A
Congressional Campaign for Peace in 2008
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Eugene
E Ruyle Peace
and Freedom Party a veteran &
grandfather for peace 10th CD (parts of
Contra Costa, Alameda, &
Solano Counties) |
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I
am running for Congress so people donÕt have to vote for the twin parties of
war, corporate capitalism, and financial fraud. It is my way of honoring the
memory of Martin Luther King, Medgar Evars, and countless other martyrs of the
Civil Rights movement who have given so much to win our right to vote. People
should not only have the right to vote, but also the right to vote for peace
and socialism. I am proud that the Peace & Freedom Party selected Ralph
Nader as our Presidential Candidate.
I
see my campaign as educational, designed to raise issues of peace, justice, and
sustainability within the electoral process, issues which are unlikely to be
raised otherwise. I am running on the Platform of the Peace and Freedom Party,
but I also support the Ten Key Values of the Green Movement. I see myself as
socialist, feminist, environmentalist, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist. I
participated in the WTO protests in Seattle and want to bring the spirit of
Seattle and the global peace and justice movement into the 2008 elections.
Background and
qualifications: I was born
and raised in Concord, California and graduated from Mt. Diablo High and UC,
Berkeley. I served in the US Marine Corps from 1957-1960. I earned an MA from
Yale and a PhD from Columbia University. I retired from Cal State Long Beach in
December 2006 after a 35 year career teaching Anthropology and Marxism. I
helped found the Peace Studies Program at CSULB, was active in the Peter Carr
Peace Center and our faculty union, and worked closely with the Native American
community in their struggle to save Puvungna, the sacred creation center of the
Gabrielino/Tongva people located on the campus of Cal State Long Beach. I was a
Peace and Freedom Party candidate for Congress in Long Beach in 1982. I am
currently affiliated with the Institute for the Critical Study of Society at
the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland.
I
am not asking for any financial support. I urge people to visit the following
web sites for more information and to contribute to the Peace & Freedom
Party and the Nader/Gonzalez campaign.
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for more info: tel: 510 428-1578 email: cuyleruyle@mac.com |
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Socialism * Democracy *
Ecology * Feminism * Racial Equality
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Why Socialism?
For most of my
professional career as an anthropologist, I have been concerned with
understanding our species, the problems we face as a species, and the role of
my country in finding solutions. After considering all the alternatives and all
the evidence, I have come to the conclusion that the problems we face as
Americans and as a species are all products of capitalism and cannot be solved
within the framework of capitalism. A new social and economic system,
socialism, is necessary to provide the framework to address issues such as war,
poverty, racism, sexism, pollution, health care, education, immigration, and
global warming.
Socialism will
come to America when the American people want it; socialism cannot and should
not be imposed on Americans against their will. By the same logic, however, the
United States does not have the right to prevent other nations from adopting
socialism or any other economic system they chose. Yet this has been the
dominant aim of U.S. foreign policy since WWII. This has not benefited the
freedom and well being of the American people. Americans are less free and less
secure because of U.S. meddling in the internal affairs of other nations to
make the world safe for U.S. corporations.
Socialism is a
complex science requiring careful study. Briefly, we can highlight three
pillars of socialism: Peace and Disarmament, Guaranteed Employment, and
Environmental Sustainability.
Peace and Disarmament: Immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces
from Iraq and Afghanistan is of course a must. The U.S. must also honor the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in which non-nuclear nations agreed to give
up the right to build nuclear weapons and the United States and other nuclear
nations agreed Òto pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures
relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear
disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict
and effective international control.Ó (Article VI) Disarmament would free
tremendous resources to address social and environmental concerns.
Guaranteed Employment: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted by the United Nations sixty years ago, guarantees everyone, in America
and around the world, Òthe right to work, to free choice of employment, to just
and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemploymentÓ and
Òto just and favorable remuneration ensuring for themselves and their family an
existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other
means of social protection.Ó The right to quality free heath care and free
education must also be established and all forms of racism and sexism
abolished.
Environmental Sustainability: Americans must learn to share our planet
with six billion other people so that we can meet our needs while preserving
the earth for future generations. We must address the issue of global warming
and end the ecological destruction caused by capitalism and build a new society
that is in harmony with nature as well as our own people. Important steps
include ending dependence of fossil fuels and nuclear power, development of
solar technology and other renewable, non-polluting energy sources, massive
development of free public transportation, and rigorous environmental
protection.
In order to build
a socialist world of peace, social justice, and ecological sanity, the workers
and oppressed people of America and the world must organize as a class, take
possession of the Earth and the machinery of production, and create a world in
which, as Marx put it, Òthe free development of each is the condition for the
free development of all.Ó
Think Outside the
Capitalist Box —
—
Consider Socialism!