Green Party US Platform

The current platform of the Green Party of US was approved by the Green National Committee in August 2016. The Call to Action and Preamble are stated below. Follow this link for the full GPUS platform.

A Call To Action

The Green Platform presents an eco-social analysis and vision for our country. In contrast to the major political parties that create their platforms through back-room deals by insiders and power brokers, we have created a grassroots process that invites submissions from every local Green Party and every Green individual. Through democratic process we arrive at a final draft to present for approval. The Green Platform is an evolving document, a living work-in-progress that expresses our commitment to creating wise and enduring change in specific policies and in the political process itself. The Green Party is committed to values-based politics, as expressed in our Ten Key Values. These values guide us in countering and changing a system that extols exploitation, unsustainable consumption, and destructive competition.

The US government is proving incapable of governing or working with other nations to address current and long-term problems in a time of multiple global crises. The United States is locked in a vicious circle, in which it has become increasingly clear that the 'bipartisan' political duopoly will drift further rightward at an increasing pace without a true opposition party as a counterweight, as both corporate parties seek to better serve their 1% masters.

In this century, it is imperative that we find ways to make systemic changes. It is our responsibility to rebuild the political culture of the United States in order to stop wars of aggression, short-sighted ecological destruction, erosion of our rights, and policies that perpetuate social and economic injustice. In other words, we must fundamentally change our society's broken political system.

Throughout American history, independent parties outside the two-party power establishment have been responsible for introducing urgently-needed changes, whether the parties themselves won electoral success (like the anti-slavery Republican Party in the mid-1800s) or not. The long list of reforms introduced by these parties includes abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, the eight-hour workday, workers' rights and protections, and civil rights for all African-Americans. Who will give voice on the electoral stage to the important ideas of the 21st century?

The Green Party is an established national party, having laid a foundation for candidates to run for public office at all levels, from local to national. Greens have succeeded at the onerous task of achieving ballot access in many states, and have steadily overcome obstacles put in place by Democratic and Republican party officials to hinder citizens from exercising their right to run for office. In contrast to Democrats and Republicans, all Green candidates pledge not to accept corporate money for their campaigns.

At the heart of the voters' rebellion is our right as voters to choose whichever candidates best represent our own views and desires, without being told year after year that we have no choice aside from bad and worse.

Now is the time to build a bridge from the world we have to the better world we know is possible.

Now is the time to grow a sustainable political force to work for grassroots democracy, nonviolence, social justice, and ecological wisdom.

Now is the time to discard failed ideologies and political structures, and join together with the flourishing global grassroots Green movement to tackle real problems with real solutions.

If not us, who? If not now, when? We are the ones we have been waiting for. Join us!

Preamble

Never has our country faced as many challenges and crises as we do now. Levels of federal revenue are the lowest they have been since 1950 because of tax cuts and breaks for the very rich and for corporations. Government agencies charged with safeguarding public health and safety are operating with slashed budgets that paralyze their efforts. Jobs are being permanently relocated outside the country, while social and educational programs are being gutted. Our food, water, air, and soil are increasingly found to bear toxins and debilitating pollution. Every single level of government—local, county, state, and federal—is operating in the red, running up crushing amounts of debt. Many of our allies and former friends around the world are disgusted with our imperialist foreign policy, militarism, and arrogant corporate behavior. Realizing that our actions will be judged by future generations, we ask how we can draw on the best of our traditions, calling forth a spirit of ingenuity and citizen participation to achieve a free, democratic, just, and responsible society, one that actively responds to the crucial ecological challenges of our time, rather than denying them.

We submit a bold vision of our country's future, a Platform on which we stand:

• Our Ten Key Values as a guide to a politics of vision and action,
• A creative, pragmatic plan for a prospering sustainable economy, and
• A call to restore and protect a healthy, diverse environment and to cultivate a sense of community at all levels, from the local to the planetary.

We propose a vision of our common good that is advanced through an independent politics free from the control of corporations and big money, and through a democratic structure and process that empowers and reaches across lines of division to bring together our combined strengths as a people.

We, the Green Party, see our political and economic progress, and our individual lives, within the context of an evolving, dynamic world.

As in nature, where adaptation and diversity provide key strategies through which life flourishes, a successful political strategy is one that is diverse, adaptable to changing needs, and strong and resilient in its core values:

• Participatory Democracy, rooted in community practice at the grassroots level and informing every level, from the local to the international.
• Social Justice and Equal Opportunity emphasizing personal and social responsibility, accountability, and an informing ethic of Nonviolence.
• Ecological and Economic Sustainability, balancing the interests of a regulated market economy and community-based economics with effective care for the Great Economy in which we are embedded: the ecosystems of the Earth.

The Green Party Platform seeks to identify the most crucial problems facing our country and offers ideas for responsible action to solve them. Looking to the future with hope and optimism, we believe we can truly correct the course of reckless, destructive governance that has allowed and encouraged the degradation of our ecological life-support systems, gutted our economy, and strained the social fabric to the point of causing material hardship for millions of Americans. Our common destiny brings us together across our nation and around the globe. We act in service to our children and the future generations of all our relations in the Earth community. We act in service to the future we are creating today.