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Excerpts from the California Green Party political
EXCERPTS FROM THE GREEN PARTY PLATFORM
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The Green Party of California
P.O. Box 480578
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(213) 31-Green
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Democracy and Electoral Reform
A true multi-party system of government with proportional
representation and multi-member districts at all levels will
return power to citizens. All campaigns should be publicly
funded, with limits on spending and advertising and qual access
by all parties to the media for political debate. Make all
records of government officials public. Decentralize money and
power at all levels of government; return power to California
communities lost due to revenue limits (Proposition 13).
Education
Quality public education is the basis of a caring, democratic
society. Quality can be fostered by greater variety of choices
and full, democratic participation by parents, teachers, and
students. The form and content of education should reflect the
skills and characteristics needed to create a sustainable,
multicultural society. These include high self-esteem, social
skills, literacy, a second language, conflict resolution skills,
critical thinking, parenting, and an understanding of ecology,
democracy, history, science, and technology. Schools and
colleges should be models of social responsibility, particularly
in investment, hiring, community relations, and research.
Health Care
Health care should be equally available to everyone, through
public financing. Emphasize total health and prevention over
symptoms suppression and drugs. Support better prenatal care.
Patients should have the right to choose their own forms of
treatment and to see evaluations of health care providers.
communities, through elected boards, should decide how to spend
local health funds.
Recycling/Waste Reduction/Toxics
Our motto must be Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. Sustainable resource use
requires an end to subsidies to resource extractors. The full
cost of extraction should be included in the prices of products.
The government should provide a recycling model and a market for
recycled products. Reduce unnecessary packaging and encourage
packaging that simplifies reuse and recycling. support research
to replace toxic substances used in manufacturing, and
neutralize, at the point of production, those that cannot be
eliminated. Ban the exporting of toxics. Producers must be
responsible for the costs of health effects and cleanups; the
legal burden of proof should be on toxic producers rather than
the public. Ban CFCs and replace them with existing
alternatives.
Sustainable Energy/Public Transit
Conserve energy. Require efficiency of vehicles, appliances,
building, and industrial machines. Phase out fossil fuels and
nuclear power; switch to cleaner fuels such as hydrogen and
alcohol, and renewable energy such as solar, biomass, and wind
power. Reduce dependence on cars through support of public
transit, particularly light and heavy rail; avoid building
freeways. Encourage multi-use zoning and other planning methods
that reduce commuting. Oppose offshore and Alaskan oil drilling.
Ecologically Sustainable Agriculture
Convert to methods of farming and distribution that preserve the
soil, conserve water and energy, reduce pollution and dependence
on oil, and produce high-quality, healthy food. Support and
retrain farmers who convert to organic methods. Ban chemical
pesticides, animal growth hormones, and agricultural genetic
engineering, and stop irradiating food. End the spraying of
poisons on communities. Ban the exporting of poisons and the
importing of food and spraying with banned chemicals. Require
healthful, humane treatment of farm animals, and stop
subsidizing the cattle and poultry industries. End subsidies to
agribusiness, including water rights, grazing on public lands and
industry control of university research. Impose pollution fees
on chemical fertilizers.
Economic Justice
The tax structure should promote economic democracy: reduce
income taxes on low and moderate incomes; reduce sales taxes;
increase taxes on land and resource use and on unearned income;
and return unspent public funds as a citizen's dividend. Include
the true cost of pollution, depletion, disposal, and health
effects in the prices of products, thereby making non-polluting,
safe products more competitive. Assist businesses and employees
to convert from a war economy to a sustainable peace economy.
Make decent housing affordable to all. Reduce housing costs by
discouraging speculation in land through shifting taxes from
building to land, and by placing low income housing in public
land trusts. Provide basic shelter, health care, and social
services to the homeless for immediate relief. Create jobs
through job sharing and encouraging small businesses and
cooperatives. Emphasize training and stable employment and
equality for workers, rather than maximizing profits.
Pro Choice
Women have a fundamental right to decide if and when to have
children. Abortion must be safe, legal, private, and available
to all women. Emphasize prevention of unwanted pregnancies
through support of family planning, sex education, and public
health care. Simplify the adoption process and support family-
oriented measures such as child care, preschool, and school lunch
programs.
Human Rights/Native Americans
We support the equal rights of all regardless of age, race,
gender, disability, language, religion, ethnic or national
origin, or sexual orientation to equal opportunity and equal
justice, including the right to housing, child care, education,
employment, child custody, self-determination, respect and
dignity and participation in decision-making. We oppose censorship
and the civil abuses of the "war on drugs". The federal
government should acknowledge injustices done to indigenous
peoples; recognize the sovereignty of Indian nations, including
the right to full control of tribal lands; and respect the
rights of tribes to their ancestral remains.
Disarmament
U.S. foreign policy should be based on diplomacy and self-
determination, not military intervention, threats, and
subversion. Defense spending should be reduced by 50 percent
immediately, which will create a large peace dividend. Close all
foreign military bases. Use U.S. troops abroad only as part of
U.N. peace-keeping forces. Stop production, testing, and
storage of nuclear weapons and end international shipments of
plutonium. No first strike use of nuclear weapons. Keep weapons
out of space. California must convert to an ecologically
sustainable peacetime economy. Our public universities should
not oversee weapons and other military research.
Forests
Enact "Enactment of Forests Forever" (Proposition 130), a Green
Party initiative would have meant protection of California's
small remaining stands of ancient forests and preserved jobs.
Carry on work by advocating a ban on clearcutting. Restructure
our land use policies to be sustainable. Retrain logging and
mill workers. Reforest. Replace -- develop wood substitutes
such as hemp. Ban the importing of beef and wood products from
vital forests. Use foreign aid and reduction of Third World
debts to encourage true land reform and promote sustainable-yield
harvesting of indigenous products.
Ocean Protection
Sign the Law of the Sea Treaty that calls for global sharing of
ocean resources. Protect our oceans by adopting The Ocean
Protection Act (H.R. 3751), which would ban new offshore oil
drilling in the 145 miles off the California coast. Protect
marine mammals by banning drift-net fishing in our oceans and the
importing of products from countries that use drift nets.
Enforce the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and adopt the Boxer
bill requiring labelling of tuna caught through "purse seine"
fishing.
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