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Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz Counties, CA November 2, 2004 Election
Smart Voter

Candidate Statement

By Joe Williams

Candidate for United States Representative; District 17

This information is provided by the candidate
Send a real progressive to Washington!
CANDIDATE BIO Joe Williams is a candidate for the House of Representatives, (17th District) for the Peace and Freedom Party. He is currently involved in political work in this district through the Santa Cruz Peace Coalition, Santa Cruz Indymedia Center, and the Resource Center for Nonviolence's Military Counseling Team. He has spoken out on issues such as the War on Iraq, the Downtown Ordinances, and the Patriot Act, via Community TV, SC City Council meetings, and on Free Radio Santa Cruz. He has attended numerous Peace Fridays; regularly tables and performs political songs on Pacific Ave.; and has done guerilla theater with Art & Revolution. He is 41 years old, a California native, and is a 14-year resident of the Bay Area. Previously living in Oakland, he was intimately involved with Free Radio Berkeley, helping Stephen Dunifer to manufacture radio transmitters. He also hosted a long-running radical radio show on FRB and during this time travelled to Haiti to help to develop numerous community radio stations.** In his earlier years, he did homeless outreach and advocacy on the island of Oahu, Hawai'i through the Waikiki Health Center and also helped produce a local political newspaper. Today he is self-employed running an internet bookselling business; resides with his life partner; and when not distracted with politics, plays jazz and blues keyboards in various local bands.
  • *He has received honorable mention for his work in this area in Stephen Dunifer's "Seizing The Airwaves"; Richard Edmondson's "Rising Up: Class Warfare in America from the Streets to the Airwaves"; and Bill Mandel's "Saying No To Power."

CANDIDATE STATEMENT:

I am the only candidate who advocates an immediate US withdrawal from Iraq; I would consistently oppose bloated Pentagon budgets; I am against the toxic burns at Fort Ord; I favor withdrawal from NAFTA, GATT, & the WTO; I am opposed to racist sentencing disparities between crack and powdered cocaine; I support inexpensive prescription drug imports; I support ending methyl bromide usage; I don't believe that millionaire career politicians who've never held a real job are qualified to hold office.

Vote Joe Williams for Congress!

My top 3 Priorities:

1) Immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and reduction in U.S. military spending.

2) Bring business, labor, and environmentalists together to find common solutions.

3) Revitalize the House Progressive Caucus.

Top Three 17th-District Problems (with Solutions):

PROBLEM: Economic Issues/Cost of Living -- healthcare; housing; consumer debt; food insecurity; unemployment; retirement; etc.

SOLUTION: Introduce legislation for a Guaranteed Minimum Income; see www.usbig.net; support Living Wage legislation; restore welfare safety net; institute single-payer healtcare system; advocate debt moratorium.

PROBLEM: US Military -- military recruiters preying on our youth; war facilities make us a terrorist target; training facilities are environmental disaster areas.

SOLUTION: Immediate removal of all federal military facilities from the 17th District (including recruiting offices); along with all necessary clean-up and restoration to return the environment to a pre-military status.

PROBLEM: Massive Prison Construction -- Over 20 new prisons in California, while only one university; excessive influence of prison guards union; prison guard gangs in Salinas.

SOLUTION: Moratorium on all new prison construction; federal investigators to examine CA prisons.

Joe Williams Peace and Freedom Party Candidate for Congress - CA - 17th District williamsforcongress@onebox.com 1-866-385-9120 (phone/fax) [TOLL-FREE]

http://www.joewilliamsforcongress.com

http://www.peaceandfreedom.org

http://www.peaceandfreedom2004.org

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ca/state Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 19, 2004 15:33
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