1. State policy on education should act principally to ensure equal opportunity to a quality education. The Green Party of Utah maintains that access to quality education for all Americans is the difference that will lead to a strong and diverse community.
2. Greens support educational diversity. We hold no dogma absolute, and we view learning as a lifelong process to which all people have an equal right.
3. Within public education, we believe in broad choices. Curricula should focus on skills: basic skills, languages, arts and sciences, critical thinking skills, citizenship skills and the history of social movements.
4. We advocate creative and cooperative education at every age level, and the inclusion of cultural diversity in all curricula. We encourage hands-on approaches that encourage a multitude of individual learning styles. We recognize the viable alternative of home-based education.
5. Parental responsibility should be encouraged by finding ways to help support parents in their efforts to help support their children as more families confront economic conditions demanding a greater deal of time be spent away from home. Parents should be as involved as possible in their children's education; values do start with parents.
6. Educational funding formulas at the state level need to be adjusted as needed to avoid gross inequalities between districts and schools. Educational grants should provide necessary balance to ensure equal educational access for minority, deprived, special needs and exceptional children. In higher education, federal college scholarship aid should be increased and aimed at excluding no qualified student.
7. Our teachers find they are underpaid, overworked and rarely supplied with the resources necessary to do the work most are sincerely trying to do to reach their students. It is time to stop disinvesting in education, and start putting education at the top of our social and economic agenda. Classroom teachers at the elementary and high school levels should be given professional status, and salaries comparable to related professions requiring advanced education, training and responsibility.
8. Principals are also essential components in effective educational institutions. We encourage state Departments of Education and school boards to deliver more programmatic support and decision-making to the true grassroots level – i.e., the classroom teacher and school principal.
9. We call for the teaching of non-violent conflict resolution at all levels of education.
10. We support a host of innovative and critical educational efforts, such as bilingual education, continuing education, job retraining, mentoring, and apprenticeship programs.
11. We are deeply concerned about the intervention in our schools of corporations that promote a culture of consumption and waste. Schools should not expose children to commercial advertising. Schools must safeguard students' privacy rights and not make available private student information upon corporate (or government) request.
12. Within higher education, we oppose military and corporate control over the priorities and topics of academic research.
13. We support tuition-free post secondary (collegiate and vocational) public education.
14. Greens view learning as a lifelong and life-affirming process to which all people should have access. We cannot state more forcefully our belief that in learning, and openness to learning, we find the foundation of our Platform.
15. We believe that comprehensive sex education, including information about preventing conception and the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, should be included in the curriculum of all public schools.

