The Green Party Peace Action Committee requests all Green Party candidates for U.S. House of Representatives to swear or affirm that they will uphold the following principles if elected to office.
I, ________________________, as a Green Party candidate seeking to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the _____ District of the State of _____________________, do hereby swear or affirm that:
- I recognize all acts of military aggression are illegal under established international law, including the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 (46 Stat. 2343), Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter, recognized as international law by the International Law Commission of the United Nations in 1950, and Article 2, sections 3, 4 and 7, and Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. Article VI, paragraph 2 of our Constitution makes treaties to which the United States is a signatory a part of the “Supreme law of the land.” Therefore, violations of these international laws are also unconstitutional under U.S. law.
- I recognize that all acts of military aggression are fundamentally immoral and never justifiable, and that the use of military force can only be justified, if at all, as an act of self-defense, to repel an actual attack on the United States or its people. I categorically reject justifications for war based on claims that pre-emptive action is necessary.
- I recognize that U.S. military aggression necessarily arises from economic motives, aimed at enriching the U.S. ruling class by controlling the resources, markets, labor and wealth of other nations. It also enriches the military weapons industry and its beneficiaries, also known as the military-industrial-congressional complex. Therefore, I recognize that claims of “national interest,” “humanitarian intervention,” a “responsibility to protect,” “promoting democracy,” etc., are nothing more than pretexts, intended to provide cover for the real motives for war, and cannot justify U.S. military aggression.
- Accordingly, if elected to Congress, I promise to use the power of my office to resist, and attempt to block or reverse, any act of military aggression ordered by the president of the United States, whether or not authorized by Congress. I will demand an immediate end to existing U.S. military interventions, drone strikes and the U.S. troop presence in Africa and the Middle East, and support the closure of U.S. foreign military bases worldwide. I will also use the power of my office to expose the real motives for war and do my best to help mobilize popular resistance to such acts.
- I recognize that Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress the exclusive authority to declare war. In recent decades, Congress has abdicated its responsibilities and authority under that provision and has given the president virtually unchecked authority to order acts of war against other nations with little oversight and even less resistance. If elected to Congress, I promise to invoke Article I, Section 8 in every instance in which the president threatens or authorizes the use of military force. I will insist that, except in the case of an actual attack on the United States, every authorization of the use of military force by the president is unconstitutional unless preceded by a declaration of war by Congress, and would further be illegal under the international laws cited in paragraph 1 of this pledge.
- If elected to office, I further promise to introduce or, if already introduced, to support, articles of impeachment against the president of the United States for each and every illegal act of war committed by the president.
- I oppose any and all efforts of the U.S. ruling class and government to dominate or intervene in the internal affairs of other nations by means other than military aggression – for example, intervention by the Central Intelligence Agency or other spy agencies, the National Endowment for Democracy or other NGOs, payments to opposition groups, mercenaries, death squads or terrorists groups, or the use of economic sanctions. Such efforts are immoral, violate principles of national self-determination, and are utterly hypocritical in light of recent allegations of foreign interference in U.S. elections. in U.S. elections. Such efforts serve the same venal objectives described in paragraph 3. Such forms of intervention are also illegal under international law, including Article 32 of the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, adopted by the General Assembly in 1974, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Resolution 2625 (XXV), and Chapter IV, articles 19 and 20 of the Charter of the Organization of American States. My opposition to such forms of U.S. government or government-surrogate intervention does not imply opposition to independent working-class-led efforts to oppose oppression in or by other nations, such as the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, aimed at resisting Israeli colonization of Palestinian lands.
- I recognize that U.S. military and military aggression contributes greatly to the climate crisis and other environmental devastation. I recognize that our government has been literally spending trillions of taxpayer dollars on wars that only make us less safe – dollars that could have been used to combat the climate crisis, create good-paying jobs at home, refurbish our infrastructure, build sustainable energy and transportation, educate our children, pay for college tuition, and provide health care for all. Accordingly, if elected to Congress, I pledge to cut the military budget by a minimum of 50 percent, with the funds thus saved to be allocated to combating the climate crisis through a Green New Deal, and otherwise expended on meeting real human needs.
Signed: ___________________________ Date: _________________________