Preamble
The Utah Solidarity Party is a community of Utahns with a shared commitment to protecting all human life, championing social justice, respecting the natural world, fostering peace, and upholding the American constitutional form of government. We are an affiliate of the American Solidarity Party, inspired by the pro-worker, anti-communist Polish Solidarity movement before it and by Christian democratic movements around the world. Through civic engagement in partnership with other communities of good will, Solidarians work toward the common good of all Utah families and neighborhoods.
Life & Family
Life
The Utah Solidarity Party is founded on an unwavering commitment to defend life and to promote policies that safeguard the intrinsic dignity of the human person from conception until natural death. To this end, we advocate legal protections for vulnerable persons, as well as laws that facilitate authentic human freedom and ensure that all people have access to everything they need to thrive. We support legal measures that establish the right to life from conception until natural death. This includes:
Protections against any intentional act of violence toward a human being except in legitimate self-defense.
The restriction of abortion and the intentional destruction of human embryos, and the transaction of payment for such actions.
Ending taxpayer funding of abortion or any organization that provides abortions, instead directing funding to health care and community organizations that provide for the legitimate needs of parents and their children.
The end of capital punishment by any method, instead, finding alternative ways to protect society.
The acknowldedgment of suicide as a public heath issue in the state of Utah, occurring at a much higher rate than the national average. Access to mental health resources are vital to preventing suicide, as is legal recourse to risk warrants to prevent high-risk individuals from retaining the lethal means of self-harm.
The guarantee of healthcare to all Utahns by diverse means, including single-payer initiatives, direct subsidization of provider networks, subsidized education for medical professionals willing to work in rural areas, support for cost-sharing programs and mutual aid societies, home care grants, simplified regulation, and the easing of restrictions on the importation of prescription drugs.
The protection of those with preexisting, chronic, and terminal conditions, including those who have no means to save for an emergency, people at every stage of life from prenatal care to hospice care, and people who find themselves in need of medical assistance while away from their home networks.
Family
The natural family, founded on the marriage of one man and one woman, is the fundamental unit and basis of every human society. Family breakdown is a key contributor to widespread social and economic problems in this country. Utah must support the needs of people—especially children, as well as the elderly and disabled—in families of all kinds.
Utah must reform no-fault divorce laws, which effectively undermine the permanence of marriage. At the same time, it is vital to continue efforts to prevent and prosecute domestic violence.
In opposition to the commodification of children and the reproductive process, gestational surrogacy contracts and sperm banks should be prohibited. Adoption and fostering should be encouraged instead.
Utah should allow public funding for services that promote stable, healthy marriages and the flourishing of children, even when such services are provided by religiously affiliated institutions.
Pregnancy, childbirth, and neonatal care should be fully covered by all healthcare plans so that no family need worry about the expenses of bringing a child into the world.
Workplace accommodations for parents, including paid parental leave, flexible scheduling, and affordable child care should be available to as many families as possible. Further, no family should be forced to have two full-time incomes just to survive, and thus parents who stay at home to care for their children should be subsidized for their important work. Funding and services should also be provided to encourage families to care for elderly and disabled family members at home without being impoverished by lost income. This could include preferential housing options, tax credits, and respite care.
We reject the idea that surgical or hormonal treatment to circumvent the natural, healthy development and function of the body is necessary health care. In particular, we vigorously defend the right of parents to protect their minor children from such treatment. We call for legislation prohibiting any form of gender reassignment surgery on children.
To create a more pro-family culture and strengthen the social fabric of the neighborhoods in Utah, we favor efforts to make public spaces child-friendly and to encourage outdoor play.
Education
Education is vital to the formation of the human person and the good of society. The Utah Solidarity Party advocates affordable, diverse, and well-rounded educational options.
Responsibility for the education of children resides primarily in the family. Families should be free to home-school their children or send them to public or private schools.
We call for public support of both public and private schools, with a preferential option for economically disadvantaged students and an emphasis on making teaching a well-paying occupation.
Low-income students should have access to scholarships through funds supported by state tax credits to donors.
Recognizing the shortage of teachers in Utah, we support making teaching a well-paying occupation.
Local Utah school systems should undertake initiatives that expand education to include virtue and citizenship, understanding of the natural world, agriculture, trades, life skills, and useful crafts.
Sex education classes, when offered, should be required to include accurate information on prenatal development, the risks of hormonal contraceptives, and the scientific evidence that abortion takes a human life.
Civil Rights
Religious Liberty and Civil Rights
The Utah Solidarity Party calls upon all levels of government to live out the God-given ideals of human dignity, equality, and fraternity. The Bill of Rights and later constitutional amendments have recognized rights stemming from these ideals, including the free exercise of religion, freedom of conscience and expression, a fair justice system, and equal protection under the law.
