Statewide Smoking Ban Not a Socialist Measure, Say Michigan’s Socialists

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sat. May 1st 2010

LANSING – Confuting the widespread characterization of Michigan’s looming workplace smoking ban as a ‘socialist measure,’ by many of the new law’s critics throughout the state, the Socialist Party of Michigan officially resolved to take an opposing stance toward the ban at the April meeting of its State Executive Committee on Wednesday.

Among the 38 states to have enacted similar laws thus far, Michigan’s new smoking law, set to take effect this Saturday May 1st, is among the most restrictive – prohibiting smoking and related paraphernalia in all public places occupied by even a single employee, including the outdoor patios and private rooms of all restaurants, bars, and hotels, while permitting partial exemptions to be granted only to pre-existing cigar bars, tobacco specialty shops, and the gaming floors of Detroit’s three casinos.

While expressing concern about the overreaching scope of the law’s prohibitions, Michigan’s Socialists also sought to challenge common, and increasingly echoed, misperceptions about the kind of political and economic change that socialists actually stand for.

“In contrast to the deliberately misinformative rhetoric of corporate politicians and pundits, the American socialist movement has never had any affinity for homogenizing workers’ and consumers’ choices,” said Socialist Party of Michigan Chairperson Matt Erard.

“Unlike the Democratic Party, Socialists believe that the establishment of free universal health care for all, rather than either monolithic lifestyle encroachments or mandatory private insurance purchases, is the key to improving public health and lowering its costs. With over 1,000 more Michigan workers presently losing their health coverage every week, the legislature’s new smoking ban is another ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach to addressing our state’s public health crisis,” Erard added.

Erard took a corresponding stance toward such proposed legislation while running as the sole Socialist candidate for the state legislature, among the four Michigan campaigns the Party fielded in 2008 general election. In his response to questions on whether he would support the enactment of such a ban in the candidate questionnaires published within the Detroit News and MLive.Com voter guides, Erard noted that, “[a]s a socialist, I advocate workers’ self-management and I favor the model of direct workplace democracy over arbitrary decrees from the state, just as I favor it over the arbitrary decrees of private bosses.”

Following the Party’s resolution on the impending smoking ban this week, Erard further noted that the primary focus of the ban’s restrictions, namely shielding non-smoker workplace employees from involuntary exposure to second-hand smoke, would be far less relevant without the confines of the present capitalist system of wage-labor.

“Under a socialist system, characterized by full employment and workplace democracy, all Michigan workers would be able to select and structure their employment opportunities in consonance with their needs and lifestyle choices, rather than having to grudgingly adapt to the top-down policies of any employer willing to rent their labor,” Erard said.