People more important than corporations

The Socialist Party strongly believes human needs take precedence over corporate profit. Here are our positions on some of the issues that we face throughout the course of our lives.\nHealth Care\nThe Socialist Party stands for socialized medicine -- a health care system based on universal coverage, salaried doctors and health care workers, and revenues derived from a graduated income tax.\nWe support a single-payer National Health Program with full standard and alternative medical and dental coverage for all, publicly funded through progressive taxation and controlled by democratically elected local boards.\nWe call for a health care system that emphasizes preventive care, respects patients' privacy, gives special attention to the needs of people with physical and mental disabilities and conducts treatment and research unimpaired by sexism, racism or homophobia.\nWe call for full funding for AIDS research.\nHousing\nThe Socialist Party recognizes the right of all people to high quality, low cost housing.\nWe call for large-scale public investment in the construction of low cost, scattered-site, community-based, high-quality housing.\nWe call for rent control for all rental units, and the right of tenants to organize.\nWe support the formation of housing cooperatives and nonprofit land trusts, the adoption of advanced and cost-cutting technology in building and the rehabilitation and weatherization of existing housing.\nEducation\nThe Socialist Party recognizes the right of students of all ages to a free, quality education in a safe and supportive environment, and of all school employees to good wages, benefits and working conditions.\nWe call for full and equal funding of public education, for free tuition at the post-secondary level and for an end to all public funding and subsidizing of private schools.\nWe support public child care starting from infancy and public education starting at age 3, with care givers and teachers of young children receiving the same training, wages and benefits as teachers at every other level of the educational system.\nWe oppose tying teachers' pay to student performance, forcing schools within a system to compete against each other, selling on-campus advertising to raise funds and the increasing dependence of post-secondary institutions on corporate funding.\nWe call for fewer students per teacher.\nWe call for vigorous affirmative action programs so each public institution of higher education reflects the community at large in terms of race/ethnicity, gender and economic background.\nWe support multicultural, multilingual, experimental education at all levels.\nWe call for an egalitarian educational system with teaching methods that accommodate the wide range of teaching and learning styles, and provides students with the means to obtain the post-secondary education they desire.\nWe support student input in curriculum formation and the hiring and dismissal procedures of school personnel. We call for student representation on school boards.\nWe call for opportunities for lifelong self-education, with re-training programs and transitional financial support for workers displaced by technological advances.\nWe call for free and open access to information, including the public ownership of all large databases, so access cannot be restricted to those able to pay transaction fees.\nTransportation\nThe Socialist Party calls for extensive publicly owned mass transit systems in both urban and rural areas at no or minimal cost to users.\nWe call for government subsidized programs to expand safe routes for foot and bicycle paths.\nWe call for the creation of fully funded high-speed rail transportation systems between cities, with fares set low enough to be a viable alternative to the use of the automobile.\nWe call for pedestrian "ways" that exclude vehicles from the downtown area of cities and towns, accessible only by mass transit.\nWe call for an end to the expansion of the interstate highway system in conjunction with the reduction of combustion engine or automobile based transport.\nWe support federally funded automobile insurance.\nBill of Rights\nThe Socialist Party is committed to the rights of free speech, free press, free assembly, freedom of religious choice through the separation of church and state, the freedom of personal privacy and the right to a safe, healthy environment. \nWe call for the abolition of the covert operations of the CIA and of the political activities of the FBI. We oppose so-called anti-terrorist measures and criminal code reforms that restrict legitimate dissent.\nWe call for an unconditional amnesty program for undocumented people who should be accorded the same civil rights other members of society possess. \nWe defend the rights of immigrants to housing, education, health care, jobs and civil, legal and political rights.\nWe call for the abolition of the death penalty.\nFor more information, e-mail SocPartyIN@aol.com or visit www.bloomington.in.us/~debs2000/.