Our Immediate and Transitional Programs

Americans have had a long history of racism within movements and unions that have historically fractured the working class and undermined the confidence of marginalized groups to organize against the system. Till this day, this problem continues.

To confront this, we commit to providing equity, equal opportunities, and visibility to all, regardless of race, sex, gender, or national identity.

We will amplify the untold stories of People of the Global Majority (PGM), prioritizing education that reveals the true history of oppressed peoples worldwide.

We will engage with communities of diverse races and backgrounds with open ears, respect, and a commitment to revolutionary education and organizing.

Bigotry in any form will not be tolerated and is explicitly prohibited by our policies.

Our commitment is to deepen class unity by connecting all workers, challenging internalized racism, bigotry, homophobia, and xenophobia, while fostering grace for those undoing capitalist indoctrination, while prioritizing protection for our marginalized members.

We are dedicated to identifying and uniting communists, working-class organizations, individuals, and socialists committed to the struggle for their class. As Fred Hampton said, "If you have revolution on your mind, then join us."

The working class needs its own organizations and philosophy. The two-party system is corrupt, and neither the Democrats nor the Republicans represent our interests. Their only goal is to extract more profit from the working class, serve the billionaires, and ensure that austerity and fear reign over our heads.

We live in a capitalist society that prioritizes individualism, deceitfulness, awards waste and abuse, gives a slap on the wrist to those harming our society, and continuously pits workers against each other. Our goal is to create a new society within the old—one that promotes community, shared values, accountability, grace, kinship, accessible information and education, self-determination, rest, socialist interdependence, natural human creativity, social science, and wellness.

By socialist interdependence, we mean a society where we let each other be as we are no human being is wrong—whether queer, trans, Black, white, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, disabled, a man, a woman, or non-binary, etc—and accept those differences because they are the basis of our creativity as humans. We depend on one another precisely because we are not the same, and that mutual dependence is the foundation of collective freedom.

Our goal is to join together various organizations, individuals, and communities in a safe, respectful, diverse, well-structured, and highly organized communal network. We prioritize class independence—workers should never subordinate themselves to capitalists or the two-party demagogues—and promote high-quality education to empower ourselves.

We emphasize rigorous theory and education alongside an engaging, supportive environment grounded in clear guidelines and principles. Our aim is to foster proactive working-class collaboration. We commit to never avoiding difficult topics, questions, or discussions. We uphold collective responsibility, fairness, and community, ensuring every worker receives the support they need to become effective in class struggle.

We reject and oppose all anti-union and anti-labor laws, including the Taft-Hartley Act, which restricts the power and activities of labor unions.

We fight for every worker’s right to organize, protest, and strike. We oppose contracts that benefit the union’s upper management and corporations but not the actual workers.

It is thanks to communists who built the labor movement globally and in America that we have secured paid time off, sick pay, pensions, OSHA workplace safety standards, and the abolition of child labor.

The Proposal: Reduce the standard work week from 40 to 32 hours with no reduction in salary or benefits.

The Benefits: Trials in the U.S. and internationally show that a 32-hour work week improves worker well-being without sacrificing productivity. The U.S. National Science Foundation awarded PhD scholar Juliet B. Schor for her extensive research on the 32-hour work week. The NSF said, "The project is the first known major scientific investigation of a four-day work week with a robust research design." The results were nonetheless riveting.

"For the companies, the outcomes have been very positive. Globally, 90% remained on a four-day week after at least one year. Among US and Canadian organizations, all remained on this schedule after a year. Many said productivity either remained the same or improved. However, not all of the organizations asked employees for five days of work in four days' time. In some cases, where burnout and attrition were high, they just gave their staff additional time off. These companies benefited with lower turnover, better rested employees, and higher quality service. We saw this in health care, the restaurant case, and some non-profits."

For employees the results were even better—their overall well-being increased. "In our statistical modeling we found that the larger the working time reduction, the larger the well-being increase." What was even more fascinating about this research was the well-being categories they measured, which included "burnout and stress, anxiety and fatigue, sleep, work-family and work-life balance, life satisfaction, among others."

The Burnout Crisis

Most Americans have been reporting high levels of burnout. According to Gallup, employee engagement and well-being have been declining since 2020, and the decline in working hours is not primarily because people are working less by choice—it is because workers are burning out and pulling back. Gallup's research shows that worker stress and burnout have become a persistent feature of American working life, with younger workers and women reporting the highest levels. The share of employees who strongly agree that they feel burned out at work has risen sharply, even as average weekly hours have fallen. Workers are not working less because the work is easier. They are working less because they cannot sustain the pace.

The Sleep Crisis

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) reports that about 50 to 70 million Americans have sleep or wakefulness disorders. Sleep deficiency and untreated sleep disorders are associated with a growing number of health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and certain cancers. Sleep disorders are also costly: each year, sleep disorders, sleep deprivation, and sleepiness add to the national health care bill. Undiagnosed sleep apnea alone is estimated to cost the nation $150 billion annually. Additional costs to society for related health problems, lost worker productivity, and accidents make sleep disorders a serious public health concern.

As the NHLBI puts it: "Getting the right amount of uninterrupted sleep at the right time of day is key to one's overall health." The NHLBI funds research to discover better ways to promote and achieve sleep health, inform public policy, and increase community awareness to enhance human health.

The connection between overwork and sleep loss is direct. Longer hours, unpredictable schedules, and the stress of precarious work all cut into the sleep workers need. A 32-hour work week is not just a matter of comfort—it is a public health intervention.

The data is clear, and other easily googled credible studies show the same and even better results. It is time to give working-class Americans a break.

Sources:

• Juliet B. Schor, The Four-Day, Thirty-Two-Hour Week: Analysing Organisational Success and Failure, NSF Award #2241840. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2241840
• Fan, Wen, Juliet B. Schor, et al. "Work time reduction via a 4-day workweek finds improvements in workers' well-being." Nature Human Behaviour (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02259-6.
• Jim Harter, "Why Americans Are Working Less," Gallup, 2026. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/691643/why-americans-working-less.aspx
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, "Sleep Science and Sleep Disorders," NIH. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sleep-science-and-sleep-disorders

The Proposal: Provide free, universal early childhood education and care from pre-K through the 4th grade, ensuring that no working-class family has to choose between their child's care and their own ability to work.

The Benefits: The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has released research showing that families with access to universal pre-K increased their average parental earnings by over $5,400 per year. An additional $5,400 a year is a lot of money that working-class families could use.

In a study of New Haven Public Schools' universal pre-K program, NBER researchers found that "enrolling a child in the NHPS UPK program raises parents' average earnings by $5,461 per year, or 21.7 percent, during the one- or two-year period when the child is of pre-kindergarten age". The gains "coincide with increases in hours worked: UPK enrollment allows parents to work 12.8 more hours per week in the year following enrollment," and "parents' earnings remain higher for at least the next six years".

