Platform - 1998, Georgia Green Party

Resolution to adopt 1998 Platform
Agriculture
Auto Insurance
Crimuinal Justice
Democracy
Economic Democracy
Education
Electric Reregulation
Environmental Justice
Forests
Health Care
Human Rights
Public Utilities
School of the Americas
Taxes
Transportation & Land Use
 

Whereas, the by-laws of the Georgia Green Party provide that the Annual Convention of the Party may adopt a platform; and

Whereas, the Party held a Nominating Convention in Wrightsville on June 6th where, among other business, the Party considered platform documents from fifteen authors addressing more than thirty different topics, and met in committees over lunch to draft another four papers; and

Whereas, The Convention adopted a process for the consideration of these platform documents which limited the floor discussion to the substance and not the style of each paper and created a Style Committee to provide a consistent style that would integrate the various papers approved by the Convention; and

Whereas, although many papers were approved by the Convention and forwarded to the Style Committee, still there were unresolved concerns with five other flagged planks; and

Whereas, the Convention agreed that planks on which there was disagreement would be presented to a committee made of concerned delegates with instructions to report back a consensus document for consideration by the Council who in their discretion may forward a paper to the Style Committee for incorporation in the platform; and

Whereas, those flagged planks include: Insurance, the Wisconsin paper, the O'Neil Health paper, the Corporate Accountability paper and material from two or more papers dealing with NAFTA and GATT; and

Whereas, the Style Committee report includes the areas of agreement on the flagged planks; and

Whereas, a Style Committee met and worked by email to produce the attached sixteen page report for the consideration of the Council.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Coordinating Council, operating under its mandate from the 1998 Wrightsville Convention, adopts the attached Style Committee Report as the 1998 Platform of the Georgia Green Party.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Quick Decision Council is directed to publish this platform in the campaign tabloid planned for the Fall election season and on the web page of the Georgia Green Party.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Quick Decision Council and the Coordinating Council are authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the Party on the issues addressed in this Platform.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that in publishing the Platform, the Party shall invite interested Georgians to get involved with the Party, to organize affiliated locals to send delegates to the 1999 Convention and to offer their input to expand and refine this Platform.
 

AGRICULTURE

Modern Industrial Agriculture has been a mixed blessing. While large factory farms are producing more food than ever before, meat and produce products have actually become hazardous for consumers. Toxin levels are increasing, and overall quality of food is decreasing.

Many factory farm techniques exhaust organic nutrients in farm lands, creating the need for higher and higher levels of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As a result, soils, rivers, and products are being poisoned. Finally, agricultural conglomerates have forced most small farmers out of business, consigning farm labor largely to immigrants who work in hazardous conditions with no benefits, no legal protections, and very little pay.

In all, short-term savings and profits are coming at the expense of substantial long-term damage -- for the consumer, for the environment, and for the farmer. The Green Party of Georgia offers the following reforms as a starting point for the dialogue on Agriculture:

1. Keep Corporate Money Out of Politics.

Policymakers will make better decisions about agriculture if large political donations from agribusiness interests are prohibited. The interests of consumers and community must take precedence over private interests.

2. Support and Develop Ecological, Organic, and Bio-Dynamic Farming Methods.

Vegetables and fruits can be raised without chemicals. They're a lot healthier to eat that way, and they end up tasting better, too. Moreover, natural techniques re-generate the earth, instead of exhausting it. We need to phase out poisons in agriculture, and phase out ecologically destructive practices such as factory farming and mono-cropping; in their place we need to implement organic and bio-dynamic farming techniques. We need to research and teach these techniques and methods in agricultural schools.

3. Phase Out Factory Animal Farms, and Replace Them with Pasture Farms.

Most meat animals raised today in America spend their entire lives packed in dark boxes, shoulder to shoulder with other animals, knee- to hip-deep in their own waste. The meat from these animals is unhealthy to eat. The waste from these farms pollutes entire rivers. And the production of the grains used to feed these animals relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and techniques that deplete farmlands (see #2). Carefully managed pasture farms would feed livestock naturally (and less expensively), and sunshine, mobility, and organic diet would vastly improve quality of their meat. Animal wastes would be used to build topsoil of the pastures.

4. Investigate Alternate Sources of (Pulp) Fiber, Food and Oil.

We have to use trees for lumber, but we probably don't need them to produce paper pulp. First we should maximize recycled content in all paper (and other) products. Next, alternate sources of fiber such as kenaf, bamboo and hemp (the non-narcotic kind) are faster and cheaper to grow. At the same time, keeping more trees standing cleans more pollution (carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere, and saves more wildlife habitat.

5. Educate Farmers

No farmer sets out to destroy the environment and produce unhealthy food -- market forces and current agricultural techniques create these phenomena. We need to teach organic and bio-dynamic farming methods to working farmers, and to young farmers in schools. As the average age of farmers pushes 70, a new emphasis on Urban Farm Schools is necessary and appropriate.

