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Platform
Platform Links
1999 Platform of the Georgia Green Party (.pdf - 14 pages)
Resolution to Ratify 1999 Platform
1998 Platform of the Georgia GreenParty
Platform Issues
Agriculture
Auto Insurance
Criminal Justice
Democracy
Economic Democracy
Economic Development
Education
Electric Reregulation
Environmental Justice
Foreign Policy
Forests
Health Care
Human Rights
Public Utilities
School of the Americas
Taxes
Transportation And Land Use
Veterans
Agriculture
"Create higher quality foods with lower environmental and community damage"
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 regenerate 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. Support a Moratorium on Genetically Modified Organisms
in Agriculture.
We don't need these, and the risks of putting them to use are too enormous.
Nature's wisdom in creating the existing divisions between species developed
over the course of more than a billion years. It is astonishingly presumptuous
for profit-minded corporations and investors to imagine that in a few short
decades we can make deep, radical changes in these boundaries without serious
repercussions, and it is politically contemptuous to visit these repercussions
on everyone without their universal consent.
4. Develop Consumer-Right-to-Know Labeling Laws.
It is unfair that all manner of pesticides, hormones, radiation and
genetic engineering are used on food and fiber crops and the results sold
without labeling what was used--while organic growers are required to pay
for intricate certification procedures in order to prove they are not using
any of the above. Political decency requires that all the insecticides,
fungicides, herbicides, hormones, radiation and genetic modification used
to produce or process food crops be listed on labels when they are sold.
5. Healthy School Lunches
Prohibit the use of BGH-treated dairy products, irradiated meats and
produce and the products of genetic engineering in the preparation of school
lunches. Phase out over seven years all non-organic meats and produce
from school lunches. Establish a unit of the Cooperative Extension
Agency, Board of Regents to cooperate with the Georgia Organic Growers Association
to assist farmers in the transition from the use of chemical inputs to
operating practices that will allow for organic certification."
6. Support Local Farmers
We will require that government institutional buyers give purchasing
preference to products of local farmers. We would make local purchasing
a criterion in the awarding of government contracts.
7. 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.
8. Develop Requirements for Composting Animal Confinement
Wastes.
Presently the concentration, holding and disposal of urine, manure
and carcasses in animal confinement operations pollutes our air, surface
water and ground water. Composting these materials for use as fertility
inputs would transform them from pollutive wastes into valuable assets.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Encourage Municipal Composting and Recycling of Biological
Wastes.
Composting turns these liabilities into assets. Cities need only to
be shown how.
Automobile Insurance
"If we need to buy it, make the prices fair."
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 question the justice of that law. We
wonder if a state mandate for auto insurance would have passed in an environment
of publicly funded elections. We view this as another example of
corporate welfare. But we do maintain that if we are required to
purchase insurance, (or anything else for that matter), the sellers of
this commodity shouldn't be getting rich off us.
At the same time, rampant medical and legal fraud is becoming increasingly
expensive --for the consumer. More often than not, insurers take a why
bother 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. Make Auto Insurance Optional.
While we understand that it can be prudent to carry insurance and do
not intend to impair any contracts by lenders which require insurance,
we oppose the state laws which prohibit operating an uninsured vehicle.
This creates a class barrier to jobs and other necessary travel and serves
to criminalize poor people for their poverty.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. End Discrimination
Prohibit rate discrimination based on sex, race, or income under the
guise of geographical risk factors. Premium rates should be determined
by drivers' personal records and age only.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Create the Office of Public Advocate
The office of a full-time administrator should be created to act on
the taxpayer's and consumer's behalf, not the insurance companies'. This
Public Advocate would monitor the insurance companies' profits and methods
of rate determination, and challenge all rate increases.
Criminal Justice
"Create a criminal justice system that protects our communities,
our tax revenues, the rights of the accused and the wages and working conditions
of Georgia workers."
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 are 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 criminal, and prosecuted as such. 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 cannot be done with police
and the courts alone, but these institutions must play their roles. 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 victims, the rights of prisoners and the rights of ex-offenders).
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. Non-Violent Juvenile Offender Sentencing Reform
No youth accused or convicted of a non-violent crime shall be incarcerated.
Communities, courts, local and state government should fund alternatives
to incarceration and the elements of a restorative justice system.
3. 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.
4. Protect the Rights of the Accused.
Fully fund indigent defense and roll back the 1999 increase in jail
bonding fees.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Prevent Domestic Violence
Increase resources to prevent and respond to domestic violence.
Commit funding, resources and personnel to build a coordinated community
based response to domestic violence in our homes, that emphasizes the accountability
of the perpetrator and the protection of those victimized by abuse.
Implement the recommendations of the Commission on Gender Bias in the Judicial
System in their June 1992 Report to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Train police and court personnel to do their part to end domestic
violence. We urge Greens and Georgians to challenge the sexist assumptions
of our culture which are used to justify family violence.
8. 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.
9. Prohibit State-Sanctioned Murder
The Death Penalty is barbaric, archaic, and morally reprehensible.
Capital punishment is imposed in a classist, racist and freakish manner.
The death penalty has no place in a world moving into the next millennium.
10. Indict Wayne Garner
We call for the dismissal and indictment of Corrections Commissioner
Wayne Garner.
Democracy
"Create a government of, by and for the people."
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. Proportional Representation
Georgia's elections laws provide for a system of winner-take-all, majority
election rules. The right to govern belongs to the majority.
But the right of representation belongs to everyone. As Greens, we
advocate the use of proportional representation rules in the counting of
ballots. These will allow voters to vote their convictions instead of their
fears.
We propose that the Electoral College, the Georgia Congressional delegation,
the state House and local Councils and Commissions be elected by a system
of multi-member proportional representation and that single member
races be filled by single transferable voting or preference voting.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Ensure Sunshine in Public Policy
Maximize sunshine and open meetings in all policy making.
8. 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.
9. 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. Establish a Corporate Charter
Review Commission to consider challenges to a Corporation's Charter to
operate in Georgia. Provide that a Corporate Charter may be revoked
on a finding that a preponderance of the evidence shows that the activities
of the Corporation willfully or recklessly threatens the health and welfare
of the people of Georgia.
Economic Democracy
"Create an economy that recognizes the abundance of the planet and the right of all to
share in that abundance."
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 Tariffs 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.
Economic Development
"Local self-reliance is the key to economic security"
We understand that economic democracy is a human right. We also
know it will not be granted to us by the Corporations who benefit from
the current economic insecurity. We intend to re-create the economy
from the community out to foster sustainable practices, humane working
conditions and lives of abundance.
As Greens we recommend:
1. Local currencies.
Local governments and non-governmental organizations can create new
currencies issued by them to workers and vendors who commit to accept the
currency. Local currencies recycle wealth in the community and multiply
job creation opportunities. Time Dollars, LETS and Hours systems
of local currency encourage livable wages and build a community base for
widespread economic security.
2. Broad-based Ownership.
We favor policies including purchasing and contracting preferences
that award and encourage companies that share meaningful ownership with
their workers and community. This ownership would include participation
in both the profits and in shareholder decision-making. We urge state
accounts and annuities be invested in business enterprises which foster
and create broad-based ownership, an equitable distribution of wealth and
income and the principles of economic democracy.
3. Creating Accurate Measures.
We urge state legislation to give preference in state economic development
grant making to local governments which participate in programs to measure
and report relevant economic data to the public. These measures would
include data on human and community needs (especially energy and food)
either unmet or filled with imports which could be provided for locally.
4. Public Support for Lifelong Education.
An investment in life long education universally available will reap
dividends in a culture of learning for our children and facilitate the
ongoing development of the people-who are the most important resource of
our economy.
5. Energy self-reliance.
The Public Service Commission can require that new investments by power
utilities be made in energy conservation and new renewable generating capacity,
especially photo-voltaic and wind. Plugging the leaks in our energy
budget saves our money for local spending and local job creation.
6. Zoning for Home-based Businesses.
We urge local governments to amend their zoning codes to encourage
mix-used development and home-based businesses.
Education
"Each and every person can attain whatever educational level they
desire in whatever manner they desire regardless of income, race, disability
or gender without discrimination."
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. Community Classrooms
Our community can play a dynamic role in educating young people in
practical living skills. We encourage students to get out from behind
their desks and to find teachers and mentors among their community as part
of an organized volunteer program funded by state and local schools boards.
