The Mountain Party Platform

Adopted February 27, 2021
Last Amended July 20, 2024

Preamble

The Mountain Party recognizes the history of class struggle in West Virginia, from John Brown’s raid to the Great Railroad War; the Mine Wars to the teachers strikes and beyond. From the beginning, the working class of this state has been ravaged and exploited by the capitalist class and only a multi-pronged approach to the class struggle will ensure an end to this exploitation.

The Mountain Party aims to strengthen the democratic power of people and promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice through direct action targeted at the root causes of these problems. The Mountain Party of West Virginia endorses the Ecosocialist Green New Deal, as embodied in the platform of the Green Party of the United States.

We aim to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We also work to create new types of political organizations which expand participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process.

We strive to consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism, class oppression, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, ableism, and other forms of discrimination and oppression which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law.

We must live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and planet so that future generations will benefit rather than suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end, we must practice agriculture which improves the quality of the soil, air and water. We must move toward an energy efficient economy and live in ways that respect the integrity and sustainability of natural systems.

We must work to demilitarize, and to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others. We promote negotiation and cooperation with those with whom we disagree, and recognize that the rights of others are non-negotiable. We will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community, and global peace.

Article I – Democracy

1.1 Citizen Engagement

Allow initiative and referendum processes in West Virginia.
Allow public employees to run for office at any and all levels.
Establish well-organized, fully transparent, and citizen moderated online citizens’ forum for the collaborative drafting, and communal deliberation of legislative and administrative proposals, to allow for easy participation in all stages of lawmaking.
Establish face to face citizen assemblies in each neighborhood and town as the legislative power in society, with legislative authority in their own communities and legislative control from below over the larger jurisdictions (municipal, county, state) with which they are associated. Citizen assemblies should be guaranteed sufficient funding to ensure that they can hire the staff and experts needed to play an autonomous role in the decision-making process.
Empower citizen assemblies to give binding instructions to their representatives and the use of legitimate recall to enable voters to remove elected officials who no longer are representing the will and interests of the local residents.
Enact participatory budgeting statewide.
Support home rule for municipalities.

1.2 Electoral Reform

Allow recall elections at every level of government.
Join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, and/or award Electoral College votes on a proportional basis, until such a time that the Electoral College is abolished and replaced with a national popular vote.
Ban corporate donations to candidates and finance public elections and campaigns, with limits on self-financing of campaigns.
Ban voter ID laws and support universal and inalienable voting rights for all permanent residents age 16 and older, regardless of immigration status or criminal history.
Enact Ranked Choice Voting for all single-seat elections and enact Proportional Representation for the state legislature.
Ensure an adequate number of polling places, including countywide polling places, so that voting is quick and easy.
Establish independent, nonpartisan election commissions for fair debates and redistricting.
Reform County Commissions to be more democratic, including reducing the length of terms and increasing the number of seats.
Mandate free and equal broadcast time on all television and radio stations.
Reasonably ease ballot access laws for minor political parties.
Require all state-level candidates to release their recent tax returns to the public.
Support automatic and same-day registration and remove restrictions on voter registration drives.
Utilize hand-marked paper ballots and require all ballots to include a binding None-of-the-Above option for all elections.
Usher in the formation of elected youth councils at all levels of legislative power.

1.3 Foreign Policy

End perpetual war, the military-industrial complex, and the surveillance state.
Endorse and support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and repeal legislation which penalizes its supporters. Oppose Zionism and promote the creation of a single, secular democratic state with equal rights for all in Palestine.
Open relations and promote cooperation with Cuba. Promote the removal of Cuba from the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terror. Promote the end of the U.S. blockade and sanctions against Cuba.
Oppose the crime of drone warfare and call for peaceful settlement of disputes without the use of force by promoting peace and rejecting imperialism.
Protect journalists and whistleblowers who expose war crimes and human rights violations.
Resist Washington’s financial, economic and trade sanctions that harm developing and non-aligned countries.
Stop Washington from arming, funding, bombing, deploying troops, or engaging in proxy wars around the globe.
Support relations with other countries based on mutual respect and benefit.
Suspend the development of nuclear weapons and the expansion of the nuclear arsenal. Work towards international nuclear disarmament.

