BY ANGEL LARISCY AND BILL KALMAN
MIAMI - "Amendment no. 2 would make it easier for the
government to use the death penalty as a weapon of terror and
intimidation against the working class, particularly Blacks and
immigrants," declared Shirley Peña, the Socialist Workers
candidate for Lt. Governor of Florida. "Our campaign calls for
the abolition of the death penalty and for working people to
vote `Nó on Amendment no. 2."
The reaffirmation of the death penalty is one of 13 proposed changes to the Florida state constitution that will be on the November 3 ballot here. Four amendments are being proposed by the state legislature and nine revisions to existing amendments were drawn up by a Constitution Revision Commission. Amendment no. 2 proposes to amend the section of the state constitution that outlaws cruel and unusual punishment, by explicitly writing into law that "the death penalty is an authorized punishment for capital crimes designated by the Legislature."
Peña and Socialist Workers candidate for governor Ernest Mailhot explain that this measure would also be used to cut back the amount of already shrinking legal space available to condemned prisoners. Florida has the second-highest execution rate in the country after Texas. Last year it was revealed that nearly one-fourth of death row inmates released nationally after having their convictions overturned were freed in Florida.
"The ruling class continues to attempt to establish a legal basis for their class oppression and intimidation of working people," Peña remarked.
For the same reason, the Socialist Workers candidates are opposing a measure to tighten gun control laws. "Revision no. 12 will be used to undermine the democratic right of workers to defend themselves," Mailhot said. "For this reason alone we stand foursquare against this proposal."
Revision no. 12, the proposed revision to the constitution on firearms, reads, "Each county shall have the authority to require a criminal history records check and a three to five- day waiting period, excluding weekends and legal holidays, in connection with the sale of any firearm occurring within such county."
The proposed revision would give also give county governments the option of requiring a criminal history check of gun-buyers. "Giving any government body or agency free reign to pry into the lives and `records' of working people, which may very well include arrests and incarceration for strikes and social protests, is a dangerous proposal," said Mailhot. "The capitalist government will use any excuse to hype up the `fight on crimé to attack our democratic rights," he said. Mailhot further pointed out that sensationalized investigations into violent shootings and bombings are used to undermine important, hard-won rights like presumption of innocence, the right to due process, protection from illegal search and seizure, freedom of association and the right to privacy, and protection from police informers, spies, and agent provocateurs.
Most of the 13 amendments and the proposed revisions are not matters that workers should pay much attention to - they simply don't mean a great deal in politics today and in fact are a distraction from the real issues facing our class. "The working- class has nothing to say about how the bosses `modernizé their antilabor government," explained Mailhot. "Any ballot initiative, referenda, and constitution revision that socialists take a stand on should be of substantial interest to the workers movement."
The Florida Socialist Workers campaign is taking "no position" on 10 of the proposals. "Despite the titles of some of these proposals," Mailhot said, "none of them advance the fight to abolish taxes on working people; to stop the deterioration of the environment at the hands of Big Sugar and the timber barons; to maintain and extend fully funded public, secular education for working people into adulthood; or to advance the fight to defend the hard-won gains of Blacks and women."
For example, Florida socialists are taking no position on the passage of a state Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The proposal adds the words "female and male alike" and changes "physical handicap" to "physical disability" in the constitution. It keeps intact, however, a provision in the Basic Rights amendment that states, "the ownership, inheritance, disposition and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship may be regulated or prohibited by law."
The socialist candidates are calling for a "No" vote on Revision no. 11, which is also called the "Fair Ballot Access Proposal." This amendment is supported by a wide range of organizations, including Common Cause Florida, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Libertarian Party, Reform Party, Natural Law Party, American Reform Party, and Socialist Party of Florida.
The measure would change the petitioning requirements for statewide office from 3 percent of the total number of registered voters in the state (242,336 signatures) to 3 percent of the party having the largest number of registered voters (110,664 signatures).
Common Cause had urged the Florida Socialist Workers Party to support Revision no. 11, saying it would "end the discrimination in Florida law that makes it extremely difficult for minor party and independent candidates to get on the ballot."
In a written response for the Florida Socialist Workers Party, Bill Kalman explained, "Any real reform of the state's undemocratic ballot access laws should be aimed at overturning both the restrictive petitioning requirements and exorbitant filing fees. Forcing third parties to collect over 100,000 signatures to run for governor or U.S. Senate is not a real reform and does nothing to end the discrimination that exists."
At a meeting of The Society for Cultural Revolution at Florida International University on October 20, Ernest Mailhot participated in a discussion on ballot rights and third parties along with Tom Regnier, vice chair of the Libertarian Party of Florida.