Students can find skills such as gardening, cooking, construction (carpentry,
electrical and plumbing), sewing, writing, music, art, auto mechanics,
etc. Senior citizens and young people need opportunities to get to
know one another again. By sharing on a practical level we can all
benefit and gain a greater understanding for each other.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Our Youth Need Recreation Opportunities
Expand recreational services for our youth. Renovate existing schools
and build new schools as needed.
8. 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.
9. Honest Nutrition Education in Public Schools
Georgians suffer greatly from an inordinate amount of heart disease,
strokes and cancer. There is sufficient evidence in the medical community
to advise the public that these and other debilitating and fatal diseases
are preventable through diet changes as advocated by the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine (P.O. Box 6322, Washington, D.C.,
20015). Our economy is burdened by disease care costs that
are a direct consequence of the meat, egg and dairy diet. Our landscape
has been denuded for grazing and our water systems are degraded by fecal
pollutants which runoff our farms or are discharged from rendering plants.
We urge the State School Board to produce a Food Guide based on the recommendations
of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. We urge that
schools promote in a gentle, encouraging fashion as an ideal, a
Food Guide recommending four, totally vegetarian food groups, i.e. (1)
vegetables, (2) whole grains, (3) fruits and (4) legumes - with other
items (e.g. meat, dairy, eggs, sweets, fats) mentioned in a sidebar,
but not actually recommended for health.
Electric Re-regulation
"Re-regulation of public utilities done in a way that protects consumers
and small businesses and promotes the use of clean and safe renewable power
sources."
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
"Honor the rights of all to clean air, water, soil and food."
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 toxins 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. Create a Pollution
Victim's Compensation Fund to receive dedicated revenue from a Pollution
tax on all releases reportable in the Toxic Release Inventory. The
Fund is to be divided into separate accounts and disbursed to pay a) the
health-care costs of Pollution Victims; b) providing technical assistance
to community groups in holding responsible corporations accountable for
containing and cleaning up uncontrolled toxic sites; c) funding grants
for technical assistance by the Office of Pollution Prevention to be matched
by and to assist polluting industries to retool production processes to
reduce reportable discharges; and d) for retraining, job placement
and worker transition costs associated with displacement created by production
process changes motivated by pollution prevention efforts.
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.
Foreign Policy
"There is no way to peace, peace is the way."
We oppose U.S. military adventurism. We are not isolationists.
We are committed to both personal and global responsibility. Our
government does have a role in international affairs. However, we
do not support the federal government assuming responsibility as world
policeman. We are wary of the motives of U.S. foreign policy that
uses military force to selectively protect human rights for some but not
all. We recognize that frequently US foreign and military policy
have been driven by corporate interests instead of the country's interests.
As Greens we call for:
1. End Human Rights Violations both here and abroad.
The key to long lasting peace is economic and environmental justice
and reparations to those who have suffered. Generations of war and
genocide can only be stopped by ending the violence with peaceful negotiations
and reparations, not with bombing, sanctions and economic devastation.
We do not support the use of depleted uranium in weapons used by the NATO
and U.S. military. Poisoning water supplies, the Earth and air leads
to more death and mounting health travesties that will be seen in not only
this generation, but future generations as well.
2. Forgive International Debt.
Restructure the World Bank and the IMF. We oppose the manner
in which the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been administered
to manipulate access to investment capital to attack the rights of working
people to safe jobs paying livable wages and air, water and food safe for
consumption. We call for an end to the "Structural Adjustment Programs"
and forgiveness of international debt. Investments and loans must
be targeted to achieve self-sufficiency and ecological sustainability.
3. Democratize the United Nations.
We urge the United States to lead a movement for UN Charter Reform
to eliminate the privileged position of Security Council members and to
work to build the UN into a tool for international peace making, reconciliation
and environmental protection.
4. Create a Peace Force; committed to non-violent strategies.
We believe that non-violence is the path to peace. While affirming
the right of self-defense, we are committed to creating a future without
war. The military serves a role we feel can be replaced by the organization
and funding at both the national and international level of a Peace Force
which utilizes non-violent strategies and tactics to pursue Foreign Policy
objectives outlined here.
