GPCA 2016 statewide candidate questionnaire - Shamako Noble, US Senate

 1. Why are you running for U.S. Senate as a Green
  1. To help build the party at the local, state and national level.
  2. To bring key issues to the forefront of the US Senate Race.
  3. To continue to challenge the two party system monopoly.

 2. What are your key platform issues? What are the most important issues facing California and the nation? What solutions do you offer?

Key Platform Issues:
 
1. The Economic Crisis
     A. Description of the problem-Automation is decimating the worker and lining the pockets of corporations all throughout the country. Many professionals predict that automation will result in a loss of over 2 billion jobs
​     B. Outline the solution  
            i. Transition to a Purpose driven economy. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/merry-carole-powers/the-real-purpose-of-the-p_b_7506904.html “Measuring business success in human terms is the new bottom line. Which is not to say financial gain falls to the wayside in the world of purpose. With more than 90 percent of global consumers reporting they are likely to switch to buying from brands that support a good cause, socially responsible businesses leading the pack in stock performance by an average of 25 percent over the long term, and nearly 80 percent of investors now considering sustainability issues when choosing investments, purpose and profit are the new power couple in the world of commerce.

         But the real value goes deeper than the dollars earned and impact made. It lays in the fact that combining purpose and profit allows us to protect and enhance the most valuable resource this world will ever have: our human resource.
            ii. Free K-Post Grad education
           iii. Universal Basic Income/Universal Health Care
           iv. De-Colonize the Economy. Definition of De-Colonization-
            v. Re-Direct Military and Defense funding to cover domestic projects

2. The Ecological Crisis
Outline the problem-Global Warming, Melting Glaciers, Droughts, Fracking Earthquakes and a system of extraction that is not sustainable
     A. Solution - Immediate moratorium on profit driven extraction methods.
     B.  Focus on localized healthy environmental infrastructure development.
     C. Green New Deal (As outlined by the Stein campaign) with an additional focus on the ultimate goal of a purpose driven economy.
     D. Focus on health - Healthy people, healthy communities and healthy planet.
 
3. The Racial Crisis
Define the problem - centuries of exploitation and oppression continue to drive deep and widening wedges between different the year sections of the population. Economic Inequity and Social Injustice is expressed in various industries, practices and even within the heart of the American Left including the Green Party.

Solution -
     A. The Department for Restoration and Reparations: Applying a restorative justice model with an economic overlay. Definition of restorative justice
     B. Bring an immediate end to prison for profit and create a target date for the elimination of the prison industrial complex.
     C. Institute and develop community self-policing programs. Immediate freeze on federal and state law enforcement funding and redirection in community development, youth, elder care  and education programs.
     D. A sincere, full, documented and massively publicized apology for Slavery, the theft of Native and Indigenous lands, and the recognition that American Wealth is in large part the bi-product of a history of exploitation and oppression. Without that that, our privilege would be inaccessible.
          i. The development of a national and international committee to identify the necessary steps and agencies necessary to address this in it’s entirety.
         ii. The identification of companies that exist today whose fortunes still derive from both past and present methods of slavery (farmworker’s for instance)

4. The Political Crisis
     A. Defining the problem - The reduction of democracy, the blurring of lines between public and private, corporate and community.
     B. Solution - The Movement for a New Constitution
 
5. The Cultural Crisis
     A. A melting pot of diversity or a cultural clash of confusion, from religion to race we struggle to define ourselves as anything other than consumers.
     B. Solution - The Department of Sovereignty , Self-Determination and Democracy . Also, creation of a “coalition” of the same name/concept
     B2. The Hood Tax - A tax on entertainment companies that target or exploit youth or cultural workers used to fund youth and cultural programs all throughout the United States as well as large scale supplemental education income.
          i. Companies that leverage urban/hip-hop culture to sell products or images in any manner that can be identified 5 or more times in a manner that can be documented, and any profits that can be traced as a result will be placed on the list for identification.
         ii. Companies that identify youth markets and/or urban markets as primary targets for any number of projects that leverage placement of their products on or near college, high school or middle school campuses will be placed on the list.
        iii. These companies will be taxed for 1 percent of their transactions.
        iv. Those taxes will be identified on a state by state basis. Those funds will be used to fund schools, urban arts programs and free to low cost education.
 

  3. How will your campaign build the Green Party of California? What are your campaign goals?

My campaign will build the green party in five distinct ways.

     A.  Bringing more people of color into the party.
     B.  Working to update the band of the of the State and National party.
     C. Continue to work with other leaders and candidates in the party to bring the party into contact and alignment with real movement forces.
     D. Build new bridges with cultural workers.
     E.  Build some distinct and specific bridges with labor.  

 4. What parts of the GPCA platform do you feel most closely aligned with? What parts do you disagree with, if any? Are there parts you would improve upon and how?

I agree with all of it. I would improve it by specifically adding language crafted through a process with People of Color, Poor People, Students etc. In fact, that might be a good campaign piece. Conversations with the public about the green party platform.

 5. What in your background qualifies you to be a credible candidate? What assets would you bring to your campaign, in addition to those already existing within the Green Party?
 
I have been interested in and involved in government since an early age. Student Council, Leadership, Speech and Debate and Mock Trial were just a few of my activities. In 1997, I received the Judge J. Skelly Wright Award for Constitutional Law Advocacy.  I have been in Business Sales, Non-Profit Management and cultural and political organizing. I am a co-founder of the Hip Hop Congress, one of the nation’s largest Hip Hop Non-Profits in the country. I have also been Community Outreach and Development Director for a youth Center, a Promotions Director for a radio station and most recently the National Coordinator for the US Social Forum. More references can be provided upon request.
 
 6. What are some of the key organizations and/or constituencies that you plan to outreach to and what is your relationship (if any) to them?
  1. African-American’s - I am one.
  2. Latinos
  3. Cultural Workers
  4. Labor
  5. Movement Folks
 7. Have you filed as a campaign committee with the Federal Elections Commission and if so, what is your campaign ID#.  Do you have campaign bank account and treasurer? A campaign website?
 
All of that is in process.
 
 8. Do believe that an independent party like the Greens can succeed in the US? How would you define such success? How can it happen?
     A. Yes.
     B. Not destroying the planet and each other. Turning this moment towards opportunity and evolution, prosperity and abundance.
 9. How will you collaborate with other Greens running for other office, including on issues, messaging and organizing?
     A. I am at the service of the party within reason. As such I will…
     B. Attend and coordinate fundraising events with other greens.
     C. Develop plans and opportunities for other candidates, green leaders and party members to collaborate.
     D. I will work with other campaigns and tech teams to ensure that my messaging is in alignment with their messaging where appropriate.
10. Why are you a Green?

This party, on the fringes, underfunded and overwhelmed and misunderstood aon so many fronts, could represent the best political possibility for a healthy and abundant future for the US and the planet. 

 
 
 
News Type: 
General News