D.C. STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY
For immediate release:
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Contact:
Scott McLarty, D.C. Statehood Green Party media coordinator, 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
David Schwartzman, Tax & Budget Coordinator, DC Statehood Green Party, 202-829-9063, dschwartzman@gmail.com
D.C. Statehood Green Party leaders urge passage of D.C. Council's statehood resolution
• Testimony at Oct. 27 Council hearing for the "Statehood or Else" resolution
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- D.C. Statehood Green Party leaders expressed support and praise for a proposed D.C. Council resolution supporting a campaign to win statehood for the District of Columbia.
David Schwartzman, Tax & Budget Coordinator for the D.C. Statehood Green Party, testified in favor of the resolution on behalf of the party at a D.C. Council Committee of the Whole hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the John A. Wilson Building. Dr. Schwartzman is a Professor Emeritus at Howard University.
"PR 21-302, Sense of the Council in Support of a 'Statehood or Else' Signature Campaign Resolution of 2015" would declare Council's support for a multi-media campaign and petition for D.C. statehood. The goal of the petition is one million signatures to be delivered to the White House, all 535 members of Congress, and leaders at both the 2016 Republican and the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Dr. Schwartzman, in his testimony, urged Council "to put D.C. Statehood front and center of a human rights movement for political, economic, social and environmental human rights" by enacting a $15 per hour minimum wage, a shift of gentrification subsidies to truly affordable housing, a progressive DC tax structure, a raise of the TANF income benefit to above the federal poverty level, and a public D.C. bank. The text of the testimony is appended below.
The Green Party of the United States endorses D.C. statehood in its national platform. The platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties do not endorse D.C. statehood. The D.C. Statehood Green Party is an affiliate of the Green Party.
Democratic self-determination, self-government, and full citizenship for D.C. residents in the form of statehood for the District has been the D.C. Statehood Green Party's banner demand ever since it was founded as the D.C. Statehood Party in 1970. Party members have been critical of Republican and Democratic presidents (including Barack Obama), members of Congress, and other leaders for failing to move forward on D.C. statehood.
The D.C. Statehood Green Party has major party status and ballot access in Washington, D.C. In most recent elections, Statehood Green candidates have collectively received more votes than Republicans, leading many to call Statehood Greens "D.C.'s Second Party" in terms of election day numbers.
• Testimony on PR 21-302, Sense of the Council in Support of a 'Statehood or Else' Signature Campaign Resolution of 2015
Presented by David Schwartzman, Tax & Budget Coordinator, DC Statehood Green Party, dschwartzman@gmail.com, 202-829-9063
Committee of the Whole Public Hearing, Tuesday, October 27, 2015
As the Party whose direct ancestor, the DC Statehood Party, founded the DC Statehood movement, we stand in strong support of this resolution and will work to achieve its goal as a priority task of the DC Statehood Green Party. But as Senator Michael Brown and Ann Loikow emphasized, adequate funding is imperative for our Statehood Delegation and efforts to make this a successful campaign. We applaud Councilmember Orange for his speech "DC Statehood or Else" at the Justice or Else Rally at the Mall on October 10, 2015, as well as following it up with this initiative.
As the local affiliate of the Green Party of the United States which has long supported DC Statehood in its platform, unlike the national Democratic and Republican Parties, we are committed to energize our national party and Global Greens, to support DC Statehood nationally and internationally. The latter will include putting the U.S. government on trial in the court of world public opinion, as the only nation with democratic elections which continues to deny the same rights to citizens living in its capital as those enjoyed by all other citizens.
Our Statehood movement's impact is now being felt in the halls of Congress in the form of growing support for the DC Statehood bills. As a member of the DC Statehood Coalition we join in the determined local and national effort to build support for our common goal.
But what is the "Else" in "Statehood or Else"? The only alternative is a commitment to create mass resistance to our present neo-colonial status, including civil disobedience on a scale not yet witnessed in the District of Columbia. But the challenge is to make this resistance possible by raising the morale of our residents in a city with very high income inequality, income insecurity and poverty, while simultaneously improving the quality of life for our residents by addressing these realities of everyday life.
