sick of Republicans who are clueless? Tired of Democrats selling you out? There is an alternative! That alternative is the Peace and Freedom Party.

We fight for the things all working people need: free education, from pre-school through university; an end to U.S. intervention throughout the world; free health care for all, such as enjoyed by workers in every other industrialized nation in the world; full employment at union wages, with generous paid vacation and other benefits. Workers, both documented and undocumented, have the right to organize, safe working conditions, and paid sick leave. We can pay for these things if the rich are taxed at rates they can well afford.

These are not just planks in our platform, these are issues Peace and Freedom candidates and members work for. The many problems facing the working class concern us because we are a part of that class. We know we can’t get what we need just by voting for it, so we participate in mass organization and direct action as part of the labor, anti-war, civil rights, and other movements, and now the Occupy movement. But we also know we can’t get what we need unless we also vote for it—and that’s why we need an electoral party rooted in and responsible to the movement.

Beyond these specific issues and movements, we understand the underlying reason why we have to keep struggling for the things we need is the ownership of the world and the conditions of our labor by a very few, very wealthy people—capitalism. To win any of these struggles finally and for good, we need to replace capitalism with a working-class democracy in which production is planned to meet human needs—socialism.

Statement for June 5, 2012, Presidential Primary Election Voter Information Guide

The following statement was submitted to Secretary of State on February 16 for inclusion in the statewide Voter Guide, mailed to every registered voter before the June 5 election.

The Peace and Freedom Party is a working-class party in a country run by and for the wealthy and their corporations. We should not have to sacrifice our health, our livelihoods and our planet for our bosses’ profits. We can tax the rich, whose wealth is entirely created by workers, to pay for the people’s needs. We favor:

  • Decent jobs and full labor rights for all.
  • Free education for all from preschool through the university.
  • Free health care for everyone.
  • Good services for disabled people.
  • Bringing all troops home now.
  • Ending all discrimination.
  • Full rights for immigrants.
  • Real democracy and fair political representation.
  • Restoring and protecting the environment.

As long as our system puts the wealthy first, we will suffer war, police brutality, low wages, unsafe workplaces and pollution. We advocate socialism, which we see as the ownership and democratic control of the economy by working people. If we join together to take back our industries and natural resources, we can work together democratically and cooperatively for the common good, rather than being slaves to the rich and their corporations.

Vote for those who will fight for what you need, the candidates of the Peace and Freedom Party.

Peace and Freedom Party of California
P.O. Box 24764, Oakland, CA 94623
(510) 465-9414, (916) 422-5395, or (323) 960-5036
E-mail:
Website: www.peaceandfreedom.org