From Green Left:
Greens’ Fremantle win: Can the Greens challenge Labor?Sam Wainwright, Fremantle
23 May 2009The victory for Greens candidate Adele Carles in the May 16 by-election for the WA state seat of Fremantle is a breakthrough for the progressive movement and a testament to the Greens’ consistent efforts to raise a left alternative to Labor.
Walt Nestler, Bronx Green Party candidate for New York City Council in the 18th District, now has a campaign website up and running at http://www.waltnestlerforcitycouncil.org/. Nestler is a professional landscape architect and longtime community activist in the Bronx, where he serves on Community Board 9.
The Brooklyn Paper recently featured an article on David Pechefsky, Brooklyn Green candidate for City Council in the 22nd District. The article covered Pechefsky’s innovative method of meeting the public: he invites them to play chess with him in Prospect Park.
Last weekend, he took on all comers by setting up a chess board at the Ninth Street entrance to Prospect Park. The meet-and-beat went well enough that Pechefsky has put aside more time for chess this Sunday, which is why I summoned him to our Downtown Brooklyn office to take the measure of the man (Pechefsky), the myth (that a Green candidate can’t get elected) and the legend (my chess skills).
David Pechefsky’s website can be found at http://www.pechefskyforcitycouncil.com/. He has 12 years experience in city government, and is known locally for pedaling his family members around Prospect Park in a bicycle rickshaw.
Reverend Billy Talen, the Green Party’s candidate for mayor of New York City, has been showing up all over the place recently.
An article from NYC Indymedia entitled “Taking it beneath the Streets: Reverend Billy campaigns on the F Train” documents the first leg of Talen’s underground whistlestop tour.
Reverend Billy is also quoted in Yes Magazine’s summer 2009 feature on the new economy.
From across the pond, This Is Exeter has an enthusiastic writeup of the Church of Life After Shopping’s UK tour, called “Rev’s fight for a fairer future.”
Meanwhile, Billy is still updating his fantastic blog regularly at VoteRevBilly.org, where there is also an announcement that the campaign will have a general meeting for volunteers on Wednesday, May 27th at 7 PM at 250 Lafayette (SoHo) in Manhattan.
In news from another NYC Green campaign, Hot Indie News has an article on Lynn Serpe’s City Council campaign entitled “New York Green challenger enters District 22 race”.
Here is a good piece about the growing number of young people in the Green Party and about the budding Young Greens organization. Our own GPW contributor, Dave Schwab, is featured in the article.
“The No. 1 thing that will get young people involved with the Greens is local campaigns in their backyard,” Schwab said.”The Greens are less hierarchical than your typical party, so young people can jump right in and do important work.”
It’s not going to be easy to get the Young Greens organized, but it’s essential for the survival of the party, Schwab said.
“I see young people as the future of the Green Party,” he said. “Young voters aren’t resigned to choosing the lesser evil for the rest of their lives. Many of us have higher expectations for our country, and the establishment parties aren’t keeping up with that.”
Green Party shifts priority to include young members
What do you think about young people people and the Green Party? Do you notice a lot of younger folks in your local chapter? What are some ways we can work to bring younger people into the party?
Five Green Party candidates are running for election today:
Nat Fortune is running for re-election to Whately Elementary School Committee, Whately County, MA.
George Gluck is running for Montgomery County Council District 4, MD in a Special General election for an open seat. He has two opponents.
Ruth Alexander is running unopposed for re-election to Ashland School Board District 5 Position 1, Jackson County, OR.
Susan Aufderheide is running for Rogue Valley Transportation District Position 7, Jackson County, OR. She has two opponents.
Matt Donohue is running for re-election to Corvallis School Board Position 4, Benton County, OR. He has one opponent.
Thanks to Brent McMillan for making sure we are paying attention! ~GPW
The current Fianna Fail-Green coalition in power in Ireland is starting to show some stress cracks as approval rating for the governing coalition is plummeting to as low as 10% approving. Fianna Fail right now is pretty toxic and there are some signs that the Irish Greens are looking to jump the sinking ship and bring down the government. One sign of this is that the Greens recently asked the government to renegotiate the program that would guide the country’s economy for the next few years. Green ministers are denying that the party is thinking about pulling out of the coalition:
“We are not seeking ways of leaving government — we are looking for ways of making government work better for the people of Ireland,” Communications Minister Eamon Ryan said.
Despite their call, the Greens did not outline any specific demands, bar saying they wanted to “smarten up” the Government’s approach to job creation.
Party sources last night admitted the move was aimed at distancing itself from Fianna Fail ahead of the June 5 elections. Both Fianna Fail and the Greens face a backlash from angry voters at the polls.
Cowen Rebuffs the Greens on new plan
The Irish Greens have a LOT to be worried about. Some of the rank and file in the party have always been uncomfortable going into government with the center-right Fianna Fail. Have too many concessions been made in order to stay in power and prove to people that the Greens can “plan ball” just like the big boys? Or are the Greens doing the right thing by staying in power to see that Green polices can be implemented to fight the immediate problems we face, particularly anthropogenic climate change?
Another interesting take:
Opinion: Greens may be happier with protest than power
Sent in: Video of the Elected Greens Panel at the Maryland Green Party Annual Assembly.
Featuring:
Michael Cornell, Columbia Council, MD
Dan Robinson, Takoma Park Council, MD
Brent McMillan, Executive Director, Green Party of the United States
Moderator: Robb Tufts, former CCC Co-Chair at national
This took place the morning of Saturday, May 9, 2009 at the Maryland Inn in Annapolis
Video embedded below the jump
read more »
A press release from the California Green Party:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 15, 2009
Governor making terroristic threats, and may be in delusional state in last ditch effort to intimidate voters to approve ‘rotten’ May 19 ballot props, charges Green Party
SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement that he will lay off 5,000 state workers and cut money to the elderly, blind and disabled if voters do not approve the ballot measures in Tuesday’s special election are terroristic threats, the Green Party of California charged Friday.