We advocate for laws that allow people of all faiths to practice their religion without intimidation, and we deplore secularism that seeks to remove religion from the public sphere. We are committed to the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment, which should not be limited to “freedom of worship” that merely exists in private and within a house of worship. Faith is a public expression.
Utah must safeguard laws that protect religious institutions, small businesses, and private individuals from civil or criminal liability for choosing to follow their conscience in matters regarding life, healthcare, morality, sexuality, and marriage.
Utah must safeguard conscience protections for employers and charities in health, education, and welfare that do not wish to participate in activities that contradict their sincerely-held convictions. In particular, we are in solidarity with religiously-affiliated institutions such as colleges, adoption agencies, and hospitals, which are facing pressure in some states to compromise on principles central to their doctrines.
Though violent crimes must be prosecuted and victims must be protected, the law must safeguard the clerical privilege to not report crimes confessed under the seal of a religious observance.
The First Amendment prohibition against an establishment of religion does not require the eradication of religious symbols from community events and property. So long as nobody is compelled to endorse or participate in an activity, communities should have the freedom to celebrate religious events and express religious values, without artificial distinctions that force religious believers to check their faith at the public door.
All levels of government must defend the rights of public assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, understood through the tradition of ordered liberty.
We acknowledge the persistence of discrimination based on religion, race, ethnicity, and sex, and support laws favoring equal access to the polls, the courts, housing, and education.
Throughout our nation’s history, racial discrimination has stripped ethnic minorities of their wealth and limited their eligibility to work, ability to own property, educational access, and voting rights at the individual and community levels. We recognize the particular forms of exclusion suffered by African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. These historic injustices should be addressed through reparative and restorative means, such as economic grants and policies which incentivize investment, job-training, and hiring in minority communities, and by continuing dialogue between communities and local governments regarding minority concerns.
Disability rights remain a significant concern throughout the United States. Government agencies working with the disabled must ensure that financial benefits are applied fairly and consistently. They must also make more efforts to incorporate the disabled into work or volunteer programs, depending on individual circumstances.
Unjust employment discrimination and poor working conditions hinder career advancement and financial stability. We insist on legal protection for occupational safety and compensation, good faith in hiring and retention, and paid leave for illness and child-rearing.
Criminal Justice
Maintaining public peace and order is a fundamental responsibility of government. However, in too many cases our justice system is both harsh and ineffective. Despite having the largest incarcerated population in the world, we have failed to make communities safe or adequately address economic and racial disparities in arrests, convictions, and sentencing. We support reforms to simultaneously ensure public safety, secure individual justice, and reduce the excessively penal nature of the system.
Criminality is complex, the result of a culture that does not respect human life, the breakdown of traditional social institutions, institutionalized racism, and a prison system that promotes social alienation, recidivism, and deprivation. Utah must seek to address the causes as well as the effects of criminal behavior.
We believe that preventing and punishing crime is an essential public service. We oppose the privatization of law-enforcement and penal institutions.
As public servants, law enforcement officers should be supported and held to the highest standards of professionalism. We support strict accountability for the use of lethal force.
We are alarmed at the increasing rates of conflict between police and communities, and call for local governments to institute measures that will increase transparency and trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, including the use of body cameras, civilian review boards, and expansion of community policing.
We believe that our court system systematically disfavors the poor. We call for an increase in state-level funding for our public defender system, and an end to cash bail, court fees, and programs that allow records to be expunged in exchange for paying higher fees.
Mandatory sentencing requirements, especially for non-violent criminals, must be overturned.
We believe that prisons are designed for dangerous criminals. We oppose the imprisonment of those who are simply mentally ill, homeless, or too poor to pay fines.
We believe that our prison system should be focused on restoring lawbreakers to their community. We support increased funding of programs meant to prepare prisoners for life outside the prison.
We call for an end to the use of prisoners as slave labor. Prisoners must be remunerated at the minimum wage for work performed
Drug addiction remains a social harm. It is vital to find ways of ending mass incarceration while not removing all laws against drugs and other vices. Drug enforcement should focus on distribution and production. Funds currently expended on the “war on drugs” should be directed toward prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Laws against prostitution should focus on removing those participating from the cycle of exploitation, mandating penalties primarily on those who buy sex or arrange for its purchase. Closely tied to this is the need to aggressively combat human trafficking.
It is also vital to recognize the social costs of pornography, which is inseparable from human trafficking, the promotion of pedophilia, and rape. We therefore support laws which criminalize the production and sale of pornography and deny categorically that pornography is protected speech.
Economics
The Utah Solidarity Party believes that political economy (economics) is a branch of political ethics, and therefore rejects models of economic behavior that undermine human dignity with greed and naked self-interest. We advocate for an economic system which focuses on creating a society of wide-spread ownership (sometimes referred to as “distributism”) rather than having the effect of degrading the human person as a cog in the machine.