The researchers also found that "each dollar spent yields $10 in benefits," and that tax revenues from parents' earnings "reduce the net government costs of UPK by 90% relative to estimates that ignore gains for parents"

What it means, in the simplest terms:

The government spends money on free pre-K. Parents can then go to work instead of staying home with their kids. Because they work, they earn more money. Because they earn more money, they pay more taxes. Those taxes go back to the government.

So the government gets most of its money back.

Here's an example:

• The government spends $1 billion on free pre-K.
• Parents earn more and pay $900 million more in taxes.
• The government's real cost is only $100 million.

And "each dollar spent yields $10 in benefits" means: for every $1 the government puts in, the economy gets $10 back—through parents' higher wages, more spending, and less need for other programs. The program pays for itself.

Access to universal childcare would also allow children to socialize, helping to address the youth mental health crisis, and contribute to greater revenue for the economy due to increased productivity for parents who will not be stressed.

Real-World Proof: New York City

In many cities such as New York City, universal childcare for early childhood has already been implemented with great results. The city has committed to striving for childcare from early pre-K through five-year-olds.

Since 2014, New York City has provided free, high-quality, full-day, and extended-day programs for all four-year-olds, regardless of income. The number of children enrolled in full-day pre-kindergarten grew from 19,287 in 2013 to 68,647 in 2015, and over the first eight years, it served over half a million children. Over 70 percent of these children were in families with incomes in the lower half of the population. In addition to saving parents thousands of dollars a year, the city's universal pre-K has already shown many benefits. Third-grade students who attended Pre-K for All outperformed students who did not attend, and the white-Black and white-Hispanic performance gaps were narrower for students who attended compared to the gaps among students who did not. Pre-K for All also has narrowed citywide income gaps and gender income gaps, primarily by allowing low-income women and women of color who had been providing home care for their four-year-olds to join or re-enter the city job market.

New York City's 3-K for All saves parents more than $20,000 a year, making it much easier for working- and middle-class families to afford to raise their children.

The city has said: "Under Governor Hochul's leadership, New York has more than doubled investment in the state's Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which provides subsidies to help low-income families access child care. By dramatically increasing the State's investments in the program while expanding eligibility, the program now supports 2.5 times more children – an additional 100,000 – than when Governor Hochul took office; the number of children served has increased by almost 25% in the past year alone. Most of the families of the 170,000 children served by the program pay no more than $15 a week for child care."

In January 2026, Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul launched free child care for 2-year-olds in NYC, and the governor announced investments to deliver universal child care for New York children under five. The first year of the program, the 2026-2027 school year, will focus on high-need areas based on economic need, projected child care demand, existing access gaps, and provider capacity and readiness. It will expand to serve all interested families across the city by the fourth year.

The data is clear, and other credible studies show the same and even better results. It is time to give working-class families the support they need.

Sources:

• John Eric Humphries, Christopher Neilson, Xiaoyang Ye, and Seth D. Zimmerman, Parents' Earnings and the Returns to Universal Pre-Kindergarten, NBER Working Paper 33038 (2024, revised 2025). https://www.nber.org/papers/w33038
• C. Kirabo Jackson, Julia A. Turner, and Jacob Bastian, Universal Pre-K as Economic Stimulus: Evidence from Nine States and Large Cities in the U.S., NBER Working Paper 33767 (2025). https://www.nber.org/papers/w33767
• Laxman Timilsina, Kids to School and Moms to Work: New York City's Universal Pre-K Expansion and Mother's Employment, U.S. Census Bureau Working Paper CES-25-62 (2025). https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2025/adrm/CES-WP-25-62.html
• NYC Mayor's Office, "Mayor Mamdani & Governor Hochul to Launch Free Child Care for Two-Year-Olds in NYC," January 8, 2026. https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/mayor-mamdani---governor-hochul-to-launch-free-child-care-for-tw
• Governor's Office, "Governor Hochul Announces Investments to Deliver Universal Child Care for New York Children Under Five," January 8, 2026. https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-investments-deliver-universal-child-care-new-york-children-under
• NYC Government, "Free Child Care and Early Education Programs." https://on.nyc.gov/4aivBqF

The Proposal: Implement a universal, single-payer healthcare system that guarantees comprehensive medical coverage to every person in the United States—eliminating premiums, deductibles, copayments, provider networks, and prior authorization.

The Benefits: A new study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health projects that universal coverage would reduce annual national health expenditures by $1.04 trillion—nearly 20%—while covering every American. The system would save over 114,000 lives annually. As senior author Alison Galvani, director of the Yale Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis, put it: “Medicare for All strips out those sources of waste while providing everyone with healthcare, saving over a trillion dollars and 114,000 lives every year.”

The savings come from five major sources: lower pharmaceutical prices, Medicare-level payments to providers, reduced administrative overhead, less fraudulent billing, and fewer avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Even under more conservative assumptions about drug prices and fraud reduction, the researchers projected savings of at least $663 billion per year.

A universal healthcare policy would also save tens of thousands of lives. The researchers estimate that adequate coverage for all could avert about 62,863 deaths annually—and nearly half of those, 29,631, would be among people who already hold insurance but are underinsured. Reversing coverage rollbacks and other health policies enacted since 2025 would avert a further 51,311 deaths each year, bringing the annual total to 114,174.

Real-World Proof: Senator Sanders’ Legislation

Senator Bernie Sanders has already introduced the Medicare for All Act in Congress (S. 1506), alongside Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Rep. Debbie Dingell and hundreds of healthcare workers, nurses, and activists. The Yale study modeled the impact of Sanders’ legislation specifically.

Sanders responded to the study: “This study confirms what we have known for years: Medicare for All saves lives and saves money. In fact, guaranteeing healthcare as a human right through a Medicare for All, single-payer system would cost $1 trillion less than our current dysfunctional system. It would save working families thousands of dollars a year. And it would prevent over 100,000 Americans from dying unnecessarily each and every year because they cannot make it to a doctor in time.”

Real-World Proof: International Examples

Other countries already operate universal healthcare systems with great results, spending far less per person while achieving better health outcomes:

• Portugal has a life expectancy nearly four years longer than the U.S. despite spending 20% of what the U.S. does on healthcare per person. Portugal ranked third out of 195 countries in providing access to affordable healthcare; the United States ranked 183rd.
• Canada’s single-payer system has administrative costs 80% lower per person than the U.S. system, saving an estimated $180 billion annually. Canada spends about 10.4% of its GDP on healthcare compared to the U.S.’s 16%, while achieving higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality.
• Taiwan’s National Health Insurance provides comprehensive, low-cost care to over 99% of the population, with health expenditure kept at just 7% of GDP. Administrative costs are kept under 1% of the program’s total budget, and public satisfaction is 86%.
• The United Kingdom’s National Health Service ranks #1 in administrative efficiency and #2 in access to care among 10 high-income nations. Average transplant costs are nearly 85% lower in the UK than in the U.S., and the NHS’s administrative spending is $76 per person** compared to **$925 per person in the U.S.