Home Rule is a Colonial Shackle binding us all. Julius Hobson Sr., a founder of the Statehood Party, wisely called Home Rule "Home Fool", recognizing its colonial status. But we break a shackle by pushing against it until it shatters. We push against the shackle of Home Rule by energizing a mass movement demanding our local elected government pass legislation and fund our budget which delivers economic, social and environmental justice to our residents, and dare Congress to repeal any of it! When the Shackle of Home Rule breaks, the goal of DC Statehood will be achieved much sooner than the pundits in the press tell us what is possible.
As the first Human Rights City in the United States, our Council and Mayor should act to put DC Statehood front and center of a human rights movement for political, economic, social and environmental human rights, with these objectives:
1) Require a $15/hour living wage for all DC workers, and insure the effective transition of our Returning Citizens to living wage employment, including the sealing of the records of non-violent victims of the drug war.
2) Prioritize affordable housing for the majority of DC residents now paying more than 30% of their income for housing, by using the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers revenue per year now being spent in subsidizing gentrification.
3) Establish a progressive DC tax structure that is capable of increasing income security for our residents and generating essential revenue for supporting low income programs in our budget (see documentation at http://www.dcctj.org).
4) Raising the TANF income benefit to above the federal poverty level (child poverty is driven by low-wage jobs and a TANF income benefit that is 1/4 of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), and if funded will increase to only 40% FPL by FY 2017 to be equal to the present Maryland benefit).
5) Establish a publicly owned and accountable DC bank that would deposit District tax dollars, instead of Wall Street being the recipient, and in partnership with local financial institutions, promote jobs, sustainable local businesses and affordable housing. (For more information go to the non-partisan DC Public Banking Center at http://dcpublicbanking.org. I am on the Steering Committee.)
See also:
The D.C. Statehood Papers: Writings on D.C. Statehood & self-government
By Sam Smith, The Progressive Review
http://prorev.com/dcsthdintro.htm
A Step Forward for Democracy in D.C.
By Scott McLarty, CounterPunch, September 17, 2014
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/17/a-step-forward-for-democracy-in-d-c
Stand Up! For Democracy in D.C.
http://www.freedc.org
Chronology of Major Events in the International Human Rights Campaign on Behalf of Equal Rights for the People of Washington, D.C.
By Timothy Cooper, Worldrights
http://www.world-rights.org/us/dc_human_rights_time_line.htm
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
~ END ~
For immediate release:
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Contact:
Scott McLarty, D.C. Statehood Green Party media coordinator, 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
David Schwartzman, Tax & Budget Coordinator, DC Statehood Green Party, 202-829-9063, dschwartzman@gmail.com
D.C. Statehood Green Party leaders urge passage of D.C. Council's statehood resolution
• Testimony at Oct. 27 Council hearing for the "Statehood or Else" resolution
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- D.C. Statehood Green Party leaders expressed support and praise for a proposed D.C. Council resolution supporting a campaign to win statehood for the District of Columbia.
David Schwartzman, Tax & Budget Coordinator for the D.C. Statehood Green Party, testified in favor of the resolution on behalf of the party at a D.C. Council Committee of the Whole hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the John A. Wilson Building. Dr. Schwartzman is a Professor Emeritus at Howard University.
"PR 21-302, Sense of the Council in Support of a 'Statehood or Else' Signature Campaign Resolution of 2015" would declare Council's support for a multi-media campaign and petition for D.C. statehood. The goal of the petition is one million signatures to be delivered to the White House, all 535 members of Congress, and leaders at both the 2016 Republican and the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Dr. Schwartzman, in his testimony, urged Council "to put D.C. Statehood front and center of a human rights movement for political, economic, social and environmental human rights" by enacting a $15 per hour minimum wage, a shift of gentrification subsidies to truly affordable housing, a progressive DC tax structure, a raise of the TANF income benefit to above the federal poverty level, and a public D.C. bank. The text of the testimony is appended below.
The Green Party of the United States endorses D.C. statehood in its national platform. The platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties do not endorse D.C. statehood. The D.C. Statehood Green Party is an affiliate of the Green Party.
Democratic self-determination, self-government, and full citizenship for D.C. residents in the form of statehood for the District has been the D.C. Statehood Green Party's banner demand ever since it was founded as the D.C. Statehood Party in 1970. Party members have been critical of Republican and Democratic presidents (including Barack Obama), members of Congress, and other leaders for failing to move forward on D.C. statehood.
