Movement for a People's Party
The Movement for a People's Party (MPP), also known simply as the People's Party, is a progressive political organization in the United States aimed at "forming a major new political party free of corporate money and influence". Nick Brana formed the party after the 2016 presidential election as "Draft Bernie for a People's Party." Bernie Sanders declined to be the People's Party's figurehead, instead again seeking the presidential nomination in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. History. The organization was founded by Nick Brana, who previously worked with the  Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign as the National Political Outreach Coordinator. In 2017, Brana formed the group out of the "Draft Bernie for a People's Party", which failed to gain Sanders's support. The group gathered 50,000 signatures on a petition to present to Sanders and held its first mass gathering, the "Convergence Conference", in Washington, D.C. "The ultimate goal is to replace the Democratic Party, it's not merely to create another party," said Brana in 2017. In 2018, the Movement for a People's Party posted its mission statement to pressure the major parties into adopting a  progressive agenda. In November 2020, a group of MPP volunteers presented a petition to MPP's main leadership, known as the National Coordinating Circle (CC). The goal was to improve transparency, move toward the organization structure they promoted on their website, and create bylaws. In a communication released by Digital Liberation Front Media via Twitter, Movement for a People's Party spokesperson Carol Ehrle wrote, "We are aware that some former volunteers have been defaming our movement. We had to remove people who were consistently disrupting our organizing platforms with personal attacks, spamming, and other violations of the community agreements ." Convention. The organization held a virtual People's Convention on August 30, 2020. The convention was covered live and viewed by 400,000 people on various platforms. Speakers at the convention included former Democratic Party 2020 presidential election candidate Marianne Williamson, former Harvard University professor and philosopher Cornel West, Sanders 2020 co-chair Nina Turner, former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, comedian/political commentator/satirist Jimmy Dore, journalist Chris Hedges and podcaster Ryan Knight. The convention's ultimate goal was intended to be a vote on forming a new political party to represent the interests of the people. Supporters viewing the convention  online approved the measure with a 99% majority. 2020 presidential election. While many of the speakers at the convention expressed frustration and distaste for the candidates for the 2020 presidential election, the organization did not contest the 2020 election and instead plans to form a party in 2021, run in the midterms in 2022 and possibly run a presidential candidate in 2024. MPP later organized an online rebuttal to the 2020 United States presidential debates hosted by Rose McGowan. On December 1, 2020, the first People's Party state organization was registered in Maine. On January 2, 2021, the party  will begin enrolling new members; it needs 5,000 to achieve ballot access. According to Michael Sylvester, the party will mainly focus on pushing congressional officials into supporting a floor vote for Medicare for All. Also in December 2020, Dore began circulating a plan to make Nancy Pelosi's reelection as House Speaker conditional on Medicare for All receiving a floor vote. The plan was endorsed by Justin Jackson of the Los Angeles Chargers and political commentators Krystal Ball and Briahna Joy Gray. The party launched a petition drive to support the plan, with Dore and West joining the advisory committee . The Green Party of Pennsylvania also announced its support for forcing the vote. Progress since 2020 convention. On March 13, 2021, People's Party organizers Nick Brana and Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap appeared on the "Jimmy Dore Show" to discuss the most recent major developments in their party's organizing efforts and their plans for 2021. Dore announced on this broadcast that both he and his wife Stef Zamorano were officially joining the People's Party. The People's Party's plans for 2021 are to gain places on state ballots, create state parties, increase membership, and organize. It also plans  to hold its national founding convention sometime in the second half of 2021, during which members will vote on its final platform. The party plans to run candidates for Congress in 2022 and the presidency in 2024. In September 2021, the People's Party gained ballot access in Florida, the first state where it has done so. Political program. According to the official party website, "This People's Platform emerged from Bernie Sanders's first presidential campaign platform. It was developed, voted on and adopted by our members in March of 2018. The final People's Party platform will be  developed and passed by members at the founding convention in 2021." Economic issues. The People's Party looks back to Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal as an unfinished project that it wishes to fully realize. "In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed an Economic Bill of Rights that would guarantee employment, food, clothing, leisure, a living wage, housing, healthcare, social security, education and freedom from monopolies and unfair competition to every American. We had the technology and the resources to achieve it 70 years ago, and we could easily accomplish it today. It's time to fulfill Roosevelt's  vision and guarantee the necessities of life to all as a human right." To achieve this, the party states it will attempt to "employ millions of Americans in public works programs, repairing and modernizing our infrastructure and building a 21st century energy system", as well as further restrict banking and establish public banks. The party also calls for the implementation of a $15 minimum wage and tipped wage, four-day work week, universal basic income, federal jobs guarantee, affordable housing, rent control, and paid maternity, family, sick, and vacation leave. Environment. The People's Party supports