The data is clear. Universal healthcare is not a fantasy—it is a proven, practical system that saves money, saves lives, and works in countries around the world. It is time to end the greed of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and guarantee healthcare as a human right.

Sources:

• Alison Galvani, Meagan Fitzpatrick, et al., Projected Economic Gains and Lives Saved Under Universal Healthcare in the United States, Yale School of Public Health (preprint, 2026). https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.22.26358689
• Yale School of Public Health, "Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects," August 2026. https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/universal-health-coverage-could-save-one-trillion-dollars-and-114000-lives-every-year/
• Senator Bernie Sanders, "NEWS: New Study Confirms Medicare for All Would Save 114,000 Lives and more than $1 Trillion a Year," August 11, 2026. https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-new-study-confirms-medicare-for-all-would-save-114000-lives-and-more-than-1-trillion-a-year/
• Medicare for All Act, S. 1506, 119th Congress (2025). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1506
• Canadian Health Coalition, "Six Ways Public Health Care Makes Our Economy Stronger," June 2025. https://www.healthcoalition.ca
• Stanford APARC, "Three Decades of Universal Health Coverage in Taiwan: Achievements and Challenges," 2025. https://aparc.fsi.stanford.edu
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, "Medical Care Commercialization & Affordability in the U.S.: Trends and Responses in Other Countries," April 2026. https://publichealth.jhu.edu

The Proposal: Raise the federal minimum wage to $25 per hour. The Living Wage for All Act, already introduced in Congress, would achieve this through a phased approach—large employers reaching $25 by 2031 and smaller employers by 2038—while eliminating all sub-minimum wages, including for tipped workers, youth workers, and incarcerated workers. Along with this proposal wages should be required to keep up with the cost of living like it used to.

The Benefits: If the minimum wage had kept pace with worker productivity since 1968, it would already be over $26 an hour. $25 is the wage workers already earned. In other HCOL states $31 an hour is needed to sustain themselves.

A $25 wage is not a radical proposal—it is a correction. With the deeply unpopular Iran War that Americans are in, prices are only continuing to rise. Gas is high, food prices is high, and the economy is seeing a decrease in consumer spending. The MIT Living Wage Calculator finds that a single adult needs at least $25/hour to cover basic costs nationwide, and $30/hour in higher-cost regions. The bill has 25 co-sponsors and the backing of a coalition of more than 100 labor, civil rights, and economic justice organizations—including SEIU, AFT, NEA, RWDSU, and the NAACP.

We are often told that if wages rose, prices would rise as well making life miserable for Americans. But prices have risen nearly every year for 25 years with no pay increase. The question is not whether prices will rise—it is who will bear the cost of the crisis. Workers have borne it for decades. It is time for the wealthy and corporations to bear their share.

Real-World Proof: The Productivity-Wage Gap

Economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research notes that "having the minimum wage track productivity growth is not a crazy idea". The national minimum wage did in fact keep pace with productivity growth for the first 30 years after it was first established in 1938. Since 1968, the minimum wage has not even kept pace with inflation, let alone productivity. Meanwhile, productivity grew 72 percent since 1973, but the pay of a typical worker grew only 9 percent. The current real minimum wage is 25 percent lower than it was in 1968.

Challenges: Will Businesses Close?

The most common objection is that businesses will close if they have to pay a $25/hr minimum wage. The data does not support this fear.

The majority of small businesses do not employ more than a handful of people. Among the roughly 6 million small business firms with employees, 49% have just one to four workers. If these businesses cannot afford to pay their employees, business grants can be given to businesses that have a year to generate income to pay their workers while the grants keep them afloat.

More importantly, most small businesses already pay their employees well above the minimum wage. On average, small businesses pay employees $30.42 an hour, which amounts to a $63,000 income over the course of a year—already a livable wage in non HCOL states. For the majority of small businesses, a $25/hr minimum wage would have no impact at all.

What is significantly impacting small businesses is not wages—it is demand. Because workers are making less, they have less money to spend, which hurts businesses and the economy. Raising wages puts money in the pockets of workers who will spend it in their communities.

Sources:

• Dean Baker, "The $26 an Hour Minimum Wage," Center for Economic and Policy Research (2021). https://cepr.net/the-26-an-hour-minimum-wage/
• CBS News, "Minimum wage would be $26 an hour if it had grown in line with productivity," September 7, 2021. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minimum-wage-26-dollars-economy-productivity/
• NAACP, "NAACP Applauds Reps. Ramirez & Mejia for Introducing Living Wage for All Act," April 28, 2026. https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-applauds-reps-ramirez-mejia-introducing-living-wage-all-act
• U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, "Wyden, Colleagues Introduce Landmark Bill to Raise the National Minimum Wage to a Living Wage of $25 an Hour," June 29, 2026. https://www.wyden.senate.gov
• Pew Research Center, "A look at small businesses in the U.S.," April 22, 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/22/a-look-at-small-businesses-in-the-us/
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "Small Business Data Center," May 20, 2024 (updated June 6, 2025). https://www.uschamber.com/small-business/small-business-data-center
• Economic Policy Institute, "The top charts of 2016," December 22, 2016. https://www.epi.org/publication/the-top-charts-of-2016-13-charts-that-show-the-difference-between-the-economy-we-have-now-and-the-economy-we-could-have/
• Living Wage For All, "One Job Should Be Enough." https://livingwageforall.org
• CEPR, "The Productivity Adjusted Minimum Wage Would Be $21.50 in 2020 and $23 in 2021," March 16, 2022. https://cepr.net

The Proposal: Defund police departments and redirect those resources into public health and safety programs—keeping schools, parks, and community centers open and investing in proven alternatives to policing. Establish community control over law enforcement through independent investigation and prosecution of police, mandatory liability insurance for officers, and enforceable standards of accountability.

The Benefits: Police budgets have only increased year by year. A study of 61 large U.S. cities from 2015 to 2022 found no significant association between police funding and a decrease in crime—police funding increased by an average of $286,781 per 100,000 population per year, yet the rate of crimes being unsolved has risen. Crime rates have continued to drop—but the crime that still happens today is often handled poorly not better. While spending has soared, it has left many citizens wondering why we are spending so much on police budgets when the relationship between the police and citizens continues to worsen. The question on police effectiveness really took a turn after the death of George Floyd and the Uvalde School Shooting where police officers failed to protect and aided in the death of children and citizens.

The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) found that California police have record high budgets—$25 billion total in 2022—yet clearance rates have fallen by 41% since 1990, resulting in fewer than one in seven crimes solved. These trends long preceded the reform era and have continued throughout, proving that reforms are not responsible but the structural issues of the system itself. As CJCJ researcher Mike Males put it: "Too often, we think tough talk and implementing harsher policies will reduce crime, and that's just not the case. Hardline crime policies often accompany worse crime rates and less efficient policing than moderate and liberal policies. It's the results that matter."

