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Tobacco has a long history in the Americas. The Mayan Indians of Mexico carved drawings in stone showing tobacco use. These drawings date back to somewhere between 600 to 900 A.D. Tobacco was grown by American Indians before the Europeans came from England, Spain, France, and Italy to North America. Native Americans smoked tobacco through a pipe for special religious and medical purposes. They did not smoke every day.Tobacco was the first crop grown for money in North America. In 1612 the settlers of the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia grew tobacco as a cash crop. It was their main source of money. Other cash crops were corn, cotton, wheat, sugar, and soya beans. Tobacco helped pay for the American Revolution against England. Also, the first President of the U.S. grew tobacco.By the 1800's, many people had begun using small amounts of tobacco. Some chewed it. Others smoked it occasionally in a pipe, or they hand-rolled a cigarette or cigar. On the average, people smoked about 40 cigarettes a year. The first commercial cigarettes were made in 1865 by Washington Duke on his 300-acre farm in Raleigh, North Carolina. His hand-rolled cigarettes were sold to soldiers at the end of the Civil War.It was not until James Bonsack invented the cigarette-making machine in 1881 that cigarette smoking became widespread. Bonsack's cigarette machine could make 120,000 cigarettes a day. He went into business with Washington Duke's son, James "Buck" Duke. They built a factory and made 10 million cigarettes their first year and about one billion cigarettes five years later. The first brand of cigarettes were packaged in a box with baseball cards and were called Duke of Durham. Buck Duke and his father started the first tobacco company in the U.S. They named it the American Tobacco Company.Credit: An 1892 Duke of Durham box of machine-rolled cigarettes Tobacco Biology & PoliticsThe American Tobacco Company was the largest and most powerful tobacco company until the early 1900's. Several companies were making cigarettes by the early 1900's. In 1902 Philip Morris company came out with its Marlboro brand.They were selling their cigarettes mainly to men. Everything changed during World War I (1914-18) and World War II (1939-45). Soldiers overseas were given free cigarettes every day. At home production increased and cigarettes were being marketed to women too. More than any other war, World War II brought more independence for women. Many of them went to work and started smoking for the first time while their husbands were away.By 1944 cigarette production was up to 300 billion a year. Service men received about 75% of all cigarettes produced. The wars were good for the tobacco industry. Since WW II, there have been six giant cigarette companies in the U.S. They are Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, American Brands, Lorillard, Brown & Williamson, and Liggett & Myers (now called the Brooke Group). They make millions of dollars selling cigarettes in the U.S. and all over the world.In 1964 the Surgeon General of the U.S. (the chief doctor for the country) wrote a report about the dangers of cigarette smoking. He said that the nicotine and tar in cigarettes cause lung cancer. In 1965 the Congress of the U.S. passed the Cigarette Labelling and Advertising Act. It said that every cigarette pack must have a warning label on its side stating "Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health."By the 1980's, the tobacco companies had come out with new brands of cigarettes with lower amounts of tar and nicotine and improved filters to keep their customers buying and to help reduce their fears. The early 1980's were called the "tar wars" because tobacco companies competed aggressively to make over 100 low tar and "ultra" low tar cigarettes. Each company made and sold many different brands of cigarettes.In 1984 Congress passed another law called the Comprehensive Smoking Education Act. It said that the cigarette companies every three months had to change the warning labels on cigarette packs. It created four different labels for the companies to rotate.Public Law 98-474, "Comprehensive Smoking Education Act, 1984"Credit: Smoking Tobacco & Health, Centers for Disease ControlSince the 1980's, federal, state, local governments, and private companies have begun taking actions to restrict cigarette smoking in public places. The warning labels were the first step. Tobacco companies cannot advertise cigarettes on television or radio. It is against a law that was passed by Congress in 1971. Many cities across the U.S. do not allow smoking in public buildings and restaurants. Since 1990, airlines have not allowed smoking on airplane flights in the U.S. that are six hours or less. State taxes on cigarettes have increased.As it becomes more difficult for tobacco companies to sell their products in the U.S., they are looking outside. U.S. tobacco companies are now growing tobacco in Africa, South America (Brazil and Paraguay), India, Pakistan, the Phillipines, Greece, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic. Fifty percent (50%) of the sales of U.S. tobacco companies go to Asian countries, such as Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Taiwan.Economics deals with the making and selling of products and services to consumers. Products are things like chewing tobacco, cigarettes, televisions, houses, and cars. Services include medical care, education, and insurance. Consumers are the people like ourselves who buy or receive the products and services.The U.S. has a capitalist economic system. Under this system, one or more people get together and form a company to make and sell something. They do this to make money. The money that they make after paying off their bills or expenses is called profit. In other words, a profit is the money they have for themselves after