By TABITHA MAE

Campaign supporters gathered 946 signatures in less than six weeks! Nearly a thousand New Haven residents made it clear: Many people in the working class are disillusioned with the Democratic Party, and are ready for a new candidate to advocate for their interests—an independent socialist.

Folks who have been following this campaign since its kick-off at the end of June have seen the outpouring of support and excitement for a message that calls for independence from the Democrats and Republicans and building a mass movement in the streets that can confront the Trump regime. Throughout New Haven and across Connecticut, supporters are springing up to help with the campaign. The New Haven City Clerk has already been verified 246 signatures, marking the need for just 67 additional valid signatures in order to secure a line on the ballot for the election this November. With 700 signatures in the verification process, the campaign is likely to have succeeded in their efforts for a ballot line.

Rosa Pepper-Macias is an independent socialist from the Workers’ Voice party running for the District 11 state senate seat. She is a hotel line cook, living and working in New Haven, and uses any pronouns. Over the past few weeks, campaign volunteers and the candidate have taken to the streets of the district, petitioning signatures, door-knocking, and hearing directly from residents about the issues they are chiefly concerned about. It is clear that many in District 11 support the right of socialists to be on the ballot and are looking for an option that puts forward a working class program.

This feeling was well encapsulated by speakers on Friday, July 31, when the campaign staged its first press conference. Speakers expressed deep support for Rosa Pepper-Macias and the platform of her campaign. Daniel Piper, a union teacher, said of this campaign, “I have never seen the kind of enthusiasm and support for a socialist campaign as we have been seeing for Rosa’s. … Never have I seen the kind of urgency that people feel today about the political struggles that shape their lives.”

Abortion rights activist Alyce Coleman also spoke at this conference, sharing the thought that “Rosa understands that her loyalty is to the working people of Connecticut—not to corporations and not to an authoritarian federal government.” Other speakers included a community activist with 50501, Renee Peroncel, and Oli Preiser, a student activist at Wesleyan University, who pointed out the connections among the issues plaguing working-class people. Preiser stated, “We need to build a leadership that understands the interconnectedness of all of these fights. We need Rosa Pepper-Macias for state senate.”

The candidate herself took to the floor at the close of the conference, offering a rousing speech on the various layers of the class struggle and the failures of the Democratic Party at addressing it. Pepper-Macias called upon listeners to remember that “for too long, we have been so dazzled by their wealth and power that we have failed to recognize our own. While they may possess the accumulated riches of this society, it is our hands and minds that create this wealth and put it into motion. …They depend on the legitimacy we grant them to put it into work.”

Pepper-Macias is an outspoken and well-respected community activist, who fights to build a working-class response to the triple crises of war, climate change, and economic instability and inequality. The campaign platform centers working-class and oppressed communities while strongly opposing the Democratic Party and their neglect to make a true stand against the growing attacks on our civil liberties and democratic rights. Other prominent features of the campaign platform are the eradication of ICE and the implementation of programs to supply citizenship papers to all residing within our borders, providing equal rights for immigrants, support for the right of self-determination for Palestine, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and Ukraine, and an immediate end to the U.S. war against Iran.

Pepper-Macias calls attention to the $21.71 billion that Connecticut taxpayers are contributing towards military forces—money that could be used instead for retrofitting homes with solar electricity, providing Medicaid to 200,000 residents, hiring 15,000 additional educators to combat the present shortage, providing Head Start programs and scholarships to students, securing VA medical care to over 130,000 military veterans, and providing quality public housing opportunities for the nearly 300,000 Connecticut residents who are currently without. These funds could also provide for the creation of 50,000 employment opportunities at top union wages.

Pepper-Macias calls for the increase of taxation for the ultra-wealthy and corporations, rather than the constant tax increases, layoffs, and budget cuts waged against working-class people. Also advocated by her platform is a shortened workweek, without a decrease in compensation, and a strong defense for the protection of the right of working-class people to organize, unionize, and strike. As it stands, many barriers are in place that limit the empowerment of the working class, making the organization of workers unneededly difficult.

Pepper-Macias would seek to collaborate with unions to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO-Act), expanding workers’ rights and bolstering better opportunities for unionization and collective bargaining. Also emphasized is the need to protect reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, making abortion, contraception, and other medical needs readily accessible for all, alongside paid leave for parents and 24/7 child and eldercare availability.

The campaign unwaveringly supports the restoration of rights for transgender individuals, re-establishment of gender-affirming care, publicly-funded Pride centers, and the assurance of safe, non-discriminatory, public housing for LGBTQ individuals. Additionally stated by the campaign is the importance of fighting white supremacy—supporting reparations, self-determination, freedom for political prisoners, the jailing of cops, ICE, and CBP agents who have terrorized, brutalized, and killed marginalized members of our community, and fighting for the return of unceded territories to Indigenous groups such as the Quinnipiac, Paugusset, and  Mattabesett tribes—and the defense of democratic rights and free speech.

Pepper-Macias advocates the reinstatement of people wrongfully fired for expressing their right to free political speech, and supports the demand to remove charges from anyone arrested for political protest. She calls upon the National Guard to refuse to carry out unconstitutional and unlawful orders. The focus of the Pepper-Macias campaign is unlike anything District 11 has had at the forefront of their politics.

This May, after holding the seat since 1993 in the Connecticut General Assembly, President Pro Tempore Martin Looney (D-New Haven) announced that he would not be seeking re-election as a state senator for District 11. Publicly vying for the spot is State Representative Alphonse Paolillo (D-New Haven), a move that was readily endorsed by Democratic legislators from the area, Looney included. Paolillo has spent the last decade as a state representative for the 97th District, and previously served as an alderman for the city. While there are a number of public supporters for Paolillo’s candidacy, there is also an air of dissatisfaction seen in public forums, where individuals on both sides of the aisle have expressed distaste in regards to Looney endorsing Paolillo.

Some residents see this vacancy and endorsement in tandem as a means to quell the possibility of competitive elections—a lifelong career Democrat passing a position of influence to another career Democratic politician. While the Democrats have dominated Connecticut politics for decades, canvassing for Rosa’s campaign has shown that there is a real desire for choice. Many make it clear that they have grown tired of the two-party system.

This November, residents of District 11 will have the opportunity to vote socialist, to vote Workers’ Voice Party, and to vote for Rosa Pepper-Macias—a representative unlike any other that has been offered to constituents of this district. A vote for Pepper-Macias is the chance to platform a true working-class voice, advocating for working-class independence, internationalism, and human and environmental protections, instead of further padding the path for increased profits for the ultra-wealthy.

An additional press conference quote from Piper harkens to the broader picture that this campaign is positioned within. He stated, “I hope it provides enough vision to suggest that working people have earned the right to stand on our own two feet, and that our struggle must, in the end, establish a society organized around human needs and the dreams of all, not the profits of a narrow few. Not a warmed-over New Deal atop a bloodthirsty imperialist nightmare, but honest, viable, socialism made possible by the working people of all countries.”

Photo: State senate candidate Rosa Pepper-Macias at the mike.

The post Rosa Pepper-Macias: A better path forward for Connecticut’s 11th District first appeared on Workers’ Voice/La Voz de los Trabajadores.

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