These failed investments have exposed a deep-seated inefficiency crisis in law enforcement that demands urgent attention and accountability. Local governments and policymakers must rethink public safety policies, redirect resources toward proven solutions, and hold police agencies accountable for their performance.

Real-World Proof: Minneapolis

In 2020, after the death of George Floyd, the conversation about police abolition finally made it to the forefront. Today in Minneapolis, many call for the defunding of the police—and it did actually happen, for a time.

But funding has continued to go back up again, even as relationships between the police and citizens worsened. In December 2025, the Trump administration launched "Operation Metro Surge," deploying over 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis and Saint Paul in what was described as "the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out." Minneapolis police assisted ICE during this operation, further straining community trust. The operation cost the city nearly $700 million in economic damage.

Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Police Department is expected to end 2025 $19.6 million over budget, with overtime costs hitting $31 million—the sixth straight year of record overtime spending after officers left following Floyd's murder. The department shrank from about 900 officers to 560 by spring 2024, the lowest in at least four decades. Yet even with a smaller force, the budget continues to grow. The 2026 city budget includes more than $225 million for the police.

Real-World Proof: Defunding in Practice

Critics say the movement to defund the police failed, but the commitment to defunding the police by cities were never maintained. However within that small time that cities actually redirected resources they saw progress. Milwaukee diverted money from the police department toward affordable housing and youth programming. Seattle invested part of its police funding into participatory budgeting—a process in which the public votes on how to spend a portion of the city's finances—and launched a third public safety department that responds to mental health crises. Austin has increasingly invested more money in homeless services since diverting millions from the 2021 police budget toward permanent supportive housing.

As Howard University professor Marcus Board put it: "If spending money on policing were an effective way to deter crime, then the United States would be the safest country on the planet that has ever existed and it is nowhere near that. Meanwhile, healthcare suffers, childcare suffers, elder care suffers, public spaces are going away"

Real-World Proof: Community Violence Intervention

Community violence intervention programs are increasingly supported by evidence. A Johns Hopkins study of Baltimore's Safe Streets program found it was associated with a 42% reduction in homicides involving youth ages 15 to 24 and a 21% reduction in youth nonfatal shootings at the neighborhood level. A meta-analysis of 24 focused deterrence programs found that GVI strategies contributed to an average 33% reduction in violent crime, with some sites seeing larger effects.

What Community Control Looks Like

Once police have been defunded, other demands such as community control of the police can be implemented. This includes:

• Independent investigation and prosecution of police misconduct, free from the influence of police unions and internal affairs departments.
• Liability insurance for officers, requiring police to carry personal insurance against claims of misconduct—just as other professionals do.
• Automatic firing of any police officer who uses excessive force.
• Body cameras on at all times, with severe penalties for tampering or disabling.
• Prosecution of any police officer who causes bodily harm or injury to people within their custody or on calls they are servicing.
• Demilitarization—no more investments in military-grade equipment for local police.

The time is now to defund the police and pour those resources back into public health and safety programs—keeping schools, parks, and community centers open for communities.

Sources:

• Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, California Law Enforcement Agencies Are Spending More, But Solving Fewer Crimes, March 2024. https://www.cjcj.org/reports-publications/report/more-law-enforcement-spending-accompanies-worse-not-improved-crime-solving
• Association between police funding and community firearm violence incidence in 61 US cities, 2015–2022, Public Health, Volume 246, September 2025. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033350625002872
• Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, "Data from New Study Suggest Safe Streets Baltimore Associated with Reductions in Youth Gun Violence," May 2026. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-gun-violence-solutions/2026/data-from-new-study-suggest-safe-streets-baltimore-associated-with-reductions-in-youth-gun-violence
• The Guardian, "Critics say the movement to defund the police failed. But Austin and Seattle are seeing progress," May 24, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/may/24/defund-police-movement-austin-seattle
• Minnesota Star Tribune, "Minneapolis Police Department blows budget by $19.6 million; council leaders call it 'mismanagement'," December 5, 2025. https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-police-blows-budget-2025/601529451
• City of Minneapolis, "Operation Metro Surge caused nearly $700 million in economic damage for Minneapolis," June 2026. https://www.minneapolismn.gov
• Pew Research Center, "Views of Race, Policing, and Black Lives Matter in the 5 Years Since George Floyd's Killing," May 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/05/07/views-of-race-policing-and-black-lives-matter-in-the-5-years-since-george-floyds-killing/

The Proposal: Our government must break with all support for the Israeli government and its genocidal project in Palestine. We refuse to endorse, fund, or campaign for any political candidate or program that does not include: (1) condemnation of Israel, (2) naming the genocide as validated by the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, and (3) the prosecution of Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Benefits: The Pro-Palestine movement is one of the strongest working-class movements on the globe. Millions of workers around the world have engaged in protest against their governments and the Israeli settler-colonial project. This movement has already forced shifts in public opinion and created a political crisis for the financially vested. By refusing to support candidates and programs that back genocide, the working class has made it clear that genocide will not be tolerated.

Real-World Proof: The UN Findings

In June 2026, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report concluding that Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank. The commission found that Israel had killed 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since October 7, 2023.

Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the commission, stated: "The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces". The report found that Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture in Israeli prisons, with no information on their whereabouts, and that Israeli security forces have used sexual violence against children as part of a pattern of oppression.

The commission concluded that "every international legal norm has been violated by the actions of the Israeli authorities towards Palestinian children and they need to be held accountable". This is not a fringe claim—it is the finding of a United Nations commission of inquiry.

Real-World Proof: The ICJ Warrant

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court found reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were responsible for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, among other charges. Israel is also facing proceedings before the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide.

Real-World Proof: The Shift in Public Opinion

Research from Pew Research Center (July 2026) shows that U.S. adults under 30 express much more favorable views of the Palestinian people (58%) than of the Israeli people (32%). This pattern is driven largely by young Democrats, who are much more likely to express a positive view of Palestinians (72%) than of Israelis (26%).

The Pew data shows a sharp generational divide:

Young Republicans also see both groups similarly—a sharp reversal from a few years ago, when they were much more likely to favor Israelis. As the Guardian reported: "Outrage at Israel's war in Gaza has erupted across Europe and the US, manifesting itself in university campus protests, massive marches through countless capitals and the disruption of major sporting events". This movement has met repression—arrests, legal action, and threats—but it has not been silenced.

A Note on Palestinian Liberation and Socialism

Palestinian liberation can only come from a genuine socialist government in the region—one that guarantees equal rights for all people, regardless of religion or ethnicity. But we can begin here by making it clear that genocide will not be tolerated by the working class. No candidate who supports genocide deserves our vote. No program that ignores Palestine deserves our support. The struggle for Palestinian liberation is inseparable from the struggle for socialism.

