With this platform we offer hope for positive
change and a call to action to all concerned citizens. |
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- Establish neighborhood assemblies
- Mandate open meetings and records for all governmental
bodies
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- Support for maximum source reduction of solid waste
- Promote use of the
Industrial
Pollution and Safe Materials Institute at Purdue University
- Establish a comprehensive curbside recycling program
- Encourage the use of recycled materials
- Establish a community-owned intermediate processing facility
for recycled materials
- Build a responsibly run county-owned landfill
- Advance alternative energy and energy efficiency policies and
practices
- Improve and expand public transportation
- Develop and implement a
plan to
construct facilities to encourage
commuter bicycling and
walking
- Establish a citizen commission to evaluate the level of
environmental racism in St. Joseph County
- Promote a safe environment for all species
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- Establish a commission of citizens from neighborhoods
particularly beset by crime and violence
- Increase funding and other assistance for programs benefiting
youth in low-income neighborhoods
- Promote increased citizen and neighborhood participation in
anti-crime and anti-violence programs
- Advocate a better relationship between police and the
community
- Create an independent Civilian Review Board
- Support improvement of the rehabilitative elements of the
criminal justice system
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- Actively support the strengthening of service outreach
programs
- Strongly support affirmative action programs
- Strongly support diversity and mediation training for all
government officials and workers
- Re-examine local government contracts, development projects and
investments re affirmative action
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- Temporarily suspend new local property and other tax abatements
for corporations
- Create an economic development policy
- Direct local governmental bodies to give first priority to
buying locally produced, union-made products and to purchase from socially
responsible enterprises
- Advocate corporate accountability reforms
- Support locally controlled, strongly progressive income
taxes
- Establish citizen resource clearinghouses
- Establish democratic community control over corporations.
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Widespread cynicism about our political system erodes trust in the
public sphere. To address this loss of faith and trust, fundamental political
reform is necessary. The St. Joe Valley Greens see that ordinary citizens feel
powerless in decision making on the important political, environmental and
economic issues that affect all of our lives. For any meaningful social change,
we must also work to ensure that our representatives are fully accountable to
the people who elect them. Towards the goal of establishing grassroots
democracy, the Greens propose to:
Establish neighborhood assemblies,open to all
interested citizens of the neighborhood. In the spirit of the New England Town
Meeting, the neighborhood assemblies will be a forum for face-to-face
discussion, deliberation and debate among neighbors. Neighborhood assemblies
can raise items for the agenda of representative bodies, such as the Common
Council. In addition, when assemblies so choose, they can democratically decide
upon an issue and direct the political representative's vote. The Greens seek
to develop neighborhood assemblies into the basic deliberative and legislative
bodies in a reformed grassroots democracy. Such a democracy will allow for
direct grassroots political initiatives as well as the more traditional
initiatives from the elected political representatives.
Mandate open meeting and records for all
local governmental bodies. With the exception of legal
strategy meetings and personnel matters when requested by the person at issue,
all public business conducted by any government entity should be fully open to
all citizens.
Return to 1996 Platform
outline
The environment sustains all life. Whatever we do to the web of life, we
also do to ourselves. We are facing extremely serious consequences from our
collective violence to the web of life; from global warming, ozone depletion
and loss of species diversity to lung disease, poisoned water wells, and
mountains of garbage. Current remedies primarily treat symptoms rather than the
causes. If we want future generations to live in natural beauty, to benefit and
not to suffer from our actions, then we must reorder our community priorities
toward ways of sustainable living. We must begin to live in harmony with this
place on Earth, our home in the St. Joseph River Valley. These ways
include:
Support for maximum source reduction of
solid waste by residents and businesses. Recent Indiana solid
waste legislation clearly places source reduction as the highest priority
procedure. Yet source reduction has received the least amount of attention by
local government leaders. The wisdom of source reduction lies with creating as
little waste as possible, thereby reducing the problem of what to do with the
remaining solid waste.
Promote the use of the Industrial
Pollution Prevention and Safe Materials Institute at Purdue
University by local industry, medical and educational institutions. Following
the same reasoning as for source reduction of solid waste, the Institute helps
industry to avoid creating pollution to begin with by using alternative
materials and methods.
Establish a comprehensive curbside
recycling program. The community retains ownership of the
materials collected until they are sold, with profits of such sales going to
further source reduction, waste reuse or recycling programs. To this end the
Greens also advocate establishing a
community-owned intermediate processing facility to add value
to recycled materials and to provide local employment.
Encourage the use of recycled
materials by industry and residents through advocacy, tax
credits, preferential treatment, and/or legislation. Mandate that
local government procures products containing post-consumer recycled materials
as much as possible.
Build a responsibly run county-owned
landfill when Waste Managements's
Prairie View Landfill is full. Our community can't allow a giant corporation to
dictate to us on community matters when we can avoid it. With competent
management, a county-owned landfill gives strong incentive to implement
vigorous source reduction programs.
Advance alternative energy and energy
efficiency policies and practices. The Greens oppose the
transportation of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and non-medical
sources on the highways and railroads in St. Joseph County. The Greens will
work to initiate local ordinances to protect the public safety and environment
in this regard.
Improve and expand public
transportation to serve the entire community. Air pollution,
traffic congestion, and massive public subsidies for "private" transportation
are but some of the results of our over-dependence on the automobile. Expanding
the times of operation and the routes of TRANSPO buses with low-cost fares will
make riding the buses easier and more attractive. Public transportation policy
must also meet the needs of people with disabilities, people with low incomes
and our senior citizens. An increase in the gasoline sales tax can fund an
expansion of services.
Develop and implement a plan to
construct facilities to encourage bicycling and walking. The
bias toward automobiles discourages these practical, healthy and
environmentally friendly practices. Creating facilities such as bicycle lanes,
reasonable bicycle locking posts, and pedestrian walkways in all districts will
encourage people to use these important transportation means. Building these
facilities can occur with other road construction and repaving projects.
Establish a citizen commission to
evaluate the level of environmental racism in St. Joseph
County. The commission would investigate past, present and
proposed actions such as the location of toxic industries and landfills. The
commission would recommend corrective actions, promote educational outreach and
empowerment by residents of those effected communities.
Promote a safe environment for all
species. Encourage spay/neuter programs with assistance to
low income individuals. And increase education of the problems of pet
over-population.
Return to 1996 Platform
outline
Crime and violence assault the well-being of our community. The Greens
believe that everyone must take personal responsibility for their actions.
However, we also believe that institutionalized violence in our political,
economic, social and cultural lives helps shape the options available to
individuals. The Greens believe that to build healthy and peaceful communities,
we must direct efforts toward the immediate effects of crime and violence
and toward the underlying conditions that give rise to this epidemic of
violence. To this end we propose to:
Establish a commission of citizens
from neighborhoods particularly beset by crime and
violence.Such a commission will develop proposals and
programs that begin to solve these problems. Local government will then act in
response to the leadership of the commission.
Increase funding and other
assistance for programs benefiting youth in low-income
neighborhoods. We especially support programs that enlist
youth during the summer in the work of neighborhood and citizen
organizations.
Promote increased citizen and
neighborhood participation in anti-crime and anti-violence
programs, such as Neighborhood Watch, neighborhood mediation,
and peaceful conflict resolution programs. Recruiting and training people,
especially youth, in the arts of nonviolent conflict resolution gives a
practical alternative to the use of guns to settle disputes.
Advocate a better relationship between
police and the community, including establishing police
substations in the neighborhoods and recruiting new police officers from local
neighborhoods. Local government can offer police officers incentives to live in
the neighborhoods they patrol and to increase the time spent in walking a
beat.
Create an independent Civilian Review
Board to act as an intermediary between the community and the
police. Any citizen complaints of police conduct is investigated and remedied
by this board. Such a board can improve relations between police and the
community by helping to resolve disputes.
Support improvement of the
rehabilitative elements of the criminal justice system. A
task force can propose ways to increase victim restitution, promote community
reconciliation, alternative sentencing and to otherwise transform the criminal
offender into a peaceful and productive citizen. The task force must consider
the impact of social injustice and the climate of violence as important factors
in furthering rehabilitation.
