The Socialist Party stands in solidarity with the people of Haiti after the
devastating earthquake that hit the island. Estimates of the dead are more than
one hundred thousand and significant parts of the capital city
Port-Au-Prince’s infrastructure have been destroyed. The full extent of the
damage will not be known for days and the country seems certain to be thrust
into a humanitarian crisis even more serious than the one that exists on a
daily basis.
While this disaster has natural origins, it occurred within a nation that had
already been ravaged by capitalism. Haiti is a model case for the failure of
the neoliberal economic model and the negative legacies of US militarism in the
region.
After coming out of the vicious dictatorship of 'Baby Doc' Duvalier in the late
1980s, the country was saddled by massive debt payments to the IMF and World
Bank. When the “people’s priest” Jean Bertran-Aristide was elected to the
presidency in 1990 new hopes for change were raised. Aristide promised to move
beyond a government of the elites and to challenge the IMF free-market model.
His administration was then brought down by a violent military coup backed by
the US military. After a direct US military occupation, Aristide returned to
office, agreed to implement the IMF plans and was again removed by a military
coup. The already weak Haitian economy spiraled, creating mass unemployment and
suffering.
As multinational companies exited the country, they left behind ecological and
economic devastation. Large swaths of the countryside have been de-forested
rendering them useless for cultivation. Even before the earthquake, the urban
infrastructure was in decay, suffering from a lack of investment for decades.
In a final humiliation, a few months before the earthquake, a group of
multinational investors assembled in Port-Au-Prince to create a plan to return
to exploiting the population.
Despite all of this, the Haitian people have continued to struggle for justice.
In their trade unions, cooperatives and women organizations, poor and working
Haitians have kept alive the legacy of struggle born in the great Haitian
Revolution of the 18th century. Such grassroots democratic struggles offer the
best hope for the future of the island.
The Socialist Party USA encourages everyone to get involved
with efforts to provide relief to earthquake victims. There are many
organizations engaged in this effort including the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund
which has supported grassroots democratic struggles in Haiti since 2004. The
history of Haiti offers a reminder of why democratic socialism offers a
vision that transcends national borders in order to create a global society
based on solidarity, compassion and justice, not the private profit of the few at the expense of many.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Health Care Is Still A Human Right; Socialist Party of CT Stands with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 51st Anniversary
For Immediate Release
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Contact: Todd Vachon, socialistpartyct@gmail.com
On this day in 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among it's thirty articles which detail the basic rights of all human beings is included the right to health care. Article 25 states that all people have the right to "health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
In the years following the Second World War, every industrialized nation except for the United States has realized this right for it's citizens.
On this anniversary of the UDHR, the Socialist Party of Connecticut would like to draw attention to this violation of human rights exercised in our own backyards. Our current multi-payer, for profit, health system (and it's modifications currently being decided in congress) does not secure the rights envisaged in Article 25. With nearly 50 million Americans uninsured, millions more underinsured, patients denied vital care and yet health care CEO's earning as much as $57,000 per hour, we are certainly not treating health as a human right.
The profit-based, private insurance industry costs American consumers twice as much per capita as the services provided for citizens by other industrialized nations. Americans spend $7,129 per capita on health insurance and yet it does not even cover all Americans. Despite out-spending other nations, our system still leaves the U.S. ranked 38th in the world for health care. We score poorly on all major health indicators, including: life expectancy- ranked 30th, right behind Bosnia; infant mortality-ranked 46th, right behind Cuba and Guam, and we're ranked 20th out of the G20 for deaths by treatable causes.
The Socialist Party of CT advocates for the elimination of the private insurance industry and the creation instead of a national, single-payer health insurance plan; an expanded Medicare-For-All. There can be no solution to the health care crisis without eliminating the cause of the problem itself, the profit-motive of insurers. A national single-payer system would cost $300-400 billion less per year than Americans currently spend and would extend coverage to all. To learn more about such a system we would direct people to the following resources: www.vachonforcongress.blogspot.com, www.pnhp.org, www.socialistparty-usa.org/platform/humanneeds.html
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Contact: Todd Vachon, socialistpartyct@gmail.com
On this day in 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among it's thirty articles which detail the basic rights of all human beings is included the right to health care. Article 25 states that all people have the right to "health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
In the years following the Second World War, every industrialized nation except for the United States has realized this right for it's citizens.
