Howie Hawkins in Interviews during 2017-2019

On Budget & Economy: Steady-state economy better than increasing GDP

On Civil Rights: Support International Bill of Rights for Women

We call for equal representation of women in Congress instead of the current 17% in 2012. We support the inclusion of an equal number of women and men in peace talks and negotiations, not only because these efforts directly affect their lives and those of their husbands, children and families, but also because when women are involved, the negotiations are more successful.

On Corporations: Break up largest banks so that none is too big to fail

Greens believe the legal structure of the corporation is obsolete. At present, corporations are designed solely to generate profit. This legal imperative--profit above all else--is damaging our country and our planet in countless ways. We must change the legal design of corporations so that they generate profits, but not at the expense of the environment, human rights, public health, workers, or the communities in which the corporation operates.

On Corporations: Amend Constitution: corporations are not persons

The rights established by this Constitution and the laws of the United States of America are exclusively the rights of living, breathing humans, citizens of this country or residing therein. No corporation or other type of association or organization can have the status of a "legal person" and thus cannot derive rights from such status.

On Crime: Ban private prisons; moratorium on prison construction

On Drugs: End war on drugs: for legalization, treatment of abuse

On Education: Free college tuition for qualified students; abolish loans

Eliminate police officers from our schools. Ensure school security personnel are trained for, and held accountable to, conflict resolution techniques and anti-bias training. Security personnel should demonstrate cultural competency and refrain from enforcing white supremacist oppressive tactics.

On Education: Increased funding for the arts as essential

On Energy & Oil: End nuclear power, offshore drilling, & fracking

• End the use of nuclear power. Nuclear energy is massively polluting, dangerous, financially risky, expensive and slow to implement.
• Our money is better spent on wind, solar, geothermal, conservation and small-scale hydroelectric.
• The Green Party stands for the enactment of bans on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil on the local, state and federal level and stands for bans on the disposal of wastes created by the fracking industry.
• Protect 40% of the world's oceans as marine preserves, especially near shore coastal habitats.
• Ban offshore oil drilling.
• Ban the siting of liquefied natural gas facilities off the U.S. coast.
• Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic waste.
• Support the ban on international commercial whaling.
• Ban drift-net fishing and long-line fishing and phase out factory trawling.
• Support the Law of the Sea Treaty that establishes the global sharing of ocean resources.

On Energy & Oil: Free mass transit; reduce energy use 50%

Adopt energy efficiency standards that reduce energy demand economy-wide by 50% over the next 20--30 years. The U.S. can make massive reductions in its energy use through a combination of conservation and efficiency measures. We don't actually need any additional power. Instead, we can and should reduce our consumption of power. Adopt a national zero waste policy. The less we consume and throw away, the less we will need to produce and replace.

On Environment: Polluters should have burden of proof of safe practices

• Restore state health, safety, and consumer protection laws by striking federal preemptions that weaken state law.
• Preserve and expand product-labeling requirements.
• Repeal the misnamed Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.
• Establish new independent government consumer advocacy agencies to protect the interests of consumers and restore the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs.
• Uphold the precautionary principle, requiring polluters to bear the burden of proof in demonstrating the safety of their practices.
• Expand the application of the precautionary principle from chemicals and health to land use, waste, energy, food policy and local economic development.
• Support, enforce and strengthen the National Environmental Policy Act.

On Environment: Strengthen Endangered Species & Clean Water Act

The Green Party supports a strengthened and enforceable Endangered Species Act. We support reintroducing native species to areas from which they have been eradicated, eliminating predator control on public lands, and reintroducing native predators where they would contribute to a viable ecosystem. We should educate ourselves about animal behaviors to overcome our culture's irrational fear of wildlife, and learn techniques of co-existence with other species.

On Environment: Shut down waste incinerators; phase out landfills

On Families & Children: Criminalize purchasers of sex, not the prostitutes

On Foreign Policy: Self-determination for Kurdish people

On Foreign Policy: Supports a Palestinian right of return, and a single state

• We reaffirm the right and feasibility of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel.
• We acknowledge the significant challenges of equity and restitution this policy would encounter and call on the U.S. government to make resolution of these challenges a central goal of our diplomacy in the region.
• We support a U.S. foreign policy that promotes the creation of one secular, democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis on the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan as the national home of both peoples, with Jerusalem as its capital.
• We encourage a new U.S. diplomatic initiative to begin the long process of negotiation, laying the groundwork for such a single-state constitution.

On Foreign Policy: Member of the community of nations; not above it

On Government Reform: Universal voter registration; statehood for DC

• Enact a national "right to vote" law or constitutional amendment to guarantee universal, automatic, permanent voter registration.
• Enact statehood for the District of Columbia.
• Restore full citizenship rights to felons upon completion of their sentence, including the right to vote.
• Make Election Day a national holiday and/or have weekend elections.
• Enact proportional representation voting systems for legislative seats on municipal, county, state and federal levels.
• Proportional representation systems provide that people are represented in the proportion their views are held in society and are based on dividing seats proportionally within multi-seat districts, compared to the standard U.S. single-seat, winner-take all districts.

On Government Reform: Open debates to third parties on sufficient ballots

• Eliminate all ballot access laws and rules that discriminate against smaller parties and independents, and otherwise place undue burden on the right of citizens to run for office.
• Create a publicly-funded People's Commission on Presidential Debates, and open debates to all candidates who appear on as many ballots as would represent a majority of the Electoral College and who raise enough funds to otherwise qualify for general election public financing.
• Any candidate who refuses to participate in such debates would lose public financing.

On Homeland Security: Abolish nuclear weapons, WMDs, and land mines

Our government should establish a policy to abolish nuclear weapons:
• Declare a no-first-strike policy.
• Declare a no-pre-emptive strike policy.
• Declare that the U.S. will never threaten or use a nuclear weapon on a non-nuclear nation.
• Sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
• Reverse our withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
• End the research, testing and stockpiling of all nuclear weapons of any size.
• Dismantle all nuclear warheads from their missiles.
• We urge our government to sign the Toronto treaty banning the production, stockpiling, use and sale of land mines, and assist other nations in unearthing and disabling land mines buried in their lands.
• We urge our government to end all stockpiling of chemical and biological weapons and all research, use, and sale of such weapons.
• The U.S. must allow foreign teams to visit the U.S. for verification purposes at least annually.

On Homeland Security: Better care & support services for veterans

On Immigration: All seeking asylum should be given permanent resident status

We oppose the militarization of our borders, (mis)using the National Guard as border police, and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. We call for the immediate dismantling of the border wall. We mourn the death of those thousands of men, women and children who have died trying to cross this border, where a couple of decades ago such deaths were virtually unheard of.

On Social Security: Apply FICA tax to all levels of income including investments

On Technology: We support all efforts to achieve net neutrality

• We support all efforts to achieve net neutrality. Internet users should be able to access any lawful web content they choose and use any applications they choose, without restrictions or limitations imposed by their Internet service provider or government, except for restrictions that exist to prevent spam e-mail, viruses, and similar content that will harm the provider's network or internet access devices.
• Return ownership and control of the electromagnetic spectrum to the public.
• We urge the public to reclaim the airwaves. The privatization of the broadcast airwaves has caused serious deformations of our politics and culture.
• End the privatization of broadcast frequencies and reserve them for the creation of new not-for-profit community broadcasters around the country and for broadband and wifi networks owned and operated by cities, counties and towns.

On Technology: Protect software by copyright, not patent

On War & Peace: Supports 2015 Iran nuclear deal

On Budget & Economy: Income gap between rich and everyone else has grown

On Budget & Economy: Income gap between rich and everyone else has grown

On Energy & Oil: Green New Deal can close racial income gap

On Social Security: The most regressive tax of all is the FICA payroll tax

On Social Security: The most regressive tax of all is the FICA payroll tax

On Welfare & Poverty: Reparations and Green New Deal to close racial income gap

On Principles & Values: Danger of Trump doesn't mean electing "any damned Democrat"

On Energy & Oil: Claims to be the "original Green New Dealer"

On Energy & Oil: I'm the original Green New Dealer, since 2010

Hawkins says he was the first American political candidate to run on the promise of a Green New Deal. During his run for NY governor in 2010, he proposed a plan to fight climate change "with the same urgency, speed, and commitment of resources that our country demonstrated in converting to war production for the mobilization for World War II." To reduce carbon emissions to net zero over ten years, Hawkins's plan would "devote resources to and create jobs in renewable energy, public transit and organic agriculture." And those resources would come from progressive tax reform.

Hawkins thinks the Green New Deal is being unfairly co-opted. But he's happy that it's become mainstream, because "it's our opportunity to explain how the Democratic establishment chopped away the pieces," he said.

On Principles & Values: Third parties force issues neglected by major parties

On Government Reform: Senators for 20% can block bills favored by 80%