Getting Leonard Peltier on the Ballot in New York

The required signatures to get Leonard Peltier on the ballot in New York are 15,000 by September 16, 2004.
Leonard Peltier for President of the United States (New York)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Peltier_New_York

Statement of Peace and Freedom Party Presidential Candidate Leonard Peltier:

I am a Native American who has suffered nearly 28 years in prison, even though government attorneys and courts acknowledge that the government withheld evidence, fabricated evidence, and coerced witnesses to fraudulently convict me. But the courts say they have no power to correct the wrongs of our government. If the Courts do not, who does?

I will ensure that all peoples receive justice. Environmental protection is paramount for our survival. The earth is our sacred Mother who nourishes us. Our government is destroying the earth by allowing its usurpation for greedy purposes. I will protect the environment. All minorities must be allowed to maintain their languages and traditions with dignity. I personally suffered the indignity of being deprived of speaking my native tongue and following Lakota traditions. This country has engaged in genocidal policies to exterminate virtually every minority, especially those who express dissent and seek equal justice. Now is the time to end the continuing injustices of this government and ensure liberty and equal health care to all. Luther Standing Bear, a Sioux Chief, stated: "Out of the Indian approach to life became a great freedom - an intense and absorbing love for nature; a respect for life; enriching in a supreme power; and principals of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guard to mundane relations." That statement exemplifies the basic truths of life. I will represent all people, not the entrepreneurs who care only how much money can be stuffed into their pockets.

-Leonard Peltier

The required signatures to get Leonard Peltier on the ballot in New York are 15,000 by September 16, 2004. The complication here is you need a certain amount of signatures from each of the Congressional districts. It would be good to see New York activists come forward to help make this happen.

This could be done under the name and platform of the Peace and Freedom Party, the party Leonard Peltier is running with California. The majority of voters in the March 2nd Peace and Freedom Party Primary voted to put Leonard Peltier on the November ballot in California. Here is our platform:

Peace and Freedom Party Platform

(Adopted March 23, 2003.)

The Peace and Freedom Party, founded in 1967, is committed to
socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality. We
represent the working class, those without capital in a capitalist
society. We organize toward a world where cooperation replaces
competition, a world where all people are well fed, clothed and
housed; where all women and men have equal status; where all
individuals may freely endeavor to fulfill their own talents and
desires; a world of freedom and peace where every community retains
its cultural integrity and lives with all others in harmony. We offer
this summary of our immediate and long-range goals:

Socialism

We support social ownership and democratic management of industry and
natural resources. Under capitalism, the proceeds of labor go to the
profits of the wealthy few. With socialism, production is planned to
meet human needs.

To us, socialism is workers' democracy, including the principle that
all officials are elected, recallable at any time, and none receives
more than a worker's wage. Socialism can only be brought about when
we, the working class, unite and act as a body in our own interests.
Our goals cannot be achieved by electoral means alone. We participate
in mass organization and direct action in neighborhoods, workplaces,
unions and the armed forces everywhere.

While organizing for the future, we work in the present, challenging
the system with the following immediate and transitional goals:
Labor and Full Employment

· We demand a socially useful job at union pay levels or a
guaranteed dignified income for everyone.
· We support the establishment of a Universal Basic Income
(UBI) to alleviate poverty and homelessness.
· We call for a 30-hour work week for 40 hours' pay and
abolition of forced overtime.
· We demand a legally mandated annual paid vacation of at least
4 weeks.
· We demand expansion and enforcement of job health and safety
laws. We call for the restoration of all labor rights previously won
by women and their extension to men as well.
· We demand paid parental leaves and time off work for
childcare.
· No prison labor for private profit. Living wage and full
union rights for any prison labor.
· Defend workers' rights to organize, form union caucuses,
strike, and boycott.
· No replacement of striking workers.
· Federally-funded public works programs to rebuild the
nation's infrastructure and restore the environment.
· International solidarity of workers against international
capitalist schemes such as NAFTA and WTO in defense of jobs, wages,
working conditions and environmental laws.
· International trade agreements must guarantee the protection
of workers and democratic rights in all participating countries.
· A rank and file socialist-oriented labor movement to mobilize
working-class people to assume ownership and control of the economy.
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Peace and International Justice

