According to Politico, The People’s Charter policy platform is part of a strategy to push Joe Biden to the left if he wins the presidency.
Black Lives Matter leaders, organized labor, progressive groups and members of the House Democratic “Squad” are unveiling a 2021 agenda Thursday, October 8, 2020, laying down markers for how big a Joe Biden administration could go on coronavirus aid, economic relief and more next year.
Known as the Working Families Party’s “People’s Charter,” the 1,000-word proposal calls for universal free health care, a jobs program employing 16 million people, retroactive hazard pay for essential employees and the reallocation of resources from policing toward education and other services. It also promotes giving the public an ownership stake in firms that receive bailouts, as well as buying out gas and oil companies, among other policies.
The platform, shared first with POLITICO, is the latest move from progressives as they prepare to wrangle with moderate Democrats over the scale of new government spending and programs if the party wins control of Washington.
“There is no doubt we need to evict Donald Trump and immediately begin the work of repairing and rebuilding stronger,” said Ayanna Pressley. “Our country is facing overlapping crises of public health, economic inequality and systemic racism. The People’s Charter offers a pathway to work together toward healing and justice for everyone.”
Working Families Party’s People’s Charter
The People’s Charter is our roadmap out of our current state of crisis, and to an America that works for the many, not the privileged and powerful few.
Americans are coming together to care for each other like never before — but our government isn’t caring for us. It doesn’t even seem to care about us.
Three events have rocked our country: a global pandemic, an economic collapse, and a reckoning with the history of systemic racism against Black people.
Across the country, communities have been caring for one another through these crises. Grocery clerks and farmworkers keeping food on our shelves. Nurses saving lives while risking their own. Neighbors delivering supplies to those most vulnerable and sharing what they have with people who need it. And millions of people have taken to the streets in grief and anger to demand an end to police killings and all racial injustice.
Our politicians, again, rushed to bail out corporations and billionaires. But they’re playing games with unemployment insurance, leaving families to skip meals, go without medication, or fall behind on rent or mortgage payments. They seem to care for billionaires a lot more than they care for working people.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We can heal the wounds from the pandemic, the economic depression, and a history of racism. And we can do more. Working people can come together to make a nation that cares for all of us.
l. Care for the Wronged
REPAIR HISTORIC HARMS AND END SYSTEMIC RACISM.
- Shift resources away from policing, jails and detention centers, endless wars and agencies that separate families. Shift resources into schools, housing, healthcare and jobs, to enable all people – especially Black and brown people, immigrants, and Indigenous people – to thrive.
- Eliminate restrictive local zoning rules that keep housing and schools segregated by race and class. Aid Black families, and other people of color harmed by redlining in buying homes.
- Respect the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Nations.
ll. Emergency Care
HELP EVERYONE GET AND STAY WELL, AND SUPPORT WORKERS, FAMILIES, AND SMALL BUSINESSES AS LONG AS IT TAKES.
- Free Covid testing and treatment for all, including the vaccine once one is available.
- Extend expanded $600 per week Unemployment Insurance until there are jobs for people to return to. Make sure it’s available to everyone, regardless of immigration status.
- No evictions, foreclosures, or utility shut-offs during the pandemic. Cancel rent and suspend debt payments until jobs return.
- Provide retroactive hazard pay for all essential workers
- Care for parents, kids and teachers by delaying school reopening until the virus subsides and schools have the resources to do so safely. Ensure every student learning from home has the devices, nutrition and accommodations they need.
- Care for the most vulnerable during the crisis, especially the homeless, migrants, people with disabilities, trans people, and survivors of domestic and sexual violence, by making sure everyone can access vital services and has a safe place to go.
- Direct federal funding to states and cities to prevent layoffs and cuts to schools, hospitals, and other public services when we need them most.
- Get help to small businesses to preserve vibrant local communities and protect jobs.
lll. A Good Job for Everyone Who Needs One
WORKING PEOPLE CAN’T WAIT YEARS FOR JOBS TO COME BACK, WE NEED MILLIONS OF JOBS NOW.
- Put 16 million people to work immediately — upgrading our broken infrastructure, modernizing and retrofitting millions of homes and buildings, staffing schools, hospitals and health departments, protecting and restoring forest and wetlands, creating opportunities for family farmers and rural communities, and revitalizing American manufacturing.
- Raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour everywhere.
lV. Care for Each Other
ADDRESS THE DEFICIENCIES IN HOW OUR GOVERNMENT CARES FOR US THAT THE PANDEMIC HAS REVEALED.
- Make health care free and universal and take hospital and health insurance profits out of it.
- Ensure every worker who wants a union can join one, so that all workers, and especially essential workers, can bargain for good pay and benefits, safe conditions, and a voice on the job.
- Guarantee universal child care, paid family and medical leave and paid sick days, and income support for parents taking care of kids full time.
- Provide safe, affordable housing for all.
- Guarantee home and community based services for everyone, including mental health care.
- Cancel student debt, an unfair burden on working and middle class young adults.
- Tax the giant corporations who don’t pay their share, and the wealth of the billionaires, who have gotten richer during the worst economic collapse in 90 years.
V. Care for the Future
ACT NOW TO MAKE US ALL MORE RESILIENT TO CHALLENGES WE KNOW WE HAVE TO CONFRONT.
- Invest now to make our food, water, electricity, health, financial and other systems resilient to future crises like climate change.
- Create public banks to make needed investments whenever private markets fail to.
- Give the public ownership stakes in all corporations receiving bailouts.
- Instead of subsidizing and bailing out oil and gas companies, buy them out, to further our transition away from fossil fuels and towards regenerative energy sources, and create green jobs in the process. Prioritize a just transition for workers in extractive industries.
- Prioritize investments in the poor and working-class communities, especially communities of color, which have historically suffered most from pollution. Ensure everyone has clean air to breathe and clean water to drink.
- Emphasize cooperation and diplomacy over competition in our dealings with other countries in order to confront challenges that transcend borders, like pandemics, armed conflicts, and climate change.
- Protect our democracy from takeover by billionaires, corporations, war profiteers and bigots by getting big money out of politics and ensuring that every vote counts. Save the USPS to ensure we can vote by mail.
