Green Rainbow Party Platform Working Group

This page is for developing the Green Party Platform. Before participating in the edit, please contact volunteer @ occupyboston.org. It's important for the editing group to have read through the background info and be up to speed on what the group is going. The group that started this intends to work this draft on their own before asking people who haven't been participating in the meetings to have a chance. We anticipate publishing an invitation for others to participate within a couple of weeks.

Meeting participants, please edit at will. If you want a lesson on how to use the wiki, please contact Brian or Terra. or write to volunteer@occupyboston.org to set up a phone tutorial time. Most lessons take about 5 minutes. Also, you can get "real time" help from the Occupy Boston techs, by choosing "Working Groups" on the left, choosing "OBIT" and then going to the online forum. They are speedy and great.

Target Audience for this Document

Potential and Existing Green-Rainbow Party Members. People interested in a sustainable future for human kind.

NOTES to Wiki participants

Notes and discussion are on the discussion tab above. If you want a discussion on a topic, please install a new discussion topic on the discussion tab and install a link on this page to the topic. You can get the link by choosing "edit" for that topic and then "save" and then the link will be in your browser window.

1) Preamble

Whereas the Green-Rainbow Party does not want

• illegitimate imperialist and colonist governments to subjugate human, ecological, and democratic rights to the "rights of commerce";

• governments strangled by special interests;

• economies to suffer from speculative risk and centralization of power;

• financial systems and democracies to be controlled by the monied elite;

• social relations to be blighted by inequality, lack of opportunity and violence;

We, the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts, recognize the interdependence of all beings on earth and the role of local self-reliance, cooperation, and meeting the needs of the most vulnerable.

We recognize that the precedence of citizens, in duty to their national and local interests, have risen up to challenge what they consider an unjust government... and form legitimate and just governments.

As such, we seek ways to...

• bring the wisdom and energy of all living beings to evolve our systems to be socially, fiscally, and environmentally sustainable.

• enable all to thrive together in peace.

• shift from taxing income and sales to taxing resource use and taxing accumulated wealth. [See discussion]

• establish a strong "commons" to protect public assets from being used for excess profit. Green Party Discussion About Commons

In summary, Green-Rainbow values rest on understanding the interconnectedness of everything on Earth, respect for life, its creativity, and the capacities of human beings. Our Ten Key Values imply a vision of the common good and offer guidance on the pathway. Formed in 2002 by the merger of Massachusetts Green Party and the Rainbow Coalition on the basis of their [Green Party Ten Key Values|shared values]] and aspirations, (footnote on merger statement of 2002?)The Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts supports the values espoused by the Green Party of The United States and Green parties worldwide. (dated xyz_.[See discussion]

[See discussion]

2) Proposed Platform text

Few conditions inhibit the liberty and opportunity of individuals and cause more suffering to people than the blight of poverty and the excessive and continuing growth in disparities of income. We seek legislation needed to achieve the eradication of poverty, the local assurance of a livelihood, freedom to pursue personal ambitions, and security of domicile. Among the means to these ends are: rational taxation which includes the taxing of wealth, land value tax (see GPUS platform, Fair Taxation 14), and tax on pollution and non-renewable resources; the institution of a state-owned bank; [the establishment and funding of independent ecological research. JH: this item repeated later;] the development of a sovereign wealth fund which only invests sustainably and; providing each and every individual in the commonwealth guaranteed income to meet basic needs.

In order to meet people's basic needs [JH: is this p hrase needed?] and reduce [JH: drop tis adjective: ecologically] destructive waste of natural resources, our State government must require full-cost accounting for all government projects. This continuous auditing of expenditures, both physical and monetary, must be instituted in such a manner as to prevent further transfer of wealth from the less to the more affluent. Full Cost Accounting takes the potential harmful effects of policies into account, and places a limit on that which may be appropriated or owned. Air, drinkable water, and the greater area of the earth's crust are the commons of all living things independently of human ownership, and any taking or damaging of this 'natural capital' is required by ecological accounting.

Effective democratic deliberation and decision making at the local level -- town, city, ward, neighborhood, and also decisions whose ecological effect is largely regional, requires the formation of citizen assemblies in addition to those already instituted as local governments. for example,

[Participatory Budgeting]. Such consultative and decision making bodies should be chosen openly and freely by those most directly involved in their outcomes, protected from the undue pressure of competitive private corporations whose choices. and demands on our communities are driven by the need to maximize their own monetary gains.  

[Joanna try at above paragraph: Effective democratic deliberation and decision making should be conducted at a level as close to the people as appropriate (subsidiarity), ranging from neighborhood to town to region to world. Citizen assemblies, chosen openly and freely by those most directly involved in their outcomes, should exercise appropriate powers, in coordination with representative assemblies instituted as governments. Example: participatory budgeting.]

Our obligation to protect the commons as embodied in Article VII of the Massachusetts Constitution (footnote or link to Article VII here) obliges us to protect the fundamental necessities of life, land, water, air, ecosystems and the enjoyment thereof and must allow for the sharing of resources within and between local polities. [JH: The previous sentence might be formulated differently. The following sentence might go elsewhere. A participatory Government encouraging local initiatives, and local markets, and cooperatives, must replace the subsidization of large corporate enterprises.] This obligation to preserve our common resourses implies generous funding of environmental research and teaching at state universities, professional staff, long range regional planning, outreach programs, and applying precautionary principle, especially to new technologies.

