GPCA Platform

Social Justice & Liveable Communities












The society Greens are creating sees an intimate connection between our rights as individuals and our responsibilities to our neighbors, our communities and the Earth. The balance between our rights and responsibilities grows out of processes that promote the maximum participation of everyone in the decisions that affect our well being, our economic security, our social and international policies, and the way we live our lives. While much must be done in many areas to provide a decent and secure life for everyone, the key to these improvements lies in creating real social justice for all in a manner that will endure. We are committed to establishing relationships that honor diversity and that support the self-definition and self-determination of people. We will work to confront the barriers of racism, sexism, heterosexism, class oppression, ageism, and the many ways our culture separates us from working together to define and solve the common dangers we face.

Greens support a holistic approach to justice, recognizing the environmental justice, social justice and economic justice depend upon and support each other.

Low income citizens and minorities suffer disproportionately from environmental hazards in the workplace, at home, and in their communities. Inadequate laws, lax enforcement of existing environmental regulations, and weak penalties for infractions undermine environmental protection.

Therefore the Green Party advocates:

Devoting greater efforts to full enforcement and prosecution of environmental crimes.
Funding environmental crime units for district attorneys in counties with significant pollution problems.
Imposing a moratorium on siting new toxic chemical or waste facilities in those counties with the highest percentage exposure to hazardous substances.
Not forcing workers to choose between a hazardous job, or no job at all.
Preventing communities, especially low income or minority communities, from being coerced by governmental agencies or corporations into siting hazardous materials, or accepting environmentally hazardous practices in order to create jobs.
Preceding the siting of hazardous materials or practices with public hearings, conducted in the language of those community members who will be directly affected.
Require corporations to observe a "good neighbor" policy that includes on-site visitations by a community watchdog committee, and the appointment of a neighborhood environmentalist to their board of directors in accordance with the CERES (California Environmental Resources Evaluation System) Principles.

Recognition of inherent dignity, and equal and inalienable rights, and liberties of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. Human rights address prejudices and inequities in society; while civil liberties address abuses by government. Even small abuses can collect into a slow erosion of liberties.

The Health Care platform plank contains the human rights/civil liberties associated with the medical and health care of individuals.

The Green Party shall strive to secure universal and effective recognition and observance of the following:

The principles and spirit expressed in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an international standard that all nations, especially our own, must meet.
The right to liberty and security of person, and freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention, slavery or involuntary servitude.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or capital punishment.
Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection... a living wage. [see Social Safety Net plank]
Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
A standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of every family member.
Equal opportunity to participate in the decision-making processes that affect their lives.
Equal opportunity in housing, employment, education, health care and to child custody and adoption.
The right to free expression and assembly.
The right of citizens to leave their country and to return.
The state of human rights in all other nations must be a criterion in United States' policies regarding social, economic, diplomatic and strategic interaction with them.
The fundamental separation of church and state in the United States to the betterment of both.
The Green Party shall strive through education of individuals and communities to persuade all individuals to take responsibility for respecting fundamental human rights and civil liberties in all their social, economic and political activities.

Update adopted: September 11, 2010

Our criminal justice system is inhumane, ineffective, and prohibitively expensive. Retribution has replaced rehabilitation. Prison terms are becoming longer and longer. Californians are paying over $5 billion per year to operate the state's correctional system. About 160,000 adults and 8,000 youth are currently incarcerated in California. The majority are serving terms for minor property and drug crimes or violations of their conditions of parole or probation. Poor and under-educated minorities are overrepresented.

The effects of imprisonment are largely negative. Rape is a serious problem in prisons. Many prison policies, such as racially segregated housing, condone and actively promote racism. Prisoners are increasingly isolated from the communities they come from and are often denied contact with the outside world or the media. Access to educational and legal materials is disappearing. Boredom and hopelessness prevail. The United States has the highest recidivism rate (number of prisoners returning to prison) of any industrialized country. The increasingly widespread privatization of prisons renders some prisoners virtual corporate slaves. These prisons treat people as their product, and provide far worse service than government run prisons. Profits are derived from understaffing and severely reducing the quality of life of inmates.

Regressive laws, such as "Three Strikes", and mandatory sentences are removing sentencing discretion from trial judges and giving it to prosecutors. The Three Strikes law in California is an especially bad one. Approved by both the Legislature and the voters in 1994, it increases the sentences of criminals who have previously been convicted of "strikes," which are serious or violent felonies. With one strike, any new felony must be punished at double the normal sentence. A defendant with two strikes must be given a sentence of at least 25 years to life. The new felony which triggers the 3-strikes law need not itself be a serious or violent felony.

The attorney general and local district attorneys are placing too much emphasis on drug related and petty street crimes and not enough on prosecution of corporate, white collar, and environmental crimes. Defrauding someone of their life savings is the same as robbery. Spraying pesticides while workers are in the fields, negligently maintaining dangerous workplaces that result in a worker's death or maiming, or dumping toxic substances in a community should be treated the same as other crimes "causing great bodily injury."

There is a need to reconcile victims, perpetrators, and communities. There is also need to convert prisons and jails into healing communities, and to change from the mentality of breaking people to healing them. We consider prisoners to be citizens and that they possess a citizen�s right to vote during imprisonment.

The Green Party proposes:

For Alternatives to Incarceration:

Prisons should be the sentence of last resort, reserved for physically violent criminals. Those convicted of non-violent offenses should be handled by other programs including halfway houses, electronic monitoring, work-furlough, community service and restitution programs. Substance abuse should be addressed as a medical problem requiring treatment, not imprisonment, and a failed drug test should not result in revocation of parole. Presently incarcerated prisoners of the drug war should be released to the above programs. No immigrant should be imprisoned because of immigration status. Non-violent convicted sex offenders whose consensual sex acts became legal under lowered age of consent laws such as in California in 2009 should be released.
Prisons are presently serving some of the population formerly held in California's mental health system. Ninety-five percent of those who commit suicide in jail or prison have a diagnosed mental disorder. Mentally ill prisoners need separate psychiatric facilities providing psychological and medical care, rehabilitation, and release to appropriate community mental health facilities
The aging of our prison population will lead to huge needless expenditures in the next decade. Prisoners too old and those too infirm to be a threat to society should be released to less expensive, community based facilities.

Juvenile offenders must not be housed in needlessly restrictive settings. They must never be housed with adult offenders. Their education must continue while in custody. The judge and a caseworker should continue to oversee their assigned juvenile's placement and progress to adulthood
California's parole system is a failure. Reduction of recidivism should be a goal of parole. Parole should be treated as a time of reintegration into the community, not as a continuation of a person's sentence. Parolees need community reentry programs before release. Paroled prisoners should be eligible for education, drug treatment, psychological treatment, job training, work, and housing. Their persons and homes should not be subject to search without probable cause. Available services should also be recommended to the members of a parolee's family, to help them with the changes caused by the parolee's return.
When hiring advocates to assist prisoners convicted of similar crimes, ex-prisoners with zero recidivism over a ten-year period should be given priority as applicants.

For Prison Conditions:

Private prisons should be illegal
Prison conditions must be humane and sanitary and should include heat, light, exercise, clothing, nutrition, libraries, possessions and personal safety. Prisoners must have access to programs proven to decrease recidivism including psychological, drug-abuse, and medical treatments; sex-addiction recovery programs; condoms; and prescribed medication. Long-term denial of prisoner accessibility to human services and to their prisoner peers must be used only for special cases, a situation that must have regular review.
Prisons should provide the most effective and comprehensive cures for violence and the root causes of incarceration. These curative measures must be nonviolent (for example, counseling, aptitude testing, half-way houses, hospices, retraining, treatment for drug addiction and for clinical conditions, and formal education). Investigations within prisons must be conducted with the minimum of intrusion.
The most violent prisoners should be separated from the least violent prisoners at all times in prisons, including during breaks.
Prison officials must institute and enforce policies that discourage racism, sexism, and homophobia.
The First Amendment rights of prisoners must not be revoked. Prisoners have the right to talk to journalists, write letters, publish their own writings, and become legal experts on their own cases.
Encourage all prisoners to obtain a G.E.D. (high school equivalency diploma) and higher education. Inmates who earn a diploma have a recidivism rate of 10%, compared with 60% for other inmates.
Prisons should be community based where possible. Where not, transportation for visitors should be made available. Unless the reason for imprisonment indicates otherwise, parents should have access to their children if it is in the interest of the child.
Prisoners should retain the right to register to vote, and to vote by absentee ballot. They should retain full rights to vote during parole.

For Legislation:

Establish programs to strengthen self-help and community action through neighborhood centers that provide well funded legal aid, alternative dispute-resolution practices, mediated restitution, community team policing, and local crisis /assault care shelters. Community-based neighborhood prisons close to family and friends of the offender but controlled by neighborhoods or the community (not the police or the state) have allowed offender counseling, education, job-training, and reintegration with a low recidivism incidence.
Establish elected or appointed independent civilian review boards with subpoena power to investigate complaints about prison guard as well as community police behavior.
Maximize restrictions on police use of weapons and restraining techniques such as pepper spray, stun belts, tasers, and choke holds.
Abolish the death penalty. [see Violence in Society plank]
Restore judicial discretion in sentencing, as opposed to mandatory sentencing.
Repeal the California Three Strikes law.
Freedom on bail must be the right of all defendants charged with non-violent crimes. Mental health and social services should be incorporated in the bail agreement. Laws giving prosecutors the power to deny defendants the right to remain free on bail must be repealed.
Stop forfeiture of the property of unconvicted suspects. It is state piracy, and denial of due process.
A moratorium on prison construction. Saved funds to be used for alternatives to incarceration.
Compensation for jurors should be increased and child care provided for those serving on a jury. Employers should be encouraged to continue paying an employees wages while they serve.
Revise "Jessica's law" to allow released sex offenders to find housing, reduce their homelessness, and educate the public and the sex offender about the medical condition.
Stop reimprisonment of parolees on the basis of technical violations only

Update adopted: October 10 2009

Patterns of exclusion of women and minorities (primarily people of color) must be acknowledged as a continuing practice that violates any semblance of social justice, or respect for diversity.

