March, 16 2020, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael O’Neil, Communications Manager | meo@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Holly Hart, Co-chair, Media Committee | media@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Craig Seeman, Co-chair, Media Committee | media@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Greens on Proposed Coronavirus Legislation: Far Too Little, But It's Not Too Late
Green Party leaders have expressed alarm upon learning the U.S. House legislation passed on March 13 addressing the COVID-19 pandemic fails to guarantee paid sick leave for roughly 80% of workers. Citing the government's ineffectual response in the early days of the outbreak, the Green Party is concerned that economic barriers could prevent many workers from participating in "social distancing," one of the most effective remaining tactics for protecting vulnerable segments of the population from infection.
WASHINGTON
Green Party leaders have expressed alarm upon learning the U.S. House legislation passed on March 13 addressing the COVID-19 pandemic fails to guarantee paid sick leave for roughly 80% of workers. Citing the government's ineffectual response in the early days of the outbreak, the Green Party is concerned that economic barriers could prevent many workers from participating in "social distancing," one of the most effective remaining tactics for protecting vulnerable segments of the population from infection.
"COVID-19 has exposed how poorly prepared the U.S. healthcare system is to handle an epidemic," said Green Party National Co-Chair Margaret Flowers, who also serves on the Board of Advisors to Physicians for a National Health Program. "We've missed the window for containing the virus through screening, testing and monitoring infected people and their contacts -- as they did in China, South Korea and other countries. And so we can expect millions of cases." Flowers also warned that "getting ill in the United States carries the extra burden of potential financial ruin. We need to move to a National Improved Medicare for All health system and paid medical leave as rapidly as possible."
The World Health Organizations (WHO) declared the outbreak a pandemic on March 11. As of Sunday, March 15,over 3,000 cases, including over 60 fatalities, have been reported in the United States. That number could rise exponentially unless swift, decisive measures are taken to limit the spread of COVID-19, but equally intensive measures must address the needs of millions who depend on food, childcare and income from institutions and business that will be impacted by quarantines.
"When it comes to crises -- be it climate destruction, the 2008 financial collapse or COVID-19 -- our country tends to fixate on individual choices instead of collective systems of support," said Green Party National Co-Chair Gloria Mattera, who works in public health. "Of course anyone who has the option to work from home and order in their groceries should do so, but we must acknowledge those options come from a place of relative privilege -- we can't leave everyone else to simply fend for themselves."
"Capitalism rewards greed and puts the accumulation of private wealth above all else. It will always regard the most vulnerable in our society as expendable," added Mattera.
The federal relief package would provide tens of billions of dollars for sick and family medical leave,free virus testing, additional food aid and funds for Medicaid but Greens are concerned it prioritizes bailing out corporations while falling short on measures to extend unemployment benefits, sick and family medical leave, mortgage and other loan relief or forgiveness.
"Greens call for a Real Green New Deal," said Tina Rockett, co-chair of the Green party of Virginia. "Our plan goes beyond the transition to clean energy and includes ambitious investment in all public infrastructure -- like Medicare For All and the Center For Disease Control and Prevention -- so we are better prepared to protect the health, safety and well-being of everyone regardless of their individual economic means."
In a statement released Friday, March 13, independent Green U.S. Senate candidate from Maine Lisa Savage called on the federal government to partner with state governors to provide testing kits that can be deployed to every corner of the United States as quickly as possible; to enroll everyone without health insurance immediately in some kind of Medicare plan and provide treatment and testing without individual cost; and to pass emergency legislation that suspends rent and mortgage collection in quarantined and restricted areas and subsidizes companies manufacturing items that are essential to daily life.
For More Information
Nancy Pelosi and the White House reached a deal on a sweeping relief package; Tankersly, Jim, Emily Cochrane. The New York Times, Mar. 13, 2020
White House, House Democrats reach deal on coronavirus economic relief package, Werner, Erica, Mike DeBOnis, Paul Kane, Jeff Stein. The Washington Post, Mar. 13, 2020
Tracking every Coronavirus Case in the U.S.: A Full Map, Smith, Mitch, Keith Collins, Allison McCann, Jim Wu and Karen Yourish. The New York Times, Mar. 13, 2020
Trump's False Claims About His Response to the Coronavirus, Qiu, Linda. The New York Times, Mar. 13, 2020
US Senate Candidate Lisa Savage Outlines Covid-19 Response Plan
Green Party of Virginia statement on the Novel Coronavirus
Green Party Platform: Healthcare
Green Party Position: Single Payer Health Insurance
More Green Party content on this issue: https://www.gp.org/tags/covid_19
The Green Party of the United States is a grassroots national party. We're the party for "We The People," the health of our planet, and future generations instead of the One Percent.
