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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	534
Proposal	PLATFORM: Amendment to Chapter 4 - Pension Reform
Presenter	GPUS Platform Committee, Green Party of California, sponsor
Floor Manager	David Strand
Phase	Closed
Discussion	08/02/2010 - 08/15/2010
Voting	08/16/2010 - 08/22/2010
Result	Failed
Presens Quorum	31 0.6666
Consens Quorum	76 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

GPUS Bylaws Article IX. Platform

9-1.1 The GPUS Platform represents policies upon which most Greens would agree and serves as a basis for Green Presidential and Congressional campaigns. The Platform may only be amended as provided by this Article.

9-1.3 In even numbered years in which there is no Presidential Nominating Convention, the National Committee shall be the decision-making body responsible for amending the platform. The process shall be as established in the GPUS Rules and Procedures.

9-1.4 Amendments to the Platform may be submitted for consideration by any accredited state party or caucus, or any committee whose Mission Statement authorizes it.

Proposal

Replace 2004 text of "Pension Reform" section of GPUS Platform with the following text.

SECTION TITLE: PENSION REFORM

SECTION SUBTITLE: Promoting retirement security

OUR POSITION: Greens work to ensure that everyone has an adequate retirement income.

Our current pension system has allowed vast amounts of workers’ hard-earned money to be squandered on job-ending, plant-moving and corporate downsizing. Greens support investing pension funds in ways that meet community needs and benefit workers and their families directly.

GREEN SOLUTIONS

1. Require corporate-sponsored pension funds to be jointly controlled by management and the workers, not exclusively by management.

2. Require pension funds to seek a reasonable rate of return, not simply the prevailing market rate.

3. Invest pension funds to create new green-collar jobs and socially beneficial programs.

4. Halt the use of pension funds for corporate mergers, acquisitions and leveraged buy-outs without the solid support of workers, as those corporate decisions often undercut workers rights, employment, and retirement while generously rewarding non-productive speculation.

5. Require that every worker be covered by a retirement plan that supplements Social Security.

Resources

none

References

CONTACTS
Gary Ruskin gary.ruskin@gmail.com
Marnie Glickman marnie@greenchange.org
Bruce Hinkforth bhinkforth@milwpc.net

Visit the Platform Committee webpage for this proposal at: http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/comments/?p=823.

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 of the section being amended:

Working people – who own over $3 trillion in pension monies (deferred wages in effect) – should have financial options in where their money is invested apart from the current near-monopoly exerted by a handful of managers, banks, insurance companies, and mutual funds. Pension funds should not be used for corporate mergers, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts, corporate decisions that undercut workers rights, employment, and retirement while generously rewarding non-productive speculation. The current system has allowed vast amounts of American workers’ hard-earned money to be squandered on job-ending, plant-moving, corporate downsizing.

Pension funds are gigantic capital pools that can, with government support, be used to meet community needs and benefit workers and their families directly.

1. Corporate-sponsored pension funds (the biggest category of funds) should be jointly controlled by management and workers, not exclusively by management.

2. Federal law must be changed so that pension funds need simply to seek a reasonable rate of return, not the prevailing market rate which greatly restricts where investments can be made.

3. A secondary pension market established by the government to insure pension investments made in socially beneficial programs must be considered as one method that could greatly expand the impact of this capital market, as demonstrated in the case of federally insured / subsidized mortgage lending.

4. Prudent pension fund investing should both make money and do good work. Creating jobs and supporting employment programs in public / private partnerships can become a priority as we seek to expand towards opportunities where new jobs are created – small business, not transnational business. We could target the under- and un-employed. We believe there are myriad opportunities for a profound shift in how the capital of America’s workers is best put to use.

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