Friday, May 27, 2016

Socialist Presidential Candidate: Bernie Sanders Is No Socialist!

27 May 2016
 
790 KABC (Los Angeles)
 
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is often labeled “socialist” by his detractors on the Right, but the Socialist Party USA’s standard bearer says that’s a stretch.
“I think what Bernie Sanders advocates is more of a social democracy,” says Socialist Party USA presidential candidate Mimi Soltysik.
 
“It’s sort of an expanded welfare state; a stronger social safety net.  He’s not really talking about a socialist program. He’s kind of a New Deal Democrat. As socialists, what we advocate for is worker control of, worker ownership of the means of production.  Bernie Sanders also has a strong history of support for the military (and) imperialism and we certainly don’t see that as part of any responsible socialist program.”
Soltysik says other “socialist” countries such as Soviet Russia and the People’s Republic of China have big militaries because they have historically been surrounded by enemies. He also attributes the economic failure of the socialist policies of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, in part, to the hostility of the U.S. and other capitalist countries.
 
He says that unlike Sanders, the Socialist Party USA wants to do away with the U.S. military establishment.
“If we were in control in some sort of fairy tale situation where we were actually in office, we’d instantly cut the U.S.’s military budget by 50 percent with an overall goal of cutting it by 90 percent.”
Soltysik says the world is tired of being bullied by the U.S. and that other countries would respond favorably if the U.S. would abandon its militaristic behavior.
 
“Historically when another country sits on resources that the U.S. wants, if that country says to the U.S. and the West, ‘You can’t have our resources,’ we’ll either attack directly through the military  or we’ll topple the government and install somebody who’s going to allow us to do what we want. We’ve seen this in 1953 with Iran’s (Prime Minister) Mossadegh, (President Salvator) Allende in Chile, (Congo Prime Minister Patrice) Lumumba…”
 

Thursday, May 26, 2016

10 People You Can Vote for In 2016 Not Named Donald Trump Or Hillary Clinton

26 May 2016

By The Anti-Media
MintPress News 

"Mimi and Angela are cool enough that I’ll let them speak for themselves:

“We don’t advocate for reforming capitalism. We actually advocate for the overthrow of capitalism. This is a revolutionary move.”

Elucidating their position more clearly, Mimi states:

“Honesty, integrity, love, compassion, and a revolutionary spirit will carry us through the struggle. We’re going to stand in solidarity with each other as we face capitalism, prepared to destroy its incredible oppression and destruction. We learn and grow from each setback. Our determination in the face of incredible odds is fierce. Together, we can not be defeated.”

Mimi and Angela’s critique of Bernie Sanders is a trenchant one: Bernie supports the drone program. That is unacceptable to many."

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Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Bernie Sanders is a socialist? Some on the far left say sellout is more like it

25 May 2016

By Evan Halper
Los Angeles Times
 
"Not every leftist is enamored with Bernie Sanders. Some see him as a sellout.
“He has had a long history of support for war,” said Soltysik, who is running for president under the banner of the Socialist Party USA. “And he has also had a healthy support for Israel, which we tend to see as an apartheid state. Some things he has done and advocated for are completely incompatible with a responsible socialist program.”

Sanders may have burst into the country's consciousness over the last year as the unlikely socialist presidential candidate, but some on the far left still find he has too much in common with Clinton, the establishment favorite. Yet even the absolutists like Soltysik, who envisions a collectivist state in which there is no private ownership, no military and no centralized police force, are scurrying to seize the momentum Sanders has built around the idea of a political revolution before he closes ranks with Democrats.

“This is such a critical moment for the U.S. left,” Soltysik said as he leaned forward in a threadbare, leopard-print chair that sat in the middle of an apartment cluttered with alt-rock memorabilia and cat toys. “I don't mean the Democratic Party left. I mean the left. He has opened the door for the country to hear from radical-slash-revolutionary perspectives....”"

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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

INTERVIEW: Mimi Soltysik of the Socialist Party USA

18 May 2016

EoinHiggins.Com

As the primary season gets under way in the 2016 Presidential election, the nation’s political focus is squarely on candidates from the two main parties, the Democrats and the Republicans.
Both parties have had a tumultuous time of it already. It’s a year for outsiders. On the Republican side, billionaire Donald Trump, whose outrageous ethno-nationalism has won him a devout following in the country’s right wing, is the party’s presumptive nominee.

The Democrats are facing the possibility of an upset from surging independent Bernie Sanders. Sanders, a nominal socialist from Vermont, has upended what was supposed to be a smooth nomination/coronation for Hillary Clinton.

With all the excitement, it’s easy to forget that there are other candidates in the race for the presidency, outside of the two major parties. I am proud to feature a conversation with Emidio “Mimi” Soltysik, the Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA. Soltysik is running for president alongside activist and organizer Angela Nicole Walker.

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Monday, May 9, 2016

As a Leftist, I Will Not Be Supporting Hillary Clinton for President

09 May 2016

By Dan Arel
The Huffington Post 

"So this leaves his supporters with very few choices. They can join #Movement4Bernie and urge Sanders to run as an independent, something he has made clear he won’t do. They can abstain from voting or write Sanders in (the same as not voting). They can support a third-party candidate like the Green Party’s Jill Stein or Socialist Party USA’s Mimi Soltysik. Or, they can do what Sanders is doing and vote for Hillary Clinton.

I have made the choice to not support Hillary Clinton. The reasons I supported Sanders are not because he was a Democrat and I don’t subscribe to the idea of “vote blue no matter who.” The who matters to me, and the what they will do matters even more..."

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Friday, May 6, 2016

Socialists Plan to Use 2016 As Opportunity to Explain What Socialist Means

6 May 2016

By Jaimie Fuller
New York Magazine

"Socialist Party USA doesn’t think he is the ideal candidate — but its members do love that he loves the word socialist. The group’s co-chair, Mimi Soltysik, told Bloomberg, “I think having that word in the discourse — it can help sort of stimulate a positive response, as the stigma wears off. So let’s say hypothetically that Bernie Sanders doesn’t defeat Hillary Clinton in the primary. We’ll still have a lot more people who know what [the word socialism] means. That’s a positive.”"

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Here Are Some People Americans Can Vote for Not Named Trump or Clinton

6 May 2016

By Harry Cheadle
Vice

"As profiled for VICE by Mike Pearl back in March, Emidio "Mimi" Soltysik is a former guitarist in a "stoner metal band called Pill Shovel" who is the Socialist Party's nominee. He admits he's going to lose the election, and he told Pearl, "In a very hypothetical fairytale situation where we won in this system—we'd have to fire ourselves on the first day... If we actually made it to that spot in this system, we would've have had to so thoroughly compromise who we are to get there, that we would've betrayed everyone." What's not to like?"

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