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Association of State Green Parties* /
European Federation of Green Parties
As presented at the 2nd Congress of the European Federation
of Green Parties - February 1999.
*The ASGP is now the Green Party of the United States.
INTRODUCTION
The evolving relationship of the U.S.
Greens and European Federation of Green Parties is cause for
great optimism. The partnership of the Association of U.S.
Green Parties (ASGP) and Committee of the European
Federation (EFGP) is in its initial formative stages. As we
continue to grow in strength and numbers, we submit that the
future of political thought will look to our Green ideas and
values as a foundation for political action.
Our responsibility is to challenge
conventional wisdom and create a climate of political
change. As humankind approaches the beginning of a new
millennium, Greens globally will continue to press for
comprehensive expansion of rights, for social justice, peace
and the protection of our common heritage and environment.
At this historic moment, with vision and
purpose, we advance our first mutual platform document - a
U.S./European "Green Common Ground Statement".
HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS
We believe that the inherent dignity and
the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human
family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in
the world.
We recognize that clean air, clean water,
fertile soil, diverse plant and animal life, and the ability
to derive a living from the bounty of the earth is a
birthright of all living beings.
We believe that all people have a right
to food, housing, education, medical care, a living wage job
and support in times of hardship.
We oppose all forms of discrimination
based on race, gender, religion, nationality, age, or sexual
orientation. We support the rights of all individuals,
regardless of ability, to strive for personal fulfillment
and to live with dignity.
We support civil liberties that are the
basis of individual freedom: freedom of speech and
information; the right to peaceful assembly; freedom of
religion; the right to vote in democratic elections; the
right to fair public trial and open, humane and accountable
legal processes.
We support a woman's right to full
reproductive choice.
We support the right to asylum and
refugee status.
We condemn the use of torture and the
death penalty.
We condemn child labor and the oppression
of women through forced prostitution and sterilization.
PEACE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
We believe the ever-growing expansion of
unregulated, inappropriate-scale profit-making interests,
the limits of the resource base that these interests are
trying to control, and the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction pose a dire and imminent threat to world peace.
As technology and commerce increase the depth and complexity
of global relations, individual nations need to work
together to develop multi-national responses to global
issues that spring from shared values of peace, justice,
community, democracy and ecological sustainability.
We call for international relations that
favor cooperation and support over competition and
exploitation. We believe that, as a matter of principle,
considered diplomacy should always be favored over recourse
to military intervention and violence.
We support the formation of international
alliances and non-governmental organizations to work to find
peaceful and sustainable solutions to the global problems of
war, environmental degradation, oppression and poverty.
We support immediate decommissioning of
all nuclear weapons production facilities, date-specific
destruction of all nuclear weapons, and the signing of
oversight treaties calling for drawing down of nuclear
stockpiles.
We call for a ban on the development,
production, sale and use of land mines, chemical and
biological weapons, and other weapons that bring
indiscriminate destruction to civilians and the environment.
We oppose the use of economic sanctions
which bring suffering and death to innocent civilians.
THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
We call for benchmark social and
environmental standards to be goals at all levels of
economic decision-making -- local, national, and
international.
We support the right of local governments
to set higher social and environmental standards than those
set by international trade organizations and treaties.
We support the right of workers to form
collective bargaining units; the right to a fair living
wage; and right to safe, healthy working conditions.
We reject agreements that negotiate
downward our basic environmental, human rights, health,
safety and labor standards, and prohibitions against child
and forced labor.
We reject trade agreements negotiated in
secret and/or unduly influenced by mega-corporate interests
such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI), the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Treaties such as
these are threats to local autonomy, and limit the
participation of citizens in decisions affecting the
economic and environmental health of their communities.
Increased mobility of capital and
commodities is being coupled with decreased mobility of
people. National and local authorities are losing power to
an international "empire of wealth". We call for a
vigorous international campaign for economic democracy --
political change that supports environmentally and socially
sustainable economic systems.
It is our belief that the massive debt
owed by the Third World is causing immense misery and
environmental destruction. Foreign aid must be addressed in
the context of retiring this debt and in this regard
"structural adjustments" must not be forced on the
economies of the underdeveloped world via the International
Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and World Bank.
We demand that international loans be
conditional on human and labor rights records, social and
environmental impact statements, and the providing of basic
health and education.
We believe in the right of
self-determination of indigenous peoples. We recognize the
essential importance of balancing economic development in
the Third World with a respect for traditional culture and
economies.
On the national, state and local levels,
we call for a diverse economic system that is based on a
combination of private businesses, decentralized democratic
cooperatives, publicly owned enterprises, and alternative
economic structures -- all of which put human and ecological
needs alongside profits to measure success, and are
accountable to the communities in which they function.
We advocate the use of "true cost
pricing", which reflects the total cost of production
based on its impact on the ecosystem.
ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING
Climate change is accelerating. The
greenhouse effect is increasingly evident. The succession of
record-breaking heat waves since 1980 and the increasing
frequency of severe weather phenomena across the globe are
strong indications that climatic disruption is already upon
us. There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions now.
Greenhouse gases and the threat of global
warming must be addressed by the international community in
concert, through international treaties and conventions,
with the industrial nations at the forefront of this effort.
The truly global agreement required to
deal with global warming can be achieved only if based on
genuine equity. A policy based on per capita emissions, with
countries agreeing on a global limit and converging to meet
that limit on a per capita basis, would allow developing
countries to continue their necessary development while
encouraging the use of clean technology. The industrialized
world must cut emissions to realistically necessary levels.
The Greens propose a shift to renewable
and sustainable energy production, together with industrial
and domestic energy efficiency. One important instrument to
reach this goal is a progressive tax on pollution and on
resource use, particularly fossil fuels, and incentives for
safe energy in industrial as well as private use.
We support the development of
decentralized, non-polluting renewable energy technologies
and the funding of energy research for alternative and
sustainable energy use such as solar, wind and biomass.
We encourage the creation and design of
energy-efficient human environments.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
The Greens call for a new definition of
wealth that includes clean air, clean water, and diverse
habitats as indicators of ecological and economic health.
We call for immediate decommissioning of
all nuclear power plants without passing the cost on to
ratepayers. We support permanent above-ground, locally based
storage sites for nuclear waste to minimize the hazards of
waste transport.
We call for the conversion of the
chemical industry to biologically degradable substances, and
the use of hazardous chemicals only in zero-emission
pollution constructions.
We support a radical reduction in the
volume of road transport and a shift to an integrated system
of alternative forms of transport including energy-efficient
public transportation, pedestrian friendly community design,
bikeways, and rail and water shipping for industry.
We call for a halt to all current
international funding policies that promote destruction of
forest ecosystems and we call for an end to the trade in
endangered hardwoods.
The Greens have long championed the
development of organic farming to replace costly and
unsustainable industrial production of foodstuffs using
dangerous pesticides and fertilizers.
We call for a moratorium on the genetic
manipulation of crops and animals used for foodstuffs; the
strict labeling of products containing genetically modified
organisms; and a ban on patenting forms of life.
We support legislative and land use
policies that preserve and restore biodiversity (genetic,
population, species, ecosystems) at the local, national and
global levels.
We support the protection of endangered
plant and animal species.
We oppose shipping of toxic/hazardous or
radioactive wastes across national or political borders
without regulation.
We believe that the mark of a humane and
civilized society lies in how we treat the least protected
among us. To extend rights to other sentient, living beings
is our responsibility and a mark of our place among all of
creation. We find cruelty to animals to be repugnant and
criminal. We call for an intelligent, compassionate approach
to the treatment of animals.
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