5. Halt arms sales to Human Rights Abusers.
Pass Congresswoman McKinney's bill.
6. End the War of Economic Sanctions against the people
of Iraq.
The suffering has gone on too long. Thousands of children are
dying every week in Iraq from preventable health problems and mal-nourishment
as a direct result of the 1991 bombing and sanctions. Clinton ought
to be held responsible for the 1998 bombing justified as retaliation for
Hussein's refusal to cooperate with an UNSCOM inspection team staffed with
U.S. spies. We ask the World Court to rule on the illegality of the
use of Depleted Uranium weapons. We call on the U.S. government to
commit to gathering and containing the radioactive waste left across the
desert by its military actions.
7. Create a Meaningful and Lasting Peace in the Balkans.
Develop an effective strategy to create meaningful and lasting peace
in the Balkans. Such a strategy must be based on an immediate end
to the bombing and any other steps being proposed to escalate the violence.
We call for the UN to intercede and protect the people of Serbia, Albania
and Kosovo from both NATO aggression and from war crimes by Milosevic and
others. We urge the OSCE to continue its reconciliation work interrupted
by the bombing. We call on Congress to act to achieve these purposes.
8. Stop the War in Chiapas.
We call for an immediate halt to all arms sales (usually funded as
drug interdiction activities) to the Mexican government. We
recognize the rights of the indigenous Mayan people to autonomy and self-government
in their homeland in the Mexican state of Chiapas. We urge the Zedillo
administration to withdraw troops from their war in Chiapas and to restore
the Constitutional protections afforded indigenous peoples prior to NAFTA's
enactment.
9. End the War of Economic Sanctions against the people
of Cuba.
End the economic blockade against Cuba. Adopt a policy of reconciliation
toward our neighbor to the South. We call for the repeal of the Helms-Burton
Act.
Forests
"Forests are indispensable to human and animal life and must be protected."
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
"Return to us control over our own bodies!"
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.
The new Governor spent his political capital and honeymoon session enacting
an HMO package that offers little relief to the problems faced by both
healthcare consumers and practitioners. Further, his bill exempts
from the scrutiny of the new insurance advocate the Columbus based AFLAC,
a major campaign contributor. The current trend is to restrict choice
of both practitioner and modality of care. We oppose the limited window
for exercising one's choice for out-of-network practitioners and the 17%
monetary penalty for exercising this choice, imposed by Governor Barnes's
new laws. We urge the Georgia Assembly to look at existing proven
models that will provide universal access to healthcare for less money
than the insurance industry charges now, serving only a fraction of the
population.
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 actuarial
principles. Bending to competition between insurers and corporate pressures
to reduce costs, health insurers 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 homeowner's insurance companies, those who
need health care the most -- the sick and the dying -- 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. Tobacco Settlement Can Fund Universal Care
Create a Georgia Health Care Corporation to receive the tobacco settlement
funds and to use them to provide universal access to health care in a system
that includes all providers, and assures consumer choice and freedom, including
proven "alternative" and "complementary" health care disciplines and practices,
and with emphasis and priority given to health measures and education designed
to prevent the need for curative health measures.
3. Separate Health Care from Employment
A single-payer system also separates health care from employment status
and share risks much more broadly. Employees shouldn't be tied to bad jobs
for fear of losing coverage. And employers shouldn't have to worry about
hiring employees with existing medical conditions.
4. Honor Parents Choices About Vaccines
No consensus exists for the use of vaccines. In fact there exists
no definitive studies which demonstrate the efficacy of vaccination as
a means of preventing disease. Evidence continues to surface suggesting
that vaccinations - intended to produce immunity from disease - are actually
contributing to diminished health and increased susceptibility to health
problems. Many parents who are committed to healthy diet and holistic
health care are opposed to the use of pharmaceutical vaccinations.
We oppose policies which would force these taxpayers to compromise their
health care choices in exchange for access to public education for their
children.
5. 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.
6. 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 postpartum
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.
7. Fund and Study Alternate Forms of Medicine
Only 150 years ago, physicians talking about bacteria and germs 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.
8. Fund and Study Alternate 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
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Acknowledge an Individual's 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
"End all discrimination."
