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For Immediate Release
April, 06 2020, 12:00am EDT
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 Call For Solidarity With Labor Amid COVID-19 Crisis
Party says the pandemic exposes dire need for economic, environmental and foreign policy system change.
WASHINGTON
Green Party leaders called today for people's movements and organizations to stand in solidarity with workers facing health concerns, loss of wages and insufficient healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This must be a top priority for all who are dedicated to human rights, racial and economic justice, the well-being of working people and the poor, and the environment," said Green Party of the United States Co-Chair Justin Beth.
Greens noted that some activists have already proposed a general strike and said that a variety of actions should be considered. The Green Party supports strikes and other actions already underway, including those undertaken by Amazon workers.
"Low wage workers are facing threats to their health and livelihoods, or even being fired, simply for speaking out about dangerous working conditions. The current crisis we face with the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the fact that the majority of people across this country are one paycheck away from being on the street. We must call on national, local, and community-based groups to come together to support our critical workforce, and consider various collective actions," said Beth.
Medicare For All is especially urgent as millions of Americans face loss of employment and health insurance in the coming weeks, and as economists warn medical costs will shoot through the roof as insurance and medical industries try to exploit the crisis. Economists estimate that premiums could increase by 40% nationwide in 2021 without federal help, and as many as 35 million people could lose their health insurance during the pandemic.
Over 60% of Americans support single payer health insurance, sometimes called Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. Additionally, many countries are paying worker wages through the period that people are unable to work. Paying worker wages would allow workers to stay on their jobs and would relieve the burden of providing unemployment insurance on states who are struggling to buy medical supplies and set up temporary hospitals.
"Working people are on the front lines serving critical needs, yet are some of the lowest wage-earners with the fewest benefits and protections," said Darryl! Moch, co-chair of the Green Party National Black Caucus. " Employers must ensure safe and healthy working conditions for those who must work during the pandemic." He added, "The Green Party represents and is made up of working people. It is love for people and the planet that calls for us, in this current pandemic, to seek ways to truly connect and understand our common humanity, that we are interdependent on each other for our own survival, and that now we need to use this time to come together, recognizing that we have more in common then we have that separates us."
For More Information
Amid Pandemic, Workers Walk Out, Building Momentum Toward General Strike, Bernd, Candice. Truthout, April 2, 2020
Coronavirus is a Labor Crisis, and a General Strike Could Be Next, Gordon, Aaron, Laruen Kaori Gurley, Edward Ongweso, jr., Jordan Pearsopn. Vice, April 2, 2020
Strikes at Instacart and Amazon Over Coronavirus Concerns, Scheiber, Noam, Kate Conger. New York Times, March 30, 2020
Here's why Amazon and Instacart workers are striking at a time when you need them most, O'Brien, Sarah Ashley. CNN Business, March 30, 2020
Coronavirus recession will hit low-wage workers hardest, Wilson, Reid. The Hill, March 31, 2020
Newsletter: Facing high coronavirus risk, low-wage workers push back, Nelson, Laura J. Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2020
Hospitals accused of firing health workers who speak on COVID-19 equipment shortages, Lin, Summer. SacBee, March 31, 2020
Hospitals Tell Doctors They'll Be Fired If They Speak Out About Lack of Gear, Carville, Olivia, Emma Court, Kristen V. Brown. Bloomberg, March 31, 2020
40% percent hike for health insurance premiums possible after coronavirus pandemic, Covered California warns, Escalante, Eric. ABC10, March 24, 2020
COVID-19 Impact on Medicaid, Marketplace, and the Uninsured, by State, Health Management Associates, April 3, 2020
Most continue to say ensuring health care coverage is government's responsibility, Kiley, Jocelyn. Pew Research Center. October 3, 2018
Green Party Platform: Labor
The Green Party Supports Working People
Green Party Platform: Healthcare
Green Party Position: Single Payer Health Insurance
The Great Pandemic Awakening, Hovaness, Haig. Green Party of the United States Peace Action Committee, March 20, 2020
Greens: Greenbacks Not Bailouts Cure for National Emergency, Green Party Banking and Monetary Reform Committee, March 16, 2020
A blog list of articles on the issue: https://www.gp.org/coronavirus
Green Party of the United States
202-319-7191
Newsroom | Twitter: @GreenPartyUS
Green candidate database and campaign information
Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
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.
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'Unconscionable and Impeachable': Experts Appalled at Report of Marco Rubio Acting as Venezuela 'Viceroy'
"Trump has turned Venezuela into an effective US colony," said one critic.
Jul 11, 2026
Some critics of the Trump administration are reacting with horror to revelations that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been serving as the de facto ruler of Venezuela.
According to a Saturday report in The New York Times, Rubio for the last several months has been acting informally as the "viceroy" of Venezuela ever since its recognized president, Nicolás Maduro, was abducted by the American military in January and brought to the US to face charges related to "narco-terrorism."
The Times' sources revealed that Rubio "effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources, and its government" and "is deeply involved in the country’s day-to-day operations," while maintaining regular contact with acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez.
Under current arrangements, the US Treasury Department takes in revenue from Venezuela's exports, including its petroleum, and then disperses the money back to the country through its private banks with strict conditions set by Rubio over what it can be spent on.
In explaining the system, the Times likened it to "parents handing out allowances to children," adding that it gives Rubio "immense leverage over... Rodríguez, who depends on the money to pay workers and prop up the national currency."
Elizabeth Saunders, professor of political science at Columbia University, described Rubio's power over Venezuela as "insane," as well as "derelict, unconscionable, and impeachable."
"The secretary of state's time is scarce, valuable, and not outsourcable," Saunders emphasized.
