Howie Hawkins
Green Candidate for Syracuse Mayor
Howie Hawkins has been an organizer for peace, justice, labor, the environment, and independent politics since 1967 when he got active in "The Movement" as a teenager in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Since moving to Syracuse in 1991, he has lived on the South Side where he has been active in the community on many issues. He is currently a Board member and the Treasurer for the Eat To Live Food Cooperative and for the Southside Community Coalition.
Howie works at UPS unloading trucks, where he is a member of Teamsters Local 317, He is also a supporter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, US Labor Against the War, the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare, and the Labor Notes network.
A former Marine, he helped organize opposition to the Vietnam War. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a leader in the anti-apartheid divestment movement to end US corporate investment in the system of racist labor exploitation in South Africa.
After attending Dartmouth College in the early 1970s, Howie worked in construction and helped organize a workers cooperative that specialized in energy efficiency and solar and wind installations.
He was a co-founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976 and the Green Party in the US in 1984.
Howie moved to Syracuse to develop cooperatives for CommonWorks, a federation of cooperatives that worked in the 1990s for a local economy that is cooperatively owned, democratically controlled, and ecologically sustainable.
Howie was active in the campaigns to establish the Citizens Review Board in the 1990s and the Living Wage Ordinance in the 2000s.
As the Syracuse Green Party's candidate for Mayor in 2005, Howie's campaign succeeded in putting public power – a city-owned power utility – on the city's agenda.
Howie has been a Green Party candidate for Common Council, Congress, U.S. Senator, and City Auditor. His vote has grown from 3% for Councilor At-Large in 1993 to a near win in 2011 with 48% of the vote for 4th District Common Councilor. In 2015, he received 35% of the citywide vote for City Auditor.
As the New York Green Party's candidate for Governor in 2010 and 2014, he campaigned for a ban on fracking, 100% clean energy by 2030, a $15 minimum wage, an end to Governor Cuomo's test-punish-and-privatize education agenda, and for progressive taxes and revenue sharing as the alternative to Cuomo's austerity budgets for schools, cities, and public services. In 2014, he received 5 percent of the vote, the most for an independent progressive party candidate for Governor in New York history except the 5.7% in 1918 and 5.6% in 1920 received by the Socialist Party candidates.
When the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs, A. Philip Randolph, Helen Keller, and Norman Thomas re-established itself in 1973, Howie joined and remains a member. He is also a member of Solidarity, a democratic socialist organization that stands for "socialism from below," the self-organization of the working class and oppressed peoples.
My journey from pastor to politics
For those of you who have followed my decision to run for governor and wondered about my journey from pastor to politics, I invite you to check out the video below produced by Corin Lea Pankow.
Some are concerned that a person who has held a leadership position in any religious community is somehow dangerous for politics. I appreciate the concern but I hope I can persuade said people to see that an ideology of liberation, justice & communalism is what grows out of my faith tradition. These things are key to a political revolution--and a revolution is what is needed in New Jersey and in this country.
Read moreGreen Party of Virginia Calls for Medicare for All
Corporate Parties Unable to Address the Crisis
Richmond, VA – The Green Party of Virginia calls for a Medicare type healthcare system for all Americans. At a time when our legislators from the two corporate led parties have demonstrated the inability to adequately address the crisis before us, we call for a federally administered single-payer health care program. Universal single-payer health care means comprehensive coverage for all Americans as a right of citizenship.
Support Single Payer
The Green Party supports single-payer universal health care and preventive care for all. We believe that health care is a right, not a privilege.
Our current health care system lets tens of thousands of people die each year by excluding them from adequate care, while its exorbitant costs are crippling our economy. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world without a national health care system.
Under a universal, comprehensive, national single-payer health care system, the administrative waste of private insurance corporations would be redirected to patient care. If the United States were to shift to a system of universal coverage and a single payer plan, as in Canada and many European countries, the savings in administrative costs would be more than enough to offset the cost of additional care. Expenses for businesses currently providing coverage would be reduced, while state and local governments would pay less because they would receive reimbursement for services provided to the previously uninsured, and because public programs would cease to be the "dumping ground" for high-risk patients and those rejected by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) when they become disabled and unemployed. In addition, people would gain the peace of mind in knowing that they have health care they need. No longer would people have to worry about the prospect of financial ruin if they become seriously ill, are laid off their jobs, or are injured in an accident.
The Green Party supports a wide range of health care services, including conventional medicine, as well as the teaching, funding and practice of complementary, integrative and licensed alternative health care approaches
Greens recognize that our own health is also intimately tied to the health of our communities and environment. To improve our own health, we must improve the quality of our air, water and food and the health of our workplaces, homes and schools.
The Green Party unequivocally supports a woman's right to reproductive choice, no matter her marital status or age, and that contraception and safe, legal abortion procedures be available on demand and be included in all health insurance coverage in the U.S., as well as free of charge in any state where a woman's income falls below the poverty level.
Stand with the Green Party and stand with the American people. Please sign our petition.
Gather up, Greens! Left Forum, May 20 Meetup, Greens in DC and More
Green Party of New York Newsletter
With news of Trump's airstrikes in Syria continuing the destructive US policy of permanent war around the world, it is even more important for Greens to gather, learn from each other and get stronger. We have many opportunities to do just that in the coming months.
In This E-blast:
Read moreActivists Rally: Demand Albany Pass NY Single-Payer Bill
With the country once again debating the future of health care, activists rallied Tuesday in Albany, NY in support of a bill that would create a universal, publicly-financed health-insurance plan for all New Yorkers.
Rallygoer and Green Party candidate for Albany Mayor Dan Plaat believes having a state single-payer plan in place would have a positive impact on local economics. "It reminds me a lot of the anti-fracking movement. Each year the rally gets a little bit bigger. More partners are made and more people catch on to the necessity and the importance of this issue in getting this law passed, this piece of policy done."
The New York Health Act has passed twice in the Assembly, which expects to pass it again for the third year in a row. Assembly Health Committee Chair and bill sponsor Democrat Dick Gottfried says support for universal health care is growing with the public and in the state Senate, where it is co-sponsored by nearly half of all senators.
Read moreGreen Party to Sen. Bernie Sanders: Introduce Single-Payer / Medicare For All in your Senate bill
Instead of tweaks for Obamacare, Greens urge big push for Medicare For All: Everybody in, nobody out, pay less, live longer
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders called on Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.-Ind.) to introduce a bill in the U.S. Senate for Single-Payer national health care (Medicare For All) and to drop the idea of legislation for a public option to be incorporated into the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Read moreGreen Party of Ohio: Single Payer Is The Solution
Cleveland OH: The Green Party of Ohio has observed with interest the false "debate" that has occurred in Washington DC and in statehouses around the country.
We realize that the "Affordable Care Act", better known as Obamacare, is a flawed law that has never lived up to the promises the Democratic Party talked about during its passage.
Read moreDemand Single Payer Health Insurance For All
In the richest country in the world, healthcare should be a human right – not a privilege.
Congress failed to cut healthcare today, but they will try again. A majority of Americans AGREE. We must begin the final push to build an independent mass movement for free universal health care for all.
If we are serious about providing high-quality, affordable care as a right for all Americans, the only solution is a Medicare-for-all single-payer system.
Please sign our petition below if you agree.
Green Party Of Hawai'i Formally Endorses Legislative Bills To Establish Single Payer/Universal Healthcare In Hawai'i
HAWAII ISLAND, 15 February – One of the 10 Key Values of the Green Party of Hawai'i is single payer or universal healthcare for all. It is also uniformly supported by international Green Party organizations. The Green Party of Hawai'i gives its enthusiastic support and endorsement of SB1269 and HB129 as currently before the Hawai'i State Senate and House. In addition, the Green Party of Hawai'i is joining with other persons and groups seeking to promote state-based universal health care in Hawai'i and protect Hawai'i's independent healthcare planning agency, the Hawaii Health Authority, which the Ige administration and powerful legislators are trying to abolish.
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