6. Educate Consumers

No consumer sets out to buy toxic foods. What we don't know, however, really is hurting us. A Nutrition Awareness Program could educate consumers about health implications and issues surrounding both factory- and organically-grown produce and meat.

7. Encourage Municipal Composting and Recycling of Biological Wastes.

Composting turns these liabilities into assets. Cities need only to be shown how.

AUTO INSURANCE

Auto insurance companies claim that high jury awards and large numbers of fraud cases force them to jack up insurance rates. Yet the past five years have shown record profits for nearly all the major auto insurers.

Legislators have made auto insurance mandatory in the state of Georgia (and nearly every other state). We donÕt question the wisdom of that law. But we do maintain that if we are required to purchase insurance, (or anything else for that matter), the sellers of this commodity shouldnÕt be getting rich off us.

At the same time, rampant medical and legal fraud is becoming increasingly expensive Ð for the consumer. More often than not, insurers take a Òwhy botherÓ attitude when prosecuting bogus claims, because they know they can pass the costs directly on to the rest of us. Good drivers are footing the bill for bad drivers, resulting in an annual premium penalty of hundreds of dollars per driver.

To foster auto insurance policies that truly protect the public, the Green Party will:

1. Demand Accountability

Medical and legal fraud could be, and should be, more aggressively prosecuted by insurance companies. Let the insurance companies recover their losses at their own expense through tighter claims review and civil litigation.

2. Mandate Immediate Rate Reduction

Impose a 20% reduction in auto insurance rates. Our program would closely parallel California's Proposition 103. This program's success in California has led to a 1% increase in average premiums since 1988, compared with 32% nationwide. The California proposition mandated a 20% reduction in premiums and is yielding great results. The Greens played a major role in pushing the legislation through in California.

3. End Discrimination

Prohibit rate discrimination based on sex, race, or income under the guise of geographical risk factors. Premium rates should be determined by driversÕ personal records and age only.

4. Deny Automatic and Arbitrary Decision-Making

We will eliminate automatic rate increases and provide consumers the right to challenge the cancellation of their insurance policies.

5. Reject Caps on Awards

Insurance companies have no right to penalize us for exercising our rights in court. We will maintain our right to pursue tort claims for pain and suffering, with no limitations imposed other than the good conscience of an impartial jury.

6. Require Legislator Integrity

Legislators with direct ties to the insurance industry -- clear conflicts of interest -- should not be allowed to write legislation for the industry.

7. Create the Office of Public Advocate

The office of a full-time administrator should be created to act on the taxpayerÕs and consumerÕs behalf, not the insurance companiesÕ. This Public Advocate would monitor the insurance companies' profits and methods of rate determination, and challenge all rate increases.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Currently the state of Georgia is incarcerating an ever increasing number of its citizens at great cost in both the tax money needed to operate the Prison system and in the human potential being wasted. Georgia has abandoned any intention to rehabilitate its inmates -- most of whom will one day return to our communities. The get-tough-on-crime policies of the status quo is making our communities less safe and promises to bankrupt the state's coffers and human potential.

Meanwhile critical threats to the safety of our communities are practically ignored by the criminal justice system. Our state lacks both the commitment and the infrastructure to address the ecological crimes of corporations and the very real and ever present threat of violence in our homes.

Corporate boards and officers make decisions every day that result in the introduction of poisons to the air and water which we all share as our common heritage. These same acts committed by individuals would be considered and prosecuted as criminal. Corporations hide behind immunity and poison our communities and food supplies, killing our neighbors with impunity.

Half or more of the women and children of Georgia suffer physical abuse in their own homes. Assaults that would be considered criminal if they happened on the streets are shrouded and protected in a cloak of familial secrecy. Creating justice for women and children can not be done with police and the courts, alone. But these institutions must play their role. We also need to recreate a culture where this sort of violence is not tolerated and where parents and spouses are supported in finding non-violent ways of resolving conflicts.

Georgia has become the focus of International attention for the human rights abuses that go on in the state's prison and juvenile detention centers every day.

1. Create a Restorative Justice System

Create a justice system that focuses on police accountability, public safety, rehabilitation and re-integration into the community and court and judicial accountability (which includes: speedy trial, the rights of the accused, the rights of prisoner, the rights of ex-offenders and the rights of victims). The criminal justice system must be equally fair and accessible to all people, regardless of wealth. To that end, every person accused of a crime should be offered competent, adequately funded legal counsel at all stages of the proceedings.

2. Declare Peace in the War on Drugs

Offer treatment for addictions instead of a war on drugs. Replace a criminal justice response to substance abuse with treatment and addiction counseling. Focus on shifting resources away from the prosecution of victimless crimes.

3. Rehabilitate Inmates

Reclaim public resources from the prison industry for reinvestment in prevention. Make rehabilitation the purpose of incarceration. Respect for the humanity of all inmates must be the foundation of incarceration.

