If I lived in Florida, I would certainly vote for this.
It's ridiculous that people who have served their time cannot vote.
Evan
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2018 10:29 AM
To: blind-democracy
Subject: [blind-democracy] SWP: Push back limits on franchise! Restore
voting rights to ex-prisoners!
https://themilitant.com/2018/11/03/swp-push-back-limits-on-franchise-restore-voting-rights-to-ex-prisoners/
SWP STATEMENT
SWP: Push back limits on franchise! Restore voting rights to ex-prisoners!
Vol. 82/No. 42
November 12, 2018
Steve Warshell, SWP candidate for US Senate
Militant/Charles Guerra
Steve Warshell, SWP candidate for US Senate
This following statement was released Oct. 29 by Steve Warshell,
Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate from Florida.
The Socialist Workers Party calls on all working people and supporters
of democratic rights to vote Nov. 6 in favor of Amendment 4 to restore
the right to vote for many Florida workers who have served time on
felony convictions. Over 1 million people signed petitions to place the
amendment to the state constitution on the ballot, reflecting the depth
of support for the measure. To pass, Florida law requires a
supermajority of 60 percent of the vote.
More than 10 percent of Florida’s adult population is barred from being
able to vote. This includes 23 percent of the state’s African-Americans.
After workers behind bars get out of prison today, they have to wait at
least five years before they can even apply to Florida’s Office of
Executive Clemency to get their voting rights back. It takes years
before petitions are heard and there’s a growing waiting list.
Since 2011, the number of disenfranchised convicted felons living in
Florida has increased by almost 150,000 to over 1.6 million. Nationally,
laws that restrict the franchise for ex-felons prohibit more than 6
million people from voting.
In February, federal Judge Mark Walker ruled Florida’s lifetime ban on
voting for felons — part of the Florida Constitution for 150 years — is
a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protections against government
interference with free association and speech, due process and equal
protection under the law.
Workers behind bars are no different from fellow workers outside prison
walls. We are all part of the working class and confront the same
growing political and moral crisis of capitalism. Current and former
prisoners have an equal stake in our class’s battle to overturn
capitalist rule and take political power into our own hands.
To fight effectively we need to unite working people to break down the
divisions the bosses promote between employed and unemployed; immigrant
and native-born; Black, Caucasian and Hispanic; and between those of us
who’ve been thrown in jail and those who haven’t.
The U.S. rulers imprison more working people than any other country in
the world. Workers are run through the U.S. criminal “justice” system,
with over 90 percent pressured to accept a plea-bargain road to prison.
This is under threat of more draconian sentences if we exercise our
constitutional right to a trial.
In recent years, more crimes have been designated as felonies and the
population of workers behind bars has soared.
Prisoners face growing restrictions on what they can read, as shown by
censorship of the Militant newspaper that the SWP helps distribute. They
suffer conditions geared to assaulting their dignity, and have a long
record of abuse by prison authorities. Then when they get out, the
rulers’ bar their right to vote.
The ruling class has historically looked for ways to restrict workers
and farmers from voting. It took a revolution in 1776 to win male
suffrage. The Civil War ended slavery and extended the vote to the
former slaves. Struggles were needed to win the vote for women. And a
massive proletarian Black-led civil rights movement was needed to
destroy Jim Crow segregation and win passage of the Voting Rights Act.
This struggle also led to winning the vote for 18 year olds.
In the carnage workers face today the capitalist rulers make us pay for
the crisis of their decaying capitalist system. The fight against the
injustices of their criminal justice system and efforts to restrict our
rights are in the interests of all workers.
The fight in Florida to push back restrictions on the franchise are an
important part of advancing the unity and fighting capacity of the
working class. Vote “yes” on Amendment 4!
Related Articles
Workers need unions, solidarity, a labor party
Socialist Workers Party candidates and their supporters are taking
advantage of the last days before the Nov. 6 midterm elections to step
up campaigning. They are presenting a course of struggle and independent
working-class political action for workers and farmers…
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Workers need unions, solidarity, a labor party
•Join in denouncing Jew-hatred, a deadly threat to working class
•Tens of thousands protest anti-Semitic assault, killings
•SWP: Push back limits on franchise! Restore voting rights to ex-prisoners!
•US capitalist rulers seek bloc against Tehran amid Middle East rivalries
Feature Articles •‘Women’s liberation is a vital part of the
working-class struggle for emancipation’
Also In This Issue •‘One job should be enough,’ Marriott hotel strikers say
•Women workers in Glasgow lead battle to win equal pay
•Solidarity boosts Ky. concrete workers strike
•‘Militant’ fights Florida prison censorship
•Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive Oct.6 - Dec. 4 (Week 3)
•Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books Oct. 6 - Dec. 4
(Week 3)
Books of the Month •How fight to end Vietnam War transformed politics in US
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
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York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxx
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_________________________________________________________________
Isaac Asimov
“Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in
telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life
after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved
negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?"
Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement,
and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no
matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and
more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the
evidence will have to be.”
― Isaac Asimov
