Downloadable version here.

Top Priorities:

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.      Genuine full employment at living wages.

2.      Renewable energy and energy conservation.

3.      Universal health care.

4.      Electoral reform.

5.      Expansion of recycling, a tax on pollution and aggressive action against global warming.

A.      Economy, Workers’ Rights, Workers’ Power

The Illinois Green Party Supports:

1.         The "living wage" campaign requiring state and municipal governments to pay a living wage (at least 125% of the federal poverty level, plus health-care benefits) for all government employees and for all employees of government contractors.

2.         Fair Trade, not "Free Trade" - Policies and treaties that aim to lift, rather than undermine, labor and environmental standards around the globe.

3.         Public works programs to create employment and improve infrastructure - such as building public housing, schools, and libraries, and reviving the Civilian Conservation Corps.

4.         Developing workers' cooperatives and other democratic worker ownership of businesses as an alternative to the corporate model. When corporations shut down or relocate production facilities, the State should assist workers to acquire and run them as cooperatives.

5.         Workers' right to organize. We call for the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and other anti-labor measures.

6.         Other measures to improve working conditions and quality of life, such as shortening the workweek with no loss in pay; requiring larger employers to provide paid maternity leave, health and pension benefits, and vacations; enforcement of occupational safety and health standards, and protection for workers from being fired without just cause.

B.      Human Rights, Social Justice, and Civil Liberties

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Celebrating diversity and respect for all human beings.

2.         Strengthening the Illinois Department of Human Rights with more and better-trained investigators and legal staff. Authorizing the Department to conduct independent investigations of discriminatory lending, housing and employment practices statewide, including the use of “testers” of different races.

3.         Women’s full right to reproductive choice – including sex education, birth control, social support for those who choose to bear children, and access to affordable abortion for those who do not. Through this combination, the right to abortion can be upheld, while the incidence of abortion can be reduced voluntarily.

4.         Full, explicit, equal rights for gays, lesbians, bi-sexual and transgender persons, including the right to marry.

5.         The eradication of environmental racism.

The Illinois Green Party opposes:

1.         The war on and occupation of Iraq.

2.         The USA Patriot Act.

C.      Health Care

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         A single-payer, publicly administered universal healthcare system.

2.         Investment in public health education, including information on nutrition, organic food, exercise, drugs, and safe sex practices.

3.         Affordable prescription drugs, including purchasing lower-cost drugs from Canada, government negotiation for lower prices for Medicare/Medicaid patients, expediting generic drugs coming to market, and, if necessary, through imposing price controls.

4.         Full participation of health-care workers and their unions in health care policy.

D.      Transportation

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Expansion of public transportation, including rapid transit rail lines and linked mass transit systems.

2.         Expansion of bicycle lanes and trails.

3.         Higher fuel-efficiency standards and tougher emissions tests for motor vehicles.

E.      Energy Policy

The Illinois Green Party Supports:

1.         Expanded research and development, by both government and private industry, for renewable energy solutions including solar, wind, and biomass; emerging technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells; new sources of energy production; and energy storage and distribution, such as improved battery systems.

2.         Establishing decentralized, publicly owned utilities throughout the state.

3.         Mandating the use of smokestack scrubbers at coal-fired power plants, to minimize the negative impact of burning high-sulfur Illinois coal on health and the environment.

4.         Research on health problems associated with energy production.

5.         State and federal training programs to alleviate the distress from job losses in coal mining.

F.      Nuclear Power

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Ending all government subsidies for nuclear power research and production.

2.         Empowering communities to bar or halt nuclear power plant construction and operation.

3.         Demanding that nuclear power companies pay the health and security costs of their operations.

4.         “Whistleblower protection" for power plant workers who disclose violations of safety procedures to their fellow employees, superiors, or the public at large.

5.         Repealing the Price-Anderson Act, which drastically decreases the liability of nuclear producers for disasters they cause.

The Illinois Green Party opposes:

1.         "Fast-track" licensing of nuclear power plants.

2.         Recycling nuclear waste into consumer, industrial, agricultural, or military products.

3.         Transporting nuclear waste through Illinois or accepting out-of-state waste.

G.      Nuclear Weapons

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Funding for identification, detoxification and clean-up of all radioactive and toxic leaks, spills, and contamination on or off nuclear weapons production sites.

The Illinois Green Party opposes:

1.         Research, testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons of any size, in any manner and place.

2.         Production and use of “depleted uranium” weapons.

3.         "Nukes in Space" and "Star Wars" programs, including tritium bombs, directed energy weapons, space and airborne lasers, "pure fusion" weapons and particle beams.

H.      Environmental Policy

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Aggressive action to phase out emissions of greenhouse gases.

2.         Phasing out production and release of toxic chemicals.

3.         Phasing out industrial and medical waste incineration, which is a major source of dioxin pollution.

4.         Ending industrial activity and resource extraction, such as logging, on state and federal public lands in Illinois.

