Green Party Watch

H/T to Lou Novak
Detroit Greens are teaming up with Greens in the tri-county area for Metro Detroit Greens Meetings. These meetings give us an opportunity to build on the networking, connections and solidarity we developed in the 2010 elections.

WHAT: Detroit Metro Greens Meeting
WHO: Open to all Greens and friends – replaces Detroit Greens monthly meetings for January – March.
WHEN: Third Thursday of each month – January 20, February 17 & March 17, 6–8pm
WHERE: Phoenix Café. 24918 John R. Hazel Park, Mi 48030. 248-667-8817

Agendas will include discussions of the developing political situation and plans for actions. More detailed agendas will be sent out to the same lists before the meetings.

Please invite anyone you think should be there.

From the York Daily Record:

York, PA - Demonstrators supporting Wisconsin unions waved and shook their signs at drivers who beeped their horns as they passed U.S. Rep. Todd Platts’ office in Springettsbury Township at rush hour Friday.Signs reading “Stand with Wisconsin workers” and “Support a teacher” were held by some in the group who decided to participate in the rally organized by Stephen Baker of the Green Party of York County.

“We’re here to protest Republicans trying to take away years of work on labor rights,” Baker, a Springettsbury resident, said.

A bill eliminating most collective-bargaining rights for Wisconsin’s public-employee unions was passed Thursday. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed it into law Friday.

Friday’s protest in York County was one of several planned by the Green Party. One was held last week in Harrisburg, Baker said, where about 1,000 demonstrators showed support for Wisconsin unions seeking negotiation rights.

via Ross Levin at IPR:

The full story from the South Carolina Green Party:

Eugene Platt is doing great work in local government alerting people to the serious problems with SC’s electronic voting machines.

Voting machines targeted: James Island PSD official pushes for replacement

BY EDWARD FENNELL

JAMES ISLAND — A day after engineering a “historic” vote by his fellow James Island Public Service District commissioners, Eugene Platt set his sights on a larger goal.

Platt on Tuesday urged James Island Town Council to adopt a resolution calling for South Carolina to replace its electronic touch-screen voting machines. The iVotronic machines, Platt contends, have many problems and voters have little confidence in vote counts they produce. He told council the JIPSD was the first elected body in the state to urge replacement of the machines, and the town could become the first municipality to do so.

“I hope you will do something similar and start and statewide trend and get the attention of the state legislature,” Platt said.

read more »

Monday Feb 14, the San Fernando Valley (CA) Greens met in Northridge, CA.

Tuesday Feb 15, the Logan Square Green Party in Chicago Illinois are meeting at the Green Party office on Fullerton Ave.

Wednesday Feb. 16 the Los Angeles Greens in California meet at 7 PM at the Peace Center on W. Third St.

Thursday Feb. 17 the Detroit Greeens are meeting with the Tri-County Greens at the Phoenix Cafe in Hazel Park, MI.

Do you know of local or state Green Party meetings or other Green Events that we should add to our Events Calendar? Post them here as a comment or send by email to GPW@GreenPartyWatch.org

Local Chapters of the Green Party are meeting across the Nation this week. Does your local chapter have a meeting or event coming up? If so, let us know! GPW@greenpartywatch.org See our Events Calendar for other meetings and events.

Tuesday February 1, 2011 – Hernando Greens (Florida)

6 PM at the Spring Hill Library, showing the film “Capitalism: A Love Story” followed by a meeting and discussion.

Wednesday February 2, 2011 – Arlington Greens (Virginia)

7 PM at the Clarendon Silver Diner, 3200 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA

Thursday February 3, 2011 – Alleghany County Greens (Pennsylvania)

7 PM at Citizen Power, 2121 Murray Ave, 2nd Floor, Pittsburgh, PA – General Assembly meeting, electing new officers.

Thursday February 3, 2011 – Long Beach Greens (California)

7 PM at Polly’s Coffee, 4606 E. 2nd St., Long Beach CA – Meeting

Friday February 4, 2011 – Clark County Greens (Nevada)

6 PM Meeting, contact them for location: http://clarkgreens.org/

Friday February 4, 2011 – Phily Greens (Pennsylvania) Tom Neilson Show and Fundraiser

7 PM, Roxborough Development Corporation, 6156 Ridge Avenue, Roxborough, Philadelphia. $20/person cover (includes food and drinks). Tom Neilson, www.tomneilsonmusic.com, specializes in songs of nonviolence, liberation and human rights.

Sunday February 6, 2011 – Orange County Greens (California)

2 PM – Super Slow Food Bowl Party! Featuring speaker Heather (Stoltzfus) Westenhofer for our February General Meeting. She will be serving up a Power Point presentation, along with bread and butter made on the spot in a Super Slow Food Bowl gathering! We hope you can join us for this special get together. Irvine Ranch Water District 15600 Sand Canyon, Irvine, CA

(Distributed by the Green Party of the United States)

Georgia Green Party

http://georgiagreenparty.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

For further information, contact:
Bruce Dixon, 678-298-9463 x3
bdixon@GeorgiaGreenParty.org
Press Secretary, Georgia Green Party

Greens Demand Real Reductions in Incarceration Costs Reject Deal Reforms which Fail to Challenge Racist Impact

After last week praising Governor Deal’s expressed concern for the wasted lives, drained treasury and depleted workforce left in the wake of the nation’s war on drugs, Georgia Green Party leaders today rejected Deal’s specific proposals.

“None of this will meaningfully impact the budget, end the state’s social control of non-violent and victimless behaviors, nor undermine the racial caste system created by our current policy,” said Hugh Esco, Secretary of the Georgia Green Party. “The state’s disparate enforcement and prosecution of the drug use of working people while ignoring that of wealthy people costs our communities in ways far beyond those mentioned by the Governor the other day. The impacts are as venal as Jim Crow.”

Governor Deal is quoted as saying: “For violent and repeat offenders, we will make you pay for your crimes. For other offenders who want to change their lives, we will provide the opportunity to do so with Day Reporting Centers, Drug, DUI and Mental Health Courts and expanded probation and treatment options. As a State, we cannot afford to have so many of our citizens waste their lives because of addictions. It is draining our State Treasury and depleting our workforce.”

Greens have criticized Georgia’s policy of mass incarceration, which rises to the level of recreating a racial caste system. As so well documented in a recent book on the subject by Michelle Alexander, it is legal to discriminate in matters of housing, public assistance, education, employment, participation on a jury and voting for those labeled criminal. And a series of Supreme Court decisions have made it impossible to effectively challenge the disparate enforcement, prosecution and sentencing which leads to the disproportionate
incarceration of black men and the immigrant community.

“The cost savings proposed by the Governor are a fraction of what we might enjoy were we to actually address the real harm caused by our rush to lock up our neighbors,” said Bruce Dixon, Press Secretary of the Georgia Green Party. “Most of the costs of this misguided policy are born by the families and children and communities of those we lock up. Deal has not even offered much here for the taxpayers. We had hoped for more.”

– 30 –

Background:

Georgia Green Party
Georgia Green Party/Challenging Mass Incarceration

According to Boston.com:

A federal judge today sentenced Chuck Turner to three years behind bars for accepting a $1,000 bribe, a stinging rebuke to the former Boston city councilor.

US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock rejected an appeal for leniency by defense attorneys, who had asked that the 70-year-old civil rights crusader receive probation and be spared prison because of his more than four decades of service as a community activist and elected official.

Woodlock’s stiff sentence came at the urging of prosecutors, who accused Turner of lying on the witness stand and making a mockery of public office and the criminal justice system. They had sought a prison term of 33 to 41 months.

After a jury convicted him in October of attempted extortion and three counts of providing false statements to FBI agents, Turner maintained his innocence and blamed his conviction on a government conspiracy to discredit elected officials of African-American descent.

Does your Green Party local chapter have an upcoming meeting or event? Send the information to gpw@greenpartywatch.org and we’ll post it here and on our events calendar page!

Thursday Jan. 27, 2011, 7 PM The People Speak – A Community Screening

The Green-Rainbow Party is sponsoring a free screening of the documentary “The People Speak,” which is based on Howard Zinn’s writings and the book “Voices of the People’s History of the United States.” This event is occuring on the first anniversary of Prof. Zinn’s death. Lenox Community Center, 65 Walket St., Lenox, Massachusetts 01240

For more information, please contact Berkshire Greens at:
berkshiregreens@gmail.com

Sunday Jan. 30, 2011, 1:30 PM – Green Party of Maricopa County (Arizona) Organizational Meeting