Early laws in this country favored white, male, landowners. That group maintained its dominance until deliberate actions were taken to include minorities. In the two-century history of this country, the quest for equality has produced four Constitutional Amendments and a plethora of Congressional Acts, Executive Orders and Supreme Court decisions. Along the way, slaves were freed and given citizenship; women won the right to vote; and "separate but equal" was recognized as segregation and was dismantled. We should be proud of the gains these affirmative actions have achieved, but we must also recognize the inequalities that still exist. In a heterogeneous society, equality requires constant vigilance.

The Green Party disagrees with the assertion that affirmative actions should be class-based rather than race / gender-based. There is merit to the class-based argument, but it would have a different goal: an attempt to provide opportunity to those trapped in poverty. Race / gender affirmative actions attempt to include specific groups that have a history of being excluded regardless of their economic status or level of education.

Anti-affirmative action sentiments are being provoked as a subterfuge to hide economic problems: the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few; the exploitation of labor in the U.S. and abroad; the problems presented by greater automation; and the continued decline in real wages and jobs. Our political leaders have failed to address these issues even though other industrial nations are beginning to deal with them. The common practice of these leaders has been to use minorities as scapegoats in order to divert attention from the real issues. This is a recurring scenario in history: economic disparity causes social unrest; anger is directed at easy targets - those least able to fight back; the underlying issues are deflected because they are complex and carry enormous social implications and long term effects.

The Green Party recognizes the need for affirmative action programs and supports the following:

Retention of inclusion goals for women and minorities in government hiring and procurement when all other qualifications are equal - similar to the preferences given to veterans.
Maintaining employment programs whose goals are to achieve a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community.
Promoting equal employment opportunity through education and examples of successful programs, but also pursuing Court imposed remedies and legal retribution where necessary.
A realistic assessment of our future economy and employment in the post-industrial age.
Proportional representation as an affirmative action towards achieving fair representation for all. Electoral systems promote patterns of inclusion or exclusion and, so, the Green Party supports the goals of the Voting Rights Act. [see Proportional Representation plank]

Immigration policies should be based strongly on human rights. Properly devised immigrant work policies can be of economic benefit to the worker and the host nation.

In California, discussions of immigration mostly center on the Latino population that moves across the U.S - Mexican border. Xenophobic responses, typified by Proposition 187, claimed we "are suffering economic hardship by the presence of illegal aliens..." To the contrary, numerous studies show that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, contribute greatly to the U.S. economy. It has been proven that immigrants stimulate local economies, create jobs, and pay far more in taxes than they receive in government benefits.

Reactionary allegations are popularized to divert discussions away from underlying causes of U.S. economic erosion, such as the permanent decline of labor-intensive jobs and the widening gap between rich and poor. Both of these conditions are caused by depressed wages and working conditions; the destruction of governmental protections that keep labor unions viable; promoting trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA); and the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which result in exporting manufacturing jobs.

At the same time, global issues such as deterioration of natural resources and the economic and social devastation of Third World Nations by the predatory economic policies of the United States and other developed countries, multinational corporations, WTO, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and international trade agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA which serve to drive down commodity prices and to create huge economic debt with huge interest payments are ignored as contributors o human migration. The pressure of some 1.3 million Mexican farm families that have been driven off their land by the combination of NAFTA and the U.S. government subsidies to agribusiness giants has also contributed to immigration.

Discussions of immigration among politicians are currently limited to enforcement against undocumented immigrants and building a massive wall on the U.S-Mexican border, or restarting a guest worker program. The reactionary response to illegal immigration has resulted in an effort to thwart the entry of undocumented immigrants by attempting to deprive them of a living wage; cut them off from medical care, education and other public services; and deprive them of civil and human rights guaranteed to all persons residing in the United States.

Building walls will not stop illegal immigration. People are creative and will find both legal and illegal means to cross the California-Mexico or any border. The most effective tool would be to support the creation of an international labor union establishing enforceable policies including living wage, good working conditions, health benefits, disability insurance, and worker's compensation benefits.

The Green Party is opposed to the creation of a Guest Worker Program as it creates a permanent class of residents who are here for labor, but who are permanently barred from becoming citizens, voting, and unionizing.

The Green Party supports these policies (as advocated by Cesar Chavez) that seek to integrate, rather than alienate, immigrant labor:

We should acknowledge and celebrate the influence of diverse cultures in the mosaic that is the unique California culture
International borders should be recognized as areas of bi-national interdependence. International border areas should be authentic fair-trade zones where people are free to travel across borders for work, shopping or recreation.
- Barrier walls between countries are ineffective. Thus, walls along the U.S-Mexican border should be destroyed and their construction should be halted
- Reduce the private and public militarization of the U.S.-Mexican border
The Green Party supports the creation of a multinational labor union that establishes consistent policies in each country to ensure a living wage, health benefits and safe working conditions.
The Green Party supports the principles of "fair" trade, rather than "free" trade. Therefore we support the renegotiation of: international trade agreements such as CAFTA and NAFTA and the WTO; the policies of the IMF, World Bank and other international banking institutions; and the terms and conditions of contracts with multinational corporations; and cancellation of the crushing international debt for highly indebted poor countries.
All immigrant workers in the U.S., legal or not, must be subject to U.S. wage, tax and labor laws including workplace health and safety standards as well as worker's compensation, disability and unemployment insurance benefits. Programs involving temporary worker status must include the option of permanent residency for immigrants already in the U.S.
Legalization programs to provide immigrants with the ability to obtain Permanent Residency status should provide information on entry outlining the legalization process timeline and should be fair, simplified, transparent, affordable, and attainable by at most 5 years after entry. Immediate and full legalization should be offered for all immigrants and their families currently resident within the United States.
Immigration quotas based on race, class and ideology should be abandoned for immigration policies that promote fairness, non-discrimination and family reunification. The law must allow immigration for reasons of political exile and refugee status.
Laws that exclude Mexicans should be repealed.

The Green Party supports policies that restore and guarantee basic human rights to all persons residing in the United States. All human rights must apply to all races and ethnicities equally. Taxation without representation must not exist:

We oppose the continuing legislative trend of reducing and/or denying services that are available to citizens and legal immigrants.
We advocate voting rights for permanent residents, as was the law prior to World War.
All immigrants, regardless of status, have the right to receive medical care, education, housing and access to all available public benefits and services.
Interpreters should be available in emergency rooms, hospitals, and health care clinics.
All immigrants, regardless of status have the right to apply for a driver's license without immigration status notification or restriction.
Racial profiling should be ended. The rights of all races and ethnicities in California should be all equal human rights.

The Green Party supports policies that restore and guarantee the civil rights provided for under the Constitution of the United States, which specifically states that the rights apply to all persons residing in the United States. All civil rights must apply to all races and ethnicities equally. There must be no apartheid:

All immigrants, regardless of status, have 1st amendment rights of freedom of speech, and the freedom of assembly and association.
For all civil and criminal hearings, all immigrants have due process rights to be informed of the charges brought against them, to confront their accusers, to have competent legal representation and to have a speedy trial. All immigrants have the right to free interpreter assistance for all legal proceedings. These rights must also apply to the deportation internment and hearing process.
The use of force or torture or other means to compel testimony against one another, or to obtain confessions must be banned.
All immigrants have the right to be secure in their houses, and protected against unreasonable search and seizure.
All immigrants must be protected against arbitrary arrest or detention based on racial or cultural profiling.
All immigrants have the right to be protected against intimidation by public officials or private individuals. Enforcement of immigration laws is the responsibility of the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Requiring local law enforcement agencies to serve as adjunct immigration agents of the Federal Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency must be banned

The Green Party of California believes humans have a unique responsibility for stewardship of the Earth. No species, especially on the upper end of the food chain, can have unchecked exponential growth without depleting the Earth's carrying capacity - human population expands at the expense of other species.

Limiting the discussion to population numbers and birthrates diverts attention from overconsumption in the industrial world and historic patterns of exploitation of developing countries. Consumption-oriented life-styles that have evolved in the industrial world have resulted in a minority of people consuming a majority of resources. This is as significant of a threat to the Earth's carrying capacity, or possibly more significant, than high birth rates in low-consumption countries.

Current global demographics demonstrate that economic well-being promotes low birthrates. Any discussion of population must also be a discussion of women throughout the world. There is documented evidence that the economic and social status of women is a primary factor in birthrates: when women have control over their lives, birthrates decrease. Also, a major barrier to the improvement of women's reproductive health is a lack of shared responsibility between men and women in family planning. A combination of male attitudes and cultural traditions have resulted in most men being under-educated and uninvolved in the planning of their families.

Our global realities are that population is increasing while food production has levelled off; that when population increases faster than the economy grows, the disparity between rich and poor also increases; that higher human consumption rates and populations increase the pressure on the environment in every ecological problem area. In California, the population is projected to double in 30 years, which means we will have to double food, schools, housing, electricity generation and jobs to maintain current life-styles and consumption levels. However, we cannot double our water supplies, farmland, forests or waste disposal capacity. [see the section on Ecology and Earth Stewardship]

For humanity to live in balance with nature, the Green Party advocates the following:

Those living in the industrialized world must end the habits of waste and overconsumption that place as much stress on the environment as does population growth in developing nations.
The Green Party will act to remove the political and economic barriers that prevent women around the world from having all the resources necessary to become skilled family planners.
Funds must be allocated for expanded scientific research into safer and more effective birth control techniques and devices. We demand better-than-adequate health care for women and children - especially prenatal care. [see the Women's Rights and Youth Rightsplanks]
In the U.S., there must be access to free birth control devices, information, counseling and clinics to all who desire them. We call for implementation of family planning education for both genders in all levels of the state school system.
We must promote new traditions and images of men becoming fully involved in all aspects of the family planning process.

The Green Party of California believes that the Elderly must be treated with respect and dignity and with full civil rights.

