NY Green Party seeks volunteers for issue work
December 30, 2010 in State Party News
From the New York Green Party:
Dear Howie Hawkins and Green Party supporters,
The Green Party State committee has established an issues committee to help coordinate state level work around issues critical to the green agenda in NY. We are looking for volunteers.
Please contact Mark Dunlea (dunleamark [at] aol [dot] com) or Gloria Mattera (gmattera [at] gmail [dot] com) if you would like to be on the issues committee. Please let us know what role you would like to play (e.g., work on a particular issue, receive action alerts).
Most green work on issues takes place on the local level, so we can put you in contact as well with local Green Party groups across the state.
Our success in getting back our ballot line means we will get a little more attention from the mainstream media than before. There is a critical need for a strong progressive voice at the state level, especially with Governor elect Cuomo joining in the bi-partisan effort to respond to the Great Recession with an austerity program of protecting tax cuts for the wealthy, attacking benefits for public employee unions, and slashing funding for essential public services.
Some of the key Green issues being looked at for 2011 include: a ban on hydrofracking for natural gas; education; state budget / progressive revenue options; single payer health care; climate change; and peace/ cut the military budget.
Mike Bernard (mikebernhard [at] frontiernet [dot] net) is helping to coordinate our work on the hydrofracking issues.
Elizabeth Shanklin (eshanklin [at] optonline [dot] net) is serving as our contact on education issues.
The Greens are considering a spring issues conference, as well as a meeting on the progressive tax issues (stock transfer tax, etc)
There is also the possibility of a state legislative conference in Albany in February.
Happy holidays and a Green New Year,
Mark Dunlea
dunleamark [at] aol [dot] com
P.S. You can register to vote as a Green Party member at any time
Eddie said on December 31, 2010
I wish the California Green Party sounded this ready. IMO, everything takes way too long to get done here. I never got an email back when I first inquired about where in California I could volunteer for the past election. The website looked outdated, it’s taken over 3 weeks to get a phone number who apparently is in a high position in the California Green Party to get volunteers in my area. The national Green Party is the same way with emails. Takes 2 weeks to get any meaningful answers(after emailing back and forth) when inquiring about buying Green Party material.
PS- Just finished reading Howie Hawkins’ book on the 2004 election and it was very insightful. The split. Howie stuck to his guns on running an all out campaign and I liked that. The chapter about New Mexico having worked with Democrats and getting results was welcomed because I had not read about any Green perhaps considering working with truly progressive democrats.
I keep getting feedback from non-Greens that the Green Party is too specialized and not mainstream enough. We need to market the party differently. Talk about issues that matter the most. We love the environment, but not everyone cares about it that much. People have other important things to worry about. If we keep just talking about issues that most Americans don’t necessarily prioritize, we will never get more people elected. We can get people elected by marketing important issues, and then after elected, those in office can truly change the way we handle business. People still think we are hippies that only care about the environment. That’s a marketing problem.