International Solidarity

For too long, the Washington foreign policy establishment—unelected “analysts,” “experts,” “elites,” and bureaucrats—have controlled how our country and our people relate to the rest of the world, to disastrous effects like neverending war, terrorism, international instability, mass inequality, pollution, and environmental injustice.

We’re going to need a foreign policy based around international solidarity rather than competition, nationalism and endless war to solve some of humanity’s most pressing crises on a global scale — climate change, food and water security, public health, and poverty. The United States must be building power with the global working class, not power over.

Reduce the Military Budget, Close the Bases

Trump’s military budget of 2019 was an unprecedented $686.1 billion. Today, the United States currently operates an obscene number of military bases in dozens of countries around the world — totalling nearly 800. The Pentagon operates its own personal slush fund called the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), costing taxpayers $1 trillion. Much of this money goes right into the pockets of the military industrial complex and war profiteers, rather than keeping us safe.

We can drastically reduce our wasteful military spending, close the vast majority of US bases abroad, and still keep Americans safe. The money we spend on war and aggression should be used for domestic programs — like guaranteeing every American housing, healthcare, and free education from childcare to college — and foreign aid that reinforces stability for working-class families abroad.

End Western Imperialism

The United States must get out of the business of regime change and supporting coups abroad for economic and geopolitical gain. We must have a foreign policy that seeks to avoid military conflict at all costs.

In Congress, I will fight to end the Saudi-led war in Yemen, to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement and normalize our relationship with Iran, and to negotiate a new treaty to replace the Paris Climate Accord which goes further in mandating the global cooperation necessary for defeating climate change.

Sanctions and economic blockades are a form of economic warfare on the international working class by the United States. Today, one third of the world’s population live under sanctions regimes that cause economic recessions, mass unemployment, food and medicine shortages, and international instability. We must stop the abuse of embargoes and sanctions to punish countries for refusing to prioritize US and capitalist interests.

A Democratic Foreign Policy for All

We must end undemocratic foreign policy decisions made unilaterally by the executive branch, the CIA, the National Security Council, and Washington think tanks.

Congress must reassert its constitutional authority over foreign policy and war-making. Our elected representatives should make foreign policy decisions — no one person should have the power to plunge the world into war.

In Congress, I will encourage working class organizations like unions to create foreign policy and form international relationships that build the power of the global working class across borders. I will also propose federally funded cultural exchange programs to enable more people in the US and abroad to travel and create an understanding of our shared humanity.

We must give full political rights and representation to the four million people living in US territories, including Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. Congress must also extend full citizenship rights to the people of American Samoa.

US foreign policy affects people far beyond the US borders, and we need to factor considerations of what they need into our foreign policy process.

Israel and Palestine

Palestinians currently live under conditions analogous to Black Americans under Jim Crow — they deserve better. I support an end to all US non-humanitarian aid to Israel until the occupation of Palestinian territory is ended. We call for the removal of illegal settlements in the West Bank, an end to the blockade of Gaza, freedom of movement for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, and that Palestinians living in Israel are guaranteed full rights under the law. I oppose any laws that attack our First Amendment rights to criticize Israel or participate in the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement.

The US must work together with the UN and the international community, not unilaterally, to negotiate a lasting peace in the region built on justice and self determination.

US–Mexico Relations

Since Texas ceased to be a Mexican territory, US–Mexico relations have been defined by US imperial control of Mexico. The United States has treated Mexico as a junior economic partner, fueling a drug war, creating a heavily militarized border, and undermining the Mexican working class for our own economic gain.

We must equalize the relationship between the US and Mexico and ensure that it is built on true transnational solidarity among the Mexican and US working class, not trade deals that boost the profits of corporations and the rich at the expense of workers.

We must stop funding the drug war, demilitarize our southern border, and improve the process of sending remittances to Mexico and Latin America by ensuring they are tax-free and not for profit.