The Elderly (age 65 or older) are becoming more important as life expectancy increases. The Green Party of California believes that the Elderly must be treated with respect and dignity and with full civil rights. The special needs of disabled Elderly are also covered in the platform plank on the Rights of the Physically or Mentally Challenged and Mentally Ill.

Physical and financial abuse and neglect of the Elderly are growing problems in the community and in Licensed Care Facilities. The Elderly are vulnerable to abuse by their own families, caregivers, licensed care facilities, court-appointed conservators, and by people selling insurance and investment opportunities.

Many seniors do not have access to affordable health care and prescription medication. Many belong to Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) who fail to provide equal access to medical care and to durable medical equipment. Medicare D, the Medicare prescription drug program, fails to provide the Elderly with guaranteed access to their prescription medication. The Green Party believes universal health care is the ultimate solution to this problem.

The Green Party supports policies that maintain full civil rights for the Elderly who have unimpaired mental capability, irrespective of physical condition:

Allow the Elderly with adequate eyesight and physical coordination to drive motor vehicles.
Provide financial assistance for indigent Elderly to give them adequate income to provide for their basic needs.
Require two medical declarations establishing lack of capacity by appropriate medical specialists (e.g psychiatrists, neurologists, neuro-psychiatrists, gero-psychiatrists) to activate Durable Powers of Attorney and Successor Trustee powers.
Allow mentally competent Elderly people the right to ask their physician for assistance with ending their lives in the event of a terminal medical condition by passing into California law the 1997 (revised in 1999) Oregon Death with Dignity Act articles 127,800 to 127,897 (upheld in 2005 by the U.S. Supreme Court).

The Green Party supports policies that provide for the health and safety of the Elderly:

Require caregiver agencies to be licensed and to set minimum performance standards for staff.
Provide public access to reports of violations of State Health and Safety Regulations of licensed care facilities (board and care, assisted living and nursing home facilities) by their respective licensing agencies. The 1999 California law relative to nursing homes to do this must be enforced, and expanded in scope.
Require notification of health and safety violations to residents of cited licensed care facilities and to the persons responsible for overseeing the residents' care (family members, conservators, probate court investigators, those holding powers under Durable Powers of Attorney)
Regulate Private Professional Conservators of the Elderly by establishing a State Conservatorship Licensing Agency with regulations setting forth minimum performance standards and malpractice and disciplinary procedures.
Improve Court Supervision of all Conservatorships:
- All Conservators (Public Guardian, Private Professional and members of the public serving as conservators) must be under court supervision to ensure the safety and well-being of the conservatee.
- Probate Court Investigators must investigate appropriateness of Temporary Conservatorships as well as the appropriateness of the General Conservatorships.
- Probate Court Investigators must conduct visits on at least on an annual basis to investigate the continued necessity for the conservatorship, the management of the conservatee's physical and medical care (for conservatorships of the person) and the management of the conservatee's estate (for conservatorships of the estate).
- Probate Court Investigators must investigate Citizen Initiated Complaints in a timely manner.
Hold all conservators, licensed care facilities, caregiver agencies, home health and hospice agencies financially responsible for demonstrable abuse or incompetence relative to their conservatees.
Protect staff whistle-blowers who report incompetent care and/or abusive treatment of elderly persons.
Establish Domestic Violence programs, shelters, and services that are specifically designed for elderly men and women that can accommodate both the physically and mentally fit and the physically and/or cognitively impaired.
Provide the elderly with access to affordable medical care, prescription medications, and durable medical equipment until Universal Health Care for all persons is enacted.

Require Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) that accept Medicare Assignment to provide access to services that are, at a minimum, equal to those provided for under the Medicare Regulations.
Set up a system of substantial fines and penalties for failure to provide equal access to services and durable medical equipment.
Require Medicare D prescription drug program to provide full coverage for prescription drugs until such time as Universal Health Care is established.
Eliminate Medicare D gaps in prescription drug coverage.
Require Medicare D prescription drug programs to retain prescription medications in their formularies for a period equal to the length of the enrollment period of elderly patients unless the medication is decertified by the FDA.
Require a notice of intent to remove a prescription drug from the program formulary a minimum of 60 days prior to termination of the established enrollment period.

Make accommodation for infirm Elderly when they are in public e.g. specialized accommodation on Public Transport for those using wheelchairs, walkers, or other assistive devices; longer walk signals at pedestrian crossings, more stop signs at intersections, appropriate construction and maintenance of sidewalks and their entries, and more understanding and patience by officers of the law and the general public.

Protect Elderly investors:

Require strict regulation of sales to the Elderly of insurance and investment options that have delayed maturity dates of more than 2 years such as annuities and bonds.
Establish a 40 day " cooling off" period allowing the purchaser to cancel the sales contract without penalty.
Require that sales to persons who have been diagnosed with cognitive impairment prior to the date of sale can be voided with full refund and without penalty.

Provide better environments for the Elderly:

Establish retirement homes, senior centers, activity centers, and activities for the Elderly
Use Elderly volunteers for mentoring and teaching purposes
Provide opportunities for the Elderly to use their wealth of experience

We recognize the rights of all indigenous peoples worldwide, and we support full self-government on all Indian reservations.

Like many indigenous peoples, Native Americans have been the victims of European colonialism. Today, tribal lands are threatened by oil exploration, mining and toxic poisoning. Native American culture is only meagerly represented in history books.

In addition to the issues raised in the Human Rights / Civil Liberties and Affirmative Action planks, the Green Party supports full rights for Native Americans:

Give Native American culture equal weight with European culture in our educational and socialization processes.
Support the 500 Years of Resistance Movement which seeks to tell the whole story about the arrival of European culture in the Americas.
Recognize treaty rights concerning hunting and fishing at subsistence levels, with catch sizes to be negotiated between tribes and the appropriate government agencies. Native treaty rights should always take precedence over commercial profits and foreign fishing interests.
Recognize Native American claims to ancestral remains and artifacts. Tribes should have full freedom to practice tribal religions on reservations.
Oppose oil exploration in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge due to its effect on native tribes, and to its threat to the environment and wildlife.
Oppose locating toxic dumps, nuclear tests and other undesirable workings of industrialized society on tribal lands.
Oppose the misuse of the criminal justice system, and the use of excessive force, to deny Native Americans their rights.
Eliminate barriers to the full involvement of Native Americans in the decisions that will affect them.
Support the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

Women have a right to absolute social and economic equality.

Long-standing patriarchal traditions have resulted in oppressive, exploitative and discriminatory treatment of women, effectively relegating them to second class status. Sustained action, guided by a strong feminist perspective, is needed to overcome this problem.

Important support for single-parent families, the overwhelming majority of which are headed by women, comes from federal assistance programs. Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was replaced in 1996 with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF includes time limits and a lifetime assistance cap. It also allowed states to end funding for tracking and reporting of poverty levels. The time limits, combined with a softening economy, will leave large numbers of poverty-stricken families in dire straits. This will be difficult to prove, however, without adequate tracking and reporting.

The Green Party calls for equal gender rights:

Provide adequate health care for women. We need a greatly increased emphasis on women's health problems, including increased research, preventive measures and medical services. Form review boards to monitor the use of hysterectomies and C-sections, and discourage their overuse. Insurance programs must cover, at no additional cost, women's health problems, including breast and cervical cancer, AIDS, non-cosmetic elective surgery, pregnancy and coverage for disabled homemakers.
Establish equitable workplace rights for women. We must pass legislation which requires comparable pay for comparable work, expanded child care in the work place, and the prevention of gender-based job discrimination and sexual harassment.
Adopt a constitutional protection of equality for women, such as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
Provide education and training for judges, court and law enforcement personnel to handle cases of violence against women.
Adopt evidentiary rules so that opinions about past sexual behavior of an alleged victim are not admissible, nor should her clothes be admissible as evidence the offense was incited.
Acknowledge "battered women's syndrome" as a mitigating factor in the defense argument at murder trials.
Develop curricular materials, pedagogical methods and teacher training programs that promote non-sexist attitudes on the part of teachers and students. We support programs that hold the educational system accountable for supporting feminine rights, such as the ones legislated in Title IX, the Sex Equity in Education Act.
Promote educational programs to combat sexual objectification and exploitation of women in advertising.
Expand the legal definition of families to include non-traditional domestic arrangements. We should support men and women who make a career of homemaking.
Mandate treatment for all sex offenders. Assure confidentiality in handling complaints and legal procedures involving abused persons.
Increase support and funding for safe houses and other family violence prevention services.
Support affirmative action in selecting women for appointive offices. When qualified women candidates are available, they should be appointed in every branch and at every level of government until gender balance is achieved. The Green Party will actively recruit, promote and train women candidates for both elective and appointive offices. The Green Party's internal structure will also reflect this commitment. [see Affirmative Action and Proportional Representation planks.]
Recognize women's studies as a discipline in which women articulate their own reality through research and analysis. Universities should be mandated to support Women's Studies.
Remove the time limits and the lifetime cap in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Provide mandatory reporting requirements to determine the effects of the program.

Women have an inalienable right to control their own bodies. The decision whether or not to bring a pregnancy to term is a woman's alone to make.

All women must have the option of obtaining a safe and legal abortion. When abortion is illegal, it condemns young and poor women to unsafe and sometimes fatal abortion practices. However, abortion is not a desirable form of birth control - it is a final recourse. Preventing pregnancy is the better option. Green philosophy regards women as life-givers, and we see the loss of even a potential for life as regrettable. We should work to create a society in which abortion becomes less necessary.

Our present situation is largely the result of patriarchal attitudes towards sexuality, social pressures to engage in intercourse, inadequate sex education and a lack of available contraceptives. The U.S. has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the western world, along with a lower availability of contraceptives. These facts are not unconnected. Our goal should be an open and tolerant attitude towards sexuality that will lead to greater awareness and knowledge.

The abortion-inducing drug RU 486 has been approved in the U.S. Prescribing of RU 486 has been limited to those doctors who have been qualified to perform surgical abortions. With the number of abortion clinics in this country shrinking due to terrorist attacks against the clinics and their doctors, this RU 486 restriction is effectively denying its availability in most parts of the country.

The Green Party recognizes women's reproductive rights:

Make safe and legal abortions available to all women. Government funding should be available to women who are unable to afford abortions.
Oppose laws that require women of any age to notify or obtain anyone's consent before obtaining an abortion.
Increase research and availability of contraceptives.
Remove conditions which limit the availability and use of RU486.
Set national standards to make adoption easier and more affordable.
Federally fund sex education, public health programs and family planning services.
Promote personal responsibility on the part of both men and women in their reproductive capacities, including voluntary sterilization.
End the forced sterilization of women and the mandatory use of contraceptives, such as Norplant and Depro-Provera. We should provide free removal of these contraceptives from women who have already been coerced to use them.

All human beings have the right to a life that will let them achieve their full potential. Young people are one of the least protected classes of human beings, yet they represent our future. We must ensure they have an upbringing that allows them to take their place as functioning, productive and self-actualized members of their community.

The Green Party supports the rights of youth:

Recognize that young people have the inalienable right of independent existence. Youth are not the property of their parents or guardians, but are under their care and guidance.
Recognize that youth have the right to survival through the provision of adequate food, shelter and comprehensive health care, including prenatal care for the mother.
Recognize that youth have the right to be protected from abuse, harmful drugs, violence, environmental hazards, neglect and exploitation.
Recognize that youth have the right to develop in a safe and nurturing early environment provided by affordable child care and pre-school preparation.
Recognize that youth have the right to an education that is stimulating, relevant, engaging and that fosters their natural desire to learn.
Encourage the creative potential of young people to the greatest extent possible.
Allow young people to have input into the direction and pace of their own education, including input into the operation of their educational institutions.
Provide young people, at the earliest time appropriate, with education regarding their own sexuality.
Give young people the opportunity to express themselves in their own media, including television, radio, films and the Internet. Young people should also be given skills in analyzing commercial media.
Keep young people as free as possible from coercive corporate advertising at their educational institutions.
Recognize the importance of parents, teachers and other allies of young people. Ample support must be provided for their work.

In keeping with the Green Key Values of Diversity, Social Justice and Equal Opportunity, and Feminism, we support full legal and political equality for all persons, regardless of sex, gender, or sexual orientation.

We specifically advocate for the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTIQ^*) people, as follows:

We support the freedom to marry, and all the rights, benefits, and responsibilities thereof, without discrimination based on sex, gender, or sexual orientation.
We support state and federal legislation (including constitutional amendments) to ban discrimination based on sex, gender, and sexual orientation. We oppose measures that restrict rights or create unequal treatment based on sex, gender, or sexual orientation.
We support the right of children to be cared for in loving homes, regardless of the sex, gender, sexual orientation, or marital status of the parents. We support the right of all persons to consideration for adoption and foster parenthood without regard to sex, gender, or sexual orientation.
We support the right of LGBTIQ persons to receive education and care, without discrimination, harassment, or violence based on sex, gender, or sexual orientation.
We support the right of all persons to self-determination with regard to gender identity and sex. We therefore support the right of intersex and transgender individuals to be free of coercion and involuntary assignment of gender or sex. We oppose involuntary medical or surgical treatment--including the involuntary treatment of children-- to assign gender identity or sex. We support access to medical and surgical treatment for assignment or reassignment of gender or sex, based on informed consent.
We oppose all forms of anti-LGBTIQ violence, and support legislation against all forms of hate crimes, including those directed against LGBTIQ people.
We support the rights of artists and performers to free expression. We welcome art and performance that provokes thought and discussion of sex, gender, and sexual orientation.

^* Definitions: As used here, Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual signify terms by people to define their sexual orientation or identity along a spectrum other than heterosexual. Transgender signifies people whose gender expression or gender identity is different from the gender assigned at birth; Intersex is term used by people whose physical sexual characteristics or genetic makeup is not typically male or female. Queer is a label used to denote any of the permutations of the human sexuality and gender spectrums. Gender is the social construct of sex; it signifies the identity of being male, female, or other. Sex signifies the physical or chromosomal characteristics associated with genitalia and body appearance along a spectrum which includes male and female.

The Green party supports the civil rights of the Disabled. Social Justice and equal opportunity, respect for diversity, and personal and global responsibility are the involved 10 Key Values of the Green Party.

The disabled community, consisting of both physically and mentally challenged due to mental illness, cognitive and/or neurological impairment, comprises people who are differently-abled from the majority of the population. They have the right to live their life in a manner that allows them to integrate into the mainstream life of the community. However, people who live with a disability frequently encounter barriers to meeting their day-to-day needs and to their full participation in society thereby placing them at risk of discrimination, neglect, and poverty. The disabled are often denied access to basic services such as housing, education, health care, caregiver assistance, and transportation. Employment opportunities are extremely limited, and supplemental income for the disabled is difficult to access as well as insufficient to meet day-to-day needs.

The Lanterman Act under the California Welfare and Institutions Code provides that the State of California accepts responsibility for persons with "developmental disabilities". The Lanterman Act establishes the rights of the developmentally disabled, and their families, to a whole array of services, as well as support and case management programs, that would enable the developmentally disabled to meet basic needs, and to become integrated into the mainstream life of the community so that they may develop, to their fullest potential, an independent and productive life. "Developmental Disability" is defined as "a disability that originates before an individual attains 18 years of age", and is applied to individuals that have disabilities that are closely related to retardation, or which require treatment similar to that required for individuals with mental retardation. The definition specifically excludes disabilities that are solely physical in nature, and disabilities that are incurred after age 18.

It is the position of the Green Party of California that the State of California should not discriminate between members of the disabled community. All people with disabling conditions that create special needs, have the right to receive services and support that are needed in order for them to live independently and to achieve their fullest potential. The Green Party thus demands that the State of California, as well as the United States, accept responsibility for the entire disabled community and their families, regardless of the nature of the disability and regardless of the age of onset of the disability.

As members of California's disabled community have the same legal rights guaranteed all other individuals by the Constitution and laws of both the United States and of the State of California, the Green Party supports expanding the responsibility of the United States and the State of California to include all disabled people and their families based on need, regardless of their disability and regardless of the age of onset of the disability. All members of the disabled community have the right to receive disability benefits, medical/psychiatric care (including safe access to medical marijuana, not to be overridden by Federal law) without cost caps, competent legal representation, housing, education, employment and vocational services, transportation services, adaptive, equipment and support services that they need in order to mainstream into the community and to achieve their fullest potential.

The Green Party advocates to:

Guarantee members of the disabled community their basic civil rights, including, but not limited to: the right to marry; the right to parenthood; the right to education; the right to vote; the right to access the court system; the right to competent legal representation; the right to appropriate accommodation in private and government owned prisons and jails; and the right to institutional care if so desired.
Provide members of the disabled community with funding for legal representation and court costs related to obtaining past, present and future costs related to their disability from those entities (private, corporate or governmental) whose actions caused the disabling condition.
Increase the training of teachers, medical staff, attorneys, police officers, and service providers in regards to the needs of the differently-abled.
Increase State Rehabilitation Department funding so that disabled people can pursue education, vocational training, and reach their highest potential. The differently-abled should participate fully in the decisions of the State Rehabilitation Department.
Implement and enforce the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) which requires specialized accommodations for members of the disabled community with regards to accessing public buildings, offices, and places of public access such as commercial facilities, restaurants, and retail stores.
Create a disability benefit and service outreach and case management program designed to assist the disabled with accessing needed medical and psychiatric care, benefits, and services.
Increase In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) funding so the differently-abled can hire personal care attendants to provide sufficient personal care, household services, and supervision to allow them to remain safely in their home.
Provide affordable residential living settings within the community for those who don't need institutional care, but who are unable to live independently.
Support the development, funding, and implementation of programs designed increase public sensitivity to the needs of the physically and/or mentally challenged members of the community.
Support the development of policies designed to discourage stereotyping of the mentally and physically challenged by the entertainment industry and the media.

Note that this platform plank uses the terms "Disabled", "Challenged" and "Differently-abled" interchangeably.

We support lifelong public education, with an emphasis on giving our young people the tools they need to navigate their way through the sources of information which will enable them to lead meaningful and productive lives.

An important purpose of education is to prepare young people for leadership and participation in the governance and maintenance of their communities. To do this well, they need experience in participatory democratic practices. Since a good educational system is the most important insurance we have that our country's basic principles of social justice will be preserved, we must allocate sufficient resources to our public school system.

We owe our young people the right to learn to communicate well (read, write and speak), to understand how the world works (science, mathematics and ecology), to learn about the existence and allocation of resources (economics, civics and geography), to study the people who came before us and those who now inhabit the Earth (history, anthropology), and to understand health and human nature (nutrition, psychology and sociology). We must also assure that they learn to value themselves enough. We must encourage them to critique what they hear and see in print and in the media.

Young people also should be exposed to the creative arts (music, dance, drama, fine arts) as well as physical education. Vocational education should be included in the curriculum as well.

School has a tremendous influence on people's lives, because it is the primary social institution that young people encounter outside of the family. Schools reflect society's mores, including all of the prejudices and stereotypes that abound in our society. This too often results in the segregation of students by perceived academic and physical ability, language proficiency, religion, wealth, ethnicity and gender, and in the fostering of unhealthy competition. Young people are often tested and graded on meaningless drivel. All of this contributes to the alienation of young people and to feelings of passivity, powerlessness and hopelessness. We must end these practices and transform our schools into communities that nurture everyone involved with them. Our schools must become places where parents want to send their children and where teachers want to work.

Every child should have equitable access to free and appropriate educational resources and opportunities in a well-maintained public school. Since equal state funding does not produce equitable educational opportunities, funding for schools should be related to need. Schools with students living in poverty require higher funding. In addition, schools and districts with high numbers of English language learners and special education students should be funded at higher levels because those students need and deserve enhanced resources.

Since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, California budget allocations have slighted education. Because of insufficient funding, teachers are woefully underpaid. An entire generation's music, art and foreign language programs have been dismantled. This is true at the preschool and K-12 grade levels, and in the area of higher education as well. California's community colleges, which educate more students than the University of California and the California State University systems combined, and which particularly serve immigrants, women, people of color, and working class students, receive far less money than they need. We will never have a quality educational system until we provide adequate funding. Special education is a federal program that has received decreasing funds that has crippled the program since funding can only then come from the school general fund. The Federal Government must fund such programs at the level it promised to do.

Another area of particular concern is the increasing use of mandatory standardized tests. High-stakes tests impose a climate of fear on students, parents, and teachers. They reduce education to memorizing disconnected facts - the very opposite of the thoughtful engagement in learning our children need. Standardized tests exhibit persistent racial, gender and economic bias. Reliance on test scores inevitably leads to students, teachers and schools being sorted along the lines of race, class, and learning styles. As an alternative to high-stakes tests, we should support the use of tools such as the learning record that rely on the authentic assessment of a student's actual work and have as their primary purpose improving student achievement. Meeting the needs of historically neglected schools in working class communities and communities of color should be a priority.

The Green Party advocates the following:

Substantially increase and make more equitable state and federal funding for public education at all levels, from preschool and K-12 to the community college, the California State University, and the University of California systems.
Increase compensation for teachers. Improve teacher support, training, mentoring and sabbaticals. Work to recruit and retain qualified teachers, especially teachers of color. Work toward putting fully trained teachers in every classroom.
Work for free education eventually to be available from preschool through community college, university, graduate and professional schools.
Reaffirm the value of public education and reject the use of public funds to pay for students' attendance at private or parochial schools, or to pay any for-profit organization to manage or run a public school.
Decrease the student-teacher ratio in classrooms and increase the number of counselors, nurses, librarians and social workers. Provide smaller, more personalized schools and a greater diversity of choices.
Oppose state or federal requirements to make significant decisions about schools, teachers or students based primarily on test scores.
Advocate the design and use of a variety of developmentally appropriate assessment techniques that allow necessary accommodations, modifications, and exemptions and are bias-free, reliable and valid. While high-stakes testing remains in use, support legislation encouraging parents to opt their children out of all mandated standardized tests without penalty for students, parents, teachers or schools.
Promote and fund bilingual and second-language immersion education with trained teachers and appropriate materials and support services.
Oppose any advertising or promotion of commercial products on a school site or in any adopted or recommended curricular materials or school-based Internet access.
Develop curricula that make the connection between our rights as individuals and our responsibilities to others and to the earth. New or expanded topics could include bioregional studies, cultural sensitivity, sustainable development, global interdependence, human rights, civics, sex education, public health, environmental justice, and peaceful conflict resolution.
Vocational education high schools and vocation education programs in comprehensive high schools should be revived, expanded and fully funded. Training during the high school years should prepare graduating students for a variety of careers that pay a living wage.
Add before-school and after-school programs. Nutritious, preferably plant-based organic breakfasts and lunches must be available for all students, subsidized according to need.
Educate children and their families as early as possible through role-play in how to recognize, prevent, and react to adult behavior that is violent and addictive.
Promote creativity in children at elementary school.
Promote self-defense ability for children at elementary school.
Provide training in how students should interact non-violently with peers and adults at the junior high school level.
Offer small classes generally in senior high school.
Provide training in negotiation, mediation, non-violence skills, and in dealing with diverse peers/adults in senior high schools.
Schedule civics courses that include histories of how civil rights were achieved, and how current law can be used to achieve personal civil rights
Promote and explain the roles of gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and age in the real world, as the maturity of the student allows
Educate children how and when to be individuals, and when to be team players.
Mandate researched-based drug, tobacco, and alcohol prevention in middle and high schools.
Expand special classes to address students� academic needs in light of their disability and language status. The state must enforce existing laws in this area by funding these programs, by increasing the accessibility of needy students, and by funding/training teachers in these special areas.

Update adopted: May 17, 2009

Freedom of artistic expression is a fundamental right, and is a key element in empowering communities and moving us toward sustainability and respect for diversity.

Artists can create in ways that foster healthy, non-alienating relationships between people and their daily environments, communities, and the Earth. This includes artists whose themes advocate compassion, nurturance, or cooperation; artists whose creations unmask the often obscure connections between various forms of violence, domination, and oppression; and artists who effectively criticize or mock aspects of the very community that supports their artistic activity. The arts can only perform their social function if they are completely free from outside control. In the performing arts, the Green Party criticizes the development of a centralized culture industry that encourages the marketing of "culture" and star worship by passive cultural consumers. Rather, we favor alternative, community-based systems which treat neither the artwork nor the artist as a commodity. In the visual arts, we deplore the use of the artwork as an investment tool, which is a result of the general commodification of the artwork.

Appreciation of and activity in the arts is important to all people, not only to "professional artists." The Green Party wishes to extend a variety of living arts experiences to every interested citizen:

Oppose all laws which seek to restrict or censor artistic expression, including withholding of government funds for political or moral content. We specifically state our support for the unique visions and voices of artists underrepresented in the intstitutionalized arts mainstream, including but not limited to women, people of color, people with disabilities, people of alternate sexual preferences and life-styles, and children.
Increase funding for the arts at all levels of government. Funding amounts should be appropriate to the arts' essential social roles.
Encourage community-funded programs, employing local artists, to enrich communities through public art programs. These could include, but not limited to, public performances, exhibitions, murals on public buildings, design or re-design of parks and public areas, storytelling and poetry reading, and publication of local writers.
Encourage the establishment of non-profit public forums for local artists to display their talents and creations to interested members of their community. These forums would be offered with equal access to all interested artists.
Help decentralize the art world by promoting development of cultural institutions outside of the large cities where they are now concentrated. We Also wish to fund widely traveling exhibitions, concerts, performances and film programs.
Include architecture and landscape in zoning and building permit decisions. We encourage enlivening, appropriately-scaled and designed styles in our communities.
Promote research, public dialogue, and trial experiments to develop alternative systems for the valuation and exchange of artworks, and for the financial support of artists - such as community subscriber support groups, artwork rental trusts, cooperative support systems among artists, legal or financial incentives to donate to the arts or to donate artworks to public museums.
Urge artists to support a sustainable society by making responsible choices of non-toxic, renewable, or recyclable materials, and by choosing funding sources not connected with social injustice or environmental destruction.
Establish educational programs in the community that will energize the creativity of every community member from the youngest to the oldest, including neglected groups such as teenagers, senior citizens, prisoners, immigrants, and drug addicts. These programs would provide materials and access to qualified arts educators to every member of the community who demonstrates an interest.
Incorporate arts education studies and activities into every school curriculum, with appropriate funding and staffing. We also encourage local artists and the community to contribute time, experience, and resources to these efforts.
Encourage diversity in arts education in the schools. This includes age-specific hands-on activities and appreciative / theoretical approaches; exposure to the arts of various cultures and stylistic traditions; and experience with a variety of media, techniques and contents. We support the integration of the arts and artistic teaching methods into other areas of the curriculum to promote a holistic perspective.

Access to information has profound consequences to our democracy. Mass media need to be accessible to the public as a means of both transmitting and receiving information.

The mass media, including print and broadcast media, are being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations. They screen out information that does not fit into the "norm" and thus the media become a means of maintaining the status quo. The media have become a major vehicle for advertising and promoting corporate messages.

An informed electorate is critical to good government. Our legal right to criticize government is essential to the effective working of democracy. The U.S. Bill of Rights sets forth the rights and freedoms that cannot be denied or abridged government. The scope of the First Amendment is extensive and prohibits any law which would abridge the freedom of speech, or of the press. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for determining and advocating telecommunications policies that ensure the First Amendment rights.

The privatization of the broadcast airwaves, one of our most important taxpayer assets, has caused serious deformations of our politics and culture. The private broadcasters control what the public owns; and in return for free licenses to use taxpayer property, broadcasters give us a steady stream of coarse, redundant, superficial programming and almost exclusively decide who says what on our public airwaves. They have refused to air television and radio advertisements for progressive causes, even if those representing these causes were willing to pay going rates.

News coverage of political campaigns has diminished in recent elections, making it less likely that "minority" parties and points of view will be mentioned at all, much less covered in depth. This allows only those with the most money and / or influence to easily retain or gain power, thus diminishing the power of the electorate.

We are pleased that the Pacifica radio network is once again controlled by progressive community representatives and is returning to its historic role as a voice for peace and justice. We look forward to the democratization of the network, including election of all the Local Advisory Boards based on the KPFA model and the selection of a controlling majority of Pacifica national board members by the local communities

The Green Party of California supports:

Openness in government, not secrecy, and the Freedom of Information Act as a way of guaranteeing access to government decision-making.
The public reclaiming the public airwaves.
Community radio, allowing for a new service of small, locally-owned FM stations, including re-legalizing "pirate stations."
Demands that the concentration of power in the telecommunications industry be limited.
Wide span of programming and information, genuine citizen access, diversity of views, respect for local community interests, public affairs and quality children's programming. The FCC should closely monitor applications for license renewals to the public airwaves to ensure that these public interest criteria are met.
Requirements that new and existing technologies provide outlets for scientific and cultural expression and enhance the electoral process. The "affordable access" and "universal access" provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 should be interpreted by the FCC as a clear mandate for the telecommunications industry to make advanced communications systems affordable and equitably available to all American schools and libraries. Also, providing such systems should be free of corporate influence.
More extensive news coverage of elections, including more debates, and coverage of ALL candidates, whether they are from so-called "major" parties or smaller parties. A frequency should be made available for a TV channel that is all government (elections, candidates, issues, etc.) paid for by fees collected from the use of the airwaves. [see Electoral and Campaign Finance Reform plank concerning free media]
Public broadcasting, including secure funding and freedom to control its content.
California's so-called "shield" law that protects news reporters and also support an expansion of the shield to protect the public's right to know and encourage news gathering organizations to provide information knowing that the law will protect them from prosecution or harassment.
Demands that everyone has a right to access of the various media for the free expression of their viewpoints. Censorship of op-eds, opinion pieces, advertisements and other such messages by those who own the media is inappropriate.
The establishment of cooperative public newspapers and magazines whose purpose is to inform their readership.
Public schools should add media literacy to the curriculum.

Every person has the right to adequate and affordable health care as well as confidentiality of medical data and records, and the right of deciding the fate of products derived from his or her body.

In California in 2005, 20% of the population is uninsured. Many more have insurance that is inadequate to pay for the care they need. Out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles, co-pays and the cost of insurance increase every year. Many, especially among seniors, pay out of their pockets for large portions of their health care costs. America spends more per person for health care than any other nation in the world. Yet it ranks only 37th by WHO standards in quality of health care.

Therefore the GPCA advocates the following policies:

The GPCA supports a Single Payer Universal Health Care system. This means health insurance coverage for ALL through a single insurance plan offered by the government, which would control the growth of health care spending through a simplified administrative structure, consolidated financing and purchasing, and statewide health planning. That system must offer a comprehensive benefit package, including complete medical, dental, mental health, pharmaceutical, chiropractic, vision, hearing, hospice, and in-home care. No necessary service can be left out. If co-pays and deductibles are included to finance the system, they must be reasonable and affordable. This system should also cover long-term care and the medical component of Workers Compensation. We support state or federal efforts that would establish such a system.
Everyone must have access to all necessary medical care, including those who are economically disadvantaged. Preventive care is more effective, more humane and more cost-effective than treating people after they are already ill. Preventive care should be emphasized in the planning and financing of our health care system. Injury prevention and social support services should be supported. Measures to minimize post-traumatic stress syndromes, mental distress, and psychological problems after injury, illness, or social neglect need support too. We also support measures to assure adequate supply of primary care providers, nurses, and other allied health care personnel.
Care must be culturally competent. Our health care system must affirm rights to human dignity, personal choice, and privacy. It must practise respect for racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities, and other cultural needs/differences. We support giving patients complete freedom of choice as to their form of treatment or to refuse treatment, as part of a patient's Bill of Rights.
The GPCA strongly supports a holistic approach to health care. Different philosophies of care, broadly characterized as conventional and alternative/complementary care co-exist and sometimes compete. Both have roles in a modern and compassionate health care system. We support funding for research for both conventional and alternative/complementary care to cure and prevent cancer, heart disease, AIDS/HIV, and other illnesses. We support funding for modalities of care with proven benefit or widespread popular acceptance, such as Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine. We support access to a natural birthing alternative for all women. We support licensing, medical malpractice insurance, and oversight of alternative/complementary care practitioners, identical to that those for other health care professionals. We support encouraging and educating people about healthy lifestyles, and more awareness of mechanisms of self-healing. In addition, we support funding holistic recovery services after any injury or illness.
Health care resources must be distributed fairly and used in an efficient and cost effective manner because these resources belong to all of us. Disparities between care for the wealthy and poor must end. Health care costs in 2005 account for 15% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
We support existing measures, programs, and legislative actions that will increase access to high quality, cost-effective medical services for all Californians until we get a Single Payer system, and as necessary afterwards.
We need reasonable prices for all medical goods and services. The largest single unnecessary cost in 2005 is the health-insurance system. In addition, profits for pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and for-profit providers are often unjustifiably high. The pharmaceutical industry, for example, has the highest profit margin of any sector of the economy. It is also heavily subsidized by tax breaks, special patent legislation, and lucrative licensing arrangements by the federal government. We assume that Single Payer will bring costs for prescription drugs in line with what others in the world pay. This is accomplished through bulk purchasing. Until Single Payer is established, we support measures such as drug re-importation from Canada and high quality generic drugs to reduce drug costs. Drugs should be developed with public money with the objective of getting the best help for the most people. The public should receive a reasonable financial return on its investment. As long as we use the current system, we oppose any legislation to extend the patent of any specific drug.
We want hospitals, clinics, and other care providers to try to develop management that is democratic and representative. People representing health care workers, consumers, and other public interests should be included on the Board of Directors and other governing structures.
We demand that California's medical marijuana law be fully recognized and implemented by all the appropriate local, state, and federal jurisdictions. The federal government must not interfere with duly-enacted California laws on health care.
We support reimbursement of health care costs FOR ALL, including costs of therapy to treat psychological damage, mental distress, and traumatic shock as well as the physical effects.
The right to informed consent for any individual without force and without coercion relative to his/her own body for any medical, dental, pharmaceutical, or other procedure that involves body tissue/organ extraction, insertion, injection, sampling, or imaging. The informed consent must be verifiable, and neither forced nor coerced.
The products derived from body tissue or organ extraction, and from insertion, injection, sampling, and imaging cannot be used without informed consent of the patient or the person with Power of Attorney.
The right to confidentiality of all medical, dental, pharmaceutical record data for an individual unless otherwise decided by the individual without force and without coercion. Such data also include details on abortions, adoptions, drugs, cloning, test tube babies, aborted fetuses, genes, and DNA.

Update adopted: September 11, 2010

All people, including those with AIDS / HIV, have a right to adequate medical care and also protection from discrimination.

We call for humane and adequate handling of ALL people with AIDS/HIV. ALL people in ALL countries, including those with AIDS/HIV, have a right to adequate medical care, protection from discrimination, and confidentiality. Government has a responsibility to protect and advance the health of the public. The AIDS epidemic has been inadequately addressed at the local, state, federal, and international levels. Inadequate research for a cure, education, and medical treatment have occurred. While condom use is often effective as a preventive measure, it is not infallible and constitutes �safer sex� rather than �safe sex�. More research is required to improve condom protectiveness, and in characterizing the risks of oral and other modes of sex.

Drug corporations have a strong profit motivation to make this disease a manageable one (like diabetes) with guaranteed sales of very expensive drugs, in the billions of dollars every year. Drug companies have not emphasized research that targets a cure. While new drugs have dramatically saved lives, many have side effects so debilitating that the quality of life is poor, if not intolerable during the extended lifetime of the patient. But even these need to be produced generically to stop the devastation resulting from corporate refusal to provide these to the millions dying throughout the world who cannot afford these basic lifesaving drugs. Researchers must have a cure as their ultimate goal. A better understanding of HIVand its interaction with the immune system, as researchers are finding, may allow the immune system itself (as it does with other invasive viruses) to recognize and manage HIV. There are many other exciting research possibilities to reach a cure that are languishing because of both a general lack of funding and lack of interest by drug corporations. A new activism must arise: To agitate for a cure and also for the distribution of generic drugs worldwide-like ACT-UP successfully did in the U.S. in the late 80s and 90s for the development of and quick FDA approval of antiviral drugs.

The Green Party of California calls for:

Increased funding for AIDS education and patient care
Increased funding for comprehensive sex education that includes AIDS education
Increased funding for research focusing on a cure, methods of prevention, and on bolstering immune systems.
Improved technology, facilities, laboratories, researchers, staff and personnel to cure AIDS/HIV. A Manhattan Project for a Cure is required.
COMPLETE sharing of information between researchers, funding agencies (including corporations), and the public on AIDS/HIV before award of the next research grant
More research into better methods of prevention of HIV infection. While we support condom use, better condoms are also required. We support more vaccine research.
Equal access to AIDS education, treatment and medications for ALL affected. Accordingly, funding and accountability should be increased.
Allowing ALL prisoners affected with AIDS/HIV in ALL countries to have the same access to education, treatment, preventive measures (including condom use), and medical care as the civilians of each country of incarceration
A uniform international definition of AIDS
Protecting the confidentiality of ALL people diagnosed with AIDS/HIV or tested for HIV
More careful and timely approval of effective AIDS drugs by the FDA
Production of affordable and available versions of patented medicines in ALL countries
Targeting the young for age-appropriate education about AIDS/HIV and appropriate methods of prevention. We support the distribution of condoms in schools, and sex education.
Providing housing for homeless and poor people with AIDS/HIV
Support for needle exchange programs and for programs to help drug addicts
No mandatory screening for AIDS/HIV; anonymous screening must be available
Lifting the ban prohibiting HIV positive people from entering the U.S. as visitors or as immigrants
Single-payer health insurance in the United States
Support for medical marijuana as stated by the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (formerly Proposition 215), that is, relieve the pain of AIDS/HIV sufferers with marijuana on the recommendation of a physician

Childbearing, parenting and homemaking are essential to a healthy society and deserve to be respected and supported.

These essential social functions are not valued in our present economic measuring systems (the Gross Domestic Product, for example). As a result, these vital domestic responsibilities are devalued in our market-based society.

The Green Party recognizes child care responsibilities:

Give women the right to a year's parental leave from work with a guaranteed right to return.
Provide on-site child care in work places above a certain size.
Make job sharing options available to give people the choice of part-time work.
Give people financial incentives to save money for children.

The purpose of the social safety net is to provide a floor below which a citizen in America should not suffer economic deprivation. Our social safety net provides assistance to persons who are elderly; disabled; economically poor; and in families with very young, sick or special-need children.

Since its inception in 1936, the Social Security System has been an essential asset to elderly Americans. However, in the last two decades these funds have been used to reduce the federal deficit, they are not placed in a separate trust fund. Middle and low income workers who have paid disproportionately more of their wages into the system will not receive their due upon retirement.

In the next decade, millions of disadvantaged and disabled people, as well as single and divorced parents, who have depended upon this support system will be removed from local, state and federal roles. Recipients will be forced into "workfare" for minimum wages or less without health, safety and union protections, displacing current workers and pushing down wages for everyone. Single parents forced into taking jobs without provisions for childcare will have to choose between economic destitution or neglecting their children and losing them to foster care.

The premise of so-called "welfare reform" is that there are enough jobs that pay a living wage, when indeed there are not. In actuality, so-called "welfare dependency" is caused by a lack of affordable child care, higher education, housing and medical care.

The Green Party calls for a reliable social safety net with benefits sufficient to meet basic necessities:

The Elderly

Recognize Social Security as a human right as stated in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights - everyone has the right to a secure retirement.
Separate Social Security from the federal budget. Social Security funds must be handled independently and for the benefit of the people they are meant to help.
Stop cuts in social security. Benefits should be tied to actual increases in the cost of living, which should be determined by committees of consumers. This would avoid the danger of the consumer price index being manipulated to justify decreasing benefits.
Retain the safety net for senior citizens who rely upon it to cover medical benefits in addition to subsistence benefits. They should not be forced to liquidate their assets for long term health care.

