Adopted April 22, 2018
Overview
Arts and Culture
Easy access and frequent exposure to the arts, and to the elements that comprise the world’s diverse cultures, is essential for the enrichment, health and well-being of our greater society.
Corporate Power and Media Reform
Corporations are not people and are not entitled to the constitutional rights of people. The power of money in politics must be drastically reduced. An informed citizenry and reliably accurate media are essential for democracy to flourish.
Economic Justice, Jobs and Tax Fairness
We are committed to a vibrant, just and sustainable economy based on living-wage jobs, shared prosperity, fair, progressive taxation and a robust safety net. Income inequality is a seminal problem of our time, and we must redress recent policy that has exacerbated this phenomenon.
Education
The backbone of our democracy is a free, universal, high-quality public education system. The Washington State Constitution acknowledges this central role: “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex.”
Environment, Energy and the Climate Crisis
A sustainable and thriving society requires vigorous environmental protections, sustainable ecosystems and strong action to combat climate change.
Farms, Fisheries and Forests
We are the stewards of the land and water that sustain us. We support programs and policies that strengthen rural communities, preserve family farms, ensure the availability of high-quality food and maintain the viability of our land and water resources.
Foreign Policy
The United States should lead by example and work cooperatively within the international community to promote peace, cooperation, justice and democracy.
Government and Political Reform
Government derives its legitimacy from the people, to whom it must be answerable; it serves as their instrument to achieve ends that the people could not achieve individually. Our representative democracy requires full participation by an informed citizenry; a voting process that is fair, transparent and open to all and public officials who are accountable to society.
Health Care
Health care is a fundamental human right. Government has the responsibility to guarantee all people access to high-quality, affordable health care.
Human Rights and Civil Rights
The rights guaranteed by our Constitution and international human rights law are central to our democracy and must not be compromised.
Human Services
One of the highest priorities of government is to provide a safety net of social services that meets the basic needs of people on the margins of society, whether they be elderly, impoverished, homeless, disabled or have mental illness/substance use disorders, to enable them to reach their full potential. The only genuine welfare reform is one that reduces poverty, not just the welfare rolls.
Immigration
Immigrants strengthen the fabric of our community, state and nation. All immigrants should be afforded full human rights, a fair, safe, and timely path to legal status, and an opportunity for full integration into our society.
Labor
We believe in the dignity of all workers and demand fair wages and benefits in return. We insist on the right of all workers to join unions, to bargain collectively and to take part in setting their working conditions. “No one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.” — President Barack Obama
Law and the Justice System
The rule of law is a prerequisite for democracy. A good government provides for safety, security and justice for all, with care, evenhandedness and respect for the individual.
Military and Veterans Affairs
We support and honor those who have chosen to serve in our armed forces. We insist that our military be used only in the Constitutionally mandated provision of our common defense and never open to abuse by any branch of government.
Transportation
Better public transportation promotes equal opportunity, enhances public health, reduces environmental impacts and improves the quality of life for all. Transportation planning decisions must consider direct and indirect environmental impacts, including climate change, water and air pollution and other effects on human health. Public transportation should provide viable alternatives that reduce individual dependence on the automobile, including funding of essential infrastructure projects and services.
Tribal Relations & Sovereignty
Throughout U.S. history, government and corporate actions and policies rooted in white supremacy and colonialism resulted in the invisibility and marginalization of First Nations peoples. We recognize the contributions (past, present, and future) of the Coast Salish peoples to our region, including the Suquamish, Tulalip, Duwamish, and Muckleshoot tribes. We also recognize the contributions of other American Indians whose many homelands represent the area known today as the United States, including Native Hawaiians, Alaskan Natives and Urban Indians.
Arts and Culture
Easy access and frequent exposure to the arts, and to the elements that comprise the world’s diverse cultures, is essential for the enrichment, health and well-being of our greater society.
We support:
- All cultures being not only accepted, but celebrated and shared
- Arts and cultural education being considered a core subject in our K-12 public schools
- Arts and cultural opportunities to be available and accessible to all ages in all communities
- Public funding for the arts and arts education
- Subsidized, low-income housing for local artists
- Small businesses promoting the arts and our community of diverse cultures, including art galleries/studios, performance venues, cafes, restaurants, bookstores and music stores
- Public venues for art and cultural festivals, events, performances and exhibits
- Libraries, performing arts centers and museums being well-funded, accessible and diverse in their offerings
- Frequent, accessible and diversified communications of arts and cultural events, performances and exhibits to all communities
- Frequent, accessible and diversified communications of available funding and opportunities for artists
- Existing public art displays and venues being well-maintained and preserved
- Freedom of artistic expression and oppose censorship of the arts
Corporate Power and Media Reform
Corporations are not people and are not entitled to the constitutional rights of people. The power of money in politics must be drastically reduced. An informed citizenry and reliably accurate media are essential for democracy to flourish.
We support:
- Amending the Constitution to establish that corporations are not people and money is not speech
- Separating investment banking from retail banking and subjecting both to tighter regulation and greater transparency, and accountability
- Breaking up corporations with holdings so extensive that their failure would cause major national disruption
- Criminal and civil penalties for corporate executives whose companies egregiously violate state or federal laws or regulations
- Strengthening and enforcing laws to provide active protection and restitution for whistleblowers
- Reforming patent and copyright laws that give corporations, including pharmaceutical manufacturers, undue control through unnecessarily long terms and other tactics
- Increased oversight of companies vital to our economy and environment, such as those in banking and fossil fuel extraction
- Revoking the charters of corporations that repeatedly violate laws or regulations
- Equitable access to modern communications infrastructure, including high-speed internet, for all Americans, by means of a fast, affordable, publicly owned telecommunications system in every community, including extending it to rural areas and Native American nations
- Strict enforcement of time limits to responding to Freedom of Information Act and similar requests within the time allowed
- Requiring organizations such as American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the NRA — dedicated primarily to drafting and promoting corporate legislation — to register as lobbyists and be denied tax-exempt status
- Claims of national security being subjected to timely adjudication
On Media Reform
- Restoring adequate funding of public radio and public television, free from public and private pressure
- Internet neutrality, in which bandwidth is not limited based on content or ability to pay
- Financial support for independent investigative reporting and coverage of state and local government and issues
- Media ownership rules and frequency set-asides from the FCC that cultivate localism, encourage a diversity of viewpoints and preserve a competitive marketplace of ideas for American communities, especially encouraging women, minority and community media ownership
- Free radio and TV time for local, statewide and national candidates and ballot measures before each election
- Increased payments to local governments by cable companies for their use of the public right-of-way
- Protecting journalists from unwarranted pressure to reveal their sources
We oppose:
- The Trump corporate tax cuts to the wealthy
- Corporations’ exerting undue influence on our government through access to regulatory commissions and secretly drafting congressional and state legislation
- Privatization of public services, especially water
- Policies that allow U.S. businesses to incorporate or move offshore to evade taxes and laws
- The sale of hedging contracts on securities, i.e., credit default swap contracts
- Corporations and governments substituting 401(k) plans for defined benefit pensions
- Concentration of media ownership and cross-ownership by corporations engaging in other non-media commerce
- Government-funded, corporate-funded or foreign propaganda disguised as news
- Government intimidation of the news media
- False claims of “national security” to suppress investigative journalism
- Creation and distribution of videos that use Artificial Intelligence to deliver propaganda.