(202) 319-7191LATEST NEWS
'The Last Thing We Need': Critics Decry US Government's OK of $31 Billion Railroad Merger
"The East Palestine disaster raised significant questions about rail safety," Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in response to the approval of Canadian Pacific's acquisition of Kansas City Southern. "Allowing this merger is a mistake."
Mar 15, 2023
U.S. federal regulators on Wednesday approved the first major railroad merger in more than two decades, a move that follows the East Palestine rail disaster and that critics warned would reduce competition, raise prices, cost jobs, and threaten safety.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) approved Canadian Pacific Railway Limited's proposed $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern Railway Company, a merger that will create a single railroad linking Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The agency said the merger will take roughly 64,000 truckloads off the road and add more than 800 union jobs.
"The decision includes an unprecedented seven-year oversight period and contains many conditions designed to mitigate environmental impacts, preserve competition, protect railroad workers, and promote efficient passenger rail," STB said, adding that it "also anticipates the merger will result in improvements in safety and the reduction of carbon emissions."
"Shame on STB for disregarding both the administration and the rail workers who know all too well that corporate consolidation leads to a more dangerous rail industry."
However, opponents of the deal pointed to the East Palestine, Ohio disaster and other recent railroad accidents, which they said underscored the need for a more cautious approach to consolidation.
"The merger brings the total number of Class 1 railroads to six, down from over 100 just a few decades ago," the progressive news site More Perfect Unionnoted on Twitter. "Corporate consolidation in the railroad industry compromises safety and risks lives by prioritizing profits and cutting corners to reduce costs."
"Despite concerns from small towns and suburban Chicago cities, the STB ruled, based on data provided by industry, that the only community and environmental impacts of the merger would be an increase in noise," More Perfect Union continued.
"The Biden administration has taken a strong antitrust stance by blocking the $3.8 billion JetBlue-Spirit merger and urging the STB to do the same for Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern (CP-KCS), citing the need to promote competition in the railroad industry," the outlet said.
"Shame on STB for disregarding both the administration and the rail workers who know all too well that corporate consolidation leads to a more dangerous rail industry," More Perfect Union added. "The last thing we need is another merger right now."
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—who earlier this month wrote to STB Chair Martin Oberman asking the agency to reject the merger—similarly tweeted that "we don't need another rail merger that'll crush competition, reduce safety, increase prices, and destroy jobs."
U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who represents some Chicago suburbs through which the new international railway will run, wrote on Twitter Tuesday that "even before the disaster in Ohio, I had been warning about the threats to communities in my district that would come from a potential CP-KCS merger."
Itasca, Illinois Administrator Carie Anne Ergo—who chairs the Stop CPKCS Coalition—toldThe Washington Post that "the tragedy in Ohio is an illustration of what we've been talking about can happen."
"If what happened in East Palestine happened here in Itasca, the entire community would need to evacuate," she added. "It's terrifying."
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Reparations Demanded 20 Years After US Launched 'War-for-Profit' in Iraq
"We should not let the difficulty of securing justice deter us from seeking it—for Iraqis and for all others harmed by U.S. imperialism, exploitation, and genocide," said the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Mar 15, 2023
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the George W. Bush administration's illegal invasion of Iraq this weekend, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights on Wednesday renewed its call for reparations "for those harmed as a result of the U.S.'s unlawful act of aggression in its cruel, senseless, and baseless war-for-profit."
"Ten years ago, we teamed up with Iraqi civil society groups and U.S. service members to demand redress," the nonprofit explained, "and this need only becomes more urgent as the incalculable human toll of the war continues to grow: hundreds of thousands dead, some two million disabled, some nine million displaced, environmental devastation, countless people tortured, traumatized, or otherwise harmed in ways unseen, occupation and embrace of torture as policy in the so-called 'War on Terror,' and an entire generation that was born and raised in only war."
As Common Dreams reported earlier Wednesday, the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs estimates that already, "the total costs of the war in Iraq and Syria are expected to exceed half a million human lives and $2.89 trillion" by 2050.
The project also said that "an estimated 300,000 people have died from direct war violence in Iraq, while the reverberating effects of war continue to kill and sicken hundreds of thousands more."
"Justice also entails accountability for the perpetrators of these horrific crimes, including those responsible for the torture."
Such figures have fueled calls from groups like the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which asserted that "reparations are rooted in precedent and international law, as well as a strong tradition of justice-based organizing by civil rights movements, and we should not let the difficulty of securing justice deter us from seeking it—for Iraqis and for all others harmed by U.S. imperialism, exploitation, and genocide."