Sunday, January 30th, 2011—1:30pm to 3:30pm (arrive early!)
Phoenix Public Library (Mesquite Branch—meeting room)
4525 Paradise Village Parkway North, Phoenix AZ 85032
(the library is located on the north side of Paradise Valley Mall; across the parking lot from Dillard’s)

Tentative Agenda

• Election of GPMC Officers/Steering Committee for 2011-12
• Update of Arizona Green Party (AZGP) ballot status petition drive for 2012; recruitment of volunteers
• GPMC Goals for 2011
• Fundraising—recruitment of monthly sustainers

The Palm Beach County Green Party has a unique event to commemorate the first anniversary of the affirmation of corporate personhood. Former Green Party co-chair Ms. Sarah “Echo” Steiner is single, and ready to tie the knot with her dream corporate person:

FIRST EVER CORPORATE WEDDING CONTEMPLATED BY SINGLE, FEMALE, 39.

THE SEARCH FOR A CORPORATE HUSBAND WILL COMMEMORATE THE 1ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE SUPREME COURT RULING RE-AFFIRMING CORPORATE PERSONHOOD.

On January 21st, 2010 the Supreme Court of the United States re-affirmed that Corporations have the same Constitutional rights as people (Citizens United v FEC). In commemoration of that decision there will commence a national search for the ideal corporate groom for a mere mortal, Ms. Sarah “echo” Steiner, who has made it clear that she intends to take the Supreme Court at its word and honor her marriage when she finds a suitable candidate.

The search is on. A press conference will kick off the event on Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at the Little Owl in Lake Worth, Florida located at 527 N. Dixie Highway. At this time, Ms. Steiner is expected to announce her decision to search for a suitable corporation to marry. There have been rumors circulating that a number of potential corporate grooms are already in the running (including green colored corporate persons).

So mark you calendars, tell your friends, and spread the word: if corporations are persons, then let us celebrate the end of discrimination against them by permitting them to get married just like everyone else… well, almost everyone else. See you there!!!

This event is sponsored by Florida Move to Amend, Palm Beach County Green Party, and Progressive Democrats of America, Florida. For more information on Move to Amend, go to www.movetoamend.org.

From the NY Daily News:

If magazine exec Cathie Black can become schools chancellor without experience in education, why can’t a group of education experts run a publishing empire?

Green Party members put that theory to the test yesterday by dusting off their résumés and trying to apply for Black’s former gig as chairwoman of Hearst Magazines.

“I’m absolutely unqualified to run a public company, which is exactly what Cathie Black is to run the New York City public school system,” quipped Gloria Mattera, who has two graduate degrees in education and a son in the public school system.

The five job candidates vented about Black’s appointment by Mayor Bloomberg, and one of the protesters, Tom Siracuse, was armed with the “Guide to Successful Publishing” to show his eagerness to learn.

The group didn’t get far.

The candidates waltzed through the glass doors to Hearst headquarters and were greeted in the lobby by the deputy director of corporate security, Ted Lotti. He took their résumés and sent them a way.

In New London, Connecticut, local politics makes for strange bedfellows. In this case, it may result in Green Party City Councilor John Russell being appointed Deputy Mayor.

If all goes according to plan, Councilor John Russell, a member of the Green Party, will be nominated and elected deputy mayor. He said he also was not seeking the position.

“I’ve never asked for it. I was told I was going to be deputy mayor,” he said. “There was some stuff I wasn’t privy to behind the scenes, and Marty wanted me to be the deputy.”

He said he is thankful for the recognition from his fellow councilors but is realistic about the role of the deputy mayor.

“It’s ceremonial,” he said, adding that the deputy mayor fills in when the mayor is unavailable. “The seas aren’t going to part when you’re walking down the street.”

Read the entire story at The Day.

From The Green Light, via Independent Political Report:

Green Party Teachers to Apply for Cathie Black’s Position as Chair of Hearst Magazines
November 27, 2010

Greens Oppose Black’s Nomination, Launches Campaign to Restore Community Control of Schools

What: Teachers to Apply for Cathie Black’s job at Heart Magazine; Greens Launch Campaign to Restore Community Control of Public Education

Who: Green Party, teachers and ex-teachers and their supporters

When: Tuesday, November 30th, 11:00 am

Where: In front of Hearst Tower, 300 West 57th St. at 8th Avenue, Manhattan

On Tuesday November 30, several current and former teachers from the Green Party of New York City will apply for the job of Chair of Hearst Magazines that Cathie Black is vacating. Ms. Black has been nominated by Mayor Bloomberg to head the NYC School System despite lacking the minimal educational qualifications. The Greens contend the nomination
of Ms. Black highlights the problems with Bloomberg’s top-down corporate CEO model of governance of the city school’s system.