Economic Justice, Jobs and Tax Fairness
We are committed to a vibrant, just and sustainable economy based on living-wage jobs, shared prosperity, fair, progressive taxation and a robust safety net. Income inequality is a seminal problem of our time, and we must redress recent policy that has exacerbated this phenomenon.
We support:
On Jobs
- Federal and state efforts to create sustainable, living-wage jobs
- Developing an economy that provides meaningful employment opportunities for all workers, with the possible use of a Universal Basic Income
- An economy that is environmentally sustainable
- Promoting accurate narratives to inform economic debate:
- An economy with less inequality of income and wealth will be more vibrant and more just
- Those nations that invest aggressively in clean energy technology will benefit immensely
- Increasing the minimum wage will improve economic performance
- Immigrants are powerful contributors to the nation’s economy
- Funding the rebuilding of infrastructure to support job creation, without privatizing bridges, toll roads and other public investments
- Creation of a publicly owned state bank, to foster economic development by participating with local banks in the financing of infrastructure and community development
- Immediately raising the Federal minimum wage to at least $12/hour and indexing it to inflation
On Economic Justice
- Promoting policy that supports small business—the primary engine of U.S. economic growth
- Opposing excessive industry consolidation that stifles competition and decreases economic performance
- Opposing banks becoming “too big to fail,” which transfers the economic risk of failure to the public sector
- Creating and enforcing a robust corporate regulatory regime, including:
- Re-establishing Glass-Steagall regulation, requiring the separation of investment banking and commercial banking
- Maintaining Dodd-Frank regulation of banking
- Requiring full disclosure on executive compensation
- The increased social responsibility of corporate governance, including increased efforts to lower the enormous compensation differentials between senior management and workers
- Promoting social purpose corporations which may prioritize social values over returns to stakeholders
- Policies that redress racial, gender and ethnic inequality, particularly in education, employment, housing and lending
- Economic justice for women, including living wages, pay equity and the mandatory inclusion of reproductive care via employer health insurance programs
- Economic justice for families, including paid sick leave, paid family leave, early childhood education and subsidized child care
- Measures to restructure the accumulated $1.5 trillion in student debt, including refinancing to realize lower interest rates and elongating repayment schedules
- Changing bankruptcy law to include discharge of student debt
- Reducing or eliminating graduate student debt in exchange for 10 years of critically needed public service
- Capping the annual percentage rate of interest on payday loans at no more than 36%, as done by federal law for military families, and banning commercial banks from being payday lenders
On Taxation
- A fair tax system that is progressive, provides appropriate economic incentives for business, cares for the most vulnerable, and promotes the common good
- A restructured state tax system, including new progressive taxes (an income tax on high-income individuals and a capital gains tax); a reduction in the regressive sales tax; replacement of the Business and Occupation tax on gross revenue with a tax on profits; and a transaction tax on the exchange of securities
- Increasing property tax breaks on primary residences of low-income homeowners and small businesses
- The elimination of the many existing tax breaks that do not provide clear benefits to the state, including the repeal of the 2013, $8.7 billion tax breaks for Boeing
- The establishment of sunset dates for all new tax breaks, and periodic review to identify non-performing tax breaks for repeal
- Create a tax exemption budget on a biennial basis
- Rolling back the Trump tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, which by 2027, will bestow 83% of benefits to the top 1% of earners
- Increasing the federal tax rate on unearned income (including capital gains and dividends), and eliminating the carried interest loophole
- Restoring the federal estate tax for estates of $5 million or more
- Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to help the working poor, and applying an inflation index to the Alternative Minimum Tax to protect the middle class
- Eliminating the cap on income subject to the Social Security tax, including unearned income
We oppose:
- Privatizing Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, or reducing benefits in any of these programs
- Privatizing public services (e.g., schools, roads and bridges, prisons, military, etc.)
- Corporate welfare, in its many forms, including tax breaks that don’t provide public benefit; provisions that allow corporations to avoid the costs of externalities associated with their businesses; and a low minimum wage which transfers the responsibility of providing a living wage from companies to taxpayers
- U.S. businesses incorporating offshore and utilizing other gimmickry to evade taxes
- Repealing regulations intended to enforce corporate responsibility, including anti-trust regulations, net neutrality regulations, EPA regulations and campaign finance regulations
Education
The backbone of our democracy is a free, universal, high-quality public education system. The Washington State Constitution acknowledges this central role: “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex.”
We support:
- Ongoing increases in K-12 spending, adequate to ensure:
- Competitive teacher salaries
- Reduced class sizes (17 students per class in K-3; 26 in 4-12)
- School construction to accommodate population growth, reduced class sizes and elimination of portable classrooms
- Revamping the K-12 education funding and spending approaches used to comply with the McCleary decision:
- Instituting a progressive revenue source (e.g., capital gains tax) to help finance K-12 education, rather than relying on the property tax-based levy swap
- Changing the teacher compensation model to avoid basing teacher pay on housing costs, which creates adjacent-district teacher recruitment problems
- Increasing funding for special education
- Focusing on special curriculum areas, including:
- Music, fine arts, civics, foreign language and physical education in Basic Education
- STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)
- Environmental science (with emphasis on sustainability and hands-on, science-based, climate-change curriculum)
- Ethnic group studies to enhance curriculum relevance
- Comprehensive, science-based sex education
- Social-emotional learning in the K-12 curriculum
- Supporting the education of the whole child with wraparound services in every school, including:
- Counselors, school completion specialists, post K-12 education and career planning, access to family resources through human services, nurses, mental health specialists, etc.
- Expanding before and after school programs
- Emphasizing Early Learning, through:
- Funding all-day kindergarten
- Free, universal pre-K
- Expanding vocational education and apprenticeship programs
- Expanding Running Start
- Achieving equity in the education process:
- Increasing financial resources for schools in lower socio-economic areas
- Closing the achievement gap
- Restorative justice practices in schools
- Correcting the inequity in disciplinary actions that disproportionately impact students of color
- Eliminating out-of-school suspensions
- The use of facilities that match one’s gender identity
- Promoting a safe and constructive school environment:
- Free of harassment, intimidation, bullying and violence for students, staff and faculty
- School Security Officers trained in de-escalation techniques
- Adopting the non-profit HiSET GED as an alternative to the for-profit Pearson GED
- Withdrawing from the Pearson-owned SBAC/PARCC high-stakes testing consortium
- Using appropriate nutrition programs, including:
- School food programs that ensure that all students have access to nutritious meals
- Free lunch for students who can’t pay
- Increasing higher-education need-based funding, such as Pell grants and State Needs grants
- Providing tuition-free, post-secondary education options, including free tuition for two-year degrees
- Forgiveness of $1.4 trillion in student debt
- Initiatives to increase the enrollment of minority communities in the state’s higher education system, including repealing I-200
We oppose:
- Voucher programs
- Charter schools. Where they exist, we oppose:
- Any attempt to “fix” the charter school initiative
- Lack of public oversight by elected school board
- Lack of transparency of tax expenditures
- The “trigger” mechanism in the charter law that allows the takeover of any school building upon presentation of a petition by a majority of teachers or parents
- Excessive pay for charter school administrators relative to public school administrators
- Using any curriculum that is not based on best-available science
- Inappropriate use of high-stakes testing, including standardized testing as a student graduation requirement or as a means of evaluating teachers
- Displacing certified teachers with uncertified Teach for America personnel
- Arming teachers as a means of dealing with school safety concerns
- Commercial marketing to students in public schools
- Aggressive military recruiting in public schools
Environment, Energy and the Climate Crisis
A sustainable and thriving society requires vigorous environmental protections, sustainable ecosystems and strong action to combat climate change.
We believe:
- That it is the sovereign right of the people, and necessary to their well-being, to have their health, safety, and welfare protected by law
- That government should make no law, rule, treaty, or agreement that would limit the application or effect of national, state, or local laws or regulations that protect clean air, clean water,or food safety
- That Washington should become a national leader in environmental and climate policy
We call for:
- Achieving a net-zero carbon emission economy by 2050, with broadly shared prosperity, by:
- Incorporating analysis of greenhouse gas production in all new infrastructure projects, including whether (and how) the project will support the goal of a net-zero-carbon emission economy by 2050
- Requiring that environmental impact statements consider the full scope of every proposal, including life-cycle and supply-chain analyses, and especially the long-term impacts of greenhouse gas emissions
- Job retraining in the building trades to maintain an adequate workforce capable of building sustainable infrastructure
- Promotion of affordable, low-carbon transportation options, including fuel-efficient cars, reliable public transportation, biking, walkable communities, and a prompt beginning of the transition of public fleets to zero-emission vehicles
- Regulating and strictly limiting total CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions under Washington’s Clean Air Act, while reducing allowable limits on release of already-listed pollutants on a schedule to progressively clean our air
- Establishing and enforcing strong rules to prevent leaks and flaring of natural gas (methane) from oil and gas facilities
- Banning new fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction
- Replacing our inefficient and vulnerable electrical transmission grid
- Continued development of distributed solar power and wind power, with subsidies as needed
- Surpassing the target goals established by Washington Initiative 937 for generating electricity from renewable resources, by:
- requiring that all future power production come from non-fossil fuel burning systems, and
- increased research and development for renewable energy technologies.
- Strict regulation of the shipment of coal, oil and other fossil fuels through our communities, including stronger safety requirements as well as liability insurance and taxes to support funding of emergency-response preparedness and clean-up activities, and
- Putting a price on carbon and repealing tax breaks for fossil fuel companies.
- Divestment of fossil fuel securities held by the State
- Protecting and expanding public lands, to be managed as a public trust, preserved for their environmental values as well as scenic beauty and majesty
- Strict enforcement of state and federal laws requiring cleanup of Hanford and protection of the Columbia River, before any more nuclear waste is stored there
We support:
- Protecting and preserving the global ecosystem, through strong and vigorously enforced environmental laws and regulations.
- Eliminating the disproportionate effects of climate change and other environmental degradation on low-income and minority communities.
- Limiting the global temperature rise to significantly less than 2°C, as committed to by the 2015 Paris Accords.
- Managing population and growth, including limiting urban sprawl and preserving farmland, wildlife habitat, and natural resources, through a strengthened State Environmental Policy Act and Growth Management Act.
- Requiring developers to pay impact fees to mitigate the effects of the growth they cause, including the increased needs for schools, roads, parks, sewers, and open space.
- Public investments in preserving neighborhoods as livable and affordable to people with a wide range of incomes, including provision for energy-efficient development and retrofits to make environmentally sustainable housing practically available, as well as transit, open space, urban forest protection, parks, playfields, sidewalks, schools, libraries and community centers.
- Reinstituting the Superfund Tax to make polluters pay for their past despoiling of our environment.
- Applying stringent environmental safeguards on the export of toxic waste.
- Reducing, reusing, and recycling all residential and business waste, and creating viable markets for reusable and recycled materials.
- Holding manufacturers financially responsible for cleanup and disposal of their products at the end of their useful lives, including disposal of unused or unsafe prescription drugs at no cost to the consumer.
- Public disclosure, at least annually, of the toxicity of chemicals prior to their manufacture and release.
- Protecting our vital, finite supply of potable water, through equitable management of fresh water resources (including conservation and effective wastewater management) to assure the provision of safe drinking water to local populations, and a ban on privatization of water supplies.
- Enforcement of the Model Lighting Ordinance, to protect nocturnal animals, bird species and nighttime drivers.