The drive for greater profits by multi-national corporations which
direct U.S. foreign policy is a major cause of war. We stand for
peace between nations and the right of all peoples to self-
determination. We support an ongoing socialist transformation
everywhere. We therefore call for:
· The U.S. to renounce nuclear first strike, and take the
initiative toward global disarmament by eliminating all of its
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
· No U.S. intervention anywhere. End all support and aid to
repressive regimes and all military and police training aid
everywhere. End efforts to destabilize foreign governments. End U.S.-
directed economic warfare against other countries. Abolish the CIA,
NSA, AID and other agencies for interference inother countries'
internal affairs. Withdraw all U.S. troops and weapons from all other
countries.
· Stop all U.S. arms exports and trade.
· Dissolve all military pacts.
· Convert from military to peaceful production; reallocate the
resulting "peace dividend" for social benefit.
· Abolish the Selective Service System.
· No weapons in space.

Equal Rights and Liberties

The capitalists use every difference in society, including sex,
ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, age, and physical abilities
to divide workers in order to depress wages, maintain a surplus labor
pool, and prevent working-class unity. We demand equal treatment of
all people by employers, businesses and government. We stand for a
world free from all forms of oppression.

Women

We demand full equality for women in all aspects of life. Sexism is a
major instrument for teaching relations of domination and inequality
and for keeping one-half of the workforce underpaid or unpaid. We
work to end oppressive sex roles in society. We must ensure equal
rights and responsibilities in child raising. Unions must do more to
organize women and promote women's leadership. We demand:
· Adoption of an equal rights amendment.
· Equal pay for equal work, and for work of comparable worth.
· Enforce non-discrimination in hiring and promotion with
affirmative action where necessary.
· Provision of free, high-quality, community-controlled child
care.
· Convenient provision of safe, free birth control information
and materials to men and women of any age.
· Free abortion on demand.
· No forced abortions or sterilizations.
· Safe prenatal care.
· End violence against women.

Ending Racism and National Oppression

Accompanying the continuing economic crisis, we see a rise in racial
discrimination, increased terrorism against racially and nationally
oppressed people, and retrenchment in civil rights. Minority families
are disproportionately victimized by cutbacks in health care,
education, child care, welfare, food stamps and jobs.We demand:
· End all forms of racial discrimination.
· Enforce non-discrimination in hiring and promotion
withaffirmative action where necessary.
· Prosecute and punish police and prison officials who
brutalize and murder.

Language Rights

Restore to the State Constitution co-equal status for Spanish as an
official language of California in recognition of its cultural,
historical, economic and demographic importance to the people of this
state.
· Abolish all English-only laws and policies, including those
of private employers.

Undocumented Workers

Immigrant workers are hounded by government authorities, worked and
housed in substandard conditions by unscrupulous bosses, and blamed
by Republican and Democratic demagogues for society's problems.
· We call for open borders.
· We demand an end to deportations of immigrants.
· We demand full political, social and economic rights for
resident non-citizens.

Native Americans

We support self-determination of indigenous peoples and sovereignty
for Native nations. We demand:
· Honor treaty obligations with Native American nations and
recognize California tribes.
· Stop the theft of natural resources located on reservation
lands.
· Honor Native American water, hunting and fishing rights.
· Free the prisoners of the FBI/BIA war against Native
Americans, end all harassment.
· Stop destruction of sacred burial sites.

Sexual Orientation

· Equal treatment and benefits under the law for all families.
Guarantee equal child custody, adoption, visitation privileges, and
foster parenthood rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
people.
· Equal treatment for all people in the military regardless of
sexual orientation.
· The right to gay marriage and partners' benefits.
· Accurate sex education courses in public schools. Truthful
information about sexuality in society and history.