The D.C. Statehood Green Party has major party status and ballot access in Washington, D.C. In most recent elections, Statehood Green candidates have collectively received more votes than Republicans, leading many to call Statehood Greens "D.C.'s Second Party" in terms of election day numbers.
• Testimony on PR 21-302, Sense of the Council in Support of a 'Statehood or Else' Signature Campaign Resolution of 2015
Presented by David Schwartzman, Tax & Budget Coordinator, DC Statehood Green Party, dschwartzman@gmail.com, 202-829-9063
Committee of the Whole Public Hearing, Tuesday, October 27, 2015
As the Party whose direct ancestor, the DC Statehood Party, founded the DC Statehood movement, we stand in strong support of this resolution and will work to achieve its goal as a priority task of the DC Statehood Green Party. But as Senator Michael Brown and Ann Loikow emphasized, adequate funding is imperative for our Statehood Delegation and efforts to make this a successful campaign. We applaud Councilmember Orange for his speech "DC Statehood or Else" at the Justice or Else Rally at the Mall on October 10, 2015, as well as following it up with this initiative.
As the local affiliate of the Green Party of the United States which has long supported DC Statehood in its platform, unlike the national Democratic and Republican Parties, we are committed to energize our national party and Global Greens, to support DC Statehood nationally and internationally. The latter will include putting the U.S. government on trial in the court of world public opinion, as the only nation with democratic elections which continues to deny the same rights to citizens living in its capital as those enjoyed by all other citizens.
Our Statehood movement's impact is now being felt in the halls of Congress in the form of growing support for the DC Statehood bills. As a member of the DC Statehood Coalition we join in the determined local and national effort to build support for our common goal.
But what is the "Else" in "Statehood or Else"? The only alternative is a commitment to create mass resistance to our present neo-colonial status, including civil disobedience on a scale not yet witnessed in the District of Columbia. But the challenge is to make this resistance possible by raising the morale of our residents in a city with very high income inequality, income insecurity and poverty, while simultaneously improving the quality of life for our residents by addressing these realities of everyday life.
Home Rule is a Colonial Shackle binding us all. Julius Hobson Sr., a founder of the Statehood Party, wisely called Home Rule "Home Fool", recognizing its colonial status. But we break a shackle by pushing against it until it shatters. We push against the shackle of Home Rule by energizing a mass movement demanding our local elected government pass legislation and fund our budget which delivers economic, social and environmental justice to our residents, and dare Congress to repeal any of it! When the Shackle of Home Rule breaks, the goal of DC Statehood will be achieved much sooner than the pundits in the press tell us what is possible.
As the first Human Rights City in the United States, our Council and Mayor should act to put DC Statehood front and center of a human rights movement for political, economic, social and environmental human rights, with these objectives:
1) Require a $15/hour living wage for all DC workers, and insure the effective transition of our Returning Citizens to living wage employment, including the sealing of the records of non-violent victims of the drug war.
2) Prioritize affordable housing for the majority of DC residents now paying more than 30% of their income for housing, by using the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers revenue per year now being spent in subsidizing gentrification.
3) Establish a progressive DC tax structure that is capable of increasing income security for our residents and generating essential revenue for supporting low income programs in our budget (see documentation at http://www.dcctj.org).
4) Raising the TANF income benefit to above the federal poverty level (child poverty is driven by low-wage jobs and a TANF income benefit that is 1/4 of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), and if funded will increase to only 40% FPL by FY 2017 to be equal to the present Maryland benefit).
5) Establish a publicly owned and accountable DC bank that would deposit District tax dollars, instead of Wall Street being the recipient, and in partnership with local financial institutions, promote jobs, sustainable local businesses and affordable housing. (For more information go to the non-partisan DC Public Banking Center at http://dcpublicbanking.org. I am on the Steering Committee.)
See also:
The D.C. Statehood Papers: Writings on D.C. Statehood & self-government
By Sam Smith, The Progressive Review
http://prorev.com/dcsthdintro.htm
A Step Forward for Democracy in D.C.
By Scott McLarty, CounterPunch, September 17, 2014
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/17/a-step-forward-for-democracy-in-d-c
Stand Up! For Democracy in D.C.
http://www.freedc.org
Chronology of Major Events in the International Human Rights Campaign on Behalf of Equal Rights for the People of Washington, D.C.
By Timothy Cooper, Worldrights
http://www.world-rights.org/us/dc_human_rights_time_line.htm
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
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