‘Michigan’s money’s wasted on war’

Kristen Hamel WW photo: Dave Sole

Kristen Hamel is the “Stop the War Slate” candidate on the Green Party ticket for state representative from the 1st District, which encompasses northeast Detroit, Harper Woods and the Grosse Pointes. She is an anti-war and social justice activist and was the Workers World Party candidate for the same office in 1996. Hamel brings years of experience in many struggles to her campaign. She is a legal assistant by trade and a former union activist in the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Newspaper Guild of Detroit. She has organized and marched against racism and imperialist wars, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) rights, workers’ rights and in support of revolutionary Cuba, which she visited in 2005. She is a founding member of the Detroit Action Network For Reproductive Rights (DANFORR). Hamel recently answered the following questions for Workers World newspaper.

Workers World: Why would a candidate for state representative be concerned about stopping the Pentagon’s wars?

Kristen Hamel: The Pentagon and the military budget suck the lifeblood out of poor and working people around the country, including here in Michigan and in the first district. Michigan has already paid a whopping $8.6 billion for the Iraq War alone. Two-thirds of what the average family in our state pays for federal taxes goes to the Pentagon budget and for interest to the banks on the national debt. That money could be put to good use for a jobs program at living wages, low-income housing, building new schools and lowering utility rates, and that’s just a start. The war machine doesn’t just kill people on the other side of the globe. It also directly impacts poor and working people in the U.S. That’s what the Stop the War Slate hopes to expose during this election campaign.

Working people need to take back and redefine the words ‘terror’ and ‘terrorism.’ The biggest terrorist in the world is the U.S. ruling class with its Pentagon and weapons of mass destruction. If Bush truly wanted to find WMDs, he would start looking in his own backyard. The ruling class labels as “terrorist” anyone who resists their aggression or tries to fight back against imperialism. Working people shouldn’t be taken in by this propaganda. Hezbollah, for example, has never done anything to poor and working people in Michigan, but the oil companies wreak terrorism on us everyday when we go to put gas in our vehicles: $2.50 or $3.10 a gallon is economic terror on the working class, especially considering the record profits Exxon Mobil and the other oil corporations are raking in. In this capitalist society, profits for the corporations are top priority and the needs of the people come last. Our campaign says that jobs, healthcare, education, food, housing and affordable utilities must be the priority. If we dismantle the Pentagon there will be no need to “fight terrorism” because it is the Pentagon and the policies of the ruling elite that have made our country an enemy to people around the world.

Why is it important for women to find an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans?

Right now across the country women’s right to reproductive choice is under vicious attack and not just by Republicans. Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana recently signed a law that will go into effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned that will outlaw abortion in that state. Pro-choice activists are waging a struggle in South Dakota to keep the right to choose abortion. Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, is anti-choice, yet he is supported by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who seeks an alliance with the Catholic Church and other anti-choice forces in finding “common ground” to reduce pregnancies. What Clinton fails to acknowledge is that the church and many other anti-choice advocates are also against contraception and sex education. This past spring in Michigan, Democratic incumbent Gov. Jennifer Granholm shamefully worked with some large pro-choice groups to draft language for a new law requiring physicians to show ultrasound fetal images to women seeking abortions. This is not the kind of “common ground” that women need or want.

Our election campaign will expose the lie that Democrats are somehow to be relied upon to protect women’s right to choose, when in fact, it is often the first item put on the back burner or negotiated away. Women especially need to break free from the two-party system that in no way guarantees their rights. The Stop the War Slate says in no uncertain terms: Stop the war on choice and women’s right to reproductive freedom. I’m involved in DANFORR, the Detroit Action Network For Reproductive Rights, and we are doing grassroots organizing to help ensure that Michigan stays a pro-choice state. On Saturdays our members assist with clinic escorting to help women get safely past the anti-choice zealots who harass them when they enter a women’s clinic on Eight Mile Road. By organizing a struggle we have the best chance of keeping and expanding women’s right to free choice.