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| PAUL
GLOVER ESSAYS: community
control of food, fuel, housing, health care,
planning, education, finance. |
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OCCUPY PHILLY:
A Green Agenda by Paul Glover,
November 2011
The following proposals are offered to the Occupy movement, to restore this American republic to control by its full electorate; to free its markets for the employment and enjoyment of all workers; to transfer control of money to its public and to establish responsible banking; to secure homes from seizure; to assure quality education and medical care for all; to refresh America's soil, water and air for the health of endless generations; and to rebuild its cities toward balance with nature: Prepare for the Best City Hall is Owned by Wall Street Currently, Philadelphia's real power brokers are bankers, insurance companies, real estate developers, universities, and casinos. They dominate City policy to protect their interests. They define the boundaries of reform. ---While surrounding Philadelphia's City Hall, Occupy Philly can raise demands upon the City to reduce Wall Street's control, while making City Hall serve social justice, create jobs, and heal the environment. GREEN JOB CREATION: Employ Philadelphians though systems of community-based barter credits and abandoned housing transfer, to manufacture and install residential energy efficiencies, to remove excess paving, to install neighborhood gardens and orchards, and to provide health services. Accept these credits for part payment of property and sales taxes. Foreclose abandoned factories, then transfer them to local nonprofit organizations prepared to use them for green technologies and health services. PENSIONS AND SAVINGS: Demand that the City of Philadelphia divest its pension holdings in insurance companies and student loan banks (like Chase and Wells Fargo), and move City accounts to community-based banks and credit unions based in Philadelphia. Endorse a regional stock exchange. REAL ESTATE SALES: Require that transfer taxes go to a community fund for weatherization in lowest-decile neighborhoods. End 10-year tax abatement for new construction of commercial, industrial or other business properties. VACANT LAND USE: Require that City-owned vacant land in lowest-income neighborhoods be made available for rganic farms, gardens, greenhouses and orchards on long-term lease with first option to buy. BUILDING PERMITS: Allow architectural innovation for earth-sheltered housing, straw bale housing, compost toilets and greywater, etc. FREE CLINICS: Donate City-owned land and buildings to nonprofit groups establishing free clinics and health co-ops according to grassroots standards. DECARCERATE: Decriminalize such victimless crimes as marijuana possession. Philadelphia has the world's highest incarceration rate-- highest among American cities and triple that of New York city's. END FORECLOSURES: Cease evictions of Philadelphians from foreclosed residential properties. IMMIGRATION REFORM: End police collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which harrasses residents of color. SEND YOUR IDEAS TO [email protected] |
America's Constitution
Revived:
We Confront and We Build The American people demand control of CONGRESS. Summary eviction is imposed on any official accepting corporate bribes, directly or indirectly. The American people demand control of ELECTIONS. End the Commission on Presidential Debates. End paid campaign advertising. Enable all candidates polling 1%+ free air time and equal debate time . Establish Proportional Representation and Instant Runoff Voting. The American people demand control of America's MONEY. Issue money debt-free rather than via the Federal Reserve, in quantities sufficient for real needs of the general public. The American people demand control of JOBS. Establish the Green Labor Administration (GLAD) public works program, to employ millions rebuilding America's cities, towns, forests and farms. The American people demand control of EDUCATION. Learning beneficial skills is a human right and a social necessity. There shall be no financial impediment. The American people demand control of LAND and FOOD. Private property is our sacred right to use American land, not to destroy it. When urban land is idle while Americans starve, it shall be transferred to nonprofit farms and orchards. Welfare to agribusiness shall end. GMOs shall be labeled or prohibited. Ultimately, the land is the law of the land. The American people demand control of HOUSING. All submerged mortgages shall be canceled, and such housing shall be returned to evicted owners or the homeless. The American people demand control of HEALTH CARE. Every American shall receive the best health care, made available by transfer of funds from military to medical purposes. Medical schools shall be expanded to train more family doctors, and shall respect holistic modalities. Nonprofit self-financing health co-ops shall be permitted, to establish a national network that controls costs. The American people demand control of TRANSPORTATION. Federal and state funding shall shift from automobiles to railways and bicycle paths. The American people demand control of MEDIA. Return public airways to non-commercial subscriber-based service. The American people demand control of the MILITARY. Most personnel shall be redeployed to stateside civilian service repairing infrastructure, to defend America from rotting bridges, fuel waste, water and air pollution, deforestation and soil loss. The American people demand control of POLICE. The reforms above will make policing safer and easier, because jobs fight crime.. Require all police to receive college diplomas, free of student debt, focused upon nonviolent conflict resolution. Glover is founder of Ithaca HOURS local currency, Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP), League of Uninsured Voters (LUV), Citizen Planners of Los Angeles, Patch Adams Free clinic, Ithaca Health Alliance and a dozen more groups that transfer power to America's grassroots. He is author of Health Democracy, Green Jobs Philly, Hometown Money, A Crime Not a Crisis. |
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