Green Party Watch

Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for President, is currently campaigning in California. See the press release below for details. There will be campaign stops in Mountain View, Occupy Santa Cruz, Occupy San Francisco, Occupy Napa, Occupy Oakland, Green city Fairfax, Sacramento, Los Angeles, North Hollywood…

GREEN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JILL STEIN ANNOUNCES GOLDEN STATE TOUR
~ “The Candidate of the 99%” to cheer on Occupy Wall Street protests in 5+ cities ~

(Boston) — Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein will tour the Golden State next week, with visits planned to Occupy Wall Street protests across California, as well as a presidential primary debate before the Green Party of California state convention in Los Angeles. The tour begins Monday, November 28th, and runs through Monday, December 5th (full schedule below).

“The American people are standing up in a way we haven’t seen in generations, and they are providing the leadership that isn’t coming from the political elite,” Jill Stein said. “The people have to take charge because the political parties that are serving the top 1 percent are not going to solve the problems that the rest of us face.”

Jill Stein announced her presidential campaign on Monday, October 24th, before a crowd of supporters at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston. Stein is a medical doctor and prominent health care advocate. Her California tour follows on a statewide tour of her childhood home of Illinois earlier this month.
read more »

In Spain’s recent general election, which was marked by a victory for the conservative People’s Party, Spain’s young Green party (EQUO) doubled its vote from the previous election. From the European Green Party:

Votes for Green parties doubled in when compared to the last parliamentary election three years ago in Spain; however the absolute majority obtained by the PP in the latest elections marks the beginning of a dark period for the country.

In Catalonia the EGP member party ICV consolidated their growing trend with a historical result and an important growth from 1 to 3 seats.

Overall, the newly-born party EQUO got over 300,000 votes all over the country, a good result for a party only two months old, which suffered from from the election being called early. It nonetheless managed to reach 2% of the vote in Madrid and 1.5% nationally in such a short time. Furthermore, the Compromis-Equo coalition obtained parliamentary representation thanks to the one seat gained in Valencia. read more »

From Straight.com in Vancouver, Canada:

Adriane Carr calls her win in the Vancouver civic election last weekend a “victory for democracy”.

On a budget of about $15,000, the Green candidate managed to secure a city council seat, narrowly beating out COPE councillor Ellen Woodsworth by 91 votes. The win marks the first city council spot for the Green party in Vancouver. read more »

The Pennsylvania Green Party will hold its annual state committee meeting on Saturday, December 3rd in Breezewood, PA. All are welcome. Check out the details at the GPPA’s facebook page for the event.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Voters representing the Green, Libertarian, and Peace and Freedom parties sued Tuesday over the state’s new open primary system, saying change will deny voters the right to support third-party candidates in general elections. read more »

On top of polls that show the New Zealand Green Party heading for its best result yet in this weekend’s general election, here’s more good news for the Kiwi Greens’ future:

Otautahi Youth Council, an independent Christchurch-based youth body, ran an online project targeted at Cantabrians between 14 and 24, simulating the general election experience…

The results showed participants overwhelmingly preferred the Green party, giving them 53 per cent of the party vote, compared to 26 per cent for National and 22 per cent for Labour.

Read the full article at The Press NZ.

There will be a Green Party Presidential Forum in Los Angeles on December 3, featuring Dr. Kent Mesplay and Dr. Jill Stein, two candidates seeking the Presidential nomination. We have not been able to confirm whether the event will be livestreamed or not, but we will certainly cover it if it is.

Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/302578003094973/

Jack Lindblad is planning to be in the Top Two in California’s primary in June of 2012. According to his Facebook campaign page, Lindblad has plans to use that expected victory to help push him into the state legislature. read more »

Rob Richie and Dorothy Scheeline of Fairvote have written some interesting analysis of last week’s elections that used instant runoff voting, aka ranked choice voting. Instant runoff voting was used in San Francisco, CA, St. Paul, MN, and Portland, ME; in all three cities, Greens both helped enact IRV and ran in last Tuesday’s elections. For the mayoral elections in Portland and San Francisco, Fairvote has graphs that show the breakdown of votes round by round until someone takes a majority (in Portland, Greens David Marshall and John Eder finished 4th and 12th of 15; in SF, Green Terry Baum finished 11th of 16). In a Huffington Post article, Richie and Scheeline focus on the story of IRV’s success in Portland:

Repeatedly, we are seeing RCV winners being the candidates who do a particularly effective job at reaching out to voters, often with direct contact involving community debates, local events, and door-knocking. One Portland candidate, David Marshall, said he knocked on 20,000 doors. He didn’t win, but it was ballots from his supporters that provided a particularly strong boost to the new mayor’s win total.

From the European Green Party:

Eurocrisis: Green Paris Declaration adopted

European Green Parties representatives adopted in Paris a 12-points political proposal to step out of the current financial, social and economic crisis affecting Europe, and a roadmap for the refounding of the European project: European Greens are convinced that the European project needs to find a new sense of direction and purpose.

“These crises are eroding social cohesion and leading to political disintegration of the continent, driving us to irrelevance in the 21st century. Any scenario leading to the break-up of the Euro-zone, which would be the first step of the political disintegration of Europe, is unacceptable to us. Conversely though, any enhanced political integration of the Euro-zone cannot lead to the crystallization of a two-speed Europe”, said Philippe Lamberts, MEP and co-chair of the European Green Party. read more »

From the Green Party of the United States:

WASHINGTON, DC — Six Green mayors have signed on to a joint letter to President Obama from more than 100 mayors expressing grave concerns about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

The mayors, representing communities across the US, voiced relief at President Obama’s decision to postpone the decision, as well as hope that the permit for the pipeline will be rejected when it comes up for review after the presidential election.

