Vote Socialist Resurgence! Vote Dan Piper for State Rep in Hartford!
On September 9th, Dan Piper, a 37 year-old Hartford resident, public school teacher, union member, and longtime activist, qualified for the November ballot in Connecticut. Piper, the Socialist Resurgence Party candidate, is running for State Representative in Hartford’s First District, challenging the House Majority Leader, Matt Ritter. Members and supporters of Socialist Resurgence petitioned to have a working-class voice on the ballot, receiving almost triple the number of necessary signatures.
Piper sharply opposes the reckless reopening plan advanced by Lamont and his party that puts children and school staff on the frontlines of a pandemic that the state and country have failed to contain. “Lamont says we need at least 25 new cases of COVID per day per 100,000 to consider returning to remote learning,” says Piper. “That is nearly what we had at the peak of Connecticut infections in April. That would give us the third highest infection rate in the country today. Lamont and his party—Matt Ritter included—are planning to reopen the pandemic. They refuse to make the rich pay for the kind of measures that can contain the pandemic while providing quality education for children and economic security for everyone.”
Piper calls for public ownership of medical resources, immediate conversion to 100% renewable infrastructure under workers’ democratic control, Black control over the Black community, abolition of the police, free quality public housing for all, LGTBQIA+ rights, safe access to abortion, child care on demand, reparations and self-determination for Black, Indigenous people, Puerto Ricans, and all who have been oppressed by United States imperialism.
Piper’s opponent, Matt Ritter, does not support defunding the police, closing the Hartford garbage incinerator, or an emergency plan to nationalize and centrally direct the countries’ productive resources to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Ritter and his party have overseen decades of police brutality in this state including the murders of Zoe Dowdell, Jayson Negron, and Jose Soto. No officers have been charged in any of these killings.
Piper is challenging the incumbent to a public debate on the response to COVID-19, police brutality, the economic crisis, and the state’s plans to expand use of natural gas, among other issues.
Illustration by General Strike Graphics