___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLE II: RIGHTS/ENTITLEMENTS

SECTION 1. JOBS/INCOME

SECTION 2. HOUSING, ACCOMODATIONS, FOOD, CLOTHING, UTILITIES

SECTION 3. HEALTH CARE (Single-payer system)

SECTION 4. TRANSPORTATION

SECTION 5. COMMUNICATION/MEDIA

SECTION 6. EDUCATION

SECTION 7. CULTURE AND THE ARTS

SECTION 8. CHILD CARE

SECTION 9. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

SECTION 10. CITIZEN/CONSUMER POWER

SECTION 11. MOBILITY

SECTION 12. SAFE, CLEAN, SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

SECTION 13. SECURITY AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

PUBLISHED SOURCES FOR CHARTER 2000

==========================================================================================================================================

CHARTER 2000: PREAMBLE (1996)

Charter 2000 summarizes in highly concentrated form the issues, policies, and goals the signatories believe should become part of a national debate on the future of this country. We offer it to progressive individuals, political organizations, and parties with the objective of circulating it throughout the United States, and indeed, around the world, to stimulate discussion of its contents. Since this document is still in the process of evolution, we solicit on an individual and a group basis your thoughts, revisions, and additions, as well as the platforms, programs, mission statements and the like that you or your organization have developed.

Charter 2000 is the latest version of a document initiated in 1991 and circulated nationally and internationally in various forms. Since its inception about 80 people and half a dozen organizations have contributed to its evolution. It has also drawn on a variety of published sources (acknowledged below), the work of individuals and groups with special expertise. It was adopted in its current form in May 1996 by the Kansas City Progressive Network, whose members represent a wide spectrum of progressive opinion.

We believe it is high time to formulate a comprehensive, sustaining vision and program around which fragmented progressive constituencies can unite. Such a vision is an indispensable mass organizing tool for long-term change. A careful reading of the Charter shows that it is not a random laundry list but a broad and coherent political orientation grounded in fundamental human values. While the merits of each point should be debated separately, the Charter stresses their interconnectedness. The achievement of individual goals depends in large part on the enduring attainment of many others.

This Charter envisions a generous, inclusive, fair, and democratic society where the value of the work its members do is one of the foundations on which it rests. It is genuinely democratic because everyone is empowered, not just the privileged few. It honors the democratic process and works for democratic outcomes, maximizing the potential of all members of the community without excluding, marginalizing, discriminating against, or exploiting any individuals or groups. It guarantees each person the basis for a decent life of his own choice and encourages a productive one, and it lives in peaceful relations with itself, other societies, and the natural environment.

The vision on which Charter 2000 draws is summarized in the CAPITALIZED NUMBERED HEADINGS of each section of the document:

PEACE

JUSTICE

SOLIDARITY/COMMUNITY

RIGHTS

DEMOCRACY

PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SERVICES

ABUNDANCE

ECOLOGY

A separate section details the basic rights which we believe should be constitutionally guaranteed to all members of a society:

JOBS/INCOME

HOUSING

ACCOMODATIONS

FOOD

CLOTHING

UTILITIES

HEALTH CARE

TRANSPORTATION

COMMUNICATION/MEDIA

EDUCATION

CULTURE AND THE ARTS

CHILD CARE

CITIZEN/CONSUMER POWER

MOBILITY

These rights, intended not to replace but to supplement already existing rights, are at best spottily supported in U.S. constitutional and statutory law and available in practice to increasingly fewer people here and abroad.

The signatories to Charter 2000 agreed unanimously on the overwhelming majority of its contents (most favor some form of mixed economy). The seven statements on which consensus could not be reached are marked with double brackets («»). There was unanimous agreement that all its ideas, both consensual and disputed, should be given the widest possible circulation and discussion.

The Charter presents a set of desirable outcomes unified by a common vision without specific recommendations on strategy. (But see Article I., Section 7. ABUNDANCE, item 3 for proposals about funding a just socio-economic system.) Some of the Charter's goals could be attained in short order, while others are more long-range. Strategy and actions will come from experience. We prefer flexibility: any strategy that furthers the broad progressive transformation of American society is a good one.

There are many effective ways of advancing progressive goals, ranging from educational efforts to testimony before public bodies, community and labor organizing, electoral and media campaigns, and actions in the streets (rallies, marches, demonstrations, picketing, and civil disobedience). We recommend immediately deploying some of the principles and concepts found in the Charter to challenge those running for office in this election year.

The radical right has successfully formulated its own comprehensive program. In spite of claims to the contrary, in practice it consists of greed benefitting the few, stinginess and meanness for the many, and intolerance and punishment of all who don't fit their reactionary vision of life and society.

So far the alternatives have been limited to piecemeal defensive measures. We believe that it is now imperative for us all to set our own agenda, together. We must hammer out what we really do want, rather than make do with what we are "given." Instead of being reactive, we must become proactive, seizing the initiative around a set of fundamental principles and persisting in our vision no matter how long its achievement may take.

It is now time to complete the Revolution of human rights and the age-old dream of Justice, begun by Paine, Jefferson and our other courageous ancestors 200 years ago.

If you wish to become a signatory, to the document as a whole or to specific parts of it, we will add your name.

Progressive Clearinghouse

e-mail: kcpn2000@gmail.com

And remember: "If you don't know where you are going, you might not get there" (Yogi Berra).

==========================================================================================================================================

SIGNATORIES

(1996 version: in alphabetical order)

Herbert Aptheker

Dee Berry

David Brodsky

Patricia Brodsky

Vincent Ferrini

Kendall Hale

Roena Haynie

Ben Kjelshus

Meridel LeSueur

Peter Meyers

Barbara Morrison

Tom Page

Charles Reitz

Mary Stuart

Art Thomas

Fred Whitehead

==========================================================================================================================================

NOTE ON PROPOSED ADDITIONS (2002) AND INTEGRAL DOCUMENT (2011)

In 2002 hindsight and the changing world situation called for a number of revisions and additions, as well as entirely new planks and sections. These filled in noticeable gaps and updated the document. The additions, along with the original version, were discussed and debated widely. No formal vote was taken on the new material, since Charter 2000 is not a finished or definitive platform, but an evolving work in progress. Its purpose is to stimulate discussion and debate of basic principles and concrete policies. They challenge progressives to think about the world in which they would like to live.

In 2011, fifteen years after Charter 2000 was ratified, the 1996 and 2002 versions were integrated into a single unified document. The most important 2002 additions are marked with a plus sign in parentheses (+). They include two new sections in Article I, three new sections in Article II, and three major paragraphs in Article I, Section 4. Two other sections and one paragraph were reorganized to improve the logical flow of their planks.

Charter 2000 has been circulated in print format to over 800 individuals and organizations, and has been seen on at least five different websites by unknown numbers of readers. Recipients include U.S. political parties, candidates, and elected officials, such as Bernie Sanders, Paul Wellstone, and Dennis Kucinich, and it has been published in several periodicals and in a book: Charles Reitz, Art Alienation and the Humanities: A Critical Engagement with Herbert Marcuse (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000).

Hindsight has also shown that Charter 2000 remains unique among US progressive platforms and programs in it focus on universal human rights, especially social, economic, and cultural rights, which are excluded from the US constitution and slighted in statutory law. Charter 2000 also remains unique in its insistence that US democracy expand to embrace these universal human rights, which it calls democratic outcomes. and that they be guaranteed through constitutional amendments.

For fifteen years Charter 2000 has served as a model of comprehensive policy-planning. It is a coherent statement of interdependent goals unified by an underlying vision, an achievement which is both possible and necessary in the progressive movement. To lay the foundations of sustained purpose and cohesiveness, and to expand the movement by winning over the undecided, ordinary progressive people, the rank and file and grass-roots, must learn and practice the skills of governing, foremost among them the skill of policy-making. Charter 2000 offers itself as a powerful pedagogical tool, teaching practical ways of envisioning a desirable future based on progressive principles.

==========================================================================================================================================

ARTICLE I: PLATFORM

SECTION 1. PEACE

1. peaceful, nonviolent, and civilian economy and society; teach nonviolent conflict resolution

2. dismantle national security state system (including its military and police agencies), convert to peacetime society, eliminate political surveillance; no compromise on civil liberties and due process for “national security,” “the war on drugs”, or “anti-terrorism”

3. foreign relations based on peaceful cooperation and international grass-roots solidarity; end U.S aggression against other nations and peoples: military training (e.g. School of the Americas) and intervention, corporate colonization, propaganda agencies (e.g. AID, National Endowment for Democracy, American Institute for Free Labor); abolish CIA and transfer its non-covert and legal information gathering functions to a new agency with full democratic oversight

4. severe reduction in military budget and in size of armed forces; nuclear and conventional disarmament; end research, testing, and production of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons

5. end military sales to foreign countries, especially repressive regimes; eliminate U.S. military bases in foreign countries and territories

6. honor democratically established laws and treaties, national and international, including with Native Peoples

7. end embargoes that punish civilian populations

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 2. JUSTICE

(also see Section 5. below)

1. establish a democratic economy producing for human needs, above all basic needs guaranteeing survival and a decent life; legitimate aim of economic activity is to optimize the common good

2. equal rights under just laws for all individuals, people before profits

3. democratic and fair distribution of wealth, property, and power

4. end classism, racism, sexism (gender and sexual orientation), ageism, xenophobia, domination by single culture or religion, whether institutionalized or informal, including the scapegoating of immigrants and non-citizens; end racial profiling; support affirmative action

5. priority of resource allocation to the poorest and most oppressed

6. fair tax system, with genuine/steep progressivity; reduce tax burden on lower and middle incomes, wealthy and corporations pay fair share; wealth tax on net worth over $5 million; taxes on largest corporations raised to at least 50%; tax capital gains as ordinary income; replace state property and sales taxes with progressive income taxes

7. end corporate welfare, public giveaways, 14th Amendment protection of corporations (corporations as persons); rewrite corporate charter law, abolish charters in case of corporate crime; strict personal civil and criminal liability of corporate officers and agents

8. democratize, abolish, or replace U.S. Federal Reserve, IMF, World Bank, NAFTA, GATT, WTO; write off or reduce third world debt; low or zero interest rates for international lending to third world for non-military purposes

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 3. SOLIDARITY/COMMUNITY

1. encouragement of human solidarity and cooperation, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally

2. sensible balance of community and individual values

3. build toward national and international progressive coalitions (democratic labor and citizens' movements, grass-roots-based NGOs)

«4. open international borders to ordinary people, e.g. Mexican border»

5. empower people in their communities, consistent with fairness, social responsibility and human rights, to meet local needs and defend communities against exploitative forces

6. discouragement of cutthroat competition (between individuals, groups, institutions, cities, states, nations); end discrimination and scapegoating

7. oppose fascism in all its forms

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 4. RIGHTS

Constitutionally guaranteed unconditional universal social, political, economic, and cultural ENTITLEMENTS, many in the public domain, for all individuals, no exceptions

A. CATEGORIES OF BASIC RIGHTS/ENTITLEMENTS

(also see detailed treatment in Article II: RIGHTS/ENTITLEMENTS)

NB: these rights are generally absent in U.S. constitutional and statutory law; they do not replace but supplement already existing rights; for other rights see paragraph B. below

1. jobs/income

2. housing, accomodations, food, clothing, utilities

3. health care

4. transportation

5. communication/media

6. education

7. culture/arts

8. child care

(+) 9. science and technology in the public interest

10. citizen/consumer power

11. mobility

(+) 12. safe, clean, sustainable environment

(+) 13. security and emergency services

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

B. BASIC FREEDOMS, CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS

U.S. Bill of Rights

U.S. Civil Rights Amendments and Acts

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by United Nations General Assembly 1948)

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted by United Nations General Assembly 1966)

Youth Bill of Rights April 95

Plus rights to personal privacy and sexual and reproductive choice

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(+) C. WOMEN’S RIGHTS

1. guaranteed equal rights, benefits, and protections under law; no discrimination in the workplace, equal pay for comparable work; retain affirmative action laws and programs

2. full reproductive freedom and choice for women, including the right, and financial access, to abortion

3. end violence against women and children (e.g. rape, assault, battery, domestic abuse, sexual harassment [in workplace and schools], female genital mutilation)

4. strengthen laws against domestic abuse and sexual harassment [especially in schools and workplace]

5. expand programs for protection of battered spouses and children, such as women’s shelters

6. establish broad public education programs about sexism in everyday life and ways of eradicating it

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(+) D. RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH

1. Civil and human rights apply to all people--including children and youth.

2. No child shall be discriminated against on the basis of age, economic or marital status of parents.

3. No child shall be forced to live in any household against his or her will--this includes biological as well as foster and adoptive families.

4. No person shall be forced into marriage.

5. No child or youth shall be institutionalized against his or her will without due process rights.

6. The right to freedom from forced institutionalization includes the right to freedom from military conscription.

7. All young people shall have the right to safe haven on request, without fear of criminal charges.

8. No youth or child shall be either forced or forbidden to choose a religious or political affiliation, philosophy or creed.

9. All young persons age 16 or over should have the right to vote.

10. All young people shall have the right to free speech and assembly, in personal expression and in school-based and public media.

11. All young persons shall have the right to legal representation acting as an attorney for, rather than guardian of, their clients.

12. In employment no pay differentials based on age.

13. Children’s eligibility for coverage in universal health care system not dependent on parental income or parental permission.

14. All young persons shall have the right to emergency services including welfare services regardless of the status of their guardians.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(+) E. RIGHTS OF GAYS, LESBIANS, BISEXUALS, AND TRANSGENDERS

1. Guarantee civil rights and outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, benefits, hospital visitation, legal, financial, and medical powers of attorney, child custody, adoption, and legal recognition of same-sex marriages

2. end violence against lesbians, gays, and bisexuals (e.g. rape, assault, battery, sexual harassment [in workplace and schools])

3. establish broad public education programs about homophobia in everyday life and ways of eradicating it

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 5. DEMOCRACY

A. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FULL DEMOCRACY

1.Genuine democracy for everyone: political (democratic process); social, economic, cultural (democratic outcomes)

2. Democratic process and procedures must not be used to restrict civil and human rights, or to enable or further undemocratic outcomes

(also see Section 2. Justice, above, and Section 5.D. below)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

B. DEMOCRATIC PROCESS AND STRUCTURE

(also see ARTICLE II, Section 10. CITIZEN/CONSUMER POWER)

1. power belongs to the grass roots, rank and file; empowered by democratic institutions

2. decision-making power, especially economic decision-making, resides in all individuals affected by a decision (workers, consumers, communities); e.g. workers' control over investment of their own pension funds, to be used for meeting community needs; shareholder democracy

3. democratic control of all public and private institutions; accountable to the community they serve

4. democratic management: a) fundamental policy decisions made by all individuals affected; b) major policy decisions made by elected board fairly representing all constituencies affected; c) day-to-day decisions made by workers on the job

5. Simplify and clarify legal language to eliminate jargon and obscurity and make it accessible to non-specialists

(+) 6. progressive politics, including electoral and party activity, grounded in a sovereign grass-roots democratic progressive movement; power flow must be bottom up, from movement to party and from party membership to party leaders, not top down, from party leaders to members or from party to movement

(+) 7. communities must make available free or low rent office space and public meeting and performance places to democratic public non-governmental groups, for meetings and other functions and events, such as forums, round-table and panel discussions, debates, hearings, commissions, tribunals; lectures, classes, study groups; slide, film, and video showings, concerts; meals and dinners; conferences, conventions, congresses

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C. ELECTORAL REFORM

(+) 1. ground political representation in a foundation of participatory, direct democracy: a Citizen’s Assembly in every urban neighborhood, town, or rural area, open to all residents, acting as a grassroots legislative body, with its own budget for local administration, and the power (in concert with other Citizen’s Assemblies who share a representative) to monitor, instruct, and recall representatives elected to public office at any level of government

2. public financing of elections, available to all qualified candidates; prohibit corporate campaign contributions and political activity (e.g. lobbying, PACs); strict limits on individual campaign contributions, including by candidates

3. free and fair access to mass media, fair media reporting, guaranteed access to public debates, especially widely broadcast ones, for all qualified candidates

(+) 4. remove obstacles to voting; easy universal voter registration (including on voting day); voting day holiday; adequately staffed polling places with trained personnel, professional supervision, reliable voting machines with paper documentation, and public counting of votes; students permitted to register and vote where they attend school; create independent and non-partisan election administration bodies

5. remove qualification and maintenance obstacles to independent candidates and parties; legalize fusion, cross-endorsement; binding none-of-the-above ballot option

(+) 6. legalize proportional representation (PR) for legislative bodies; create rational and ungerrymandered PR districts with (when feasible) 9 or more seats and a quota of 10% or less of the vote to win a seat; large districts of 25-50 seats with a quota of 2%-4% of the vote are most favorable to minority parties and candidates; fair rules allocating seats as proportionally as possible to votes; election of single seats and executive positions by majority preference (Instant Runoff) voting (voters rank candidates in order of preference)

7. eliminate unreasonable petition requirements, closed primaries, voter purges (except when voters die or move away)

8. expand binding initiative, referendum, recall

9. direct election of president, eliminate electoral college

10. guaranteed living wage for persons holding political office (permits non-affluent individuals, who must quit current jobs, to hold office)

(+) 11. strict enforcement and extension of the Voting Rights Act.

(+) 12. restore voting rights to current and former felons

(+) 13. radically democratize party structures; end oligarchical rule by clique which chooses candidates, writes platforms, dispenses favors, etc.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

D. DEMOCRATIC OUTCOMES

(also see Section 5.A. above)

1. political-economic

a. no concentration of wealth, property, and power in the possession of privileged individuals or groups, elite classes, undemocratic institutions

b. moderate (not excessive) income differential between highest and lowest income/pay scales

«c. democratic economy: democratic public financing, ownership, and management of all large enterprises (e.g. social services, education, transportation, petroleum, utilities, mass communication media, construction, large manufacturing) and financial institutions (e.g. banks, S&L's, insurance companies); low interest loans, rates capped at rate of inflation; no public lending for speculation»

d. massive public investment program in cities and rural areas, combined with environmental and agricultural transition plans and military conversion to peacetime, for infrastructure reconstruction and economic revitalization; providing good jobs with good pay; through democratically financed, owned, and managed public employment (no public funding of private contractors, bar former military contractors from managing industries converted to non-military production); will help prevent flight of capital and factories, deindustrialization, and pork barrel for private profiteering

e. encourage development of co-ops, credit unions, non-profit and employee owned small businesses

f. mandate socially and ecologically responsible investing

g. interest-free federal loans to local communities and entities listed in e. above

(+) h. Separate operating and investment outlays in public budgeting

(+) i. democratic grass-roots creation of transition/conversion plans of technologies, products, organizational systems, and ownership toward peace/demilitarization, ecology/detoxification, organic family farming, and democratic economy/decorporatization; guarantee jobs for displaced wage-earners; guarantee steady production or supply of essential goods and services, like food, fuel and power, transportation, waste management, and security

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. social (diversity, no regimentation)

a. equal rights under law and respect for all individuals, including but not limited to following criteria: class, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, different abilities, language, culture, national origin, religion and its absence, immigrant, marital, minor or dependent status, political orientation, medical condition

b. no discrimination against, underprivileging, or abuse of individuals and groups, based on criteria in paragraph 2a. above

c. end violence against women and children, lesbians, gays, and bisexuals, immigrants (e.g. rape, assault, battery, domestic abuse, sexual harassment in workplace and schools, female genital mutilation)

d. separation of church and state, no official or mandatory religion

e. no mandatory "patriotism", loyalty oaths

f. crime and reform of criminal justice system (also see Article II., Section 13)

1) effective discouragement of and protection against crime, in streets or suites, whether perpetrated by individuals, groups, or institutions, private or governmental; fair and strict enforcement; penalties commensurate with the power of the criminal(s) and seriousness of the crime

2) decriminalize drugs and end the “war on drugs”: treat drug abuse as a health problem, not a criminal problem, establish national addiction-treatment system; classify alcohol and tobacco as dangerous drugs

(+) 3) humane criminal sanction system based on prevention, restitution, rehabilitation, and reconciliation rather than vengeance, violence, forced labor, and profits for the”prison-industrial complex”; all participants--judges, lawyers, court personnel, police, penal staff, jurors--should reflect the class, race, and ethnic composition of the affected community and individuals; re-train and re-structure those police departments and prison regimes that are steeped in a culture of racism, classism, abuse, corruption, and brutality

4) community controlled law enforcement for lesser offences and disputes and to maintain community order; community courts and justice centers emphasizing intervention, prevention, mediation; alternative sentencing for juvenile and nonviolent offenders; for more serious offenses guarantee non-affluent accused a qualified public defender

5) more jobs, education, and justice, not more cops, prosecution, and jails; end prison construction binge, eliminate super maximum security prisons; fair and humane treatment of prisoners, strengthen prisoners’ rights to appeal, timely provison of needed medical care, no sensory deprivation, no automatic or protracted lockdowns, abolish chain gangs, eliminate death penalty; pay prison labor a living wage (no less than the minimum wage); provide prison programs that build family ties (affordable phone calls, visiting, etc.); legalization and support for union organizing of prison labor force; mandatory job training programs for prisoners

(+) 6) free access to and use of judicial system, end money barriers to justice; all members of judicial system, including defense lawyers, to be salaried employees

(+) 7) outlaw SLAPP suits and any other judicial means, e.g. restraining orders and injunctions, of denying people, especially workers and the community, the free exercise of their constitutional rights

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 6. PUBLIC DOMAIN AND SERVICES

1. large and healthy public domain; restore privatized public enterprises and institutions to public sector; oppose privatization of public domain, private contracting of public services

2. public regulatory agencies encourage, protect, and enforce high standards

3. democratic public ownership and management of public enterprises and institutions

4. ban taxpayer-subsidized corporate use and exploitation of public lands, especially in national parks, and of resources on and under them, e.g. by private timber, mining, and cattle grazing interests

(+) 5. moratorium on the release of genetically-engineered life forms; ban patents on life forms

6. Examples of public domain institutions, many of them traditional:

(+) 1) the biosphere

2) education

3) libraries

4) parks

5) community centers

6) social services

7) post office

8) telephone service

9) utilities

10) computer networks

11) the media

12) weather service

13) housing

14) culture/arts

15) child care

16) transportation

17) streets, roads, highways, bridges

18) regulatory agencies

19) product testing institutions

20) fire fighting

21) police

22) the military

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 7. SUSTAINABLE ABUNDANCE

(also see Article II., Section 12.)

1. Democratic economy of universal abundance, ecologically sustainable and efficient, fairly distributed to meet everyone’s material needs; replaces profit-oriented economy of endless growth, (profitable) waste and damage, planned obsolescence, accumulation of wealth and property beyond reasonable personal needs

2. necessities have priority over luxuries

3. funded by shifting from military to peacetime spending, converting the military and ecologically harmful sectors of the economy to socially productive and ecologically sustainable peacetime economic activities; through fair taxation of corporations and the wealthy, of assets of banks, insurance companies, and financial institutions; through public acquisition at scrap prices of companies fleeing to areas with lower labor and environmental standards

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 8. ECOLOGY/ENVIRONMENT

(also see Article II., Section 12.)

1. promote biodiversity and conserve natural resources; protect ecosystems and endangered species

(+) 2. strengthen the Endangered Species Act; expand wilderness habitat by increasing size and number of wildlife refuges and wilderness areas; ban old-growth logging, clear cutting and strip mining (also see Section 10. below)

3. promote sustainable organic agriculture; local or regional food production, processing, distribution, and consumption (also see Section 9. below)

4. develop environmentally friendly, energy-efficient technologies, phase in renewable (non-nuclear) energy, including solar, wind, water; phase out most chlorinated and other synthetic petrochemicals and phase in natural, biodegradable substitutes; close nuclear power plants and weapons facilities

5. phase out environmentally hazardous/toxic technologies and industries while phasing in ecological ones, use federal investments, purchasing mandates, and incentives; clean up toxic waste sites; full funding for anti-pollution and toxic sites clean-up; use Superfund money for cleanup, not litigation

6. shift policy from pollution control, which hasn’t worked, to pollution prevention--not producing toxics in the first place; prohibit environmental poisoning and damage, severe criminal penalties for non-compliance; eliminate toxic, nuclear, other harmful substances

(+) 7. shut down waste incinerators, phase out landfills, and phase in source reduction, reuse, and full recycling; stop export to the third world of first world toxic and other wastes, especially hazardous ones; stop export of hazardous products (e.g. agricultural chemicals) banned in the US and other industrialized countries

8. oppose environmental racism and classism (exposure in workplace and community to environmental hazards, toxic waste facilities, energy and mining industries)

9. include cost of pollution and environmental degradation in calculating full cost of production; corporate polluters, not taxpayers, must pay to undo environmental damage (no cost shifting)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(+) SECTION 9. SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

(also see Section 8. above; Article II., Section 12.)

1. phase out synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and phase in organic agriculture

2. phase out corporate agribusiness, phase in family farms and farmworker cooperatives through a homesteading program and land reform based on acreage limitations and residency requirements

3. reform farm price supports to cover the costs of production plus a living income for family farmers and farmworker cooperatives

4. subsidize farmers’ transition to organic agriculture while natural systems of soil fertility and pest control are being restored

5. phase in local or regional food production, processing, distribution, and consumption

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(+) SECTION 10. HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS/ANIMAL RIGHTS

(also see Section 8. above)

1. promote humane treatment and end human cruelty to domesticated and wild animals through education and protective laws

2. wild animals: protect endangered species, provide wild habitats of adequate size and quality for wild populations and humane artificial habitats in zoos, minimize confrontations between people and wild animals; enforce strict laws governing hunting and fishing methods and type and quantity of prey (e.g. ban cruel and wasteful methods, end commercial airborne hunting); effectively administered laws against poaching

3. domesticated animals: humane breeding, raising, training, and ownership of domestic pets and strays, working animals (e.g. police and seeing eye dogs, animals in sports, film, entertainment), animals in agriculture (used for labor or raised for food); end corporate and factory farming

4. in scientific testing and education: limit scientific animal testing, find alternatives to animals in cosmetic testing; employ reusable artificial organs in medical education

==========================================================================================================================================

ARTICLE II: RIGHTS/ENTITLEMENTS

(also see Article I, Section 4)

SECTION 1. JOBS/INCOME

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. secure jobs for all «who want to work» (100% full employment policy); rewarding work with a decent living; achievable in part through shorter work week (30 hours) with no cuts in pay; «make the minimum wage a living wage, index it to inflation and the local cost of living»

b. guaranteed livable income for everyone; comfortable subsistence income (not punitively low) for those without jobs (e.g. students, sick, disabled, retired; unemployed, workers between jobs, on sabbatical, in school for retraining, on parental or home health care-giver leave); subsistence income permanently adjusted for inflation, financed through tax system, e.g. negative income tax

c. free choice in employment (dependent on qualifications of individual and democratically determined societal needs); «when, where, in what occupation, at what job to work»

d. motives for working: positive contribution to society and personal satisfaction with accomplishments; not restricted to coercion (e.g. survival) or greed (accumulation of wealth and property beyond reasonable personal needs)

e. remunerated work not limited to marketable labor; any labor that is useful or necessary to individuals or society is a job deserving fair pay (cf. volunteer work, housework, child rearing, caring for sick and elderly, free-lance intellectual and artistic work)

f. jobs with fair wages, fair hours, safe working conditions that don't damage health; no mandatory overtime, mandatory part-time work, or mandatory unemployment; no underpaid part-time work for full-time labor

g. WORKERS' RIGHTS

(back to Article I, Section 4)

Guaranteed equal rights, benefits, and protections under law (e.g. no discrimination in the workplace, equal pay for comparable work) for all workers, in public and private enterprises, full or part-time, permanent or temporary, citizens or immigrants, in all occupations, including domestic, agricultural, intellectual, and artistic

1) to organize: card check-off certification; guaranteed first union contract; legalize minority unions (bargaining units that receive less than a majority vote); severe (criminal) penalties for employers who interfere with organizing «through threats or coercion»; no company unions; repeal Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

2) to bargain collectively: effective penalties for employers that refuse to bargain or stall

3) to strike, to organize sympathy strikes and boycotts: no lockouts, firings, permanent replacement workers, government interference, court injunctions

4) to occupational health and safety; strengthen OSHA

5) to free speech, free assembly, and decision-making power in the workplace; strengthen NLRB

6) no child labor, forced labor, or slave labor (including in prisons)

7) thorough vocational education, job training, and job retraining; encouraging creativity, social solidarity, and pride in quality; jobs matched to individual’s training and talents; retraining and new jobs for ALL displaced workers irrespective of the reason for displacement, with special attention to workers and soldiers affected by massive conversions to a peacetime and ecologically sound economy and to workers replaced by machines

8) adequate leisure, time off, paid vacations (minimum 4-6 weeks per year); sabbaticals (for all workers, not just academics); secure and decent retirement (fully vested and transferable pensions); 1-2 years fully paid parental leave; up to a year's leave caring for sick, disabled, or elderly relatives at home

(+) h. FAIR TRADE

1) oppose corporate-dominated global trade organizations and their agendas: WTO (World Trade Organization), World Bank, IMF (International Monetary Fund), NAFTA (Noth American Free Trade Agreement), FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), G-8 (Group of 8 major economies), WEF (World Economic Forum), MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment), GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services), etc.

2) institute a social tariff system that equalizes trade by gearing tariffs to international standards for workers rights (e.g. to organize, bargain, and strike, to decent pay, conditions, benefits, and vacations), environmental regulations, and human rights and democracy

3) level up standards by putting tariff revenues in an international fund for democratic ecological development in poorer countries

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 2. HOUSING, ACCOMODATIONS, FOOD, CLOTHING, UTILITIES

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. subject to minimum standards of quality and safety; available to all (no discrimination permitted)

b. elimination of homelessness, «and of housing as an investment»; public financing of home buying, low interest rates

c. energy efficient construction of new homes, retrofitting of old ones

d. downsize public buildings (e.g. airports, shopping centers); require clear and reliable directions; eliminate mazes, prison and fortress style architecture

e. food: adequately labelled, organically grown; no pesticides, irradiation, genetic, biological, or chemical tampering

f. clothing: encourage design that is both practical and attractive, standardized sizes to fit all people, not just mannequins

g. local, state, or federally owned public utilities

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 3. HEALTH CARE

(Canadian style single-payer system satisfies following requirements)

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. universal full coverage and eligibility, no exclusions for e.g. employment status, size of income, age, state of health (“pre-existing conditions”), place of residence; standard package of high quality comprehensive benefits, patient's right to choose providers, provider's right to base decisions primarily on health criteria, affordable and fair financing, portability (including travel away from home and abroad), quality and cost controls

b. emphasis on prevention, education, public health, primary care, long term home care, service to underserved rural and urban areas, training of health care workers; community owned and controlled public nursing home system

c. democratic governance and oversight at all levels of system; patient-provider dialogue basis of all treatment, with no interference from third parties (e.g. private insurance companies, government)

d. treatment should minimize traumatic intervention

e. protected privacy of patient's records, to which patient has right to full access

(+) f. protection of patients, caregivers, and hospital workers from abuses by corporate managed care; pressure on corporate health care to obey Hippocratic Oath and abide by single-payer principles

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 4. TRANSPORTATION

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. local and long distance: reliable, safe, low cost, fuel efficient; convenient access, scheduling, service, connections; accessible to disabled

b. fair distribution of service by geographical region of country

c. design communities to eliminate long commutes; reduce combustion engine/auto-based transport and expand pedestrian, bicycle, and zero-pollution auto and rail transport

d. restore and rebuild urban mass transit, local and long distance rail service

e. restore strictly regulated and rationally planned air transport

f. public (local, state, or federal) ownership, control, and funding of airlines and other transport

g. minimize border and customs hassles and restrictions for ordinary people

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 5. COMMUNICATION/MEDIA

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. Public/community (local, state, or federal) ownership and democratic management of all mass communication media, especially broadcasting, with democratic access and accountability

b. Mail, phone, fax, computer and other communication services reliable, low cost, confidential, uncensored, with universal access

c. strict regulation of commercial advertising in all media; decommercialize the internet, or restrict advertising solely to commercial websites

(+) d. end public subsidy of discounted postal fees for corporate mass mailings

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 6. EDUCATION

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. tuition free

b. educational equality, massively increase funding levels for pupils and public schools in non-affluent communities

c. promote egalitarian structure in educational institutions, eliminate privileged administrative class and privileges across fields of specialization, including pay inequities for teachers

d. encourage life-long education, no arbitrary limits to developing abilities and skills

e. theoretical and practical education; analytical, critical, and vocational skills; social sciences, natural sciences, humanities (history, cultures, languages, and the arts); political, historical, and ethical education as the basis of an informed democracy

f. promotes individual self-esteem and community values

(+) g. stress the role of society and societies in human life, how and why they prosper or fail, whom they benefit; introduce economic class relations into social and historical studies and disallow it from being censored or suppressed

(+) h. stress the social origins and influence of society on individual psychology and psychopathology; investigate individual and social psychology as factors that contribute to healthy social organism

(+) i. support studies of freethought and its history, above all progressive freethought, and of secular societies and secularity

(+) j. apply scientific methods to the study of culture without trivializing or destroying the object of study

k. encouragement of multi-lingualism; no “official” language, but required proficiency in English and at least one other language as media of common expression (some regions may designate another language as primary and English as secondary) (see Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, 1996, for small language communities)

l. oppose militarization in the schools and promote peace education

(+) m. oppose the corporate takeover of education, eliminate corporate money and influence

(+) n. oppose the substitution of education through machines (including virtual, online, “distance” education), especially in the humanities, arts, and culture, for face to face and hands-on learning with flesh and blood teachers in real space and time

(+) o. oppose mandatory corporate mass testing as the basis for curriculum, student and teacher evaluation and educational progress

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 7. CULTURE AND THE ARTS

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. pluralistic/multi-cultural; promotion of social and individual cultural expression; traditional and innovative; concerning potentially any aspect of individual and social life

b. preservation of and access to knowledge of the past, access to knowledge of the present

c. restricted neither to elites nor mass audiences, irreducible to model of (professional) production and (leisure) consumption, neither trivialized (e.g. as entertainment) nor cosmically overinflated (e.g. as a cult)

d. generous and equitable public/community funding for cultural activities, whether research oriented or creative-artistic

e. cultural life free from commercial or bureaucratic domination

f. require public reports (lectures, exhibits, performances, etc.) for all public/community funded research or creative-artistic products

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 8. CHILD CARE

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. low cost, conveniently located public centers, including at worksites and educational institutions, as well as in-home service

b. publically regulated for safety, competence

c. low ratio of caregivers to children

d. fair and adequate pay for staff

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(+) SECTION 9. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. science (any organized body of testable knowledge) and technology must serve the public interest, benefiting the people and the natural environment; they are not value-neutral or disinterested undertakings, their ethical, moral, social, economic, and political dimensions must become essential components of basic and especially applied research; science--above all the life, health, and social sciences--must “do no harm”

b. require strict adherence to Nuremberg principles in scientific testing, fully informed and voluntary consent of experimental (human) subjects and demonstrated strong likelihood of positive benefit; no random public “testing” under any pretext (e.g. “bioterrorism”)

c. full public funding and peer reviewed (specialist) oversight of basic scientific research; remove corporate funding and influence on the direction of basic research and on choices of issues and questions to be investigated; public oversight of basic research whose obvious practical applications are likely to be harmful; end research that undermines democracy, e.g. benefiting military, police, or corporations

d. input by non-specialists suggesting areas of research needing further development

e. input and oversight by non-specialists of practical technological applications of basic research

f. require publication of all scientific research, ban secrecy and proprietary suppression of research; publication permits results to be tested and theories to be debated; public debate democratizes science and advances scientific inquiry

g. increase public funding and development of practical applications of publicly funded basic research discoveries; end private profiteering from publicly funded research

h. develop and generously fund research into environmental factors causing disease rather than restricting scientific investigation to genetics, or to personal and individual factors

i. promote progressive (non-corporate) science education for laypeople, in school and in the media, to empower non-specialists to critically assess science policy, to expose corporate junk science, and to dismiss religious right superstition; scientific projects that can’t be explained to educated laypeople or that are classified as secret should be regarded as suspect and as potential threats to democracy

