From The Socialist Archives


[Seamus Whelan recieved over three thousand votes onprimary day in Boston September 24, 2013]

******

A Voice for the 99%!

Seamus Whelan for City Council At-Large

As a Boston resident for over 25 years, and a West Roxbury resident for 16 of those years, I see many Boston families facing home foreclosures, school closures and cuts in vital programs while the super rich get corporate handouts and tax breaks. I believe we need to change the way we do politics by electing candidates that will resist the corporate domination of politics and who will support and help build the struggles of the 99%.

For 15 years, I have been a bedside registered nurse and active union member in the Massachusetts Nurses Association. I believe that it is not enough to take care of patients when admitted to hospital but on discharge real solutions to the causes of peoples illness and suffering must be found.

I have helped to organize community campaigns for quality guaranteed health care and against high stakes standardized testing in our schools. As an activist in Socialist Alternative and as a nurse activist, I am involved in a campaign for safe staffing in our hospitals and care centers, necessary to allow the safe delivery and provision of quality care to Boston residents.

In the capitalist economic crisis, politicians of both parties at the local, state and national level have proposed bailouts for the banks and big companies while workers and youth face slashed social programs and attacks on union rights. Workers and youth need to stand up and fight back in the streets, workplaces and in elections against the right-wing agenda of the 1%.

Boston is controlled by unelected organizations, from the school committee to the Boston Redevelopment Authority to the MBTA Board and the vultures on State Street. We need an economy that works for everyone and not just the rich and powerful. We must organize to build structures that allow working people make the important decisions that affect our lives.

We Demand:

Jobs for All at a Living Wage - For a public works program to improve our social programs and infrastructure with union jobs. Raise the minimum wage to $15 / hour.

Improve education - decrease class sizes by hiring more teachers and end the high-stakes standardized testing. Stop the privatization and union-busting in education. For an elected Boston School Committee as a step towards community control of the schools.

Housing is a Human Right - an end to home foreclosures and evictions. Make the banks pay, not ordinary homeowners. For a ceiling on rent to make housing quality and affordable for all. Elect the Boston Redevelopment Authority - for democratic city planning.

Stop Discrimination - End the deportation of immigrants. For democratic community control of public safety to stop police violence.

Expand Public Transportation - Save the environment and create jobs with more public transportation. End the T fare hikes and service cuts; for a democratically-elected MBTA Board.

How Can We Win These Demands?

We need a mass movement of working people and youth to take mass direct action against the policies of the 1%. We need to prepare protests and strikes against layoffs, attacks on union rights and cuts to social spending. To get better services, we need to tax the 1% and the corporations. We need a mass party of working people to resist the Democrats and Republicans who are dominated by corporate interests. We need a socialist movement to raise consciousness and to resist the blind alley of capitalism.

The Vote Whelan campaign for City Council is part of a growing movement to challenge corporate control of politics and our lives. If elected, Seamus Whelan will take the wage of an average worker, donating the rest to movements against the rule of the 1%. Whelan would use his City Council position to publicize struggles against injustice and call hearings and protests to build a movement for more jobs, better schools and fundamental socialist change.

Find out how you can help! Visit (facebook page for campaign) to become part of the growing movement for fundamental change.

Socialist Alternative website and logo with phone number.