1) Terminate Mecklenburg County’s 287(g) program immediately. This program serves only to promote racial profiling and harass workers. By forcing local law enforcement to act as ICE agents, time is taken away from preventing and investigating serious, violent crime.

Charlotte resident Abel Moreno was arrested simply because he reported the sexual assault of his girlfriend at the hands of CMPD Officer Marcus Jackson. How many other crimes go unreported because a resident is afraid the police will arrest them for being undocumented? What if Moreno didn’t risk jail and report Jackson? It could have been your wife, girlfriend, or daughter who became his next victim. End the 287(g) program so we can end REAL crime.

2) Authorize Mecklenburg county court to issue marriage licenses for all couples who are legally consenting adults. The county made great progress by offering domestic partnership benefits to county employees, but this is only a stop-gap measure. First, both city and county should recognized all marriages and civil unions which are granted in other states and countries. Second, do away with domestic partnerships benefits and start issuing marriage licenses for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples.

Mecklenburg county would become a leader in recognizing this basic human right for all residents. Marriage is a civil union between two consenting adults – whether any religious institution wants to recognize one marriage or the other is completely up to them, and completely irrelevant when it comes to the civil contract side of it and the governmental benefits it grants. Nobody should ever force any religious institution to marry anybody it doesn’t want to.

3) Direct CMPD and the Sheriff’s office to immediately stop arresting and/or citing residents for marijuana consumption and possession of marijuana for personal use. This is a nonsense, victimless “crime” whose enforcement wastes the time of CMPD and exposes residents to the criminal system – pot isn’t a gateway drug, but throwing a pot user in jail is a gateway for them to get mixed up with REAL criminals and makes them more likely to commit a more serious offense in the future.

Fourteen states have legalized marijuana in some form or another, and the only reason marijuana is still illegal in some states is the fact that seizing it and fining users is a major “cash crop” for law enforcement, probably second only to writing speeding tickets. As a compromise, instead of full decriminalization perhaps we could start off by legalizing marijuana for medical use in Mecklenburg county, or simply designate possession/use as a ticketable offense, similar to speeding. That way the city/county keeps the cash rolling in – you could even pay your ticket online!

I’m sure one argument against these three steps would be that by taking these steps, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County would be overstepping it’s legal authority. While some argue for States to have more rights from the Federal Government, local government (city and county) should have even more rights than states. Personal sovereignty first – human rights, civil rights, workers rights – then states rights and Federal rights.

The right-wing pundits and politicians have tried as hard as they could to spin it as “evil developer, evil Charlotte Housing Authority” causing the problem. While there were legitimate issues regarding this particular deal and this particular developer, the true feelings of Ballantyne residents were expressed at a planning board meeting.

Angry, bitter residents openly showed their hostility at the meeting. According to the Charlotte Observer, one Ballantyne resident stated:

“My house is over a million, and I don’t want the crap next to me,” he said defiantly.

The crowd burst into loud and long applause. A minute later, it was revealed that some of the prospective apartment residents would make 60 percent of area median income, or about $43,000 for a family of four.

“$43,000?” the man said. “My jet costs that to go across the country.”

Fellow workers, that is what you are to bourgeois Ballantyne – crap.

They are okay with exploiting your labor and conning you out of your hard earned money at the Uptown banks they control. You’re welcome to bag their groceries, stock their shelves, cook their lavish meals, and change the oil in their super-sized SUVs. But don’t you DARE try to live anywhere near them. To them you are crap, and your children are crap and don’t belong in their schools.

The Charlotte Socialist Party knows you are NOT crap. We stand in solidarity with YOU, the Charlotte worker. The fat cats of bourgeois Ballantyne need to be shown that the WORKERS have the power. We must unite and declare WE THE PEOPLE will not be exploited. We are not crap, and we will no longer allow you to treat us that way.

Socialist Society

Freedom & Equality

Democratic socialism is a political and economic system with freedom and equality for all, so that people may develop to their fullest potential in harmony with others. The Socialist Party is committed to full freedom of speech, assembly, press, and religion, and to a multi-party system. We are dedicated to the abolition of male supremacy and class society, and to the elimination of all forms of oppression, including those based on race, national origin, age, sexual preferences, and disabling conditions.

Continue reading the principals below:

Production For Use, Not For Profit

In a socialist system the people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically controlled public agencies, cooperatives, or other collective groups. The primary goal of economic activity is to provide the necessities of life, including food, shelter, health care, education, child care, cultural opportunities, and social services.
These social services include care for the chronically ill, persons with mental disabilities, the infirm and the aging. Planning takes place at the community, regional, and national levels, and is determined democratically with the input of workers, consumers, and the public to be served.

Full Employment

Under welfare capitalism, a reserve pool of people is kept undereducated, under-skilled and unemployed, largely along racial and gender lines, to exert pressure on those who are employed and on organized labor. The employed pay for this knife that capitalism holds to their throats by being taxed to fund welfare programs to maintain the unemployed and their children. In this way the working class is divided against itself; those with jobs and those without are separated by resentment and fear. In socialism, full employment is realized for everyone who wants to work.

