By Dan Yaseen
On Aug. 4, the Peace and Freedom Party nominated Roseanne Barr for President and Cindy Sheehan for Vice President.
Barr’s campaign states:
This is an exciting time for us to vote our values! Roseanne Barr is a mother, grandmother, activist, leader, feminist and successful business woman who is addressing the concerns of the 99%. She is the lone voice of courage and reason who is unstoppable as she holds corporate-funded politicians’ feet to the fire.
On Day 1 of #OccupyWallStreet, September 17th, 2011, Roseanne became the first public figure to stand with the occupiers in downtown Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, delivering a speech before the very first General Assembly.
The platform of the Peace and Freedom Party states:
The Peace and Freedom Party, founded in 1967, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality. We represent the working class, those without capital in a capitalist society. We organize toward a world where cooperation replaces competition, a world where all people are well fed, clothed and housed; where all women and men have equal status; where all individuals may freely endeavor to fulfill their own talents and desires; a world of freedom and peace where every community retains its cultural integrity and lives with all others in harmony.
I contacted Barr and asked her two questions:
DY: Why are you running for President, and why should people vote for Barr-Sheehan rather than Obama-Biden?
RB: I’m running to bring pressure to Obama-Biden to do the right thing for the people. People should vote for Cindy and me because we are not liars, thieves or lobbying whores for banksters.
DY: If Romney wins, what will you tell Democrats who blame you for Obama’s loss?
RB: Stop sucking so bad and then you might win by a larger margin.
The following is from the Peace and Freedom Party Web site (www.peaceandfreedom.org):
Since 1974 the Peace and Freedom Party platform has been feminist and socialist. We want a socialist economy, one where industries, financial institutions, and natural resources are owned by the people as a whole and democratically managed by the people who work in them and use them. This would be a big change from the present corporate capitalist economy.
As a feminist party, the Peace and Freedom Party actively supports the struggle to eliminate oppression and discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation. Sexual oppression, abuse, and violence in our personal lives are intimately related to authoritarianism and hierarchical institutions, oppression and abuse on the job, and to the violence of war. The struggle against sexism and the struggle for democratic and nonviolent human relations cannot be delayed but must be pursued actively at the same time as the struggle to eliminate oppression and discrimination based on class, race or nationality, age, or physical disability.
Learn more about Barr’s presidential campaign, and find out how you can support real change at roseanneforpresident2012.org.
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Dan Yaseen is on the Editorial Board of the Community Alliance. Contact him at danyaseen@comcast.net or 559-251-3361.