- Protecting and preserving Washington’s salmon and steelhead resource, including:
- Protecting marine waters, rivers, streams and all other parts of the salmon ecosystem
- Replacing landward fish-passage barriers (culverts)
- A permanent ban on Atlantic salmon culture in Washington waters
We oppose:
- New or expanded nuclear power, including small nuclear reactors, until permanent storage is built for nuclear waste
- Any governmental attempt to reclassify high-level nuclear waste or allow its abandonment in-place
- Resource exploration or development in state or national parks, national monuments, wildlife refuges, or wilderness areas
- Offshore drilling for fossil fuels
- Ignoring established science in environmental decision-making
Farms, Fisheries and Forests
We are the stewards of the land and water that sustain us. We support programs and policies that strengthen rural communities, preserve family farms, ensure the availability of high-quality food and maintain the viability of our land and water resources.
We support:
- Ample funding for natural resources management efforts such as soil conservation, flood protection, farm waste management and agricultural land preservation
- The State Growth Management Act and strict enforcement of the Growth Management Boundaries
- Sustainable practices such as permaculture and organic farms that preserve the production of healthy food, fish and forest products while maintaining the integrity of the soil and water
- Regeneration practices to preserve soil integrity and establish conservation of trees and habitat, including practices that promote carbon sequestration, top soil regeneration and reduced water use
- Safe and sustainable production guidelines for all food, water and forest products
- Food nutritional labeling, including organic identification, country of origin and GMO content of processed foods; enhanced labeling standards surrounding the term “natural”
- Safe and sustainable production guidelines for all food, water and forest products; strict standards for organic farming and organic products
- For factory farms, capture of farm methane production and its use for energy production
- Adequate food, water and ecological inspectors to ensure sustainability and safety of food, water & forest resources
- Protecting urban and suburban forests; managing state and federal forests for future generations
- Quantifying our surface and ground water resources and safeguarding them from corporate profiteering so they will be available for future generations
- Increased efforts to encourage all who use our natural resources to preserve soil, water, clean air and wildlife habitat
- Protecting wild Pacific salmon from factory fish farm and watershed pollution
- Removal of the Snake River dams in order to restore native Pacific salmon fisheries
- P-patch programs in urban and semi-urban areas of King County
We oppose:
- Predatory agricultural lending and leasing practices that trap farmers in cycles of debt
- Agribusiness practices that degrade land, water, family farms and rural communities
- Overuse of herbicides, pesticides and livestock antibiotics
- Price gouging by railroads, equipment lessors and other industries that unfairly target farm, fish & forest producers
- Privatized food and livestock inspection
- Intentional infringement of existing certified water rights
Foreign Policy
The United States should lead by example and work cooperatively within the international community to promote peace, cooperation, justice and democracy.
We support:
- A fully staffed and functioning State Department
- Making diplomacy and nonviolent conflict resolution the primary organizing principle of our foreign policy
- Returning the U.S. to its global position as the leader of the liberal international order
- Working cooperatively with other nations to build a more peaceful, sustainable and stable world
- Protecting our nation from external threats without suppressing basic human rights at home and abroad
- Working with other nations to eliminate terror networks and the threat of non-state actors
- Freezing the assets of leaders of repressive regimes and banning military exports to such countries;
- Reducing U.S. military forces while providing humanitarian relief and promoting stability
- Revising the War Powers Act to ensure that Congress can declare an end to a war or other military action
- Supporting human rights worldwide and promoting adherence to international law, democratic institutions, health, and safety, commerce and cultural understanding
- Honoring and upholding the rights, welfare and healthy environment of all indigenous peoples
- Leading international efforts to prevent acts of genocide and protecting refugees and other civilian populations
- Honoring the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human rights, ratifying the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and signing and ratifying the U.N. agreement that created the International Criminal Court
- Increasing foreign aid to reduce poverty and to improve access to safe water and food, health, education and to restore programs that promote family planning worldwide
- Acceding to the 1997 treaty banning land mines
- Ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
- Complying with the Geneva Conventions, the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions, and other international treaties protecting civilian populations
- Signing and complying with the Paris Agreement on climate change and further implementing enforceable goals to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse emissions
- Reducing or eliminating nuclear arsenals worldwide, including strict enforcement of the “Iran deal” (Joint comprehensive Plan of Action), working for nuclear nonproliferation, arms reduction and international control of fissile material
- Strengthening regulations of financial systems worldwide to minimize economic disruption and to avoid the destabilization and increased poverty resulting from unsustainable Developing Nation debt
- Renegotiating international trade agreements to include human rights, labor rights, environmental and consumer protections, and worker safety with democratic procedures at all levels
- Rebuilding Iraq’s, Afghanistan’s and Syria’s civilian infrastructure and economy using international agencies and local labor
- Transparent accounting for all reconstruction funds
- Transparency of WTO and other economic treaty-dispute settlement procedures and giving developing countries more influence in the running of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
- The United States using its full influence, through serious, constructive engagement, to promote negotiations and other actions that lead to a sustainable resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on mutual recognition, that ensures security, economic growth, and quality of life for the peoples of the sovereign state of Israel and a sovereign state of Palestine
- Changing our diplomatic engagement with multiple parties in southern Asia, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, to work toward peaceful resolution of existing conflicts
- Advocating to offset or forgive onerous debt of countries forced to choose between debt repayment and essential services
- Encouraging struggling economies to engage in economic growth policies, such as infrastructure investment, without compelling privatization of government services or natural resources as a way to refinance nations’ debts
- Restoring our historic adherence to the Geneva and Vienna Conventions in their entirety
We oppose:
- Initiating unprovoked war; engaging in efforts to destabilize other nations’ governments
- Any official statement that a particular act by a foreign power would amount to “crossing a red line”
- Development of new nuclear weapons
- Exporting offensive weapons systems, such as “depleted” uranium (dU), chemical, nuclear or biological weapons, that contribute to destabilization in international relations and the international arms race
- Extraordinary rendition, the abduction of persons of any nationality, their detention in secret prisons, and torture
- Rape as a tool of war
- The use of United States tax money to fund, train or sponsor military or police forces that suppress human and civil rights in foreign countries
- Trade agreements negotiated in secret without public interest representation
- Foreign and trade policies that put the profit-making interests of corporations above the rights, laws and interests of governments or workers
- Monetary payments to countries recognized as terrorist states
- Militarization of space or Earth’s polar regions
- The Washington (D.C.) Consensus (the neo-liberal agenda) of outsourcing, deregulation, privatization, union-busting and corporate globalization
Government and Political Reform
Government derives its legitimacy from the people, to whom it must be answerable; it serves as their instrument to achieve ends that the people could not achieve individually. Our representative democracy requires full participation by an informed citizenry; a voting process that is fair, transparent and open to all and public officials who are accountable to society.