“He’s threatening the people of California, especially the poorest and sickest, if they don’t bend to his will. This is just another form of terrorism,” said Joe Feller, a member of the state party coordinating committee.
The Green Party opposes passage of all the propositions Tuesday because it says it’s a “rotten deal” for Californians.
read more »
Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright, nonviolent revolutionary, and former president of “Velvet Revolution” fame has endorsed the Czech Green Party (Strana zelených) ahead of European Union elections in June. At a May 18th press conference in Prague, Havel lent his support to the Greens and criticized the Czech Republic’s two largest parties, the Civic Democrats (ODS) and the Social Democrats (CSSD), for focusing on economic growth with no regard to anything else.
The International News, published out of Karachi by the Jang Group of Newspapers carries an article about President Asif Ali Zardari meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about people displaced by the fighting in the Swat region of Pakistan. In the article, published May 13th by Azim M Mian, quotes Liaquat Shiekh of Pakistan Green Party, who points out that people displaced by actions in the “War on Terrorism” deserve to be cared for as refugees from war.
Time and again the UN, USA and the world at large have said that war against terror is a global war. “So these displaced one million people and any one, who is affected and displaced due to combat against terrorism, is a refugee affected by a global war and deserves the attention and assistance as a “refugee” not as an IDP, according to Liaquat Shiekh of Pakistan Green Party, who visited the USA recently to attend a conference of the Green Party, USA.
The full text of the article is at the International News website.
Green Party Media Coordinator Scott McLarty writes an editorial about single payer healthcare, comparing our modern health insurance based health care system to the way we once approached fire protection.
Imagine that you needed a special insurance policy before calling the fire department in an emergency, or you’d have to pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for the firefighters to put out the fire.
So why do we tolerate a health care system that’s run the same way?
McLarty goes on to explain exactly where the savings in single payer healthcare comes from, the profits and overhead of corporate for-profit systems that add cost, but no value.
The overhead for Medicare, based on administrative costs but without the demand for profit, is about 3%. Why not convert to a public system, expanding Medicare to cover all Americans, perhaps saving us a third of the cost by eliminating the insurance and HMO middlemen — a system comparable to our public fire departments?
McLarty goes on to ask why we don’t have single payer healthcare today, and answers
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the amount of such (political) contributions (from HMOs and Insurance interests) was over $46 million in 2008
Do yourself a favor and read the article and Digg it a bit higher if you enjoy the article.
Thanks to Lou Novak for Digging this article first.
Larry Bragman, Mayor of Fairfax, CA, worked with fellow Green Party city council representative Lew Tremaine to pass a city ordinance banning the use of plastic carrying bags. In the front page video, Bragman explains what role San Francisco taking this first step had in emboldening the city to protect the environment, and how pointing out the cost to rubbish haulers for carrying these non-biodegradable to the landfill brought the trash haulers to support the ban. Polidoc Productions is responsible for this and many other fine Green Party oriented videos.
To watch a video of Larry Bragman and Lew Tremaine at a Green Party of California press conference, click the article headline.
Received by E-mail today:
This week we will be interviewing one of the most progressive, effective, and productive young leaders of today. This leader is none other than Rosa Clemente. We will be featuring Rosa Clemente this Wednesday May 20, 2009 from 3:30 PM until 4:30 pm (Eastern Time).
Rosa Clemente recently ran as the Green Party’s 2008 candidate for Vice President of the United States with Green Party Presidential Candidate, Cynthia McKinney. Rosa Alicia Clemente is a community organizer, radio journalist (WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City), Hip-Hop activist, and the first Latina in US history to run for Vice President.
Ms. Clemente has delivered workshops, lectures, and commentary for over fifteen years. In 1995, she developed Know Thy Self Productions, a people of color speakers’ bureau. Seeing a need for young people of color to be heard and taken seriously, she began presenting workshops and lectures at universities, high schools, community centers, and prisons. She has presented at over 400 colleges, conferences, town halls, rallies, and international conferences. Know Thy Self Productions includes an expanded college speakers bureau which has produced four major Hip-Hop activism tours and consults on issues of media justice, voter engagement amongst youth, and youth development.
Born and raised in the South Bronx and Elmsford, New York, Rosa Alicia Clemente is a graduate of the University of Albany and Cornell University. Ms. Clemente’s academic work has covered national liberation struggles in the US, with a specific focus on the Young Lords Party, the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, Afro-Latino identity and politics, media justice, and African-American and Latino relations.
You may catch the interview LIVE or on archive by logging onto:
www.blogtalkradio.com/unitv-radio
Greenline is the monthly e-bulletin of the Green Party of the United States. This month’s Greenline brings sad news indeed. Emily Citkowski, Green Party National Operations Director since Dec. 16th, 2003 has announced that she is returning to union organizing for her paying job, and will continue to volunteer with the national office as well as with the DC Statehood Green Party. Citkowski was interviewed for Green Party Watch Radio back in mid August.
In addition the May issue of Greenline covers the upcoming Green Party Annual National Meeting, scheduled for Thursday, July 23-Sunday July 26, 2009 on the campus of North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC.
A brief rundown of campaigns nationwide in included as is information about Green Party merchandise, Green Pages’ transition to an online only publication, and ways to stay in touch with the Green Party. The full text of Greenline can be found by clicking the headline of this article.
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