Our goal is to create conditions which allow single-income families to support themselves with dignity. We support child tax credits and oppose legislation that penalizes or fails to support families with multiple children.
The incidence of global pandemics highlights the necessity of paid leave for all for the sake of workers’ rights and public health. A healthy workforce is key to maintaining strong local economies. We call for a major labor law reform that requires paid sick and personal leave to create more security and peace of mind for all workers.
We support policies that encourage the formation and strengthening of labor unions. Efforts by private entities to use public power to prevent union activities or to retaliate against workers who organize for their rights ought to be resisted at every level.
We call for the repeal of corporate welfare policies, for shifting the tax system to target unearned income and reckless financiers, and for changing regulations to benefit small and locally-owned businesses rather than multinational corporations. Economic rentiers and speculators who produce nothing but only take from workers through gimmicks allowed by corrupt relationships with public power need to pay their fair share through taxes on land, capital gains, and financial transactions.
We will work to restore the requirement that corporations must serve a public good in order to be granted the benefit of limited liability. We support the prohibition of corporate bylaws and the repeal of state legislation requiring shareholder profit to trump considerations such as employee wellbeing and environmental protection.
We support mechanisms that allow workers to share in the ownership and management of their production, such as trade guilds, cooperatives, and employee stock ownership programs. Rather than consigning workers to wage slavery under far-away masters, such ownership models respect their essential dignity.
Industrial policy and economic incentives need to be re-ordered to place human dignity first and to recognize that the family is the basic unit of economic production. We are committed to policies that emphasize local production, family-owned businesses, and cooperative ownership structures. Measures that prevent large corporations from passing on their transportation costs to local communities will help re-energize local production and local enterprises.
The monopolistic power of corporations, especially in the area of patent and copyright law, allows them to price-gouge workers and families. We call for a restructuring of intellectual property laws to encourage innovation rather than rent-seeking.
We support and encourage measures which allow local communities to limit the power of outside interests in managing their land. Tenant unions, community land trusts, community-oriented development, and locally enforced rent controls are to be supported in the effort to ensure the availability of affordable and inclusive housing. Allowing local communities more flexibility will allow for more diverse and innovative solutions to local problems rather than imposing them from a far-off central authority.
We advocate for social safety nets that adequately provide for the material needs of the most vulnerable in society. These programs need to also help the most vulnerable find a path out of poverty by providing them with the tools they need in order to fully participate in their communities with dignity, and not trap them as subsidized labor for private interests.
Unemployment benefits need to include the option of allowing beneficiaries to take their benefits in the form of start-up capital to start or purchase businesses or create cooperative enterprises that help them to escape poverty on their own terms.
Natural monopolies and the common inheritance of the natural world need to be closely managed and protected by the public and not surrendered for a pittance to private greed. Our support of private property rights does not mean that we should surrender our common property into the hands of private oligarchs. Policies that deliver citizens their fair share of our common wealth and inheritance of natural resources are to be encouraged in the form of a citizen’s dividend and baby bonds.
Predatory practices which care more for stockholder value than human life must cease. We call for community-oriented lending practices and mutual aid organizations to replace predatory lending agents that target poor people and working-class communities. We must reject a financial system based on saddling workers with debt and interest payments that merely fuel consumerism and instead embrace one that encourages productive activity.
Civic Engagement and Public Services
Challenging reforms are needed to make sure all Utahns are represented in civic life. These changes are all the more urgent in an age of partisan gridlock and polarization fueled by new media. Utahns need more democratic election laws, more self-governance for local communities, and more safeguards against corporate dominance of government and common resources.
All elections should be held using either a ranked choice system or approval voting and should be easy to participate in. We support initiatives to expand vote-by-mail and early voting.
Voter registration should be easy, and laws attempting to restrict voter registration deserve opposition. We support all initiatives to make voter registration automatic for all citizens of legal voting age.
Access to impartial information on candidates and ballot initiatives should be easily available in public print and broadcast media.
Independent and minor-party candidates for public office shall have fair and equal access to ballots. This right shall not be infringed by burdens such as exorbitant voter signatures and filing fees.
We believe that local governments are most competent to solve community-based problems. In keeping with the principle of subsidiarity, there should be more autonomy of local governments from state governments wherever possible. The state of Utah is right in its continued rejection of Dillon’s Rule.
Utah and its local governments should maintain a Utah Transit Authority which is well-functioning and accessible, while permitting competition from private mass transit systems.
We desire zoning laws which favor small businesses and conservation over large-scale corporate investment and which disfavor vice businesses such as strip clubs and casinos.
High standards of accountability and frequent audits of local officials are needed to prevent corruption and maintain financial health.
We call for job programs to prevent “brain drain” from low-income areas.
We oppose “race to the bottom” tax credits that incentivize large companies to manipulate local economies.
