Sunday, 22 March 2020
Trump and the Democratic Party establishment’s response to Coronavirus has been a disaster. Working class people, especially healthcare workers, teachers, transit workers, grocery, and service sector workers don’t have the resources and supplies to stay safe. Meanwhile, 30 million Americans don’t have health insurance, and many more face catastrophically high copays and deductibles if they seek treatment. Even with an impending recession, which could affect health coverage for millions of workers facing layoffs, Trump resists any structural change to the healthcare industry, and Joe Biden has pledged to veto any form of Medicare for All if elected president.
In Seattle, Socialist Alternative City Councilmember Kshama Sawant rapidly built a grassroots coalition to win a ban on evictions, becoming the first city in the country to do so. In addition, she is organizing to #TaxAmazon to immediately fund an adequate Coronavirus response, and when the current crisis is contained to build high quality social housing. Councilmember Sawant achieved this because she ran as an independent socialist who is accountable to working people’s needs, not the Democratic Party leadership, which is tied by a million threads to corporations and big pharma. Join us for this important discussion on why a SOCIALIST response is needed to fight the Coronavirus.
Virtual Town Hall featuring
* Kshama Sawant: Seattle City Councilmember, Socialist Alternative
* Shaun King: Journalist, Activist & Co-Founder of Real Justice PAC
* Joshua Collins: 26 y/o Socialist Truck Driver Running for US Congress
* Julia Salazar: New York State Senator, Democratic Socialists of America
* Mike Sylvester: Maine State Rep, Democratic Socialists of America
* Jaco Lam: Socialist Action, Hong Kong
* Brian Cina: Vermont State Rep, Vermont Progressive Party
* Valeria Beta: International Socialist Alternative, Genoa, Italy
* Marty Harrison: Philadelphia Nurse, Executive Board Temple University Hospital Nurses Association
* Alicia Gallardo: Communications Director, Rent Strike 2020
* Eljeer Hawkins: NYC Healthcare Worker, Surgical Technician, Socialist Alternative
*Lee J Carter — Socialist Delegate in Virginia, VA Bernie co-chair
- Tax big business for the immediate emergency funding needed for the scale of this crisis
- Freeze all rent and mortgage payments or we will launch a rent strike! No evictions! No foreclosures!
- Immediate cash assistance to replace ALL lost wages
- Bring banks and big corporations who demand bailouts or attempt major unnecessary layoffs into democratic public ownership.
- All corporations who call for bailouts or announce layoffs must open the books and disclose financial information, like CEO pay, to the public
- Free mass testing, free treatment & Medicare for All! Reopen and safely staff all closed hospitals and build emergency clinics, especially in rural areas
- Committees of workers and scientists in essential industries — including healthcare, transportation, logistics, grocery — should be given democratic powers over the response to the crisis
- Protective equipment such as masks, sanitizers, and gloves must be guaranteed to all workers
- End the racist mass incarceration system & immediately release all immigrants from detention centers
- In the US, we need a new party of, by, and for working people #DriveOutTrump #NeverBiden
- We need a socialist alternative to the bankrupt system of capitalism