The Disabled

Provide adequate levels of security for those less fortunate who find themselves dependent, temporarily or permanently, upon the social services of the state for their survival. There are some people among the developmentally disabled, physically handicapped, and severely emotionally disturbed who may require support most of their life. It is incumbent upon society to provide for them.
Fully fund rehabilitation to permit the disabled to achieve their maximum potential. Treatment programs for addictive diseases, including narcotics and alcohol, must be available as needed. Until full self-sufficiency is attained, earnings should be supplemented at adequate levels.

Families with Children

Do not require workfare outside the home for single parents of small children. Running households and caring for children is work, even though women have often performed such work without pay.
Provide paid parental leave for one parent of very young, ill, or special needs children.
Make quality child care available to all parents who are engaged in paid employment, higher education, or job training.

The Economically Disadvantaged

Provide support, with out time limits, for those who are economically disadvantaged.
Keep benefit levels up with inflation, and keep them sufficient to meet basic needs.
Do not exclude immigrants from the benefits of the safety net. Everyone who lives here contributes to the economy through work, paying taxes (including sales taxes), and purchasing goods and services.
Pay a living wage or the prevailing wage in industry, whichever is greater, for all people in compulsory work-placements (so-called "workfare"), whether the work is performed in the private sector, community service or otherwise.
Provide union recognition and full health and safety protections for workfare workers.
Allow exemptions from work requirements for welfare recipients pursuing higher education, homeless people looking for housing, or for victims of domestic violence who need additional time to find safety and independence.

Housing is one of the basic necessities of life, yet too many households can no longer afford adequate shelter.

Rents have soared due to real estate speculation. One out of five renters pay more than fifty percent of their income for housing. Fewer than one in ten renters can afford to buy a median-priced house in the area where they live. In an era of deregulation, tenants have had few legal protections and those that exist have begun to be eroded. Rent control and eviction protection for tenants does not exist in most jurisdictions, and where it does, it is usually inadequate and under attack. Landlords who, in violation of housing code requirements, fail to keep their property in habitable condition are tolerated, or at most given slaps on the wrist. Housing discrimination remains rampant against people of color, immigrants, disabled, single people, gays and lesbians, and families with children.

It is conservatively estimated that one million people are homeless. The twenty year decline in real wages for workers is also a major contribution to the current crisis in housing availability and affordability. In addition, certain laws have also contributed to the problems of housing supply and cost, and are in some cases consciously used to exclude households with lower incomes from higher income communities. Areas of local law that should be revisited include: ordinances that prohibit a shift toward co-housing; land use plans that provide excessive amounts of land for industrial and commercial use; and inflexible building codes that prevent alternative (often less expensive) construction approaches that still meet health and safety requirements.

The Green Party recognizes housing as a human right, and will work toward eliminating economic and other forms of discrimination in the construction and use of housing through:

Renter's rights

Protect tenants with rent control laws, including vacancy control. Repeal California's Costa-Hawkins bill which outlawed vacancy control regulations.
Prevent evictions without just cause. Restrict owner move-in evictions of long-term tenants, the elderly and disabled persons.
Crack down on landlords who refuse to maintain their properties in habitable condition, or who engage in illegal evictions, with hefty fines and, in extreme cases, jail terms.

Increase affordable housing supply

Enforce the law against illegal hotel conversions.
Use vacant housing - whether at closed military bases, or housing being kept off the market by speculators or landlords delinquent in taxes - to shelter the homeless.
Build human-scale, low income housing (as does Habitat for Humanity). Create a rent subsidy program for the poor.
Pursue more efficient use of our existing housing supply, such as home-sharing and cooperative conversions of existing dwellings.

Fair housing laws

Strengthen and enforce fair housing laws against discrimination based on race, sex, familial status (children), marital status, disability, and sexual orientation.
Fully fund the Fair Employment and Housing Commission and provide generous government funding to non-profit organizations engaged in fair housing monitoring and enforcement.
Insist that architectural review boards and planning commissions represent the concerns of citizens, rather than the concerns of economic segments of the community.

Reform of Zoning and Building Codes

Remove restrictions on converting large, single family homes to multi-family use. Families of today are smaller and there are more single-parent households.
Allow industrial and commercial developers to provide housing instead of parking spaces in new developments, and permit housing development in existing industrial and commercial zones.
Reform zoning, occupancy and building ordinances so that residential needs can exist in balance with commercial and industrial needs, and so that alternative approaches are encouraged rather than restricted.
Eliminate requirements for off-street parking and street dedication, which forces the housing sector to subsidize the automobile industry.
Promote tax and regulatory structures favoring city infrastructure. Promote development that encourages urban density - with green spaces - and discourages urban sprawl.
Base building codes on performance requirements rather than specific physical models.

Homeless people have the right to full acknowledgment of their human dignity and a voice in the decisions that affect them. Homelessness reflects an area of total failure in our society.

Today homeless people are hounded, threatened and often can not obtain badly needed services. Though affordable housing could help alleviate the problem of homelessness, the homeless have needs that go beyond housing.

The Green Party calls for measures to help the homeless:

Expand community-based services for the homeless and make them more readily available.
Repeal all laws that criminalize any facet of homelessness or helping the homeless.
Abolish anti-sleeping laws, especially in areas which don't have adequate open space, shelter and sleeping areas for the homeless.
Strictly enforce all the laws that are designed to provide for the homeless - such as the laws that require the opening of National Guard armories to the homeless during inclement weather.
Allow the homeless to take part in decisions about long- and short-term solutions to their situation.
Strengthen and increase funding of mental health and drug rehabilitation systems.

Every person who wants to work is entitled to a job that pays a liveable wage.

Our country's economic system is too dependent on capitalist theories, which include built-in unemployment to, partly, keep labor costs down.

The Green Party calls for a revised employment system:

Support small businesses and cooperatives.
Emphasize local job training programs, a shorter work week and job sharing.
Legislate equal pay for equal work.
Raise the minimum wage to a liveable level.
Pass laws prohibiting hiring and firing decisions based on sexual orientation.
Enforce the anti-trust laws.
Redefine the GNP (Gross National Product) to include services which benefit society but are not presently remunerated; such as birthing, child rearing and homemaking. [see Creating the Right Measurement plank]
Convert to a civilian economy while supporting defense workers during the conversion process. [see Economic Conversion plank]

All workers have a right to a safe and humane working environment.

A lack of adequate enforcement of California's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) laws and / or insufficient standards put many workers at risk.

The Green Party supports workplace safety:

Protect and enforce California's OSHA laws. We insist on adequate testing of equipment, and we should adequately fund enforcement procedures.
Inform workers of workplace hazards. Employers have a responsibility to protect workers from those hazards.
Legislate full funding for worker safety programs passed at both the state and federal levels.
Insist on agricultural practices that don't endanger farm workers.
Put agricultural practices under the jurisdiction of OSHA.

The Green Party of California (GPCA) believes that the right to belong to an independent, democratic, member-run, labor union is a fundamental human right, and that the widespread existence of such unions is vital to ensure a more democratic and just society.

Furthermore, the right to belong to a labor union is upheld in the United States Constitution by the First Amendment guarantee of free speech and association and the 13th Amendment ban on involuntary servitude, as well as by international conventions which the United States is obligated to follow due to its membership in the International Labor Organization, a branch of the United Nations.

The GPCA believes that the Union Bill of Rights as set forth in the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act should act as the starting point to assure the direct and democratic control of unions by their rank and file members.

Democratic Unionism

In order to promote democratic unionism, the Green Party of California supports:

Repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and "right-to-work" laws that restrict the right to organize unions.
Union rights for public sector, railway, and agriculture employees.
Union rights for public sector, railway, and agriculture employees.
Legislation to allow all American based workers to join the independent union of their choice through a "card-check" sign-up procedure.
Legislation to require all American controlled companies to accept the presence of independent unions through a "card-check" sign up procedure in any other country where the company operates.
Legislation to prohibit foreign controlled companies from doing business in the United States if they do not respect the right of their workers to belong to a union WITH ALL UNION RIGHTS.
Elimination of all legal provisions in treaties or laws, and of all financial incentives that encourage American-based employers to relocate in other countries.
Legislation to prohibit American owned companies from subcontracting with any company in the United States or abroad that refuses to respect the right of its workers to belong to an independent union in a fashion consistent with this labor platform.
The continued and secure existence of a fully government funded social security system
An end to privatization of government provided social services.
True universal/single-payer health care that is government paid and based on need, not profit, regardless of work status, in order to provide quality and affordable health care for all and to remove health care as a corporate union busting tool.
Union access to company financial records for bargaining purposes.
Union representation on corporate boards.
Legislation to guarantee to employees and communities advance warning of no less than 6 months of plant closures, mergers, or buy-outs.
Legislation to guarantee that every employee who loses his/her job due to a company merger or change of ownership will receive company help to get a job elsewhere.
Legislation to assure union recognition and union contracts following a company merger or change of ownership.
Legislation to facilitate workers and/or communities taking over plants and forming employee-owned businesses and cooperatives before and after plant closure.
Strong legal consequences for American companies that interfere directly or indirectly with the right of workers to belong to a union either in the United States or abroad.

Labor Organizing Strategies

The GPCA believes that union membership in the United States has plummeted due to an ongoing corporate backlash against democratic unionism since union membership peaked in the late 1940's. The backlash has also produced declining labor organization influence over both major political parties, and has also resulted in the loss of, and serious threat to, vital "social wages" acquired through past labor struggles. To bring attention to the social injustice caused by the backlash and to reverse its effect, the GPCA wishes to work in tandem with labor unions.

Some issues of common interest may be:

The direct and democratic control of unions by their rank and file members.
"Business unionism" versus democratic unionism.
Grass-roots organizing (long abandoned by mainstream organized labor)
Alternative forms of labor organizing that unite workers across traditional workplace boundaries and class structure
Establishing international labor networks to coordinate responses to multi-national corporations.
Joint worker control of plant occupational and environmental health and safety with the operating company.

