Statements
From SP Boston
These statements, arranged chronologically, are all official statements of either the Socialist Party of Boston, the Socialist Party of Massachusetts, or the Socialist Party USA.
Statement on Bolivia
- 5 June 2008
- Socialist Party International Commission
The Socialist Party USA expresses its solidarity with the workers, campesinos and indigenous communities of Bolivia who are struggling to create a new vibrant socialist project in their country. The possibilities of achieving such a goal were greatly accelerated by the election in 2005 of the government of Evo Morales, representative of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party. Now, two years into Morales' first term, the MAS government faces serious challenges from the right delivered in the form of a movement for "autonomy" coming from a bastion of the old oligarchy in Santa Cruz. The historical legacy and theoretical traditions of socialism make it difficult to publicly declare opposition to a genuine movement for autonomy expressed by a nationally-oppressed group. We re-affirm the notion that oppressed groups, minority or majority, have, when facing oppression by a state apparatus be it capitalist or ostensibly communist, the right to self-determination. For example, claims by Aymara communities in the north of Bolivia prior to the election of the MAS government were clearly just demands for the liberation of a majority grouping from the shackles of a political economy directed by a thin layer of capitalist elite taking direction from the IMF/World Bank. The above definition has little to do with the current crisis in Santa Cruz... read more.
Child Care as a Social Justice Issue
- 11 April 2008
- Socialist Party Women's Commission
For many women these days, child care is a major issue. As parents, they face formidable, sometimes insurmountable, hurdles trying to find affordable, high-quality care for our young children. As child care workers, they commit themselves to a career characterized by low status, low pay, and insufficient benefits. This should not come as a startling revelation, since an abundance of documentation exists on both these issues. In fact, the solution is also clear: uniting for quality child care means linking affordability and accessibility to the right of child care workers to good wages, benefits, and working conditions; it means expanding the struggle for quality child care to include the quality of the program, the quality of the workplace, and the quality of society as a whole. Demands and action must occur in all these areas if our communities are ever to create and maintain a just, equitable, and compassionate child care system... read more.
Statement on Tibet
- 26 March 2008
- Socialist Party International Commission
The unfolding events in Tibet are a tragedy. The Chinese government has occupied Tibet for more than fifty years, using every conceivable method to incorporate the occupied territory into an integral part of China. Tibetan cultural and religious sites have been desecrated and Buddhist monks have been forced to sign a pledge of allegiance to China. In its desire to extract the valuable natural resources of Tibet, the Chinese government has ignored essential environmental safeguards... read more.
Support American Axle Workers
- 9 March 2008
- Socialist Party Labor Commission
The Socialist Party USA stands in solidarity with the American Axle workers as they carry out a strike in defense of their wages and benefits. The American Axle Corporation has attempted to reduce wages to $14/hour from $23/hour and cut retiree pension benefits. An almost 40% wage decrease is intolerable under any circumstances, but in a time of financial surplus - when American Axle is able to pay a hefty dividend to its shareholders it is simply unconscionable. This episode is the most recent example of the overall offensive waged by corporations against manufacturing workers in America... Read more.
Support the Screenwriters Strike
- 8 November 2007
- Socialist Party Labor Commission
When the irreverent early 20th century comedian W.C. Fields was once caught reading the bible he explained that he was "looking for some loopholes." On Monday November 5th, 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) took a bold strike action to sew up some of the loopholes which have allowed the entertainment industry to make exorbitant profits from their labor. The Socialist Party USA (SP-USA) stands with the WGA and calls upon the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to concede to the WGA's demands for a just contract... read more.
Socialist Party Nominates Brian Moore for President
- Antiwar Activist Nominated on Third Ballot at Party's National Convention in St. Louis
- 21 October 2007
ST. LOUIS — Antiwar activist Brian P. Moore of Spring Hill, Florida, was nominated for President of the United States at the Socialist Party USA national convention in St. Louis late Saturday afternoon. The 64-year-old Moore, a former independent candidate for the U.S. Senate, defeated longtime party activist and author Eric Chester of Massachusetts, a retired economics professor, on the convention's third ballot to win the party's nomination. Stewart A. Alexander, a longtime civil rights activist from Murietta, California, was tapped as Moore's vice-presidential running mate. Alexander was the Peace & Freedom Party's candidate for lieutenant governor of California in 2006... read more.