Article II – Social Justice

2.1 2SLGBTQIA+ Equality

Add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to the state’s Human Rights Acts and Fair Housing Act.
Ban conversion therapy.
Ensure that gender transition-related care is covered under a universal healthcare system. Prohibit insurance companies, for as long as they exist, from denying transition-related care.
Guarantee the right of all people to use facilities consistent with their gender identity, and promote greater accessibility and privacy of such spaces.
Include 2SLGBTQIA+ history and health in school curricula.
Provide school and community trainings and 2SLGBTQIA+-specific school counseling.
Permit transgender students participation in school sports and activities consistent with their gender identity.
Provide transgender individuals state issued documents consistent with their gender identity. Remove punitive and cumbersome legal name change requirements and fees.
Fund housing relief programs for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, who are disproportionately represented in unsheltered populations.
Prohibit mutilative surgeries on intersex infants.
Pass legislation to mandate that police adopt policies to ensure fairer interactions with transgender people, especially transgender women of color, who are disproportionately impacted by disparities in policing.
Outlaw misgendered imprisonment and end “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses for violent crimes.
Prevent and repeal any legislation that purports to protect religious liberty at the expense of the rights of others.

2.2 Racial Equality

Provide reparations to Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color for the past four hundred plus years of genocide, slavery, land-loss, destruction of original identity, and the stark disparities which haunt the present. Until significant steps are taken to reverse the ongoing abuses to end the criminalization of the Black and Brown communities, to eradicate poverty, to invest in education, healthcare, and the restoration and protection of human rights, that it will be impossible to repair the continuing damage wrought by the ideology of white supremacy which still permeates the institutions of our nation.
End funding to police forces and courts which fail to address racial biases.
Enact protections against racial discrimination based on hair style and texture (CROWN Act).
Eradicate from public spaces symbols and monuments which glorify white supremacy.
Increase funding to the state’s HBCUs.
Increase labor participation and wages for BIPOC workers.
Address racial health inequalities and racial barriers to healthcare access.
Enact policies to address racial disparities in school discipline.
Protect discussions on racial diversity and discrimination in classrooms.
Oppose censorship of “Critical Race Theory” and attacks on policies of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Require that staff in schools throughout the state attend professional development sessions that inform them about individual racism, institutional and systemic racism, and historical racism.
Require that educational curricula be multi-cultural and not be limited to the Euro-centric education that dominates now.
Prohibit any “Cop Cities” in West Virginia and shut down any existing Cop City facilities.

2.3 Women’s Equality

Expand and protect each woman’s right to fully participate in society, free from sexual harassment.
Ensure equality in wages and employment and end the feminization of poverty.
Prohibit pay secrecy policies which contribute to the gender pay gap.
Redress the reality that much of the work that society assigns primarily to women is presently unpaid.
Ensure that domestic abusers cannot own or buy a gun.
Protect and reinforce Title IX.

2.4 Reproductive Justice

Ensure that all reproductive healthcare — including abortion, birth control, tubal ligation, vasectomies, and more — is covered under a universal healthcare system.
Protect individuals’ rights to make their own decisions on their reproductive health.
Repeal abortion restrictions and ensure that patients are given medically accurate information regarding abortion care.
Expand access to birth control and family planning services.
End taxes on menstrual products and ensure free menstrual products to all who need them, including students and incarcerated people.
Ensure parental leave for all parents following the birth of their children.

2.5 Disability Rights

Fully fund residential and community-based services.
Ensure all public transportation is easily accessible.
Increase non-emergency medical transportation programs.
Remove obstacles to independent living.
Ensure that voting and participation in governance are accessible.
Ensure that all government meetings are live-streamed and recorded to be accessible to all citizens. Ensure that public comment is accessible for all.
Ensure that all public buildings are ADA-compliant. Eliminate small business exemptions to the ADA and appropriate funds to achieve compliance by small businesses.
Ensure government representation by people with disabilities.
Enact policies to immediately clear the IDD Waiver wait list.
Ensure that all workers in the disability care field and disabled workers themselves are paid a living wage.
Ensure that children with disabilities and their parents are well-represented and served in the public education system.
Greatly increase income limits for those receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
Eliminate marriage penalties for individuals with disabilities.

