People's Party (United States, 2017)
People's Party | |
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Abbreviation | MPP |
Leader | Nick Brana |
Founded | November 9, 2017[1] |
Preceded by | Draft Bernie for a People's Party |
Student wing | Students for a People's Party[2] |
Ideology | |
Political position | Centre-Left to Left-Wing |
Website | |
peoplesparty | |
The Movement for a People's Party (MPP) is a progressive American political organization aimed at “forming a major new political party free of corporate money and influence in 2021.”[4]
It was started by Nick Brana following the 2016 presidential election as "Draft Bernie for a People's Party." Bernie Sanders declined becoming the People's Party's figurehead, instead again seeking the presidential nomination within the Democratic Party for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.
History
The organization was founded by Nick Brana, who previously worked with the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign as the National Political Outreach Coordinator.[5] In 2017, Brana had formed the group out of the "Draft Bernie for a People's Party"[1] which had failed to gain the support of Sanders.[6][7] The group gathered 50,000 signatures on a petition to present to Sanders[8] and held its first mass gathering called the "Convergence Conference" in Washington, D.C. "The ultimate goal is to replace the Democratic Party, it's not merely to create another party," said Brana in 2017.[9]
In 2018, the Movement for a People's Party posted its mission statement to pressure the major parties into adopting a progressive agenda.[10]
In November 2020, a group of MPP volunteers presented a petition to MPP's main leadership, known as the National Coordinating Circle (CC).[11] The goal was to improve transparency, move towards the organization structure they promoted on their website, and create bylaws.[12] In a communication released by Digital Liberation Front Media via Twitter, Movement for a People's Party spokesperson Carol Ehrle stated, "We are aware that some former volunteers have been defaming our movement. We had to remove people who were consistently disrupting our organizing platforms with personal attacks, spamming, and other violations of the community agreements."[13]
Convention
The organization held a virtual People's Convention on August 30, 2020.[14][15] The convention was covered live and viewed by 400,000 people on various social media platforms.[5][15]
Speakers at the convention included former Democratic Party 2020 presidential election candidate Marianne Williamson, former Harvard University professor and philosopher Cornel West, Sanders 2020 co-chair Nina Turner, former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, and comedian/political commentator/satirist Jimmy Dore as well as journalist Chris Hedges and podcaster Ryan Knight.[15]
An entirely new way of being is struggling to be born, and we need a political container for it—one that puts humanitarian values before amoral economic ones, and breaks free of a 20th-century political paradigm that no longer serves our democracy or even our survival on the planet. 'A new birth of freedom' is struggling to be born, emerging from the hearts and minds of millions of people no longer willing to go along with systems that devolve rather than evolve our life on earth.
— Marianne Williamson, before the convention[14]
The ultimate goal of the convention was intended to be to vote on forming a new political party to represent the interests of the people.[14] Supporters viewing the convention online overwhelmingly approved the measure with a 99% majority.[15]
2020 presidential election
While many of the speakers at the convention expressed frustration and distaste for the candidates for the 2020 presidential election, the organization did not contest the 2020 election and instead plans to form a party in 2021, run in the midterms in 2022 and possibly run a presidential candidate in 2024.[15][16]
MPP later organised an online rebuttal to the 2020 United States presidential debates hosted by Rose McGowan.[17]
On December 1, 2020, the first People's Party state organization was registered in Maine. On January 2, 2021, the party will begin enrolling new members and needs 5,000 in order to achieve ballot access.[18] According to Michael Sylvester, the party will mainly be focusing on pushing congressional officials into supporting a floor vote for Medicare for All.[18]
Also in December 2020, Dore began circulating a plan to make Nancy Pelosi's re-election as House Speaker conditional on Medicare for All receiving a floor vote. The plan was endorsed by Justin Jackson of the Los Angeles Chargers and political commentators Krystal Ball and Briahna Joy Gray.[19] The party launched a petition drive to support the plan, with Dore and West joining the advisory committee.[20] The Green Party of Pennsylvania announced its support for forcing the vote as well.[21]
Progress since 2020 convention
On March 13, 2021, People's Party organizers Nick Brana and Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap appeared on the Jimmy Dore Show to discuss the most recent major developments in their party's organizing efforts and their plans for 2021. Dore announced on this broadcast that both he and his co-host Stef Zambrano were officially joining the People's Party.[22]
The party's plans for 2021 are to gain places on state ballots, create state parties, increase membership, and organize. They also plan to hold their national founding convention sometime in the second half of 2021, during which members will vote on the final platform of the party.[3] Beyond 2021, the People's Party plans to run candidates for the United States Congress in 2022, and the presidency in 2024.[23]
Political program
According to the official "Movement for a People's Party" website, "This People's Platform emerged from Bernie Sanders's first presidential campaign platform. It was developed, voted on and adopted by our members in March of 2018. The final People's Party platform will be developed and passed by members at the founding convention in 2021."[24]
Economic issues
The People's Party looks back to Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal as being an unfinished project that they wish to finally fully realize in the 21st century.