Mobilize to Support Autoworkers
- 24 September 2007
- Matt Andrews, Chair of the Labor Commission of the Socialist Party USA
On Saturday September 24th over 73,000 UAW workers across the country walked out in the first nationwide GM strike in 37 years. The Socialist Party USA calls upon its members and allies to demand a decisive victory for striking UAW workers and upon the entire labor movement to mobilize in solidarity... read more.
Solidarity with Protesters in Burma
- September 2007
- Tino Rozzo, for the Faith and Socialism Commission of the Socialist Party USA
The Faith and Socialism Commission of the Socialist Party USA reaffirms its commitment to nonviolence and its abhorrence for violence and militarism. We encourage diplomacy for resolving conflicts.
We would like to express our support for the Buddhist monks and others who are engaged in peaceful demonstrations in Myanmar (Burma). We are saddened to learn that the military dictatorship responded violently and caused numerous fatalities. Furthermore, the government imprisoned many citizens and monks, and the whereabouts of many citizens are still unknown. In addition, the military government is responsible for looting and destroying many Buddhist temples and monasteries... read more.
The Socialist Party of Boston Endorses Matt Geary for City Council
- 2 September 2007
- Socialist Party of Boston
Matt Geary is running for Boston City Council as a socialist candidate. The Socialist Party of Boston has gotten to know Matt and his organization, Socialist Alternative, through our common efforts to oppose US militarism at home and abroad. Matt also came to one of our local's meetings to discuss his campaign... read more.
Statement of Solidarity on the Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion
- 28 June 2007
- Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone, Convener of the Queer Commission of the Socialist Party USA.
In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the New York City police raided a Greenwich Village bar: The Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Inn, a gay and lesbian neighborhood bar with a large number of African American and Latino patrons, was also well-known as a safe space for those who did not conform to gender norms: butch lesbians, effeminate gay men, and transsexual and transgendered persons before the terms were in popular use. All of these factors brought the police to Stonewall in 1969 for the purpose of illegally raiding the bar, and arresting its occupants -- an action not unknown in New York in the 1960s. On that fateful day, however, the Stonewall’s patrons had enough. Nobody knows who threw the first bottle that day. It may have been Sylvia Rivera, a transgendered activist and later a founding mother of political movements on behalf of transgendered and transsexual Americans. It may have been a still unidentified butch lesbian arrested in the bar. Over 2000 GLBTQ Americans clashed with 400 police officers on June 28... read more.
May Day Greetings 2007
- 1 May 2007
- Rune Lund, Member of the Danish Parliament, representing the Red-Green Alliance.
- Eric Chester, Convener of the International Commission of the Socialist Party USA.
May Day is a day to be in the streets, reaffirming our commitment to a truly just society. It is all too easy to forget the sacrifices made by past generations to win significant improvements in the wages and working conditions that have been enjoyed by many workers in the industrialized capitalist countries. It is also a time to remember that colonialism and imperialism have kept most of the working class in the less industrialized countries in dire poverty. The spread of a globally integrated capitalist economy is further undermining the well-being of working people. As a few become grotesquely wealthy, and powerful, the many confront acute poverty and economic insecurity... read more.
Not a Dime More for War
- April 2007
- Tom Mooney (Western Massachusetts) Local of the Socialist Party USA
John Olver refuses to listen to his constituents. The people of western Massachusetts are clear: we want all U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq right now. The United States had no business invading Iraq, and we have no legitimate reason to remain.
The United States is in Iraq to secure the vast oil reserves for Exxon and the other major oil corporations. For too long, the lives of our young people have been sacrificed for the profits of the avaricious rich... read more.
US Out of Iraq
- January 16, 2007
- Eric Chester, Convener of the International Commission of the Socialist Party USA.
President Bush's declaration that he intends to send an additional 20,000 combat troops to Iraq represents yet another step further into the quagmire. The United States had no legitimate reason to invade Iraq in March 2003, and there is no justifiable ground to prolong the occupation now.