If a magazine executive with no educational experience is qualified to serve as chancellor of the nation’s largest school system, then it’s only logical that an experienced teacher with no publishing background should be eminently qualified to chair the board of a media conglomerate. The teachers will bring books about the publishing industry to demonstrate that they, like Ms. Black, fully intend to “get up to speed” in their new profession.

The Greens will also launch the Green Platform for Public Education, which opposes mayoral control. The Platform calls for publicly elected NYC community school boards to elect a citywide school board, which will hire the chancellor. To mobilize public support, the Greens plan to take their campaign to NYC’s 59 Community Boards.

From the website of The Green Light:

Bronx Greens is a community based volunteer organization affiliated with the Bronx County Green Party and Green Party of New York State. We strive to uphold and promote the Green Principles of Democracy, Justice, Ecology and Peace. These principles are further defined through our Ten Key Values. Although registration in the Green Party is not required, it is encouraged. The Green Light is the banner under which Bronx Greens publishes articles, press releases, blogs and other forms of communications.

The Huffington Post has an article highlighting good news this election amid the Republican “landslide”:

While the recent elections were seen as a setback for national environmental advocates, for the small city of Richmond in San Francisco’s East Bay, it marked a tidal shift in a seven-year battle to protect Point Molate, the last large undeveloped headland on the bay from a mega-casino. Here, at least, the election demonstrated that poor communities can assert their right to control their own shorelines and perhaps their own destinies — despite outside pressure.

On the winning side were local activists of Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate and the Richmond Progressive Alliance, which includes the Green Party Mayor of this low-income, predominantly African-American and Hispanic city of just over 100,000.

On the side that didn’t win was a Berkeley developer with plans for a billion dollar casino resort at the headlands, a small band of Pomo Indians hoping to break into urban gaming, and an even smaller band of environmentalists willing to cut a multi-million dollar deal with them just before Richmond was to vote on the casino.

Read the entire article at the Huffington Post.

Nov. 13, 2010, 11 am – 5 pm
All Souls Unitarian Church
5805 East 56th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46226-1526

For More Info Call 317.370.7682 and leave a message for Jay Parks.

Monday morning round up of Green Party news around the nation

Rich Whitney, “Green Party candidate shines in debate” (KMOX):

“Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat, and State Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) used nearly every answer to bash the other. But Green Party candidate Rich Whitney laid off the criticism, and used every answer to point out in some detail how he would close the budget gap, improve the job climate, and fund education. He said, “I’m the only one with a plan.”

Too bad the other debates are excluding him. Maybe they are afraid he will continue talking common sense?

The Post Standard is looking forward to Howie Hawkins in tonight’s debate as evidenced by this thorough profile piece:

He hasn’t won, yet. But he has accomplished another goal — to bring the Green Party into the same conversation the Democrats and Republicans are having about how to govern New York state. Hawkins, a graveyard-shift United Parcel Service worker from Syracuse’s South Side, is the Green Party candidate for governor. He has been invited to debate Democrat Andrew Cuomo, Republican Carl Paladino and four other candidates at 7 p.m. today in the only scheduled debate of the 2010 race.

The Middletown Press has a nice piece today on the Green Party, with coverage of Green congressional candidates Ken Krayeske, G. Scott Deshefy, & Charles Pillsbury, as well as Mike DeRosa (Sec. State candidate), David Bue (State Treasurer candidate), Steve Fournier (Attorney General candidate), & Colin Bennett (State Comptroller):

“People don’t know who to turn to anymore and with good reason,” Deshefy says. “I say to those disillusioned, those disgruntled, those disenfranchised citizens betrayed by the Republicans and Democrats time and time again, turn to me and to the Green Party to carry your burden. Otherwise, we are in for more of the same after November 2010.”

Cleveland City Councilor Brian Cummins has quit the Democrats and become a Green again. He is a former Columbus area Green Party organizer. He will face re-election in 3 years, I can assure you he will face a Democratic challenger.

And finally, a poignant book discussion with US Senate candidate John Gray: