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| Socialist Party USA: 2012-2013 National
Platform |
Human
Needs
Arts
and Culture
The Socialist Party
believes that art is an integral
part of daily life, and should not be treated as a commodity produced
by the activity of an elite group. All members of society should
have ample opportunities for participation in art and cultural
activities.
- We support the
formation of collectives, arts centers and schools,
independent media, theaters and festivals to advance such cultural
endeavors as music, poetry, prose, drama, dance, storytelling, visual
art, and videography.
- We support guaranteed
incomes and grants for artists and performers.
- We support making
schools and workplaces available as cultural
centers.
- We call for full
funding of community and school arts programs for
people of all ages.
- We call for full
funding to keep libraries, museums, cultural
centers, and historic sites open and accessible to all.
- We call for the
preservation of literature, art, music, dance, oral
traditions, and audio and video recordings that have arisen out of
people's experiences: young and old, of all nationalities and colors,
sexual preferences, working, un- and under-employed, and disabled.
- We support the
autonomy of artists of color, women artists, and
disabled artists in their creative work.
- We support the right
of artists to join and form unions to protect
their labor rights and to form collectives to advance common artistic
visions.
Education
The Socialist Party
recognizes the right of students
of all ages to a free, quality education in a safe and supportive
environment, and of all school employees to good wages, benefits, and
working conditions.
- We call for full and
equal funding of public education; for
the restoration of a comprehensive K-12 curriculum, including art,
music, world languages, and physical education; for an end to all
public funding of private schools; and for free tuition and full-time
teachers with full benefits (not "adjuncts") at the post-secondary
level.
- We support public
child care starting from infancy, and public
education starting at age three, with caregivers and teachers of young
children receiving training, wages, and benefits comparable to that of
teachers at every other level of the educational system.
- We oppose merit pay
for teachers, standardized testing,
competition between schools within the same district, the sale of
on-campus advertising in order to raise funds, and the increasing
dependence of post-secondary institutions on corporate funding.
- We call for an
egalitarian educational system with teaching
methods that accommodate the wide range of teaching and learning
styles, and that provides all students with the means to obtain the
post-secondary education they desire. We call a maximum of 15
students per teacher for grades K-12, and a maximum of 50 students per
teacher at the post-secondary level.
- We call for vigorous
affirmative action programs so that the
faculty and student-body of all schools reflect the community at large
in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, and economic background. We
support multicultural, multilingual, experimental education at all
levels.
- We support student,
parent, and teacher control of curriculum
formation, and in the hiring and dismissal procedures of school
personnel, through the formation of local school/community committees.
- We call for student
representation on school boards, and for
those boards to be fully accountable to students, parents, teachers,
and school workers.
- We call for
opportunities for lifelong self-education, with
retraining programs and transitional financial support for workers
displaced by technological advances.
- We support full and
unrestricted health education programs,
including sex education, with curriculum input from parents, students,
teachers, and health care professionals.
- We oppose
school-sponsored prayer or any other religious practice
in public schools, and all efforts to limit the teaching of evolution
or to combine it with non-scientific theories.
- We call for free and
open access to information, including
the public ownership of all large databases.
Health Care
The Socialist Party
stands for a socialized health care system based on universal coverage,
salaried doctors and health care workers, and revenues derived from a
steeply graduated income tax.
- We give critical
support to the demand for the immediate abolition
of all private health insurance companies through the creation of a
single-payer health system. We see single-payer as an important step in
the direction of a fully socialized national health program with full
standard and alternative medical, dental, vision, and mental health
coverage for all. This system would be publicly funded through
progressive taxation and controlled by demo-cratically elected
assemblies of health care workers and patients. The National Health
Program should improve, and replace, Medicare and Medicaid.
- We call for a health
care system that emphasizes preventive care,
respects patients' privacy, gives special attention to the needs of the
physically and mentally disabled, and conducts treatment and research
unimpaired by sexism, racism, or homophobia.
- We call for full
funding for AIDS research, prevention, and
treatment. We demand full civil rights for people living with AIDS.
- We call for public
ownership and worker and community control of the
pharmaceutical industry.
- We call for
educational programs to help prevent drug addiction; for
voluntary treatment programs for addicts and alcoholics; and for the
availability of free, sterile needles for those still using IV drugs.
- We call for the
reinstatement of funding to community mental health
services so that low-cost or no-cost treatment is available on a
voluntary basis, with clients' rights respected. We oppose involuntary
incarceration for treatment without due process.
- We support the right
to choose or refuse medical treatment, the
right to die, and the right to assisted suicide.
- We call for full
community decision-making regarding the creation,
organization or elimination of public health care facilities.
Housing
The Socialist Party
recognizes the right of all
people to high quality, low cost housing.
- We call for a vast
increase in Section 8 housing
subsidies as one element of major public investment in the construction
of low cost, scattered site, community-based, high quality housing.
- We call for rent
control for all rental units, and the right
of tenants to organize.
- We support the
formation of non-profit land trusts and of
socially owned, tenant controlled housing cooperatives.
- We call for the
organization of a housing rehabilitation
program aimed at renovating and remodeling existing homes to bring them
up to housing and safety codes, as part of a broader public works
program.
- We call for an end to
home foreclosures
Transportation
The
Socialist Party calls for extensive public transportation in both
urban and rural areas.
- We call for the
creation of a fully funded high-speed national
rail system with fares set low enough to be a viable alternative to the
use of the automobile.
- We call for an end to
the expansion of the interstate highway
system and the reduction of combustion engine/auto based transport.
- We call for
government subsidized programs to expand safe
routes for foot and bicycle paths.
- We call for
pedestrian ways, accessible by mass transit, which
exclude vehicles from the downtown area of cities and towns.
- We support publicly
funded development of renewable fuels.
- We support federally
funded auto insurance.
- We call for public
ownership and worker control of the airline
industry.
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