We reject the belief that our species is the center of the world, and that other life forms exist only for our use and enjoyment. Our species does not have the right to exploit and inflict violence on other animals simply because we have the desire and power to do so. Our ethic upholds not only the value of biological diversity and the integrity and continuity of species, but also the value of individual lives and the interest of individual animals.

The Commonwealth, through its courts, is charged with the protections of all natural persons residing within the Commonwealth from invidious discrimination, whether it be on the basis of sex, color, national origin, illness or disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, language, immigrant status, criminal record, religion, belief system or political orientation. Wherever this is in doubt, it shall be the duty of the Attorney General to conduct a thorough investigation, and failure of that office to do so is an actionable offense.

All state institutions and private institutions must avoid policies that increase debt, [JH:whose debt?] especially debt that creates waste by jeopardizing social liberty or inhibiting the ability of persons to make reasonable choices as to employment, and other creative endeavors. Debt forgiveness may be necessary to protect the physical and social environment from the production of this waste. The use of local scrip should be encouraged.

Criminal law requires a careful examination of the use of violence to counter violence, as well as the testing of non-incarceration in the protection of the common good. The current prison system provides a glaring instance of unjust waste of human and physical resources and is cruel and inhumane. Imprisonment for non-violent but legally defined offenses remains an invidious practice that can no longer be ignored.

Growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is not a requirement of good government. The Commonwealth and its self-governing communities should be left free to innovate, and improve the quality of life of their inhabitants through social interaction rather than increase of wealth. The institution of universally available health care at no cost to the patient remains one of the chief tools to reduce human suffering and reduce ecological waste in human affairs. [JH: ?] Health care accompanied by the required freeing of medical practice from the constraints imposed by insurance corporations, and removing the burden imposed on private employers provides a powerful tool for reducing the waste of non-productive overhead.

[[Elie: Perhaps the following editing clarifies the intent: Growth in GDP is not a requirement of good government. The Commonwealth and its self governing communities should be left free to innovate, and improve the quality of life of their inhabitants through social interaction rather than increase of income and expenditure. The institution of universal health care remains one of the chief tools of reducing ecological waste that results from habits of commercially educed consumption. Health care accompanied by the required freeing of medical practice from the constraints imposed by insurance corporations, and removing the burden imposed on private employers provide a powerful tool for reducing the waste of non-productive overhead.]]

A program of educational reform in the public school system should be pursued at the local and regional levels. The only role of State government shall be to see to it that all schools are supplied according to the needs of the children they serve, that critical thinking and conflict resolution is encouraged and not stifled, and that teachers and staff are compsenated as valued professionals. This approach will entail increasing the resources to deal with poverty and its consequences for children. The content of compulsory education cannot be fairly determined by job markets. Principles of democratic education are well understood and need [but] to be applied. The Government should not encorage private education nor should it allow public charter schools run by corporate agendas.

To ensure maximal choice in representative government requires State financing of candidacy for public office, majority election, and should also allow for representation of opinion at least as effectively as representation and conciliation of conflicting interest. Preferential balloting for single office in both primary and general elections allows for responsible and democratic choice in a way that the current system denies. Political diversity in the Commonwealth as a whole should be represented in its legislative bodies; and districts of roughly equal population should be drawn on the ground of shared concerns of these populations.

Private corporations in the business of mass transportation, communication, and energy production [JH: and distribution] must be held fully accountable for the maintenance of their infra-structure and the attendant costs, especially the wasteful consumption of non-renewables [energy]. Corporations that produce harm to people such as polluters and military contracters shall have their charters revoked. The utilization of the noted social resources [fossil fuel?] by households, government agencies, industry and commerce must be made as efficient and ecologically sound as possible.

[How about government being prepared to take on management of such enterprises where that would benefit common good, e.g. reverse privatization? How about facilitating municipal ownership]

Our politics emphasize social preparedness. No matter how advanced our technological means, we are not in charge of all planetary or local events. Hurricanes, epidemics, droughts, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes are no more selective in choosing their victim than a nuclear attack or accident. While climate change of a kind that raises sea levels may be anticipated, there are periods when geological events may assume catastrophic proportions. Healthy communities will show the greatest levels of caring and the least reliance on agencies of violence.

Why should we in Mass. use revenues to solicit relocation of enterprises (including multinational) in MA simply as employers, when most new jobs are created by small businesses? What they do and how they do it matters. MA should be good citizen of the world. MA should examine implications of US internat'l trade treaties on MA and tell DC what it thinks, e.g appoint members so that Int'l Trade Commission enacted to do this (Chapter 23A, Section 13S) can function.

[Joanna note: I withdraw the alternative organization I had suggested, hoping that preface can carry the ideas of ecological wisdom, respect for diversity, etc. being relevant to everything, with special attention to government, economy and society. I tried to streamline preface. Right now, links and comments need to be digested to enable flow.] [BrianC: One of the decisions we did come to was to use the three-part division of the platform when writing. I realize, with curiousity, that we're neglecting that decision.]

[Joanna: I hope the electronic text will imbed references as links (on paper in footnotes?)

JH: Can we use this summary of ecologica design? waste equals food, use only available solar income, respect diversity, love all the children?

As such, we seek methods to encourage and facilitate inclusiveness and transparency in government, including [Participatory Budgeting]. [T: this is Terra's comment moved from the Preamble, as suggested by JH] [JH put this in body of text as example of citizen's assembly.]

Separate Platform project: Hope we can post some our our writing on vision, e.g. Brian on economy, and principles on G-R website. For sure, 2002 merger statement needs to be there to link to.]

REFERENCE DOCS/LINKS for Participants

Green Party Working Group Reference Docs