a shift from  fossil fuels to renewable energy. It aims to replace fossil fuel subsidies and to ban domestic oil drilling and fracking. It also supports expansion of public transportation and rail, as well as parks and nature reserves. Trade. The People's Party supports the reversal of trade policies in agreements like NAFTA, replaced by USMCA in 2020, CAFTA and PNTR, which it claims have "outsourced millions of jobs and created a global race to the bottom in wages." Labor. The party calls for stronger legal protection for unions and the repeal "of all anti-labor laws, including right-to-work laws  and the rest of the Taft-Hartley Act". The People's Party seeks to "democratize the workplace by encouraging the creation of worker cooperatives", stating: "Modern corporations are completely undemocratic. Workers don't share in the ownership of the company, elect leaders from amongst themselves, or have any say in the company's direction. Unelected investors and executives hoard the wealth that the workers produce, leaving them just enough to survive and continue generating profits." "Working people should participate in management of the corporations that they contribute to just like they participate in the management of the country where they  live." Health care. The People's Party supports a single-payer healthcare system and more access to "clean air, clean water, [and] nutritious food" as a human right." It asserts: "Health is about more than access to medicine and doctors. We need to also promote healthier food by eliminating food deserts, often found in poor communities, and ensuring universal access to fresh and nutritious food", to "enforce the Clean Water Act and strengthen laws meant to safeguard our drinking water". The party also supports the "End the criminalization of mental illness that puts more mentally ill people in prisons than  treatment facilities." Education. The People's Party favors free universal education from pre-Kindergarten to college as well as the cancellation of student loan debt. It supports the expansion of educational programs including sex education and higher pay for teachers. Social issues. Rights for women. The People's Party calls for "[requiring] employers to provide twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave". It supports the Paycheck Fairness Act to end wage discrimination based on gender. It also says it will "fund non-governmental organizations and initiatives that assist with women’s health and family planning. Protect women’s access  to contraception and the availability of a safe and legal abortion. End the practice of female genital mutilation, underage forced marriage and the abuse of sex workers"; and pledges to "advocate for free quality childcare and preschool programs, the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and an increase in Women Infants and Children (WIC) funding." Racial justice. The party states it will "[p]ut an end to discriminatory laws and the purging of minority-community names from voting rolls by restoring the Voting Rights Act. Eliminate mandatory minimums which result in 'sentencing disparities between Black, Latino and White people.' Protect the  health of neighborhoods of color by establishing and enforcing strict environmental laws." Indigenous rights. The party vows to "hold the U.S. government fully accountable for the targeted destruction and violence towards Native life and land. We uphold the rights of Indigenous people to defend and protect their lives, natural resources, sacred sites and culture. We support the rights of Native people to defend their freedom and their lives. [...] We recognize the systemic failures and structural forces in American society which perpetuate this grim reality and seek to eradicate them." LGBTQ+ rights. The party states that "though we still have a  long way to go, the U.S. ended segregation by race decades ago. We must now abolish segregation by sexual orientation", and that it will "defend" against the rollback of achieved rights, strengthening laws against hate propaganda and hate crimes. It supports public education and legal action to ensure that the Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality decision is enforced. Political reform. Money in politics. The party declares its mission "to abolish corporate money and influence from our politics once and for all." To achieve this, the party wishes to ban lobbyists from making contributions to parties, politicians, their staff, and  their families, as well as ending Super PACs, unlimited and untransparent outside spending, corporate executives from holding elected office and to reverse "Citizens United". Electoral reform. The party supports more representative and semi-direct democratic reforms. It supports ranked-choice voting and multiple representatives for districts. It also desires to end gerrymandering, expand ballot access, abolish voter ID laws in favor of automatic voter registration, and use hand-counted paper ballots in elections. It also supports direct "broad strokes" policy control via popular referendum, as well as term limits for members of Congress. Civil liberties. Mass surveillance. The People's  Party believes in the right to privacy. It supports the repeal of the Patriot Act and more protection for whistleblowers. It also wants to abolish government torture, indefinite detention and extrajudicial assassination. Gun control. The party seeks to enact stricter limits on firearms, calling to "ban assault rifles, armor piercing rounds, bump stocks, and high capacity magazines", initiate a federal buy-back program for these weapons, require waiting periods to get firearms and a universal background check. It states it will also "Prevent the accumulation of private arsenals and close the gun show loophole, which allows the private sale of  firearms circumventing background checks." Criminal justice. The party calls for "[ending] the 'for-profit prison industry', which incarcerates young non-violent Black men at a disproportionate rate", for demilitarizing police forces and creating new laws on the allowable use of force, and for the transfer of funds from police budgets to social programs. Drugs. The party supports the legalization of marijuana, and taking it off the federal government’s list of outlawed drugs.