Newsgroups: alt.politics.greens
From: [email protected] (Pope Clifton)
Subject: Hawai'i Green Party Platform
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Organization: Inst. for Epistemological Pathology
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 1993 08:18:12 GMT
Lines: 272

[Posted for Karen Lofstrom.  This is a selection from a longer
platform.  Karen has been too busy to do more than read this
newsgroup but hopes to participate more fully at a later date.]

WHAT DO GREENS BELIEVE?

Selections from the Platform of the Hawai'i Green Party

The Greens are a world-wide political movement based on  Four
Pillars:

ENVIRONMENTALISM
GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY
SOCIAL JUSTICE
NONVIOLENCE

The Hawai'i Green Party is a grassroots organization of citizens
who have joined together to work for a better future for the
islands and the world: a society at peace with itself and its
environment, democratic and just.

The Hawai'i Green Party is an autonomous local organization, in no
way bound by the decisions of Greens outside Hawai'i; however, we
affirm the Green values that link us to each other across this
nation and around the globe.

Our platform is based on the Ten Key Values of the American Green
movement:

Ecological wisdom
Grassroots democracy
Personal and social responsibility
Nonviolence
Decentralization
Community-based economics
Post-patriarchal values
Respect for diversity
Global responsibility
Future focus

GREENS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Hawai'i imports 90% of its energy, in the form of fossil fuels.  To
reduce Hawai'i's dependence on fossil fuels, Greens would reduce
Hawai'i's current energy consumption by 50% using effective
conservation and efficiency measures.  We would substitute
renewable energy sources such as solar, hydroelectric, biomass,
wind, OTEC, and hydrogen for fossil fuels.

Hawai'i must live within its water budget, using only water that
can be spared without destroying  streams or depleting aquifers.
Greens would increase use of surface water (rainwater runoff) and
decrease reliance on well water.  We would limit drawdown on
freshwater aquifers (over-pumping causes irreversible damage) and
vigorously promote residential and commercial water conservation.

Greens would protect air quality, reduce CO2 emissions, and slow
global warming by reducing auto traffic and thus auto exhaust
contaminates.  We would phase out oil, coal, and garbage burning
power plants, while reducing industrial emissions.  We will work to
protect the ozone layer by curtailing CFC use and substituting
alternatives.  (CFCs - chlorofluoro-carbons - destroy the ozone
layer.)

Hawai'i's coastal waters and ocean life are threatened by pollution
and over fishing.  Greens would enforce current anti-pollution
laws, including rules prohibiting discharge of untreated sewage
into streams or coastal waters.  We would limit fishing in depleted
areas until local fisheries recover; we would establish and enforce
sustainable yields.

Greens are appalled by the waste of life and ocean resources caused
by driftnet fishing on our high seas.  We strongly support an
international ban on driftnetting.

Hawai'i is home to more endangered species than any other place in
the United States.  We must protect our unique flora and fauna; we
must preserve our remaining wilderness as places of solace, refuge
from modern life, and spiritual regeneration.

Land must be used for the long-term well-being of Hawai'i's
residents and Hawai'i's environment.  This well-being is not served
by planning boards dominated by development interests.  Greens call
for elected land-use boards, open meetings, and intense public
scrutiny of planning decisions.  We demand the right of initiative
to rescind inappropriate decisions.

Hawai'i now imports 75% of its food. Greens call for sustainable
agriculture and food self-reliance. We support small-scale,
diversified farming and aquaculture.

Private cars pollute the air, clog cities and waste energy
reserves.  Greens would replace most auto traffic with
energy-efficient, non-polluting mass transit closely linked with
park-and-ride stations, busses, jitneys, and other alternatives to
cars.

We can prevent waste by buying less and using less (source
reduction), reusing, and refurbishing.  What waste we do produce
must be recycled.

None of the previous proposals will save the environment if the
human population continues to grow at the current rate.  Greens
support world-wide zero population growth.  We would promote
contraception research, distribution, and education at home and
overseas.

GREENS ON TOURISM

Hawai'i's own population is growing three times faster than the
U.S. average.  Only a small part of this is due to natural increase
(the surplus of births over deaths).  Most population growth here
is due to migration from foreign countries and the Mainland.  This
migration is spurred by the growth of the tourist industry, which
creates more low-paying menial jobs than local residents can fill.

Tourism and development, largely in the hands of giant off-island
corporations, drive Hawai'i's current economy.  Mass tourism also
degrades Hawai'i's unique physical and cultural environment,
inflates the cost of living, and drives up housing prices.  Greens
call for a statewide moratorium on building new golf courses,
marinas, and large-scale resorts.

Instead of tourist-centered growth, the Greens envision a
diversified economy that meets Hawai'i's needs directly.  Hawai'i
could grow and process its own food.  Hawai'i could conserve energy
and use locally available renewable energy sources rather than pay
for expensive imported petroleum.  Supporting local manufacturers,
artisans, and services would keep money in state.  Greens would
support small-scale tourism, sensitive to Hawai'i's culture and
environment.

GREENS ON GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

Today, decisions are made by the few, and usually benefit the rich
and powerful.  Greens advocate direct democracy, where all citizens
can discuss and decide on neighborhood issues such as land
use, parks, schools, and community services.We would decentralize
many state functions to the county level and seek expanded roles
for Neighborhood Boards. We support "sunshine laws" that open
government meetings and information to all.  We support rights to
initiative and referendum.

Campaigns for higher office are now corrupted by bribery;
officeholders sell themselves to PACs (political action committees)
and corporate contributors in order to pay for TV campaigns
pandering to the worst instincts of an increasingly cynical and
nonvoting public.  Greens would ban PAC and corporate campaign
contributions and limit terms of office.

GREENS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Greens stand for equal opportunity for all, regardless of class,
race, creed, culture, gender, sexual orientation, or physical and
mental handicaps.

We call for community programs that would allow all people to live
in decency and dignity:  a state funded health insurance system,
modeled on the Canadian medical system, which would guarantee
adequate health care for all Hawai'i residents; expanded job
training and apprenticeship programs; and guaranteed loan and
scholarship programs that would allow any qualified student,
no matter how poor, a college education.

JUSTICE FOR WOMEN

We must replace dominance and control - the patriarchal system -
with partnership and cooperation.  We must base our society on
trust, not fear; nurturing, not controlling others; open
communications, not manipulation, empathy with others , not
violence against others; respect for Nature, not conquest of
Nature.

Because women are not, and have not been, involved as equal
partners in the leadership levels of decision-making, we commit
ourselves to achieving gender balance in private and public
leadership positions.

We support programs such as parental leave,  and child care and
elder care both inside and outside the home.  We will work
vigorously to protect women and children from violence within the
family.  We are pro-choice.

JUSTICE FOR NATIVE HAWAIIANS

Greens will protect sacred or culturally significant native
Hawaiian sites.  We demand the return of or adequate compensation
for Ceded Lands.  We call for the immediate distribution of
Hawaiian Homelands and would allocate federal and state funds for
the necessary infrastructure. We support return of Kaho'olawe to
the Hawaiian people, under the guardianship of the Protect
Kaho'olawe 'Ohana.

We would support Hawaiian sovereignty in a form fair to both native
Hawaiians and other citizens of Hawai'i.

GREENS ON CITIES AND HOUSING

Overdevelopment, overcommercialization, the influx of outside
values, and the building of sprawling suburbs and dense high-rises
have significantly eroded the Aloha spirit in today's Hawai'i.
Communities should be places where people know each other, treat
each other as friends, and share values and traditions.

Greens envision an alternative to the suburb: the cluster project.
A cluster would consist of townhouses or row houses, surrounded by
lawns and trees.  It would be built on a mass transit line, so that
residents could manage without cars.  Each cluster could have its
own meeting area, convenience store, and day-care center/school.
Such projects could be modeled on the co-housing communities now
popular in Europe or integral residential-commercial "pocket
cities" being built in California and elsewhere.  They would foster
a sense of community, use land efficiently, and reduce the
environmental costs of commuting.

Greens would increase the housing supply by setting up non-profit
trusts for rental housing, co-housing, and small family farms.

Greens support lease-to-fee conversion legislation that allows
condominium owner-residents the right to purchase their land, as
well as rental caps on residential leases.

GREENS ON NONVIOLENCE

Greens support drastic reductions in the U.S. military budget and
an end to testing, production, and storage of all nuclear,
chemical, and biological weapons.  We demand an end to military
foreign aid to repressive regimes and diplomatic and economic
sanctions against regimes guilty of human rights abuses.

Greens support the teaching of conflict resolution in schools, as
well as the creation of neigh-borhood mediation centers.  We would
fund prevention and counseling programs addressing problems of
family violence.

GREEN PHILOSOPHY

We are struggling for meaning and purpose in a society that reduces
the Earth and its human and non-human communities to objects to be
bought and sold. The core Green values of ecological wisdom,
grassroots democracy, social justice, and nonviolence are based on
a different philosophy: we acknowledge and celebrate our
connectedness to the Earth, to each other, and to all of life.

Greens seek to restore balance through recognizing that our planet
and all of life are unique aspects of an integrated whole, and also
through affirming the inherent values of each part of that whole.

We declare on behalf of humankind that every generation has
responsibilities towards future generations not to misuse resources
that are the common heritage of all.

THERE IS A PLACE FOR YOU IN THE HAWAI'I GREEN PARTY!

If you want to preserve our beautiful 'aina for future generations,
if you are concerned about uncontrolled growth and economic
dependence on outside resources, if you are troubled by the
corruption of our one-party government, then you belong in the
Greens.  Join now and help us work for a Green Hawai'i.  Just fill
in the form and send it to us with your dues.

PARTY MEMBERSHIP DUES:
Local member - $12 /year
Affiliate/supporter - $12 /year
Low income/student - $6/year
Make checks payable to Hawai'i Green Party and mail to: PO Box
2098, Honolulu, HI 96805-2098.

Karen Lofstrom

--
[email protected]     Home: +1 808 521 9073  Work: +1 808 625 3234

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