Monday, October 30, 2006

An Open Letter to the Progressive Movement on the Stop the War Slate

Dear fellow anti-war activists,

The last couple of weeks have made clear that the war in Iraq is the critical issue in the elections nationwide. With 65% of the population opposed to the war, the Democrats are demagogically trying to divert this opposition to the war into support for their candidates. And the media is generally going along with this ploy.

The fact of the matter is that the Democrats have consistently supported Bush’s war in Iraq. The last Senate vote on the military budget and appropriations for the war was 100-0. To this date, the Democrats stand opposed to the only real solution to the war – to end it now by withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq immediately.

Debbie Stabenow, incumbent Democrat for Senate, has voted for every appropriation for the war. She echoes the Bush-Rumsfield line about the Iraqis assuming more responsibility for the war, a universally discredited position in light of the massive defections by the Iraqi military and police whenever faced with resistance.

Last week the Michigan Citizen, Detroit’s largest and most progressive African American weekly newspaper, endorsed David Sole for U.S. Senate. I urge all anti-war activists to support the Sole for Senate campaign. Don’t throw away your vote on Debbie Stabenow, a pro-war, anti-immigrant, anti-civil liberties and anti-worker candidate who will betray every progressive principle.

With regard to his program, David Sole states: “I call for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. I call for using the billions wasted on the Pentagon’s wars to fund health care, housing, jobs at living wages, and to rebuild our cities. I am for amnesty and legalization for undocumented workers, not the racist fence to keep out immigrants supported by Stabenow and Bouchard. I am for protecting civil liberties and for repeal of the Patriot Act and Military Commission Bill, in contrast to Stabenow and Bouchard’s support for torture and detention without due process. And I am for genuinely protecting workers’ pensions by not allowing corporations to use the bankruptcy process to eliminate the pensions and benefits of the workers, unlike Stabenow and Bouchard who both supported last year’s anti-worker bankruptcy act.”

Please help get out the word about the Sole for Senate and Green Party campaign over the next week Come to a campaign rally next Saturday, November 4, 2006, 5:00 p.m., at Central United Methodist Church, 23 E. Adams in Detroit. The leaflet is attached. Donations are desperately needed. Send donations to Sole for Senate Campaign, 5922 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48202. For more information about the campaign, visit the following Urls: http://www.stopthewarslate.org, and for information on the entire Green Party campaign, visit http://www.migreens.org

Sincerely,
Jerry Goldberg for the Sole for Senate Campaign

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