We call for:
- Amending the U.S. Constitution to establish that corporations shall not be considered as “persons” for purposes of political activity or religious belief, and to reverse the pernicious notion that the use of money is a form of protected speech
- Electing the U.S. President by popular vote, not a so-called “electoral college”
- Redistricting in a fair and rational manner, independent of political influence and conducted by nonpartisan bodies
- An immediate end to all voter suppression tactics, including onerous voter-identification requirements and the Interstate Crosscheck System
- Postage-free vote-by-mail in all jurisdictions in the United States
We support:
- Laws and regulations that provide essential services and safety for all
- Curtailing the inordinate influence of money on the political process by re-establishing campaign finance reform, including contribution and spending limits, timely disclosure of the sources of campaign funds for and against candidates and ballot measures and a publicly searchable database of all registered lobbyists and lobbying expenditures
- Availability of public financing for election campaigns, to enable any qualified citizen to run for office
- Broadcast debates (a) among candidates for public office, and (b) regarding ballot measures
- Making ballot access for Presidential candidates contingent on public disclosure of their most recent five years’ federal tax returns
- Funding for regulatory agencies sufficient to enable them to fulfill their missions
- Automatic registration of all persons eligible to vote, including utilization of educational institutions
- Making voting easier for members of the military and other citizens located overseas
- Preserving the integrity of the electoral process by assuring that (a) all votes are cast on carefully monitored, secured, human-readable paper ballots; (b) any machines used to produce, tabulate, and manage election data use only open-source software; and (c) auditing according to protocols established by the American Statistical Association is mandatory for all jurisdictions
- Transparency in government, including public access to government agencies and processes and increased funding for TVW live coverage of the state legislature
- Adherence to open-meeting laws at all levels, with genuine opportunities for public comment on policy proposals
- Exclusion of lobbyists from any meeting or session of a federal or state legislative or regulatory body or committee from which the public is excluded
- Drastic reduction of the exemptions to our state’s Public Records Act
We oppose:
- The use of Presidential “signing statements” that purport to invalidate a portion of legislation being signed into law
- The privatization or outsourcing of any essential governmental function
Health Care
Health care is a fundamental human right. Government has the responsibility to guarantee all people access to high-quality, affordable health care.
We support:
- A comprehensive, affordable, national, publicly-funded, universal single-payer system
- A State waiver under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to establish a single-payer system for Washington State
- Patient-centered medical care, with free-choice decisions in selecting a provider and “medical home”, a team-based health care delivery model for coordinated care, with decisions made by patients in concert with families and providers
- Insurance coverage of all legal forms of reproductive services and methods
- Public funding of reproductive health care programs, such as Planned Parenthood
- Coverage of transgender and gender-affirming health care
- Increased funding for mental and behavioral health care, including substance abuse treatment on demand
- Transparency in pricing of insurance coverage, health care services and prescription drugs
- Empowering the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to negotiate prices for drugs and medical devices
- Timely dispensing of legally prescribed medications by all pharmacies, and barring employers from limiting coverage for religious reasons
- Prompt FDA approval of new treatments, including those for rare or “orphan” diseases, based on proof of safety and efficacy by reputable clinical research/trials, with expanded funding of research conducted under the auspices of the National Institutes for Health (NIH), based on science, not a political agenda
- Expanded funding of the FDA, NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and public health agencies, to promote conditions that lead to improved health outcomes
- Recognition of gun violence as a public health issue, and removal of the ban on CDC and NIH gun violence health research
- Policies that promote the highest possible vaccination rates
- Government education grants and student debt forgiveness for primary care providers, in exchange for providing services to underserved areas and populations
- A Patient’s Bill of Rights which includes coverage for pre-existing conditions and removal of lifetime caps on coverage and benefits
- Increased funding of global family planning programs, including comprehensive sex education and contraception
We oppose:
- Cutting, privatizing or rationing Medicare or raising the age of eligibility
- Over-diagnosis, over-treatment and other actions which increase costs with no improvement of outcomes or care quality
- Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and devices
- Discrimination in delivery of health care based on age, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, creed or religion
- Conversion therapy
Human Rights and Civil Rights
The rights guaranteed by our Constitution and international human rights law are central to our democracy and must not be compromised.
We believe:
- Every human being has a right to food, water, housing, safety, health care, education, and the dignity of work.
- Discrimination grounded in ignorance or based on prejudice is unacceptable.
- Any person impacted by a barrier based on prejudice must be afforded the legal means and economic opportunity – including affirmative action – to overcome such injustice.
- Every woman has the right to choose the type of medical care to be applied to her body in matters affecting reproduction – regardless of age or ability to pay.
- The right of an individual to practice their religion does not extend to the denial of the constitutional rights of others
- Privacy is a basic human right that government and business must recognize and respect, leaving each person free of unwarranted intrusion by government or other entities.
- Government surveillance must not be conducted without prior independent judicial approval and the issuance of a warrant; FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court proceedings must include some form of representation of the person(s) to be surveilled.
- The rights of people with disabilities, including equal access to public accommodations, employment, transportation, telecommunications, voting and government services, as provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act, must be monitored and enforced.
- Equal rights for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, including access to health care and public facilities for transgender persons, and their appropriate identification on legal documents.
We support:
- Strict enforcement of laws and regulations ensuring that prejudice does not present a barrier to obtaining education, employment, promotion, housing, insurance, or any other social or economic good
- Repealing provisions of the USAPATRIOT Act and Protect America Act that infringe on constitutional rights and freedoms
- Full restoration of habeas corpus
We oppose:
- Indefinite detention of any person not convicted of a crime.
- Unconstitutional surveillance by any government agency
- Slavery in any form, including “human trafficking,” anywhere in the world
- Using an individual’s freedom of religion as an excuse for imposing the tenets or practices of one’s own faith on others, or to infringe others’ civil rights.
Human Services
One of the highest priorities of government is to provide a safety net of social services that meets the basic needs of people on the margins of society, whether they be elderly, impoverished, homeless, disabled or have mental illness/substance use disorders, to enable them to reach their full potential. The only genuine welfare reform is one that reduces poverty, not just the welfare rolls.
We support:
- Ensuring that human and social services are among the highest priorities of federal, state, and local government, especially this time of increased income inequality
- Public assistance to safeguard those unable to provide for themselves
- Assuring that homelessness is rare, brief and a one-time occurrence and that all people have access to safe and affordable housing
- Weighting subsidies toward those who need them most, particularly lower-income people, families, older adults, people with disabilities, mental illness and those recovering from substance use disorder
- Housing affordable to people at all income levels, particularly workforce housing for those whose income falls between minimum wage and a living wage (about 30% to 80% of area median income)
- Repealing Washington State’s prohibition against rent control
- Transition plans for people with disabilities, including housing and, when appropriate, employment options upon release from institutions
- Quality, comprehensive and affordable services and supports for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including the end of a waitlist for services, so that they may live at home with the supports they need and participate in communities that value their contributions
- Quality, comprehensive and affordable supports and services for families needing social services (including child care, education, training and health care) to support them on their path to self-sufficiency
- Programs that provide healing, recovery and reintegration for people coping with behavioral health, mental illness and/or substance use, and those who have experienced disasters, violence or exploitation, domestically and globally
- Restructuring and adequately funding the child welfare system to ensure children and their families have the supports, opportunities and resources they need to thrive
- A long-term care system that provides Medicaid-reimbursable community-based and in-home services and supports, as alternatives to institutional care and a long-term care insurance plan that makes care affordable
- Comprehensive eldercare services that promote independence, quality of life, and health, as well as increased awareness, prevention and response to elder abuse, neglect and financial exploitation
- Reforming the state guardianship system
- Increased support for family caregivers, including paid family and medical leave, training, support groups, respite and caregiving tax credits
We oppose:
- Erosion of the social safety net
- Equating the use of human and social services with moral or personal failure
- Confining people experiencing a mental health crisis in hospital emergency rooms or jails
- Drug testing as a prerequisite for social services and employment requirements, or as a prerequisite for Medicaid services
Immigration
Immigrants strengthen the fabric of our community, state and nation. All immigrants should be afforded full human rights, a fair, safe, and timely path to legal status, and an opportunity for full integration into our society.
We call for:
- Washington State to declare itself a sanctuary state
- Comprehensive reform of United States immigration policy that recognizes the basic human rights of immigrants and accords them the right to equal treatment under the law and due process in all proceedings
- Granting asylum to persons fleeing areas of war, genocide, and political or personal oppression, including LGBTQ status
- Policies that protect immigrants’ ability to seek help or to access law enforcement without fear of detention or deportation
- Protecting immigrants with transparent due process in all proceedings and a clear and equitable pathway to documented status and citizenship if desired
We support:
- King County’s designation as a sanctuary county
- All people, regardless of their country of origin or immigration status being treated fairly, respectfully, and with compassion and dignity
- Encouraging lawful immigration, family unification and reunification
- Expediting processing of applications for legal entry, asylum, guest worker and temporary work permits, permanent residence and citizenship
- Policies that encourage foreign students to remain in the United States and give them an opportunity to earn permanent residency
- Improving migrant worker rights by protecting immigrant workers from wage discrimination,
- Improving migrant work protection and ensuring safe worker housing/living conditions, equitable access to medical care and educational opportunities
- Reducing the 100-mile Border Patrol internal operating zone to 50 miles from any border
- Ensuring that U.S. immigration enforcement is transparent and accountable
- Improving the accuracy of the E-Verify system
- A comprehensive DREAM Act and retaining DACA
- Enforcing the laws that penalize employers who knowingly employ undocumented immigrants.
We oppose:
- The use of the term “illegal” to refer to any human being
- Withholding health care or emergency health and human or family services due to immigration status, citizenship status or legal status
- State or local police involvement in the enforcement of federal immigration laws
- Border Patrol agents in ordinary law enforcement activities, including providing routine translation services
- Efforts to deputize, commission, or finance vigilante border militia groups or otherwise encourage vigilante border militia groups in the United States
- Automatic detention and/or deportation of asylum-seekers;
- Legislative attempts to establish English as the sole official language of the United States
- Unjust and arbitrary quotas, limits, and other immigration rules that have the primary purpose of preventing new immigration
- The use of H-1B and H-2A guest visas, as a substitute for hiring U.S. citizens
- Acts of hate, bias, or violence, including harassment, intimidation, bullying, and the use of racial, culturally insensitive, ethnically biased terms such as “illegal” in reference to any person or group;
- Barriers to acquiring an equitable education, and testing in languages other than one’s primary spoken language
- ICE, Boarder Patrol, and/or Homeland Security contracting with for-profit prison corporations and county jails
- Immigration detention without constitutionally adequate hearings
- Families detained or split apart in ICE Detention Centers
- Quotas or other immigration rules with the primary purpose of preventing immigration
- Policies that exclude or demean immigrants based on religion, country of origin, race, or ethnicity
Labor
We believe in the dignity of all workers and demand fair wages and benefits in return. We insist on the right of all workers to join unions, to bargain collectively and to take part in setting their working conditions. “No one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.” — President Barack Obama
We support:
- A living wage — the wage necessary for a person working full-time, with no additional income, to afford decent housing, food, utilities, transportation and health care
- A minimum wage that is tied to, and increases with, inflation
- Equal pay for equivalent work for all workers, regardless of gender
- Overtime pay for work in excess of a standard work week and prohibition of involuntary overtime
- Shortening the full-time work week to 35 hours
- Prosecuting employers who force workers to work off the clock or fail to pay wages (“wage theft”)
- Reflecting increases in productivity with wage increases
- Benefits, including health care, retirement and paid family leave for wage earners and their families; annual paid vacation and paid sick leave for all workers
- Paid family leave, regardless of the size of the company or length of employment, offered through a government-funded system akin to unemployment benefits
- Laws that strengthen protections and prevent wage abuses for independent contractors and self- employed persons
