Gloria La Riva has won the Peace and Freedom Party’s presidential nomination and Dennis Banks was chosen as her running mate to appear on the California ballot for the November 2016 General Election.
La Riva won the nomination at the Peace and Freedom (PFP) convention on August 13, chosen from an all-woman slate, a U.S. political first. 56 of the 80 delegates cast their vote for La Riva.
La Riva and Banks will now appear as the Peace and Freedom candidates representing a socialist platform on the California ballot. Commenting on the victory, La Riva said: “Having a socialist option on the ballot of the most populous state in the United States is tremendous. Across the state there are millions of workers and their families who face unemployment, poverty, racism, deportations and police brutality, inherent symptoms of the capitalist society we live in.
“We call for cancellation of all student debt, for the abolition of health insurance companies and for free healthcare for all, an end to evictions, full rights for undocumented people, an end to fracking and for prosecution of corporate polluters, for prosecution of police who abuse and kill, for an end to all U.S. wars and occupation.”
La Riva’s running mate Dennis Banks is a lifelong activist for social justice and co-founder of the American Indian Movement. He just concluded a months-long Longest Walk 5 from California to Washington, D.C., against the drug epidemic and domestic violence.
La Riva continued: “Our platform will resonate among working-class and poor people in California. We will reach every corner of the state, to universities, to every community, the workplaces and the fields.”
