Difference between revisions of "Draft GPUS Platform Amendment 10 key values"

Revision as of 13:06, 22 March 2010

[NOTE FROM MARNIE: I didn't edit any of the titles of the 10 key values, just the explanatory text.]

1. GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

Everyone deserves to influence the government decisions that affect their lives. We believe decision making is best done at the local level. We work to increase public participation and transparency at all levels of government, and to ensure that our public officials are fully accountable.

2. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

The heart of social justice is the equitable distribution of social and natural resources, both locally and globally, to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to develop their innate gifts and talents, and to enjoy the pleasures of life on earth. Greens believe in equal rights for citizens, regardless of gender, race, age, religion, class, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, disability, wealth or health. Everyone, in this and future generations, deserves the right to basic material goods, including food, water, shelter, clothing and education.

3. ECOLOGICAL WISDOM

Our human community is a part of nature, not separate from it. We must learn to live within the natural limits of our planet, to protect animal and plant life, and the conditions that sustain it. We respect all forms of life, including non-human species. We support a sustainable society that uses natural resources with wisdom, thrift, and with future generations firmly in mind.

4. NON-VIOLENCE

We endorse non-violence, and work towards lasting personal, community and global peace. We support demilitarization and elimination of all weapons of mass destruction. Security does not derive from military strength but from cooperation, negotiation, mutual respect, sound economic and social development, and environmental conservation. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree. However, we recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in helpless situations.

5. DECENTRALIZATION

Greens believe in local control. We seek to reverse the increasing concentration of wealth and power, both economic and political. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local, and regional levels, while assuring that fundamental rights are protected for all citizens. Power should be centralized only as a last resort. We believe in local self-reliance, buying local, and the importance of strengthening local communities.

6. COMMUNITY BASED ECONOMICS

Greens aim to build vibrant local economies, to create jobs and provide a decent standard of living for all people while maintaining balance with nature. A Green economy provides meaningful work with dignity, while paying a living wage that reflects one’s true contribution. We work to reduce the rights and powers of corporations. Instead, we support expanding the rights and powers of individuals in our economy, including the right to basic economic security. We encourage employee ownership, workplace democracy and restructuring our patterns of income distribution to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal monetary economy.

7. FEMINISM AND GENDER EQUITY

We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want.

8. RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY

We celebrate cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and strive to build peace and understanding between disparate groups. We believe that the diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and governments, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally kept out of it. We depend on the diversity of the natural world for our existence. We do not believe that other species are expendable.

9. PERSONAL AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

We all must change our values and lifestyles to make them consonant with peace, justice and preserving life on our planet. We should act with the well-being of others in mind, including other peoples, nations, species and future generations. We should not pursue our well-being to the detriment of theirs. Greens believe in the power of setting a good example.

10. FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY

The earth's resources are finite. We cannot long live beyond the carrying capacity of the earth. So we must build a sustainable society that guarantees our long-term future, and that of other species with whom we share this planet. Climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, is the greatest environmental, social and economic challenge that humanity has ever faced. We must overcome this challenge. Where knowledge is limited, we act with precaution, to secure the continued abundance of the resources of the planet for present and future generations. Our actions should be motivated by long-term goals and quality of life, not short-term profits and open-ended economic growth.