Sources:

• UN News, "Israel continues to commit genocide, atrocity crimes by deliberately targeting Palestinian children, UN independent commission finds," June 23, 2026. https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167790
• OHCHR, "The essence of childhood has been destroyed: Israel's deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023," June 2026. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/israel-continues-commit-genocide-and-other-atrocity-crimes-deliberately
• Pew Research Center, "Younger Americans, especially Democrats, view Palestinians more favorably than Israelis," July 2026. https://www.pewresearch.org/chart/younger-americans-especially-democrats-view-palestinians-more-favorably-than-israelis/
• The Guardian, "The Gaza effect: how a global pro-Palestine protest movement met repression and resistance," October 11, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/11/the-gaza-effect-how-a-global-pro-palestine-protest-movement-met-repression-and-resistance
• International Criminal Court, arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, 2024. https://www.icc-cpi.int

The Proposal: Data now supports that the criminalization of poverty, mental illness, and drug use does not prevent crime but makes it worse. Decriminalizing homelessness and investing in mental health resources, clinics, and public programs do a better job at preventing crime and providing relief and justice for families.

The Benefits: As crime has gone down, homelessness has gone up. We often see homeless people or people with mental health issues, such as drug abuse, being thrown in jail. We deal with a system that disproportionately punishes Black people and hands them unfair sentences, and we are dealing with people paying high fees and fines that they cannot afford.

Domestic violence victims are often the most to suffer at this system. The CDC reports that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 7 men experience severe physical violence from an intimate partner in their lifetimes. In Minneapolis, Mariah Samuels was shot to death 10 times in front of her home by her ex-partner on September 14, 2025. Samuels, a 34-year-old Black mother of two, had done everything the system asks of domestic violence victims: she filed an order for protection against her abuser in August 2025 after he assaulted her, threatened to kill her, and tried to choke her. The morning of her murder, her abuser violated that order by contacting her—and she called Minneapolis police for help.

The police responded to her 911 call. They did not arrest him. Hours later, he shot her 10 times outside her father's home in north Minneapolis. Samuels' family has accused the Minneapolis Police Department of not doing enough to keep her safe, and why did the officer report she felt “safe”, when she was indeed not safe. The community has since been demanding "full transparency from MPD regarding its failure to enforce the order of protection". The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has found that the City of Minneapolis and the MPD engage in a pattern or practice of race discrimination in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty stated plainly: "Mariah should be with her family. She did everything we ask people who experience domestic violence to do, and the system still failed her. Each part of that system Mariah interacted with must hold itself accountable and take a hard look at what can be done to avoid these failures in the future."

This story reflects how much the police have failed to do their jobs. Her abuser was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and first-degree murder with a past pattern of domestic abuse, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But Mariah is still dead. Her family is still fighting for police accountability. And the system that failed her is still failing other victims.

The Prison Policy Initiative's 2026 report identifies 34 winnable reforms across eight categories, many of which have already crossed the desks of members of Congress but remain unimplemented. These include:

• Expand alternatives to criminal legal system responses to social problems. People with disabilities and mental illnesses are disproportionately arrested and jailed every year, yet police and jail staff lack the training to treat mental illness or accommodate disabilities. Approximately a quarter of people killed by police between 2015 and 2020 were in a mental health crisis at the time of the shooting. Cities should establish non-police crisis response systems, such as Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS program, which dispatches medical specialists rather than police to 911 calls related to addiction, mental health, and homelessness. More than a hundred alternative response programs now exist around the country.
• Use alternatives to arrest and incarceration for offenses that do not threaten public safety, including failures to appear in court. One out of every three people behind bars is being held in a local jail, most for low-level or non-person offenses. Many of the behaviors that lead to these arrests could be better addressed without jailing. State and local leaders can make citation, rather than arrest, the default response for low-level crimes, and institute grace periods for missed court appearances.
• Decriminalize drugs and adopt a health-centered approach to substance use. The legal enforcement of drug possession has demonstrated little effectiveness at curbing drug use and has contributed to lasting racial disparities in Black and Brown communities. A policy alternative is reinvesting resources typically used for enforcing drug possession into health-promoting services such as drug treatment or harm reduction that can better serve people who use drugs.
• Protect the presumption of innocence so people receive a fair shot at justice. Pretrial reform and ending money bail are both the right thing to do and effective at reducing jail populations without compromising public safety.

Another area that can also be fought for alongside these demands is:

• Raising Prison Wages

Incarcerated people often work for pennies on the dollar, wages that are insufficient to support themselves or their families. When a person is sent to prison, their family is often left with a significant financial gap. Childcare arrangements can collapse, household expenses become harder to manage, and family members may be forced to work additional jobs or go without basic necessities.

Raising prison wages would allow incarcerated people to contribute financially to their families while also giving them income they can rely on when they return home. Work performed while incarcerated should provide meaningful compensation rather than exploiting people who have little ability to negotiate their wages or working conditions.

We demand that prison wages be raised to at least $10 an hour, allowing incarcerated people to support their families, meet their own needs, and build financial stability for their return to their communities.

The Data: Who Is Actually in Jail

Most people in jail are there due to non-violent offenses and drug use. An estimated 65% of the U.S. prison population has a substance addiction. On any given day, 366,000 people are jailed for a drug offense, and nearly 60% of them are there for a non-violent drug offense. Three-quarters of drug offenders in state prisons have only been convicted of drug and/or non-violent offenses. Drug use is a mental health problem, not a criminal problem.

Real-World Proof: Drug Decriminalization Works

Portugal decriminalized personal drug use in 2001 and shifted focus to public health, treatment, and harm reduction. The results are striking: drug-related deaths and new HIV cases declined notably. In 1999, Portugal saw a record high of 369 overdose deaths. After decriminalization and ramped-up funding for rehabilitation, annual overdose deaths fell to about 80. By 2013, only 24% of prisoners were charged with drug offenses compared to 44% in 1999. Judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success—with no adverse effect on drug usage rates.

Public Support: The People Are Ready

A nationally representative poll of U.S. adults found that 80% supported reinvesting resources from enforcing drug possession into health-promoting alternatives such as drug treatment, harm reduction, housing support, or community-based resources. This is not a fringe position. It is the majority opinion.

