Platform Mission, Values, and Goals
The Justice Party believes our nation has substantially diverged from the principles upon which it was founded, as a result of the corrupting influence of money on our political processes and the tendency of the two large political parties to subvert the public interest to their own party interest. We believe that these forces are responsible for eroding civil liberties, living conditions, and overall quality of life of most Americans, and that they threaten the very sustainability of our democratic republic. Government today serves the interests of a small minority rather than the public good. The Justice Party was formed by people united by the idea of bringing the people of our country together to break that monopoly and reclaim our government to truly be of the people, by the people, and for the people.
The mission of the Justice Party of Pennsylvania is to promote the political values and principles of the Justice Party of Pennsylvania in the political, economic, legal, and social institutions of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its various municipalities, in whatever ways the party deems appropriate, and particularly by supporting the campaigns of candidates who the party nominates or endorses as representing the Justice Party of Pennsylvania, and by drafting and advocating for legislation that advances the party principles.
The values the Justice Party of PA advocates, in government, within our party, and in personal conduct are:
1. Justice: Being fair and open-minded, and upholding human, civil, and other rights.
2. Accountability: Serving the interests of the people and reporting to their authority.
3. Transparency: Communicating openly, honestly, and thoroughly.
4. Cooperation: Seeking solutions through communication & collaboration.
5. Openness/Inclusivity: Welcoming others.
6. Respect: Valuing people, their rights, their liberty, their privacy, and their diversity.
7. Environmental Awareness: Valuing the natural environment and minimizing our impact on it.
8. Farsightedness: Considering the long term consequences of actions.
9. Sustainability: Adopting practices that can be maintained over generations, even indefinitely.
10. Democracy/Participation: Seeking to include others, and serving the collective will of the people.
11. Egalitarianism: Considering everyone equal under the law and in participation.
12. Decentralized Authority: Avoiding concentrations of power and unnecessary hierarchy
13. Rationality: Choosing feasible means to achieve goals; Making decisions based on facts and reason.
14. Compassion: Empathizing with others, helping the oppressed, showing mercy and forgiveness.
15. Integrity: Staying true to our values, avoiding conflicts of interest, and admitting our mistakes.
These values collectively, with justice first and foremost, may be applied variously to civil, economic, social, and environmental aspects of our society.
Civil Justice includes protecting every persons human and civil rights and liberties, having fair and democratic elections, equality under the law for all, requiring government be accountable to the people rather than to bankers, wealthy corporations and powerful individuals, maintaining a responsible national budget, and having a fair and simple tax system.
Human Rights
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania calls for all people and all governments to recognize and uphold human rights – those which one should have merely by virtue of being a person –including: life[i]; access to clean air, water, food, medical care and shelter sufficient for a basic quality of life; liberty; the right to live in peace; freedom from inhumane treatment such as torture; the right to bodily integrity and sexual and reproductive freedom; freedom of conscience; and freedom of religion. JPPA seeks to end poverty, hunger, and homelessness; end human trafficking and slavery; and end indefinite detention and torture.
Civil Rights & Liberties
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania is committed to full and equal civil rights for everyone in the U.S., including all the rights and liberties listed or implied in the Bill of Rights. JPPA supports vigorous enforcement of habeas corpus and other due process rights. JPPA opposes warrantless government surveillance of non-public activities as a violation of the right to privacy. JPPA supports equal marriage rights for all adults regardless of gender or sexuality, and the right of labor to bargain collectively.
Fair Elections
Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania says PA elections shall be free and equal and that laws shall not interfere with free exercise of the right of suffrage. The Justice Party of Pennsylvania seeks to make elections fair and democratic, remove the corrupting influence of money from elections, and rescue our electoral processes from co-optation by the Republican and Democratic parties. JPPA seeks to modify Pennsylvania elections to eliminate the spoiler effect, to encourage greater choice of candidates in each election, maximizing opportunities for political representation and a meaningful vote, and ensure that all Pennsylvanians can vote and have access to the polls. JPPA is opposed to mandatory Voter ID, which serves no useful purpose, unless it can be shown that it does not effective disenfranchise or deter any voters. JPPA seeks to eliminate ballot access laws that discriminate against third party or independent candidates, and open political debates to all candidates who demonstrate a modicum of support.
Government Accountability
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania seeks to remove the corrupting influence of money from Pennsylvania government and make the workings of the Commonwealth as open, transparent, and accountable to the people as practical. JPPA seeks to deter concentrations of political power, and strengthen local grassroots democracy. JPPA wishes to protect public investments by opposing privatization of public assets. JPPA supports protecting government and corporate whistleblowers from prosecution or retaliation.
A Responsible Budget
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports the principle of responsible government budgets, limiting deficit spending, and paying down government debt.
Fair & Simple Taxes
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania desires a tax system that is fair and simple, meaning the tax burden is distributed in proportion to the benefits enjoyed by being part of Pennsylvania, corporate taxes are on the same footing as personal taxes, and tax forms are simple for people to complete and return. JPPA seeks to eliminate commonly abused "loophole" tax deductions, exclusions, and tax credits.
Economic Justice involves appropriately regulating the economy so corporations serve the public good, and enacting economic policies that maximize basic economic security and fair economic opportunities so people have the best opportunity to prosper and achieve their version of the American Dream.
Corporations that Serve the Public Good
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania seeks to abolish corporate personhood, by Constitutional amendment to clarify that corporations are not persons and are not entitled to any civil rights: that civil rights pertain only to natural persons. The JPPA believes corporate interests, e.g. profit, should be subordinate to the public interest, including the interests of consumers and employees and that the Commonwealth should eliminate subsidies to and revoke the corporate charter of corporations that act against the public interest.
Local Economies
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports policies that encourage more small and local businesses and foster strong local economies. JPPA encourages local production of food and energy and use of local materials in construction. JPPA believes local communities should be able to regulate the operations of businesses and other organizations operating within their jurisdictions.
Transportation & Infrastructure
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports repairing and rebuilding Pennsylvania infrastructure and implementing a Pennsylvania green jobs program.
Economic Security & Employment
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania is committed to fostering an economy that provides every American with basic economic security, ensures that everyone who wants paid employment has maximum opportunities to get it, and pays a living wage such that a full-time worker can support a family above the poverty threshold, but believes many of the policies to provide these goals should be adopted at the state level to avoid competition between state economies. JPPA seeks to curb extreme economic inequality.
Limited Eminent Domain
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports changes to Pennsylvania eminent domain rules that would require property taken under eminent domain to remain publicly owned and prevent such property from being transferred to corporations or other private entities.
Social Justice includes eliminating poverty, hunger, and homelessness, providing our youth with fair, strong opportunities to obtain a quality education, providing universal healthcare coverage, having rational law enforcement and corrections policies, and recognizing that our nation is a community.
Universal Education
The Justice Party believes every child has a right to quality education, pre-school through high school. Beyond that, Justice Party seeks to provide, via national policy, every American who desires it with up to four years of publicly-funded job training or certification, trade apprenticeship, or college education, conditional on continued satisfactory progress. JPPA is not opposed to homeschooling, charter, or private schooling, nor to providing students (and parents) a variety of educational options within the framework of public education. JPPA is opposed to funding formulas that take disproportionate funding away from public schools for students who opt to use an alternative and/or effectively privatize tax dollars by giving for-profit private education money in excess of reasonable tuition costs for each such student.
Universal Healthcare
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports healthcare reform that: ensures universal access to basic and emergency healthcare for everyone, substantially reduces the total cost per capita of health care, putting Pennsylvania in line with other industrialized nations, levels the playing field for health care costs among employers, is portable and not tied to employment status, breaks the oligopolies that dominate the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, emphasizes healthy living and preventative health care, ensures patients and their doctors the right to choose the best course of treatment, and does not require people to buy a product from a private for-profit vendor. We believe expanded Medicaid is a good way to do this.
End the War on Drugs
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania seeks to end the “War on Drugs”, legalize marijuana, pardon non-violent drug offenders, and treat substance abuse as a public health concern rather than a criminal matter.
Law Enforcement
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports community policing where police know, cooperate with, and serve the communities they patrol, and respects suspects' rights. JPPA seeks an end to the practice of “stop and frisk” as a violation of basic civil rights, and opposes the trend toward police militarization. JPPA advocates for the dismissal of any police who use excessive force or violate the law, and preserving the right of the public to video record police activities, e.g. arrests, that occur in a public environment.
Courts & Corrections
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania advocates a corrections system that reduces crime, emphasizes restorative justice, and rehabilitates those convicted of crimes, with equality under the law without discrimination. JPPA seeks to eliminate for-profit prisons and other for-profit corrections facilities, treat inmates humanely, and provide adequate living space, health care, and education and vocational training for their rehabilitation. JPPA believes PA should abolish capital punishment because the death penalty has historically been applied in ways that discriminate against the poor and racial minorities, has resulted in the execution of innocent people, and is not necessary in modern society.
Environmental Justice means keeping our air, water, and food supplies clean and healthy, taking better care of our natural environment, adopting sustainable practices, and reducing our impact on the environment and climate.
Food Security
The Justice Party believes government should protect the quality and safety of Pennsylvanian’s food and water supply. JPPA encourages local, decentralized, sustainable, and organic food production. JPPA supports restrictions on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods until testing can determine the safety of each GMO, requiring labeling of GMO foods, and protect the rights of non-GMO farmers. JPPA seeks to ensure that the safety of agricultural workers is maintained, that livestock animals are treated humanely, and that the use of chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics that pass into the food and water supply is minimized.
A Cleaner Environment
Article 1, Section27 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania states that the people of Pennsylvania have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment, that PA’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come and that the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them. JPPA finds that the Commonwealth pays little heed to this section of our Constitution, and believes this article needs to be vigorously enforced to protect PA’s public lands and natural resources from destructive commercial exploitation, and hold corporate polluters accountable for clean-up. We support a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” on public lands, believe local communities should be empowered to regulate local fracking, and support regulations to better protect PA’s environment from fracking damage and to ensure the public is fully informed about fracking chemicals and activities.
Climate & Energy Sustainability
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania recognizes that human activity is a cause of global climate change and that this poses a threat to civilization as we know it and we seek to have Pennsylvania do its part along with other states to halt, if possible reverse, and repair damage from climate change for the security of the nation and the world. JPPA would like PA to conserve energy, dramatically reduce consumption of fossil fuels, and adopt policies, including tax incentives, to transition toward sustainable energy sources. JPPA seeks to encourage local energy generation, e.g. houses with solar panels.
[i] JPPA understands the right to life to be a right of the living, without implication or extension to the as yet unborn.
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania (JPPA) creates its platform via an open source process in which any person can suggest modifications to the platform, which is located in a Git Hub repository. The JPPA State Committee and/or Steering Committee considers these suggested changes periodically, at least once per year, and formally votes on whether to include them in the platform. If you think the mission, values, and goals of the Justice Party of Pennsylvania can be improved, please suggest a change. The text above is the initial platform agreed to by the JPPA Steering Committee in July 2013.
The Justice Party believes our nation has substantially diverged from the principles upon which it was founded, as a result of the corrupting influence of money on our political processes and the tendency of the two large political parties to subvert the public interest to their own party interest. We believe that these forces are responsible for eroding civil liberties, living conditions, and overall quality of life of most Americans, and that they threaten the very sustainability of our democratic republic. Government today serves the interests of a small minority rather than the public good. The Justice Party was formed by people united by the idea of bringing the people of our country together to break that monopoly and reclaim our government to truly be of the people, by the people, and for the people.