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. Make Reparations to 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 make reparations to the African-American
community for the past four hundred plus years of genocide, slavery, land-loss,
destruction of culture and the present-day conditions which have evolved
from this history.
4. Make Reparations to 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 make reparations for the past five hundred plus years of
genocide, land-theft, treaty violations, destruction of culture and the
present-day conditions which have evolved from this history.
5. Stop Violence and Discrimination
Against women, people of color, lesbians, gays, the poor, the homeless,
children, elders, immigrants, the differently-abled, and the imprisoned.
6. Stop the Use of Racist Team Mascots
We support the American Indian Movement who has since 1975 urged sports
teams to stop the offensive use of mascots which refer to racial or ethnic
groups. We urge the Commissioner of Major League Baseball and Ted
Turner, the owner of the Atlanta baseball franchise to honor the requests
of the Native community for respect. We support legislation which
would prohibit the use of public funds to support professional, community
or school teams which use offensive mascots and prohibit those teams from
playing at publicly funded facilities. We urge the media to refrain
from referring in their sports reports by name to teams which use offensive
mascots.
Public Utilities
"Provide services to all people who use public utilities in an affordable and nondiscriminatory
manner."
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
"Close the School of Assassins."
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
"Create a progressive tax system that taxes wastes,pollution wealth and income to support
equitable access to a basic income for all."
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. Peace Tax Fund.
We urge the creation of a Peace Tax Fund to receive and disburse for
non-military purposes, the tax payments of those who hold a conscientious
objection to the payment of war taxes.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Pollution and Extraction Taxes
We must give the appropriate economic signals to the marketplace by
imposing taxes on raw materials extraction, waste generation and the discharge
of pollutants into the environment. As Greens we will review the
tax code for subsidies to wasteful or polluting industries and repeal these
tax incentives so that our tax policy conforms with our public policy."
6. 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 user's 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
"Plan roads and neighborhoods that make it possible to live without
a total dependence on the automobile."
Large metropolitan areas in Georgia are suffering from "sprawl" --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 of .
. . 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, Georgia's 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 Atlanta's "Second Perimeter"
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 --including public
transportation, pedestrian and bicycle walkways; and transportation programs
that serve the elderly and handicapped.
8. Create High-Density Housing
When we're 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 housing should be built
to foster a sense of community.
Veterans
"We owe military veterans a future where our children no longer face war."
We recognize the tremendous sacrifice our country has asked of its citizens
who have served in the military in the conduct of war. While we frequently
find ourselves and our commitment to non-violence at odds with the military
adventurism of the U.S. federal policies, we stand with the Georgians who
have served in these wars and insist that they and their families not be
abandoned.
1. Our Commitment to a Future Beyond Wars
Our first priority in foreign policy considerations is to creating
a future without war -- and consequently without war veterans. We
are committed that future generations not face the separations and sacrifices
of war.
2. Honor our Commitment to Veterans.
We insist that the cuts to Veterans Administration funding be halted
and that past cuts be restored. We must honor the promises we've
made to veterans in the past.
3. Gulf War Syndrome
Many of those U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen who served
during Operation Desert Storm in the Arab East have been exposed to nuclear,
chemical and possibly biological warfare agents. We insist that the
Veterans Administration not ignore the suffering they have experienced
since coming home from the war. The Congress should fund and the
VA should implement a comprehensive program to survey Gulf Vets and the
impacts of Gulf War Syndrome on them and their families and to provide
the best possible medical treatment available to minimize the suffering
of these men and women and their families. We insist that the Federal
Government withdraw from deployment Depleted Uranium, nuclear, chemical
and biological weapons. We insist that the military halt the practice
of testing experimental medicines and inoculations on service members
without their consent.
The
Ten Key Values:
Ecological Wisdom
• Grassroots Democracy • Social
Justice • Peace and Non-Violence
Decentralization
• Community-Based Economics • Feminism
• Respect for Diversity
Personal & Global
Responsibility • Future Focus on Sustainability
Georgia Green Party
P.O. Box 5332; Atlanta, GA 31107
770/ 635-3496 or 877/ GREEN-09
(vm & fax)
ggp@greens.org•http://www.greens.org/georgia/
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