Update: IRSN Comrade on Peace & Freedom Ticket
Oct 4, 2009
Today, members of Peace & Freedom Alameda County organized an event at People's Park, for publicly-funded single payer health care. There was a concert/rally at which Mary McIlroy, a comrade of the International Republican Socialist Network spoke.
The Contra Costa P&FP chair, Frank Running Horse, has put together a group called "United for Health Care Justice," and has done some good organizing on it. He got some students from DiabloValleyCollege's Students for a Democratic Society and a few others out for the event and they marched through the Cal campus to People's Park, pretty much doubling the attendance, though numbers were not large. In addition to IRSN comrade Mary McIlroy, who is running for the US Congress, Frank Running Horse and Gerald Sanders spoke at the event..
In her speech, Mary said that the health care reform debate isn't really about health care, it's about health care finance. She also said that we, the working class, create the wealth, and we should benefit from that wealth. It's not a matter of resources, but a matter of priorities. The theme for the event was Single Payer Health Care, not Warfare, and Mary added that we're trillions of dollars in debt over the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, so the US government could pay for health care for everyone. Mary's remarks were well-received.
The other big thing recently on Mary's campaign trail was a "town hall" meeting that Assemblyperson Nancy Skinner held. Skinner's district includes Berkeley, Albany, Richmond and out to Moraga, Orinda and Lafayette. The meeting was held at St. Mary's College and was focused on the State budget cuts to, specifically, the prisons. There was a panel that included a former warden of San Quentin, a representative from California Prison Watch, and a captain from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department. Interestingly not a single "law & order" type asked a question. Mary handed out leaflets and talked with some of the people attending about her campaign.
Mary's campaign is being waged on a solid working class basis and she is seeking to use this as a forum for putting forward a revolutionary socialist analysis.
Today, members of Peace & Freedom Alameda County organized an event at People's Park, for publicly-funded single payer health care. There was a concert/rally at which Mary McIlroy, a comrade of the International Republican Socialist Network spoke.
The Contra Costa P&FP chair, Frank Running Horse, has put together a group called "United for Health Care Justice," and has done some good organizing on it. He got some students from DiabloValleyCollege's Students for a Democratic Society and a few others out for the event and they marched through the Cal campus to People's Park, pretty much doubling the attendance, though numbers were not large. In addition to IRSN comrade Mary McIlroy, who is running for the US Congress, Frank Running Horse and Gerald Sanders spoke at the event..
In her speech, Mary said that the health care reform debate isn't really about health care, it's about health care finance. She also said that we, the working class, create the wealth, and we should benefit from that wealth. It's not a matter of resources, but a matter of priorities. The theme for the event was Single Payer Health Care, not Warfare, and Mary added that we're trillions of dollars in debt over the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, so the US government could pay for health care for everyone. Mary's remarks were well-received.
The other big thing recently on Mary's campaign trail was a "town hall" meeting that Assemblyperson Nancy Skinner held. Skinner's district includes Berkeley, Albany, Richmond and out to Moraga, Orinda and Lafayette. The meeting was held at St. Mary's College and was focused on the State budget cuts to, specifically, the prisons. There was a panel that included a former warden of San Quentin, a representative from California Prison Watch, and a captain from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department. Interestingly not a single "law & order" type asked a question. Mary handed out leaflets and talked with some of the people attending about her campaign.
Mary's campaign is being waged on a solid working class basis and she is seeking to use this as a forum for putting forward a revolutionary socialist analysis.