DJing Socialist Calls for Write-In Wrevolution

from The Bronx County Examiner

http://www.examiner.com/bronx-county-independent-in-new-york/dj-ing-socialist-calls-for-write-revolution

Want to join a write-in revolution? If you reside in Connecticut, Tuesday will be your big chance. A feisty third party candidate named Todd Vachon is squeezed in between a well-heeled Democrat and a professional wrestling magnate Republican . He’s a DJ, a former union carpenter and a graduate assistant at the University of Connecticut. But, most importantly, he is a socialist running a write in campaign for the Socialist Party USA. He’s calling it a “revolution.” I’d call it an excellent chance to stick it to the fat-cat politicians in Connecticut.

This Senate seat belonged to Christopher Dodd for years. After screwing the American public by helping to push through a pro-business healthcare reform, instead of a single-payer plan, Dodd is preparing to ride off into the private sector.

A feud then broke out among the major parties as Democrat Richard Blumenthal, the state’s long-time Attorney General, attempted to move up the political food chain. The Queen of Professional Wrestling Linda McMahon also saw this as good opportunity to cash in on her steroid enhanced reputation. Simultaneously, the self-described “Lieberman-ite” John Mertens also wiggled onto the ballot.

However, the three mainstreamers could not anticipate the appearance of DJ Mista Mayday. That’s the stage name of Vachon who is presenting a candidacy that offers everything the mainstreamers seek to avoid.

He begins with unemployment. Job creation is not a “trickle-down” problem or an issue for the private sector to sort out. Instead, Vachon presents a plan for a federally funded jobs program that would employ the unemployed and is connected to plans for worked-owned and operated cooperative enterprises.

On healthcare, Vachon similarly pulls no punches by giving outright support to a single-payer system. Heck, he even offered the website to the main single-payer group, Healthcare-NOW on his state questionnaire. This is quite a bit different from Blumenthal who wishes to tinker with Obama’s reform, McMahon, who sees placing limits on patient’s ability to sue as “healthcare reform,” and Mertens who proposed a frankly bizarre “Bismarck” system of healthcare.

And, on the issue of war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, his message is unwavering. Get out. Not with a vague roadmap for the future or by removing ten soldiers a month or with the “fight terrorists to ends of the earth” pledges of the mainstream candidates. For Vachon, it is “get out now.” The Socialist candidate also calls for drastic cuts in the military budget and new policy on war – “My war policy is simple: no war.”

According to the latest Rasmussen Poll, Blumenthal will cruise to a double-digit win. This, despite the more than $46 million in personal money McMahon has spent. Mertens is entirely off the map. However, writing in Todd Vachon for Senate could give radicals, independents and progressives a new motivation to head to the election booth.

Join the write-in revolution on Tuesday and shake up the candidates of the political establishment. Let them know that a DJ’ing socialist has done more to capture your attention than the big spenders have. Write-in Todd Vachon.

***
Billy Wharton is the editor of the Socialist WebZine. His articles have been published by the Washington Post, Counterpunch and In These Times. He can be reached at whartonbilly@gmail.com

Top 10 Reasons Obama is NOT a Socialist

(and what an actual socialist would do)

10. Bailouts. As Senator and Presidential candidate, Obama voted for the Bush bailouts of the banking industry. This measure took workers' hard earned tax dollars and gave them to the filthy rich corporate executives who screwed up the economy in the first place. This is the opposite of what a socialist would do.

9. Healthcare. Instead of pushing for a non-profit, single-payer, national health insurance plan, he called up the insurance industry and asked them to write a bill. It of course required that everyone purchase their flawed product; guaranteed customers, exactly what every capitalist wants. This is the opposite of what a socialist would do.

8. Oil Spill. Instead of taking charge in the gulf and creating an international team of experts to address the disaster, he let the corporation who created it handle the mess; they of course lied and saved a lot of face in the end. Furthermore, he has done nothing to address the potential for this to happen again.

7. Foreclosures. After being bailed out by taxpayers, the banks continued to foreclose on taxpayers homes. While the president did everything to protect the financial capitalist's interest, he did nothing to help the working class who has been losing their homes at breakneck speed. Again, the opposite of what a socialist would do.