paying rent, salaries, utility bills (electricity, gas, telephone) and buying machines/computers and any other equipment they need to make their product and run their business.When companies sell more than they spend, they make a profit. Selling their products to other countries is called exporting. The product that is sold is called an export. Buying from other countries is called importing, and what U.S. companies buy is called an import. For example, if Ford Motor Company buys steel from Japan to make a car, it is importing a product. Steel is the import. When Ford sells its cars to Brazil, it is exporting. Cars are the exports.When companies or governments export more than they import, they have a trade surplus. A trade surplus is another way of saying a profit. On the other hand, when they import more than they export, they have a trade deficit. A deficit means a debt or money owed to someone else.Throughout history, tobacco companies have had a trade surplus. That is one big reason why they have been important to the economy of the U.S. In 1992 the tobacco industry reported a $5.65 billion dollar trade surplus. In the first half of 1992, tobacco exports were $2 billion more than imports. The taxes that the tobacco companies pay provide a lot of money for the U.S. government. In 1992, Philip Morris alone paid $4.5 billion in taxes. This makes it the largest tax payer in the U.S.Credit: Copyright © 1994 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission. "How Do They Live With Themselves?" Roger Rosenblatt, The New York Times Magazine, 3/20/94Tobacco companies export their products (cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco) to at least 146 countries around the world. They sell to Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emigrates, Turkey, South Korea, Singapore, China, Russia, and many more countries. In 1992 Philip Morris sold 11 billion cigarettes to Russia alone.One of the reasons tobacco growing is so profitable is because its costs are so low. There are only about 800,000 people working in the tobacco industry. There are 136,000 tobacco farms in more than 16 states.more info Activities

Three friends of mine were looking at buying a sandwich franchise together. They interviewed the owner several times and pored over his accounting books to determine if this is going to be a good financial decision for them. Eventually, they decided the franchise was not the right opportunity for them at that time.There are many things to consider when purchasing a franchise, and here is a quick list of things to consider if you are thinking about buying a franchise of your own. This list is only designed to help you decide if you should pursue the opportunity further, and is by no means a comprehensive “how to own and run a profitable franchise” list.5 Things to consider before buying a franchiseThe franchise: There are many types of franchises available for sale – restaurants, bars, auto repair shops, convenience stores, tax preparation, and many other stores that provide goods or other services. When deciding which franchise you want to buy into you should consider these important things:Name recognition: How well known is the company you wish to buy into? Is it a national, regional, or local company? Are you trying to expand a regional franchise into an area where it is not very familiar?Demand: Is this service needed in your area? Can your area support another restaurant, service station, etc.?Competition: If you want to open a new McDonald’s franchise, are there similar franchises such as Wendy’s, Burger King, or Hardee’s nearby?Growth: Has this company been experiencing growth? This will not guarantee your success, but it is a good idea to understand how this particular business has been growing in similar areas.Training/Support: How much help will you get from your parent company? Training and other support goes a long way in helping your franchise be a success.The cost: There are many costs associated with owning a franchise. If you don’t have a good idea of what your expenses will be, you are doomed to fail even before you begin.Franchise costs: Typical franchise start up fees can run from a few thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the company you are buying into. Often times these fees only include the right to use the name and sell the product or services under that name. Other costs such as the building and equipment are separate.Ongoing fees: Many franchises require franchisees to pay a certain amount of money or a percentage of sales every year to continue using the brand name. Royalties can be a hidden cost that many people do not consider. Some of these costs are used for national and local advertising, and other portions of the fees are absorbed into the corporate coffers.Real estate/utilities: Rent or mortgage is an ongoing cost, and can be the largest recurring payment a franchise owner will face. Utilities are another large expense and can run into the thousands of dollars per month depending on the type of franchise.Equipment/inventory: Few businesses can get by without owning equipment, tools, computers, and an inventory of goods to sell. Similar to franchise fees, equipment and inventory start-up costs can run from several thousand to several hundred thousand dollars depending on your company’s needs.Payroll: Unless you are the sole worker for your franchise, you will have to pay your employees’ salary and benefits package.Location: This is one of the most important aspects of any business as a great location can make or break a company.Site Approval: Some franchises actually approve every site considered for a franchise. This is important if you already own your prospective building or have a site in mind. There are also non-compete restrictions preventing franchises from competing with the same franchise within certain proximity to each other. (e.g. McDonald’s will not allow another