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The Green Party Program at the Federal Level (1981)

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Social

Future social policies must aim to establish a stable social system. “Social” has above all an economic component.

The present disparity in income and wealth between poor and rich is widening due to constantly rising prices and state tax and subsidy policies. We oppose a labor system that is ruled by economic power and that results in a few making decisions that affect not only the labor, but also the existence, of the many. This is illustrated by unemployment, on the one hand, and inhuman working conditions, on the other.

The destruction of living space, longer and longer distances between home and work, the commercialized enjoyment of nature and freedom all lead to the fact that despite rising incomes there is real impoverishment, the victims of which are people with low incomes, and especially children, young people, the elderly, and the disabled.

Both the competitive economy and the concentration of economic power in state and private capital monopolies lead to exploitative constraints due to growth, thus threatening the complete contamination and devastation of the basis for human life. Here is precisely where the environmental protection and ecology movement comes together with the workers’ and union movement. For this reason, together we are calling for a reduction in working hours and humane working conditions.

Assuring the self-determination of the individuals involved is the only way to counter ecological, economic, and social crises. Because we are for the self-determination or free development of every individual, for people being able to creatively shape their own lives together, in solidarity with others, in harmony with their natural environment, and with their own wishes and needs, and free from external threats, we give our all-out support to human rights and comprehensive democratic rights, here and elsewhere.

Our social conditions are responsible for massive social and psychological misery. Hardest hit by this situation are segments of the population that are discriminated against on ethnic, social, religious, and sexual grounds. The social system is becoming less and less stable; the consequences are growing crime, a rise in suicides, drug consumption, and alcoholism.

This social situation becomes obvious, among other reasons, on account of the fact that women in almost all social areas are disadvantaged and oppressed.

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