"In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed an Economic Bill of Rights that would guarantee employment, food, clothing, leisure, a living wage, housing, healthcare, social security, education and freedom from monopolies and unfair competition to every American. We had the technology and the resources to achieve it 70 years ago, and we could easily accomplish it today. It's time to fulfill Roosevelt's vision and guarantee the necessities of life to all as a human right."
To achieve this, the party states they will attempt to "employ millions of Americans in public works programs, repairing and modernizing our infrastructure and building a 21st century energy system". As well as more restrictions on banking and the establishment of public banks[25]
The party also calls for the implementation of a $15 minimum wage and tipped wage, 4 day work week, universal basic income, federal jobs guarantee, affordable housing and rent control. As well as paid maternity, family, sick, and vacation leave from work.[26]
Environment
The People's Party supports a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. They wish to replace fossil fuel subsidies and a ban on domestic oil drilling and fracking.[27]
They also support an expansion on public transportation and rail, as well as parks and nature reserves.
Trade
The People's Party supports the reverse trade policies in agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA and PNTR, which they claim have "outsourced millions of jobs and created a global race to the bottom in wages."
Labor
The party calls for stronger legal protection for unions and the repeal "of all anti-labor laws, including right-to-work laws and the rest of the Taft-Hartley Act".
The Peoples Party seeks to "democratize the workplace by encouraging the creation of worker cooperatives", stating:
"Modern corporations are completely undemocratic. Workers don't share in the ownership of the company, elect leaders from amongst themselves, or have any say in the company's direction. Unelected investors and executives hoard the wealth that the workers produce, leaving them just enough to survive and continue generating profits." "Working people should participate in management of the corporations that they contribute to just like they participate in the management of the country where they live."[28]
Healthcare
The People's Party supports a single-payer healthcare system. As well as supporting more access to "clean air, clean water, [and] nutritious food" as a human right."[29]. They assert:
"Health is about more than access to medicine and doctors. We need to also promote healthier food by eliminating food deserts, often found in poor communities, and ensuring universal access to fresh and nutritious food", to "enforce the Clean Water Act and strengthen laws meant to safeguard our drinking water".[30]
They also support the "End the criminalization of mental illness that puts more mentally ill people in prisons than treatment facilities."[31]
Education
The People's Party is in favor of free universal education from pre-K to college.[32] As well as the cancellation of student loan debt.
They support the expansion of educational programs including sex education and higher pay for teachers.
Social issues
Rights for women
The People's Party calls for "[requiring] employers to provide twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave". They support the Paycheck Fairness Act to end wage discrimination based on gender. They also state they will "fund non-governmental organizations and initiatives that assist with women’s health and family planning. Protect women’s access to contraception and the availability of a safe and legal abortion. End the practice of female genital mutilation, underage forced marriage and the abuse of sex workers"; and pledges to "advocate for free quality childcare and preschool programs, the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and an increase in Women Infants and Children (WIC) funding."[33]
Racial justice
On "Racial Justice" the People's Party state they will "[p]ut an end to discriminatory laws and the purging of minority-community names from voting rolls by restoring the [Voting Rights Act]. Eliminate mandatory minimums which result in 'sentencing disparities between Black, Latino and White people.' Protect the health of neighborhoods of color by establishing and enforcing strict environmental laws."[34]
Indigenous rights
The People's Party vows to "hold the U.S. government fully accountable for the targeted destruction and violence towards Native life and land. We uphold the rights of Indigenous people to defend and protect their lives, natural resources, sacred sites and culture. We support the rights of Native people to defend their freedom and their lives. [...] We recognize the systemic failures and structural forces in American society which perpetuate this grim reality and seek to eradicate them."[35]
LGBTQ+ rights
On the matter of LGBTQIA rights, the People's Party states that "though we still have a long way to go, the U.S. ended segregation by race decades ago. We must now abolish segregation by sexual orientation"; The party states they will 'defend' against the rollback of achieved rights strengthening of laws against hate propaganda and hate crimes. They support public education and legal action to ensure that the Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality decision is enforced.[36]
Political reform
Money in politics
The People's Party declares their mission "to abolish corporate money and influence from our politics once and for all."
To achieve this, the party wishes to ban lobbyists from making contributions to parties, politicians, their staff, and their families, as well as ending Super PACs, unlimited and untransparent outside spending, corporate executives from holding elected office and to reverse Citizens United.[37]
Electoral reform
The People's Party supports more representative and semi-direct democratic reforms. They support ranked-choice voting and multiple representatives for districts. A desire to end gerrymandering, more ballot access, abolishing voter ID laws (and replace it with automatic voter registration), and switching to hand counted paper ballots.[38]
They also support direct 'broad strokes' policy control via popular referendum, as well as term limits for congressmen.
Civil liberties
Mass surveillance
The People's Party believes in right to privacy. They support the repeal of the Patriot Act and more protection for whistleblowers. They also want to abolish government torture, indefinite detention and extrajudicial assassination.[39]
Gun control
The People's Party seeks to enact stricter limits on firearms, calling to "ban assault rifles, armor piercing rounds, bump stocks, and high capacity magazines", initiate a federal buy-back program for these weapons, require waiting periods to get firearms and a universal background check.
They state they will also "Prevent the accumulation of private arsenals and close the gun show loophole, which allows the private sale of firearms circumventing background checks."[40]
Criminal justice
The People's Party calls for "[ending] the 'for-profit prison industry', which incarcerates young non-violent Black men at a disproportionate rate". And to demilitarize our police forces and create new laws for the allowable use of force. And the transfer of funds from police budgets to social programs.
Drugs
The party supports the legalization of marijuana, and taking it off the federal government’s list of outlawed drugs.
References
- ^ a b Ehrle, Carol (November 9, 2017). "Draft Bernie Launches 'Movement for a People's Party' Amid Explosive DNC Rigging Revelations and Record Support for a Major New Party". Draft Bernie For a People's Party (Press release). Washington, D.C. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
- ^ "Students For A People's Party". Movement for a People's Party. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
- ^ a b "Our Platform". Movement for a People's Party. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ "“forming a major new political party free of corporate money and influence in 2021.”[1].
- ^ a b Roque, Lucas (October 13, 2020). "Over Politics? Hold Up, the People's Party Wants You". YR Media.
- ^ Crosse, Jacob; Kishore, Joseph (September 7, 2020). "The Movement for a People's Party: No program, no principles, no future". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
- ^ Haltiwanger, John (September 27, 2017). "Americans are desperate for a third major political party in the Trump era". Newsweek.
- ^ Sainato, Michael (August 22, 2017). "Progressives to Serve Bernie Sanders With Petition to Start New Party". Observer.
- ^ Zipp, Ricky (September 11, 2017). "Draft Bernie Sanders movement plows on without the senator". USA Today.
- ^ Walker, Patrick (April 20, 2018). "Political Dynamite: Poor People's Campaign and the Movement for a People's Party". CounterPunch. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
- ^ "People's Party Petitioners Official Statements". petitionmpp.com. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ "Current State of MPP Petition Demands". petitionmpp.com. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ @DigitalLibFront (March 17, 2021). "Digital Liberation Front Media on Twitter Our producer received the following response regarding recent allegations made by former organizers with @PeoplesParty_US The response is below. The Interview is here: https://youtu.be/8HKmmucJBAk" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ a b c Otterbein, Holly. "Marianne Williamson is back — to talk about forming a third party". POLITICO.
- ^ a b c d e Griffiths, Shawn (August 31, 2020). "More Than 400,000 Tune In to 'People's Convention'; Overwhelmingly Vote to Form New Party". Independent Voter News.
- ^ Weigel, David (September 8, 2020). "The Trailer: It's not 2016 for third-party candidates". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
- ^ "Rose McGowan to Headline Movement for a People's Party Debate Response". PRNewswire (Press release). October 21, 2020.
- ^ a b Collins, Steve (December 30, 2020). "Maine People's Party plans to start enrolling members this week". Lewiston Sun Journal. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
- ^ Burgis, Ben (December 19, 2020). "Jimmy Dore is Right About the Urgency of Medicare For All. But AOC Isn't the Problem". Jacobin. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
- ^ "Cornel West & Jimmy Dore join the People's Party to force the vote". Movement for a People's Party. December 19, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Doonan, David (December 27, 2020). "Force The Vote". Green Party. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Dore, Jimmy (March 13, 2021). "62% Of Americans Want A Third Party". YouTube. Jimmy Dore Show. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
More than 150,000, that's right, signed up with us [...] and we had more than a million people who attended The People's Convention back in August [...] it was trending number 2 on Twitter for five hours straight. [...] That really showed the appetite for a major new party in this country [...] that is free of corporate money and influence.
- ^ "Maine Becomes First State To Register The People's Party!". Movement for a People's Party. December 1, 2020.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §An Economic Bill of Rights. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §An Economic Bill of Rights. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Clean Energy and Environment Protection. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Strong Unions and Workplace Democracy. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Medicare for All. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Medicare for All. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Medicare for All. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Free Public College and Quality Education. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Equal Rights for Women. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Racial Justice. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Honor Indigenous Rights. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §LGBTQIA Equality. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Abolish Corruption and Restore Democracy. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Secure and Transparent Election. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Defend Civil Liberties. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Our Platform". Movement For A People's Party. March 15, 2018. §Defend Civil Liberties. Retrieved March 15, 2021.