McDonald’s to within a certain distance of another McDonald’s to prevent them from “stealing” each other’s business. So far as I can tell, Starbuck’s has no such restriction. I have seen a Starbucks on 3 corners of an intersection!)Design: Many companies require their franchises to maintain a certain appearance or other set of standards. This can include things such as exterior building design, interior design, fixtures, etc.Built-in clientele: Is the location near a university or a large business? How about near a major intersection or highway? Having a large group of people who can easily patronize your business is a great benefit, and will be helpful in your company’s success.Control: When you buy into the franchise, how much control will you have?Company standards: Your franchise may be required to conform to certain company requirements such as hours of operation, uniform standards, products/services offered, advertisements, and more.Company supplied products: Some franchises require the franchise owner to purchase products and goods from the parent corporation. Have you ever gone into McDonald’s and noticed the Ketchup packets they use? They all have the McDonald’s logo on the packet. The Franchise owner can’t go to Costco to pick up bulk ketchup packets. He has to buy them directly from McDonald’s – at the corporate price.You: This is the most important element of them all. Do you have what it takes to own your own business?Skills, abilities, and interests: Do you have any experience in this particular industry? Do you plan on running the business yourself, or hiring a manager or group of people to run operations? Are you interested in this industry, and will you enjoy what you are doing? Understanding your own abilities will go a long way toward helping you know if you will be capable of running your own business.Goals: Where do you plan on taking this franchise? Do you require a certain annual income? How many hours do you wish to work? How long do you plan on owning and running this operation, and do you have plans to expand beyond one franchise? A clear set of goals will help you understand what you need to do to be successful, and help you develop a plan of action to get there.Investment: How much can you invest in a franchise, and, if things go badly, how much can you afford to lose? Do you have a sufficient credit rating to secure the proper loans? Can you afford to forgo income during the first year or two, when business may be slow and expenses may be high?Adaptation: How well can you adjust to difficult situations? The survival of your business may depend on your ability to deal with a similar franchise moving in nearby, economic changes in your community, increases in the costs of labor or inventory, etc.As mentioned earlier, this is by no means an exhaustive list of everything one needs to do before buying a franchise. This list should just help you determine whether or not a franchise might be the right opportunity for you. Before buying a franchise, you should investigate as much about the particular company and industry as you possibly can. In addition, you should hire an accountant and lawyer to help you understand your projected costs and legal obligations. *In addition, a lawyer can help you understand the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC), which details important legal and financial information regarding the particular franchise.*There are many other things to consider as well. The Federal Trade Commission has set up a Consumer Guide to Buying a Franchise, which served as a basis and resource for some of this information. If you plan on buying a franchise, do your research, then make an informed decision. Good luck!There are numerous points indicating how expert and fast-growing PHIXMAN family is. Their generous services build the goodwill by itself, resulting in expanded audience PHIXMAN is a readymade and well-established business that needs expansion. It is a ready form of business seeking expansion in new market areas with the help of a local representative.Devices have become so much more than a simple means of communication. Coming everywhere with us, they are used for work, play, social media, photo taking and more. So when the unfortunate happens and your device is damaged, you’ll want a fast and affordable solution. Their trained and experienced technicians can repair any problem you can throw at them.PHIXMAN is a company created with a single premise, and that is to offer you the very best, highest quality phone screen repair services on the market. Their team works very hard to ensure that you always receive the very best value on the market.They hire only the best professionals in the industry, which means that you will always get to have nothing but the highest quality on the market. That alone shows the professionalism and focus that we deliver at all times. Rest assured that they are here to help you reach the outstanding results you always wanted.If you want to take your content and experience to the next level, all you have to do is to hire them now, and they will gladly assist! Keep in mind that they can handle any screen repair. Hire them right away and let them repair your phone as fast as possible! You will not be disappointed!If you buy a franchise of PHIXMAN it will let you use its brand name, trademark, service mark, and management skills for developing and expanding franchise business.Phixman is a complete deal, let it all out!