4. Protect Workers from Slavery

Prohibit private prisons from using inmate labor that would leave Georgians working in unsafe conditions for declining wages in competition with unpaid, inmate slave labor.

5. Prevent Domestic Violence

Increase resources to prevent and respond to domestic violence.

6. Prosecute Environmental Crime

Increase resources to respond to crimes against ecological integrity. We oppose immunity for corporate officers from liability for criminal acts of their corporations.

7. Prohibit State-Sanctioned Murder

The Death Penalty is barbaric, archaic, and morally reprehensible. Capital punishment is imposed in classist, racist and freakish manner. The death penalty has no place in a world moving into the next millennium.

8. Indict Wayne Garner

We call for the dismissal and indictment of Corrections Commissioner Wayne Garner.

DEMOCRACY

Despite the rhetoric of high school civics classes, we don't live in a democracy but in a corporate oligarchy where public policy is made at the behest of and to benefit wealthy business interests. This has cost us more than just democracy and the right to meaningfully participate in the governance of our own communities. It has also cost us access to clean air, water, soil and food. It has cost us the common wealth of mature forests and unpolluted oceans. It has cost us our ability to offer our children a future that serves their best interests.

Incumbents through the reapportionment process have more influence over who wins an election than do voters. Corporate lobbyists and wealthy campaign contributors have more influence over the direction of public policy than do the citizens and tax-payers of Georgia.

1. Eliminate Barriers to Voting

All citizens have the right to participate freely and equally in an electoral system free of onerous barriers to voter registration which protects the principle of one-person/ one-vote.

2. Democratically Finance Elections

We must provide public financing of election campaigns so that a candidate's meaningful access to the electoral system is not determined by money; and where candidate viability is determined by their appeal to the electorate not their appeal to wealthy contributors. Prohibit the use of private money in public elections.

3. Ensure Open Access to the Ballot

Open up ballot access to independent political parties. If the right to vote is to mean anything, a voter's candidate of choice must have access to the ballot and their votes must be counted.

4. Provide for Recall, Initiative and Referendum

Provide for a meaningful recall procedure to challenge and hold accountable sitting elected officials. Provide reasonable means to access the ballot for voter initiatives to set policies that elected officials ignore or refuse to enact. Protect the right to referendum.

5. Stop Privatization

Protect democratic control over government services by halting the trend to privatize public functions without community referendum. Ensure that workers providing government services receive a livable wage for their work.

6. Ensure Sunshine in Public Policy

Maximize open meetings and sunshine in all policy making.

7. Expand Democratic Control of our Communities

Expand Democratic Community Control of our communities, land-use, economic development, transportation planning, housing, schools, public safety, utilities and local media.

8. Hold Corporations Accountable

Eliminate corporate influence and interference in the community development decision-making process. Establish and enforce strict regulations that prohibit real estate and banking policies and practices that are hostile to the interests of the community.

ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

Political democracy without economic democracy is meaningless.

Our economy is organized around a scarcity mentality which protects the profit and greed of an owning class while impoverishing a working class. For too long, public policy has been written by corporations, for corporations, and at the expense of working people and consumers.

Georgia and U.S. taxpayers subsidize corporations when we provide public assistance to support the families of people employed at substandard wages, benefits and working conditions. Georgia leads the country in infant mortality. Hungry children don't learn. Poverty creates hopelessness and disempowerment that leaves people turning to criminal activities to support their families.

1. Honor Economic Human Rights

Honor everyone's right to decent and affordable housing, health care, food, retirement benefits, education and childcare. This is guaranteed by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ought to be enforced by the state of Georgia.

2. Guarantee Livable Wages and the Right to Organize

Guarantee the right to a safe, secure job at a livable wage, with protection of the right to organize, to bargain collectively, to join a union and to strike without fear of retaliation, reprisal or firing. Prohibit companies from busting unions and attacking living standards through the use of scab replacement workers, prison labor, economic blackmail, taking reprisals against whistle-blowers or the payment of unlivable wages to their workers.

3. Guarantee a Community's Right to Know

A Community has the right to know about a company's plans for downsizing, closing shop or moving out of the community; the right to know about a company's toxic emissions and workplace conditions; and the right to act to stop a company from pursuing policies and practices that are hostile to the interests of the community.

4. Repeal NAFTA and GATT

We call for the repeal of NAFTA and GATT. We support the Steelworker's Constitutional challenge of NAFTA's ratification process. We acknowledge that the economy is linked on a global scale, but the free trade agenda has created hardship for workers both here (where jobs have been lost) and abroad (where wages are so low that workers cannot support their families). We oppose the power granted to the World Trade Organization by the General Agreement on Trade and Tarriffs allowing them to overturn laws agreed to in a democratic manner by local communities, state and national governments. Corporate challenges before the WTO of worker and environmental protection laws as an "unfair restraint of trade" have already overturned US Congressional laws to protect Marine Mammals and protected Nike's use of child labor paid 9¢ an hour for 14 hour days. We're committed to building an economy that is community based, sustainable and just. The Free Trade agenda has created increased dependence for Georgia's workers, on the farms and in the factories. It has accelerated the loss of family farms and increased reliance on chemically addicted factory farming. We are committed to building a Fair Trade Economy with our global neighbors based on respect for the rights of all working people to the economic rights and the environmental rights elaborated in this Platform.

