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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	489
Proposal	PLATFORM: Welfare
Presenter	Platform Committee presenter, Green Party of California sponsor
Floor Manager	David Strand
Phase	Closed
Discussion	07/19/2010 - 08/01/2010
Voting	08/02/2010 - 08/08/2010
Result	Failed
Presens Quorum	31 0.6666
Consens Quorum	76 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

The Green Party of California submits this amendment to update the 2004 platform, and to express our Green values in the more graceful style of the 1996 and 2000 platforms. We eliminated antiquated facts and references, and made the language more clear, concise, and precise.

The Green Party of California's delegation to the GPUS originally voted to approve this proposal in April 2010. In our state, we require 2/3rds for passage. Then, in the spirit of seeking consensus with Greens across the country, we attended 11 platform committee conference calls and read more than 500 suggestions posted on the GPUS Platform Committee website and created at the GPUS meeting in Detroit. Based on these ideas, as well as some of our own, our delegation edited our proposals by wiki and then voted again on these edits in July.

Proposal

Substitute the following language as the new text for the "Welfare" section in Chapter II of the GPUS platform.

Section title: Welfare

Section subtitle: Our commitment to ending poverty

Our position: Every U.S. citizen has the right to food, housing, medical care, jobs that pay a living wage, education, and support in times of hardship.

Greens believe that support for families, children, the poor and the disabled must not be given grudgingly; it is the right of those presently in need and an investment in our common future.

The care and nurture of children, elders and the disabled are essential to a healthy, peaceful and sustainable society. We should recognize that the work of caregivers is of great social and economic value, and reward it accordingly. Ensuring that children and their caregivers have access to an adequate, secure standard of living should form the cornerstone of our economic priorities. Only then can we hope to build our future on a foundation of healthy, educated children who are raised in an atmosphere of love and security.

Green Solutions

1. Ensure adequate funding for federal, state and local programs that support children, families, the unemployed, elderly and disabled. Set no time limit on benefits.

2. Establish a graduated supplemental income (or "negative income tax") that would maintain all individual adult incomes above the poverty level, regardless of employment or marital status.

3. Provide massive investments in living-wage job development and work training programs. Publicly-funded work training and education programs should have a goal of increasing employment options at finding living-wage jobs.

4. Provide public funding for the development of living-wage jobs in community and environmental service, including environmental clean-up, recycling, sustainable agriculture and food production, sustainable forest management, repair and maintenance of public facilities, neighborhood-based public safety, aides in schools, libraries and childcare centers, and construction and renovation of energy-efficient housing. Oppose enterprise zone give-aways which benefit corporations more than inner-city communities.

5. Enact tax policies to encourage businesses to adopt fair employee wage distribution standards.

6. Stop forcing welfare recipients to accept jobs that pay less than a living wage. Workfare is a form of indentured servitude.

7. Require corporations receiving public subsidies to provide jobs that pay a living wage, observe basic workers’ rights, and agree to affirmative action policies.

Resources

Time line: Compilation into new 2010 GPUS Platform upon completion of the voting on all proposed amendments.

Resources: Time and effort of volunteers to compile the platform

Contact: Gary Ruskin, 415-472-2859, gary.ruskin@gmail.com

References

Visit the Platform Committee webpage for this proposal at: http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/comments/?p=574.

On the webpage, you can see various formats of the proposal created by the GPUS Platform Committee and the amendment proposal sponsors including the 2004 and 2010 texts side-by-side. You can also read and respond to comments from Greens around the country, including many who are not on the Green National Committee.

Here is the 2004 text which is being replaced:

An unjust society is an unsustainable society. When communities are stressed by poverty, violence and despair, our ability to meet the challenges of the post-industrial age are critically impaired. A holistic, future-focused perspective on how we distribute resources in the country would consider the effects of such distribution not just on our present needs, but on the seventh generation to come.

It is time for a radical shift in our attitude toward support for families, children, the poor and the disabled. Such support must not be given grudgingly; it is the right of those presently in need and an investment in our future. We must take an uncompromising position that the care and nurture of children, elders and the disabled are essential to a healthy, peaceful, and sustainable society. We should recognize that the work of their caregivers is of social and economic value, and reward it accordingly. Ensuring that children and their caregivers have access to an adequate, secure standard of living should form the cornerstone of our economic priorities. Only then can we hope to build our future on a foundation of healthy, educated children who are raised in an atmosphere of love and security.

1. All people have a right to food, housing, medical care, jobs that pay a living wage, education, and support in times of hardship.

2. Work performed outside the monetary system has inherent social and economic value, and is essential to a healthy, sustainable economy and peaceful communities. Such work includes: child and elder care; homemaking; voluntary community service; continuing education; participating in government; and the arts.

3. We call for restoration of a federally funded entitlement program to support children, families, the unemployed, elderly and disabled, with no time limit on benefits. This program should be funded through the existing welfare budget, reductions in military spending and corporate subsidies, and a fair, progressive income tax.

4. We call for a graduated supplemental income, or negative income tax, that would maintain all individual adult incomes above the poverty level, regardless of employment or marital status.

5. We advocate reinvesting a significant portion of the military budget into family support, living-wage job development, and work training programs. Publicly funded work training and education programs should have a goal of increasing employment options at finding living-wage jobs.

6. We support public funding for the development of living-wage jobs in community and environmental service. For example, environmental clean-up, recycling, sustainable agriculture and food production, sustainable forest management, repair and maintenance of public facilities, neighborhood-based public safety, aides in schools, libraries and childcare centers, and construction and renovation of energy-efficient housing. We oppose enterprise zone give-aways which benefit corporations more than inner-city communities

7. The accumulation of individual wealth in the U.S. has reached grossly unbalanced proportions. It is clear that we cannot rely on the rich to regulate their profit-making excesses for the good of society through “trickle-down economics.” We must take aggressive steps to restore a fair distribution of income. We support tax incentives for businesses that apply fair employee wage distribution standards, and income tax policies that restrict the accumulation of excessive individual wealth.

8. Forcing welfare recipients to accept jobs that pay wages below a living wage drives wages down and exploits workers for private profit at public expense. We reject workfare as being a form of indentured servitude.

9. Corporations receiving public subsidies must provide jobs that pay a living wage, observe basic workers’ rights, and agree to affirmative action policies.

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