An Economic Bill of RightsUniversal Social Security: Taxable Basic Income Grants for all, structured into the progressive income tax, that guarantee an adequate income sufficient to maintain a modest standard of living. Start at $500/week ($26,000/year) for a family of four, with $62.50/week ($3,250/year) adjustments for more or fewer household members in 2000 and index to the cost of living.Jobs for All: A guaranteed right to job. Full employment through community-based public works and community service jobs programs, federally financed and community controlled.Living Wages: A family-supporting minimum wage. Start at $12.50 per hour in 2000 and index to the cost of living.30-Hour Work Week: A 6-hour day with no cut in pay for the bottom 80% of the pay scale.Social Dividends: A "second paycheck" for workers enabling them to receive 40 hours pay for 30 hours work. Paid by the government out of progressive taxes so that social productivity gains are shared equitably.Universal Health Care: A single-payer National Health Program to provide free medical and dental care for all, with freedom of choice for consumers among both conventional and alternative health care providers, federally financed and controlled by democratically elected local boards.Free Child Care: Available voluntarily and free for all who need it, modeled after Head Start, federally financed, and community controlled.Lifelong Public Education: Free, quality public education from pre-school through graduate school at public institutions.Affordable Housing: Expand rental and home ownership assistance, fair housing enforcement, public housing, and capital grants to non-profit developers of affordable housing until all people can obtain decent housing at no more than 25% of their income. Democratic community control of publicly funded housing programs.Grassroots DemocracyCommunity Assemblies: Ground political representation in a foundation of participatory, direct democracy: a Community Assembly in every neighborhood, open to all of its residents, acting as a grassroots legislative body, with its own budget for local administration, and the power (in concert with other Citizens Assemblies who share a representative) to monitor, instruct, and recall representatives elected to municipal, state, and federal office.A Proportional, Single-Chamber US Congress: Abolish the disproportional, aristocratic US Senate. Create a single-chamber US Congress, elected by a system of mixed-member proportional representation that combines district representatives elected by preference voting and party representatives seated in proportion to each party's vote.Environmental Home Rule: Establish the right of every state, county, and municipality to restrict or prohibit the production, sale, distribution, storage, or transportation of any substance it designates as dangerous or toxic.Average Workers' Pay for Elected Officials: Pay elected officials average workers' salaries so that they understand the needs of average people and stop being an elite of professional politicians with separate class interests.DC Statehood: Full self-government and congressional representation for the people of Washington DC.Fair ElectionsProportional Representation: Elect legislative bodies by proportional representation where each party has representation in proportion to its total vote.Preference Voting: Elect single offices by majority preference voting where voters rank candidates in order of preference and votes are distributed according to preferences in instant runoffs until a winner receives a majority of votes.Public Campaign and Party Financing:Equal public campaign financing and free broadcast media time for all candidates who agree not to use private money. Equal free broadcast media time for party broadcasts. Public financing of parties through matching funds for party dues and small donations up to $300 a year.Fair Ballot Access: Federal legislation to require each state to enable a new party or any independent candidate to qualify for the ballot through a petition of no greater than 1/10th of 1% of the total vote cast in the district in the last gubernatorial election, with a 10,000 signature maximum.Eliminate Mandatory Primaries: Allow parties the right to nominate by membership convention instead of state-run primaries.Ecological ConversionEcological Production: Set goals and timetables to phase out and ban the production and release of synthetic chemicals and to convert all production to materials that are bio-degradable, bio-inert, or confined to closed-loop industrial cycles. Use federal investments, purchasing, mandates, and incentives to:Phase out most chlorinated and other synthetic petrochemicals and phase in natural, biodegradable substitutes.Phase out synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and phase in organic agriculture.Shut down waste incinerators, phase out landfills, and phase in full recycling.Require manufacturers to be responsible for the whole life cycle of their products by taking back used packaging and products for re-manufacturing, reuse, or recycling.Legalize industrial hemp as an ecological source for wood pulp, paper, cloth, lubricants, fibers, and many other products.Renewable Energy: Invest non-renewable energy sources in the creation of self-reproducing, renewable energy systems. Use federal investments, purchasing, mandates, and incentives to:Shut down nuclear power plants.Phase out fossil fuels and phase in clean renewable energy sources.Reduce auto-based transportation and expand pedestrian, bicycle, and rail transportation.Biotechnology-No Patents on Life; No Transgenic Organisms:Ban patents on life forms in order to preserve genetic diversity and common access to our common inheritance of nature, including farmers' access to seeds and breeds.Ban the release into the environment and the use in food production of genetically modified organisms that result from splicing the genes of one species into another.Environmental Defense and Restoration:Full funding for anti-pollution enforcement and toxic sites clean-upPreserve ecosystems and biodiversity by strengthening the Endangered Species Act and expanding areas designated as wildlife refuges and wilderness areas.Ban old-growth logging, clear cutting, and strip mining.End all commercial exploitation of public lands by private timber, mining, and cattle grazing