A summary of the letter, a link to the text, and a list of the mayors can be found online here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/sclefkowitz/over_100_mayors_voice_concern.html

The Green mayors who signed the letter are Larry Bragman (Fairfax, Calif.), Bruce Delgado (Marina, Calif.), David Doonan (Greenwich, NY), Gayle McLaughlin (Richmond, Calif.), Jim Sullivan (Victory, NY), and Jason West (New Paltz, NY). (Mayor Bragman signed after the web site was published.) read more »

Earlier this year, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School Of Medicine had a scheduled concert in Tel Aviv, which led to pressure on him to cancel the concert to respect the Boycott movement against the Israeli State due to their Human Rights practices vis a vis Palestine.

It was an awkward situation, and Jello chose to cancel the concert, but he went to Israel anyway to see for himself what the conditions were on the ground. And then he wrote about it. Green Party Watch strongly recommends that you read Jello Biafra’s first hand account of his visit to Israel and Palestine. It includes video and pictures, and the length of the piece is a reflection of the depth that Jello Biafra put into this topic, this trip, and the controversy over the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Movement.

WASHINGTON, DC — As some participants in the Occupy Movement across the US begin to turn towards involvement in elections, Green Party leaders are inviting them to run for office as Greens and to support Green candidates.

“The Green Party encourages those Occupiers who want to have an effect on the 2012 elections to help us build a permanent alternative party that represents the interests of We The People — the 99 percent — instead of banks, oil companies, arms manufacturers, insurance firms, and other powerful lobbies. The Green Party accepts no money from corporate PACs. Our platform reflects the values and demands of Occupy Wall Street,” said Kent Mesplay, candidate for the Green Party’s 2012 presidential nomination (http://www.mesplay.org).

Breaking News: Greens condemned the police clearance of the Occupy Oakland encampment and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s order for police to evict the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park on November 15. New York Greens are offering assistance in the form of emergency housing, arrest support, and food and expressed hope that the court order obtained by the National Lawyers Guild would allow the encampment to continue. Greens noted that the clearances and other police actions in various cities will swell the November 17 Day of Action (http://occupywallst.org/action/november-17th). (See “Eviction of Wall Street Occupation Exposes Mayor’s Corporate Collusion, Says NY Green Party,” Green Party of New York State press release, Nov. 15, http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=459)

Occupy Wall Street in New York City and other Occupy protests have declared that they do not endorse any political party and that the demonstrations are not a venue for electioneering. The Green Party has respected and cooperated with this request (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=453).

But many Occupiers have begun to embrace electoral participation as a strategy for challenging the corporate corruption and the erosion of democracy in the US (http://www.occupytheballot.org). Occupy Cincinnati demonstrators are working to establish their own party (http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_19279413 / http://www.occupationparty.org). Carl Mayer, public defender and long-time Ralph Nader/Green Party supporter, recently spoke before Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park and expressed “his hopes of the OWS movement’s becoming a viable third party in the future” (http://www.policymic.com/articles/2251/carl-mayer-speaks-at-zuccotti-park-says-ows-can-be-third-party).

“The Green Party, as an established national party, has laid a foundation for Occupy candidates to run for public office,” said Budd Dickinson, secretary of the Green Party of the United States. “In many states, Greens have accomplished the difficult task of achieving ballot status, overcoming prohibitive rules enacted by Democratic and Republican politicians to hinder alternative parties and candidates. By allying themselves with the Green Party, by becoming the Green Party in some states and towns, Occupiers who wish to launch campaigns for office can take advantage of the infrastructure and experience we’ve been building for more than a decade.” read more »

Today presidential candidate Jill Stein of the Green Party released the following statement condemning recent police actions against the Occupy Wall Street movement:

“The aggressive, needless police actions across the country against Occupy Wall Street (OWS) are an assault on civil liberties and an effort to suppress a much needed movement for economic justice and democracy.  The courageous protesters who have stood up to intimidation by lethal force are standing up for us all.

The use of police in full riot gear with helicopters buzzing overhead to arrest peaceful and largely sleeping protesters is frightening commentary on the militarization of state and municipal security. Unprovoked police violence against citizens practicing peaceful civil disobedience – clearly documented on videos gone viral on the internet – is deeply alarming: young women being corralled and pepper sprayed on Wall Street, students at University of California Berkeley being attacked with nightsticks, Iraq veteran Scott Olsen who served two tours of duty supposedly defending freedom, yet whose own freedom was assaulted in a police attack at Occupy Oakland that fractured his skull and rendered him unable to speak. read more »

From the National Post:

A pair of democratic rights groups are teaming up in a legal battle that is urging the nation’s top court to strike down Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system on the grounds that it doesn’t protect guarantees under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The case would argue that the Constitution protects the right of Canadians to have “effective representation,” which goes beyond having the right to cast a ballot.The two groups, the Association for the Advancement of Democratic Rights and Fair Vote Canada, have also earned an endorsement from Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “The key issue is not that it’s unfair to the Green Party,” May said Tuesday at a news conference with representatives from the two groups. “It’s unfair to democracy. It’s unfair to voters, and I think it’s a big reason for the decline in voter turnout.”

May noted that more than 80% of people vote in Scandinavian countries and some other European nations, but she said the lowest voter turnouts in the world occur in countries with first-past-the-post systems, such as Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, where governments can be elected with majorities despite having received less than 50% of the ballots cast in elections.

Read the full article at the National Post.