Oct. 16—Jose Vega, independent candidate for the U.S. Congress in New York’s 15th Congressional District in the Bronx, issued a campaign statement on October 10 titled “A Lesson From Spain: Dignity or Subjugation.” Vega was inspired by the spreading mass protests in Spain and other countries across Europe over the worsening quality of life confronted by most citizens in many ways, from housing to education to fuel. His statement intervenes into a similar sentiment increasingly sweeping the United States, and elevates it to the necessary top-down strategic understanding of the crisis.

A second statement, issued just a few days later, on October 15, is an open letter to the students in France, titled “To All Friends of a Future without War.” The biggest demonstrations to date are planned for dozens of French cities on Oct. 17.

While there are not hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in the streets of the United States at this time, nor in Canada, apart from the recent, significant truckers’ convoy protests, there is widespread rejection of U.S. foreign wars and the breakdown of the economy. This is dramatically evident in the U.S. midterm elections as seen in the record or near record number of candidates running in November as independents, on the federal, state, and local levels. Out of the total of 435 congressional districts in the House of Representatives, independents are on the ballot in 129 districts or at-large seats, and 24 Senate races. More Americans than ever in history are identifying themselves as independent voters. Some “surprise” winners are expected in several states. Their common denominator is to want real leadership out of the present disasters.

Vega has campaigned to inform and bring together fellow citizens into a fighting force to act for solutions to the crises. In the Summer, his campaign issued a mass-circulation broadside with economic emergency measures and reconstruction plans for the Bronx, for the nation, and internationally, and calling for a halt to warfare. Now, with millions on the street in European countries, and in Brazil, Argentina, and elsewhere, Vega has moved to connect Americans with those in motion abroad for a new world framework of economic justice and peace.

Spain: Nationwide Protests

The trigger for protests in Spain was the Sept. 23 eviction from her Madrid apartment of wheelchair bound, 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal after her rent was suddenly increased by 230%. She had lived there for more than 70 years. While being carried out of her home on a stretcher, she implored citizens to fight, and the slogan became “We are all Maricarmen.” While the legal battle was won, she did not survive the ordeal. Vega noted, “This was not an inevitable death; it was murder caused by depraved indifference.”

The candidate further insisted that the issue isn’t particular to Sra. Abascal, or Spain, but rather a more universal fight. He stated:

Yes, “we are all Maricarmen.” We, too, wherever we may be in the world, are victims of depraved indifference. Many living in the South Bronx, where I live, are the poorest in what is termed the poorest Congressional District in the nation. Close to thirty-six percent of Bronx residents pay out half of their income on rent. If you’re spending fifty percent just on rent every month, you don’t have money for food, clothing, and other necessities. You can’t save anything. You’re paying way more than you can handle. You are being forced to become a debt slave, a criminal, or both.

You know the reality of Maricarmen Abascal’s own experience. You know not only “the cost of living,” but the toll it takes on human life and dignity. Evictions in Spain and Germany, rats in the schools in France, are also a daily experience in America, and in my district in particular. But our so-called “representatives” in Congress, including Ritchie Torres [since 2021], who himself came out of Bronx public housing, won’t deal with the root cause of the housing, immigration, and poverty crises—the Epstein class and their commitment to a dying, 500-year-old imperial system, with its unpayable debt, and endless wars.

In his full statement, Vega proposed several policies to change the overall situation, all premised on building and providing the necessities of life—from rail, to hospitals, to a massive program for revitalizing housing. He cited priority projects internationally, especially LaRouche’s Oasis Plan for Southwest Asia.

Vega concluded:

Whether you vote for me, or whether you vote at all, the question before you here is the same as the one that faced an 87-year old woman in Spain. In her name, I make the same request she made, to all of you: “Please fight!” You have a choice: Dignity, or Subjugation. All people always have that choice.

Message to France: A Future Without War

In his Oct. 15 statement to the students of France, titled “To All Friends of a Future without War,” Vega made references to culture and history, including citing principles important in the founding of the United States, and referenced French-U.S. collaboration:

I want you to know that in the United States, we are following what you are doing in France, just as 250 years ago Lafayette watched what was happening in the American colonies, and joined and fought for their declared independence.

A revolutionary moment, such as the one we are now living through, requires a higher ideal of a single humanity. Poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), the author of the famous “Ode to Joy,” wrote that “we are born for that which is better.” The people that came into the streets in Spain in June and France in September to see Pope Leo, and who stood with 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal when she was evicted, saying, “We are all Maricarmen,” are one with people in Germany, Italy, and around the world.

Vega also hit hard at the decrepit school conditions in France, which sparked the first protests by students near Paris in September. There is no reason for the collapsing conditions of education, housing, transportation, health care, jobs, he said. He declared, “The ‘elites’ have lost their authority and credibility to govern. Instead of upholding your right to a decent education, to go to schools which aren’t plagued by leaking roofs, burst pipes, broken heating, and rats, they mobilize your nation and the rest of Europe for a war with Russia.”

The sense of the message to France is that we can all stand together against these common enemies of humanity. There are Americans who will march alongside the French and Spanish demonstrators, and go on to link up with the Global Majority, especially the youth. Vega cited the important international role being played by his associate from New York, Diane Sare, who is running as an independent candidate for President of the United States in the 2028 election.

Vega said about their shared view:

We believe in a new security and development architecture for the whole world. We believe that the world can generate as many as 1.5 billion new productive jobs in mining, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, transportation, machining, building hospitals, houses and schools. As economist Lyndon LaRouche once said, “mankind is the only living creature which has demonstrated the capability of changing the characteristic relationship of our species to nature in such a way that we can willfully, through scientific and technological and related progress, increase the potential population density of our species.” That is a deep, revolutionary idea, a vision of the future to be discussed, debated and explored worldwide. And we must especially discuss this with the young people of the Global South, such as in Africa, where, out of a population of 1.6 billion, almost 1 billion are under 25 years old!

He ended by reiterating that the “future should be free of wars and conflict…. We must declare our independence from the Epstein class, and seize the future now!”