interests.Ban off-road vehicles on federal lands. Decommission National Forest logging roads.Restoration of public lands degraded by commercial interests.Manage federal lands primarily for ecosystem protection and restoration.Support large-scale ecological restoration based on conservation biology.Environmental Justice: Strengthen and enforce laws that prevent toxic industries, toxic dumps and air pollution from targeting ethnic minority communities.A Just Transition: A Superfund for Workers to guarantee full income and benefits for all workers displaced by ecological conversion until they find new jobs with comparable income and benefits.Sustainable AgricultureFair Farm Price Supports: Reform farm price supports to cover the costs of production plus a living income for family farmers and farmworker cooperatives.Subsidize Transition to Organic Agriculture: Subsidize farmers' transition to organic agriculture while natural systems of soil fertility and pest control are being restored.Support Small Farmers: Create family farms and farm worker cooperatives through a homesteading program and land reform based on acreage limitations and residency requirements.Break Up Corporate Agribusiness: Create family farms and farmworker cooperatives through a homesteading program and land reform based on acreage limitations and residency requirements.Economic DemocracyEliminate Corporate Personhood: Legislation or constitutional amendment to end the legal fiction of corporate personhood.End Corporate Limited Liability: Make corporate shareholders bear the same liabilities as other property owners.Federal Chartering of Interstate CorporationsPeriodic Review of Corporate Charters: A public corporate charter review process for each corporation above $20 million in assets every 20 years to see if it is serving the public interest according to social and ecological as well as financial criteria.Strengthen Anti-Trust Enforcement: Require breakup of any firm with more than 10% market share unless it makes a compelling case every five years in a public regulatory proceeding that it serves the public interest to keep the firm intact.Democratic Production: Establish the right of citizens to vote on the expansion or phasing out of products and industries, especially in areas of dangerous or toxic production.Workplace Democracy: Establish the right of workers at every enterprise over 10 employees to elect supervisors and managers and to determine how to organize work.Worker Control of Worker Assets-Pension Funds and ESOP Shares:Pension funds representing over $5 trillion in deferred wages account for nearly one-third of financial assets in the US. 11 million workers participate in employee stock-option plans (ESOPs). Reform ERISA, labor laws, and ESOP tax provisions to enable workers to democratically control their assets.Democratic Conversion of Big Business: Mandatory break-up and conversion to democratic worker, consumer, and/or public ownership on a human scale of the largest 500 US industrial and commercial corporations that account for about 10% of employees, 50% of profits, 70% of sales, and 90% of manufacturing assets.Democratic Conversion of Small and Medium Business: Financial and technical incentives and assistance for voluntary conversion of the 22.5 million small and medium non-farm businesses in the US to worker or consumer cooperatives or democratic public enterprises. Mandate that workers and the community have the first option to buy on preferential terms in cases of plant closures, the sale or merger of significant assets, or the revocation of corporate charters.Democratic Banking: Mandatory conversion of the 200 largest banks with 80% of all bank assets into democratic publicly-owned community banks. Financial and technical incentives and assistance for voluntary conversion of other privately-owned banks into publicly-owned community banks or consumer-owned credit unions.Democratize Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve System: Place a 100% reserve requirement on demand deposits in order to return control of monetary policy from private bankers to elected government. Selection of Federal Reserve officers by our elected representatives, not private bankers. Strengthen the regional development mission of the regional Federal Reserve Banks by directing them to target investments to promote key policy objectives, such as high-wage employment, worker and community ownership, ecological production, and inner city reconstruction.Progressive and Ecological TaxesEcological Taxes: Tax pollution, resource extraction, harmful products, and the use of our common wealth of natural capital (land sites according to land value, timber and grazing lands, ocean and freshwater resources, oil and minerals, electromagnetic spectrum, satellite orbital zones).Simple, Progressive Income Taxes: Enact a no-loopholes, graduated personal income tax with equal taxation of all income, regardless of source. Provide an income tax credit for each dependent to replace and fully compensate for the current exemptions and deductions that benefit to the average taxpayer, such as the home mortgage deduction and medical deductions.Eliminate Regressive Payroll Taxes: Fund Social Security, Health Care, Unemployment Insurance, and Workers Compensation out of progressive income and wealth taxes.Guaranteed Adequate Income: Build taxable Basic Income Grants into the progressive income tax structure to create a Universal Social Security system that ensures everyone has income for at least a modest standard of living above the poverty line.Maximum Income: Build into the progressive income tax a 100% tax on all income over ten times the minimum wage.End Corporate Welfare: Target subsidies for worker- and community-owned enterprises, not absentee-owned corporations. Put subsidies in the public budgets where they can be scrutinized, not hidden as tax breaks in complicated tax codes. Progressively