I offer this as platform, free for the taking, for any 2020 Presidential Candidate.

By Anne Winkler Morey  turtleroad.org March 4, 2019

We need a New Green Foreign Policy based on the following principles.

Fair Trade. We reject protectionism and free trade, and here-by uplift trade with all parts of the world that uplifts the rights of workers and enriches their communities, trade that forwards the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for dignified work that fills human needs for food, housing, clean water, the technical goods needed to thrive in modern society, the leisure time to enjoy life. We will protect and promote collective bargaining rights, so that workers’ needs stay the primary focus of any enterprise. We will favor trade that creates products and services that build a sustainable future for all communities on the planet.

Right of Movement.  We will uphold the right of all human beings to move, or stay where they are. For centuries rich and powerful countries like the United States have sought to control the movement of human beings. They have transferred millions in chains on slave ships to work plantations. They have deported, killed, incarcerated people they no longer desire in their communities. Our new green foreign policy ends this mass violation today, recognizing the right of all human beings to seek a better life anywhere, and protecting the rights of everyone to stay home if they so wish. We will welcome the refugee. Our trade policy will go a long way toward ending the global refugee crisis, creating the conditions that allow people to stay home. So will our military policy.

Dismantle the Military Industrial Complex. Our fragile planet can not survive another decade of militarism. People everywhere have the right not to be bombed or killed. Our religious texts tell us so. Our secular humanist texts demand it. And now our planet is screaming it.We don’t bomb our way out of conflicts. Instead we build trust based on fair trade,  protecting the right of movement, and upholding sovereignty.

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Sovereignty. Perhaps we need not add this. With our military complex dismantled and our oppressive trade practices halted, and our borders open, we will no longer be oppressing other nations with our resource extraction, our control of their populations, our bombs. We will no longer be policing the world for our profit. We will use the persuasion of these new policies and our willingness to repair past wrongs to do our part to build a global equitable community free of tyrants.

Reparations. The Pentagon is a treasure trove of resources. So are the billionaires who profited from our past foreign policy based on exploitation for individual profit.  We will dismantle and tax, so that we can set about to repair the damage done by past exploitation,  through grants that build a sustainable future.

And the Green New Deal? The Green New Foreign Policy will assure us that we have the funds to make that a reality. We remember President Johnson’s Great Society and his War on Poverty, and how those lofty plans were napalmed (as Martin Luther King Jr. explained) by his pursuit of war in Vietnam.  One can not build sustainability and equity at home and while destroying the rest of the planet. Period.

Anne Winkler-Morey, Ph.D. is a writer, historian, and activist based in Minneapolis. She teaches in the History and Ethnic Studies departments at Metropolitan State University. In 2011-12 she and her spouse biked the perimeter of the United States, with forays into Mexico and Canada, 12,000 miles. Her book about the trip: Speed of Change: Bicycling America’s Political Divides is forthcoming. Her Minneapolis Interview Project (turtleroad.org) is aiming for 100 interviews: stories of people whose lives reflect on inequality and social justice in Minneapolis. She also blogs on People’s History and Social Movements (turtleroad.org).

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By Published On: March 11th, 2019Comments Off on We need a New Green Foreign Policy to go with our New Green Deal, by Anne Winkler Morey

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