Return to 1996 Platform outline
The Greens envision a vibrant and creative community in South Bend and
St. Joseph County; a place where all people can fulfill their potential
regardless of their race, class, sex, citizenship, or sexual orientation.
Unfortunately the specter of racism still haunts our community. For example, we
find that a greater percentage of African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and
Native Americans lives in poverty than do European-Americans in St. Joseph
County. The work to achieve the vision of a vibrant and creative community
needs persistent and assertive attention. There is an urgent need for people in
positions of privilege (race, class, gender or ability) to listen attentively
and consistently to the voices of those with less privilege. As a part of the
effort it will take to heal the community, the Greens propose to:
Actively support the strengthening of
service outreach programs that many neighborhood groups and
others are currently conducting in low-income and minority neighborhoods. Where
a need exists, new programs can develop with active local government
assistance.
Strongly support affirmative action
programs. Our community still needs affirmative action to
equalize opportunities for qualified women and minorities.
Strongly support diversity and mediation
training for all government officials and workers. Local
government must set a strong example for the rest of the community.
Re-examine local government contracts,
development projects and investments
and ensure the practice of affirmative action in the pursuit of
these matters.
Return to 1996 Platform outline
The Greens find poverty and injustice in our community unacceptable.
Various public and private welfare programs give a minimum of help so many of
our citizens need. The Greens do not advocate the reduction or abandonment of
these programs without something to replace them. However these programs
generally do not address the fundamental causes of poverty. The Greens seek a
new economics based upon the natural limits of the Earth, that meets the basic
needs of all, and that is under democratic, decentralized control. We
believe that all business has a social contract both with society and
the environment and that "socially responsible" business is the model of truly
successful business. The responsibility for publicly designing economic
development policy primarily lies with local and state governments in the
U.S.A.. Therefore the Greens seek to:
Temporarily suspend new local property
and other tax abatements for corporations until a complete
analysis is produced showing the full positive and negative impacts of such
abatements on our community. An open, grassroots democratic process will then
determine the economic, social and environmental criteria for award of future
abatements.
Create an economic development
policy focusing on local needs, and supporting enterprises
meeting these local needs. The Greens advocate that this policy promotes
locally owned and operated enterprises, whether they be family-owned,
community-owned, worker-owned cooperative or other locally based small business
enterprises. The Greens also favor encouraging enterprises that engage in
value-adding activities; such as a business using locally gathered recycled
materials to manufacture products for local use. These enterprises, in exchange
for preferential treatment, will be subject to democratically determined
community policies regarding the environment, grassroots democracy, civil and
human rights, worker's rights and other appropriate criteria.
Direct local governmental bodies to give
first priority to buying locally produced, union-made products and to purchase
from socially responsible enterprises.
Advocate corporate
accountability reforms. Under current law, individuals are
held accountable for the personal or environmental harm they cause, but
corporations are not. To correct this scandalous situation, we support reforms
that hold corporation executives directly liable for the harm resulting from
their decisions.
Support locally controlled, strongly
progressive income taxes that help relieve the high tax
burden on the poor and the middle class. Implementing local option taxes should
be with grassroots democratic approval and with strong controls of
accountability to the citizenry.
Establish citizen resource
clearinghouses to help with bartering exchanges of labor,
skills, tools, and material goods within and between neighborhoods.
Establish democratic communtiy control over
corporations. Chartering a corporation is the citizens' historic
right, and a civic responsibility. Only citizens have sovereign authority to
grant charters of incorporation. Many corporations serve the common good but
too many cause injury, corrode our democracy, and poison the earth. Therefore
we urge the state and local governments to redefine the process and criteria
for granting corporate charters to standards that benefit the community. We
also urge a restoration of the historic civic authority over the governance of
existing corporate charters. And we demand that the charters of corporations
harmful to its workers, to the community or to our environment be revoked. The
certificates of authority of harmful foreign and alien corporations operating
in our state should also be revoked.
Return to 1996 Platform
outline
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