Graduated Corporate Revenue and Asset TaxesWealth Tax: Enact a steeply progressive tax on net wealth over $2.5 million (the top 5% of households).Inheritance Tax: Replace the loophole-ridden estate tax with a no-loopholes, progressive inheritance tax on inheritances over $1 million.Stock and Bond Transfer Tax: Encourage a shift from speculative to productive investments through a federal stock and bond transfer tax on all securities transactions.Currency Speculation Tax: An internationally uniform tax on currency conversion to discourage speculation. Revenues from the currency speculation tax should be channeled through international agencies into ecologically sustainable, democratically controlled development in poor countries.Advertising Tax: A tax on advertising to fund a decentralized, pluralistic media system of real public broadcasting, public service broadcasting on commercial media, and independent nonprofit, noncommercial media.Federal Revenue Sharing: Reduce state and local government dependence on regressive sales and property taxes through federal revenue sharing that combines centralized collection of progressive and ecological taxes with decentralized decisions on spending.Ecological and Feminist Economic Accounting: Expand the Bureau of Labor Statistics into a Bureau of Household, Labor, and Environmental Statistics with revised national economic accounts, statistics, and indicators that include stocks and flows of natural wealth, household production, and labor time values. Existing national income accounts and indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) ignore the ecological foundations of the economy and the value of household production. Ecological accounting will identify the true costs of resource depletion and pollution and hence appropriate eco-taxes to internalize full costs. Social accounting will identify the true value of household production and its contribution to the economy and social well-being. Labor time accounting will record and publish the current and dated labor time for goods and services, establishing the average labor time required for each product. These labor time values will serve as shadow prices against which to judge the fairness of actual market prices.Human Rights and Social JusticeEnd Institutionalized Racism, Sexism, and Oppression of People with Disabilities: Strengthen civil rights, anti-discrimination, and affirmative action laws, programs, and enforcement.African American Reparations: A national commission on reparations for African Americans.Indian Treaty Rights: Honor all treaty obligations with Native Americans and Chicanos.Immigrant Rights: Support the rights of immigrants to housing, education, health care, jobs, and civil, legal, and political rights.Reproductive Freedom: People should be free from government interference in making their reproductive choices, including abortion, which should be covered by all publicly funded medical insurance programs.Comparable Worth: Legislation to enable women and minorities to receive equal pay for work of equal value.End Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People: Outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, benefits, and child custody.Same-Sex Marriage: Legal recognition of same-sex marriages.Criminal and Civil Justice ReformsAbolish the Death PenaltyProsecute Police Brutality-The Jonny Gammage Law: Require independent federal investigation and prosecution of law enforcement officers charged with violating the civil rights or causing the bodily injury or death of a human being.End Political and Racial Persecution by the Criminal Justice System:Freedom for all political prisoners and prisoners of racial injustice. Clemency for Leonard Peltier. New trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal.Restorative Justice: Establish a humane criminal sanction system based on prevention, restitution, rehabilitation, and reconciliation rather than vengeance, forced labor, and profits for the Prison-Industrial Complex. Restore full funding for college degree granting programs in state and federal prisons. Jobs and justice, not more police and prisons.Legal Aid: Expand funding of legal aid and public defender programs so all people can have competent legal representation.Fight Corporate Crime: Strengthen laws and enforcement against corporate crime with penalties that include incarceration of executives and revocation of corporate charters.Oppose Tort Reform that Limits Class Action Lawsuits and Caps Victims' Compensation: The threat of high victim compensation awards by civil juries must be maintained as an important deterrent to corporate crime.Civil Liberties: Support the Bill of Rights. No compromise on civil liberties and due process for "national security," "anti-terrorism," or "the war on drugs." Repeal the 1994 Crime and 1996 Anti-Terrorism bills. End domestic political spying by police, military, and intelligence agencies.End the "War on Drugs:" Decriminalize possession of drugs. Regulate and tax drug distribution. Release nonviolent drug war prisoners. Treat drug abuse as a health problem, not a criminal problem. Drug abuse treatment on demand.Labor Law ReformsRepeal Repressive Labor Laws: Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act, the Landrum-Griffin Act, the Hatch Act, and state "Right-To-Work" laws which have crippled labor's ability to organize by outlawing or severely restricting labor's basic organizing tools: strikes, boycotts, pickets, and political action.A Workers' Bill of Rights: Enact a set of legally enforceable civil rights, independent of collective bargaining, which (1) extends the Bill of Rights protections of free speech, association, and assembly into all workplaces, (2) establishes workers' rights to living wages, portable pensions, information about chemicals used, report labor and environmental violations, refuse unsafe work, and participate in enterprise governance, and (3) establishes workers' rights to freedom from discharge at will, employer search and seizure in the workplace, sexual harassment, and unequal pay for work of comparable worth.Expand Worker' Rights to Organize and Enjoy Free Time:Majority Card-Check Recognition of UnionsStrong and Speedy Penalties for Employers Who Break Labor LawsBan Striker ReplacementsTriple Back Pay for Illegally Locked-Out WorkersUnemployment Compensation for Striking and Locked-Out WorkersBinding Contract Arbitration at Union RequestFull Rights for Farmworkers, Public Employees, and "Workfare" Workers under the Fair Labor Standards ActBan Prison Slave Labor: End the use of US prisoners to produce goods and services for sale to the public.Double-Time Pay for All OvertimeProhibit Mandatory Overtime6 Weeks Paid Vacation Annually in addition to Federal Holidays1 Year Paid Educational Leave for Every 7 Years Worked1 Year Parental Leave for Each Child Born with No Loss of SeniorityRight to Work Short Hours: No discrimination in pay and promotion against workers who choose to work short hours.Revitalize Public EducationEqualize School Funding with Federal Revenue Sharing: Federal financing of all public education (instead of by regressive local property taxes) so that every school has the resources it needs to provide the highest quality education for every child. Use a simple formula based on student population with adjustments based on need to help bring up school quality and student performance in poor communities.Decentralized Administration: Cut through stifling centralized administration with site-based planning, policy-making, and management with participation by parents and teachers with release-time. Maintain central support staff for decentrally administered schools.Class Size Reduction: Federal legislation and financing to reduce student-teacher ratios in classrooms to 15 to 1 in all public schools.Preschool Programs: Federal legislation and financing for public schools to make available Head Start-type programs for pre-Kindergarten children starting at age 3.After School Programs: Federal legislation and financing to make available after-school recreational and educational programs for all school age children.Children's Health: Clinics in all schools to check eyes, teeth, and general health at all grade levels. Healthy food at breakfast, lunch, and after school programs. Birth control information at middle and high schools.Improve Teacher Training and Pay: Improve the quality of teachers with support for career-long training. On-the-jobs apprenticeships for teachers-in-training. Teacher pay scales comparable to other professionals with similar education and responsibilities.Multicultural Teaching Staffs: Strengthen affirmative action programs to recruit and support ethnic minorities to enter teaching at every level: teacher, aide, assistant, apprentice.Tuition-Free Higher Education: Federal legislation and financing for tuition free education at public universities and technical schools for everyone who wants it.Oppose the Privatization of Public Schools: We oppose all schemes for corporations to pursue private profits at the expense of public schools and schoolchildren.No School Vouchers: No school vouchers from public budgets for private schools.No For-Profit or Religious Charter Schools: Stop the diversion of public funds to for-profit corporations or religious organizations running charter schools with unaccountable administrations, uncertified teachers, and segregated student bodies.No Commercialization: Stop turning school children into a captive market for commercial marketing interests with franchises that undermine democratic funding and accountability.No High-Stakes Testing: Stop the curriculum takeover by commercial standardized test and test-prep corporations. Stop linking administrator and teacher pay and student graduation and retention to standardized test performance. Stop reducing education to answering multiple choice questions. Put teachers back in charge of ongoing, genuine assessment in the classroom.Curriculum for a Multicultural Participatory Democracy: We support a democratic public school curriculum that fosters curiosity, critical thinking, and free expression, that explicitly promotes democratic and egalitarian anti-racist, anti-sexist, and multicultural values, that replaces Eurocentric with multicultural textbooks and other curriculum materials, that does not sort children into academic and non-academic tracks, and that is academically rigorous with high expectations for all children.Support Bilingual Education: Minority-language children with limited English proficiency must have instructional programs that build on their native language and culture while building English proficiency.Free, Diverse and Uncensored MediaInfodiversity: An uninformed people is not free. Create a vital, democratic, diverse media system, delinked from corporate profit objectives and able to present a wide range of issues and ideas in their full complexity, free from censorship by government or by private corporate power.Support Nonprofit and Noncommercial Media: A decentralized, democratic system of public funding of diverse nonprofit, noncommercial media, including broadcast, print, film, website, and other cultural production. Funding to exceed existing support for for-profit media, including lower mailing rates and tax deductions for donors. Guarantee free, universal Internet access.Real Public Broadcasting: Complete public funding for real public radio and television broadcasting, with no advertising or grants from private corporations or foundations. Support a decentralized, pluralistic system of multiple national networks and local stations, all independently controlled by boards elected by their publics and their workers.Regulate Public Airwaves in the Public Interest: Reassert the public's right as owners of the electromagnetic spectrum used as