Obama's Platitudes vs. National Black Independent Political Party's 1980 Charter

Besides mouthing platitudes about how he’ll be an “agent of change” once he moves into the White House in 2009, U.S. Foreign Relations Committee Member Barack Obama hasn’t provided U.S. voters with a specific program for radical democratic change. Yet in its 1980 charter, the National Black Independent Political Party included the following 40 specific demands in its 1980 program for radical democratic change, most of which have still not been implemented by the U.S. Militaristic Establishment’s politicians of both major parties:

Demand 1: Massive employment programs specifically targeted at the Black community, to alleviate the disproportionate levels of unemployment among our people and especially among Black youth…

Demand 2: Free and low-cost education training for job opportunities for all our people…

Demand 3: An end to plant closings and runaway shops.

Demand 4: Full unemployment compensation for all who are laid off and unemployed.

Demand 5: Increased funding and improved administration for social security and other income maintenance programs for those unable to work.

Demand 6: An end to “right to work” labor laws.

Demand 7: Tuition-free education and open admissions to all institutions of higher learning as well as special technical and professional schools.

Demand 8: Full financial support by the federal government for Black colleges and universities, commensurate with the tax dollars now given to Harvard, Yale, University of California and other institutions of higher education…

Demand 9: A national comprehensive health care services program to make quality health care free and available to all who need it regardless of social status or income…

Demand 10: That the FBI and CIA be abolished, as they are incapable of being reformed to act justly.

Demand 11: That all repressive legislation such as the death penalty be eliminated from the criminal statutes.

Demand 12: That prisons be abolished and alternatives to cruelly punitive, torturous and degrading incarceration be developed…

Demand 13: Passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Demand 14: Free day care for all who need it…

Demand 15: Fight against all constitutional or legal barriers to abortion…

Demand 16: Guaranteed livable income for the elderly with cost of living adjustments…

Demand 17: That the elderly be provided for economically, medically and emotionally…

Demand 18: The immediate implementation and enforcement of meaningful and workable affirmative action programs with specific goals, time limits, and quotas and penalties for failure to fully comply in all private and public employment, job training and education.

Demand 19: That the government allocate all the necessary funds and human resources to building and providing low cost houses and apartments for all who need them, especially for poor and middle income people.

Demand 20: That the maximum interest rates on loans for financing construction, rehabilitation and purchasing of single and multi-family units be rolled back immediately…

Demand 21: The immediate cessation of all gentrification and spatial deconcentration projects in urban centers that seek to disperse and displace Black people and destroy our culture.

Demand 22: That not more than 10% (ten percent) of a person’s annual income be paid on rent (which constitutes a rent control program).

Demand 23: The cessation of all discriminatory and anti-family housing, practices, e.g. red-lining, denial of public housing to ex-offenders and families with children, etc.

Demand 24: Nationalization of the energy industry at all levels and in all sections with full participation of Black and poor people in the management, control, and decision-making policies of the industry.

Demand 25: Strict government regulation on the prices of essential energy sources to curb skyrocketing energy prices.

Demand 26: Full government funding for research and development of new and/or cheaper energy resources.

Demand 27: An end to all propaganda which blames the…energy crisis on the energy producing Third World nations and OPEC.

Demand 28: Full disclosure of the corporate records of the energy monopolies.

Demand 29: Immediate halt to the use of nuclear power.

Demand 30: The immediate cessation of the seizure of Black-owned land.

Demand 31: The implementation of a radical reform program to meet the social needs of Black farmers and rural dwellers.

Demand 32: An end to military arms transfers to nations which violate human rights and who violate the sovereignty and independence of other nations.

Demand 33: An end to the huge and wasteful expenditures on the military…

Demand 34: An end to draft registration…

Demand 35: An end to U.S. military interventions and CIA covert operations in other nations.

Demand 36: The payment of wages to prisoners in accordance with laws and practices governing all workers for comparable or equal work.

Demand 37: The right to a single cell.

Demand 38: The right to free relevant training while in prison.

Demand 39: The abolition of the death penalty.

Demand 40: The abolition of all laws which try and incarcerate youth as adults.

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