The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
Sadie Robinson looks at what difference electing a woman president would have in the fight against sexism
Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail in January - would electing her benefit women? (Pic: Gage Skidmore/flickr)
The race for the US presidency has raised the prospect of a woman
becoming leader of the world’s most powerful country for the first time.
Hillary Clinton is fighting to be the Democratic Party candidate in
the presidential election. Some argue that a Clinton victory would mark a
step forward for women’s rights.
It would certainly be a milestone to have a female US president. But it wouldn’t guarantee improvements for ordinary women.
The relative lack of women in governments reflects the oppression
that exists in society. A “glass ceiling” means that the higher up
society you go, the fewer women you find.
Struggles by ordinary people have challenged the idea that women
should know their place in society. It has forced open spaces that were
previously closed.
But the system can accommodate a few women in high-up positions while
oppression keeps the rest down. And ultimately their politics and class
matter more than their gender.
Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, brought in policies that made working class women’s lives worse.
German chancellor Angela Merkel is a key figure in forcing more austerity on Greece, hitting ordinary women.
Hillary Clinton is an establishment candidate who relies on huge corporate backing to finance her campaign.
She supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and backs welfare cuts.
Clinton would not fight to improve the lives of ordinary women if
elected.
It would be a far bigger political earthquake if Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a socialist, became US president.
Clinton has attacked Sanders for focusing on inequality and
poverty. She argues that it’s “not enough” to “break up the banks”. And
she claims making class demands ignores oppression. Inequality
In a speech last month she said poverty among black people was not just about “economic inequality” but also “racial equality”.
Of course this is true. But the aim of Clinton’s argument is to
weaken Sanders’ class demands in the guise of raising demands about
oppression.
Sanders’ policies include increasing benefits, a $15 (£10.60) an hour
minimum wage, free tuition for students and fewer people in jail.
These things would make a much bigger difference to the lives of
ordinary black people and women in the US than anything Clinton is
proposing.
She presented herself as a defender of women’s rights and claimed she was better placed to understand the problems women face.
But it was far better for working class women that Jeremy Corbyn, not Yvette Cooper, won the election.
Cooper supported the Tories’ benefit cap and attacks on claimants.
She refused to stand up to cuts that disproportionately affect women. In
contrast Corbyn has spoken out against austerity.
The major advances in women’s lives–from the right to vote to
abortion rights–have been won through struggle. This doesn’t make
elections irrelevant.
The election of Barack Obama as the first black US president in 2008
made black people feel more confident to make demands on the system.
Corbyn’s election has politicised more people and made those who hate war, racism and neoliberalism feel stronger.
Revolutionaries should use this mood to build struggles that can win
real changes and counter the impact of oppression in the here and now.
And we need to build resistance that can build a world where we make oppression history.
WASHINGTON (March 16, 2016) – Iraq and Afghanistan
Veterans of America (IAVA) Founder and CEO Paul Rieckhoff testified this
morning before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’
Affairs Committees. Rieckhoff presented IAVA’s top policy priorities,
which is derived based on the feedback from IAVA’s robust and diverse
membership. As 22 veterans continue to die by suicide each day, veteran
suicide remains the number one priority for the post-9/11 community.
As Rieckhoff testified, “As you all know, this time last year we were
celebrating the enactment of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for
American Veterans Act. Despite this historic and bipartisan success,
suicide among veterans is still a crisis. IAVA is also very concerned
that women veterans die by suicide at nearly six times the rate of
civilian women, and we call on Congress to pass the Female Suicide
Prevention Act, recently approved unanimously by the House.”
IAVA has been on the frontlines of the fight to end veteran suicide, leading the effort to get the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act signed into law in Feb. 2015. Following IAVA’s recommendations at
the Feb. 2016 national summit, “Preventing Veteran Suicide–A Call to
Action,” the VA announced last week plans to elevate its Suicide
Prevention Office. Rieckhoff will ask Congress to defend the promise to
our veterans by adequately funding and staffing the VA Suicide
Prevention Office, as well as fully implementing the Clay Hunt SAV Act
and passing the Female Suicide Prevention Act (H.R.2915/S.2487).
Rieckhoff also issued a call to action for Congress to fully recognize and improve services for women veterans, reform government for today’s veterans and defend veteran and military education benefits.
“Since 2009, over one million veterans and their families have come
to rely upon the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Among IAVA’s own members, 50 percent
of member survey respondents have used the Post-9/11 GI Bill themselves
or transferred it to their dependents. Ignoring these facts, the
House’s recent use of the GI Bill as a piggy bank to fund other veterans
programs is of great concern to IAVA.
While there are initiatives in
the omnibus legislation that we have supported, a 50 percent reduction
in the housing allowance for veterans’ children who will receive
transferred GI Bill benefits is a breach in trust,” Rieckhoff testified.
IAVA was the leading veterans service organization
driving the passage of the historic Post-9/11 GI Bill in 2008 and in
championing upgrades in 2010 and 2014. These upgrades simplified and
improved tuition benefits, expanded eligibility to the National Guard,
included vocational programs and made nationwide in-state tuition rates a
possibility for new veterans. IAVA calls on stakeholders in the veteran
community to urge Congress not to make cuts to these critical education
benefits.
Rieckhoff’s full testimony can be found here.
Note to media: Email press@iava.org or call 212-982-9699 to speak with IAVA CEO and Founder Paul Rieckhoff or IAVA leadership. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (www.IAVA.org) is the
leading post-9/11 veteran empowerment organization (VEO) with the most
diverse and rapidly growing membership in America. As a non-profit
founded in 2004, IAVA’s mission is to connect, unite and empower
post-9/11 veterans. Celebrating its 11th year anniversary, IAVA has
connected more than 1.2 million veterans with resources and community,
and provided more than 5,800 veterans with personalized support from
IAVA’s Master’s level social workers.
This is from Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination:
NOGALES,
Ariz. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made an emotional visit to
the U.S.-Mexican border. Sanders was joined during the visit by Rep.
Raúl Grijalva, Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, Santa Cruz
County Sheriff Tony Estrada and DREAMers Jessica Elizabeth Orellana Díaz
and Julio Zuniga.
“As I have traveled around this country and talked to immigrant
families, and particularly Latino immigrant families, I am struck by the
fear and sadness that grips so many of them,” Sanders said following
the visit. “Fathers or mothers or both sent out of the country having to
leave their minor children with relatives or guardians here in the
United States. A U.S. servicemember whose spouse was deported. A 12 year
old boy who longs to be reunited with his mother. This human suffering
has got to end. That is why I am here today.”
In November, Sanders introduced the most comprehensive plan to tackle
a broken immigration system of any candidate in the 2016 race for the
White House. The New York Times called it “reality-based, moderate,
practical and hopeful” in an editorial praising the platform. “His plan
starts with the right premise: that immigrants should be welcomed and
assimilated, not criminalized and exploited,” the editorial board wrote.
“His proposals seek to uphold American values, bolster the rule of law,
bolster the economy and protect and honor families.”
Touring the border here in Nogales, Arizona. I'm struck by the fear and sadness that grips so many families.
If elected, Sanders would:
Dismantle inhumane deportation programs and private detention centers.
Offer humane treatment and asylum to victims of domestic violence
and minors fleeing from dangerous circumstances in Latin America.
End policies that discriminate against women and ensure that mothers
and wives who come into the United States with their families have the
same right to work as their partners.
Pave the way for a swift legislative path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Close loopholes that allow federal agencies to use racial and ethnic profiling at the border.
Ensure our border remains secure and protects local communities.
Make it easier for immigrants to access the judicial system.
Increase oversight of key Department of Homeland Security agencies to guard against waste, fraud and abuse.
Allow the return of deported immigrants if they would have been eligible to stay under the 2013 immigration bill.
Sanders will fight for comprehensive immigration reform to provide a
pathway to citizenship for 11 million aspiring Americans, but he will
not wait for a dysfunctional Congress to act. Instead, during the first
100 days of his presidency, he will take executive action to allow all
undocumented people who have been in the United States for at least five
years to stay in the country without fear of being deported.
Clinton
began the race for the nomination 40 points up. Yet all these
advantages -- money, superdelegates, calendar, shutting down debates and
withholding election -- couldn’t save her. She needed yet more
help and got it from liberal lobbies that are all that remains of the
great grass-roots movements that once drove all our social progress.
Most are led not by grass-roots leaders but by technicians who seek
money, access and career advancement and rely on the same consultants
advising Clinton, Obama and a long list of corporate clients.
There’s a name for the bipartisan consensus of party elites:
neoliberalism. It is an inconvenient name for many reasons but mostly
because it seems odd that the worldview of the Republican elite would be
an ideology with the root word ‘liberal’ in its name but it is true,
nonetheless. and may even shed a little light on the open, bitter breach
between GOP elites and the party base. Democrats stayed loyal longer to
their elites for two reasons. One is their love of two very talented
politicians, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, whose charm and verbal
dexterity masked deep differences with the base. The other is their fear
of Republicans. I often talk to Democrats who don’t know Obama
chose not to raise the minimum wage as president even though he had the
votes for it; that he was willing to cut Medicare and Social Security
and chose not to prosecute Wall Street crimes or pursue ethics reforms
in government. They don’t know he dropped the public option or the aid
he promised homeowners victimized by mortgage lenders. They don’t know
and don’t want to know. Their affection for Bill and Barack -- and their
fear of Republicans -- run too deep.
Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).
NOGALES,
Ariz. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made an emotional visit to
the U.S.-Mexican border. Sanders was joined during the visit by Rep.
Raúl Grijalva, Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, Santa Cruz
County Sheriff Tony Estrada and DREAMers Jessica Elizabeth Orellana Díaz
and Julio Zuniga.
