The Socialist Equality Party calls on working people in California to vote “no” in the election to recall Governor Gavin Newsom, and then to cast a replacement vote for our candidate, educator David Moore, the only socialist running in this election.

A “no” vote is necessary to defeat the ultra-right campaign aimed at overturning the results of the 2018 election and replacing Newsom with a right-wing Republican, most likely the fascistic radio talk show host Larry Elder. But the SEP advocates a “no” vote without the offering the slightest political support to Newsom or the Democrats.

On all the major issues confronting the working class—the coronavirus pandemic, the environmental crisis, the corporate attacks on jobs and living standards, the defense of democratic rights and the rights of immigrants—the Democrats and the Republicans defend the profit interests of the ruling elite.

The overriding question is the need to mobilize the working class as an independent political force, against both corporate-controlled parties, on the basis of a socialist program. Only the SEP candidate, David Moore, advances such a program.

California is in the middle of a deadly surge of COVID-19 with thousands of preventable infections, hospitalizations and deaths. More than a dozen counties across the state have reached 100 percent ICU capacity and have to redirect patients.

Pediatric hospitalizations are higher than they were a year ago, and with the reopening of schools to in-person instruction, the toll of infections and deaths among children is bound to skyrocket. Beyond deaths, children can suffer long COVID symptoms for months, including fatigue and brain fog, cognitive decline, mood and anxiety disorders, and kidney dysfunction.

The Democrats have sought to frame the recall election as a contest in which Newsom is “protecting California” and “following the science,” while the Republicans reject science and protective measures.

The truth is that both big business parties reject science-driven measures to eradicate the virus and renounce basic public health measures like lockdowns and school closures. In their drive to maintain corporate profits, they insist that children must go back to school so that their parents can be forced back to their jobs.

The dispute within the ruling class is between those like Newsom and President Biden, who peddle the fiction of “mitigation,” that vaccines with occasional masking can contain the pandemic, and Republicans like Larry Elder and ex-President Trump, who openly demand the end of any pretense that the pandemic can be contained and seek to remove even the most basic public health measures.

Without any plan to eliminate transmission, mitigation measures like masks and vaccines simply slow the rate at which people become infected. The bipartisan plan is for COVID-19 to become endemic, with deadly outbreaks for generations to come as new variants emerge and immunity wanes.

In the recall election on Tuesday there is only one party, the Socialist Equality Party, standing in opposition to the mass infection of workers and children with SARS-CoV-2. We demand a science-based policy to eradicate the virus and eliminate its threat to public health.

We call for the formation of rank-and-file safety committees, independent of the corporatist unions and big business parties, in every workplace and neighborhood, to enforce the closures and safety measures necessary to contain the pandemic. The wealth exists to fully compensate workers and small businesses during a new lockdown, to fully fund education and to massively invest in health care infrastructure. The problem is that that wealth is currently possessed by a handful of billionaires.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the government has provided trillions of dollars in bailouts to the banks in order to prop up the stock market. The Dow Jones is reaching record highs, and the country’s billionaires have seen their wealth grow by $1.8 trillion over the course of the pandemic, while ordinary Americans face homelessness and hunger.

All the great problems confronting mankind—the pandemic, homelessness, war, the rise of fascism and authoritarianism, climate change—pose before the working class the necessity take political power in its own hands, and to restructure social and economic life on the basis of social need, not private profit.

The objective basis for a socialist movement is the growth of working-class struggle. The pandemic has enormously intensified class conflict in the US and internationally. Workers are beginning to fight back, from Volvo autoworkers in Virginia, Frito-Lay workers in Kansas, mine workers in Alabama, Dana auto parts workers, teachers and health care workers throughout the country.

These struggles are part of a growing movement of workers throughout the world. The development of the class struggle must be armed with a socialist program and led by a revolutionary party, the Socialist Equality Party and its sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International.

In the California gubernatorial election, vote for David Moore of the Socialist Equality Party! Join the SEP and take up the fight for socialism!