Sources:

• Prison Policy Initiative, Winnable Criminal Justice Reforms in 2026, November 2025. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/winnable2026.html
• Prison Policy Initiative, "34 criminal legal system reforms that can win in 2026," November 19, 2025. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/11/19/winnable-2026/
• Hennepin County Attorney's Office, "David Wright convicted of first-degree murder in killing of Mariah Samuels," April 15, 2026. https://www.hennepinattorney.org/news/news/2026/April/wright-conviction
• Minnesota Star Tribune, "Man sentenced to life in prison for killing Minneapolis mom Mariah Samuels," April 20, 2026. https://www.startribune.com/man-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-killing-mariah-samuels/601783301
• KSTP, "1st-degree murder charges for man accused of shooting ex-girlfriend with protection order," November 25, 2025. https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/1st-degree-murder-charges-for-man-accused-of-shooting-ex-girlfriend-with-protection-order/
• City of Minneapolis, Request for Committee Action: Support for the Samuels family in pursuing justice for Mariah Samuels (RCA-2025-01179), October 9, 2025. https://limsqa.minneapolismn.gov/RCA/25569
• CBS News Minnesota, "Jury convicts man of first-degree murder for killing ex-girlfriend minutes after she posted about him online," April 15, 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/david-wright-mariah-samuels-trial-verdict/
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS). https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf
• Tomko C, Rouhani S, LaSalle L, Sherman SG, "Public support for reinvesting resources from enforcing drug possession to health-promoting alternatives," International Journal of Drug Policy, Vol. 126, April 2024. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395924000550

The Proposal: Housing should be a human right. This means rent control to stop displacement and predatory rent hikes, and the expansion of social housing—permanently affordable, community-controlled housing that exists outside the market. The crisis is not a shortage of homes. There is a shortage of affordable homes. We fight to end the stranglehold of landlords and developers on the working class.

The Benefits: America does not have a housing shortage—we have more vacant homes than we do homeless people. Approximately 15.1 million homes, representing 10.3% of the U.S. housing inventory, stood vacant in 2025. That is 28 vacant homes for every one person experiencing homelessness in the U.S. The issue is not supply. There is a shortage of affordable housing.

Research shows that rent regulations have been effective at achieving housing stability. Rent control also helps stop displacement for families. When long-term tenants have developed neighborhood-specific capital—such as a network of friends and family, proximity to a job, or children enrolled in local schools—these tenants face large risks as rent appreciation threatens them with job displacement, lack of access to childcare, community isolation, and barriers to attending appointments, school, and food banks. In contrast, individuals who have little connection to any specific area can easily insure themselves against local rental price appreciation by moving to a cheaper location. Those invested in the local community are not able to use this type of "self-insurance" as easily, since they must give up some or all of their neighborhood-specific capital. Rent control can provide these tenants with this type of insurance.

Almost half of renters in the U.S. are considered cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. According to the federal government, housing is affordable if it costs no more than 30% of monthly household income. The National Low Income Housing Coalition finds a national shortage of 7.1 million affordable and available homes for our nation's lowest-income renters. For every 10 extremely low-income households, there are fewer than four affordable rental homes available to them.

Real-World Proof: The NYC Rent Freeze

In New York City, we are already seeing great results. On June 25, 2026, the city's Rent Guidelines Board voted 7-1 to approve a rent freeze covering both one-year and two-year leases for approximately 1 million rent-stabilized apartments—more than 40% of the city's housing stock. This was the first rent freeze ever on both one- and two-year leases.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the decision "a historic victory for New York City tenants" and said, "This is the relief that working people across our city deserve." Dozens of pro-tenant activists flooded the auditorium, holding signs and chanting, breaking into jubilation after the vote.

The freeze gives one million households a chance to hold on to their housing amidst an escalating affordability crisis. New York City now may offer a model for rent control efforts in other cities and states.

Real-World Proof: Section 8 Works

Our current government already does Section 8 vouchers, and the program has been highly successful. A HUD randomized controlled trial of 895 families in Cleveland and Dallas found strong evidence that voucher access is associated with improvements in housing conditions, housing affordability, neighborhood safety, and reduced parental stress and hypertension among primary caregivers. The study found that each additional month of leasing a unit with a voucher was associated with increased positive outcomes—including increased affordability, decreased likelihood of missed rent payments, decreased likelihood of having a hypertension diagnosis, increased feelings of neighborhood safety, and decreased levels of parenting stress.

The government could raise voucher allowances to allow people to rent in high-cost cities. They could buy buildings from landlords who do not want to maintain rent control restrictions and turn those into social housing, allowing more people to be housed. There could be a higher-level income cap at $60k for social housing, allowing more working-class people to get into homes.

What Is Social Housing?

The Alliance for Housing Justice defines social housing as "a public option for housing. It is permanently and deeply affordable, under community control, and most importantly, exists outside of the speculative real estate market." Social housing can exist in different forms. It can be owned by public entities, residents, or mission-driven nonprofits and occupied by renters or homeowners. It includes public housing, community land trusts, new construction, existing affordable housing, and conversion of current market-rate housing.

Permanently affordable housing is housing that is kept affordable to its residents in perpetuity, unlike other forms of affordable housing, which can "expire" and be put back on the speculative market after a period of time. Social housing should be expanded with cities and communities investing in land trusts and public housing vouchers.

Addressing the Critics

Critics of rent freezes argue that capping rents while expenses remain uncapped threatens the long-term financial viability of rent-stabilized buildings. Arpit Gupta, an associate professor of finance at NYU Stern and a public member of the Rent Guidelines Board, voted against the freeze and warned that "freezing their rents while their expenses remain uncapped is therefore a threat to their long-term financial viability." He argued residents might "continue to enjoy low rents, but at the cost of being trapped in units that no longer fit their needs, and with few alternatives and steadily deteriorating conditions."

Another argument from anti-rent-freeze advocates is that families might expand, leaving them stuck in a cramped apartment. However, data already shows that fewer people are having children, and if they do, they have fewer than three children. Common sense would tell the board member that most Americans would rather be in a home than no home at all—because housing is a need. A home will always be a right fit for someone. Any American would rather be in a home than have no home at all.

Residents can also DIY most repairs in their homes. It is the landlord's responsibility to replace utilities such as stoves, freezers, plumbing, pipes, etc. The claim that rent control inevitably leads to decay assumes that landlords aren't already neglecting their properties even without a rent freeze—and the record shows they are.

In May 2026, Mayor Mamdani and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced the City had secured a record **$31 million in penalties** against the owners of Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers in the Bronx—the largest penalty ever obtained by HPD. The court judgements also included the appointment of an independent Chief Restructuring Officer to ensure repairs are made, and froze over $900,000 from the owners' bank accounts to fund critical repairs for residents across nearly 500 apartments. The buildings had amassed almost 2,000 violations, including persistent elevator outages, lack of heat and hot water, and vermin infestation.

Mayor Mamdani said: "For years, tenants at Robert Fulton Terrace and Fordham Towers have been forced to live with vermin infestations, chronic elevator outages and a lack of heat and hot water – while their landlords met their suffering with silence. Today, that neglect is finally met with consequences. This administration secured the largest penalty in HPD's history because no landlord is above the law. But penalties alone are not enough. We are taking control of the situation to make sure repairs are made and conditions are permanently improved."

HPD Commissioner Dina Levy added: "Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in a long and difficult history for these buildings and these tenants. Thanks to aggressive litigation by HPD's Anti-Harassment Unit, we now have a record $31m judgement against the owners. That gives us leverage in bankruptcy proceedings, which we'll use to deliver better outcomes for residents."

If landlords refuse to upkeep properties, they can be fined—or sell half of the property to the government for social housing, or sell it away entirely.

Sources:

• The New York Times, "Mamdani's Rent Freeze Is Approved by New York City Board," June 25, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/nyregion/nyc-rent-freeze-vote-mamdani.html
• Brookings Institution, "What does economic evidence tell us about the effects of rent control?" October 18, 2018. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-does-economic-evidence-tell-us-about-the-effects-of-rent-control/
• Alliance for Housing Justice, "Basic Principles: What is Social Housing?" https://www.allianceforhousingjustice.org/us-social-housing-principles
• National Low Income Housing Coalition, "The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes," March 2025. https://nlihc.org/gap
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, "The Housing and Children's Healthy Development Study 3-Year Follow-Up Report," July 16, 2026. https://www.huduser.gov/Portal/publications/The-Housing-and-Childrens-Healthy-Development-Study-3-Year-Follow-Up-Report.html
• National Low Income Housing Coalition, "HUD Releases 3-Year Follow-Up Report for The Housing and Children's Healthy Development Study," July 27, 2026. https://nlihc.org/resource/hud-releases-3-year-follow-report-housing-and-childrens-healthy-development-study
• United Way NCA, "How Many Houses Are in the U.S.? Data by City," January 28, 2026. https://unitedwaynca.org
• University of Minnesota Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), "Rent Stabilization." https://www.cura.umn.edu/taxonomy/term/1186
• Mayor's Office, "Mayor Mamdani, HPD Announce Largest-Ever Penalty Against Negligent Bronx Landlords," May 6, 2026.
  The official website of the City of New York Mayor Mamdani, HPD Announce Largest-Ever Penalty Against Negligent Bronx Landlords

This is not a conflict of civilizations, but a war of resources. From the minerals of the Kongo that power our technology, to the oil and gold of Sudan, to the resource-rich land of Palestine, our ruling class wages war to plunder and control. They impose inhumane conditions, enforce poverty, and drive entire populations from their land, forcing them into concentration labor mines and camps to extract the wealth that rightfully belongs to the people.

We will carry out justice not through appeals to the bourgeoisie, but through a militant class struggle against their imperialist projects.

Our program is one of liberation, not charity. We will

• Break the power of the imperialist war machine by organizing international working-class solidarity in hands with workers in the imperialist heartlands. We refuse to let our taxes continue to fund genocide.
• Redistribute the wealth stolen by the billionaire class. The resources plundered from Africa and the Middle East must be returned.
• Use every tool at our disposal to help rebuild what empire has destroyed—from direct material aid to building a socialist united nations capable of dismantling the colonial settler projects and exploitative systems that create this suffering.

Our fight is for a world where the people of the Kongo, Sudan, and Palestine are free to determine their own future, control their own resources, and live in dignity and peace.

Just 500 corporations hold enough wealth to rival the power of the world’s most powerful country, the United States. Their combined fortunes are so vast they could end global poverty more than 15 times over—yet they hoard this wealth, unable to spend it all in their lifetimes.

As Sankofa Communists, we demand the expropriation of private capital and the owners of these corporations, placing them under full workers’ state control.

• All confederated companies will be integrated into a socialist plan of production designed to meet society’s needs—not to generate profit.
• Banks will be confederated and transformed into a unified, publicly owned, and democratically administered institution. This will protect workers’ savings and guarantee affordable loans for all.
• We reject austerity, privatization, and corporate bailouts. No more “socialism for corporations”—only for the people.
• Income taxes will be restructured to ensure that critical social programs are funded without eating away at workers’ ability to sustain themselves.

Billionaires and Trillionaires will be expropriated and made to repay the working class for the exploitation they have profited from.

• Free, high-quality healthcare
• Free education at all levels
• Free and affordable housing
• Guaranteed, high-quality jobs with living wages and dignity
• Free childcare pre-k through 4th grade
• Free teenage youth programs
• A four-day, four-hour work week. Capitalism exploits us through overproduction—four days is more than sufficient, given the advancement of modern technology and AI.

Jobs and Worker Control

• The workers’ government will be rooted in weekly neighborhood council meetings, where communities decide on their community priorities, such as repairing infrastructure, cleaning up the community, building community parks, upgrading public facilities, fixing roads, opening food kitchens, handling communal disputes, and implementing improved transportation.
• Worker councils in the workplace will control hiring and firing, ensuring worker power in the workplace. They will also be focused on deciding how much to produce, the quality of the products, and what should be produced for societal needs and their communities.
• Job training and recruitment centers will be established in every city to place workers in quality jobs.
• A confederated minimum wage of $6,500 per month will be set for all workers, adjusted regularly for inflation.
• Retirees can voluntarily retire at 50 with full pensions equal to their pay, allowing them to contribute to society and mentor youth.

Housing for All

• Housing affordability is a global crisis, with many workers lacking basic amenities such as running water or plumbing.
• In the first month of the workers’ government, worker organizations will collaborate and identify vacant homes and move homeless people into them.
• A socialist housing plan will guarantee safe, quality housing, with rent capped at no more than 10% of wages. Evictions will be abolished.
• New housing designs will provide more than 400 sq. feet per person, with windows and communal spaces to foster community well-being.

Universal Healthcare

• Healthcare in capitalism is inaccessible and unaffordable for millions. Preventable deaths occur annually due to lack of care, while politicians manipulate healthcare access as a political tool.
• We demand socialized, universal healthcare: abolish insurance, confederate pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and clinics. These will be integrated into a democratically administered public health system offering world-class care to all.
• Workers will control their own healthcare, not corporations.
• Reproductive care, gender-affirming care, mental health services, retirement homes, and palliative care will all be free, high-quality, and based on patient-professional collaboration.

Education for Liberation

• Under capitalism, education serves only to produce obedient workers and elite administrators of capitalist institutions.
• We fight for free, public, high-quality education tailored to community needs, interests, and abilities, promoting critical thinking, creativity, and strong ethics.
• We oppose privatization, corrupt school district boards and corporate influence, which deepen inequality.
• Real history will be taught, including Black, Indigenous, African, Middle Eastern, Latinx, Asian, LGBTQ+, and women’s histories to raise collective consciousness.
• The workers’ government will unify education institutions into a public system within their states. Tuition and fees will be abolished, student debt will be wiped clean, and students will receive grants and paid internships totaling $6,500 per month.

Black self-determination, including the right to independence in the Black Belt South, and Black people to identify as what they choose.

The dissolution of the prison-industrial complex by abolishing oppressive institutions like the Police and ICE. We will work to create a new, fair, and just constitution designed to dismantle systemic racism and ensure equality for all. Power over community safety will be returned to the working-class through democratically governed community patrols and restorative justice programs that prioritize healing and accountability over punishment.

Reparations for African and Black Americans, carried out through prioritizing them for economic, social, and political material development in order to repair the lasting damage of slavery, Jim Crow, racism, and repeated acts of state and social genocide. This prioritization aims to achieve full economic opportunity, full social equity and strengthen the unity and power of Black and African Americans.

