I’m running on the theme of an ecosocialist Green New Deal. I was the first candidate to use that theme in the New York gubernatorial race against Andrew Cuomo who had an austerity program.
Cuomo wanted to lay off state workers, cut education spending, and refused to do a millionaire’s tax. His idea of getting out of a recession was to tighten working class belts, not the bankers’ on Wall Street who were bailed out.
Our program includes an Economic Bill of Rights and a Green Economy Reconstruction Program: A right to a job, a living wage or income above poverty for those who can’t or shouldn’t work. It includes a decent home for everybody, comprehensive healthcare, and a good education, from Pre-K to tuition-free public college.
This plan supports a floor of economic security so we can make the necessary changes to deal with the climate crisis: shutting down fossil fuel industries and building a green industry system. But fossil fuel workers need a just transition so we’re calling for five years of guaranteed income and benefits.
The declining standards for working people is on both (major) parties. They don’t invest in productive assets; they invest in financial assets.
We need social ownership and democratic control. The Koch Brothers and Exxon aren’t going to reinvest their fossil fuel earnings in renewable energy. So we have to nationalize Big Oil. And, if we don’t want the arms industry fomenting wars, we need to nationalize the arms industry, and we need a bottom-up democratic planning system.
Visit howiehawkins.us for more on his program.
I agree with nationalizing the arms industry. No more wars.