One Struggle member Amy interviewed war protester and Candidate for Govenor of California Cindy Sheehan.
Cindy:
Who am I? I’m a peace activist and a social justice activist and my son was killed in Iraq on April 4th 2004. Ever since then I’ve been fighting really hard for peace and against the empire, and today I’m in Washed Up Deceit because I just rode my bicycle across the country from California. I left the day my son was killed, from his grave, and we’re here on July 2nd and tomorrow we have a thing and then I’m flying home. It’s been a really amazing trip.
Amy:
Today we were at Arlington Cemetery and I noticed that we saw a different hearse every 15 minutes and I felt an impact from that.
Why aren’t there more moms out there fighting like you?
Cindy:
Of course that’s from all wars, so they could be vets from WW2 or Korea. I think the main thing we have in this country is the conditioning that we are force fed with from the time we are born about how “wonderful” this country is and it’s wonderful to join and defend it and protect our freedoms and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
There’s a lot of mothers and fathers who believe the same way I do, but it’s a struggle just to live, let alone do what I do. So I wish there were young mothers. I wish there were grandmothers because it’s not just about here in the USA our safety and our prosperity. What our empire does affects the entire world negatively and we really have to think outside our own homes, our own towns and our own country to believe that everybody has the same right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you believe in that terminology.
Amy:
So what do you think about Capitalism and imperialism? What are some of your thoughts about Capitalism?
Cindy:
I”m an anti-capitalist person. I’m a Socialist. I’m gonna run for governor of California next year on the Peace and Freedom Party, which is the Socialist party. I think Imperialism and Capitalism [are] like an evil synergy. I think Imperialism needs Capitalism and Capitalism needs Imperialism, empire and the threat of empire, using the military to do that. There is a profit motive and it’s not just the war machine that’s making money, not just oil companies, but when we invaded Iraq, it opened up a huge market for cellular service – so you can not only exploit your own workers and your own citizens so much so Capitalism needs its Imperialism to open markets from the East India Tea company to Sprint. They need Imperialism.
Amy:
They also need cheap labor. They want to go into other countries and make sure they have a huge endless supply of surplus workers to pay a dollar an hour to make all of our crap that we buy here in the United States.
Cindy:
That’s the evil trade, so called Free Trade Agreement, that they give our companies the opportunity to do that. Not only do they exploit the labor but they exploit the environment because in most other countries the environmental restrictions are a lot less than here in the United States. It’s not about people. It’s not about what’s right.
Amy:
If you were president of the United States what would you do right away?
Cindy:
Well the first thing I’d do would be to end the wars, close the bases around the country. I would throw Monsanto in prison. I’d get Bradley Manning out. I’d free the Cuban Five. I’d free Lyn Stewart. Free Mumia. Free Leonard, all the political prisoners. There’s so much to do. I’d really be working towards a world, at least our country, that is environmentally sustainable. We’d be getting off of fossil fuels. We would be investing in clean, renewable, sustainable forms of energy. So many things. I would forgive all student debt. I would make sure that college was accessible and free university to everybody. There’s so many things.
Amy:
What about hospitalization and health insurance?
Cindy:
Health care yes. We’d have a Medicare-for-all program and then we wouldn’t need a V.A. because everybody would have the same opportunity and we wouldn’t need a V.A. because we wouldn’t be making any more harmed vets.
