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Platform
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End Corporate Welfare
Tax Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Seattle's other mega-rich corporations to fund job programs and social services • Eliminate the unfair tax burden on small businesses, low-income workers and homeowners • No more tax deferments for developers.
Stop the War
Bring Washington's National Guard home from Iraq • Tax war profiteers • Ban military recruiters from Seattle schools • End the “poverty draft” by creating job programs for youth.
Raise Wages and Create Jobs
Increase the minimum wage to $17 per hour • Reduce the workweek to 30 hours for 40 hours' pay to create more jobs • Turn the Pentagon's $409 billion budget into mass public works programs to create union-wage jobs • Pass legislation to protect pensions and retiree benefits.
Defend Affirmative Action and Civil Rights
Reinstate affirmative action. • Establish parity for minority and women contractors on public projects • Create an independent Office of Civil Rights to combat discrimination and defend job rights for all protected classes • Demand the state pass a gay rights law and legalize same-sex marriage.
Improve Women's Lives
Mandate employer-funded childcare for all • Guarantee free, safe abortion and contraception • Establish an independent city office to advocate for women's rights and to fight rape, domestic violence and institutional sexism • Ensure equal pay for equal work • Provide shelter for all women escaping abusive relationships.
Make Children's Welfare a Top Priority
Redirect subsidies for millionaires and developers to fund public schools • Expand after-school and summer programs for children • Provide public works jobs and skills-training to high-school grads • Combat racism, sexism, and homophobia in Seattle schools • Offer comprehensive sex education.
Stop Police Abuse and Protect Civil Liberties
Create an elected civilian review board to stop police brutality, and racial and political profiling • Outlaw use of tasers • No city compliance with the Patriot Act • Defend all constitutional rights, including the right to protest using bullhorns, sidewalks and city streets.
Provide Healthcare for All
Close tax loopholes for corporations to fund medical/dental care, reproductive services and HIV/AIDS treatment for all who need it, regardless of employment or immigration status. • Legalize street drugs under community control and expand rehabilitation • Extend domestic partnership rights citywide • Expand community health clinics.
End Homelessness Now
Enact rent control and a moratorium on destruction of public housing, including Yesler Terrace • Expand quality public housing for all in need • Fund safe transitional shelters, under residents' control and with job training and placement services to help homeless people get back on their feet.
Fight Poverty, Not the Poor
Restore programs that aid seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, and families in crisis • Expand free nutritious meals for the poor • Enact price controls on gas and heating oil.
Strengthen Workers' Rights
Uphold the right to organize and strike for all workers, including undocumented immigrants • Open the books on businesses that threaten layoffs, plant closures or wage/benefit cuts • Protect workplace safety and health • Build a fighting labor movement to challenge AFL-CIO conservatism • Stop union busting.
Operate City Services in the Public Interest
End privatization and contracting out of city services • Manage City Light in the public interest • Halt utility rate hikes and provide free service for poor residents • Use city workers' expertise to improve services and eliminate waste.
End Gridlock
Develop a quality integrated bus, light rail, monorail, and paratransit system which is free or low-cost, publicly owned, operated and maintained, fully accessible and safe • Expand HOV lanes and increase bus hours, routes, and frequency of service throughout the city.
Promote Environmental Sanity
Make industry and developers pay the full cost of environmental cleanup, including toxic emissions affecting poor neighborhoods and communities of color • Safeguard shorelines and waterways and expand public access • Preserve urban wildlife habitat and greenbelts • Promote and fully fund mass public transit.
Reform the Electoral System
Replace winner-take-all elections with proportional representation and instant-runoff voting • Extend voting rights to immigrants, ex-prisoners, and prisoners • Ensure that all those eligible can vote and all votes are counted • End support for the twin parties of capitalism • Promote independent political action and a workingclass party • Establish public campaign financing.
Nationalize Major Industries
No more taxpayer bailouts for multinational corporations • Public ownership of major industries under workers control, including banks, airlines, pharmaceutical giants, and the energy industry • Nationalize healthcare.
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