Social Justice Issues

In the American Declaration of Independence, we stated that all men are created equal. Today our state and nation are made up of people from every part of the world and every cultural tradition. Each person deserves and has rights to dignity and moral equality. We believe that all persons should be equal in the eyes of the law. We oppose all forms of racial profiling by government and law enforcement agencies. We believe that we should maintain strong requirements of probable cause for warrants and arrests to prevent harassment and intimidation of minorities or other targeted groups.

We believe that all persons should have the right to work and be treated fairly in the workplace. We are opposed to discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or any other category intended to label and divide people. We believe that all Montanans should be paid a living wage so that they can support themselves and their families. This nation was built on the labor of men and women who make our prosperity possible. The Montana Green Party supports the right of workers to unionize and engage in collective bargaining and strikes. We support affirmative action programs to foster and promote diversity in schools and workplaces, to end institutional racism, and to ensure that the rightful aspirations of all Americans can be realized.

We support the recognition and inclusion in our communities of non-traditional families. We support civil unions and other voluntary commitments of mutual affection and responsibility. Reproductive choice is paramount in a free society. We maintain that men and women must have access to all the tools of family planning from education and contraception to adoption services and fertility enhancement. Every woman has a right to make choices about her body, including the choice to terminate a pregnancy. Family planning decisions are often difficult and complex, and must be left to the people involved, their physicians and counselors, not the state.

The Montana Green Party is appalled by the cuts that have been made to our social services. We must restore the safety net to ensure that people who are experiencing difficulties are not left behind. We believe that people should be given real help, not limited to cash assistance but with a holistic approach that must include job training, life-skills education and other investments in long-term productivity and happiness. Social services should be made more accessible, with every effort to simplify and streamline bureaucracy and paperwork so that those who need help can receive it. We maintain that everyone's basic needs must be taken into account and provided for in some fashion.

We favor the abolition of private "health insurance" so that all of our health care dollars can be wisely spent with health care providers through a single-payer system financed by a payroll tax. Those with independent means may buy additional health care services with their own resources, but they will still be responsible for supporting the single-payer system. A flat tax of 7% on all earned income would be more than sufficient, and that would be in place of all insurance plans and personal health care expenses we pay for, now. It would also replace the 40% or so of present health care costs paid out of general tax revenues, thus freeing them for deficit reduction or other programs. There is no reason why vastly inflated medical costs and prices cannot be reduced by half or more with an end to cost-shifting and ruinous litigation, malpractice suits and insurance, price-fixing, and monopoly protections of all kinds. We would repeal the recent legalization of prescription drug advertising which accounts for 3-5 times the costs of medical research (most of which are publicly funded) in corporate budgets. We defend the application of all existing free trade laws to the importation of pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies and equipment.