EDUCATION

An education should never be denied to anyone with a thirst for knowledge. For too long education has been a privilege and we want to make it a right financed by public funds.

As Greens, we will:

1. End Tracking

Stop tracking, compartmentalization and ability grouping in schools. These programs with the stated intent of giving each child the attention they need to achieve their own level of educational development have for too long been used to reinforce old racist stereotypes of who is capable of what in an educational environment. Young people are capable of far more than we give them credit for. Schools should transform the limiting myths of racism and sexism, not reinforce them.

2. Tax Money Should Fund Open, Inclusive and Democratic Education

Oppose school vouchers. Public funding must serve public schooling. We cannot simultaneously build an excellent public education system and finance private schools. Public resources must fund schools that provide open, inclusive and democratic access to all students who wish to attend.

3. Stop Ritalin Abuse

Investigate the high incidence of children being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder in Georgia's classrooms. A frighteningly high number of students in our schools are taking Ritalin and other pharmaceuticals to help teachers control their behavior. We believe that the real problem has more to do with the school's unrealistic expectations that young children sit still for extended periods of time. Addicting children to drugs as a method of control has got to stop.

4. Schools Can Help Us Unlearn Racism

Teach children the truth in our classrooms. Children deserve to know the true history of labor, religion and politics. History has traditionally been written by the "winners." If we don't go back and re-examine the lies we were taught about those "victories," we'll never be able to peel away the layers of racism which continue to impact our communities still, on the brink of the new millennium.

5. Education Can Reduce Unwanted Pregnancies

Offer accurate, age-appropriate sex education which will 1) teach an understanding of the practical biological processes, 2) teach an appreciation of the responsibilities of parenthood, 3) encourage self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth among young women and 4) teach men to respect women's choices, take responsibility for preventing unwanted conception, and for raising and supporting any children in order to reduce the need for abortions.

6. Our Youth Need Recreation Opportunities

Expand recreational services for our youth. Renovate existing schools and build new schools as needed.

7. Stop Short-Changing High School Athletes

High Schools must stop valuing athletics over academics. The purpose of the public educational system is to prepare students for their future. Athletics programs serve a role, but should not replace academic preparation. When an Athletic Program leaves the student unprepared for either higher education or employment that can effectively support them and their families, the school has failed both the student and the community.

ELECTRIC RE-REGULATION

The re-regulation of public utilities, especially of the electric power utilities, is going to happen. Several states have made these changes and others including Georgia are studying these changes. The President of the United States has repeatedly espoused this as one way to reduce our CO2 emissions to meet our commitments to the rest of the world.

It is essential that Georgia re-regulate in a manner that is good for the economy and good for the environment.

1. Protect (Especially Residential) Ratepayers

Keep discriminatory practices out of electric service so that all consumers are guaranteed access to reliable electric service. Low income and rural communities must be offered programs in support of affordable electric service. Large consumers should not be given lower rates. Ratepayers must be protected from excessive rates during transition to a competitive market and protected from discrimination in rates or services in the long term.

2. Electric Reregulation Must Not Sacrifice the Environment

Public protection from environmental damages caused by power generators and facilities. Pollution from power plants must be reduced. Energy conservation must be increased and cleaner energy supplies must be developed to move our society towards a sustainable existence. All competitors must be required to meet safety standards for workers and for the community. Public oversight for electric utilities must be maintained. Consumers should be given full disclosure of emissions and waste data, compliance with safety laws and all other information necessary to make informed purchasing decisions.

3. Separate Power Distribution from Production

Electric restructuring done in ways that lead to a truly competitive market. It is essential that the power grid and the means of distribution be run by an organization that does not compete in the production of power. The power grid must allow a level playing field for all producers. This means that if the Southern Company's power grid is used, then it must divest itself of all power production for the state of Georgia or sell the grid to a truly independent organization.

4. Protect Ratepayers and Taxpayers from Stranded Costs

Taxpayers and ratepayers should not assume responsibility for losses from bad investments made by utility companies. Utility company stockholders or municipalities are not entitled to recover losses from bad investments from electric consumers or taxpayers.

5. Shut Down Nuclear Power Plants

No nuclear power plants will be allowed in Georgia. No power plants that are inefficient from an environmental point of view will be allowed. Before any new large capacity is provided it must be demonstrated that extensive demand side management has occurred. Investments in consumer efficiency are the most cost effective manner of serving our power needs.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Our economy's production processes were developed without sufficient attention to the hazardous side effects they present. Toxic substances are accumulating in the food chain. Our current economy is built on the principles of consumption and waste, not sustainability and conservation of vital natural resources.

