PITTSBORO, NC – The outbreak of the specific coronavirus strain now working its way through the US has exposed many weaknesses in the US healthcare system, and in the way the US treats its working class and poor. As the Democratic and Republican parties argue over helping the 1% versus the rest of the country, the North Carolina Green Party recommends that both federal and state governments undertake the following actions to ensure that working class families and the poor, including the homeless, have a chance to emerge unscathed, both physically and financially, from the impact of COVID-19.

Photo Credit: Rich Whitney, state Green Party co-chair, greets people on a sidewalk in Chicago in 2010 when he was a candidate for governor.(Jos M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

Tuesday marked the first day for independent and third-party contenders to start seeking voter petition signatures to make the November ballot, but their already difficult task has been made even tougher due to restrictions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Even without any public health concerns, independent and third-party candidates had a tougher job to get on the ballot since they are required to get several times the signatures Republicans and Democrats need to qualify for their primary ballots.

• Cheri Honkala on battling back in frontline communities

Cheri Honkala has been organizing in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, one of the US’s most devastated, post-industrial communities, for over 30 years. As of the 2010 census, Kensington was 38.9 percent Hispanic of any race, 37.4 percent non-Hispanic white, 14.8 percent non-Hispanic Black, 6.2 percent Asian, and 2.7 percent all other. And it’s beginning to be threatened by gentrification.

• They must collect thousands of signatures for the petitions in Minnesota, a dangerous task amid the current pandemic. An executive order is needed.

On March 14, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo suspended the signature-gathering process for candidates for political office in his state to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, while at the same time reducing the number of signatures that will be required for each office this year by approximately 70%.

The United States has none of the systems or infrastructure that would allow it to accomplish what China has done to fight mass infection.

The only thing more frightening than the COVID-19 virus spreading around the world is the knowledge that this country is woefully unprepared to protect people from it. The response to the epidemic would be funny if it were not so dangerous.

HARTFORD, CT – Governor Lamont has ordered the closing of tens of thousands of businesses around the state, effective Monday, March 23, 2020, as part of the response to the coronavirus crisis. Exempt from the order are Connecticut's military manufacturers.

The Green Party of Connecticut calls on Governor Lamont to immediately order the closing of the more than one thousand military contractors and subcontractors in the state. While politicians say that keeping military contractors in operation is needed for "national security," the real defense of our communities from a global pandemic demands these plants be closed.

Dear Governor Pritzker, President Harmon, Speaker Madigan, and Director Sandvoss,

For months, the Green Party has been preparing for the start of the petitioning period applicable to “new” political parties, which begins on March 24, 2020, and ends on June 22, 2020. The Illinois Green Party has held its nominating convention and has nominated Green Party candidates for the 2020 Illinois statewide ballot. (Under the Election Code, the Green Party was not eligible to participate in the state's Primary Election this year for statewide offices.)

ALBANY, NY – The world faces an unprecedented crisis in the form of the coronavirus pandemic. New York has become the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, and the actions taken here will have an outsized impact on the course of the crisis.

It is imperative that New York's elected officials choose a path that empowers the working class, people of color, and low-income families, rather than the wealthy. During this crisis acts that were considered extraordinary yesterday will be enacted tomorrow. It is up to those of us in the Green Party of New York and on the Left to ensure that those measures benefit working New Yorkers, and that we push for the most comprehensive, democratic, and ecosocialist version of those measures.

Our economic system is not designed to assist the public in the event of emergencies. The policies of the private Federal Reserve System of banks focus only on profits of the financial and corporate sectors of the economy. Howard Switzer of the Green Party of Tennessee explains:  “When we are faced with a pandemic situation, the largest concern of our leaders is not the disease, but rather the trade losses of investors who benefit from the private for-profit monetary system. Public need for money during a crisis is precisely the time the financial system fails.”

WASHINGTON — Green Party leaders have expressed alarm upon learning the U.S. House legislation passed on March 13 addressing the COVID-19 pandemic fails to guarantee paid sick leave for roughly 80% of workers. Citing the government’s ineffectual response in the early days of the outbreak, the Green Party is concerned that economic barriers could prevent many workers from participating in “social distancing,” one of the most effective remaining tactics for protecting vulnerable segments of the population from infection.