Vote Socialist Action in 2016! Jeff MACKLER/Karen SCHRAUFNAGEL for U.S. President/VP
What socialists stand for. What socialists demand:
1) Abolish the U.S. war machine now!
- Bring all troops home now! Close all U.S. foreign and domestic military bases. End all military spending now – not a penny for war!
- U.S. out of the Middle East!
- No to U.S. overt and covert wars, drone wars, oil wars, privatized death squad wars, sanction and embargo wars or wars for the re-colonization of Africa.
- Abolish NATO and all other imperialist military alliances!
- Self-determination for all oppressed nations and peoples.
- Self-determination for Puerto Rico. No to imperialist-imposed austerity in Puerto Rico. Abolish Puerto Rico’s debt to U.S. banks and speculating hedge funds.
- Self-determination for Palestine! End all U.S. aid to apartheid Israel. For a democratic, secular Palestine with the right of all Palestinian refugees to return. Solidarity with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns.
- U.S. hands off the Cuban Revolution.
2) Immediate conversion to 100% renewable power: sun, wind, geothermal and micro-hydro! Keep all fossil fuels in the ground!
- Guarantee jobs at top union wages for all fossil fuel workers during and after a just and rapid transition to clean and renewable energy systems.
- Immediate conversion to carbon-sequestering agro-ecological farming.
- Immediate halt to expansion of all new fossil fuel extraction and transportation projects
- 100% tax on all fossil fuel corporations. Zero profits for the polluters.
- Close down and dismantle the fossil fuel industry, from extraction on up.
- Dramatically expand mass transit – for the least mobile first; reverse urban sprawl and unsustainable development patterns. Remediate and expand our forests, wetlands and natural eco-systems.
- For an immediate cleanup of Native American, African American and Latino communities that have been victimized by environmental racism.
- No to nuclear weapons. Close all nuclear power plants now.
- U.S. reparations and zero interest loans to neo-colonial and island nations suffering from climate change due to past practices of the major industrial and imperialist nations.
3) Jobs for all at top union wages!
- Shorten the work week by 25 percent with no cut in pay so that everyone can work and enjoy more free time. Modern technology should benefit the 99 percent not the boss class one percent.
- Create a massive public works program to provide jobs at top union wages through building homes, converting to 100% renewable power, expanding mass public transportation, constructing hospitals, parks, schools, and other social necessities. Priority should be given to projects where they are most needed—especially in Black and Latino communities.
- Raise all pensions, Social Security benefits, unemployment and disability compensation, welfare, and veterans benefits to top union wage scales and protect them with cost-of-living escalator provisions.
- For $15 and a union now as a first short step on the road to a much higher minimum wage to sustain a quality standard of living.
4) Quality health care, education and housing for all as basic rights!
- Close down the profit-gauging “healthcare” insurance companies and establish a single-payer system in rapid transition to a universal and free national system, that is, socialized medicine.
- Use the savings towards provision of quality health care for all and retraining insurance workers for new jobs.
- Free quality public education at all levels from the cradle to the grave.
- Cancel all student debt.
- Void all drug patents to cut public costs to a minimum.
- Cancel all medical debt.
- End all home foreclosures.
- Establish and expand rent-control to combat the mass-displacement of poor and oppressed communities through gentrification.
- Massive government funding to repair, modernize, and build homes – starting where need is greatest.
5) End the racist, slave labor for profit prison-industrial complex!
- End the racist school-to-prison pipeline.
- Build schools, not jails.
- Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Oscar Lopez Rivera and all political prisoners.
- Abolish the racist and classist death penalty.
- Prosecute and jail killer cops
- De-criminalize all drugs. Take the profit out of drug trafficking. End the racist “war on drugs.” Massive investment in restorative justice, mental health, and drug treatment services.
- Rapidly empty the prisons while immediately organizing quality, humane rehabilitation facilities to rebuild ruined lives.
- End “zero tolerance” school policies. Cops out of the schools.
- Abolish racist “money ball” extortion schemes including defendant-funded court proceedings, mandatory court surcharges, fines and fees.
- Abolish all racist exclusionary election laws.
- For Black and Latino-organized control of Black and Latino communities. Police out of Black and Latino neighborhoods.
- Reparations for African-American, Puerto-Rican, and Mexican-American communities in compensation for wealth stolen over centuries.
6) Immediate amnesty, legalization and equal rights for all immigrants. End the racist, Islamophobic “War on Terror!”
- End all deportations now!
- Repeal all anti-immigrant legislation.
- Close down ICE
- Demilitarize and open the borders.
- No to the surveillance, persecution, demonization and government-orchestrated frame-up trials in Muslim communities in the U.S. and worldwide.
7) Abolish all racist, sexist and homophobic discriminatory laws and practices!
- Equal pay for equal work.
- Affirmative action with quotas to remedy past discrimination and prevent future discrimination.
- To assure economic independence for women, government-financed, free 24-hour child-care centers and maternity leave with full pay. Guarantee the right of every mother to raise a healthy child.
- End violence against women and the LGBTQI community.
- Repeal the Hyde Amendment. Free unrestricted abortion on demand.
- Reproductive justice now. End coercive contraception projects targeting low income women and women in prison. End the criminalization of pregnant women.
- Free Purvi Patel.
- Ban workplace and housing discrimination and adoption restrictions based on sexual orientation or gender identity
- Outlaw discrimination by businesses or employees based on sexual preference or gender identity
- Repeal all local, state and federal discriminatory laws against LGBTQI people.
- Quality safe housing for youth and workers facing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
8) Defend civil liberties! Abolish the “national security” state!
- End all government surveillance. Abolish the National Security Administration and all other secret and repressive government spy agencies.
- Repeal the Patriot Act and all other anti-democratic legislation.
- End all restrictions on the right to organize, assemble, and protest.
- Stop the persecution of all whistle blowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden!
9) For a democratically-planned socialist economy where the banks, basic industries and all natural resources are the collective property of working people – the 99 percent – and democratically operated for human betterment not the individual profits of the one percent
- Tax the rich and their corporations, not working people! End corporate bailouts! [Note:$32 trillion in corporate bailouts was granted to corporate America in the years immediately following the 2008 economic crash. See Project Censored Report. For every dollar paid in taxes by U.S. corporations $27 is granted back in government subsidies. See: 2016 Oxfam Report.]
- Close all tax loopholes for the rich. Nationalize all illegally “offshored” corporate profits.
- For a steeply-graduated progressive income tax!
- 100% tax on all incomes over $300,000. Zero percent tax on all incomes under $50,000.
- Low interest, long-term government loans to protect small farmers gouged by banks and food trusts.
- End all military and military-related spending: Use the money saved towards a massive public works program and to fulfill the demands above.
10) For working class political action independent of and against the twin parties of capitalism
- For a united, democratic and fighting labor movement that champions the economic, social and political interests of all working people.
- For a Labor Party based on a revitalized, democratic, and expanded labor movement allied with the oppressed and exploited.
- Organize the unorganized 90 percent! Repeal Taft Hartley and all other anti-union legislation.
- Open the corporate books for union inspection!
Vote Socialist Action! For a workers government and a fully democratic society of, by and for working people and the oppressed! Abolish capitalism! For socialism!