The Disabled

The disabled are entitled to special consideration and planning in
education, housing, health, recreation, transportation and attendant
care to enable fuller participation in all aspects ofsociety.
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Retired Workers
Retired workers must be guaranteed a decent living at union wage
levels. We demand:
· Immediate improvements in economic benefits and social
services.
· Free, quality, multi-lingual and multi-cultural medical and
home health care.
· Accessible transportation.
· An end to all forced retirement.
· Stop the segregation and isolation of senior citizens.

Defense of the Environment

The same corporate forces and economic system that exploit and
brutalize the world's working class people are destroying the world's
biosphere. These social policies and ecollogical destruction often
overlap. Socialism is necessary to end the ecological destruction
caused by capitalism. Our goal is a society that is in harmony with
nature as it is in harmony with its own people.
We therefore favor:
· Planning for urban and regional environment based on
principles of sound ecosystems management.
· Create public open spaces in all communities.
· Tighter regulation of pesticides, herbicides, industrial
wastes and genetically modified foods to protect human food, air and
water, employees in theworkplace, and species habitat. No release of
genetically engineered or transgenic organisms into the wild. No
patenting of life forms.
· A multi-source energy system, development of solar technology
and other renewable, non-polluting energy sources. Eliminate nuclear
power plants. End fossil fuel dependence.
· Public ownership of public utilities.
· Protect species habitat such as old-growth forests to
preserve biodiversity.
· Massive development of free public transportation.
· International trade agreements must guarantee the protection
of the environment in all participating countries.
· End environmental racism, including the immediate cessation
of nuclear testing and toxic waste dumping on reservation lands, the
disproportionate creation of landfills in poor communities of color
and eliminate the mass development of maquiladora plants.

Transportation

· Massive development of public transportation systems that are
reliable, frequent, free or at nominal fares and environmentally
sound.
· Expand safe routes for foot and bicycle traffic.

Agriculture

We want an agricultural system that ensures enough food and other
farm products to meet human needs, guarantees a high standard of
living to farmers and farm workers, protects humans and the ecosystem
from environmental degredation and encourages organic farming. To
that end, we call for:
· An end to subsidies and tax breaks for corporations.
· Food distribution by farm and consumer cooperatives.
· Extension of all labor rights to farm workers, including wage
and hour regulations.
· An end to cruel methods of animal husbandry.
· No use of recominant bovine growth hormone (RBGH) in meat or
dairy cattle.
· No genetically engineered organisms in food production.
· A ban on "terminator" seeds.
· No export of chemicals banned in the U.S. or import of
agricultural products treated with them.

Education

Education is critical to individual survival and civilized human
values, but U.S. capitalism is dismantling public
education.Inadequate and unequal funding of schools perpetuates
racism,crime and inequality.We demand:
· Integrated, democratically-run schools with up-to-date plant
and equipment and smaller classes.
· Teach the history of workers' struggles and labor's creation
of society's wealth and progress.
· Multi-lingual and multi-cultural education at all levels.
· A federal law requiring and funding equal average per-pupil
expenditures by every public school district, with extra funds for
students with special needs such as disability or economic
deprivation.
· Tuition-free higher education available to all.
· Restore cutbacks in public education and public library
services.
· No school voucher schemes.
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Housing and Rent Control

We recognize the right of everybody to quality, secure housing. We
demand:
· Production and rehabilitation of non-profit, community-
controlled housing through public financing with immediate emphasis
on housing the homeless.
· Rent and eviction control laws and collective bargaining for
tenants.
· Resident-controlled community renovation programs to create,
not destroy, low- and moderate-income housing.
· Enforce local affordable housing quotas.