On this anniversary of the UDHR, the Socialist Party of Connecticut would like to draw attention to this violation of human rights exercised in our own backyards. Our current multi-payer, for profit, health system (and it's modifications currently being decided in congress) does not secure the rights envisaged in Article 25. With nearly 50 million Americans uninsured, millions more underinsured, patients denied vital care and yet health care CEO's earning as much as $57,000 per hour, we are certainly not treating health as a human right.
The profit-based, private insurance industry costs American consumers twice as much per capita as the services provided for citizens by other industrialized nations. Americans spend $7,129 per capita on health insurance and yet it does not even cover all Americans. Despite out-spending other nations, our system still leaves the U.S. ranked 38th in the world for health care. We score poorly on all major health indicators, including: life expectancy- ranked 30th, right behind Bosnia; infant mortality-ranked 46th, right behind Cuba and Guam, and we're ranked 20th out of the G20 for deaths by treatable causes.
The Socialist Party of CT advocates for the elimination of the private insurance industry and the creation instead of a national, single-payer health insurance plan; an expanded Medicare-For-All. There can be no solution to the health care crisis without eliminating the cause of the problem itself, the profit-motive of insurers. A national single-payer system would cost $300-400 billion less per year than Americans currently spend and would extend coverage to all. To learn more about such a system we would direct people to the following resources: www.vachonforcongress.blogspot.com, www.pnhp.org, www.socialistparty-usa.org/platform/humanneeds.html
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Socialist Party of CT Opposes Escalation of War in Afghanistan; Demands Money for Jobs and Health Care
Amidst the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression, President Barack Obama has mistakenly chosen to dedicate yet more resources, manpower and lives to military interventionism. The Socialist Party of CT finds this course to be foolhardy and wasteful. We advocate instead for an immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The seemingly endless pool of public money spent on war could far better serve the unemployed, underemployed and uninsured people of the United States by creating a public works program and a single-payer national health insurance plan.
It has always been a core principal of the Socialist Party that public assets should be used for the public good by means of democratic administration. This recent exercise in defense spending, in addition to the ongoing health care reform "debate", further underscore the shortcomings of the capitalist political-economic system; namely that the voices of the many are repeatedly drowned out by the voices of the wealthy and powerful.
During the 2008 presidential campaign the mainstream media made a big to-do about claims that Mr. Obama was a "socialist" and yet did little or nothing to find out what the actual socialist candidates thought about the issues. Socialist Party Presidential candidate Brian Moore, Vice-Presidential candidate Stewart Alexander and candidate for U.S. Congress here in CT, Todd Vachon would have gladly informed the public that we stood for an immediate end of both wars. We also would have reminded people that mandating private health insurance is only socialism for the insurance corporations and bailing out bankers is yet further welfare for millionaires and billionaires...
We hope that the disenchanted popular movement that brought this administration into power on a tide of "hope" and "change" will not walk away and become apathetic. We invite them instead to join a real movement for real change starting tomorrow, Wednesday Dec. 2, at 4:30pm by joining us and dozens of other groups to protest the war escalation in front of the Federal Buildings in Hartford and New Haven and demand that our public assets return home to serve our public good!
SPCT platform and information available at:
www.socialistpartyct.org
www.socialistparty-usa.org
www.votevachon.com
It has always been a core principal of the Socialist Party that public assets should be used for the public good by means of democratic administration. This recent exercise in defense spending, in addition to the ongoing health care reform "debate", further underscore the shortcomings of the capitalist political-economic system; namely that the voices of the many are repeatedly drowned out by the voices of the wealthy and powerful.
During the 2008 presidential campaign the mainstream media made a big to-do about claims that Mr. Obama was a "socialist" and yet did little or nothing to find out what the actual socialist candidates thought about the issues. Socialist Party Presidential candidate Brian Moore, Vice-Presidential candidate Stewart Alexander and candidate for U.S. Congress here in CT, Todd Vachon would have gladly informed the public that we stood for an immediate end of both wars. We also would have reminded people that mandating private health insurance is only socialism for the insurance corporations and bailing out bankers is yet further welfare for millionaires and billionaires...
We hope that the disenchanted popular movement that brought this administration into power on a tide of "hope" and "change" will not walk away and become apathetic. We invite them instead to join a real movement for real change starting tomorrow, Wednesday Dec. 2, at 4:30pm by joining us and dozens of other groups to protest the war escalation in front of the Federal Buildings in Hartford and New Haven and demand that our public assets return home to serve our public good!
SPCT platform and information available at:
www.socialistpartyct.org
www.socialistparty-usa.org
www.votevachon.com
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