Massachusetts Peace Action proudly announces its endorsement of Bernie Sanders for President and vows to work hard for his victory in the Massachusetts March 3 Democratic primary and beyond.
“In a crowded Democratic field, Senator Sanders is the leading voice for a foreign policy based on international law, diplomacy and human rights,” said Andrea Burns, co-chair of the Political Committee of Mass. Peace Action (MAPA). “A Sanders administration will work to shift priorities from imperialism abroad to robust social programs, including a Green New Deal, that will contribute to real national security.”
Sanders helped lead the opposition to the Iraq war in 2002, one of the most disastrous foreign policy decisions in American history. He has also voted against ever-increasing military budgets, including every Pentagon budget increase during the Trump presidency. In the Senate this year, he led the successful struggle to pass a War Powers Resolution to end US support for the Saudi war in Yemen, the first time since 1973 that Congress has voted to end a war in progress, although it failed to overturn Trump’s veto. Now he proposes to use US military aid as leverage to push Israel to desist from policies that violate Palestinian human rights. Policies to reduce militarism and war are antiracist. A Sanders Presidency will mean that the US will be killing fewer civilians in wars around the world, most or all of whom would be people of color. Sign up to help elect Bernie!
More about Bernie Sanders
Massachusetts for Bernie Sanders The Candidates on Foreign Policy by national Peace Action |
Sanders has repeatedly connected militarism, great power politics, and the climate emergency to call for a major turn towards peace and a livable world. In a July 16 interview with the Washington Post, he said: “As president of the United States what I would do…is go to Russia, go to China, go to Brazil, go to India, and say maybe instead of spending $1.5 trillion every year on weapons of destruction designed to kill each other, maybe we should use those resources to fight our common enemy, which is climate change…That has got to be the goal.”
As a central theme in the speech announcing his candidacy, Sanders called for cutting the military budget and redirecting the money to meet domestic needs. He consistently names the military-industrial complex one of the corporate power centers people will need to organize against to achieve an economy that works for all of us. He proclaims that national policies have been shaped by a tiny class of billionaires: of the military-industrial complex, the oil Industry, Wall Street, the pharmaceutical and health-insurance industries, and argues that they need to be radically transformed to serve the interests of working people and everyone else.
Sen. Sanders is building a powerful movement to bring about the profound changes he advocates. His rallies begin with movement leaders speaking of the struggles they are waging to propel change. Sanders’s slogan is “Not me, Us,” and at every opportunity he speaks of the need to mobilize the American people to challenge corporate rulers and their lobbies in order to achieve his campaign’s goals. He believes working people must become protagonists in a democratic transformation of the very foundations of our society and economy, not only by voting for him in primaries and in November 2020, but also afterwards, by working for the profound changes we need.
John Ratliff, a Vietnam War veteran and Mass. Peace Action’s economic justice coordinator, summed up the feeling of many members when he said about Bernie Sanders, “I never thought I would see in my lifetime a person who so deeply shares the values of those of us in the peace and justice movements rise to become a leading candidate in a US presidential race. This is our chance to make a difference.”
With the Trump Administration’s assault on democracy, the environment, immigrants, women, and workers, and its rapid increases in military spending and confrontational foreign policy, a wide range of candidates has entered the race; several discuss war and peace issues more than is usual in candidate debates, thanks largely to Sanders’s initiatives.
We have great respect for Elizabeth Warren, who has been a popular and effective senator representing our state. She has developed many progressive proposals and pro-peace positions. Warren filed and led on a bill for no first use of nuclear weapons. She favors cuts in the military budget, advocates bringing our troops home from endless wars, criticizes military-industrial complex corruption at the Defense Department, and opposed US involvement in Yemen. Yet, to engage in the election, we have to choose, and we choose Bernie Sanders.
Massachusetts Peace Action’s endorsement applies only in Massachusetts; our national organization, Peace Action, has made no endorsement.
“Senator Sanders has a truly transformative vision that rises to the scale and urgency of our crises and injustices,” said MAPA member Charlie Keller. “He is the only candidate who offers a multiracial, bottom-up movement capable of actually overcoming entrenched powers that benefit from today’s order — and of achieving the better world we need now more than ever.”
MAPA will mobilize its members and allies in the coming months in support of Senator Sanders’ candidacy. Sign up to help elect Bernie!