6.Worker's Right to Organize. Like all Democrats he made big promises to union members, and then, when he was elected he dropped the Employee Free Choice Act quicker than a hot potato.

5. War. Instead of ending the wars which are despised by the majority of Americans, the president escalated conflict in Afghanistan and set up Iraq as a quasi-colonial state to be occupied indefinitely. A socialist would bring all the troops home tomorrow, period.

4. Education. Obama took the awful No Child Left Behind Act and replaced it with the even worse Race to the Top program, which should really be called race to the bottom because its result has been the most rapid privatization of public education in history.

3. Campaign Funding. He raised more private and corporate money in 2008 than had ever been raised and spent on a campaign. Socialists are opposed to private campaign funding, it is not democratic. We want real democracy, not some corporate representative form of government that is bought by the highest bidder every four years.

2. Military Spending. Obama outdid Bush, and any other president for that matter, when he signed the $800 billion annual military budget last year (the highest in the history of mankind). This huge check does not even cover the wars in the Middle East or the VA services for the tens of thousands of wounded soldiers returning from them. Socialists would slash military spending and focus on our real problems at home as opposed to those fear-driven, unproven ones abroad.

1. He is a Millionaire. Plain and simple. The interests of a millionaire are NOT the same as those of the average working class American.

Please consider a real option for real change and real hope this election year.

www.votevachon.com

Vote Socialist on Tuesday!

by Andrea Pason and Billy Wharton – co-chairs Socialist Party USA

http://www.socialistparty-usa.org/votesocialist2010.html

America’s re-introduction to socialist politics continues this Tuesday as voters head to the ballot booths. In many parts of the country, Socialist and other Independent candidates will offer viable alternatives to the budget cutting politics of Democrats and Republicans. Instead of endorsing budget cuts and war or casting a vote for one corporate funded candidate or another, voters can vote for a democratic socialist alternative that places human needs at the top of the political agenda. The center of this struggle is the state of Ohio, where veteran labor activist Dan LaBotz is running an innovative grassroots campaign for US Senate as a Socialist Party USA candidate. At first, LaBotz’s campaign seemed novel in that it was pitched as a united left endeavor. All stripes of radicals were welcome to contribute to the effort to put socialism on the ballot. Indeed, Socialist Party USA, International Socialist Organization and Solidarity members have been joined by remnants of the Labor Party, radical trade unionists and even some disaffected Democrats to push the campaign forward. Opportunities to present a fresh vision of democratic socialism were expanded by this momentum and the fact that the Democratic Party candidate exited the race early on. LaBotz’s “Buckeye Socialism” was soon being spread throughout the state at Youth Progressive Conferences, at LGBT organizing meetings, at worker’s meetings and even at a local mosque during a forum organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

On Tuesday, thousands of people will vote for Dan LaBotz on the Socialist Party USA line to be their US Senator. Thousands more are still undecided. They should consider LaBotz’s anti-war message, his commitment to worker’s rights and his ironclad pledge to put the unemployed back to work. Consider also that something much larger than an election in Ohio is going on. We believe that socialism is an idea whose time has come. We have a plan for bringing democracy to the economy through worker’s control and ownership of their workplaces. This will put people back to work in mass numbers. We have a different vision of the US in the world, as a peacemaker not a war maker. We will bring the troops home, close military bases in other countries and cut the military budget by 50%. Finally, socialists have a strong commitment to civil rights – we believe that people should both have rights and be able to use them. We will dismantle the growing security state, break up the media monopoly where six corporations own 90% of the media and guarantee rights for all people. Dan LaBotz is not our only candidate.

In Michigan, socialists are running as Green Party candidates for the Boards of Regents and Supervisors for the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. In Vermont, socialists will appear on both the Socialist Party USA and Liberty Union lines. In Connecticut, socialist DJ, Todd Vachon is calling for voters to join a “write-in revolution” by writing in his name for US Senate. And, in New York State, Socialist Party USA member Howie Hawkins is waging a determined campaign for Governor on the Green Party line against a right wing Democrat who is preparing massive budget cuts. All of these candidates support the basic ideas of democratic socialism – things like democratic workplaces, free access to healthcare, and free education. Each also has the ability to offer socialist solutions for local problems. On this Election Day, we ask you to consider joining the thousands of other people in this country who will be voting Socialist.