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 10. CITIZEN/CONSUMER POWER

(also see Article I., Section 5. DEMOCRACY, Paragraph B)

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. full legal standing for democratic grass-roots taxpayer, citizen, consumer, union, and commmunity groups to monitor, regulate, and challenge public and private institutions and enterprises, in court or other official public forums, concerning issues like quality, safety, fairness, or legality of services, practices and products, including by means of class-action suits

b. encourage establishment of and access to consumer action watchdog, negotiating, and advocacy groups (e.g. through periodic inserts in utility and bank bills and statements, paid for by consumer groups)

c. legal protection of whistleblowers (individuals and groups), with severe penalties for interfering with their activities

d. public education campaign teaching citizen action, in schools, media, union, consumer, taxpayer, and other community groups

e. free, easy, and timely access to public and government information (e.g. through mail, telephone, faxes, public and home computers, prime time radio and TV programs, up-to-date and prominently displayed printed and other materials in public libraries and post offices)

f. increase citizen power over public purse, investment decisions, allocation of resources

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION 11. MOBILITY

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. geographical: right to live and work where an individual chooses

b. vocational: right to change jobs or occupations and to receive education or training for new jobs or occupations

c. travel: right to travel freely, within U.S. and abroad, right to associate with whom one chooses

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(+) SECTION 12. SAFE, CLEAN, SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

(also see Article I., Sections 7-9)

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. sustainable abundance in civilian democratic economy that produces for human needs while minimizing environmental damage

b. adopt ecological technologies: solar, wind, and water power, full recycling, biodegradables, organic farming, and pedestrian, bicycle, and zero-pollution auto and rail transport.

c. sustainable food production by means of organic farming on family farms and farmworker coops

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(+) SECTION 13. SECURITY AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

(also see Article I, Section 5.D.2.f.)

(back to Article I, Section 4)

a. reliable provision of everyday emergency services: fire, police, accidents, health crises; accessible to everyone

b. special emergency services--for travelers, transients, homeless, asylum seekers, refugees (from any disaster area or abusive situation, whether natural, governmental or social, family or cohabitational): food, housing, health care, legal representation, sanctuaries and shelters

c. security: protection against standard crimes, such as theft, assault, murder, fraud, profiteering

d. security guaranteed predominantly by minimizing motives for crime (e.g. poverty, greed, abuse, violence, discrimination, ignorance, absence of useful role in society, etc.); reduce police forces to minimum size effective against current level of crime; outlaw “security” as pretext to establish a police state

==========================================================================================================================================

PUBLISHED SOURCES ON WHICH CHARTER 2000 DRAWS

Clugston, Richard M. “An Ethical Framework for a Humane Society,” HSUS News (Summer 1997), pp. 35-37.

Committees of Correspondence. For a Democratic and Socialist Future. NY: Committees of Correspondence, 1995.

"Common Ground Declaration." Final Document of the Third Parties '96 Conference. Washington D.C., June 4, 1995.

Dugger, Ronnie. "Real Populists Please Stand Up" and "Altered State." Nation (August 14-21, 1995), pp. 159-164.

“Earth Charter Benchmark Draft.” HSUS News (Summer 1997), p. 37.

Freedom Charter. African National Congress, 1955.

Greater Kansas City Greens. "Green Platform for Kansas City." Kansas City, MO: Sycamore Press, [1992?].

Independent Progressive Politics Network. “Common Platform of the National Slate of Independent Progressive Candidates” (1996). Progressive Clearinghouse Bulletin, Nos. 3-4 (1997).

Independent Progressive Politics Network. “Principles of Unity” (1996). Progressive Clearinghouse Bulletin, Nos. 3-4 (1997).

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Adopted by United Nations General Assembly, 1966

Labor Party. Labor Party Program: A Call for Economic Justice. Washington D.C.: 1996.

Labor Party Discussion Bulletin. Issues of December 1995, January-February, March, April 1996.

"Labor Party Platform Discussion." Kansas City Area Labor Party Advocate (March 1995), pp. 6-8.

Montague, Peter. "A High-Wage, Low-Waste Future, Part 3: A Democracy Campaign." Rachel’s Environment & Health Weekly, No. 460 (September 21, 1995).

Nader, Ralph. "The Concord Principles: An Agenda for a New Initiatory Democracy." (February 1, 1992).

National People's Progressive Network brochure [1994?].

Sklar, Holly. "Economics for Everyone: Breaking the Cycle of Unequal Opportunity." Z Magazine 8.7-8 (July-August 1995), pp. 44-50.

“UE Worker's Bill of Rights." Adopted at founding meeting of UE Local 893, Des Moines. Des Moines, IA: [nd].

Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Adopted by United Nations General Assembly, 1948.

Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights. Barcelona, 1996.

“Voters Bill of Rights” (2001).

"Youth Bill of Rights, April 95." Z Magazine 8.9 (September 1995), p. 25.

Other significant rights documents

Council of Europe. European Social Charter. Adopted 1961, revised 1996.

The Earth Charter (2000)

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