Freedom, Justice and Crime

We call for the defense and extension of the liberties guaranteed in
the Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech, press, assembly and
association, and the right to keep and bear arms for individual and
collective defense. The ultimate guarantee of those rights is the
organized strength of the working class.
Capitalism and poverty breed crime and repression. Working class
people are the primary victims both of street crime and of police
reaction to it. The bosses use laws against victimless
activities, "legal" and illegal expansion of police powers, military
and paramilitary occupation of poor and minority communities, and
diversion of resources to police and jails, to keep workers
intimidated and dependent.We demand:
· Stop state-sponsored spying on and violence against
progressive organizations.
· Democratically-controlled police review boards with powers of
subpoena and discipline.
· Abolish the death penalty.
· Repeal the Three Strikes law.
· Stop trials and imprisonment of juveniles as adults.
· Treatment of prisoners as human beings; rehabilitation, not
vengeance.
· Decriminalize victimless activities including drug use and
consensual sex. Legalize marijuana. End the "war on drugs," which is
primarily directed against poor and working-class people.
· Stop unwarranted searches and seizures of persons and
property. Restore constitutional rights.
· Prosecute crimes of the wealthy and powerful against workers
and the environment.
· Freedom for all political prisoners.

Voting and Elections

· Proportional representation to promote legislative
representation of the wide variety of political viewpoints.
· Enforce and extend voting rights for people of color, non-
English speakers, and homeless people.
· Election should be by direct vote of the people. Eliminate
the Electoral College.
· Enforce and extend voting rights for people of color, non-
English speakers, and homeless people.
· Free and equal access to radio and television for all
candidates.

Health Care

We believe that access to quality medical and dental care is a basic
human right. We stand for a democratically-controlled, publicly-
funded health care system. We support health practices that emphasize
education, prevention and nutrition. We demand:
· Free, high-quality health care for everyone.
· Eliminate for-profit health care.
· Free immunization programs.
· No private patents on drugs developed through publicly-funded
research.
· Price controls on drugs and medical technology.
· Safe pre-natal care, including women's choice of birth
alternatives.
· More medical facilities to provide services and education in
low-income neighborhoods and rural areas.
· More substance abuse treatment and needle-exchange programs.
· More research into diseases and disorders caused by man-made
substances.
· More community health care facilities.
· Support non-standard proven methods.
· Special attention to preventing epidemics of communicable
diseases, such as AIDS.

Taxes

Public services and infrastructure have deteriorated as government
has increasingly shifted the tax burden from corporations to workers.
Our long-range goal is a socialist society without conventional
taxes, with public services to be funded from the proceeds of social
production. We demand:
· Repeal Proposition 13. Tax property for profit, not property
for personal use. Remove property taxes on modest owner-occupied
homes.
· Repeal the sales tax.
· Include aggregate of real property and stocks, bonds, etc. in
a steeply-graduated property tax.
· Restore the renters' tax credit.
· Double registration fees on luxury vehicles.
· Tax unearned income at a higher rate than earned income.
· Eliminate or reverse income tax on low- and moderate-income
families.
· Re-enact California's unitary tax on multi-national
corporations.
· Tax the business activities of churches on the same basis as
other organizations.
· Take the cap off social security taxes, make the rates
progressive so burden falls on the wealthy.

Mass Media

Ownership of television and radio stations, print media, and other
forms of communication has been increasingly concentrated into the
irresponsible hands of fewer corporations, and any checks and
balances previously available to the people have been eliminated.
· We call for public control of the public airwaves.
· We demand restoration of a strengthened Fairness Doctrine and
the Equal Time Provision.
· We oppose the legislated extinction of the VHF spectrum,
which should be used for public monitoring of legislative bodies and
for other civic purposes.
· We defend the Internet from censors and commercial interests.
· We call for enforcement of antitrust laws on media
conglomerates.
· We support new media for grassroots communication to enhance
freedom of self-expression and information distribution.

Religion

· We demand strict separation of religious and government
institutions and activities.