The fallout of these corporate choices for toxic technologies fall disproportionately on poor communities and communities of color. While urban dwellers are able to purchase products of convenience, in Georgia, it is primarily poor, African-American and rural communities who pay the health costs of toxic exposure. Workers are the first exposed. But the often short-sighted policies designed to protect work-place safety tend to shift the pollution into the communities, or to down-stream neighbors.

Ultimately we all pay the price since we all share the air and water which cycles throughout the environment.

1. Phase Out Toxic Technologies

Phase out toxic technologies such as nuclear power plants, the automobile, waste incinerators and landfills.

2. Shift Funding to Alternatives to Cars

Shift transportation investment from car-oriented road construction to projects and programs that serve pedestrians, cyclists, public transit users, the elderly and the differently-abled.

3. Prevent Pollution

Shift environmental policy from pollution control (which hasn't worked) to pollution prevention -- not producing toxics in the first place.

4. Compensate Victims of Pollution

Protect the rights of victims of environmental pollution to receive full compensation for damages and quality health care.

5. Reduce Greenhouse Gasses

Support the honoring of U.S. commitments to international treaties to reduce green house gasses and other environmental concerns.

6. Population Growth

We oppose policies that work to encourage population growth. We encourage public education that urges individuals to take personal responsibility for the impact on the global resource base of population growth. We oppose policies for coercive sterilization or contraception. We urge sensitivity in these educational efforts to the diversity of cultures on the planet. We encourage policies and education to honor and respect cultural viability/ integrity and personal autonomy both in the U.S. and globally.

FORESTS

Vast forests once covered most land. They moderate the Earth's climate and provide habitats for myriad species of wildlife. The Earth's remaining forests are a critical resource in that useful products, especially medicines, originate in the forest. Today's global market economy in the hands of multi-national corporations irresponsibly uses and often destroys this valuable and irreplaceable resource.

Chip mill operations in the southeast have proliferated within the past 10 years. Wood chipping is the most unregulated, highly mechanized arm of industrial forestry. In Georgia, forests are being unsustainably harvested in order to feed the state's 20 wood chipping facilities which combined are responsible for approximately 115,000 acres of clear-cuts each year. Clear-cutting degrades water quality and air quality, causes soil erosion and destroys wildlife habitat. The U.S. Forest Service has documented that over-cutting is occurring throughout the Southeast and that softwood removals exceed growth. In Georgia, nearly every county has been over-cut. Hundreds of jobs are exported to foreign paper mills when the chips are exported for foreign processing.

Hardwood chip exports increased by 500% from 1989 to 1995. The port of Mobile, Alabama is now the largest exporter of hardwood chips from the U.S. The southeast is now the largest pulp colony in the world. Hardwood industries such as saw mills and furniture manufacturers are jeopardized by chip mills that are chipping young hardwoods that would make tomorrow's lumber if left to grow. Saw mills and other hardwood users employ more than twice as many people per unit of wood harvested as the pulp wood industry. Only 6-10 people are needed to run a chip mill that can devour more wood in one month than an average-sized saw mill goes through in an entire year.

1. Our Forest Must Be Protected.

We must overhaul Georgia and U.S. Forest Service rules to protect our forests and use them wisely. We must review, reform and restructure all Federal and State land-use policies so that landowners will not be burdened with extra taxes if they choose not to harvest their trees for lumber or pulp, and that forest practices become environmentally sustainable in a manner that will provide a continuing supply of high quality wood products.

2. Support and Develop Sustainable, Conservative Forestry Practices, and Curtail Chip Mill Activity.

An environmental impact study must be conducted on the impacts of the wood chipping industry in Georgia. A moratorium on the permitting of any new chip mills or the expansion of existing chip mills should be placed in effect until the results of this study are determined.

3. Eliminate Commercial Tree Harvesting in the Chattahoochee and Oconee National Forests.

These forests are only 1% of trees harvested in Georgia. We must restore them to the great forests they once were. This will be more beneficial to local communities because recreation and tourism provides 40 times more jobs than does the timber industry.

4. Provide Economic Alternatives for Displaced Timber Industry Workers

Once a zero-cut rule is enforced on our public lands, we must redirect federal forest funds to preferentially hiring displaced timber workers to perform forest restoration work. We must ban the export of raw logs and wood chips that cost American jobs.

5. Educate Consumers on Recycling, Renewable Resources, and Sustainability

We should enforce practices that encourage reduction of paper usage since most of our forests are cut to make paper. We should develop comprehensive recycling and require that high content post-consumer waste paper be used for copying and printing, toilet paper, napkins, etc. in all government offices and public schools. We should grow and use hemp, bamboo and kenaf as plentiful and renewable resources for the manufacturing of paper and other forest products. Public policy must maintain, restore and protect wildlife habitats, fisheries, bio-diversity, scenery and recreation. We must accept responsibility for the effect local actions have on the global economy and ecology.

