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In
10 Local Refernda
On Health & Education: |
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Labor
Party
Wins Big
At the Polls!
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Florida may have been split down the middle on
who should be President, but voters had no such ambivalence on
the issue of Just Health Care.
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Pennie
Foster, right, a member of the Alachua County Labor
Party Organizing Committee, protests outside the office
of the Humana health insurance company in Gainesville,
Florida, as part of the campaign to tell people about
the non-binding referendum on universal health care.
Foster, who works for the county, pays $100 a month just
to fill her prescription under her "health
insurance" policy. Photo ©2000, Jenny Brown
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Just
Health Care Referendum (FL)
Do
you favor legislation to create a system of
universal health care in Florida that provides all
residents with comprehensive health care coverage
(including the freedom to choose doctors and other
health care professionals) and eliminates the role
of health insurance companies in health care by
creating a publicly administered health insurance
trust fund? The trust fund would receive the funds
presently going to the numerous health insurance
companies throughout the state. |
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In Alachua County, a nonbinding Labor Party
referendum calling for universal health care and replacing
health insurance companies with a public fund outpolled Bush,
Gore, and every other politician on the ballot except one. The
referendum won in every precinct of the county, garnering 64.5
percent of the vote overall. More people voted on the measure
than any other initiative, even though it was the last item on
the ballot.
Says Alachua County Labor Party co-chair Jenny
Brown: "The fact that almost two-thirds of voters said
they want private insurance companies out is a powerful tool
to hold the politicians accountable on our issues. Were
saying to the winner of the state senate seat: `More people
voted for this than voted for you. Now, what are you going to
do about it?"
Brown says that in the course of the
referendum campaign, Labor Party activists distributed some
14,000 pamphlets, 450 bumperstickers, and got about a dozen
letters to the editor published, as well as a range of news
articles. A local radio station aired a town meeting talk by
Dr. Quentin Young in favor of the initiative. Several hundred
individuals, along with 25 organizations, including the
Alachua County NAACP, the central labor council, and six
unions, signed an ad in favor of the ballot measure.
The Alachua County Labor Party successfully
defended the ballot measure in court after a local builder
tried to have it taken off the ballot.
Far-reaching Just Health Care referenda also
won overwhelmingly in three state districts in Massachusetts.
In Western Massachusetts, the margin was 69-31 percent. In
Weymouth, voters endorsed the referendum by 58-42 and in
Chelsea/East Boston by 59-41.
That makes for a total of six Massachusetts
districts that have endorsed Just Health Care.
ON EDUCATION
The Massachusetts Labor Party put another
issue on the ballot this year: education.
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Education
Referendum (MA)
Shall
the representative from this district be
instructed to vote in favor of legislation that
equitably invests state funds in local public
schools for quality education; reduces class
sizes; excludes use of voucher programs which
siphon public funds from public education; bars
for-profit schools from public funding; suspends
the MCAS tests as the criteria for promotion or
graduation, and establishes an authentic and fair
assessment system of educational progress for our
students and their schools? |
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In six districts, voters considered a
nonbinding referendum calling for legislation to invest in
public schools, reduce class size, exclude voucher programs,
bar for-profit schools from public funding, and, most
controversially, suspend high-stakes tests as the criteria for
promoting or graduating students. The measure called for
replacing the statewide standardized test known as the
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) with
"a fair system of assessing educational progress for our
students and schools."
The Labor Party, working in coalition with a
range of other organizations, succeeded in getting the
initiative on the ballot in legislative districts in
Cambridge, New Bedford, Somerville, Holyoke, West
Roxbury/Brookline, and Boston.
Voters in all six districts approved the
measure, by margins ranging from 61 to 76 percent.
"This two-to-one vote gives a clear
message that families want schools focused on students
needs, not the privatization agenda of the State Board of
Education," commented Preston Smith of the Greater
Holyoke Labor Party after the vote. Adds Bill Bumpus of
Somerville: "The vote serves notice to the legislature
that our families want their schools under public control and
not turned into profit-seeking businesses."
Smith says that in organizing for the
initiative in Western Massachusetts, activists "tried to
become a constant presence in the city. We canvassed twice a
week, we went door-to-door and leafletted at grocery
stores." Just before the election, the group sent out a
mailing to the Holyoke Teachers Association, where support for
the measure was strong.
The coalition that organized for the ballot
initiatives included many local unions, community groups, and
teacher organizations. Among them: the Coalition for Authentic
Reform in Education (CARE), Massparents for Education not MCAS,
New Bedford Coalition Against Poverty, Greater Holyoke
Citizens for Quality Education, and the Somerville and
Cambridge Teachers Associations.
Education has been a focus for the
Massachusetts Labor Party for the better part of a year.
Earlier this year, the Labor Party organized a major statewide
conference on education that explored the issues addressed in
the referendum.
Now, says Smith, the goal is to use the
overwhelming vote in favor of public education to build
pressure for substantive legislation — and to keep
organizing at the grassroots. |