broadcast airwaves to regulate their use in the public interest. Re-appropriate 6 prime-time hours a day of commercial broadcast time on each station for real public service broadcasting: ad-free children's and news/public affairs programming. Fund this liberated time by charging commercial broadcasters rents for the bandwidths they use, a tax on sales of commercial stations, and a tax on advertising. Program this ad-free time under the control of artists' and educators for the children's programs and journalists for the news and public affairs programs. Restore the Fairness Doctrine. Free time for all candidates for public office. Prohibit paid political ads or require free ads of equal time for opponents. Redistribute substantial bandwidth concessions to public, nonprofit, and locally owned commercial stations, including low-power stations. Increase stakeholder representation on and public accountability of the Federal Communications Commission.Antitrust Actions to Break Up Media Conglomerates: Reform antitrust legislation to require the break up of corporate giants because their concentrated power threatens democracy, not just competitive pricing, especially with regard to media concentration where a few media conglomerates control the public's access to information. Require separate, independent firms for all TV stations, TV networks, TV show producers, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, book publishers, film producers, music recorders, Internet service providers, cable TV systems, cable TV stations, amusement parks, retail stores, and so forth. Repeal the pro-conglomeration Telecommunications Act of 1996. Subsidize the existence of multiple newspapers and magazines to express a diversity of opinion in all communities.International SolidarityA Global Green Deal: Build world peace and security through a Global Green Deal. First, the US should finance universal access to primary education, adequate food, clean water and sanitation, preventive health care, and family planning services for every human being on Earth. According to the 1999 UN Development Report, it would take only an additional $40 billion to Fund Global Basic Human Needs, an amount that is only 13% of the 2000 US military budget. Second, the US, which now spends half of the world's military expenditures by itself, should demilitarize its economy and reinvest the Peace Dividend in financing and technical assistance for an Ecological Conversion of Human Civilization to Sustainable Systems of Production.Peace Conversion: Cut US military spending unilaterally by 75% in two years to establish a non-interventionist, non-offensive, strictly defensive military posture and save nearly $250 billion a year.Peace Dividend: Dedicate the $250 billion a year Peace Dividend to the Global Green Deal, Ecological Conversion, the Economic Bill of Rights, and providing full income and benefits for all workers and soldiers displaced by demilitarization until they find new jobs at comparable income and benefits.Unilateral Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Disarmament: These weapons of mass destruction have no place in a non-offensive military. The US should set the example and demand that other nations match our lead before the proliferation of weapons to countries around the world leads to mass destruction.Cooperative Security: Pursue a "cooperative security" strategy that seeks mutual arms reductions, progressive elimination of cross-border offensive capabilities, and further cuts in military spending. The goal is to progressively demilitarize down to a non-offensive defense of U.S. national territory using a coast guard, border guard, national guard, and light air defense system, which would cost about $3 billion, or less than 1% of current US military spending.Democratize the United Nations: Cooperative security cannot work as long as the United Nations remains a US puppet. Support reforms to democratize the United Nations, such as more proportionality and power in the General Assembly, an elected Security Council, and the elimination of the Great Power Veto on the Security Council.A Pro-Democracy Foreign Policy: We call for a fundamental shift in US foreign policy, from supporting repressive regimes in the interests global corporations to supporting the pro-democracy labor, social, and environmental movements of the people.Support International, Multilateral Peacekeeping to Stop Aggression and GenocideNo Unilateral US Intervention in the Internal Affairs of Other CountriesClose All Overseas US Military BasesDisband NATO and All Aggressive Military AlliancesBan US Arms ExportsAbolish the CIA, NSA, US Army School of the Americas, and All US Agencies of Covert WarfareEnd the Economic Blockades of Cuba, Iraq, and YugoslaviaCut Off US Military Aid to Counter-Insurgency Wars in Colombia and MexicoFreedom for Lori Berenson and All Political PrisonersRequire a National Referendum to Declare WarEnd Global Financial Exploitation: Cancel the debt owed by poor countries to global banks. End the exploitation of poor countries by IMF "structural adjustment" policies. Abolish the IMF and World Bank and replace them with a democratic international financial institution for balancing international accounts and financing short-term current account balances.Fair Trade: Withdraw from the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, and all other corporate-managed trade agreements that are driving down labor and environmental conditions globally. Establish an internationalist social tariff system that equalizes trade by accounting for the differences among countries in wages, social benefits, environmental conditions, and political rights. Tariff revenues to a democratic, international fund for ecological production and democratic development in poor countries in order to level up social and environmental conditions to a high common standard.Taken from: The Greens/Green Party USA