The mission of the Justice Party of Pennsylvania is to promote the political values and principles of the Justice Party of Pennsylvania in the political, economic, legal, and social institutions of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its various municipalities, in whatever ways the party deems appropriate, and particularly by supporting the campaigns of candidates who the party nominates or endorses as representing the Justice Party of Pennsylvania, and by drafting and advocating for legislation that advances the party principles.
The values the Justice Party of PA advocates, in government, within our party, and in personal conduct are:
1. Justice: Being fair and open-minded, and upholding human, civil, and other rights.
2. Accountability: Serving the interests of the people and reporting to their authority.
3. Transparency: Communicating openly, honestly, and thoroughly.
4. Cooperation: Seeking solutions through communication & collaboration.
5. Openness/Inclusivity: Welcoming others.
6. Respect: Valuing people, their rights, their liberty, their privacy, and their diversity.
7. Environmental Awareness: Valuing the natural environment and minimizing our impact on it.
8. Farsightedness: Considering the long term consequences of actions.
9. Sustainability: Adopting practices that can be maintained over generations, even indefinitely.
10. Democracy/Participation: Seeking to include others, and serving the collective will of the people.
11. Egalitarianism: Considering everyone equal under the law and in participation.
12. Decentralized Authority: Avoiding concentrations of power and unnecessary hierarchy
13. Rationality: Choosing feasible means to achieve goals; Making decisions based on facts and reason.
14. Compassion: Empathizing with others, helping the oppressed, showing mercy and forgiveness.
15. Integrity: Staying true to our values, avoiding conflicts of interest, and admitting our mistakes.
These values collectively, with justice first and foremost, may be applied variously to civil, economic, social, and environmental aspects of our society.
Civil Justice includes protecting every persons human and civil rights and liberties, having fair and democratic elections, equality under the law for all, requiring government be accountable to the people rather than to bankers, wealthy corporations and powerful individuals, maintaining a responsible national budget, and having a fair and simple tax system.
Human Rights
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania calls for all people and all governments to recognize and uphold human rights – those which one should have merely by virtue of being a person –including: life[i]; access to clean air, water, food, medical care and shelter sufficient for a basic quality of life; liberty; the right to live in peace; freedom from inhumane treatment such as torture; the right to bodily integrity and sexual and reproductive freedom; freedom of conscience; and freedom of religion. JPPA seeks to end poverty, hunger, and homelessness; end human trafficking and slavery; and end indefinite detention and torture.
Civil Rights & Liberties
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania is committed to full and equal civil rights for everyone in the U.S., including all the rights and liberties listed or implied in the Bill of Rights. JPPA supports vigorous enforcement of habeas corpus and other due process rights. JPPA opposes warrantless government surveillance of non-public activities as a violation of the right to privacy. JPPA supports equal marriage rights for all adults regardless of gender or sexuality, and the right of labor to bargain collectively.
Fair Elections
Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania says PA elections shall be free and equal and that laws shall not interfere with free exercise of the right of suffrage. The Justice Party of Pennsylvania seeks to make elections fair and democratic, remove the corrupting influence of money from elections, and rescue our electoral processes from co-optation by the Republican and Democratic parties. JPPA seeks to modify Pennsylvania elections to eliminate the spoiler effect, to encourage greater choice of candidates in each election, maximizing opportunities for political representation and a meaningful vote, and ensure that all Pennsylvanians can vote and have access to the polls. JPPA is opposed to mandatory Voter ID, which serves no useful purpose, unless it can be shown that it does not effective disenfranchise or deter any voters. JPPA seeks to eliminate ballot access laws that discriminate against third party or independent candidates, and open political debates to all candidates who demonstrate a modicum of support.