5.         Halting the expansion of horse trails and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) use on public lands.

6.         Implementing incentives to expand recycling, including the manufacture, sale and purchase of reusable and recycled products.

7.         Charging a "pollution tax" and/or user fees to businesses and on products that emit greenhouse gases, ozone depleting chemicals, dioxins and other toxic pollutants.

I.        Agricultural and Food Policy

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         A sustainable agricultural system that promotes bioregional self-reliance, soil conservation and regeneration, integrated pest management and alternatives to chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides.

2.         Halting the patenting of life forms and the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into our ecosystem. Until this is done, GMO foods must be clearly labeled.

3.         Halting food irradiation. Until this is done, irradiated foods must be clearly labeled.

4.         Policies and programs that favor smaller-scale and family farms, organic farming practices and genuine organic certification, encourage independence from chemical-based agribusiness and corporate control of seed stocks, and put a halt to "factory farming" practices.

5.         Legalization of industrial hemp.

J.       Electoral Reform and Voters’ Rights

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Proportional representation and Instant Runoff Voting (IRV).

2.         Requiring broadcasters to carry debates and provide free

airtime for all candidates and parties, as a requirement for receiving a license for the public airwaves.

3.         Easier ballot access for third parties and independents.

4.         Abolishing the Electoral College.

5.         Limits on political donations in Illinois.

6.         A paper trail for all electronic voting.

K.      Education, Family, and Youth

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Fostering healthy family relationships by shifting government resources from excessive military spending and corporate welfare to public education, universal health care, and access to basic social services to support families, including affordable day care.

2.         Recognizing that parenting is real work, jobs should include paid parental leave, flexible hours and job-sharing, and paid emergency leave for childcare and elder care.

3.         Full rights for all types of families, including single parent and gay and lesbian families, with full benefits for domestic partners, and full rights for families of all income levels, classes, races and beliefs (religious and otherwise).

4.         Guaranteeing all children a high quality standard of living and education, and providing youth with fair wages for part-time and summer jobs.

5.         Meaningful gathering places, programs, and work/study opportunities for youth.

The Illinois Green Party opposes:

1.         Treating juveniles as adult criminals in the court system, and limiting their freedom with curfews.

L.      Public Education

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Equal funding for all schools, for both academic and extra-curricular activities.

2.         “Special education” for all children with disabilities.

3.         Access to higher education for everyone.

4.         Better pay and training for teachers.

5.         Smaller classes.

The Illinois Green Party opposes:

1. The “No Child Left Behind” Act.

M.      Taxes and Budget

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         A government that meets the needs of society – rather than serving the interests of the wealthy and powerful by eliminating the tax burden on them.

2.         A truly progressive income tax for Illinois, as well as nationally. This is the fairest and most equitable form of taxation, based on ability to pay, and on the principle that those who have benefitted the most from the current social order have the greatest obligation to return something to society.

3.         Making corporations pay their fair share of taxes; stop granting special tax favors and breaks that are bankrupting government services.

4.         Taxing business practices that harm the environment.

N.      Immigration Policy

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         A world in which anyone can live and work in whatever country she or he so desires.

2.         Legalizing all immigrants presently in this country.

3.         Any other reform measures which would reduce the unequal treatment of undocumented immigrants, such as the right to obtain drivers licenses and the right to equal treatment in tuition charges for higher education.

The Illinois Green Party opposes:

1.         Any “guest worker” program which does not give full and equal rights to immigrants, including the right to stay as long as the person desires, and the right to become a U.S. citizen.

O.      Finance and Banking

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Vigorous enforcement of the federal Community Reinvestment Act, which mandates that financial institutions doing business in local communities set aside a portion of their loan funds for use by individuals, organizations, and businesses in those communities.

P.      Crime and Criminal Justice

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Abolition of the death penalty.

2.         A more sensible approach to issues surrounding drug use than the “war on drugs,” which criminalizes use of relatively benign substances like marijuana, while ignoring other, highly addictive substances including alcohol and tobacco.

3.         Legalizing possession of marijuana by adults.

4.         Providing treatment rather than incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders.

5.         Providing greater resources for public defenders, protecting the right of poor people to equal justice.

The Illinois Green Party opposes:

1.         The double standard that targets African-Americans for arrests and tougher prosecution, resulting in a disproportionate rate of convictions, longer sentences and a higher rate of capital punishment for African-Americans than for white Americans.

2.         Exploitation of prison labor by private enterprise.

Q.      Media, the Arts, and Information

The Illinois Green Party supports:

1.         Protecting reporters and journalists from negative consequences, job-related or otherwise, for telling the truth.

2.         Independent, non-corporate media such as the Independent Media Centers.

3.         Community radio and public access television stations.

4.         Public funding for the arts, including both its creation and access of the public to viewing it, without corporate and government censorship of its political content.

The Illinois Green Party opposes:

1.         The increasing centralization and corporate control of the media, including the recent round of mergers, which has lessened our access to relevant sources of information.