Labor Unions and the Environment

The GPCA recognizes the need to strive for a holistic approach to improving the quality of worker life by respecting the inextricable link between workplace or living environments and the natural environment. Society should not have to choose between job protection and environmental protection, but there must be a "just transition" for workers adjusting to a new environmentally friendly economy. In order to accomplish that goal, environmentalists and labor activists must join together in common cause through (but not limited to) the following actions:

By treating poverty as both a social and environmental issue
By combining environmental protection with job protection.
Supporting a "just transition" (with no loss of income or benefits and with training) to other jobs for workers who lose their employment. This transition should be funded through the tax base and from fines on corporate polluters.
Use of public funds to invest in businesses that produce non-polluting, renewable and efficient energy systems and labor friendly jobs.
Create political alliances between labor and environmental advocacy groups to offset the political influence of the fossil fuel industry.

Labor Education

The GPCA recognizes the need to provide public programs to educate the general public about labor issues to counter-balance anti-union propaganda of the news media and other bastions of corporate power. Therefore, the GPCA supports:

Fully funded labor studies programs at universities that are designed to research all aspects of unionism including democratic unionism.
Labor studies classes provided at all grade levels in our public schools.
Outreach to schools at all grade levels and to community organizations for the purpose of educating the public about labor unions.

Government should exercise restraint when regulating its citizens' private lives. Basically, we should question a government's right to tell citizens what they may consume.

The "war on drugs" is actually a war on urban ghettos, supplier nations and civil liberties. That war has failed. Outlawing drugs has turned drug users into criminals and crowded our jails with them. Interdiction, foreign and domestic, has been ineffective in stemming the flow of drugs. The U.S. Government has used the drug war to justify foreign military intervention, while the CIA has been involved in the drug trade to finance its illegal activities. The ones who profit from the drug war are the sellers, organized crime, chemical corporations and banks that launder money.

The Green Party calls for a basic change in our drug policies:

Shift our focus from interdiction and incarceration to addressing the social causes of drug use. Redirect the funds presently spent on the drug war to education, prevention and treatment.
Recognize that drugs are not just a problem affecting minorities and the poor, but also white, upper class communities.
End the subversion of due process of law under the guise of the "war on drugs."
End all corporate tax deductions for cigarette and alcohol advertising.
Give states a greater autonomy in choosing to criminalize, de-criminalize or legalize drugs without having to fear federal reprisals (such as taking highway funds from states like Oregon that wanted to legalize marijuana).
Open a public dialogue to determine the most feasible plan to de-criminalize drugs.

The processes and mechanisms of the California law enforcement sector (police and sheriffs departments, California highway patrol, district attorneys, attorney general) are entirely secret by law and beyond the reach of public records law.

Information about specific peace officers is also off-limits according to a 1978 law, except in court-controlled discovery by a criminal defendant or by a civil plaintiff suing for an officer's alleged misconduct or excessive force. On August 31 2006, the California Supreme Court ruled that the public does not have access to police discipline records filed during administrative appeals, including the names of officers who have been terminated, unless the officers waive their rights to privacy (Copley Press Inc vs. Superior Court of San Diego). Yet all other state and local government employees are subject to the California Public Records Act that allows their disciplinary records on significant wrongdoing after a complaint investigation to become open, but retaining confidentiality for minor complaints or those that are found baseless. In a civil trial, any police record of an accused is considered in the proceedings during trial and the sentencing. There must not be a double standard of justice for police and the general public. This is particularly important for minority citizens who are often targeted multiple times by specific police e.g. use of extreme force; intimidation; entrapment; general abuse. Public police disciplinary hearings and disclosures would ENSURE that police rules were actually obeyed, and that the proceedings are transparent.

Meetings (face to face or electronic) dealing with wages and compensation for services rendered in all California publically funded organizations and institutions need to be open to the public to allow public comment. The Ralph M Brown Act must be enforced in all sectors of government. Currently, the Bagley-Keene Act allows the UC Regents to conduct closed meetings in regard to appointment, employment, performance, compensation or dismissal of university employees: this must be repealed. Sweetheart deals and "old boy" networks give the impression of impropriety.

It is also unacceptable public policy to permit secret deals that conceal evidence of dangers to the public.

Amend the California Public Records Act of 1978 to conform to the federal Freedom of Information Act relative to law enforcement confidentiality: that is, release of closed case files, withholding only matters of personal privacy, confidential informant identities, procedures, or guidelines, or facts whose release could endanger a person's safety.
Repeal the secrecy provisions of the 1978 Act and place peace officers under the same "bad apple" disclosure standard as other state government workers. Those entrusted with deadly force and the authority to detain, question, investigate, and arrest their fellow citizens need to be at least as publically accountable for serious wrongdoing as others in state public service.
Support any appeal of the California Supreme Court decision of August 31 2006 in the case of Copley Press Inc vs. Superior Court of San Diego
Consider the past record of an accused police officer during police disciplinary hearings that must also be made public to verify any failure of self-policing.
Identify problem police officers in public Police Commission Reports e.g. those involved in multiple shootings, in beatings of prisoners, and in violent and non-consensual acts (including on fellow officers); all who had disciplinary action; officer witnesses to fellow officer violence or non-consensual acts who did not protest or attempt to stop the violence or acts; and those who entrap/frame Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people for sexual "offences" or who entrap gang members by pushing drugs.
Identify in public Police Commission Reports police officers who accept bribes and gifts, steal drugs, and push drugs.
Mandate that meetings (face to face or electronic) dealing with wages and compensation for services rendered in all publically funded organizations and institutions must be open to the public with at least one month's notice, for example, for state universities, the University of California, Prisons, State Agencies, State Committees. The Ralph M Brown Act must be enforced in all sectors of state Government. Currently, the Bagley-Keene Act allows the UC Regents to conduct closed meetings in regard to appointment, employment, performance, compensation or dismissal of university employees: this must be repealed.
Mandate that all information pertinent to the safety of the public relative to commercial products (like drugs, pesticides, foods, animals, and crops) and industrial facilities (like settlements for damage to the environment or to injured people) be public information. Judges must not grant secrecy protection relative to commercial products and industrial facilities where public safety is involved even when lawyers of both sides are agreeable.
Support the repeal of Title 5 United States Code Section 552 c (1) (B). The GPCA supports legislation that requires law enforcement to notify the people to be investigated.

Update adopted: September 8 2007

The taxation structure of the United States is complex since Federal, State, County, and Local governments can impose taxes. The Green Party of California believes a sound California community revenue generation and taxation system is rooted in a sustainable and equitable economic model that rewards individual and group contributions to the community, and that this is a humane system that takes better care of those who are incapable of caring for themselves. The Green Party believes that everyone and every business should pay their fair share of taxes.

Lower property taxes, high tax credits, & creative accounting have been responsible for company tax decreases relative to 1977-78. In 2010, California taxed 4.7% of what a business produced: Compare 5.4% in 2008, 9.7% in 1981, and 16% in 1977-78. In addition, people who earn less than $18,000 per year are required by state and local tax law to pay 11.2% of their annual income in taxes on average. However, the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers currently pay 7.2% of their annual income in income taxes. The 2010 deficit was $28 billion.

Prop 13 caused a California bailout of educational institutions and local governments to make up for their loss in property tax revenue. Some 70% of the state general fund goes to these entities. Since businesses change hands less frequently than individual homes, companies generally pay lower property taxes since Prop 13 passed in 1978.

The Green Party supports:

Graduated tax rates on California individuals and corporations The greater the profit the greater the tax rate.
Successful investor earnings be more highly taxed than worker wages, and that investor earnings be subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes just as are individual wages now.
All income (earned and unearned) should be taxed equally in a graduated, progressive manner.
Adjustment of industrial and commercial property taxes periodically but at least every 10 years, and also during all sales and transfers. We support the Proposition 13 clauses that protect home owners (especially retired elderly ones on fixed incomes) from displacement caused by increasingly higher property taxes. We support property tax exemptions for small businesses that do not make a profit-by intention as non-profits or by business circumstances. We support property tax exemptions for when a homeowner uses a homeowner float fund (loan) for short-term assistance on mortgages and when the homeowner wishes to extend the period prior to foreclosure, such that all monies offered for temporary assistance are to be repaid.
Repeal of the parts of Proposition 13 that require a two-thirds vote for any tax increase at the state level, and replace them with majority vote
A graduated excise tax on fees paid to registered lobbyists for both payer and payee
California's workers be allowed to subtract their FICA tax (that is, their Social Security/Medicare tax) from their state and local taxes.
High luxury, recreational, unrecyclable, and disposable items taxes.
Elimination of tax subsidies to real estate speculators (interest write-offs, depreciation deductions, depletion allowances, capital gain exclusions, and other exemptions and exclusions). Developmental projects that are linked to regional needs such as the construction of more new housing units close to public transportation should be exempted.
Implementation of resources extraction, use, storage, or abuse taxes for all resources such as oil, minerals, water, trees, and vegetation (California has no oil extraction tax).
Elimination of offshore sales to avoid taxes.
Payment of fees by institutions and businesses that use amenities/infrastructure paid for by state funds as commensurate with the duration, degree, and intensity of use up to the present, and/or actual environmental impact of such usage
Means test adjusted carbon taxes on air and water emissions from stationary and mobile sources.
Tax credits for those who contribute voluntarily or forego income to preserve ecosystems and to save, restore, recycle, conserve, protect , or improve the environment or implement eco-friendly measures.
Garbage taxes above the current stated garbage threshold charged to households for picking up excess household garbage.
Plastic bag taxes for shoppers where plastic bags are not banned.
Redress at the state level of loopholes in the Federal taxation system.
Research into fairer methods of taxation, for example, the use of a graduated gross or value-added tax (VAT) on specific practices of business, for example, sales taxes.

Update adopted: May 5, 2011

Last updated: 05/30/2011 (BH)