Targeted investment in Black health outcomes, including ending the Black maternal mortality crisis through guaranteed prenatal and postnatal care, fully funded community health systems, and the elimination of racist medical neglect.

We recognize Indigenous sovereignty and the right to self-determination as fundamental. The workers’ state commits to returning decision-making power and stewardship of ancestral territories to Indigenous nations through a spectrum of voluntary legal and community-based strategies, including:

A voluntary land tax for workers residing on Indigenous lands, supporting Indigenous communities without coercion.

Co-management agreements that allow Indigenous tribes to rename, govern, and manage their ancestral lands in partnership with their local workers’ councils.

Restoration and protection of Indigenous heritage sites, guided and maintained by Indigenous ecological knowledge and tribal stewardship.

The dissolution of colonial states and U.S. colonial territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and all other occupied lands, and the return of political power and territory to the peoples dispossessed through conquest and imperial domination.

Our society prioritizes men over women, and women’s health and issues are often ignored. Domestic violence is rampant, with 1 in 3 women experiencing sexual abuse and 1 in 7 men experiencing domestic abuse. These are urgent issues the workers’ government will confront because an injury to one is an injury to all.

Concrete Commitments:

• Worker state healthcare and public institutions will provide upgraded shelters, programs, and safe houses for victims of domestic violence.
• Free, mandated, and easily accessible rehabilitation clinics and counseling will be available to reduce domestic abuse.
• Anti-rape, abuse, and assault courses will be implemented in schools to raise future generations with the correct ethics.
• A dedicated committee of workers will recruit top doctors to research women’s health, prioritizing solutions for women's health, menstrual pain, and mother-baby support.
• LGBTQ+ clinics will be established to prioritize gender-affirming care and healthcare tailored to same-sex relationships.
• The American Constitution will be restructured to ensure equal rights and equity for all persons.
• Sex trafficking will be abolished and prosecuted.
• All sex workers will have the opportunity to leave the industry for high-quality jobs with a guaranteed minimum wage of $6,500 per month. For those who choose to stay, sex work will be confederated to prioritize their rights, with transitional programs to explore other job options.
• Mothers and children will be supported through community food kitchens and playgrounds. Household burdens such as laundry, cleaning, and cooking will be eased through community laundries and affordable cleaning services, giving mothers much-needed time and rest.

America is a nation shaped by many peoples, cultures, and histories. Indigenous nations, Africans brought here through slavery, immigrants from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and workers from across the world all contributed to the development of the country. Out of struggle and coexistence, a shared American culture has emerged.

Despite centuries of oppression, Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and many immigrant communities preserved their languages, traditions, art, faith, and communal life as acts of resistance. Their survival and creativity remain central to American society.

The victories of the Civil Rights Movement struck legal blows against segregation and racial caste. Yet inequality continued through new forms such as redlining, unequal school funding, discriminatory policing, and economic exclusion. Many communities were forced to build distinct local cultures under unequal conditions.

Today, political elites encourage culture-war divisions to distract from class exploitation, stagnant wages, housing insecurity, and the concentration of wealth. They profit when working people are divided against one another.

American culture already reflects deep exchange between peoples. Music, language, food, fashion, and social life show that ordinary people create unity more effectively than politicians ever will.

We reject white nationalism and all forms of chauvinism. These ideologies are tools of division, not genuine heritage. People of European descent, like all people, have rich histories beyond supremacy and empire.

By teaching truthful history and advancing equality, we can build a new American culture rooted in solidarity, mutual respect, and democratic cooperation among workers of every background.

Modern borders emerged alongside the rise of capitalism in the early modern period, as systems of private property, colonial expansion, and labor exploitation took shape. Since then, borders have often been used to divide working people and protect the interests of the ruling classes.

Sankofa Communists oppose the use of borders and imperialist policies to divide workers. Wars, colonialism, and global inequality have displaced millions while enriching elites.

We will put an end to migrant detention centers, family separation, forced labor, and abusive deportation practices. Immigration systems must be transformed into humane, efficient, and fair processes that prioritize family reunification, due process, and human dignity.

We support abolishing militarized border enforcement and replacing it with confederated humanitarian services focused on safety, anti-trafficking efforts, and the protection of all people.

We advocate international solidarity among working people and a just, accessible pathway to residency and citizenship for those who seek to build their lives in a new country.

Scientific consensus warns that global temperatures are rising, ice sheets are melting, sea levels are increasing, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe. Despite this, private profit-driven industries continue to expand environmentally harmful practices, including fossil fuel extraction, excessive resource consumption, data centers, and energy-intensive infrastructure that strains public systems.

We recognize that the climate crisis is driven not only by consumption patterns but by an economic system that prioritizes short-term profit over long-term ecological survival.

A coordinated public response is necessary to transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean, sustainable energy systems. This includes large-scale investment in renewable energy, solar energy, modernization of infrastructure, and international cooperation on climate mitigation and adaptation.

Workers in affected industries will be guaranteed strong protections, including paid retraining, income support, and stable employment opportunities with no loss of wages or benefits during the transition.

Public investment—redirecting resources currently concentrated in major corporations—should be used to fund climate mitigation, ecosystem restoration, and the development of sustainable production methods.

Research and innovation should be expanded through publicly funded scientific institutions and collaborative international efforts, ensuring that climate solutions are developed transparently and in the public interest.

Key sectors such as energy, transportation, and resource extraction should be brought under public ownership and democratic planning to ensure they operate in alignment with long-term environmental sustainability and social need, while protecting small farmers and rural workers.

As Sankofa Communists, we advocate for the United States of Turtle Island. A confederation of US states in which all workers participate in their democracy through worker councils, shaping a more just and cooperative nation.

We support democratic governance within the confederation, including:

• Short, limited terms for elected delegates (e.g., two-year terms)
• The right of recall at any time by the workers
• Broad direct democracy through more frequent elections and voting through phones.
• Worker Councils
• Neighborhood Councils
• School Councils
• Any other type of councils
• District Area Councils
• State Councils
• Executive State Councils
• Head of State

The Executive State Councils and the Heads of States will address global affairs, planning production, distributing resources, programs, guiding principles, norms of state and nation conduct, including conflict prevention, disaster response, economic coordination, and cooperation between nations in the Global South, Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

We commit to the peaceful resolution of disputes between states and the prevention of war through diplomacy, cooperation, and collective security. The confederation would promote international solidarity, the equitable distribution of resources, and coordinated planning to meet global human needs.

Membership in the confederation would be entirely voluntary. National sovereignty is respected for all peoples and states that choose not to join, while maintaining peaceful and cooperative relations with them.

The purpose of the confederation is to advance global and national cooperation, end inequality between nations, and ensure that scientific, economic, and environmental planning is guided by human need, ecological sustainability, and democratic participation.