The United States is not occupying Iraq to free the Iraqi people or to somehow impose a non-sectarian regime in a country deeply divided by religious and ethnic enmities. These are just pious platitudes intended to cover the true goals of U.S. foreign policy. Already, the U.S. backed government is preparing to open Iraqi oil fields, among the richest in the world, to private investment. Oil giants such as Exxon will be granted thirty-year leases to restore production, thus enabling them to reap bonanza profits. The lives of our young men and women are once again being sacrificed to the rapacious greed of the wealthy few... read more.
Repeal the Hyde Amendment
- October 3, 2006
- Susan Dorazio
- SP USA Co-Chair and Convener of the Women's Commission
In June 1976, three years after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Health, Education, and Welfare budget banning the use of Medicaid funds for abortions. This is known as the Hyde Amendment, named for its sponsor, Representative Henry Hyde (R-Ill). When the amendment failed to pass in the Senate, the issue reached an impasse.
Although President Gerald Ford had indicated he would veto such a provision, he reversed his position once the 1976 Presidential campaign swung into full gear, and Jimmy Carter, the Democratic nominee, emphasized his personal opposition to abortion and made it clear that he favored the restriction of federal funding for abortions. Without the opposition of President Ford, the Senate passed the Hyde Amendment on September 30, 1976. It went into effect in August 1977, after court challenges to its constitutionality were rejected... read more.
Solidarity with the Cuban People
- August 1, 2006
- Matthew Andrews
- SP USA Co-Vice Chair
The Socialist Party USA defends the right of the Cuban people to self-determination. While undergoing surgery, Fidel Castro has ceded power to his brother, Raul Castro, and the future of his health is uncertain. Fidel Castro is almost 80 years old and has been the Cuban head of state for 47 years. Even if Castro recovers his health and returns to power for now, Cuba must soon develop a plan for life after Castro. Imperialist policy makers in Washington DC and Cuba's old exiled ruling class are salivating at a possible opportunity to return Cuba to its pre-revolution condition of subjugation under US hegemony. A survey of other Caribbean nations proves that this is not a path to prosperity, security or freedom. Capitalism will only continue to cause misery for the majority of the world's marginalized and working classes... read more.
On the Middle East Crisis
- International Commission Statement on the Middle East Crisis
- July 21, 2006
- Eric Chester
- Convener, International Commission, SP-USA
The crisis in the Middle East is only the latest in a long series of military confrontations that have devastated the region during the last five decades. The use of violence cannot resolve the complex problems that plague the relationship between Israel and its neighbors. As a first step, we call for Israel to stop bombing Lebanon and for Hezbollah to stop launching missiles into Israel. In both cases, civilians suffer most of the casualties from these attacks. A cease fire arrangement will also have to include an exchange of prisoners, as Hezbollah and Hamas return the three Israeli soldiers and Israel releases some of the many political prisoners it holds... read more.
John Roberts and Rosie Jimenez
- Womens Commission Statement
- August 28, 2005
This Fall, while the liberals and the mainstream women's rights organizations are spending millions of dollars on a public relations campaign to block the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, those of us on the radical left will be organizing for Rosie Jimenez Day and for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, the law responsible for the death of Ms Jimenez and so many others unable to get a safe,legal abortion simply because Medicaid in their state wouldn't pay for it... read more.
Dump the Democrats
- Speech for the "Dump the Democrats" Rally, Government Center, Boston
- July 26, 2004
- Prepared and delivered by Susan Dorazio
- Convener of the Women's Commission of the Socialist Party-USA
Hello everybody. Here in Massachusetts we have a state legislature comprised overwhelmingly of Democrats -- the so-called friends of working people.
Well, as a child care worker in the Western part of the state for the past 27 years, I can tell you that the friendship of the Democrats in the State House is a charade. As I say to my fellow workers, they are playing us for fools, and they have been for as long as I've been trekking to Beacon Hill for the perennial Lobby Day, and taking part in numerous phone call and letter writing campaigns for legislation that never gets passed, or if passed never gets funded. And the same is true for every other working person in Massachusetts as well. It's past time for us to say enough is enough, join forces, and stand up for our rights... read more.