Jill Stein's Statement on Sanders' Clinton Announcement

Statement

Jill Stein, presumptive Green Party Presidential candidate, released the following statement today regarding Bernie Sanders' announcement that he will "work with Hillary Clinton".

I want to congratulate Bernie Sanders on his remarkable effort to build electoral support for fundamental progressive change in America, starting with addressing income inequality.

I understand his decision to continue through next week's primaries and presumably continue his fight to amend the Democratic Party platform. But like many progressives, I am concerned by his statement that he will work with Hillary Clinton, a candidate whose shortcomings he has so critically highlighted over the last year.

Bernie has made an important contribution to the rising demand for change among average Americans. He is part of a broad social movement for fundamental changes that contains Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, A Fight for $15, and a ban on fracking and demand for climate action.

I plan to continue to help build the movement for a progressive revolution as the Green Party candidate for President this November. The Green Party works to provide an electoral voice for progressive movements. I expect to select my Vice Presidential candidate from among leaders of such a movement.

My Power to the People agenda reflects many of the domestic policies of the Sanders campaign -- income equality, climate justice, free public higher education, Medicare for All, immigrant rights, racial justice and an end to mass incarceration. In other areas, my campaign goes much further than Sanders, calling for the cancellation of student debt, full public financing of elections, and the creation of public banks. I support a rapid transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030, making wars for oil obsolete, and enabling a 50% cut in the dangerously bloated military budget that has made us less safe, not more safe. We will offer a foreign policy based on international law and human rights, not economic and military domination that has proven so catastrophic.

The clock is ticking -- on the next Wall Street collapse, the climate meltdown, the expanding wars, the slide towards fascism, nuclear confrontation and more. This is the time to stand up with the courage of our convictions, while we still can. Forget the lesser evil. Fight for the greater good -- like our lives depend on it, because they do. The corporate parties will not fix this for us. We are the ones we've been waiting for.

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