B. HEALTH CARE

1. Fundamental reform of our nation's health care system is necessary to provide affordable, quality and accessible health care for all Americans. Currently, we are the only industrialized country without a national health care system. Unfortunately, we have a private insurance system that insures only the healthiest people, systematically denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions and routinely terminating coverage to those who become ill.
2. The Green Party of Utah considers health care a human right, and therefore supports a single-payer national insurance program for the United States. This program would be publicly financed at the national and local levels, administered locally, and privately and equitably delivered. Consumers would be given full choice of health care provider.
3. It would cover all standard medical procedures, treatment, diagnosis, etc. as well as drug treatment, dental care, medication, chronic and terminal illness, and abortion. The program must include equal coverage for treatment of mental illness. All Americans must be covered under this plan, regardless of employment, income, housing, age, or prior medical condition.
4. The Green Party of Utah believes, based on comparison with other nations that have enacted similar programs that such a program would be more economical and would save money in many areas. In order to enact this program, we must dismantle the current managed care system. The current system's high costs and widely recognized failures demand that bold, not incremental, steps be taken. We recognize that community control needs to be reasserted over our health care system. We oppose the selling off of non-profit community hospitals for private gain and strongly support increasing the number of non-profit and community hospitals in this country. Our medical priorities must shift from making profits to providing quality universal health care. Local communities must be allowed to fully participate in boards overseeing their health care facilities and providers.
5. Alongside the many Americans calling for action that makes health care a right, not a privilege, the Green Party of Utah states with a clear voice its strong support for universal health care.
6. We call for passage of legislation at the national and state level that guarantees comprehensive benefits for all Americans. A single-insurer system funded by the federal government and administered at the state and local levels remains viable and is an essential barometer of our national health and well-being.
7. We support maintaining private medical providers, including doctors, hospitals, and clinics.
8. As we support cost savings by small business, we note it is estimated that businesses will save significantly compared to their current premiums – an estimated $900 billion – under a proposed single-payer National Health Trust Fund plan.
9. We endorse national health insurance and demand that Congress again propose and act to support the practical and moral imperative of Universal Health Care. Major features of this health care legislation should include:
1. Universal access without concern for work status or health history;
2. Freedom of health care choice so patients can choose their own clinics, doctors or other health care professionals;
3. Substantial cost savings through annual, global budgets, national fee schedules, and streamlined administration that acts to eliminate the waste of the current system;
4. Comprehensive benefits, without insurance premiums, deductibles or co-payments, including hospital and physician care, prescription drugs, dental and vision care, reproductive and preventative care, and defined mental health benefits;
5. A focus on rural health services;
6. And continued support of medical research into the quality, effectiveness and appropriateness of medical care.
10. Medicare provides health care for nearly 40 million Americans over the age of 65. Medicare: Part A is financed by the Medicare Trust Fund, which is replenished by payroll taxes. But as the major portion of the Fund's financing moves from these dedicated payroll taxes and premiums to general funds, the Fund's trustees predict insolvency looms, putting Medicare is at risk. In order to correct this, we would vigorously pursue savings and cuts from abundant waste and fraud, eliminate costly, unnecessary services that benefit providers more than patients, and rein in pharmaceutical industry rip-offs.
11. MEDICAID, which pays for basic medical assistance for the disabled, blind, pregnant women, and children in families who have no insurance, also must be protected and put on a firm financial footing.
12. The prices of all kinds of medication must be publicly supervised, with federal controls, and be set with respect to the needs of patients and consumers, instead of demands for commercial profit.
13. Successful reform of our health care system must start with wellness education; that is, preventive health care. It is each of our responsibilities to tend to our own health through education, diet, nutrition and exercise.
14. The Surgeon General has stated that a large percentage of illness is diet related; therefore improving the quality of our nation's food supply and our personal eating habits will go a long way toward improving our health care system – by reducing the need for care.
15. We support a wide-range of health care services, not just traditional medicine that too often emphasizes a medical arms race, relying upon high-tech intervention and surgical techniques.
16. We support the teaching of holistic health approaches and, as appropriate, the use of complementary and alternative therapies such as herbal medicines, homeopathy, acupuncture, and other healing approaches.
17. We oppose the arrest, harassment or prosecution of anyone involved in any aspect of the production, cultivation, transportation, distribution or consumption of medicinal marijuana. We also oppose the harassment, prosecution or revocation of license of any health-care provider who gives a recommendation or prescription for medicinal marijuana.
18. As a matter of appropriate professional responsibility, we support informed consent laws to educate consumers to potential health impacts.
19. Primary care, through a renewed attention to family medicine as opposed to increased medical specialization, is appropriate and necessary.
20. Special attention must be given to women's health issues, including reproductive rights and family planning.
21. We believe the right of a woman to control her own body is inalienable. It is essential that the option of a safe, legal abortion remains available.
22. Medical research must be increased, and alternative therapies actively sought, to combat breast cancer.
23. We call for adequate social and health services being made available to those who have special needs: the mentally ill, the handicapped, those who are terminally ill.
24. We call for wider implementation of hospice care.
25. We believe an all out campaign must be waged against AIDS and HIV, and we will press for the implementation of the recommendations of the National Commission on AIDS. We call for prevention awareness and access to condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. We condemn HIV-related discrimination; would make drug treatment and other programs available for all addicts who seek help; would expand clinical trials for treatments and vaccines; and speed up the FDA drug approval process.
26. In matters of international trade, the United States must respect the measures other nations take to ensure public health, and must not use medication, medical equipment, and other medical necessities -- and threats of withholding them -- as leverage for political reasons or as extortion for the sake of commercial profit. We oppose any embargo or economic sanction that would cause the suffering of innocent civilians.

C. ECONOMIC JUSTICE/SOCIAL SAFETY NET

1. We believe our community priorities must first protect the young and helpless. We believe local decision-making is important, but we realize, as we learned during the civil rights era, that strict federal standards must guide state actions in providing basic protections. As the richest nation in history, we should not condemn millions of children to a life of poverty, while corporate welfare is increased to historic highs.
2. The ones who suffer most from economic injustice are children - those who will inherit the social and environmental problems of the 20th century, and who will carry the responsibility of sustaining our society into the next millennium. Ensuring that children and their caregivers have access to and adequate, secure standard of living should form the cornerstone of our economic priorities. We condemn the passage of the 1996 Welfare Act by congress and favor the creation of a stronger social safety net based on these principles:
3. We believe that all people have a right to food, housing, medical care, a living wage job, education, and support in times of hardship. We favor movement towards a guarantee of a living wage for every employed resident in Utah, we acknowledge that such a goal can only be accomplished by work in conjunction with other states to insure the businesses do not flee to the cheapest regional wage pools.
4. We believe that work performed outside the monetary system has inherent social and economic value, and is essential to a healthy, sustainable economy and peaceful communities. Such work includes, but is not limited to: child and elder care; homemaking; voluntary community service; continuing education; participating in government; and the arts. For the short term, the development of local currencies---such as the Utica Hour---will help ease these discrepancies.
5. We call for restoration of a federally funded entitlement program to support children, families, the unemployed, elderly and disabled, with no time limit on benefits.
6. The minimum wage must be modified to guarantee all Americans a Living Wage that is specific to their own counties; such a wage should be calculated yearly to meet the cost of living [housing, food prices, and the cost of transportation] in each specific area.
7. We support public funding for the development of living wage jobs in community and environmental service, for example, environmental clean-up, recycling, sustainable agriculture and food production, sustainable forest management, repair and maintenance of public facilities, neighborhood-based public safety, aids in schools, libraries and childcare centers, and construction and renovation of energy-efficient housing. We oppose enterprise zone give always which benefit corporations more than inner city communities
8. We must take aggressive steps to restore a fair distribution of income. We support tax incentives for businesses that apply fair employee wage distributions standards, movement towards guaranteed profit sharing percentages for everyone employed in a firm [distribution would be based on the number of hours contributed yearly]. We favor income tax policies that restrict the accumulation of excessive individual wealth.
9. Forcing welfare recipients to accept jobs that pay wages below a livable income (a living wage) drives wages down and exploits workers for private profit at public expense. We reject workfare as a form a slave labor.
10. Local community spirited and sustainable businesses receiving public subsidies must provide livable wage jobs, observe basic workers rights, and agree to affirmative action policies of such distribution not just on our present needs, but on the seventh generation to come.

D. TAX JUSTICE / FAIRNESS

1. Middle-class and poor people are paying an ever-greater proportion of federal taxes, and too often local and state taxes are unfair and regressive. The tax code is a labyrinth of deductions, loopholes, exemptions and write-offs, the result of insider- and industry-lobbying that has damaged our economy as it has served the interests of big business and financial institutions.
2. We call for system-wide tax reform that acts to simplify the tax system. The high price of corporate welfare corrupts the political process by encouraging the exchange of political favors for campaign donations. Corporate tax breaks are ultimately paid for by higher taxes on the middle and lower income classes; they distort the rules of the marketplace and seldom serve a larger public purpose.
3. Subsidies, export incentives, tax loopholes and tax shelters that benefit large corporations now amount to hundreds of billions of dollars each year and must be abolished. We call for a tax policy that moves to eliminate loopholes and other exemptions that favor powerful interests over tax justice. Small business, in particular, should not be penalized by a tax system that benefits those who can work the legislative tax committees for breaks and subsidies. We support substantive and wide-ranging reform of the tax system that helps create jobs, economic efficiencies and innovation within the small business community.
4. Smaller businesses are America¹s great strength. Greens believe government should have a tax policy that encourages small- and socially responsible business. See #7&9 of Economic Justice for suggested subsidy requirements.
5. We call on new approaches to taxation, such as environmental degradation taxes as a partial substitute for income taxes. Taxing industrial pollution is an idea long overdue. Environmental taxes of this type, and true-cost pricing, will aid in transforming major industries from being non-sustainable in their use of natural resources to being sustainable in character.
6. We believe that we must take a closer look at the costs and benefits of consumption and value-added tax approaches.
7. We support the development of a simplified tax code; so simple that it would fit on a two pages, however this should not be used for the purposes of an unfair flat tax. We believe a central goal of tax policy should be transparency that is, a system that is simple, understandable, and resistant to the machinations of special interests.
8. We would raise corporate taxes. The corporate share of taxes has fallen from 33% in the 1940s to 15% today, while the individual share has risen from 44% to 73%, according to the Alliance for Democracy.
9. Greens support progressivity in taxation as a matter of principle, believing that those who benefit most from the system have a responsibility to return their fair share. The wealthy benefit the most from the system therefore they should return the most for its maintenance.
10. The Green Party of Utah opposes the privatization of Social Security. The Social Security trust fund, contrary to claims being made by Republican and Democrat candidates, is not about to go broke and does not need to be fixed by Wall Street.
11. Greens support the restructuring of the social security system so the funds paid out are based on need rather than estimated input. This would solve the problem for which privatization claims to solve---many seniors find their social security checks insufficient as a livable income. It also addresses the problem of many wealthy seniors with huge savings receiving quite unnecessary SS checks.
12. Social Security taxes should not be progressively reformed from their current regressive state. Presently, the greater one's income is, the lower the percentage they pay in SS taxes, this must be entirely reversed. The lower one¹s income is, the lower percentage they should pay in SS taxes, etc.

E. MANAGEMENT-LABOR RELATIONS

1. The concepts of economic and workplace democracy must be expanded because the decisions a company makes affects its employees, its consumers, and the surrounding communities. The principle: "What affects all should be decided by all", should be our guide in production, consumption and in the work place. In order to protect the legitimate interests of these various constituencies, as well as the natural environment, people in each of these groups must be empowered to participate in economic decision-making.
2. We call for the repeal of Taft-Hartley, the Federal law passed in 1947 intended to limit the power of trade unions. Taft-Hartley gave the states great latitude to write laws hostile to worker's rights. For example, under Taft-Hartley, states have created so called Right to Work laws. These laws force unions to provide nonunion workers, working in facilities where the union and its dues paying, supportive members have won a contract, the same legal representation and grievance process, the same wages and benefits, as those enjoyed by union members. In other words, so called Right to Work laws are really laws protecting a non-union worker's ability to freeload on the backs of workers who support and defend gains won at work by, with, and through the union. Taft-Hartley also gives employers the right to replace striking workers with permanent replacement workers. Only in the United States, of all industrial democracies, is it legal to fire and permanently replace striking workers.
3. Workers rights to free speech, free association, to withhold their labor according to their will, to engage in concerted action through strikes, sympathy strikes, boycotts and secondary boycotts, sit ins and sit downs, to refuse to work in unsafe, unhealthful, or demeaning conditions, to engage in collective bargaining and to organize unions, must be protected and enhanced.
4. While we support a fair minimum wage, which, adjusted for inflation, is still well below the purchasing power it had throughout the 1960s and 1970s. We will work to establish a living wage, which will enable a single head of household to raise a family of four to at least 185% of the Federal poverty level.
5. We endorse legislation to address workplace safety and the Utah Occupational Safety and Health Administration (UOSHA) reform; UOSHA must have the power to police and to severely penalize work place safety and health violations. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) must be reformed and expanded to cover all workers including farm workers, contingent employees of all kinds, public employees etc.
6. The National Labor Relations Board must be fully funded. No one should have to wait longer than three months to get a hearing before the Board. And the Board must have the power the impose injunctions and treble damages against employers engaged in unfair labor practices.
7. The Green Party of Utah encourages the development of legislation that would require that companies and corporations found to be repeat violators of labor, health, or safety, laws or regulations be placed in government receivership until their house is in order.

F. CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A plan to revitalize our economy for the working class must be a central element of any overall plan to reduce crime. Fear of violent crime is growing and it is our belief that the breaking of the bonds with community, the economic and social root causes of crime, must be addressed. The way politicians today propose putting more firepower on the streets is proving to be an ineffective, costly, and detrimental way of dealing with crime. We disagree with punishment mandated under punitive sentencing laws that fill the jails, prisons, and penitentiaries with non-violent offenders. Practical education with a real promise of a future for our young people is needed if we are to expect long term success in this struggle, especially against street crime and hard drug trafficking. We believe that the prevention of crime is the most effective use of our time and resources. Also, while toughening penalties for violent crime, it is inappropriate to have a de facto policy of leniency to white-collar crime. We support the Brady Bill and thoughtful, carefully considered gun control and we fundamentally disagree with the death penalty.

1. Adequate legal representation must be provided for the poor and under privileged.
2. The privatizing of prisons must not be allowed to continue.
3. Young men and women must have access to work that pays a family a living wage.
4. We will initiate social programs that are alternatives to gangs, such as enhanced youth recreational facilities.
5. We recommend that the monies spent on prosecuting and maintaining non-violent perpetrators of victimless crimes should go toward child education, job training, job creation incentives, and providing adequate social services.
6. At the same time, we must develop law enforcement approaches that are firm and directly address violent crime, street crime, and trafficking in hard drugs.
7. We believe corporate crime legislation should be enacted and enforced. We support efforts that target corporate, governmental, and defense industry illegality through sentencing and fines.
8. We recommend establishing effective, independent civilian review of complaints of police misconduct. Findings should be made public at town meetings and patterns should be scanned for. Police should be trained in sensitivity training to handle victims and the community they work in.
9. We endorse guaranteed prison education, GED and college courses, as well as job skill training and dispute resolution.
10. Innovative approaches to rehabilitation, drug counseling and treatment, and transitioning non-violent criminals back into their communities should be actively pursued.
11. Prisoners should have absolute freedom to practice whatever religion they choose and have access to the tools they need to practice that religion.

G. CIVIL AND EQUAL RIGHTS

As Greens, we uphold the key values of respect for diversity and feminism. We recognize that the development of the United States has been marked by conflict over question of race. Just as we acknowledge that our Nation was formed only after Native Americans were first displaced, we also acknowledge that the institution of slavery had its base in the ideology and practice of white supremacy, which we condemn. We support efforts to overcome the aftereffects of over 200 years of discrimination, and hence, affirmative action. We uphold the right of the descendants of African slaves to self-determination, as we do for all indigenous peoples. The Green Party disagrees with punitive discrimination in any form, and thus condemns the practice of law enforcement agencies that are guilty of racial profiling, harassing individuals, or using unwarranted violence against people for no other reason than race. We feel that English only legislation is exclusionary, racist, and unnecessary. The choice to abort or not to abort a pregnancy should be made privately by the woman, her family, and all other private factors of it. We support the Equal Rights Amendment. We must enshrine in law the basic principal that women have the same rights and are equal to men. We recognize that there is a long tradition of marketplace exploitation where sellers of goods overcharge or cheat women simply because they are women which is a practice that must stop. Attention should be drawn to laws that are already on the books, like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 and we urge women to exert a take-charge attitude about consuming practices and educate their daughters about discriminatory market practices. Consumers have the right to adequate enforcement of the federal and state consumer protection laws. We support whistle blower rights laws.

1. We feel that people of color have legitimate claims to reparations in the form of monetary compensation for these centuries of discrimination.
2. We support the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people to have housing, jobs, a legal marriage, the benefits that go along with married status, child custody and adoption, and equality in all other areas of life with all other people.
3. We affirm the right to worship or not worship as each one chooses and the repeal of a public law #9728Q passed in 1982, which states that the Bible is the word of God and urges a return to traditional Christian values. We urge the legal recognition of all denominations wedding ceremonies. Furthermore, we stress non-discrimination in the IRS granting of tax-exempt status against traditionally "unpopular" religions.
4. We call for an effective monitoring of police agencies to eliminate police brutality and racial profiling.
5. We support effective enforcement of the voting rights act, including language access to voting.
6. We call for a state language policy that would encourage all citizens to be fluent in at least two languages.
7. We strongly support the vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws; the aggressive prosecution of hate crimes, and the strengthening of legal services for the poor. We feel that hate crimes legislation needs to include the categories of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, or disability.
8. The Green Party of Utah sees the need for the full enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act to enable all people with disabilities to achieve independence and function at the highest possible level.
9. Women's choices whether or not to carry their pregnancies to term shall not be interfered with by the government. However, society should work toward preventing the necessity for abortion.
10. Sexual harassment complaints should be dealt with through the hierarchy of speaking frankly to the violator, then supervisor, then employer, and on to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) and the police if necessary. Both the EEOC and the police should actively investigate and prosecute sexual harassment complaints without making the victim feel labeled or persecuted.
11. We must ensure women receive equal pay for equal work.
12. We support the creation of consumer advocacy agencies to protect the interest of consumers against the corporate lobbyists who have argued against the rights of consumers before regulatory agencies. We would require that legal monopolies and regulated industries set up state wide consumer action groups to act on behalf of and advocate for consumer interests.
13. We call for reforms to better inform consumers about the products they are buying; and where and how they were made. We endorse truth in advertising, and we want the restoration of the right of consumers to file class action lawsuits against manufacturers of unsafe products. We also want the elimination of secrecy agreements that act to prevent lawsuits by not revealing damaging information.
14. Consumer legislation should be enacted to outlaw the use of animals in cosmetics and household product testing, tobacco, and in weapons development or other military programs.

H. FREE SPEECH

As we look to the foundation of our freedoms, it should be remembered that the constitution of the United States is not only the supreme law of the land, but is also the original source of all other laws. In Article I, the constitution spells out the legislative powers that are vested in Congress which ultimately sets forth the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people, rights and freedoms that cannot be denied or abridged by Congress or by any other branch or level of government. An informed electorate is critical to good government The first amendment is extensive and prohibits any law that would abridge the freedom of speech, or of the press, most clearly in reference to political matters. Our legal right to criticize government is essential to the effective working of democracy. We recognize that access to information has profound consequences to our democracy, and we have concerns regarding the concentration of information in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations. The privatization of the broadcast airwaves, one of most important taxpayer assets, has caused serious deformations of our politics and culture.

1. We support efforts to increase the transparency of our government, and endorse the enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as a way of guaranteeing access to government decision-making.
2. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must promulgate telecommunications policies that ensure the First Amendment rights of viewers and listeners. New and existing technologies must provide outlets for scientific and cultural expression and enhance the electoral process. The affordable access and universal access provisions of the telecommunications act of 1996 should be interpreted by the FCC for what they are: a clear mandate for the telecommunications industry to make advanced communications systems affordable and equitably available to all American schools and libraries.
3. The Green Party of Utah supports community radio, particularly those rulemaking petitions before the FCC that allow for a new service of small, locally owned, FM stations.
4. The concentration of power that has characterized the telecommunications industry must by limited. A wide span of programming and information, genuine citizen access, diversity of views, respect for local community interests, news, public affairs, and quality children's programming are public interest criteria that must be met. The FCC should closely monitor applications for license renewals to control representative programming.
5. We oppose censorship in the arts, press, and media, including the World Wide Web and Internet. We encourage individual and social responsibility by artists, creative media, writers, and all citizens.
6. Utah Greens will attempt to broaden the scope of what the generally conservative media covers.
7. We support all people's right to voice their opinion, no matter how controversial.
8. We discourage the police, media, housing, employers or any other institution from discriminating against people with alternate world views

I. NATIVE AMERICANS

Native American culture is worthy of protection and special interests. We feel a special affinity for community and the Earth that many Native peoples have at their roots. We recognize both the sovereignty of Native American tribal Governments and the Government's trust obligation to Native American people. We recognize that Native American land and treaty rights often stand at the front line against government and multinational corporate attempts to harvest energy, mineral, timber, fish, and game resources, polluting water, air, and land in the service of the military, economic expansion, and the consumption of natural resources.

1. The federal government must renew its obligation to deal in good faith with Native Americans by honoring its treaty obligations, adequately funding programs for the betterment of tribal governments and their people, affirming the religious rights of Native Americans in ceremonies (American Indian Religious Freedom Act), and providing funds for innovative economic development initiatives, education, and public health programs.

2. The federal government must display its recognition of sovereignty for tribal governments through respect for land, water, and mineral rights within the borders of reservations and traditional lands. We support legal, political, and grassroots efforts by and on behalf of Native Americans to protect their traditions, rights, livelihoods, and sacred spaces, regardless of the effect it has on corporate profit or agendas.
3. The Green Party of Utah will work to establish trust with Utah's tribes so that they may be willing to accept government's help based on good intentions.
4. We support efforts to broadly reform the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to make this vast agency more responsible, and responsive, to tribal governments. The especially includes voluntary relocation projects, such as University education opportunities, that adequately follow up on a participant after s/he is placed.
5. We support the just settlement of the claims of the thousands of Native American uranium miners who have suffered and died form radiation exposure. We condemn the stance of secrecy taken by the Atomic Energy Commission during this era and its subsequent claim of government immunity taken knowingly at the expense of Native people's health and safety.
6. We support the complete clean up of those mines and tailing piles that are a profoundly destructive legacy of the cold war era.
7. Aware of the fact that Native American tribes are only allowing nuclear waste on to their land in an attempt to attain monetary means of building a decent standard of living, we feel that the state of Utah must take responsibility for the poverty that people on Utah reservations are facing and give tribes options to waste storage.
8. We stand in alliance with the members of the Skull Valley band of Goshutes who are opposing the proposal for Private Fuel Storage to store 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on their reservation.

J. IMMIGRATION/EMMIGRATION

1. Our Nation was built with a rich tapestry of immigrants and we must continue to respect the potential contributions and rights of our new immigrants.
2. Preferential quotas based on race, class, and ideology should be abandoned for immigration policies that promote fairness, non-discrimination, and family reunification.
3. We support policies that reflect our constitutional guarantees of freedoms of speech, association, and travel.
4. We find particular attention should be given those minorities who are political exiles and refugees.
5. Our relationship with Mexico needs to be given added attention that does not require guns or border patrol. Our border relations and reciprocal economic and social opportunities should be a central concern of government that has improving economic, environmental, labor, and social conditions for both people in mind.
6. We oppose those who seek to divide us for political gain by raising ethnic and racial hatreds, blaming immigrants for social and economic problems.

K. HOUSING

1. Decent, affordable housing for every American must be a component of a campaign at the federal, state, and local level.
2. We hold that government should play an activist role in the availability of housing. A coordinated housing plan that is broad and inclusive should devote resources to non-profit community housing projects, private sector investments, and appropriate public housing initiatives that encourage individual ownership over time.
3. We encourage low impact, site-specific designs that encourage human scale development and environmentally sensitive planning.
4. Pension funds and community development banks can be targeted and can become important sources of new funding. Subsidies, trade-offs with developers and the creative use of city and county zoning ordinances should be emphasized to increase the affordable housing stock available within local communities depending on need.
5. Constructing living spaces should encourage "up not out" architecture, as in larger European cities. Yards should be scaled down, not only to conserve space, but also to conserve water.

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