Anti-war slate runs grassroots campaign

The Sole for U.S. Senate campaign is taking its antiwar message across Michigan. David Sole and Michael Merriweather, a Wayne State University student who is running for WSU’s Board of Governors, recently returned from a northern campaign trip. Both candidates are on the Green Party ticket and are running on the Stop the War Slate.

From left, Stop the War Slate candidates Michael Merriweather, Dave Sole and Lauren Elizabeth Spencer, at Capitol Bldg., Lansing, Mich. WW photo

In Traverse City, over 30 people met at a local bookstore to hear the candidates speak on the Iraq war and growing joblessness. A dozen students from Northwestern Michigan College attended, as well as some high school students. Sole was interviewed by the Traverse City Record Eagle, the local daily newspaper, and a high school paper.

While Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow and her Republican challenger, Michael Bouchard, were debating Oct. 15 at public TV/radio station WGVS in Grand Rapids, Sole and campaign activists protested his exclusion outside the station. Sole and campaign organizer Jerry Goldberg disrupted a press conference afterward and confronted Stabenow on her pro-war position.

A press release issued by Sole’s campaign stated: “The Oct. 15 Senate candidates’ debate demonstrated why it is so critical that David Sole, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate and the only antiwar candidate, be included in the debates and have his views publicized by the media.

“On the same day polls indicated that 65 percent of the people of Michigan oppose the Iraq war, in the so-called Senate debate both Stabenow and Bouchard voiced support for the war. While Stabenow stated she initially voted against the war, she made clear ... she has voted for every single military appropriation to fund and maintain the war. When asked if she would call for a time limit for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, she refused to do so, and echoed the Bush double talk about the Iraqi forces taking a more active role, a total joke in light of recent events. Bouchard echoed Stabenow’s support for the war.

“In contrast, David Sole stated: ‘I call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. Three thousand U.S. troops have been killed, tens of thousands more have been seriously injured, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people have been killed as a recent of this illegal ... war, fought at the behest of the U.S. oil companies. ... The cost of the Iraq war is now $334 billion. If that money had been used for human needs, Michigan’s share, $8.9 billion, could have gone a long way toward providing health care, housing and jobs at living wages for all.’

“Sole continued: ‘In the debate Stabenow was asked if she supported a national health plan. She ducked the question. I support a free national health plan, which would be funded by dramatically slashing the Pentagon budget that was recently passed without opposition in the U.S. Senate. Both candidates expressed their anti-immigrant views. I support amnesty and full legal rights for all immigrants. And both candidates repeated the failed ‘trickle down economics’ calling for tax breaks for big business to protect jobs. I call for an immediate moratorium on all plant closings and layoffs and a public works program to rebuild our cities, a shorter work week, a $15 hour minimum wage and elimination of corporate bankruptcy laws which allow companies to use bankruptcy to eliminate workers’ pensions.’”

The campaign and supporters will protest on Oct. 18 outside a candidates’ debate for Stabenow and Bouchard sponsored by the Detroit Economic Club, where Sole is again fighting exclusion.

The complicity of the corporate media in ignoring candidates besides Democrats and Republicans has been exposed by the Stop the War Slate. Interviews are granted grudgingly, and campaign activists have to search hard to find evidence that they occurred.

Breakthroughs

in alternative media

However, the Michigan Citizen, a progressive African-American community weekly newspaper, printed a front-page article and photo on Sole’s antiwar campaign in its latest issue. The Metro Times, a free weekly, interviewed Sole after his campaign manager called to complain that a story on progressive candidates ignored the Green Party.

Sole appeared on the talk radio show “Fighting for Justice” and is scheduled for an interview with WDET, Detroit’s public radio station. At Michigan State University, the student paper interviewed Sole when he campaigned with MSU student and Board of Trustees candidate Lauren Spencer.

Sole recently received an e-mail from an active-duty technician in the U.S. Navy stationed in Virginia Beach, Va. The message read in part, “I just filled out my Michigan absentee ballot, and I want to let you know that you received my vote for the Senate race. I am a small minority in this conservative military town, and the people I know from back home in Michigan are likewise very conservative, so it is relieving to find a candidate who shares my strong antiwar views. Good luck with your campaign, and I hope you are able to make an impact on people’s minds.”

Sole recently taped a telephone message to U.S. soldiers, their families and U.S. citizens outside the country—a potential 6 million voters—for the Department of Defense Voting Information Center. By calling 800-438-8683 and following the many prompts, GIs can hear a message from Sole: “I am the only candidate for U.S. Senate who calls for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, who says that no more lives should be lost on behalf of the oil companies and giant contracting corporations.”

Other exciting news for the Stop the War Slate was the endorsement of Lauren Spencer for MSU Trustee from Between the Lines, Michigan’s weekly newspaper for the lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities.

For more information on Stop the War Slate and Green Party candidates, visit www.stopthewarslate.org, www.migreens.org, or e-mail [email protected]. Donations can be made to Sole for Senate Campaign, 5922 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48202.