- For “gig economy workers,” economic and workplace rights, including the right to earn minimum wage and benefits
- Equal participation between labor and employers in the management of workers’ pensions; pension benefits that are portable between employers; and, in cases of corporate bankruptcy, giving employee pensions equal priority to creditors
- Predictable shift scheduling
- A safe, hazard-free workplace for all workers
- A workplace free from discrimination based upon gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation, race, age, immigration status, national origin, ethnicity, gender identity, union activity or political preference
- A work environment free from all forms of bullying and harassment, with meaningful reporting mechanisms and remedies for targets of discrimination and harassment
- Progressive discipline and mandatory arbitration for workplace infractions
- Prohibiting firing without just cause, and strengthening protections during probationary employment periods
- Strong whistleblower laws that ensure the protection of workers who report safety hazards, executive malfeasance, harassment, or other violations of law or regulations in the workplace
- The right of all workers to organize, to engage in collective bargaining and to strike without fear of reprisal or replacement
- Protecting workers’ rights of association, assembly, free speech and due process in the workplace
- Democratic and fair elections within unions
- Automatic union recognition when unions demonstrate majority status in a work group desiring collective bargaining rights (“card check neutrality”)
- Prohibition of reprisals against, or permanent replacement of, workers locked out or on strike; enforcement of laws that prevent employers from retaliating against workers who exercise their collective bargaining rights; and enforcement of labor laws against employers who retaliate by threatening to move work
- Unemployment benefits and retraining for workers who are locked out or on strike
- Reforming the National Labor Relations Board to streamline the appeals process and institute meaningful penalties for employers found to have engaged in unfair labor practices
- Amending the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 to apply to government workers, independent contractors, domestic workers, agricultural workers and their supervisors
- Respecting labor picket lines by not crossing them
- Extended unemployment benefits in a bad economy
- Government-funded job training, education and related service for employees who are unemployed or underemployed or whose jobs are outsourced, downgraded or eliminated
- Accuracy in employment statistics, such as counting as unemployed those persons whose benefits have expired or those who have given up an active search for employment
- For government contracts:
- Prevailing wage provisions, with 15% of workers at apprentice level
- Contractor responsibility to the community through responsible bidder language in all public contracts, including fair wages, health insurance, retirement and training
- Affirmative action, including local hiring in all public construction projects
We oppose:
- Mandatory overtime
- Mandatory indoctrination meetings about unionizing, politics or religion
- Use of independent contractors to replace regular state employees
- Release of personal information of publicly-funded employees
- Manipulation of employment rules to deny employee benefits to independent contractors
- “Right-to-work” laws and other anti-union legislation
- Laws interfering with freely negotiated agreements between employers and unions to collect fees for providing collectively-bargained benefits to the union’s membership
- The practice of paying tipped workers less than minimum wage, and the practice of “tip pooling” that allows employers to pocket the tips of servers
- Using tips as part of a minimum wage calculation
- Corporations that use mergers to steal workers’ pensions
- Hiring policies that discriminate against unemployed applicants
- Free trade agreements that do not observe internationally recognized labor standards, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, workplace rights and safety laws, prohibition of child labor, prison labor, slave labor and human trafficking
Law and the Justice System
The rule of law is a prerequisite for democracy. A good government provides for safety, security and justice for all, with care, evenhandedness and respect for the individual.
We believe:
- Criminal justice should emphasize prevention, restorative justice and rehabilitation over incarceration alone
- Our nation must invest in children and work to abolish poverty
- We must break the school-to-prison pipeline
- Institutional racism in the criminal justice system must be eliminated.
- Police and sheriff officers should be trained as “guardians” of the public, rather than as militarized “warriors”
We support:
- Accountability in law enforcement, with effective civilian review
- Affirmative action in police and sheriffs’ hiring until departments are as racially diverse as the communities they serve
- Improved law enforcement de-escalation training
- Humane treatment of all prisoners, including reduced use of solitary confinement
- Greater emphasis on preventive and rehabilitative measures in prison; alternative sentencing that emphasizes rehabilitation, especially for juveniles
- Free trade agreements that observe internationally recognized labor standards, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, workplace rights and safety laws, prohibition of child labor, prison labor, slave labor and human trafficking
- Education, training, substance abuse and mental health treatment and meaningful work should be provided for those incarcerated
- Providing special mental health/drug courts for mentally ill people caught up in the criminal justice system, to assist in their medical treatment and rehabilitation
- Efforts to enable re-integration of former prisoners into society, including parole, comprehensive reform of Legal Financial Obligations
- Bail reform
- Reforming the state guardianship system to restore civil rights to impaired persons and their families
- Restoring FBI funding to investigate white collar crime, prosecution of those crimes and effective sentencing of the guilty
- Increased funding nationally for DNA testing to convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent, including timely processing of all rape kits
- An end to the war on drugs, including:
- Prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, and drug education that reflects established scientific knowledge
- More drug courts and a lower priority for minor drug offenses
- Nation-wide decriminalization of marijuana, including releasing those imprisoned for possession of marijuana and expunging possession convictions
- Authorization of banks to handle proceeds from marijuana sales in states where it has been legalized
- Authorization and funding of medical marijuana research
- Improved gun-safety laws including:
- A national comprehensive background check before each gun sale
- A mandatory waiting period for all firearm purchases
- Requiring safe firearm storage
- Requiring firearm safety certification
- Prohibiting automatic weapons, accessories that enable sustained high rates of fire, and oversized ammunition magazines
- Common-sense gun bans in public places
- Age limits on all firearms purchases to those person over 21
- Holding firearm owners liable when crimes are committed with their weapons
We oppose:
- Capital punishment
- Juvenile imprisonment in adult institutions; trying juveniles as adults
- Trying juveniles as adults
- Mandatory or indeterminate sentencing
- New prison construction; privatization of prisons, or outsourcing corrections out of state.
- Prison overcrowding
- Profiling based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability or perceived country of origin
- Warrantless searches, including tracking of cell phone and internet use without a warrant
- Asset seizures on arrest, without a court conviction.
Military and Veterans Affairs
We support and honor those who have chosen to serve in our armed forces. We insist that our military be used only in the Constitutionally mandated provision of our common defense and never open to abuse by any branch of government.