Government Accountability
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania seeks to remove the corrupting influence of money from Pennsylvania government and make the workings of the Commonwealth as open, transparent, and accountable to the people as practical. JPPA seeks to deter concentrations of political power, and strengthen local grassroots democracy. JPPA wishes to protect public investments by opposing privatization of public assets. JPPA supports protecting government and corporate whistleblowers from prosecution or retaliation.
A Responsible Budget
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports the principle of responsible government budgets, limiting deficit spending, and paying down government debt.
Fair & Simple Taxes
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania desires a tax system that is fair and simple, meaning the tax burden is distributed in proportion to the benefits enjoyed by being part of Pennsylvania, corporate taxes are on the same footing as personal taxes, and tax forms are simple for people to complete and return. JPPA seeks to eliminate commonly abused "loophole" tax deductions, exclusions, and tax credits.
Economic Justice involves appropriately regulating the economy so corporations serve the public good, and enacting economic policies that maximize basic economic security and fair economic opportunities so people have the best opportunity to prosper and achieve their version of the American Dream.
Corporations that Serve the Public Good
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania seeks to abolish corporate personhood, by Constitutional amendment to clarify that corporations are not persons and are not entitled to any civil rights: that civil rights pertain only to natural persons. The JPPA believes corporate interests, e.g. profit, should be subordinate to the public interest, including the interests of consumers and employees and that the Commonwealth should eliminate subsidies to and revoke the corporate charter of corporations that act against the public interest.
Local Economies
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports policies that encourage more small and local businesses and foster strong local economies. JPPA encourages local production of food and energy and use of local materials in construction. JPPA believes local communities should be able to regulate the operations of businesses and other organizations operating within their jurisdictions.
Transportation & Infrastructure
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports repairing and rebuilding Pennsylvania infrastructure and implementing a Pennsylvania green jobs program.
Economic Security & Employment
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania is committed to fostering an economy that provides every American with basic economic security, ensures that everyone who wants paid employment has maximum opportunities to get it, and pays a living wage such that a full-time worker can support a family above the poverty threshold, but believes many of the policies to provide these goals should be adopted at the state level to avoid competition between state economies. JPPA seeks to curb extreme economic inequality.
Limited Eminent Domain
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports changes to Pennsylvania eminent domain rules that would require property taken under eminent domain to remain publicly owned and prevent such property from being transferred to corporations or other private entities.
Social Justice includes eliminating poverty, hunger, and homelessness, providing our youth with fair, strong opportunities to obtain a quality education, providing universal healthcare coverage, having rational law enforcement and corrections policies, and recognizing that our nation is a community.
Universal Education
The Justice Party believes every child has a right to quality education, pre-school through high school. Beyond that, Justice Party seeks to provide, via national policy, every American who desires it with up to four years of publicly-funded job training or certification, trade apprenticeship, or college education, conditional on continued satisfactory progress. JPPA is not opposed to homeschooling, charter, or private schooling, nor to providing students (and parents) a variety of educational options within the framework of public education. JPPA is opposed to funding formulas that take disproportionate funding away from public schools for students who opt to use an alternative and/or effectively privatize tax dollars by giving for-profit private education money in excess of reasonable tuition costs for each such student.
Universal Healthcare
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports healthcare reform that: ensures universal access to basic and emergency healthcare for everyone, substantially reduces the total cost per capita of health care, putting Pennsylvania in line with other industrialized nations, levels the playing field for health care costs among employers, is portable and not tied to employment status, breaks the oligopolies that dominate the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, emphasizes healthy living and preventative health care, ensures patients and their doctors the right to choose the best course of treatment, and does not require people to buy a product from a private for-profit vendor. We believe expanded Medicaid is a good way to do this.
End the War on Drugs
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania seeks to end the “War on Drugs”, legalize marijuana, pardon non-violent drug offenders, and treat substance abuse as a public health concern rather than a criminal matter.
