[Marxism] a Nader Green campaigns

[Dayne Goodwin <dayneg@xxxxxxxx>]

James Marc Leas, Vermont Green Party Candidate for Vermont Attorney General
Speech to the Vermont AFL-CIO Convention, September 25, 2004

War in Iraq

My national union, the CWA, passed a resolution that says, "Resolved, that
CWA demands that the President abandon his failed policy (of preemptive
war) which has made our nation less - not more - secure, and support our
troops and their families by bringing our troops home safely now." I
believe a critical task for the Attorney General - and all elected
officials--is to add their voices in support of this demand.

Let me tell you four important facts about this war relevant to my race for
AG:

1. Ten days ago UN Secretary General Kofi Annan declared this war
"illegal" and "in violation of the UN Charter." Under our constitution,
international treaties are the law of the land.
2. For our population, Vermont has lost a disproportionate number of
soldiers compared to other states. Nevertheless, the Burlington Free Press
reported on its front page yesterday a potential plan to ship 1300 Vermont
National Guards to replace 200 now in Iraq.
3. This war is based on lies about weapons of mass destruction, links to
Al Queda, and building democracy. Think about it: a lie about sex was
grounds for impeaching Clinton. This president told lies to get us into an
illegal war.
4. So far the war cost $150 billion. Money taken from education, health
care, and decent paying jobs.

Iraqis want us out and their resistance is growing rapidly. That means
more troops, more killed, more wounded, and more cost to continue an
illegal war.

Vermonters have a tradition of independent thought and politicians, like
Bernie, Jim Jeffords, the Progressives, and the Greens. In this spirit,
the Vermont AG ought to be the one to initiate a broad national coalition
of attorneys general, labor unions, civic organizations, soldiers and
their families, to file war crimes charges against Bush and Cheney and
those large corporations-- including Halliburton--responsible for
launching this illegal war. We urgently need a legal strategy to delay or
prevent more national guard soldiers from being sent to fight in this
illegal war, and we need an AG who will work on it.

Constitutional rights:

The Vermont Attorney General ought to file suit to declare the Patriot Act
unconstitutional. They say its unconstitutional provisions are for
terrorists. But Mr. Ashcroft already used it against labor - against
dockworkers in California. One out of four of the world's prisoners are in
US jails, half of them non-violent, while many corporate criminals go free
or get light sentences. There is a war going on against poor and working
people disguised as a war on drugs while corporate crime runs rampant. The
Vermont Attorney General ought to end that war in Vermont, sharply
reducing our prison population.

Corporations and their workers:

Vermont law prohibits age discrimination. The Vermont Attorney General
ought to file suit to protect hundreds of older workers laid off by IBM in
Vermont in violation of this law.

A lot of things are illegal. Poverty wages ought to be one of them. Just
as the ACLU found a theory for equal rights to education and equal rights
to protection of marriage, the Vermont AG ought to find constitutional
support for equal rights to a living wage. Offshoring jobs ought to be
illegal too. Tax incentives for large profitable corporations that lay off
workers, and increases in executive pay derived from layoffs or cuts in
pay or benefits ought to be illegal too.

The Vermont Attorney General ought to find legal support for expanding the
right of workers to organize unions in Vermont. The Vermont Attorney
General ought to initiate a coalition of attorneys general to crack down
on corporate crime by large corporations that looted trillions of dollars
from workers, investors, pension holders and consumers, including IBMers,
in the last four years. Our AG should strengthen enforcement to protect
equal rights in Vermont regardless of age, class, nationality, disability,
race, gender, or sexual orientation from corporations, like IBM, that
flagrantly violate some of those rights.

Health care:

What about equal rights to health care? We need an AG who will find a
legal theory so every Vermonter can enjoy an equal right to health care.
After all, life is protected under the constitution. We need a single
payer system that maintains choice, cuts administrative costs, and
improves health care for all while lowering overall cost and providing
that basic constitutional right.

Free elections:

We claim to have a democracy but we have a governor and a lt. governor,
not to mention a president, who did not receive a majority of the votes.
The Vermont AG ought to recommend a majority voting scheme like Instant
Runoff Voting to eliminate the spoiler effect, encourage more choices,
voices, ideas, and parties running in elections, and end the twin
corporate party monopoly of political power. The Vermont Attorney General
ought to file suit to get corporate money out of the electoral system.

If elected I will do these things. Thank you very much.

For more information: http://www.vermontgreens.org/jamesleas.html


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