Statement of Candidacy

By Eugene E "Gene" Ruyle

I am running for Congress as a member of the Peace and Freedom Party because I believe people should have the right to vote for socialism, and for peace, feminism, racial equality, and protection of the environment.

I see my campaign as educational, designed to raise issues of peace, justice, and sustainability within the electoral process, issues which are unlikely to be raised otherwise. I am running on the Platform of the Peace and Freedom Party, but I also support the Ten Key Values of the Green Movement. I see myself as socialist, feminist, environmentalist, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist. I participated in the WTO protests in Seattle and want to bring the spirit of Seattle and the global peace and justice movement into the 2008 elections.

For a variety of reasons, I decided to run in the 10th Congressional District (El Cerrito, Orinda, Moraga, Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Livermore, Antioch, Fairfield & part of Concord). Congressional candidates are required to live in the state they plan to represent, but not necessarily the district. I live in Oakland, but do not want to run in the 9th CD against Barbara Lee, who I consider one of the few decent members of Congress. I support the independent candidacy of Cindy Sheehan against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and therefore do not want to run in the 8th CD in San Francisco. I also support the Peace & Freedom candidacy of my friend, William Callison, in the 7th District (Richmond, Martinez, Concord).

I am not asking for any financial support, but I do urge people to contribute to the Peace & Freedom Party, which you can do though our web site.

BACKGROUND AND QUALIFICATIONS: I was born and raised in Concord, California and graduated from Mt. Diablo High and UC, Berkeley. I served in the US Marine Corps from 1957-1960. I earned an MA from Yale and a PhD from Columbia University. I retired from Cal State Long Beach in December 2006 after a 35 year career teaching Anthropology and Marxism. I helped found the Peace Studies Program at CSULB, was active in the Peter Carr Peace Center and our faculty union, and worked closely with the Native American community in their struggle to save Puvungna, the sacred creation center on the Cal State Long Beach campus. I was a Peace and Freedom Party candidate for Congress in Long Beach in 1982. I am currently affiliated with the Institute for the Critical Study of Society at the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland.