July 2020 CDP Resolution Packet Lead Co-Chairs: Agi Kessler & Willie Pelote Thursday, July 23, 2020 Resolution 19-08.18 Resolution Denouncing USMCA Renegotiated Agreement and Insistence on Further Changes Through Continued Negotiations 1 WHEREAS, the North American Fair Trade Agreement (NAFTA) millions of jobs and the livelihoods and 2 communities of millions of workers and poor people in the US, Mexico, and Canada that led to 3 outsourcing, privatization, union-busting, mass forced migration, and the pitting of worker against 4 worker in North America, where NAFTA supported by both the Democrats and Republicans created 5 growing anger and frustration by workers in the US, Mexico, and Canada, and led to the militarization of 6 borders and mass deportations of millions of immigrants, again with support of both US political parties 7 resulting in massive labor and human rights violations, including the separation of families and 8 incarceration of children; and 9 10 WHEREAS, the attempted renegotiated USMCA reached by the corporate controlled Trump 11 administration, then Mexico president Nieto, and Prime Minister Trudeau, retains all anti-labor and anti- 12 environment provisions of NAFTA, with minor changes, and keeps in place the repressive apparatus and 13 attacks on human and worker rights along the militarized border between the US and Mexico allowing 14 USMCA to continue to benefit big pharmaceutical corporations by increasing drug prices in Canada and 15 Mexico, while USMCA will continue to benefit the US oil and petrochemical corporations by deepening the 16 privatization of oil in Mexico and will allow more deregulation of chemical and pesticide protections for 17 farmworkers and consumers on all both sides of the border, while USMCA will prevent Mexico from 18 taking back the railroads, mines, telecom and other industries that were privatized by NAFTA and sold off 19 to the US and other multi-nationals around the world, as it maintains the Investor-State Dispute 20 Settlement, or ISDS, with Mexico, and it will continue to undermine the right of Canada and Mexico to 21 trade with all countries of the world - in order to benefit the financial and economic interests of US 22 corporations and billionaires; and 23 24 WHEREAS, USMCA will allow continued privatization of education and public services in the US, Mexico, 25 and Canada; and 26 27 THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the California State Democratic Party opposes the ratification ofthe 28 USMCA agreement in its current form, and insist on a comprehensive USMCA agreement that improves 29 the rules of trade that creates good, high-wage jobs, protects our environment, and safeguards our 30 democracy, and benefit all workers in Norther America. Author: Desiree Bates Rojas - Assembly District 4 Sponsored: Will Kelley - Assembly District 4 Delegate, Dilon Horton - Assembly District 4 Delegate Contact Information: Desirèe Rojas / [email protected] 1 RESOLUTION 19-08.53L Urge the immediate ban of military assault weapons 1 WHEREAS, the violence and death toll in the communities of El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio have 2 accentuated the urgent and immediate problem of the use of military assault weapons; and 3 4 WHEREAS, mass killings have been perpetrated throughout 2019 utilizing military assault weapons or 5 easily modified weapons to be fully automatic; and 6 7 WHEREAS, the United States has had an assault rifle ban in the past, which was not renewed, and has 8 banned machine guns for many decades; 9 10 THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party supports immediate action, in all 11 aspects of government regulation, to ban all military assault weapons and those rifles that can be 12 modified to shoot fully automatic. Author(s): Thomas P. O'Shaughnessy, Assembly District 43; , ; , Sponsored By: Thomas O’Shaughnessy, 43rd AD; Contact Information: Thomas P. O'Shaughnessy|818-679-1305|[email protected] 2 RESOLUTION 19-08.57L Resolution Denouncing Travel Ban on Members of Congress. 1 Whereas the Israeli government has historically permitted all Members of the U.S. Congress to visit Israel, even if 2 they are openly critical of the Israeli government and its policies or have supported the Boycott Divestment and 3 Sanctions Movement, which advocates for policies that would lead to the destruction of Israel; and 4 5 Whereas, despite plans by the Israel government to permit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s planned trip in 2019 to 6 the Palestinian Territories, a sudden public relations push from President Trump pressured the Israeli government 7 into reversing its position in order to accommodate President Trump’s domestic electoral strategy that involves 8 stoking Islamophobia and urging foreign nations to punish his political opponents. 9 10 Therefore Be It Resolved, that the California Democratic Party condemns President Trump for injecting his 11 personal political agenda into foreign policy and pressuring the Israeli government to bar entry to U.S. 12 Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar and encourages Israel to return to its policies of allowing all 13 members of Congress to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Territories; and 14 15 Be It Further Resolved, that the California Democratic Party rejects statements by President Trump targeting 16 Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar and reaffirms its commitment to supporting the First Amendment 17 right to Freedom of Speech, balanced by well established judicial boundaries restricting hate speech and violence. Author(s): Raymond L. Cordova, 72nd AD Sponsored By: Raymond L. Cordova, 72nd AD Contact Information: Raymond L. Cordova|562 301 3758|[email protected] 3 RESOLUTION 20-03.31 Carbon Fee and Dividend as a Means of Combating Global Warming 1 WHEREAS the overwhelming scientific consensus holds that the earth's temperature is warming; that the 2 chief cause of this warming is the emission of greenhouse gases, especially the emission of carbon dioxide 3 as a result of the burning of fossil fuels; that the warming of the earth will lead to extreme weather events 4 including extreme heat waves, severe hurricanes and floods of increasing frequency and severity, 5 increasingly severe wildfires, a large rise in sea level, increased drought with attendant water scarcity 6 and damage to food supply with resultant famine, increased incidence of infectious diseases, species 7 extinction and loss of ecosystems, forcing large populations to become climate refugees and leading to 8 widespread political instability; and that human beings must eliminate the burning of fossil fuels by the 9 middle of the century in order to avoid these catastrophic effects, and that failure to act in the very near 10 future may make it impossible to take effective action before it is too late, and 11 12 WHEREAS the overwhelming consensus among economists is that a carbon tax or a similar mechanism of 13 placing a price on carbon emissions is an effective means of decreasing such emissions and is a necessary 14 part of any successful program by which mankind will replace fossil fuels with alternative sources of 15 energy, with 46 countries currently pricing carbon emissions and many others that have committed to 16 instituting such pricing mechanisms in international agreements, and 17 18 WHEREAS a carbon fee and dividend program, in which producers of fossil fuels are taxed at the point of 19 extraction and all the fees are returned to Americans as a dividend, will allow lower income people to 20 manage the increased cost of fuel and other consumer goods as a result of the fee and will simultaneously 21 pump money into the economy, increase jobs and improve public health, and that such a program is an 22 effective means of addressing climate change in a way that treats disadvantaged people in a just manner, 23 and that inclusion of the dividend makes it more likely that this plan will gain widespread acceptance and 24 support, 25 26 THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party endorses the use by the United States 27 of a carbon fee and dividend as part of a program to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate global 28 warming; and 29 30 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED we shall communicate this resolution to Governor Gavin Newsom, Senate 31 President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins and the Speaker of the Assembly Anthony Rendon. Author(s): Constance Sullivan, Assembly District 66 Sponsored By Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Organization Contact Information: Tony Hale|310 465 6188|[email protected] 4 RESOLUTION 20-03.32 Condemning Trump’s phony opposition to antisemitism 1 WHEREAS President Trump's executive order of December 11, 2019, serves to constrain debate on Israel 2 and Palestine, and on U.S. policies toward Israel and Palestine, by fostering a false identification of 3 criticisms of the Israeli state and its actions with prejudice against Judaism and Jews, that is, with 4 antisemitism, constituting an unconstitutional attack on the First Amendment and effectively 5 undermining the urgent struggle against real antisemitism within and beyond the United States; and 6 7 WHEREAS this executive order's attack on free speech and its effort to misuse and weaponize the urgent 8 struggle against antisemitism, grounded in the Trump administration’s racism, specifically its racism 9 toward Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, including Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans, have already 10 sparked new, spurious formal complaints to the Department of Education by right-wing, Israel-aligned 11 groups against universities