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Green Party Senate candidate calls for massive energy effort
by Maury Thompson
Glens Falls Post Star |
Green Party U.S. Sen. candidate Howie Hawkins wants the federal government to get into the oil business.
The U.S. government could buy cheap oil from Venezuela and sell it through distribution networks as a way of reducing the price consumers pay at the pump for gasoline, Hawkins said at an appearance in Glens Falls Saturday evening.
The president of Venezuela in April offered to sell oil at a discounted rate on a long-range basis, said Hawkins of Syracuse, who is running for the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY.
Establishing a national oil company would be an immediate first step of a long-range alternative energy strategy.
Hawkins proposed diverting one-half of federal defense spending into a global public works program aimed at developing alternative energy systems and making homes and businesses more energy efficient.
The program would support research and construction jobs.
"Basically this is renewable energy for jobs, peace and the environment," Hawkins said at a dinner sponsored by Adirondack Progressives at Rock Hill Bakehouse Cafe in Glens Falls.
Hawkins, who works unloading trucks and rail cars for United Parcel Service, said his campaign will focus on three issues:
* An immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq;
* Establishing a national health insurance system with no co-payments;
* Alternative energy.
Among other issues, Hawkins said the United States should be neutral in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.
"If we're going to play the role of broker, we've got to be even handed," he said.
Hawkins said when he first decided to run for the Senate, he wanted to match the results of W.E.B.Dubois, who, in 1950, received 4 percent of the total vote as an independent U.S. Senate candidate in New York.
"I thought that was a goal to shoot for," he said.
With polls now showing solid support for anti-war candidates, a goal of receiving more than 10 percent of the vote is achievable, he said.
Peace activists should not rally around a dominant candidate on the basis of other issues, as has been the case at times in the past, he said, quoting a slogan from the 1964 presidential race.
"The slogan that year was, 'Part of the way with LBJ," said Hawkins, a cofounder of the Green Party in the United States.
Hawkins encouraged Democrats to support Jonathan Tasini, an anti-war activist who is challenging Clinton in a Democratic primary.
"If you're a Democrat, vote for Tasini. I'm very anxious to see how an anti-war candidate can do in that primary," he said. "But if he doesn't win, you need a Plan B."
A Republican primary is expected between former Yonkers mayor John Spencer and Kathleen "KT" McFarland, a former Pentagon spokeswoman.
QUOTES
Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Howie Hawkins on:
* Calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq -- "Expecting the Democrats to lead us out of Iraq is like asking crack addicts to turn in their dealers. Because they're addicted to their corporate cash."
* The merits of community-owned property -- "We shouldn't be sharing our tooth brushes. We should have our own little piece of private property called a tooth brush."
* Drug abuse treatment -- "Drug abuse should be treated as a health problem, not a criminal problem."
* Campaign finance reform: "Private campaign financing is a system of legalized bribery." |
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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