Chicago, IL – On Thursday, March 30 Brandon Johnson and Bernie Sanders held a joint “Chicago for All of Us” rally at the Credit Union 1 Arena, drawing a crowd of more than 4000 supporters. The event comes after Sanders’ endorsement of Johnson for the April 4 mayoral runoff election. The event included speeches from Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa; Representatives Jonathan Jackson and Delia Ramirez; president of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten; Martin Luther King III, and Senator Bernie Sanders.
National leader of Democratic Party call for a ‘recanvass’ of voting results
Minneapolis, MN – After days of delay, the results are in: Bernie Sanders won the most votes in Iowa, leading in both the initial vote, as well as after the second round where weaker candidates in each caucus are dropped. As this became clear Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) called for a ‘recanvass’ of the caucus voting because of the chaotic reporting of results and the long delay. Ironically, this was caused by a new voting app developed by a small company founded by a former staffer of the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign.
As things stand, billionaire and bigot Donald Trump will be the Republican standard bearer for the presidency. In many ways he is a symbol of everything that is wrong with this country. He is a tireless promoter of racist anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim attacks. He is a misogynist, who defends the oppression of women. Trump spreads the gospel of ‘greed is good’ while pretending to be a friend of the working person. He is a right-wing populist with only one redeeming feature – that, barring some big change, he is unelectable.
A couple weeks ago, one of my coworkers and I started talking politics near the end of our shift. With the 2016 presidential primary in full swing, the election is now the topic of choice in our break rooms, box lines and union meetings. One thing led to another and this coworker asked me whether I was a Democrat or Republican. I said, “Neither one, I'm a socialist.” Immediately I braced myself for any number of negative reactions. I expected either an intense debate, loud profanity, or the silent treatment. You can imagine my surprise, when my coworker responded, “Yeah, me too.”
We think that it is a good thing that Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is running for president. Senator Sanders has attracted some of the largest crowds of any presidential candidate by hammering away at the growing income and wealth inequality in the U.S. He supports the $15 per hour minimum wage, a government single-payer health care program and has been a consistent opponent of so-called ‘free trade’ agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP.