Howie Hawkins in Survey of 2020 Presidential campaign websites
On Budget & Economy:
Socialize big banks; manage the national currency
The national currency is a vital common resource that should be managed in the public interest. We must nationalize the Federal Reserve System as a Monetary Authority in the Treasury Department. The Monetary Authority will create all national currency
(cash and electronic) free of any associated debt. New money will be credited to the account of the federal government as additional revenue to be spent into circulation in the economy in accordance with the federal budget.
Banks will be prohibited from creating new money as loans. Banks will borrow or raise money for lending from savers and investors, including the Monetary Authority. People and businesses will borrow from funds in the banks' accounts.
Socialize the big banks: The allocation of investments according to an economic plan requires a significant sector of public banks.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Civil Rights:
Reparations for African-Americans slavery
Ending racial oppression requires both race-specific remedies and universal economic rights that are guaranteed by government in a race-conscious way. We must strengthen and enforce antidiscrimination laws in the political, employment,
education, housing, immigration, and criminal justice systems. We must take affirmative action to reverse the growing race and class resegregation of housing and schools.
We must enact HR 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act, to consider appropriate remedies for the impact of slavery and subsequent racial discrimination on living African Americans.
We must empower racially oppressed communities to practice self-determination through collective community ownership and control of public housing, schools, police, and businesses.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Corporations:
Capitalists exploit workers and thwart democracy
ECOSOCIALIST CASE AGAINST CAPITALISM: Under a capitalist system, we cannot solve the central problems of our time.ECONOMIC HARDSHIP: We will never reverse extreme and growing economic inequality as long as capitalists exploit workers for profit and
extract more unearned income from the economy as rent and interest. Capitalists pay workers a fixed wage and take the rest of the value workers' labor creates as profit. Capitalists take more unearned income as rent and interest in excess of the costs
of production due to their exclusive ownership of access to resources, such as land sites, natural resources, intellectual property, and monopolies.
CAPITALIST OLIGARCHY: The central problem of American democracy is that public preferences
do not become public policy. The people are way ahead of the politicians, who represent their corporate paymasters more than their voters. We can't have political democracy without economic democracy.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Crime:
End the carceral surveillance state
Our civil liberties and political rights are under assault by an expanding carceral surveillance state. The US has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. Mass surveillance by the National Security Agency captures our electronic
communications, including text messages, web browsing, emails, and international phone calls. Whistleblowers are bullied into silence by prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act. National Defense Authorization Acts since
2012 have included provisions to disappear US citizens into indefinite detention without charge or trial.If I run, I will prioritize a freedom and democracy agenda, including an end to the war on drugs and the over-policing of minority communities,
funding public defenders and legal services, bail abolition, speedy trial, open file discovery, ending warrantless surveillance, ending the persecution of whistleblowers, and ending preventive detention.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Drugs:
Big Pharma pushes addictive opioids for profit
Big pharma has failed to serve the public interest as a profit-oriented industry. It has gouged consumers with monopolistic pricing. Its business model is centered on pushing addictive opioids and patent-protected
medicines for chronic conditions. It has abandoned research and development of less lucrative short-term treatments, notably for antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Education:
Free public education from pre-K through college
A VOTE FOR THE GREEN TICKET IS A VOTE FOR:- AN ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS: Free Public Education from Pre-K Child Care through College
- JUSTICE: Empower Racially Oppressed Communities and Disempower Institutional Racism through
Community Control of Police, Schools, Housing, and Businesses
- PEACE: A Global Green New Deal--Invest the Peace Dividend from Military Spending Cuts inClean Energy, Regenerative Agriculture, and Basic Human Needs Around the World
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Energy & Oil:
Socialize Big Oil; reinvest in renewables
Socialize Big Oil and Gas: ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Shell, Koch Industries, and the rest will never reinvest their fossil fuel earnings in renewables instead of more oil and gas.100% clean energy means electrified transportation,
manufacturing, and heat pumps for buildings. A rapid transition to clean power requires public power for lower costs and effective planning without obstruction by incumbent generators and distributors.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Environment:
Environmental collapse follows from capitalist system
THE ECOSOCIALIST CASE AGAINST CAPITALISM: Under a capitalist system, we cannot solve the central problems of our time.ECOLOGICAL DESTRUCTION: We will never reverse pending planetary environmental
collapse as long as we have a capitalist economy where competition for profits drives the blind, relentless growth that is consuming the environment, heating up the planet, and destroying ecological foundations of human civilization.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Foreign Policy:
Oppose US military intervention for regime change
An enduring peace requires replacing capitalism with ecosocialism--capitalism's nationalistic competitive militarism with ecosocialism's international cooperative security. We will call for deep US military spending cuts and converting to a defensive
military posture from today's global military empire of over 800 foreign military bases. The savings will be a peace dividend to reinvest in a Global Green New Deal for economic human rights, clean energy, and regenerative agriculture around the world.
The US can make friends instead of enemies by using its wealth to be the world's humanitarian superpower instead of its imperialist superpower. We will call for a recommitment to the recently abandoned arms treaties and to vigorous new negotiations for
further reductions toward complete nuclear disarmament and for scaling back the world's militaries to strictly defensive forces. We will oppose US military intervention for regime change and speak up for human rights wherever they are violated.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Government Reform:
Voter suppression policies need to be reversed
We do not have real political democracy, let alone economic democracy. To have a democratic society, we need to restructure government and elections. Voter suppression policies need to be reversed, starting with restoring the pre-clearance provisions of
the Civil Rights Act. We would put in place automatic voter registration, same-day registration, extended voting days, Election Day as a National Holiday, and other reforms, including mandatory voting (vote or pay a moderate fine) as practiced in
Australia, Belgium, and much of Latin America, with a None of the Above option that would trigger a new election if it wins.Ordinary people have little power over the government decisions that affect their lives. In addition to improving the
elections to representative offices, we will campaign for a participatory direct democracy at the base of society. We will campaign for a grassroots democracy based on community assemblies open to all citizens like New England Town Meetings.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Health Care:
National health service controlled by community
A community-controlled national health service, delivering services largely through publicly owned clinics and hospitals employing salaried staff, and governed by a federation of locally-elected boards, will
provide better accountability and cost control than a top-down Medicare-like national health insurance system paying mostly private providers to deliver health services.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Homeland Security:
Convert arms monopolies to nonprofit public enterprises
The arms monopolies are characterized by influential warmongering and corresponding war profits,
as well as price gouging and systemic corruption. They should be converted to nonprofit public enterprises.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Immigration:
Demand open borders where movement between nations is free
The inhumanity of US immigration policy came to broad public attention in 2018 with the news coverage of forced separations of young children from their families on the southern US border. These crimes against humanity only underscored the long-standing
brutality of US immigration policy, which has treated people from Mexico and Central America in particular as cheap labor to be imported or deported based on US labor demand, like apartheid South Africa once used Bantustans.
We will demand open borders where movement between nations is free, like it is in the European Union. International borders should be authentic fair-trade zones where people are free to travel across borders for work, shopping, or recreation.
People crossing international borders would be required to present their identification at a border crossing. Only people wanted for criminal charges or terrorist organization affiliation would be detained.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Jobs:
Guaranteed jobs; guaranteed income above poverty
A VOTE FOR THE GREEN TICKET IS A VOTE FOR:AN ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS- A Job Guarantee
- A Guaranteed Income Above Poverty
- Homes for All through Public Housing and Universal Rent Control
- Medicare for All
- Free Public Education from Pre-K
Child Care through College
JUSTICE- Appoint Public Defenders to the Federal Judiciary
- Fully Fund the Legal Services Corporation
- Empower Racially Oppressed Communities and Disempower Institutional Racism
- Open Borders--Fair Trade
Zones with Free Travel for Work, Shopping, and Recreation
- Legalization of Undocumented Immigrants with a Timely Path to Citizenship
- Abolish Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
and Replace with a New Agency Committed to Open Borders Administration
PEACE- No First Strike
- Nukes Off Hair-Trigger Alert
- Negotiations Toward Complete Nuclear Disarmament
- Deep Cuts in Military Spending on the order of 50%
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Principles & Values:
Democracy needs socialism; socialize many economic sectors
Democracy needs socialism. Progressive reforms will never be secure as long as the major means of production are in the hands of a super-rich oligarchy whose concentrated economic power translates into concentrated political power. The failure to face
this reality is how the managed capitalism advanced by Democratic Party "socialists" comes up short. As Bernie Sanders said in his 2015 speech on democratic socialism, "I don't believe government should own the means of production." We should join with
these progressives in fighting for reforms, but we should not be politically naive. Progressive reforms are not secure as long as the property-based power structure of the capitalist oligarchy remains intact.KEY ECONOMIC SECTORS TO SOCIALIZE: If I
run, my campaign would call for the socialization of key economic sectors, including:- Manage the national currency
- Socialize the big banks.
- Power Utilities
- Health Care & Big Pharma
- Arms Industry
- Broadband & Online Platforms
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Tax Reform:
Graduated wealth tax & graduated estate tax
A VOTE FOR THE GREEN TICKET IS A VOTE FOR:PEACE- Transition from Forward-Based Imperialism to Home-Based Defense
- A Global Green New Deal--Invest the Peace Dividend from Military Spending Cuts in Clean Energy and Basic Human Needs
PROGRESSIVE TAXATION- lncome and Wealth Taxes
- More Progressive Personal Income Taxes
- Higher Corporate Income Taxes
- A Graduated Wealth Tax
- A Graduated Estate Tax
- Eco-Taxes
- A Progressive Carbon Tax with Rebates to Low-to-Moderate
Income People
- A Land Value Tax on Unearned Appreciation of Land Site Values Due to Social Investments
DEMOCRACY- Instant-Runoff Voting for President
- Abolish the Electoral College
- Proportional Representation in Congress
- Abolish the
US Senate
- End Voter Suppression
- Promote Community Assemblies with a Federal Grant Program
- Full Public Campaign Financing
- Adopt the We the People Amendment--End the Corporate Personhood and the Money Is Speech Doctrines
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Technology:
Public broadband; public ownership of online platforms
Establish a public broadband service as a not-for-profit public utility in order to provide universal access to a high-speed phone, TV, and internet service at lower costs and with net neutrality.Online platforms like Amazon, Facebook, Google, and
Uber tend toward monopoly because people gravitate to the platforms that have the most users and information. These monopolies are abusing data collection and privacy, censoring content, and eliminating competitors through predatory pricing and buyouts.
The remedy is a combination of antitrust action to divest tech conglomerates of multiple platforms and the
conversion of some platforms to public utilities that serve the public interest.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Technology:
Public funding of diverse nonprofit, noncommercial media
Freedom and democracy depend on a well-informed population. Our First Amendment freedoms of speech and press have eroded under the growing concentration of ownership of both the traditional mass media and the new social media. These giant media and
tech conglomerates are replacing hard news with gossipy infotainment, corporate indoctrination, and state propaganda. If I run, I will campaign for reforms to create a vital, democratic, and diverse media system, able to present a wide range of news,
issues, and ideas in their full complexity, free from censorship by government or big business. Reforms should include a decentralized, democratic system of public funding of a diverse nonprofit, noncommercial media, including decommercialized,
fully funded, and community-controlled public radio and television stations.The Internet must be regulated as a public good and a basic right, open and accessible to all with net neutrality and personal privacy and data protected.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On War & Peace:
Endless war follows from capitalist competition
ENDLESS WAR: We will never have a secure peace as long as capitalism's competitive economic structure generates international conflicts and wars. Nuclear-armed capitalist states--including the US, Russia, and China--compete for resources,
markets, cheap labor, and geopolitical military positioning. If we don't replace capitalism's nationalistic competition with socialism's international cooperation, sooner or later these conflicts will end in nuclear annihilation.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
On Welfare & Poverty:
Reintegrate urban amenities, like walkable mixed-use cities
The ecosocialist Green New Deal will rebuild and restructure our cities around egalitarian and ecological principles. Skyrocketing rents are driving working people out of their homes and communities. Sprawl development is a social and ecological
disaster. Segregation by race and class has been increasing for decades, isolating the poor away from resources and opportunities and isolating the rich away in their gated communities.We will campaign for an urban policy that will reintegrate
urban amenities with the natural environment. It would promote walkable mixed-use neighborhoods, convenient and affordable mass transit, clean energy, urban agriculture, green manufacturing, and a massive public housing program that is
high quality, mixed income, carbon negative, and scattered site across the city/suburbs divide. It will be a jobs program, a desegregation program, and a clean energy program as well as an affordable housing program.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us
May 19, 2019
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021