Orlando J. Pérez, professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas at Dallas, said the Times report made a mockery of Rubio's professed claims to want to bring democracy back to Venezuela.
"It appears Rubio has transformed from democracy promotion warrior," Pérez commented, "to transactional realpolitik operative!"
Kenneth Roth, former executive director at Human Rights Watch, wrote that US control over Venezuela appeared similar to the kind of imperial power wielded by European nations in the 19th Century.
"Trump has turned Venezuela into an effective US colony," said Roth, "with Marco Rubio as the viceroy and Washington controlling the country’s oil revenue and dictating major foreign and domestic policies. Democracy has been relegated to the distant future."
Bradley Simpson, historian at the University of Connecticut, also saw the current US arrangement with Venezuela as a return to overt imperialism.
"We are literally back in the Dollar Diplomacy days of the 1910s," Simpson wrote, "when the United States invaded countries and took over their financial systems and ran them as effective colonies. Flagrantly illegal, enormously corrupt. Where is the organization of American states or UN in denouncing this?"
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Machine Gun-Toting Israeli Settlers Detain Ro Khanna During Trip to Occupied West Bank
"These hoodlums come in with machine guns—M4, an American-made machine gun—and they detain us. They block off the road."
Jul 11, 2026
Rep. Ro Khanna this week was detained by a group of Israeli settlers whom he described as "hoodlums... with machine guns" while making a visit to a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank.
In an interview with Reuters published on Saturday, Khanna (D-Calif.) said he and his tour group were surrounded by armed settlers as they were traveling through the West Bank on Wednesday.
"We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it," said Khanna. "And these hoodlums come in with machine guns—M4, an American-made machine gun—and they detain us. They block off the road."
The California Democrat said that the settlers called in members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to help them deal with him and his group.
"The IDF is on their side," Khanna remarked, "not on the side of the Americans."
Cameron Kasky, an aide to Khanna, told Reuters that the group was held for over an hour before officials whom he believed to be police intervened and secured their release.
The IDF told Reuters that both military troops and police officers dispersed the settlers who had set up a roadblock near the small Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta.
Khanna wasn't the only American to have a run-in with Israeli settlers this week, as CNN reported that four settlers attacked groups of journalists, including CNN reporters and crew, who were traveling through an area north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah on Saturday.
As the journalists were driving, four settlers blocked off the road with their cars and began attacking the reporters' vehicles with wooden clubs and metal rods.
"The settlers then began to jump on the vehicle behind CNN's—carrying another group of journalists—and smashed the windshield of that vehicle," the network reported. "Another group of settlers tried to block a separate exit route before chasing the journalists towards the town of Sinjil."
Israeli police arrived on the scene and arrested four settlers who were allegedly responsible for the attacks, CNN reported.
"The Israel Police and the IDF view any manifestation of violence or causing damage to property very seriously," the Israeli officers said after the arrests, "especially when it concerns media personnel performing their work."
Israeli settlers for years have carried out violent attacks on Palestinians living in the West Bank, and witnesses have regularly described IDF soldiers at the scene either standing by as the attacks occur or even actively helping the attackers.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that claims about settler violence have been "blown up beyond belief," describing attacks as being carried out by a small number of "juvenile delinquents."
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'Should Shock the Conscience': Trump Admin Escalates War on Press With Subpoena of New York Times Reporters
"This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs."
Jul 11, 2026
The Trump administration on Friday escalated its war with the press by subpoenaing several reporters at The New York Times days after the paper published a story on Wednesday that detailed security concerns about the luxury jet the Qatari government gave to President Donald Trump.
According to the Times, the subpoenas are attempting to force reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday next week, a move that the paper describes as an "extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations."
The issued subpoenas do not specifically name the Times' reporting on the Qatari jet as the reason for the grand jury probe, although they were given to all four journalists—Tyler Pager, Julian Barnes, Eric Schmitt, and Eric Lipton—who reported the story.
Additionally, the Times noted, a senior official at the FBI had asked the paper to hold off publishing its story on the jet before it came out on Wednesday, citing unspecified national security concerns about its content.
David McCraw, the top attorney representing the Times' newsroom, denounced the subpoenas as an attack on the freedom of the press.
"The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects," said McGraw. “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs."
It is highly uncommon for government investigators to subpoena journalists when they are probing national security leaks, as such actions are generally seen as having a chilling effect on reporters’ ability to gather information.
Rick Stengel, former under secretary of state for President Barack Obama, said that the Times' reporting on the Qatari jet, whose security upgrades are being financed with US tax dollars, is completely within the scope of constitutional protections for press freedom.
"The reporting that the Times journalists have been subpoenaed for is exactly the kind of journalism the First Amendment is designed to protect: matters involving national security and taxpayer dollars," wrote Stengel in a Saturday social media post. "Reporting that embarrasses a president is protected speech."
Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin also denounced the Trump administration for trying to drag reporters into a grand jury investigation.
"This action by the US government to subpoena reporters for reporting legitimate news on security concerns about Air Force One should alarm every American," Griffin wrote.
Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, accused the Trump administration of abusing government power not to defend national security, but to protect the president from personal humiliation.
"We've long said that when the government claims it needs to investigate journalists to protect national security, it really means its own reputational security," said Stern. "This is as clear an example as you can get. The administration's embarrassment that it reportedly charged taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to retrofit a flying bribe that still isn't secure enough for hostile times does not supersede the need for a free and independent press."
This is the second time in recent weeks that the Trump administration has tried to subpoena reporters to compel their testimony in grand jury investigations.
In June, the US Department of Justice issued subpoenas for national security reporters at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal related to national security leaks.
Subpoenas against both news organizations were withdrawn after they issued legal challenges in sealed filings.
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