Equally important, we ask that voting not be your only political act. The Socialist Party USA’s goal is to create a radically democratic society in which participation and solidarity become bedrock principles. Getting involved in political activities beyond the ballot box is critical to such a transformation. We invite you to contact us to begin the process of freeing our society from the seemingly never-ending cycle of war and economic crisis under capitalism.

Vote Socialist on Tuesday!
Join the struggle for Democratic Socialism!
www.sp-usa.org

Vachon Campaign Endorsed by AFQOTP

copied from A Few Queers on the Prowl:
http://queerartist.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/we-have-a-real-choice-for-senate/

We have a real choice for Senate.
By queerartist

Todd Vachon, who I met years ago as Mista Mayday at a fundraiser for the Food and Allied Workers Union I.U. 460/640, is running for U.S. Senate in Connecticut as a write in candidate. Todd is a member of the Socialist Party of Connecticut. This blog fully supports Todd Vachon for U.S. Senate in Connecticut and urges its readers in the state of Connecticut to do like wise. Bring your pens, write in Todd Vachon like your life depends on it because it does.

Check out more about Todd and what he stands for here>

todd@votevachon.com


So remember to bring your pens, find that write in spot and write in Todd’s name. We here at AFQOTP can’t believe that any of our readers in the state of CT. or friends in our circle would ever vote for either of the mainstream candidates. My goodness, as Emma Furbird says, “who wants more of the same.” Let’s really vote this time for what we believe in not because we are scared that one mad dog will win if we don’t vote for the other.

We like Todd, we have ever since the first time we met him, we know he is honest, something that we will never find within the ruling class, we agree with his platform, and we are scared of the republicans and democrats. They have brought the world mostly sorrow and it doesn’t seem like it is going to end any time soon.

Can you readers stand up? Be counted! For change real change!

---------------------------

I most graciously accept this endorsement from AFQOTP and am so delighted to stand in solidarity with folks who are true to their convictions, honest, and not afraid to stand up for what is right, even if it's not popular.

In solidarity,

Todd Vachon

Socialists of Labor March on DC

Greetings friends,

I am delighted to share some great images with all of you!
Here is a link to a video clip from the Oct. 2nd Organized Labor March that brought hundreds of thousands of workers to D.C. to demand jobs and an end to the wars. At about 2:25 into the video you will see "The Socialist Contingent." I highly recommend that everyone view this and pass it on. The corporate media gives an unbelievable amount of time to the pro-corporate Tea Party every day on the news (even if it is only 10 people making noise somewhere). Here are a heck of a lot of socialists amid hundreds of thousands of union workers telling it like it is.....where the hell is the media?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM_blbiTnYQ&feature=player_embedded#!

Thanks to Stan Heller (CTUP and The Struggle TV) for posting this on youtube.

And here is another one from Dan LaBotz, Socialist for Congress in Ohio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CophvkIYdU&feature=related

In Solidarity,

Todd Vachon
Socialist Party of CT
www.votevachon.com

Let’s Have a Protest, Not a Dem Pep Rally

This is a piece by Glen Ford, reproduced from The Socialist Webzine (online publication of the Socailist Party, USA)

Let’s Have a Protest, Not a Dem Pep Rally

by Glen Ford -

“The character and importance of the ‘One Nation’ rally will be determined by the demands that are made on Power, most especially on the White House.”

The October 2 rally in Washington to demand jobs and “stop moving money out of education and into wars and prisons," in the words of NAACP president Ben Jealous, promises to be huge. SEIU Local 1199, a co-initiator of the event along with the NAACP, has booked 500 busses from New York City, alone, and thousands more will be rolling into the nation’s capital from around the country. Participating organizations include nearly the entire spectrum of labor, social justice and peace formations in the United States.