HEALTH CARE

As individuals, it can be said that if we truly possess nothing else, we possess our own physical bodies. Our right to protect the life, death, health, and ultimate welfare of own bodies should be absolute.

Currently, health care resources are distributed overwhelmingly to the upper class, and to the upper middle class. At the other end of the social spectrum, the elderly and the very poor obtain basic relief through Medicare and Medicaid.

In between, the system fails the "working poor" and much of the middle class -- those people who are neither able to afford private health insurance, nor able to pay for health care directly.

Universal health care coverage needs to be administered by the state for two reasons: first, because access to health care should be considered a right of every American citizen; and second, because health insurance has evolved in a manner that deviates from the traditional insurance acturial principles. Bending to competition between insurers and corporate pressures to reduce costs, health insureres have resorted to "experienced based" "insurance" for small groups. Actuarial science is based on the theory of large numbers. By deviating from these principles, employees of small companies end up unable to afford health insurance and do not get good medical care. This happens to small businesses who tend to hire the "working poor" and lower middle classes. Those who need health care the most - the sick and the dying - are inevitably denied insurance and care.

But because private health insurers treat risk in the same manner as auto insurance companies and homeownerÕs insurance companies, those who need health care the most Ð the sick and the dying Ð are inevitably denied insurance and care.
To promote a healthy respect for the living, the sick, and the dying, the Green Party will strive to:

1. Make Health Coverage and Consumer Choice a Right

Other great democracies already recognize Universal Health Coverage as a right of citizenship. It is time for America to do the same. We need to support a national single-payer health care system that includes all providers, and assures consumer choice and freedom. The model is simple. The plan pays for basic services, and up to a specified amount. Sums and services beyond those basic levels can be paid for on an elective basis by the patient individually.

2. Separate Health Care from Employment

A single-payer system also separates health care from employment status and share risks much more broadly. Employees shouldnÕt be tied to bad jobs for fear of losing coverage. And employers shouldnÕt have to worry about hiring employees with existing medical conditions.

3. Shift Emphasis to Prevention

Preventive health care has made great progress. Preventive health measures and education should be given funding and priority over curative health measures.

4. Promote Reproductive Health

Create maternity care that results in healthy mothers, babies, and families. Guarantee access to a full range of reproductive health services in and out of the hospital including prenatal care, delivery and post-partum care, midwifery care. Also provide access to and funding for family planning information, contraceptives for both men and women and as a last resort, abortion.

5. Fund and Study ÒAlternateÓ Forms of Medicine

Only 150 years ago, physicians talking about ÒbacteriaÓ and ÒgermsÓ were labeled kooks. Today, progressive thinking and research should not be similarly derailed. Alternative health therapies should be carefully researched. Currently illegal drugs, such as marijuana, should be studied to determine potential health benefits. By the same token, legal drugs, such as nicotine and alcohol, whose harmful effects are already known, should be more closely regulated.

6. Fund and Study ÒAlternateÓ Forms of Health Care

Establish evidence-based health care standards in all health care disciplines. Expand health care choices to include proven "alternative" and "complementary" health care disciplines and practices. Affirm and enforce the rights of health care consumers to have complete information about all the choices available regarding all aspects of their health care, and the right to refuse care. Change laws that prevent the use of alternative medical practices.
Reduce the monopolistic power of the American Medical Association by subsidizing medical training for increased numbers of physicians

7. Honor Quality of Life over Quantity

Keeping patients alive beyond all reasonable standards of quality of life is both expensive and inhumane. We must stop extreme measures to "prolong" life when dignity and quality of life suffers. We must also provide for humane methods to end life when modern medicine fails.

8. Acknowledge that Resources are Limited

Support increased study in the outcomes of medical procedures. Adopt a plan similar to the plan proposed in Oregon, one in which the allocation of health resources is based on the expected outcome related to the expense. Expensive procedures that only marginally prolong life, or sacrifice quality of life, should not be funded by the single payer system. This should be left to the individual or family as an option for private funding.

9. Acknowledge an IndividualÕs Right to Die with Dignity

Allow for the humane ending of a life under the directive of someone having a durable power of attorney to make medical decisions for someone. We encourage public education on the issues involved with a living will.

HUMAN RIGHTS

We live in a society and an economy built upon the supremacy of wealthy, straight, white men. The privilege afforded people in this hierarchy exists at the expense of the oppression of others. Given the myth of scarcity that has driven the economy, these hierarchies of privilege have served as a means of allocating and distributing the wealth, material resources, and privileges of the culture.

But scarcity is a myth. We live in a world of abundance. And the notion of white male entitlement is silly at the very least. All life is sacred in the eyes of the Creator, by whatever name we may each individually know that Creative Force. The notions of manifest destiny and divine right do not serve the cause of justice. They serve the interests of private profit. They have justified disparate access to education, housing, jobs and wages.

