League of Women Voters of Ohio
Ohio State Government November 7, 2000 Election
	Michael Joseph Fitzsimmons Answers Questions Candidate for United States Senate

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and asked of all candidates for this office.

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

1. Should the United States pay all its dues to the United Nations as was originally agreed upon in its charter?

no response - candidate not asked

2. What specific measures, if any, would you support to reform health care?

We demand free health care for all, cradle to grave. The criminal profiteering of the health insurance and pharmecutical monopolies is one of the greatest illustrations of how the market relations of capitalism are in direct contradiction to the needs of humanity. This cannot be reformed. Only in a socialist society like Cuba, in which the workers and farmers themselves hold state power, will health care be treated as a human right and not a business. We also advocate free and legal abortion on demand.

3. What measures, if any, would you support to reform our campaign finance system?

The influence of industrial and agricultural monopolies on bipartisan politics is endemic to capitalism. No measure of reforms will change this. Working people should break with the parties of big business- which only serve the wealthy-and chart a course towards independent working-class political action. Real social change will only occur through massive united struggles of working people to defend our unions, family farms, and democratic rights. Our campaign champions the fight for a workers and farmers government, in which those who produce the wealth will run society in our own interests, putting humanity and solidarity ahead of profits.

4. What is the role of the Federal Government in Ensuring that All Children receive the education they need to become productive Adults? Please be specific

While we oppose all attacks on public education, schools under capitalism are not institutions of learning, but of social control, aimed at reproducing the class relations and privileges of the prevailing political order. Rather than advocating education reforms within the framework of molding children into obedient servants of capital, we argue that learning must be transformed into a universal, lifelong activity which prepares workers and farmers for the battles coming in the years ahead: to throw off the self-image we are taught, and to see ourselves as capable of taking power out of the hands of the exploiting class.