Privatization of natural monopolies means that people who must use these services are left unrepresented. Public resources must remain public, including transportation services, toll roads and bridges, community policing and parking enforcement, prisons, and energy and water utilities.
We oppose the enclosure of science and culture through unduly restrictive intellectual property laws. Copyright and patents should be leased at their full market value, in order to lower prices on necessary resources such as medicine and educational materials for those who need them most. We support increased public funding for scientific research.
As part of an effort to continue public arts, entertainment, and media, there should be more non-commercial ownership of the airwaves.
We call for greater legal responsibility on the part of creditors and vendors for vigilance against fraudulent activity, such as identity theft.
We regard the Internet as a public utility. We will support the creation of local, public Internet Service Providers and universal wireless access to the Internet. Internet histories and other user data collected by Internet Service Providers should be destroyed, unless retention is specifically required by a court order.
Immigration
Our obligations as part of the family of nations also encompass migrants and refugees seeking entry to our country. Mindful of the biblical admonition to welcome the stranger and the importance of immigrants to our national fabric, we must enact policies that reconcile the legitimate interest of Americans in secure borders with a core commitment to human dignity.
We uphold the principles outlined in the Utah Compact of our state’s community leaders, namely that local law enforcement must focus on public safety above all, that family separation should always be avoided, that Utah’s immigrants are vital to our economic and cultural well-being, and that the arbitrary enforcement of immigration law may pose a threat to the natural liberties of communities and individuals.
We advocate reasonable accommodations for unauthorized immigrants without a criminal record who seek permanent residency, including Utah’s long-standing provision of driving privileges to residents regardless of immigration status.
There must be a variety of bridge-building efforts between Utah communities and newly-arriving immigrants, including offering lessons in civics and English for immigrants.
We support Utah’s proud legacy of welcoming refugees seeking asylum from religious, political, racial, and other forms of persecution.
The availability of immigrant workers whose legal status renders them vulnerable allows employers to operate businesses with low wages and poor conditions that would likely not otherwise be tolerated. Utah law enforcement must hold employers accountable when they exploit workers, regardless of the workers’ immigration status.
Ecology
Utah is uniquely endowed with transcendent landscapes, world-renowned recreation, and bountiful natural resources. The people of Utah, therefore, have a special responsibility to treat God’s creation within our state with due reverence and to preserve its blessings for future generations. This requires not only action on the part of Utah’s households, businesses, and governments, but also our productive partnerships with federal agencies and popular movements from around the world. The people of Utah must continuously embrace evidence-based solutions to local air pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, and watershed depletion. Together, Utahns can cultivate a thriving environment, destined to support a densely populated and prosperous state community for all future generations.
The transition away from fossil fuels that cause local PM2.5 pollution and global climate change must occur as quickly as possible. Coal, gasoline, and natural gas must be replaced with alternative sources of energy without delay. We call for a carbon fee on all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to accelerate the energy transition while building the Utah economy.
We support tax credits and infrastructure investments for Utahns who opt for lower-emitting sources of energy and electric vehicles.
Utah’s state and local governments ought to have a keen interest in the responsible management of our lands. However, land must not be ceded into state control if it is to be merely exploited for short-term gain by extractive special interests. Native American communities should, by right, be included in land-use deliberations.
All public investment should be made with a goal toward a circular economy in mind. We must abandon a culture of waste which reflexively disposes of the goods of the earth, but instead embrace both new and traditional means of re-using material and energy.
We support models of production and distribution that are local, responsible, and sustainable. We call for the repeal of subsidies that encourage urban sprawl and that discourage local farming and production, and we promote the work of Local First Utah, local farmers’ markets, and similar initiatives.
We must all take personal and familial responsibility for stewardship of the environment, teaching habits of conservation to our children in our homes, schools, and places of worship, and practicing them ourselves.
Our governments must consider the health of the environment along with human solidarity when considering business development strategies, housing strategies, and city planning. Utah cities and towns must be easily walkable and bikeable for every resident, and public transportation options should be conveniently available in every neighborhood.
We oppose homeowner association policies that incentivize chemical-saturated lawns or forbid outdoor clotheslines and rooftop solar panels. We support dark sky communities that regulate the usage of street lights to protect stargazing, natural circadian rhythms, and migration patterns.
We must make every effort to ensure that no Utah neighborhood lacks access to affordable, fresh produce.
Federal and state government subsidies for reckless oil and mineral extraction must be eliminated and replaced with funding for research into renewable sources of energy, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear power, and into battery technology. At the same time, Utah must invest in economic development initiatives, such as job retraining and direct family aid, in those regions adversely affected by the transition to planet-friendly fuels and modes of production.
We support strong provisions which allow pollution victims to access legal recourse from polluters.
Economic activities which needlessly cause suffering to animals should be restricted.