We support:
- Keeping our armed forces under civilian control and used only in accordance with the War Powers Act
- An independent audit of the Defense Department on a regular basis
- Fully funding the Department of Veterans Affairs
- Enhancing the quality and availability of VA medical benefits
- Using our military to protect the American people, our vital interests and our treaty partners pledged to protect us when we face attack or imminent threat
- Congress asserting its Constitutional power to regulate the military
- Congress conducting a comprehensive review of overseas military installations comparable to the work of the Base Closure Commission for domestic installations
- Instructing military personnel of their rights and responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions and protecting them from reprisals for refusal to follow illegal orders
- Protecting military personnel from sexual assault and harassment, with independent investigation and vigorous prosecution of alleged sexual misconduct
- Performance of military services only by men and women accountable to the public, the U.S. Constitution and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, not by contractors exempt from those restrictions
- Strict limits on both duration and number of tours of duty in combat zones with mandatory minimum intervals between overseas tours
- Awarding military supply contracts based on fair and competitive bidding, with preference given to U.S.-owned and -based companies whenever possible
- A “gender-blind” draft if a draft is necessary
- Providing financial support, daycare assistance and no-cost life insurance to families of military personnel deployed in hostile or combat zones
- Reducing overall defense spending, including elimination of outdated or nonperforming programs and weapons
- Increasing educational and medical benefits for troops, veterans and their families, including treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury
- Determining disability ratings based on medical, rather than political or financial criteria
- Modifying the Military Claims Act to provide legal assistance to those filing military-related claims for property loss, personal injury or wrongful death, and to increase claims limitations to $10,000,000
- Outreach to secure housing and other needed services for homeless veterans
- Encouraging employers to award veterans preferences in hiring and requiring employers with government contracts to have a “veterans set-aside” in hiring to fulfill those contracts
We oppose:
- Use of American military resources in unauthorized or pre-emptive wars
- Use of active sonar in inland and U.S. coastal waterways
- Unregulated use of civilian areas for military training
- Training or funding foreign military or police forces that suppress human rights in their own nations
- Use of waterboarding or other enhanced interrogation techniques
- Excessive military spending and undue influence of the military-industrial complex on fiscal policy
- Discrimination based on gender or gender identity
- Religious or political indoctrination of service members
Transportation
Better public transportation promotes equal opportunity, enhances public health, reduces environmental impacts and improves the quality of life for all. Transportation planning decisions must consider direct and indirect environmental impacts, including climate change, water and air pollution and other effects on human health. Public transportation should provide viable alternatives that reduce individual dependence on the automobile, including funding of essential infrastructure projects and services.
We support:
- Prioritizing public transit expansion over road construction
- Updating the 18th Amendment to the State Constitution, to allow gasoline-tax proceeds to fund all modes of transportation, not just “highways”
- A system of strategically grade-separated truck, rail, and transit rights-of-way
- High-speed rail linking major West Coast cities, starting with Portland-Seattle-Vancouver
- Adequate staffing and maintenance of Washington’s ferry system, as a vital part of our overall transportation infrastructure, with priority for full boats over on-time performance
- Measures to reduce pollution and dependence on oil, including increased fuel-efficiency standards and support for electric vehicles; expanded transit service and more HOV lanes; and improved facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users
- Increased capacity of (fee-based and carpool reserved) park-and-ride facilities in suburban King County
- Concentrating high-density housing, including both low-income and market-rate housing, within walking distance of transit stations and other urban centers/routes with 24-hour transit
- Tolling and managed lanes, accompanied by provision of sufficient transportation infrastructure and services to allow reasonable alternatives to single-occupant vehicles with transit, vanpools and carpools operating toll-free in managed lanes
- Street improvements that prioritize safe walking and accommodate bicycling; improving connections between multimodal routes
Tribal Relations & Sovereignty
Throughout U.S. history, government and corporate actions and policies rooted in white supremacy and colonialism resulted in the invisibility and marginalization of First Nations peoples. We recognize the contributions (past, present, and future) of the Coast Salish peoples to our region, including the Suquamish, Tulalip, Duwamish, and Muckleshoot tribes. We also recognize the contributions of other American Indians whose many homelands represent the area known today as the United States, including Native Hawaiians, Alaskan Natives and Urban Indians.
We support:
- Tribal Nations’ inherent sovereignty and right to self-governance, self-determination and self-sufficiency
- The authority of American Indian nations and tribal governments and affirm their rights derived from treaties and state compacts
- Elevating the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs to a cabinet-level position as recognition of the U.S. government-to-government relationship with Tribal governments
- Acknowledging that American Indians include Urban Natives: those who are not federally-recognized due to the Urban Indian Relocation Act of 1952, children lost to adoption prior to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, Tribal members dis-enrolled, First Nations from Canada and the Americas, and the U.S. policy to terminate Indian Tribes from the mid-1940s through the mid-1960s
- Increased funding for the Indian Health Service, particularly for the Urban Indian Health Program which receives ~1% of the agency’s annual budget even though three-quarters of American Indians reside in urban areas
- Increased funding for the Seattle Indian Health Board
- Affordable housing policies that end the displacement of Urban Indians, which makes urban-based services (including traditional supports) inaccessible to many
- Increased funding, supports and services to address the disproportionate rates of homelessness among Urban Natives
- Increased accountability for abusive practices against indigenous peoples by law enforcement
- Full funding for the Violence Against Women Act and the provision of judicial training on the Act’s Indian provisions
- Judicial training on the federal Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 and the Washington State Indian Child Welfare Act of 2013 to prevent the loss of children’s Native ties and identity
- Acknowledgement of the disproportionately high push-out/drop-out rate of Native students and increased efforts, including data collection done in consultation with indigenous peoples and communities, that identify multiracial American Indian students to address funding and programmatic gaps
- Inclusion of American Indians in education summits put on by state, county, regional and local governments, and increased funding for tribal colleges
- The restoration of urban streams to protect salmon, flora and other fauna and the maintenance and repair of culverts that threaten salmon runs
- The preservation and protection of historic, cultural and religious sites
- Non-transfer of Federal trust responsibility to Urban Natives upon their departure from their Tribal lands, which results in the systematic disengagement of Urban Natives from Tribal systems and resources
- Restoring Federal recognition of the Duwamish Tribe
We oppose:
- Any attempt to diminish Tribal sovereignty or Tribal Treaty Rights
- The racist use of Indian mascots in sports