By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
The Socialist Party of Eastern Alabama, a chapter of Socialist Party USA, announced that they were officially charted in Auburn on Friday.
The groups said that this is, “A collective effort to fight for equality against the rising tide of white supremacy we were seeing on campus at Auburn University.”
SPEA claims that they were, “Established by comrades from various walks of life – local activists, educators, students, engineers, artists, veterans and wage laborers – all interested in improving the lives of the disenfranchised, exploited and oppressed peoples of Alabama”
The group said in a statement, “Together with SPUSA members across the state, and the Socialist Party of Central Alabama, SPEA aims to promote a progressive agenda which will uplift our poor and working-class communities, stand in solidarity with minorities, the LGBT community, and protect the rights of our Muslim brothers and sisters.”
The group promised, “We will promote this agenda by partnering with local activist/advocacy organizations, as well as worker and trade unions, to support the demands of those underrepresented peoples; we aim to implement community projects which will unite neighborhoods and create a sense of communal responsibility; we will nominate candidates for public office who will put the welfare of Alabama’s people before the welfare of Alabama’s corporate interests.”
The group claimed, “It is time to end the corruption inundating politics in Alabama and replace it with a government that works for the people. This can not be accomplished in our current system. In Alabama, we live in a society where the average person has limited access to representation. Many politicians run unopposed in the primaries and many run unopposed in the general election. This creates a system in which politicians accomplish little, embezzle often, and don’t leave office until they are forced to resign or are thrown in jail. We deserve better.”
SPEA continued, “Alabama faces problems with illiteracy, poverty, corruption, low access to healthcare, over-incarceration & poor prisoner rights. Republicans and Democrats have made careers of pretending to care, without attacking these problems at their root: lack of access to fair wages, good education, and a just system.”
The Socialist Party USA has a very lengthy and detailed platform.
They favoror, “The abolition of every form of domination and exploitation, whether based on social class, gender, race/ethnicity, age, education, sexual orientation, or other characteristics” and are committed to the transformation of capitalism through the creation of a democratic socialist society based on compassion, empathy, and respect as well as the development of new social structures.”
They claim that, “Socialism will establish a new social and economic order in which workers and community members will take responsibility for and control of their interpersonal relationships, their neighborhoods, their local government, and the production and distribution of all goods and services.” “As we pursue a socialist transformation of society, we join with others in making radical demands on the existing system: demands that challenge the basic assumptions of a capitalist market economy while pointing the way to a new society. Although reforms will not in themselves bring about socialism, the fight for them will advance the cause by demonstrating the inherent limitations and injustice of the capitalist system. As we build the socialist movement, we organize around a platform committed to our common and interdependent struggles and aspirations.” “ Only a global transformation from capitalism to democratic socialism will provide the conditions for international peace, justice, and economic cooperation based on the large-scale transfer of resources and technology from the developed to the developing countries.”
They oppose the free trade agreements. They want “workers and community ownership and control of corporations within the framework of a decentralized and democratically determined economic plan.” They are calling for a $15 per hour minimum wage, a full employment policy, and a livable guaranteed annual income.
For all financial and insurance institutions, “to be socially owned and operated by a democratically-controlled national banking authority, which should include credit unions, mutual insurance cooperatives, and cooperative state banks.”
They have a lengthy platform in which among many other things they favor: open borders, abolishing the fur trade, telling farmers how to raise animals, high speed rail, public sector unions having strike rights, expanded public transit, a socialist healthcare system, full citizenship rights after just six months of residence in the country, oppose all copyrights, government ownership of all natural resources, support alternative energy, public support for book and magazine, and are for tying income to utility rates, support a ban on all GMOs, oppose nuclear power, phasing out landfills and opposed in incineration, abolishing the FBI, support lowering the voting age to 15, legalization of prostitution, etc.
