only 1,000 members in 2010, with party members claiming it to be an increase in the number of members. In May 2011, an article from The New York Times stated that the party has "about 1,000 members nationally". In February 2012, an article from The Root stated that the party had a "membership around 1,500". Current elected members Pat Noble, member of the Red Bank Regional High School Board of Education Adriana Cerrillo, member of the Minneapolis School Board for District 4 Samantha Pree-Stinson, member of the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation Ideology Political positions While some party members favor a more gradual approach to socialism, most others envision a more sweeping or revolutionary transformation of society from capitalist to socialist through the decisive victory of the working class in the class struggle. Some party members also advocate revolutionary nonviolence or pacifism while some consider armed struggle a possible necessity. The party's Statement of Principles rejects equating socialism with a "welfare state" and calls for democratic social revolution from below. The party is strongly committed to principles of socialist feminism and strives to further embody such commitment in its organizational structure. Its national constitution requires gender parity among its national Co-Chairs and Co-Vice Chairs, its National Committee members and alternates and seated members of its branch- and region-elected delegations to the party's biennial National Conventions. The Socialist Party also rejected the new healthcare reform law of 2010 approved by the Obama administration, with Socialist Party National Co-Chair Billy Wharton claiming it to be "a corporate restructuring of the health insurance industry created to protect the profit margins of private insurance companies". During his campaign, 2008 Socialist Party candidate for President Brian Moore was very vocal against the idea that Barack Obama was a socialist of any kind. He further commented on the issue, saying it was "misleading of the Republicans" to spread that message. In a later statement about Obama's policies, Wharton called Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address a "public relations ploy" and concluded saying: "The time for slick public relations campaigns has ended—the time for building our grassroots movements is more urgent than ever. The Socialist Party USA stands ready to join in such a political revitalization". International affairs The Party's National Action Committee condemned the Israeli actions during the Gaza War. The party demands that the Federal government of the United States cease providing military