But big does not necessarily mean historic, or even useful. The character and importance of the “One Nation” rally will be determined by the demands that are made on Power, most especially on the White House, where one man wields the power of an entire branch of government, is the leader of the majority party in both Houses of Congress, and commands national and global attention by virtue of the presidential “bully pulpit.” A Washington rally for jobs, justice and peace that makes no specific demands on President Obama would amount to a capitulation to the status quo on all counts, no matter if half a million attended. And if the event is allowed to become wholly a pep rally for Obama and Democrats, then that will tell the world that real movements for laboring people, social justice and peace do not currently exist in the United States – just a bunch of Democratic Party groupies with delusions of relevance to the burning issues of the day.

“Tremendous pressures that have been brought to bear by the administration to avoid embarrassing the president and his party on the eve of congressional elections.”

That’s why, mindful of the tremendous pressures that have been brought to bear by the administration to avoid embarrassing the president and his party on the eve of congressional elections, strong majorities of the United National Anti-War Conference [4] (UNAC), held in Albany, New York, in late July, endorsed a series of demands to be put forward at the October 2 rally, and beyond. These demands will be reflected in the placards carried by thousands of demonstrators concentrated in the UNAC contingent at the “One Nation” rally:

* $Trillions for jobs and education, not wars and bank bailouts.

* Bring the troops, mercenaries and war dollars home from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, now!

* Stop government attacks on unions, Muslims, immigrants and people of color. Civil liberties for all.

* End U.S aid to Israel. Billions for jobs, not occupation. End the siege of Gaza. Free Palestine!

The Black is Back Coalition [5] for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is in agreement with the four demands, and will rally alongside the UNAC contingent on the Washington Mall. Black is Back will also demand an end to the ongoing wars waged against Black people here at home, through mass Black incarceration, police terror and constant economic aggression against Black communities.

“Any peace movement worthy of the name must demand withdrawal NOW.”

There is no point in going to a demonstration for jobs, social justice and peace if you are not going to make substantive demands. It is the Obama administration that is waging wars of aggression in Asia and Africa; the Congress – including, most of the time, most Democrats –funds these wars. President Obama always claims to be in the process of ending his wars, even as he escalates, just as did George Bush. Any peace movement worthy of the name must demand withdrawal NOW.

The NAACP and labor say they want to see money moved “from war to jobs and education.” That’s what we used to call a “peace dividend.” But there is no hint of peace in Obama’s rhetoric of open-ended warfare to infinity, and no evidence of any military scale-back that could yield a peace dividend. The dividend can only come with the end of imperial warfare.

By far the biggest share of the bank bailouts that ultimately netted Wall Street $12 to $14 trillion of the people’s money were finagled by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury, both directly or indirectly accountable to Barack Obama. If you have any complaints about the bailouts, lay them at Obama’s doorstep, where they belong. Demand he stop the wealth transfers to Wall Street, NOW!

“If you have any complaints about the bailouts, lay them at Obama’s doorstep, where they belong.”

It is the government under President Obama that entraps and frames Muslims (largely African Americans) on terror charges, harries and deports more undocumented immigrants than did the Bush regime, fails to defend working people’s rights to organize, and maintains what is arguably the most thoroughly racist criminal justice system on the face of the planet. Obama is the executive in charge. Demand in plain language that he use all his powers to end the injustices.

The plank on Israel was the most hotly contested of the Albany conference, and caused a small minority of attendees and participating organizations to leave the United National Anti-War Committee. Too damn bad. It is long past time that the American anti-war movement make a decisive break with Israel, as the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) did way back in 1967. An anti-war movement that seeks to rein in its own government’s aggressions in the world but fails to condemn apartheid Israel’s ceaseless violations of international law and crimes against humanity since the birth of the state, has no credibility.

The Obama administration’s water carriers within the October 2 rally’s sponsoring organizations will doubtless seek to transform the occasion into a campaign event for the Democrats. It is up to the crowd to demonstrate righteous discontent with the powers-that-be, and call the malefactors out by name. If that’s your preference, hang with UNAC and Black is Back. You’ll identify them by their clear and insistent demands – which is how it should be.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com