Wall Street's War Machine Kills Workers. Here and Abroad
Photo Credit: Left Voice
Statement from the Ramsey4Gov Campaign
Fifty-nine years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood at Riverside Church and named what the U.S. government refused to hear: you cannot bomb people abroad and care for people at home at the same time. The war machine always attacks. Working people always pay. Today, April 4, 2026, the U.S. wages an illegal war against Iran alongside Israel, making the same choice again. Ramsey Robinson and the Peace and Freedom Party stand where Dr. King stood: against empire, against the billionaires who profit from endless war, and for the millions of working people in California who are told there's never enough money, until there's a war to fund. Our silence now would be a betrayal.
$2 Billion a Day: Working People Foot the Bill for This War
This is an unprovoked, unconstitutional act of war. Iran has not attacked the United States and had no intention to. Trump launched this war in violation of the U.S. Constitution and international law. Not because working people are in danger. Because he wants to dictate to governments around the world what they can do in their own countries. This is empire, plain and simple.
Within the first six days alone, the Pentagon spent $11.3 billion. Nearly $2 billion a day. Estimates now put the full cost at close to $100 billion, and climbing. The Pentagon's total war budget runs well over $1 trillion a year. Every penny of that belongs to working people. Weapons manufacturers pocket it, by force, while our infrastructure crumbles, schools close, and hospitals go unfunded.
Back home in California, nearly one in three Californians lives in or near poverty. About 12 million people. Over a million renters are behind on rent. Half of California workers earn less than $55,000 a year. California's 194 billionaires hoard $1.2 trillion while working families choose between groceries and rent. This is not a coincidence. It's the same rigged system Dr. King named in 1967: a government that will always find billions for bombs and zero for the people who build this state.
The children of the politicians and the executives at Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing who cash in on this war aren't the ones going to fight it. They send working-class young people to kill and die instead. Our bridges crack, our clinics close, and the cost-of-living crisis for working families gets worse every year.
Trump Pulled the Trigger. Both Parties Built the Gun.
Trump launched this war with Israel's backing. But Democrats and Republicans have both funded the war machine for decades. As Dr. King warned, "a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." We are living in that nation.
The Pentagon has 50,000 soldiers across the Middle East and has deployed two aircraft carriers and a massive arsenal to target Iran. This is the largest U.S. military buildup in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The entire region, or even the world, could get dragged into something far worse.
Here's what the warmongers don't want you to know: Iran has no intention to build a nuclear weapon and, unlike Israel, has been a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since 1970. The biggest threat to world peace is not Iran. It's the U.S. government, with over 5,000 nuclear weapons deployed in bases, submarines, bombers, and intercontinental ballistic missiles around the world. The U.S. is the only country ever to have used a nuclear weapon and the only country to reserve the right of "first use."
The billionaire class that evicts families in Fresno is the same class that bombs families in Tehran. That's why we refuse to be silent.
Our Demands — People Before Profit, Peace Before War
End the U.S.-Israel war on Iran now. No more bombs, no more occupation, no more proxy wars against the Global South. Withdraw U.S. military forces immediately.
Divest California's public pensions, CalPERS and CalSTRS, from weapons manufacturers and Israeli apartheid. Working people's retirement funds must not finance bombs. The Ramsey campaign's Divest from Israel platform plank demands we reinvest that money in our communities instead.
Cut the Pentagon budget and redirect war spending to working people's needs: housing, healthcare, education, and guaranteed jobs at $30/hour with union rights. Every dollar spent on a missile is a dollar stolen from a nurse, a teacher, or a family that can't pay rent.
Invoke California's emergency powers to protect Californians harmed by federal program cuts caused by war spending. Direct state agencies to backfill any federal services cut to pay for this war.
Demand Congress defund this illegal war. No authorization. No blank check. Any California elected official who votes to fund this war must answer to working people at the ballot box.
Working People Are Standing Up
Across California and the country, dockworkers have refused to load weapons shipments, students have walked out of campuses, and people are building the anti-war movement Dr. King called for. The Peace and Freedom Party was founded in 1967 by the very anti-war and Black liberation movements that stood with Dr. King. That legacy runs through this campaign. The fight for peace abroad and justice for working families here in the United States is one and the same fight.
When workers organize together across borders, in Oakland, in Tehran, in Gaza, the billionaire war machine gets scared. That's exactly why they want us divided and silent.
Our Vision: From War Economy to Workers' Economy
California's $4 trillion economy can house every person, staff every clinic, and pay every teacher. But only if we stop hemorrhaging billions into weapons contracts and endless wars. The same socialist program that fights for guaranteed housing, free healthcare, and union jobs at home demands an end to imperialist war abroad. We need jobs, healthcare, decent schools, and affordable housing. Not another endless war that makes weapons executives rich and working-class families grieve.
We are the campaign that says it plainly: socialism at home and peace abroad.
Take Action Now
🗳️ Register Peace & Freedom Party, the only California party founded in the anti-war movement: ramsey4gov.com
✊ Get involved. Volunteer to build working-class political power: Volunteer here
💵 Donate to our 100% working-class campaign. No corporate money, no weapons contractor cash: Donate here
📣 Join or organize an anti-war action in your community. Demand your city and county council pass a ceasefire resolution for Iran.
The Ramsey Robinson for Governor campaign is organized through the Peace and Freedom Party, California's only political party that puts working people before corporate profits.