We understand that racism and sexism are not about our personal prejudices. They speak to the deeply ingrained patterns that permeate the institutions of our culture. While we must individually strive to unlearn prejudices on a personal level, as a political party we must strive to transform our society's institutions.

Another myth is that the Civil Rights and Women's Movements have fully accomplished their goals -- that there is now equal access to the material and other benefits of the culture; that the need for affirmative action has been met; that anyone who works hard and perseveres can succeed.

As Greens, we reject this myth. We know that the work of the Liberation Movement has only begun. We commit ourselves to claiming our role in that movement and speaking out for justice everywhere we see it lacking. Racism, sexism, heterosexism and classism are still prevalent, and their effects are still damaging. Those who are extended its privileges are often blind to its existence. Those who are denied its privileges often internalize the myths of their own inferiority, live invisible lives, and fail to reach their own potential.

As Greens, we will:

1. Protect and Expand Affirmative Action

To address the continuing inequities in access to education, jobs and promotions.

2. Ensure Legal Recognition for Domestic Partnerships

Including the right to marriage regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

3. Acknowledge Wrongful Treatment of African Americans

Officially acknowledge Georgia's and the United States' historic wrongdoing in the enslavement of Africans. Initiate substantive and practical dialogue on what Georgians can do today to return the African-American community to social and economic vitality.

4. Acknowledge Wrongful Treatment of Native Americans

Officially acknowledge Georgia's and the United States' historic wrongdoing in removing Native Nations, and violating treaties with them, for the settlement of Georgia. Initiate substantive and practical dialogue on what Georgians can do today to return the Native American community to social and economic vitality.

5. Stop Violence and Prejudice

Against women, people of color, lesbians, gays, the poor, the homeless, children, elders, immigrants, the differently-abled, and the imprisoned.

PUBLIC UTILITIES

The Georgia Green Party supports all people having access to these important services that everyone requires in this society.

1. Protect Consumers from Abuses by Monopolies

Prevent monopolistic structures and practices. If a truly competitive model with many producers and no barriers to entry to the market is not feasible due to the nature of the service, then the monopolistic practice must be strictly regulated. Such regulation must be enforced by a Public Service Commission that is responsive to the needs of all consumers and small businesses. It must also give top priority to protecting the environment.

2. Stop Merger Mania

Stop the merger-mania that is creating a few extremely large companies. Large companies that unfairly dominate the market can be stopped with current regulatory and anti-monopoly laws if politicians have the political will to enforce these laws. Large companies must be stopped from controlling the enforcement of these laws through the use of large campaign contributions.

3. Replace Nuclear and Coal with Solar Energy

Support the development of safe, cleaner energy, especially solar-derived energy. We support the immediate phase-out of inefficient and unsafe nuclear and coal plants. The Public Service Commission should use its rate approving authority to force the closure of coal and nuclear power plants.

4. Restructure to Protect Workers, Consumers and the Environment

Support restructuring the electric utility industry in a manner that will benefit all consumers. Ensure and promote environmentally friendly production facilities. Protect workers and citizens health and safety and reward clean and efficient producers of energy.

5. Protect Ratepayers from Unregulated Investments

Protect the consumer from out-of-control corporations. Consumers and ratepayers must be protected from the risks being taken by the Southern Company as they invest in foreign and unregulated markets.

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS

The US Army School of the Americas (SOA), located at Ft. Benning, Georgia, has trained nearly 50,000 military officers from throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean.

More than sixty percent of the Salvadoran military officers cited in the 1993 United Nations Truth Commission report for massacres, assassinations, and other human rights abuses, were graduates of the SOA. More than forty percent of Colombian officers cited by an international human rights tribunal were graduates of the SOA. Many of the top military officials involved in Mexico's counterinsurgency war in Chiapas are SOA graduates. Many graduates of the SOA have been indicted for human rights abuses and drug trafficking in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Peru, including Gen. Manuel Noriega of Panama, Roberto D'Aubisson of El Salvador, Gen. Hector Gramajo of Guatemala, and Gen. Hugo Banzar of Bolivia.

Human rights observers, church leaders, peasant organizations, student and lawyers' groups have identified numerous SOA graduates as responsible for acts of torture, assassination, kidnapping, drug trafficking, disappearances, rape, and death squad activity throughout Latin America. Despite the US Army School of Americas' attempts to downplay the crimes committed by SOA graduates to deny that the SOA taught undemocratic and illegal acts, the US Department of Defense revealed in 1996, that training manuals used at the SOA included sections on torture, execution, blackmail, and paying bounties for the assassinations of community leaders.

The history of the SOA runs contrary to our principles of respect for human rights and democracy .

As Greens, we call for:

1. Close the School of Assassins

The immediate closure of the School of the Americas. The U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch should, without delay, eliminate funding for and close the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

TAXES

The current trend in taxation in Georgia has been towards a regressive tax system that takes from the poor and gives to the rich. The capitalistic system our country has adopted, while offering many benefits, has also promoted a misallocation of wealth and income.

As Greens, we will:

1. Institute a Progressive Tax Policy

Change the tax code so that it no longer benefits the extremely wealthy at the expense of poor and working people. The marginal utility of increased wealth is far lower for the rich person than it is for the poor. This is the reason we need a progressive tax system that equalizes the burden of the system rather than the dollar amounts paid.

2. Eliminate Regressive Sales Taxes.

Municipalities should obtain their income from local progressive income taxes or property taxes. Municipalities should charge large impact fees for new development that will pay for new infrastructure and schools needed as a result of the development. This will increase the cost of development and tend to slow down sprawl in new suburbs in favor of using and maximizing existing infrastructure investments. Existing residents of a community have already paid or are in the process of paying for their infrastructure. They should not have to pay for new infrastructure used to support new residents.

3. End Regressive User's Fees

End regressive user's fees that are being applied to basic services. Services that benefit the community should not be paid through user's fees by individuals.

4. Stop Privatization

End the current trend to privatize public facilities and services. Privatization does not necessarily result in benefits to the community. It is often a way to shift the tax burden to users. Like other userÕs fees, this shifts the burden of paying for basic services to the poor. Private businesses are not implicitly more efficient than public services.

TRANSPORTATION AND LAND-USE

Large metropolitan areas in Georgia are suffering from "sprawl" Ð new development that spreads farther and farther from the central city (and employment areas) into the suburbs and surrounding agricultural areas. The pattern assures an ever increasing dependence on the automobile, and works to preclude opportunities for more efficient means of transportation. The result is increased traffic congestion, increased smog and water pollution, increased illness and death from respiratory diseases, and more and more tax money needed to fund the maintenance and expansion ofÉ more roads to the suburbs.

Today, metropolitan Atlantans drive more per capita than any other people in the United States, and the state of Georgia has already been denied federal highway funds because of its high ozone and pollution levels. Instead of reducing pollution to meet the laws, GeorgiaÕs only current strategy for solving the problem seems to be to lobby Congress to repeal the pollution laws -- laws that were designed to provide for us a bare minimum level of health protection.

Clearly, current transportation and land-use policies are not sustainable. It is time Georgia changes these patterns and adopts new alternatives. As Greens, we will:

1. Create Strong Regional Planning Authorities

We must adopt a regional approach to land-use and transportation planning. Regional planning authorities must be established that have the authority to require counties to comply with regional plans. In general, new road construction should be a last resort. Prohibit new road capacity in air polluted counties which are deemed non-attainment areas.

2. Oppose the Building of AtlantaÕs ÒSecond PerimeterÓ

Common sense tells us that the building of yet another perimeter around Atlanta will re-visit and compound all the problems of sprawl, pollution and gridlock associated with the first perimeter. Numerous studies support that assumption. Plans for the Second Perimeter must be scrapped. Instead, HOV lanes must be expanded using existing lanes, and enforcement of appropriate HOV lane use must be increased. Traffic laws that protect the safety of motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists should also be strengthened and enforced.

3. Re-Establish Mixed-Use Zoning

Develop communities that put housing, workplaces and shopping all within walking and bicycling distance. This is the traditional model of development, and besides creating less dependence on the automobile (and therefore less gridlock, and less smog), it also creates an increased sense of community, and safer streets.

4. Oppose Giant Box Stores and Regional Shopping Centers

The sheer scale of Mega stores and malls forces people to drive to shop, brings strangers into communities, and creates more opportunities for crime. At the same time, the trend of building ever newer and larger stores leads to abandonment of older facilities, empty shops and blight. We will oppose this trend in favor of revitalizing existing shopping centers.

5. Make Communities Bike and Pedestrian-Friendly

Biking and walking in many areas of Georgia is currently a dangerous proposition. We need to encourage walking and bicycling by building more bike paths and pedestrian walks. Building residential, working and shopping areas in closer proximity will also help.

6. Aggressively Develop Mass Transit

Developing public transit is cheaper than building more roads and bridges. Public transportation that is effective, accessible, and desirable is a working reality in other metropolitan areas, and only requires political vision and will.

7. Free the State Motor Fuel Tax

Current state law requires that all revenues from the state motor fuel tax be spent on the creation of more roads -- which will of course create more automobile use, which will create more fuel tax funds. Talk about a vicious cycle! We need to amend the Georgia Constitution to make motor fuel tax funds available for all transportation projects Ð including public transportation, pedestrian and bicycle walkways; and transportation programs that serve the elderly and handicapped.

8. Create High-Density Housing

When weÕre not surrounded by freeways and six-lane roads, living next to parks and shopping becomes very desirable. High-density housing must be encouraged near shopping and industrial centers. Rather than zoning for minimum lot sizes, zoning should encourage minimum densities (that are still human scale) that will shorten walking distances, and protect surrounding open spaces. In addition, mixed income should be built to foster a sense of community.