2.6 Housing

Abolish the use of eminent domain to take over land for use by private corporations.
Ban private corporations, investors, and Wall Street from purchasing residential homes and dwelling units.
Construct and maintain sufficient public housing to ensure an end to homelessness. Seize residential properties from big landlords and corporations and convert them into quality free or low-cost public housing.
Establish a Mobile Home Cooperative Fund to provide loans to support cooperative ownership of mobile home parks.
Mandate the development of communal green spaces, community centers, gardens or greenhouses, parks, and sidewalks in every newly constructed housing subdivision that exceeds nine residential units. Prohibit the practice of issuing waivers to developers to avoid complying with these standards.
Place a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions.
Prohibit compulsory work service for residents of public housing.
Provide job training for homeless people as well as other support services for those with health problems, including drug addiction and mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders.
Require that new construction maximize the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy options such as solar.
Replace the shelter system with apartments for homeless people that provide privacy and a safe, healthy environment.
Set up a statewide rent control plan.

2.7 Education

Address racial discrimination and inequality in the education system (see 2.2 Racial Equality)
End high-stakes testing for students, teachers, and schools. Eliminate the standardized testing model. Transition to a student-, growth-, and knowledge-centered model of teaching.
Fully fund public schools with an equitable state aid formula.
Fully fund full day, and developmentally appropriate Universal Pre-K.
Fully fund all state colleges and universities, and provide free higher education to all. Implement a policy of open admissions for high school graduates.
Include student democratic decision-making in curriculum, administration, and conflict resolution within each school.
Increase funding for counselors and mental health services in schools.
Increase the number of permanent, tenure track faculty at state higher educational institutions.
Implement universal free meal programs for all students.
Improve sex education by instituting compulsory relationship education for primary schools which centers on consent, is 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusive, and promotes respect, acceptance, and diversity.
Oppose charter schools and oppose the use of public funds towards private and religious schools and microschools.
Protect our secular public school system and oppose the imposition of religious doctrine on students during school hours.
Require second language classes be taught beginning no later than the 2nd grade, and supported through High School.
Reduce class sizes and caseloads.
Require pay for college athletes.
Stop the school to prison pipeline. Prohibit the assignment of police officers to schools. Prohibit policies such as automatic suspensions. Support restorative justice programs in public schools, which are effective in teaching non-violent, constructive methods for conflict resolution.
Support educators’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain, and grant significant raises to public educators.

2.8 Healthcare and Wellness

Establish a single-payer health insurance program covering all residents in the state and pay a living wage to all care providers.
Require coverage to include essential physical, dental, mental, vision, transition-related care, and reproductive care, with all services fully-funded.
Ensure the right to safe, legal, and free abortion services. (See 2.3 Reproductive Care)
Protect our children and communities from communicable diseases by implementing reasonable vaccine requirements.
Create a license for certified professional midwives to assist those in rural areas whos struggle to access healthcare.
Enact policies to ensure proper air filtration and ventilation in all housing, workplaces, and public buildings.

2.9 Drug Policy

Fund evidence-based treatment for Substance Use Disorder, including access to medications such as methadone and buprenorphine.
Implement overdose prevention programs, including the use of overdose reversal medication such as naloxone.
Permit supervised injection facilities to provide sterile injection equipment, access to medical care, and wraparound care.
Promote the principle of harm reduction to reduce the harms associated with the racist War on Drugs.
Support the de-scheduling of psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and fund research regarding their use in treating medical conditions.
Treat Substance Use Disorder as a public health issue and provide compassionate alternatives to arrest and incarceration.
Strengthen the “Good Samaritan” drug overdose immunity law.
Decriminalize drug use and possession.
Legalize and fund syringe service programs, including distribution of supplies such as pipes and syringes. Allow for purchasing of all harm reduction materials with federal funds.

2.10 Cannabis

Expunge the criminal records of people with prior non-violent cannabis convictions, without their having to go through a bureaucratic process.
Legalize recreational cannabis.
Permit licensed businesses where cannabis smoking is allowed on premises, as are found in cities throughout the world.
Prioritize licenses for local growers, specifically residents of West Virginia, and people previously incarcerated for cannabis-related crimes, the latter of which shall be given grants to operate cannabis businesses as part of reparations for their unfair incarceration.
Prohibit exclusion from living in public housing based on cannabis use.
Reinvest tax revenue from legalization in communities that have been adversely impacted by the war on drugs.
Require labeling to indicate organic or non-organic cultivation.
Stop removal of children from parents/guardians for testing positive for THC.
Protect the right of cannabis users to own and operate firearms.

2.11 Criminal Justice and Prison Reform

Allow free access to reading materials to incarcerated people.
Amend the criminal code to include the crime of “social murder,” i.e. murder explicitly committed against the most vulnerable in society by putting them in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and unnatural death. Victims of social murder include those who die by pollution, homelessness, starvation, etc.
“Ban the Box” — allow ex-offenders a second chance by prohibiting job applications from asking applicants about their criminal record.
Decriminalize drug use and possession.
Decriminalize sex work.
Demilitarize and gradually disarm state and local police and focus instead on de-escalation tactics. Redistribute the duties of police to other actors, including medical professionals, social workers, and other community-based alternatives.
Eliminate the root causes of crime by ending homelessness, poverty, racial discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, sexism, and other forms of oppression and fully funding education equitably across the state.
End civil asset forfeiture.
End cash bail.
End qualified immunity.
End state funding to police departments and courts which fail to address racial biases.
Focus on decarceration and excarceration by investing in restorative, transformative, and rehabilitative justice programs.
Fully fund programs which allow ex-offenders to increase their vocational job skills, interpersonal skills, and educational literacy.
Institute democratic control over public resources to empower community-centered institutions.
Introduce alternatives to prisons and policing.
Prohibit coercive, unpaid, and low-paid prison labor.

2.12 Immigration

Declare West Virginia a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants.
End imperialist policies that cause displacement and refugee crises.
End the practice of detaining immigrants for minor offenses, and end the practice of family separation.
Oppose the building of a wall on both the northern and southern borders to prevent migration.
Recognize the right of migration, including by seasonal workers, and those seeking asylum.
Support a reasonable open border policy.

2.13 Firearms

Preserve the responsible keeping and bearing of arms and continue to uphold the right to self-defense.
Allow for the reasonable limitation of the carrying of firearms in select public spaces, specifically polling locations during voting and public school grounds whenever students or children are present.
Oppose lobbying by the firearms industry, along with opposition of all corporate lobbying, and end all tax breaks to the firearms industry.
Protect the rights of medical cannabis users to own and operate firearms.
Prohibit those with convictions for sexual crimes, domestic violence and abuse, and hate crimes from possessing firearms.
Restructure our economic and social systems around community to combat the isolation and atomization that contributes to increased crime and violence.

Article III: Environmental Justice

3.1 Green New Deal – Transition from Fossil Fuels to Renewables

Ban hydrofracking of natural gas and mountaintop removal of coal in West Virginia.
Enact an Ecosocialist Green New Deal to create over 70,000 permanent jobs and convert West Virginia to 100% clean, renewable energy and zero greenhouse gas emissions. Transition to public ownership and planning in energy, manufacturing, and transportation in order to transition as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels.
Ensure that the state can provide for necessary relief in times of crisis and to take action in response to threats from climate change.
Invest in wind power, weatherization, energy efficiency, geothermal, solar, among other renewable energy sources.
Oppose all new fossil fuel infrastructure. Prohibit any more oil or natural gas pipelines or plants from being built. Phase-out existing fossil fuels.
Oppose the Appalachian Storage Hub Project.
Source all renewable energy projects from local, state, or U.S. manufacturers when possible, and must avoid conflict area materials.
Support the use of nuclear energy that is safe, clean, and sustainable. Support research and development of nuclear fusion.

3.2 Energy Democracy

Facilitate the conversion of investor-owned utilities to become consumer-owned cooperatives or publicly-owned and democratically run operations that meet the energy needs of each local municipality.

3.3 Just Transition and Environmental Justice

Ensure that displaced workers are guaranteed wages and benefits until they can find comparable work.
Ensure that low and moderate income people, and communities harmed by dirty fuels’ pollution impacts are able to participate in the renewable energy future.
Guarantee tax revenues to local governments that lose revenues due to fossil fuel plant shutdowns.

3.4 Divestment

Ban state, county and local governments from granting subsidies and tax waivers to fossil fuel corporations in their many manifestations (pipelines, compressor stations, metering stations, etc.) under the pretext of job creation.
Divest West Virginia’s pension funds from all fossil fuels.

3.5 Mass Transit Planning

Adopt incentives for public transit and biking.
Designate voting members representing transit users to local boards overseeing transit systems.
Develop a statewide mass transit plan that in the long run makes mass transit more economical to use than private vehicles.
Electrify transportation using clean renewable energy to power personal and public commuter vehicles.
Increase access to transit options for the disabled.

3.6 Food Systems and Waste Management

Ensure a food system that provides an adequate income to farmers, food entrepreneurs, and food workers, along with safe and fair working conditions.
Move West Virginia to becoming a zero-solid waste state, with state funding provided for all municipalities to comply.
Provide universal access to ample, affordable, local, healthful, sustainably produced, and culturally meaningful food to eliminate food deserts.
Enforce antitrust measures in the highly concentrated private seed sector and ensure the fair, open and affordable access to seeds and the right to save seeds.

3.7 Agriculture

Provide government subsidies only to family farmers who practice organic agriculture.
Support a West Virginia farm worker bill of rights that protects the labor rights of farmworkers regardless of their immigration status.
Support community gardens, urban agriculture, and agricultural education.
Support industrial hemp.
Support regenerative agriculture to restore organic material to the soil, including carbon sequestration.

3.8 Animal Rights

Ban greyhound racing and horse racing.
Ban the sale of out of service or retired horses to slaughter, requiring mandatory retirement to a sanctuary or reputable equine rescue facility.
End the mutilation of companion animals for human aesthetics or convenience, such as tail docking or de-clawing.
Provide financial assistance to local shelters and rescues.
Prohibit animal testing for consumer products and institute immediate labeling of animal testing or animal byproducts in existing products.
Phase out the use of animals in entertainment by transfer to or development of appropriate sanctuaries.
Support a rapid phase out of confined animal feeding operations.

Article IV – Economic Justice

4.1 Economic Development

Ban multi-level marketing companies that target low-income earners.
Create a public broadband utility, owned by the citizens of West Virginia.
Develop and implement a mass transit-related economic development strategy.
Establish commercial rent control for small businesses.
Introduce an Ecosocialist Green New Deal in West Virginia (See Ecological Sustainability).
Support the use of new forms of copyright licenses in West Virginia to promote the development of the commons or public domain.
Subsidize utility costs for residents of West Virginia.
Ban billboards to level the playing field in advertising, reduce distracted driving, and promote beautification and tourism.

4.2 Wages

Allow local governments to establish a higher minimum wage for all workers.
Establish a shorter work week with no loss of pay for any workers.
Increase and enforce a statewide living wage adjusted annually for inflation.
Increase wages for tipped workers.
Restore Federal Prevailing Wage Programs to all public projects.
Strengthen West Virginia State laws against wage theft.

4.3 Labor and Worker Organizing

All people who are able to work are entitled to a stable job at a living wage.
All people should receive equal pay for the same job regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, or disability.
Ban “right-to-work” laws.
Guarantee the right of every West Virginia worker, both private and public sector, to form a union, organize, bargain, go on strike, elect immediate supervisors, and the right to take peaceful job actions.
Guarantee the right of all workers to engage in collective action and self-representation regardless of union status.
Mandate full benefits for all workers, regardless of part-time or full-time status.
Prohibit exclusion of both domestic and farm workers from receiving overtime pay.
Recognize unions based on cards signed.
Recognize work performed outside the monetary system, such as child and elder care, homemaking, voluntary community service, continuing education, civic participation, and the arts, has inherent social and economic value and is essential to a healthy, sustainable economy and peaceful communities.
Support democratic control of all unions by their membership, free of employer domination.
Support the right of workers to hold shop meetings on company premises and to administer health and safety programs via shop councils.
Transition away from unpaid internships to exclusively paid internships throughout all industries, including non-profit organizations.

4.4 Economic Democracy

Promote economic democracy through social ownership over the means of production.
Promote fair trade.
Provide microloans, grants and technical assistance for cooperatives, a jobs program to place unemployed people into cooperatives, and employee buyouts to convert existing businesses into cooperatives.
Provide a basic income to all adult residents of the state.
Update and expand West Virginia business law to eliminate legal barriers, creating a more seamless process for incorporating worker co-operatives.

4.5 Progressive Taxation and Fiscal Policy

Eliminate corporate tax breaks and subsidies.
Establish a land value tax to reduce speculation in real estate and absentee landlordism.
Repeal the annual fee for electric and hybrid vehicles.
Require a 50% charge on all individual and organizational funds sent to offshore tax shelters, retroactive to transactions starting Jan 1, 1990. Impose stiff penalties for non compliance.

4.6 Public Banks

Create a public bank to target investment into the new technologies and businesses of a sustainable green economy.
The public bank would partner with local community banks and credit unions in financing new business activity. It would also refinance the mortgages of homes facing foreclosure on a reduced-principal, fixed-rate, long-term affordable basis. It should also have a technical assistance arm to develop worker and consumer cooperatives.