PRESENTER/CONTACT: Chuck O’Neill, coneil@mindspring.com.

SUBJECT:  Foreign Policy Section in the Peace and Non Violence chapter. The involved Ten Key Values of the Greens are non-violence, personal & global responsibility, and economic justice.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:  The current CAGP Foreign Policy plank is out of date and requires revision.  This is the first consideration at a CAGP plenary.  Changes to the previous text are underlined.

PROPOSAL: The Green Party supports democracy and self-determination worldwide and promotes the U.S. ending its practice of economic and political colonialism. U.S. foreign policy should emphasize promoting other nations' self-sufficiency and self-determination, rather than ensuring security for overseas American business interests and the retention of military bases. 

International business practices have taken advantage of countries lax environmental and safety standards and a needy labor force that is easily exploited. Such practices are often in conflict with local efforts to establish work place democracy, and to address environmental and safety problems. 

The continuing establishment of bases and stationing of service personnel overseas heightens global tensions and tends to make the U.S. military a global police force. Together with economic leveraging, such military presence assures that self-serving U.S. businesses will encounter little resistance. 

U.S. foreign aid programs under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) have promoted U.S. development methods without adequately examining their feasibility, appropriateness or cultural implications for the host country. Aid is given in inordinately greater amounts to countries that are considered strategically important to the U.S. 

Of the foreign aid that the United States distributes, the majority is provided as military aid. This military aid is generally split between training foreign military officers and providing U.S. weapons to foreign governments. Both are basically cash handouts to our military industry and do nothing to bolster a foreign country's economy or living standards. The U.S. government's tradition of lax oversight of such aid results in it being used to wreak havoc on the local populace. Foreign aid is also commonly used to prop-up U.S. multinational corporations by using aid money to buy goods from these companies and then ship them to foreign countries. This is not only corporate welfare, but it also invites conflicts of interest in public policy as politicians are tempted to reward the companies that have supported their reelections. It also creates a dependency of domestic corporations on foreign policy decisions. Most of all, it robs the recipient country of the opportunity to build up its own industry and become self-sufficient in meeting the needs being addressed by foreign aid.

The Greens believe in policies consistent with participatory democracy and global responsibility: 

 1. Insist that U.S. corporations maintain foreign business practices that don't jeopardize workers, damage their environment or interfere with their government, and a wage adequate for living. 

 2. Negotiate a General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) that promotes the economic development and self-sufficiency of recipient countries, rather than profitability for the G-8 countries. [see International Trade Agreements section above] 

 3. Reevaluate our government's aid practices (USAID, for example) by emphasizing appropriate-level technologies, ecologically sustainable infrastructures and business projects, cultural sensitivity, and monetary aid consistent with countries' real needs. 

 4. Encourage U.S. cities to develop municipal foreign trade policies centering around local trade agreements, "sister city" arrangements, and cultural exchange programs. 

 5. Support and endorse United Nations (U.N.) conventions. We believe that the U.N. should be used for its intended purpose: it should act as an impartial, democratic, multilateral body to maintain world order. This will require some fundamental changes in the U.N. Charter, starting with the elimination of Veto Power for any member of the Security Council. The U.N. should have a U.N. Civilian Police Corps, and an independent source of financing that is not easily blocked by the whims of one or two national governments.          The U.S. should help the U.N by paying its dues on time, abiding by all U.N.   resolutions, and helping U.N. forces to maintain peace and enforce its resolutions.       The U.S should   not provide aid to any country not abiding by all U.N. resolutions nor should it take military action without the approval of the U.N.  An ideal U.N. should require that all nations be represented by an approved democratically selected representative or elected directly.       At the same time, an effective U.N. requires participation by all the   world's nations, including those governed by military dictatorships, plutocracies, theocracies, or various forms of democracy. The Green Party recognizes we do not live in an ideal world and that the U.N. will have to deal with undemocratic and recalcitrant nations.       At the same time, without interfer   -   ing in the internal affairs of its members, the U.N. should do what it can to promote democratic representation by its member      countries.       The U.N. should interfere in the internal affairs of its members   only as an independent police force, as mediator when violent conflicts arise, as a provider of help after disasters, to solve refugee problems when needs are not clearly met, or to enforce U.N. resolutions.

 6.  Close all foreign military bases as soon as possible and clean up any toxic wastes left behind. Fair and responsible business practices would eliminate the need for such bases. 

 7.  Military foreign aid should be discontinued. Any monetary foreign aid distributions should be provided as cash payments to foreign governments, or reliable non-government agencies. Recipient countries should have more authority in deciding how the money is spent, rather than simply using it to purchase U.S. domestic goods. All foreign aid should be based on the improvement of democracy and general living standards and/or to reduce overall suffering in the recipient country. 

 8.      We support use of the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) as better than war in solving problems   in international relations.       The I.C.C. provides an opportunity for fair and open trial of individuals ac   -   cused of crimes against humanity.       The I.C.C. includes most of the provisions of the U.S. Bill of   Rights.       Persons suspected of being terrorists should be tried as individuals in the      I.C.C.   , and if guilty,   they should be punished as individuals. No country should invade, occupy, bomb, or kill the people of another country because some international criminals reside or are located in that country. The U.S. Senate should ratify the I.C.C. treaty.