Law Enforcement
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania supports community policing where police know, cooperate with, and serve the communities they patrol, and respects suspects' rights. JPPA seeks an end to the practice of “stop and frisk” as a violation of basic civil rights, and opposes the trend toward police militarization. JPPA advocates for the dismissal of any police who use excessive force or violate the law, and preserving the right of the public to video record police activities, e.g. arrests, that occur in a public environment.
Courts & Corrections
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania advocates a corrections system that reduces crime, emphasizes restorative justice, and rehabilitates those convicted of crimes, with equality under the law without discrimination. JPPA seeks to eliminate for-profit prisons and other for-profit corrections facilities, treat inmates humanely, and provide adequate living space, health care, and education and vocational training for their rehabilitation. JPPA believes PA should abolish capital punishment because the death penalty has historically been applied in ways that discriminate against the poor and racial minorities, has resulted in the execution of innocent people, and is not necessary in modern society.
Environmental Justice means keeping our air, water, and food supplies clean and healthy, taking better care of our natural environment, adopting sustainable practices, and reducing our impact on the environment and climate.
Food Security
The Justice Party believes government should protect the quality and safety of Pennsylvanian’s food and water supply. JPPA encourages local, decentralized, sustainable, and organic food production. JPPA supports restrictions on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods until testing can determine the safety of each GMO, requiring labeling of GMO foods, and protect the rights of non-GMO farmers. JPPA seeks to ensure that the safety of agricultural workers is maintained, that livestock animals are treated humanely, and that the use of chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics that pass into the food and water supply is minimized.
A Cleaner Environment
Article 1, Section27 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania states that the people of Pennsylvania have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment, that PA’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come and that the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them. JPPA finds that the Commonwealth pays little heed to this section of our Constitution, and believes this article needs to be vigorously enforced to protect PA’s public lands and natural resources from destructive commercial exploitation, and hold corporate polluters accountable for clean-up. We support a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” on public lands, believe local communities should be empowered to regulate local fracking, and support regulations to better protect PA’s environment from fracking damage and to ensure the public is fully informed about fracking chemicals and activities.
Climate & Energy Sustainability
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania recognizes that human activity is a cause of global climate change and that this poses a threat to civilization as we know it and we seek to have Pennsylvania do its part along with other states to halt, if possible reverse, and repair damage from climate change for the security of the nation and the world. JPPA would like PA to conserve energy, dramatically reduce consumption of fossil fuels, and adopt policies, including tax incentives, to transition toward sustainable energy sources. JPPA seeks to encourage local energy generation, e.g. houses with solar panels.
[i] JPPA understands the right to life to be a right of the living, without implication or extension to the as yet unborn.
The Justice Party of Pennsylvania (JPPA) creates its platform via an open source process in which any person can suggest modifications to the platform, which is located in a Git Hub repository. The JPPA State Committee and/or Steering Committee considers these suggested changes periodically, at least once per year, and formally votes on whether to include them in the platform. If you think the mission, values, and goals of the Justice Party of Pennsylvania can be improved, please suggest a change. The text above is the initial platform agreed to by the JPPA Steering Committee in July 2013.
Justice Party of Pennsylvania
Mail: Justice Party of Pennsylvania P.O. Box 51 Harrisburg, PA 17108-0051 email: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Facebook: Justice Party of PA Twitter: @JusticePartyPA LinkedIn: Justice Party of PA Group Google+: Justice Party of PA Justice Party of the United States Website: www.justicepartyusa.org email: [email protected] Facebook: Justice Party of US |
Justice Party of Pennsylvania
Officers 2013-2015 Chair - Alyssa Röhricht General Secretary - Blyden Potts Treasurer - Aaron Morris Fundraising Secretary - Mike Gretz Membership Secretary - Jeff Mason Media Secretary - Dan Andreescu At Large Steering - Tania Werry At Large Steering - Cynthia A. Botteron At Large Steering - Rich Justice We accept donations only from individuals, not from corporations or other organizations. State and Federal law requires us to ask donors to include their occupation and name of employer. Political donations are not tax deductible.
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