Peace & Freedom Party Chair: Coronavirus Pandemic shows need for Socialist solutions

The current coronavirus pandemic calls attention to the need for many of the changes in our country that the Peace and Freedom Party has been advocating for decades.

Health Care: We need health assurance, not health insurance. The U.S. must join the rest of the modern world in making sure that everyone, rich or poor, citizen or not, has access to free, good quality health care, and the medications needed to combat illnesses and/or stay healthy. Only easy access to health care creates a healthy society.

Sick Leave: Every working adult must have adequate paid sick leave options when they are ill. Such a policy can assure us all that sick workers do not spread their illnesses to co-workers and the general public, and paid sick leave allows ill people to seek medical treatment without jeopardizing their employment or their family finances.

Child Care: Our society needs to provide free childcare for all working parents. Too often parents must choose between job or school opportunities and the need to care for their children. A national childcare system would also provide thousands of jobs for trained child care workers.

Guaranteed Income: We all need the assurance that we will not end up on the street when job loss or other disasters strike. Only a guaranteed income can provide the financial stability for people to weather personal or national tough times. It can also allow us the freedom to pursue our dreams without worrying about that next meal or a roof over our heads.

Medical Research: The inadequate response of the federal government to the coronavirus pandemic shows the need to dramatically increase the government’s spending on basic, and applied, medical and pharmaceutical research. This research must be publically funded and not a source of profit for private companies.

As long as doctors’ offices, hospitals, pharmacies, and the pharmaceutical industry are private operations that demand private profits, working class people will face inadequate care when they need it the most. We need a transformation from capitalism to a socialist system which is owned and operated by the people for the good of all, not by private companies for their own profits.

The Peace and Freedom Party has been calling for these programs for years. It is not too late to implement these changes. Please join your voice and your vote to our call for progressive public health changes.

–John C. Reiger
State Chair, Peace and Freedom Party