Civil rights attorney and socialist to run in California recall election

[IndianaGreen]

John Christopher Burton, civil rights attorney and socialist, to run in California recall election
By Barry Grey
9 August 2003

Burton is opposing the recall effort, which has been financed and organized by right-wing Republican forces in California. He is calling for a “no” vote on the question of recalling Davis, a Democrat who was reelected nine months ago.

While opposing the recall, however, Burton is giving no political support to the policies of Davis or the Democratic Party, who are collaborating with the Republicans to place the burden of the fiscal crisis in the state on the backs of the working people.

Burton is running in order to put forward a democratic and socialist alternative to both parties of big business. He is calling on Californians to vote for him in order to express, in the event of a successful recall of Davis, their support for the building of a genuinely independent political movement based on the working class.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/aug2003/jcb-a09.shtml

Socialist Equality Party endorses campaign of John Christopher Burton in California
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party
9 August 2003

The unstated plan of the multimillionaires who have spearheaded the recall drive, such as Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, is to remove all legal and moral restrictions on the accumulation of private wealth and corporate profit. In the guise of a “grass roots” movement against an unpopular governor, the Republican right seeks to implement policies that are broadly opposed by the voters of California.

They are targeting for destruction such basic social necessities as public education, public health care, housing subsidies and other welfare benefits. They want to scuttle all laws protecting the environment and workers’ health and safety. They aim to further reduce taxation of corporations and the very wealthy.

The irony—which the media takes care to obscure—is that these very forces in the corporate and political underworld played a critical role in the economic destabilization of California. It is no secret that Enron’s Kenneth Lay—for years the biggest financial backer of George W. Bush and confidante of Dick Cheney—played a central role in precipitating the energy crisis that wracked the state in 2001, withholding energy supplies to boost prices and profits while economic and social life teetered on the brink of chaos. During the entire course of the energy crisis, Lay was defended and protected by the Bush administration.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/aug2003/sep-a09.shtml

[sujan]

1. I endorse him