Arizona Socialist Party/http://arizona_socialist.tripod.com/platform/Human Needs

The Socialist Party stands for socialized medicine -- a health care system based on universal coverage, salaried doctors and health care workers, and revenues derived from a graduated income tax.

1- We support a single-payer National Health Program with full standard and alternative medical and dental coverage for all,

publicly funded through progressive taxation, and controlled by democratically elected local boards.

2- We call for a health care system that emphasizes preventive care, respects patients privacy, gives special attention to the needs of the physically and mentally disabled, and conducts treatment and research unimpaired by sexism, racism, or homophobia.

3- We call for full funding for AIDS research.

4- We call for the management of heroin addiction other than replacing it with an addiction to methadone.

5- The Socialist Party would re-fund community mental health services so that low-cost or no cost treatment is available on a voluntary basis, with patients rights respected.

6- The Socialist Party opposes involuntary incarceration without due process for treatment, except in the most extreme cases.

The Socialist Party recognizes the right of all people to high quality, low cost housing.

1- We call for large-scale public investment in the construction of low cost, scattered site, community-based, high quality housing.

2- We call for rent control for all rental units, and the right of tenants to organize.

3- We support the formation of housing cooperatives and nonprofit land trusts, the adoption of advanced and cost-cutting technology in building, and the rehabilitation and weatherization of existing housing.

The Socialist Party recognizes the right of students of all ages to a free, quality education in a safe and supportive environment, and of all school employees to good wages, benefits, and working conditions.

1-We call for full and equal funding of public education, for free tuition at the post-secondary level, and for an end to all public funding and subsidizing of private schools.

2- We support public childcare starting from infancy, and public education starting at age 3, with caregivers and teachers of young children receiving the same training, wages, and benefits as teachers at every other level of the educational system.

3- We oppose tying teachers' pay to student performance, forcing schools within a system to compete against each other, selling on-campus advertising in order to raise funds, and the increasing dependence of post-secondary institutions on corporate funding.

4- We call for fewer students per teacher.

5-  We call for vigorous affirmative action programs so that each public institution of higher education reflects the community at

large in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, and economic background.

6- We support multicultural, multilingual, experimental education at all levels.

7- We call for an egalitarian educational system with teaching methods that accommodate the wide range of teaching and learning styles, and that provides all students with the means to obtain the post-secondary education they desire.

8- We support student input into curriculum formation and in the hiring and dismissal procedures of school personnel.

9- We call for student representation on school boards.

10- We call for opportunities for lifelong self-education, with retraining programs and transitional financial support for workers displaced by.

11- We call for free and open access to information, including the public ownership of all large databases, so that access cannot be restricted to those able to pay transaction fees.

The Socialist Party calls for extensive publicly owned mass transit systems in both urban and rural areas, at no or minimal cost to the users.

1- We call for government-subsidized programs to expand safe routes for foot and bicycle paths.

2- We call for the creation of fully funded high-speed rail transportation systems between cities, with fares set low enough to be a viable alternative to the use of the automobile.

3- We call for pedestrian ways, which exclude vehicles from the downtown area of cities and towns, accessible by mass transit.

4- We call for an end to the expansion of the interstate highway system in conjunction with the reduction of combustion engine/auto based transport.