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Next Left Notes Is A News Magazine Devoted To Direct Action
By Thomas Good and Ron Braithwaite
As American Citizens who will be participating in the November 2004
general elections, we demand clarification of your positions on the
following issues:
The Bush Administration has pursued a policy of converting American
Democracy into a Company Town, confusing progress with short term profit
for the very rich. Like a Company Town of the last century, the average
American is now viewed by the Company Management as a unit in the cheap
labor pool, deserving only what is needed for subsistence living. We are
denied funding for education and healthcare. We are denied freedom of
speech. We can only purchase drugs from the Company Store where inflated
prices provide access to physical well being that is based on income. This
Company Store mentality permeates all aspects of American Life.
The super rich are fouling our environment, destroying it for future
generations of Americans, all in the pursuit of corporate profit.
What concrete steps will you take to restore our democracy and punish
those who have turned these United States into a Company Town?
What concrete steps will you take to end the exploitation of
Developing Nations under the rubric of "Globalization" and "Free Trade"?
Will you demand the IMF cancel foreign debt?
What concrete measures will you take to address the rape of natural
resources throughout the world, but especially in Developing Nations,
where multi-national corporations are destroying the environment in
their relentless pursuit of short term profit?
What will you do concretely to block the Bush attempts to privatize
Medicare? Will you support HR 676 and provide healthcare to all
Americans? Will you be the healthcare president that Mr. Clinton
promised to be - a promise he reneged on?
Will you support Reproductive Rights for women and publicly confront
the Bush/Republican cynical positions on this issue? Will you publicly
address the issue that the Republican Party is Pro-Life only from
conception to birth and that that after birth, American citizens are of
no value to the Republicans other than as cheap labor or cannon fodder?
Will you assure us that attempts by so-called spiritual leaders to force
you (and other politicians) to take an unprincipled position will fail?
Will you stop the current policy of military intervention for profit
in the developing world? Will you dismantle the CIA and address the
issue of that agency creating terrorists like Bin Laden and the Taliban
only to have these "assets" turn "rogue"? Will you finally demand
complete accountability from our intelligence agencies?
What steps will you take to restore Free Speech in this country? Will
you publicly address the cynicism of protesters being confined to the
Free Speech Zones of George W. Bush? Will you publicly promote the idea
that Free Speech means the Right To Dissent and not just the Right To
Remain Silent? Will you confront the spurious idea that conformity is the
sincerest form of American Democracy?
Will you address the issue of Intellectual Property as a mechanism for
converting knowledge itself into a commodity that is available only to
the rich?
What concrete steps will you take to expand American democracy? Will
you overturn the Patriot Act and other violations of our Fourth
Amendment rights? Will you investigate election irregularities and
change our electoral system so that it becomes an instrument of
democracy and not an instrument of corporate policy? Will you work to
remove anti-democratic election laws that only serve to block the
formation of an effective third party? Will you provide Americans
access to true freedom of choice by ensuring that all political parties
are on the ballot in all states?
What concrete steps will you take to confront the Big Lie of "Weapons
of Mass Destruction" and end the Permanent War Economy? Will you stop
our government and corporations based in the United States from
manufacturing and marketing weapons of mass destruction? Will you take
real steps to give the American People the peace dividend we were
promised after the end of the Cold War?
Will you stop the CIA from selling drugs to our children to fund their
covert interventions and support for brutal regimes in the developing
world? Will you end the interference of the CIA and the Republicans in
media coverage both here and abroad of important events? Will you
require the right wing media (epitomized by Fox News) to present
alternative points of view and stop them from banging the war drum
and fostering intolerance? Will you address the issue of indigenous hate
groups in this country and the ongoing struggle for civil rights for All
Americans, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, or national
origin?
What will you do to end the new apartheid of imprisoned African
Americans? Will you pledge to provide meaningful employment for all
Americans? Will you reform our prison system to change it from a factory
for creating criminals into a mechanism of rehabilitation? What will you
do to ensure that all political prisoners are freed from American jails,
including Guantanamo Bay? Will you publicly state your committment to
supporting human rights in America as well as abroad? Will you end the
practice of imprisoning aliens without filing charges?
What will you do to end these un-American practices and return hope to
the American people?
Will you pledge to restore our democracy?
Dear fellow worker - if you agree with this document:
Sign The Petition
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(c) 2004,2006 Thomas Good
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