The Socialist Party Platform of 1928 has some good ideas on a moralistic level, but for the most part just seeing how many of them have been realized in America and have been used to subjugate the population is eye opening. Just remember not all ideas are bad, but in the hands of evil men anything can be perverted. Socialism is not a solution while America has subjective morality.
CONSTRUCTIVE PROGRAM PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND
CONSERVATION To recover the rightful heritage of the people we propose:
1. Nationalization
of our natural resources, beginning with the coal mines and water sites,
particularly at Boulder Dan and Muscle Shoals.
2. A publicly owned giant power system under
which the Federal government shall cooperate with the states and municipalities
in the distribution of electrical energy to the people at cost. Only when
public agencies have full control over the generation, transmission and
distribution of electrical power can the consumers be guaranteed against
exploitation by the great electrical interests of the country. Public ownership
of these and other industries must include employee representation in their
management, and the principle of collective bargaining must be recognized.
3.
National ownership and democratic management of railroads and other means of
transportation and communication.
4. An adequate national program for flood
control, flood relief, reforestation, irrigation and reclamation.
UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF To relieve the tragic
misery of millions of unemployed workers and their families we propose:
1.
Immediate governmental relief of the unemployed by the extension of all public
works and a program of long range planning of public works following the
present depression. All persons thus employed to be engaged at hours and wages
fixed by bona-fide labor unions.
2. Loans to states and municipalities for the
purpose of carrying on public works and the taking of such other measures as
will lessen widespread misery.
3. A system of unemployment insurance.
4. The nation-wide extension of public
employment agencies in co-operation with city federations of labor.
LABOR LEGISLATION The lives and well-being of
the producers and their families should be the first charge on society. We
therefore urge:
1. A
system of health and accident insurance and of old age pensions as well as
unemployment insurance. As long as the workers are dependent primarily upon
their employers rather than on the community for protection against the
exigencies of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment, employers hostile
or indifferent to the labor movement will be able to use their private
insurance schemes as powerful weapons against organized labor.
2.
Shortening the work day in keeping with the steadily increasing productivity of
labor due to improvements in machinery and methods.
3. Securing to every worker a rest period of no
less than two days in each week.
4. Enacting of an adequate Federal AntiChild
Labor Amendment.
5. Abolition of the brutal exploitation of convicts under the contract system and substitution of a cooperative organization of industries in penitentiaries and workshops for the benefit of convicts and their dependents, the products to be used in public institutions, and the convict workers to be employed at wages current in the industry.
6. Legislation aiming at the prevention of
occupational diseases.
TAXATION For the proper support of government
and as a step toward social justice we propose:
1. Increase of taxation on high income levels,
of corporation taxes and inheritance taxes, the proceeds to be used for old age
pensions and other forms of social insurance.
2. Appropriation by taxation of the annual
rental value of all land held for speculation.
CIVIL LIBERTIES To secure to the people the
civil rights without which democracy is impossible, we demand:
1. Federal legislation to enforce the First
Amendment to the Constitution so as effectually to guarantee freedom of speech,
press and assembly, and to penalize any official who interferes with the civil
rights of any citizen.
2. Abolition of injunctions in labor disputes.
3. Repeal the Espionage law and of other
repressive legislation, and restoration of civil and political rights to those
unjustly convicted under war-time laws, with reimbursement for time served.
4.
Legislation protecting foreign - born workers from deportation and refusal of
citizenship on account of political opinions.
5.
Modification of the immigration laws to permit the reuniting of families and to
offer a refuge for those fleeing from political or religious persecution.
6.
Abolition of detective agencies engaged in interstate business.
ANTI-LYNCHING
As a measure of protection of the oppressed, especially for our Negro fellow
citizens, we propose: Enactment of the Berger Anti-Lynching bill making
participation in lynching a felony.
POLITICAL DEMOCRACY The Constitution of the
United States was drafted in 1787 and was designed to meet conditions utterly
different from those prevailing today. In order to make our form of government
better suited to the exigencies of the times we propose the immediate calling
of a constitutional convention. A modernized Constitution should provide, among
other things, for the election of the President and Vice-President by direct
popular vote of the people, for reduction of the representation in Congress of
those states where large sections of the citizens are disfranchised by force or
fraud, and proportional representation, and for the abolition of the usurped
power of the Supreme Court to pass upon the constitutionality of legislation
enacted by Congress.
CREDIT
AND BANKING For our emancipation from the money trust, we propose:
Nationalization of the banking and currency system, beginning with extension of
the service of the postal savings banks to cover every department of the
banking business.
FARM
RELIEF The Socialist Party believes that the farmer is entitled to special
consideration because of the importance of agriculture, because of the farmers'
present economic plight and because the farmer is unable to control the prices
of what he buys and what he sells. Many of the party's demands, including
public development of electrical energy, nationalization of coal and railroads,
and reform of the credit system will be of distinct benefit to the farmer. As a
further means of agricultural relief, we propose:--
1. Acquisition by bona fide cooperative societies and by Federal, State and municipal governments of grain elevators, stockyards, storage warehouses and other distributing agencies and the conduct of these services on a non-profit basis.
2.
Encouragement of farmers' cooperative purchasing and marketing societies and of
credit agencies. 3. Social insurance against losses due to adverse weather
conditions, such as hail, drought, cyclone and flood.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS We are unalterably
opposed to imperialism and militarism. Therefore, we propose:
1. Immediate withdrawal of American forces from Nicaragua,
and abandonment of the policy of military intervention in Central America and
other countries.
2. That all private loans and investments of
American citizens in foreign countries shall be made at the sole risk of the
bondholders and investors. The United States government shall not resort to any
military or other coercive intervention with foreign countries for the
protection of such loans and investments.
3. Cancellation of all war debts due the United States from its former associated powers on condition of a simultaneous cancellation of all interallied debts and a corresponding remission of the reparations obligations of the Central Powers, and on the further condition that our debtors reduce their military expenditures below pre-war level. The Socialist Party especially denounces the debt settling policy of our government in favoring the Fascist dictatorship of Italy and thereby helpingto perpetuate the political enslavement of the Italian nation.
4.
Recognizing both the services and the limitations of the League of Nations, the
need of revision of its covenant and of the Treaty of Versailles, we unite with
the workers of Europe in demanding that the League be made all-inclusive and
democratic, and that the machinery for the revision of the peace-treaty under
article 19 of the covenant be elaborated and made effective. We favor the entry
of the United States at the time and under conditions which will further these
clauses and promote the peace of the world.
5. The
recognition of the Russian Soviet government.
6. Abandonment of the dangerous program of agressive militarism and big navy building in competition with other nations, and we pledge ourselves to an agressive agitation against this policy and on behalf of international disarmament.
7. Treaties outlawing war and the substitution of peaceful methods for the settlemient of international disputes.
8. Independence of the Philippines on terms agreed upon in negotiations with the Filipinos; autonomy for Porto Rico and civil government for the Virgin Islands. Issued by SOCIALIST PARTY NATIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Socialist Party, National Campaign Committee, 31 Union Square, New York City. I am interested in your Campaign, and would like to hear more of your work. Name Address City State
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