Worker & Community Control

Democracy in daily life is the core of our socialism. Public ownership becomes a fraud if decisions are made by distant bureaucrats or authoritarian managers. In socialist society power resides in worker-managed and cooperative enterprises. Community-based cooperatives help provide the flexibility and innovation required in a dynamic socialist economy. Workers have the right to form unions freely, and to strike and engage in other forms of job actions. Worker and community control make it possible to combine life at work, home and in the community into a meaningful whole for adults and children. Girls and boys are encouraged to grow up able to choose freely the shape of their lives and work without gender and racial stereotyping. Children are provided with the care, goods and services, and support that they need, and are protected from abuse.

Ecological Harmony

A socialist society carefully plans its way of life and technology to be a harmonious part of our natural environment. This planning takes place on regional, national, and international levels and covers the production of energy, the use of scarce resources, land-use planning, the prevention of pollution and the preservation of wildlife. The cleanup of the contaminated environment and the creation of a nuclear-free world are among the first tasks of a socialist society.

Socialist Strategy

Socialist Feminism and Women’s Liberation

Socialist feminism confronts the common root of sexism, racism and classism: the determination of a life of oppression or privilege based on accidents of birth or circumstances. Socialist feminism is an inclusive way of creating social change. We value synthesis and cooperation rather than conflict and competition.
We work against the exploitation and oppression of women who live with lower wages, inferior working conditions and subordination in the home, in society and in politics. Socialists struggle for the full freedom of women and men to control their own bodies and reproductive systems and to determine their own sexual orientation.  We stand for the right of women to choose to have a safe and legal abortion, at no cost, regardless of age, race, or circumstance.
Women’s independent organizations and caucuses are essential to full liberation, both before and after the transformation to socialism. Women will define their own liberation.

Liberation of Oppressed People

Bigotry and discrimination help the ruling class divide, exploit, and abuse workers here and in the Third World. The Socialist Party works to eliminate prejudice and discrimination in all its forms. We recognize the right of self-defense in the face of attacks; we also support non-violent direct action in combating oppression. We fully support strong and expanded affirmative action programs to help combat the entrenched inertia of a racist and sexist system which profits from discrimination and social division.
People of color, lesbians and gays, and other oppressed groups need independent organization to fight oppression. Racism will not be eliminated merely by eliminating capitalism.

International Solidarity & Peace

People around the world have more in common with each other than with their rulers. We condemn war, preparation for war, and the militaristic culture because they play havoc with people’s lives and divert resources from constructive social projects. Militarism also concentrates even greater power in the hands of the few, the powerful and the violent. We align with no nation, but only with working people throughout the world.

Internal Democracy

Socialism and democracy are one and indivisible. The Socialist Party is democratic, with its structure and practices visible and accessible to all members. We reject dogma and promote internal debate. The Socialist Party is a “multi-tendency” organization. We orient ourselves around our principles and develop a common program, but our members have various underlying philosophies and views of the world. Solidarity within the party comes from the ability of those with divergent views on some issues to engage in a collective struggle towards social revolution. We strive to develop feminist practice within the party.

Cultural Freedom

Art is an integral part of daily life. It should not be treated as just a commodity. Socialists work to create opportunities for participation in art and cultural activities. We work for the restoration and preservation of the history and culture of working people, women, and oppressed minorities.

The Personal as Political

Living under domination and struggling against it exact a personal toll. Socialists regard the distortion of personal life and interpersonal relations under capitalism as a political matter. Socialism must ultimately improve life; this cannot be accomplished by demanding that personal lives be sacrificed for the movement. We cherish the right of personal privacy and the enrichment of culture through diversity.

Electoral Action

Socialists participate in the electoral process to present socialist alternatives. The Socialist Party does not divorce electoral politics from other strategies for basic change. While a minority, we fight for progressive changes compatible with a socialist future. When a majority we will rapidly introduce those changes, which constitute socialism, with priority to the elimination of the power of big business through public ownership and workers’ control.
By participating in local government, socialists can support movements of working people and make improvements that illustrate the potential of public ownership. We advocate electoral action independent of the capitalist-controlled two-party system.

Democratic Revolution From Below

No oppressed group has ever been liberated except by its own organized efforts to overthrow its oppressors. A society based on radical democracy, with power exercised through people’s organizations, requires a socialist transformation from below. People’s organizations cannot be created by legislation, nor can they spring into being only on the eve of a revolution.
They can grow only in the course of popular struggles, especially those of women, labor, and minority groups. The Socialist Party works to build these organizations democratically.
The process of struggle profoundly shapes the ends achieved. Our tactics in the struggle for radical democratic change reflect our ultimate goal of a society founded on principles of egalitarian, non-exploitative and non-violent relations among all people and between all peoples.
To be free we must create new patterns for our lives and live in new ways in the midst of a society that does not understand and is often hostile to new, better modes of life. Our aim is the creation of a new social order, a society in which the commanding value is the infinite preciousness of every woman, man and child.

If you agree with these principles, then we would encourage you to join the Socialist Party.