"Justice also entails accountability for the perpetrators of these horrific crimes, including those responsible for the torture" in Iraq and beyond, argued the center—which since 2004 has filed three lawsuits against U.S-based military contractors on behalf of Iraqis tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison and also sued Erik Prince and his company Blackwater over the Nisour Square massacre
"Legal efforts against high-level political and military leaders for the invasion itself and the many crimes committed in the 'War on Terror' pose a different set of challenges, as demonstrated by our efforts to hold high-level Bush-administration officials accountable at the International Criminal Court for crimes in or arising out of the war in Afghanistan or under universal jurisdiction," CCR noted. "Those of us pursuing accountability can draw inspiration from activists in other countries like Argentina and Guatemala who waged successful campaigns over several decades."
Highlighting that "Congress continues its overbroad authorizations for use of military force," the center argued that "such authorizations must be repealed, and the unlawful policies of endless war and militarization must be replaced with international-law-based, rights-respecting policies and practices."
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote Thursday to repeal both the 1991 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force against Iraq. While the measure's sponsor, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), has been publicly optimistic about passage, it would then need approval from the GOP-controlled House of Representatives before being sent to President Joe Biden's desk for signature.
In a move decried by progressives as "madness," the president last week proposed a budget for fiscal year 2024 featuring a historic $886.4 billion in military spending, including $397.5 million to fight what is left of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Meanwhile, as CCR pointed out Wednesday, "just this month, the House voted 414-2 to maintain unilateral sanctions on Syria even though—or because—they have caused widespread suffering and hindered earthquake relief efforts. The U.S. has imposed similar deadly sanctions on Cuba for decades. Such manifestations of imperialism differ from the war on Iraq only in degree. Indeed, deadly sanctions on Iraq were a precursor to the U.S. invasion."
In its lengthy statement, the center also said that "as we call for justice for Iraqis, we stand in solidarity with all people who live in countries targeted by U.S. imperialism, and in particular, in Afghanistan, whose civilians have been subjected to endless war and destruction, politicization, and then abandonment of human rights protections, and state-facilitated humanitarian suffering."
"They include not only those killed and maimed by the U.S. military and its proxies but also those harmed by U.S. sanctions and coups, corporate plunder and extraction, and austerity regimes imposed by U.S.-dominated colonial institutions," the center added, pointing to the International Monetary Fund. "It also includes Palestinians, who are subjugated by Israel, a U.S. imperial outpost."
"U.S. warmaking has long fed fascism at home," the group continued, calling out police violence, immigration restrictions, racial and religious profiling, and mass surveillance. "The trillions of dollars spent on militarism and criminalization abroad and in the U.S. must be reallocated to address the material needs and fulfill the human rights of our most marginalized communities."
"On this ignominious anniversary," CCR concluded, "we recommit to our vision of a world in which revolutionary movements across countries and continents struggle together for liberation from U.S. imperialism and all other oppressive systems of power."
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Iraq War Costs Could Hit Nearly $3 Trillion by 2050: Report
The Costs of War Project said the U.S.-led invasion and occupation "caused massive death, destruction, and political instability," killing hundreds of thousands of people while displacing millions more.
Mar 15, 2023
As the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq approaches, a leading research institute on Wednesday said that "the total costs of the war in Iraq and Syria are expected to exceed half a million human lives and $2.89 trillion" by 2050.
The Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs said that "this budgetary figure includes costs to date, estimated at about $1.79 trillion, and the costs of veterans' care through 2050."
According to the project:
March 19-20, 2023 marks 20 years since United States forces invaded Iraq to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, under the false claim that his regime was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. The ensuing war, in which U.S. ground presence peaked in 2007 with over 170,000 soldiers, caused massive death, destruction, and political instability in Iraq. Among the consequences was the increase of sectarian politics, widespread violence, and the rise of the Islamic State militant group with its terror attacks throughout the Middle East.
Though the U.S. government officially ended its Iraq War in 2011, the repercussions of the invasion and occupation as well as subsequent and ongoing military interventions have had an enormous human, social, economic, and environmental toll. An estimated 300,000 people have died from direct war violence in Iraq, while the reverberating effects of war continue to kill and sicken hundreds of thousands more.
The new report includes estimates for Syria, which the United States began bombing during the Obama administration after Islamic State militants rose to power amid the destabilization and power vacuum caused by the Iraq invasion and Syrian civil war. Including Syria, the Costs of War Project says between 550,000-580,000 people have been killed since March 2003, and "several times as many may have died due to indirect causes such as preventable diseases."
"More than 7 million people from Iraq and Syria are currently refugees, and nearly 8 million people are internally displaced in the two countries," the publication notes.
University of Oxford professor and Costs of War Project co-director Neta C. Crawford, who authored the report, said in a statement that "the Bush administration was convinced and assured the American people and the world that the war would have few casualties of all kinds—civilian and military—and would lead to quick victory."
"As the Costs of War Project has documented consistently, these optimistic assumptions are confronted by a record of death, high and ongoing costs, and regional devastation," she added.
Those ongoing costs include a recent $397.5 million budget request from the Biden administration to fight what's left of Islamic State.
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