Green Party Teleconferences For Green Activists
A network of Greens who were State Volunteer Coordinators for the McKinney-Clemente Power to the People Campaign continued meeting by phone and email following the election, discussing how they can help grow Green Party activism across the country. They have decided to organize a series of monthly teleconferences open to Green Party members around the U.S. that would feature GPUS officers, committee and caucus representatives who will discuss what they are doing and how people can get involved. Each teleconference will be 1-2 hours with plenty of time for discussion, questions & answers, etc. (Note: I was one of the state volunteer coordinators for Wisconsin but I haven’t been keeping up with the group since the election)
Read more below.
These calls would last one to two hours, include a summary of efforts and stated needs followed by q & a, and would include the intention that the audience would then report information back to their respective state delegations and Party organizations. With follow up of needed help from Greens at large (some of our most resourceful members!) This will be focusing outward, i.e., workshops to help people with practical Party-building, and things they can use in their local and state parties.
We have three teleconferences scheduled thus far:
1. Wednesday,June 3rd beginning 9:00 pm EDT with Brent McMillan, Political Director of GPUS, as our first presenter. An exciting place to begin with an Overall View of the GPUS to date.
2. Tuesday, June 30th beginning 9 pm EDT with Outreach doing skill building on online activism, have your computer handy as we may do an action while on the call, for those able to.
3. Tuesday, July 7th also beginning at 9 pm EDT we’ll have Brian Bittner from Ballot Access Committe discussing BA issues in regards to the GPUS.
If you wish to participate in this program please reply by private e-mail to: Holly Hart hhart11@gmail.com,, NOTE:You will be charged long distance charges by your telephone carrier (as applicable).
These will be facilitated teleconferences using “stack” process for the questions and discussion section allowing the presenter to respond to questions and comments in order. We are looking into how to record these sessions and/or archive them on-line for access by GP members who cannot attend any particular call.
These calls are intended as party building and informational activities created by a group of Green Party activists acting collaboratively by consensus. No “official business” or”decisions” will occur by these teleconferences. These calls are intended to foster communication and participation in a manner which stays focused on the announced agenda for each call without distractions from other agendas. A reminder with the call info and number will be sent out to those who have contacted Holly to be on the call both the week before the call and on the day of.
If you have questions about any of the contents of this message, reply by private email to: Holly Hart hhart11@gmail.com,
Oh, good. It is icky that something grassroots is led by Brent McMillan.
But, at least the contact e-mail is Holly Hart. So, no one will ever really get through. Holly “loses” e-mails, calls people e-mails spam, and doesn’t have time to get to her box or her duties at the web-site. So, pretty good start…
Kimberly,
Brent doesn’t lead this group, he has nothing to do with it. I think the group thought that if it were going to be inviting green party officers and staff and committee chairs (etc) that Brent would be a good person to start with.
Don’t you think it is a good idea for Brent to be on a conference call with GP members from around the country taking questions?
As for Holly, she was the SVC for Iowa, she is involved with this not as Secretary but as an SVC person. I met up with Holly several months ago when I was visiting Iowa City for a week. She’s really nice, smart, funny, knowledgeable, dedicated, and I enjoyed hanging out with her.
I’m really sorry that you have had such bad experiences with a handful of Greens, Kimberly.
A little more about the State Volunteer Coordinators group that is organizing these teleconferences –
During the McKinney-Clemente campaign last year it was really challenging getting information about the campaign – where they were, where they were going, messages, literature, etc. The SVC (State Volunteer Coordinators) group came together made up of one or two people from over 3 dozen states who were designated/assigned to coordinate the campaign activities in their states. They (we) were more conduits between the Power to the People campaign and the Greens on the ground – the locals, the state parties, whatever existed in each state.
We had conference calls every Monday night from about June or July through the election. We reported on campaigning in our states, campaign visits from CM or RC, coordinated campaign swings, shared literature concepts and text, organized phone banking, organized ballot access drives, and more that I’m sure I am forgetting.
After the election a number of the SVC folks decided to continue the discussions about growing the party and building stronger networks outside of the GPUS NC “bubble”. I dropped off the calls due to time contraints but stayed on the email lists.
These are really good hearted and dedicated Greens that want to grow the party and make it easier for the “Green on the Street” to get involved. These aren’t a cabal of Green “baddies” and I hope that people don’t smear their efforts before they even get started. These people are more involved with their State parties or locals than they are GPUS NC and they approach Green Party issues from the state and local perspective.
I hope this clears up any misunderstandings.
I hear the sound of an ax grinding.
Kimberly – I thought you left the Green Party so why should this concern you?
I think it’s a good sign that local Green activists are communicating with GPUS staff.
Dear Gray,
I have left the green party.
But, I keep up with green party lists, because I care about green values, and I know some good work will get done by groups who are associated with GP-US and state green parties.
Also, there are many greens inside the party who I care about as friends and/or characters in a story that I gave years of my life, too.
Why did I feel the desire and/or need to comment on this story?
Because, I find that Cynthia McKinney is far more wonderful and has more potential than the Green Party. So, I don’t mind if she and her fans work WITH the Green Party. But, my heart fervently wishes that Cynthia McKinney and/or her fans do not get squashed, suffocated, or infiltrated by the kind of patriarchal, mean-spirited, cliqueish energy that is inside the GP-US.
Thanks for other people’s opinions. I share mine about the Green Party much less often.
But, I have always been the kind of person who worries about others and issues warnings. And, I can’t help but feel for someone lured in by the thought of “Cynthia Mckinney” and “grassroots” and gets on a phonecall with Brent the excluder, Brent the gossiper, Brent the meanie.
(And, I know for a fact that Holly is EITHER a liar, or incompetent. Or, maybe both. But, she often loses e-mails or can not/does not do important computer tasks assigned to her.)
Thanks,
Kimberly Wilder
“…Brent the meanie.
…And, I know for a fact that Holly is EITHER a liar, or incompetent. Or, maybe both….”
Wait, whos the meanie? Seems kind of mean to call someone a liar or incompetent. Maybe Holly thinks you are a meanie and that is why she lost an email or two? Maybe Brent thinks you are a meanie and that is why he excluded you? Maybe people think you just go around throwing stink bombs and so they don’t want to play with you? I mean you got some people skills and a sense of entitlement.
Kimberly Wilder has worked for the Green Party.
Ms Wilder has run for office as a Green. She has recruited many people to run as Green Party candidates.
Let’s hope Ms Wilder soon rejoins the Green Party both as a candidate, and state green party leader.
The focus is on the future. Growing the Green party means running for ofice now.
St. Fu –
What if one person in a group truly is a liar or saboteur?
What do you do?
What do you do if they are at the bottom, trying to work inside a committee, say?
Alternately, what do you do if they are a party leader and they lie, thwart and/or sabotage?
These are just questions. Not even specific to the situation at hand.
Anyway, I don’t care so much. Just hard to watch new things start up with the same old people smothering them…
Yes. I am trying to let go of even caring about the Green Party…but there are some fun things happenhing, and many people still ask me for contact info, or depend on me for news.
“What if one person in a group truly is a liar or saboteur?”
What if? There are probably a lot of liars in the Green Party because there are a lot of liars everywhere. But lying isn’t always for ill intent, more often than not it is to attack an individual or protect oneself from guilt. Now ’saboteur’ is different, because then the intent is to disrupt or destroy an organizations’ effectiveness or mission.
What could one or two ’saboteurs’ do to the Green Party? What would be their intent? Probably the only two types who would be driven to deep espionage to sabotage the Green Party would be either bitter Democrats or those who for some reason feel ’snubbed’ by the Green Party, who believe the ‘Green Party’ in its most generic sense has somehow offended or insulted them to the point of desiring revenge.
So what could one or several saboteurs do to the Green Party to disrupt or destroy it? Because of the decentralized and global nature of the Green Party movement it can’t really be destroyed. It could split into smaller parties or rival parties but State Green Parties are ’sovereign’ and even if GPUS were dissolved many State Green Parties would continue, perhaps even stronger than before.
Disruption of the Green Party is more feasible, and if the goal were to disrupt the Steering Committee or National Committee more than likely the saboteur would have to work at least several years within the party to become a member of the National Committee, unless they fall into the ‘disgruntled’ category, in which case they may already be in positions of power or authority at the point they chose to become a saboteur.
A saboteur could attempt to embezzle money to choke off its funding but GP is thousands of dollars in debt so that isn’t likely.
A saboteur could attempt to embarrass the GP but that’s been tried (Elaine Brown, 911 Truth conspiracies, Safe State strategy & ‘demogreens’ as examples) and seems to have very little effect.
A group of saboteurs could attempt to seize power through the Steering Committee and by placing operatives in positions of authority on key committees, in positions of chairs of key state parties, and in control of the party message machine by way of Green Pages, the website, and blogs, but that just sounds too much like a spy novel. However I think this is the scenario that some Greens seem to think is going on.
The Green Party’s main weakness is from the circular firing squad, internal squabbles, factionalism, and mistrust of others. Like all political parties.
St. Fu,
Thank you for the thoughtful conversation, without names attached.
Here are some of my answers:
You said: -What could one or two ’saboteurs’ do to the Green Party? What would be their intent? Probably the only two types who would be driven to deep espionage to sabotage the Green Party would be either bitter Democrats or those who for some reason feel ’snubbed’ by the Green Party, who believe the ‘Green Party’ in its most generic sense has somehow offended or insulted them to the point of desiring revenge.–
I strongly disagree with your thoughts the a saboteur would probably be limited to these two groups. I truly believe that there are people whose work winds up being “sabotage” of the Green Party – ie: weakening and stifling on purpose its electoral potential – and that those people are not angry, or fierce democrats. I think that some people are environmentalists who think the Green Party should be for them, and when they see that the party might challenge the major party they like or that the Green Party might fight more fiercely electorally than they prefer, they stay inside the party (feeling they agree with the mission, and if they are a founder, that they “own” the mission) and do things to constantly steer it away from electoral, and to constantly prop up people who believe like they do, and squash people who might succeed electorally.
I think there are many, many categories of people thwarters, spies and saboteurs–some with noble hearts who are confused, some with noble hearts who are controlling, some who want to personally profit from the green revolution, some who are specifically from big campaigns (ie: Kucinich) who want to watch the Green Party and a million other variations.
And, yes, I think that is true in any political party. Maybe more so in the Greens and Libertarians, because they are the third parties who are knocking the loudest at the door of power.
St Fu said: – Because of the decentralized and global nature of the Green Party movement it can’t really be destroyed. –
Aha! And, that is why I fought in the past like a tiger for decentralization. Because, I do know about saobteurs and co-optation, and the way organizations grow. And, I know–as you state–that being grassroots is vital: Keeping it real; making every member of the team heard, valued, empowered; having thriving locals; being a many-headed hydra so your leadership can’t be bought off. I get that. That is why I was so disgusted when one person was given the title “Executive Director” at the national GP-US. That is why I see the constant vying for control and power of the national GP-US Steering Committee as so dangerous. That is why I fear the clique that tries to keep things small and incestuous. Yes, the Green Party needs to constantly struggle to stay grassroots. And, people need to notice when the people at the top grab for power, or stifle dissent.
St. Fu said – [ie: since we are grassroots, if there was trouble...] It could split into smaller parties or rival parties but State Green Parties are ’sovereign’ and even if GPUS were dissolved many State Green Parties would continue, perhaps even stronger than before.
Kimberly says, Yes. Yes. Yes. That is what I and others are hoping for. And, it is so hard to decide what to do. When you are inside the big organization, and see how failing and corrupt it is, do you plod on and work for the mission? Do you leave, hoping it will fall under its own weight without you? Do you join the smaller stronger organizations? Do you seek something that could be a new, umbrella organization that is new, or something that could be a new umbrella org that exists already? Very tough decisions. And, what a lot of us are struggling with.
St. Fu says – The Green Party’s main weakness is from the circular firing squad, internal squabbles, factionalism, and mistrust of others. Like all political parties.
Kimberly says, I disagree a bit. I get nervous when people claim a “circular firing squad.” Well, let’s say, I get most nervous when people at the top of the structure say “circling firing squad”, because it becomes a strategy to stifle and even belittle dissent. For instance, it is true that people should not “micro manage” a project. But, depending who is saying “stop micromanaging”, sometimes it is the person who is clamoring for all the control and no accountability. One must be careful in judging another person’s actions and motivations.
Instead of saying, “Stop the circular firing squad”, what leaders should do if they genuinely believe there is a circular firing squad is:
-Create better projects, that have consensus and can be achieved in steps, so teamwork is formed.
-Try to understand where the complaining is coming from. If it is a fault of yours, fix it. If it is a need for better communication, apply conflict resolution. Etc.
For a leader to just say “that is a circular firing squad” and do nothing is to be mean and lazy and try to stifle dissent.
But, yes, St. Fu, there are times when we all criticize ourselves too much. Partly, a kind of social thing. Like a lovers’ quarrel. The people who you are around are the ones who will hear you complaining, and respond.
These comments, and those during the conference call, are public information. I think that while we should share our ideas, it might be best to suppress some of the personal attacks. A better strategy might be to approach the NC or the appropriate committee to resolve inter-personal problems.
I, too, have run into small amounts of friction, but I am here to promote the GP and its agenda. I hope that these conference calls stay on topic and are productive. I’ve been looking forward to this type of collaboration for a long time, and I am pleased to see that it is happening. I hope to get lots of useful ideas from the many creative and active Greens here.
Keep in mind that a snub is not necessarily a snub; the GP has limited resources, and even I could be accused of failure to follow up with duties I have taken on. It’s the nature of any small group. I belong to plenty of them locally, so I know this to be the case.