Gloria La Riva

[Phantom Dreamer]

By Nik Wojcik

Gloria La Riva doesn’t expect to become the next American president. She knows the odds are stacked against any third-party nominee, let alone a socialist. But that isn’t stopping her from running for the second time.

In some states, La Riva will be on the ballot with vice presidential candidate Dennis Banks as the Peace and Freedom Party, but in some she is with Eugene Puryear as the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The platforms for both are explicitly socialist.

But La Riva and party organizers at the Mission Street campaign office said the Sanders phenomena has helped to open doors.

“We get very, very little pushback for being socialists,” La Riva said. “It’s much easier to talk about socialism now.”

Nick Pardee, an organizer for the Peace and Freedom Party, recognizes Sanders’ role in bringing the word socialism out into the light and making it allowable for people to discuss.

“Other than that, he totally capitulated to Hillary Clinton and he really sold out,” Pardee said.

A broad ideological space separates La Riva from Sanders but the Peace and Freedom candidate doesn’t attribute the differences to the word democratic.

“I always say that socialism is democratic because people have a say,” La Riva said. “I believe that democracy really has to do with essential human rights.”

The party’s core platform and 10-point program outlined on their website are built around the claim that a socialist system can eradicate institutionalized racism, police brutality and mass incarceration as well as grant citizenship to all residents and ensure equality for all women and LGBTQ+ people.

Pardee hopes the party can get their plan out to the widest audience possible and compel some to learn more. He was personally attracted to the party because they share his belief that people have a right to live with dignity in work, home, health and education and that capitalism inhibits that goal.

Despite their involvement in the current political landscape, La Riva and Pardee agree that the end of capitalism won’t likely be the result of any election.

“We don’t believe in the electoral system as a fair and just example of democracy,” Pardee said.

La Riva doesn’t think socialism will happen in the United States through elections.

“It’s just not possible,” La Riva said. “It’s a locked up system for the two parties of capitalist power to maintain their power…so the role of the party is to expose the lies of the candidates…to provide an alternative for people to vote, but also to show again the power that people have outside the elections.”

La Riva’s motive in running for president is less about winning and more about inspiring people toward a mass movement to demand justice for people on all fronts.

“That’s an important concept to understand, that the people make the change,” La Riva said. “Revolution and socialism comes about when the people are in motion.”

La Riva says it’s important for her party to be wherever the people are struggling for justice and to support causes like free healthcare and education, the Fight for 15, opposition to war, police brutality and equality for all residents.

Pardee fears that we’ll only become more conservative and pro-military with either of the major party candidates.

“The idea that you have to vote for the lesser evil makes it so that every four years the candidates are shifting farther and farther to the right,” Pardee said. “A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for war.”

La Riva and her supporters don’t plan to rest after the election results come in next month. The Peace and Freedom Party is looking to engage people beyond the scope of the election and have organized a counter-inaugural march in Washington DC on Jan. 20.

“Let’s start fighting on Nov. 9,” La Riva said. “We’re going to launch a mass announcement in this country – that all people should join together to demand the things that everybody needs.”

[Vlad n U 2]

I think she's alright, pretty good, but not sure we're really going to get a good discussion going on a candidate as minor and relatively insignificant as her.

[BVS]

Originally Posted by Vlad n U 2

a candidate as minor and relatively insignificant as her.

She has no real stage, she just seems to want to ride on Sanders coat tails.


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[Hewson]

What is her stance on elastic waist bands?

[Phantom Dreamer]

The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism. 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. Our goals cannot be achieved by electoral means alone. We support mass organization, direct action, a militant labor movement, and establishment of alternative institutions. We offer this summary of our immediate and long-range goals:

Double the minimum wage, and index it to the cost of living.
Guarantee the right of all workers to organize and to strike; forbid striker replacement.
Socially useful jobs for all at union pay levels.
Equal pay for equal work, and for work of comparable worth.
A 30-hour workweek with no cut in weekly pay; longer paid vacations.
A Universal Basic Income with full social benefits as a basic human right.
Tax the income and assets of the rich to meet human needs.
International trade agreements must guarantee the protection of workers and the environment in all participating countries; abolish NAFTA, GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
End homelessness; abolish vagrancy laws; provide decent affordable housing for all.
Cancellation of all debts found to be illegitimate and unjust to the working class through an open and democratic process not controlled by the creditors.
Social ownership and democratic control of industry, financial institutions, and natural resources.
The United States should take the initiative toward global disarmament by eliminating nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Withdraw U. S. troops and weapons from other countries, and reallocate the resulting "peace dividend" for social benefit.
Abolish the CIA, NSA, AID and other agencies for interference in other countries' internal affairs.
No drones for killing or invasion of privacy.
Convert from a military to a peace oriented economy, with jobs for displaced workers.
Self-determination for all nations and peoples of the world, including Puerto Rico and all U. S. territories.
Defend and extend liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
Repeal the Patriot Act. Dismantle the Department of Homeland Security.
End Corporate Personhood: Corporations are not people and money is not speech.
End discrimination based on race, sex, age, sexual orientation, or disability.
Restore affirmative action, guarantee full education and employment rights for all.
Support the right of working people to keep and bear arms.
Protect digital freedom and privacy, and net neutrality.
No prison labor for private profit.
Abolish the death penalty.
Abolish all torture in prisons. Uphold prisoner rights.
Full rights for all immigrant workers. No human is illegal. Stop ICE raids. Stop jailing and deporting immigrants.
Democratic elections through proportional representation; full political, social and economic rights for resident non-citizens.
Honor treaties with Native American nations; recognize California's Native American nations. Defend and extend Native American rights and sovereignty.
Full free high quality public education from pre-school through graduate school, with lifelong learning and retraining. Cancel existing student debt.
Teach the history of workers' struggles and labor's creation of society's wealth and progress.
End high stakes testing. Abolish charter schools and stop voucher schemes.
Free day care for all children.
Restore and strengthen bilingual education.
Uncensored government funding for ordinary people to create and enjoy art.
Free high-quality health care for everyone, including birth control, abortion, pre-natal and childhood health care. No forced sterilizations.
Scientific and technological research to benefit ordinary people, not the capitalists.
Legalize marijuana, decriminalize drug use, and make substance abuse treatment freely available.
Give special attention to preventing epidemics of communicable diseases such as AIDS. Guarantee the rights of people living with AIDS.
Restore and protect air, water, land and ecosystems.
Outlaw destructive practices such as clear cutting, fracking, mountaintop removal, tar sands extraction, and offshore drilling.
Promote conservation and develop solar and other renewable energy to replace nuclear power and fossil fuels.
End environmental racism: no toxic dumping in anyone's back yard.
Massive development of public transportation available free or at nominal fares.
Promote an environmentally sound agricultural system which meets human needs and protects farm workers' labor rights and standard of living. No genetically engineered organisms in food production.
Last revised by the State Central Committee on March 23, 2014.

[Axver]

What's up with representing two different parties depending on state?

I must admit, besides occasionally seeing her name or those of the parties (and not realising until now the crossover), I know nothing about her.

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Neither does anyone else

[Hewson]

Should be easy enough to pay for all those things too.
Government could sell elastic waist banded baseball pants to all Americans to raise the necessary funding, or tax income at 105%.

[BVS]

The party of free shit I don't have to think of how to pay for...

I guess that just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.


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[Kieran McConville]

Or they could just, you know, tax the rich more heavily, hey wait, that's in their list of program items (ha, I say 'just', but really, that along with a bunch of other things).

I get that this party won't be taking the White House any time soon, but that doesn't make them utterly incoherent.

[Vlad n U 2]

Originally Posted by BVS

The party of free shit I don't have to think of how to pay for...

I guess that just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.


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Here comes BVS with the generic big take.

[BVS]

Originally Posted by Vlad n U 2

Here comes BVS with the generic big take.

Well isn't that what this was about? I mean, it was started with a cut and paste job with absolutely no input or question for discussion.

Look, a lot of the platform is very attractive, but you need substance.

Who pays for the free daycare? Who runs it?

How do you force companies to lose more than a day of the week of production without cutting pay?

Yeah, it was generic, because the starting point was generic.


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[Vlad n U 2]

I mean, I would definitely like the OP to contribute to the discussion. Because it feels like I have to step in.

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Grow the game!!

[Phantom Dreamer]

She's received over 64,000 votes in California. Incredible!

[Phantom Dreamer]

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