Green Party Watch

Veterans Day, for many Americans, means parades, speeches, flags, and the usual political theatrical displays of patriotism. Those who have never experienced war itself can never truly understand the effect on the lives of those who have endured the horrors of warfare.

Since the advent of industrialized warfare in World War I, working people have too often served as cannon fodder in wars for the profits of the ruling class. The dawning understanding of this dynamic has birthed anti-war protests and resistance movements like Occupy Wall Street, which continues to draw veterans and others outraged at the current wars and their cost in lives and a damaged national economy.

“The late singer and composer Phil Ochs wrote ‘It’s always the old to lead us to the wars, it’s always the young to die,’” said Mike Spector, chair of the Green Party of New Jersey. “The young men and women returning from the conflicts are finding themselves in trouble, mentally and physically. As wars become enshrined in the nation’s foreign policy, the more they will be forgotten, tear-drenched home-comings and memorial flag-waving ceremonies to the contrary. The Green Party has always been the party of peace in this country, the true alternative to the parties of ceaseless war. Our goal is to ensure that Veterans Day will eventually be replaced by World Peace Day.”

We in the Green Party have always believed what Gil Scott Heron said: “Peace is not just the absence of war, but the active pursuit of justice.” With this thought in mind, we offer the perspectives of Green veterans on war.

• TE Smith, Washington, DC, member of the DC Statehood Green Party: I am a Black Vietnam vet. Lke hundreds of other young Black males in Washington, DC in the 1960s, I really had no real idea what was going on. There was very little to no conversation or explanation in the Black community about the war, the draft, or much else of real importance. read more »

WASHINGTON, DC — DC Statehood Green Party activists will challenge Mayor Vincent Gray on the District’s budget priorities at a press conference immediately preceding the Mayor’s ‘State of the District’ address on Monday, March 28.

The press conference will take place outside of Eastern High School, 1700 East Capitol Street NE, beginning at 6 pm. The Mayor’s speech begins inside the school at 6:45 pm.

“We will call on Mayor Gray not to balance the budget on the backs of DC’s working people and unemployed. We can make ‘One City’ a reality, if the Mayor and Council enact a ‘Just DC Budget and Tax’ plan,” said Alan Page, DC Statehood Green candidate for At-Large City Council in the April 26 special election (http://alanpagedc.blogspot.com).

Statehood Greens will offer a progressive alternative to DC’s present regressive income tax. The progressive plan would generate $250 million in additional revenue that should go into essential social services cut in recent years. This and other recommendations to balance the budget and restore essential funding in our budget are summarized below.
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WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party candidates and activists from across the US will gather in Washington, DC for the One Nation Working Together march and rally in Washington, DC on Saturday, October 2 for “Jobs, Justice and Education” (http://www.onenationworkingtogether.org/content/main).

Greens will meet 10:30 am on Saturday at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW on the Mall, at the Peace Table. The Green Party will be part of the Peace Contingent (http://www.onenationforpeace.org), which calls the rally “an opportunity to help millions of people understand how the struggle to end the wars and occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq is directly tied to the urgent need to re-direct this nation’s economic and social priorities.” read more »

At a monthly membership meeting of the DC Statehood Green Party on Sept 2 the membership unanimously endorsed a BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions for Israel) campaign by human rights activists in Washington, DC.

The Green Party of the United States endorsed a BDS resolution several years ago in protest of the Israeli government’s denial of human rights to Palestinians and the US government’s support (whether Democrats or Republicans control the White House & Congress) for Israel’s illegal occupation, brutal treatment, & displacement of Palestinians, including the settlements and last year’s invasion of Gaza.

Below is some information that was sent to us about the boycott, divestment, sanctions campaign written by Mai Abdul Rahman:
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WASHINGTON, DC — Seven DC Statehood Green Party candidates for public office will participate in the September 14, 2010 primary election in Washington, DC, with contested races for two seats.

The contested primary races are for nonvoting DC Delegate to the US House (Eleanor Holmes Norton’s seat) and At-Large Member of DC Council. A list of all Statehood Green candidates follows below, with contact and web site information for each. The DC Statehood Green Party holds major party status in the District and is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States (http://www.gp.org).

Among the major issues that the candidates are addressing in their campaigns are:

• The demand for democracy and statehood for the District of Columbia

• Saving public properties (schools, libraries, housing, parks, shelters) from privatization

• Solving the District’s environmental crises (congestion, pollution, sprawl, etc.)

• Saving the DC Public School system from plans by Mayor Fenty and Michelle Rhee to close school facilities, fire teachers and other personnel, shut out parents, and impose more charter schools

• The need for a progressive tax plan that relieves working people and requires the wealthy to pay their fair share

• Development and preservation of affordable housing, especially for low income residents; protection of diverse neighborhoods
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From Independent Political Report:

Asa Gordon is Chair of the DC Statehood Green Party Electoral College Task Force and Executive Director of Douglass Institute for Government. Gordon’s civil suit concerning reform of the Electoral College will have oral arguments in the United States Court of Appeals on January 14, 2010. The lawsuit, Gordon v. Biden, pleas for a Declaratory Judgment by the U.S. court for a proportional allocation of presidential electors in states where there is no “Winner-take-all” rule in the laws of that state. (Ie: some states use a “Winner-take-all rule in giving out their electoral votes, when there is no law or reason for them to do so.) Gordon believes that the federal government should make the Declaratory Judgment in order to comply with the mal-apportionment penalty of the Constitution.
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The Green Party of Suffolk County issued a Social Media Release via pitchengine.com announcing the election of Suffolk County Green Matthew Lavery to the Green Party House Campaign Committee. In the release they point to his experience in the Green Party in Norwich, Norfolk England, and his work on a campaign for the European Parliament for Rupert Read, who is a Norwich City Councilor. The announcement includes a video.

Indian Country Today covers an appearance in Seattle March 18 – 19 for discussions on diversity and environmental stewardship by Winnona LaDuke, Green Party Vice-Presidential nominee in 1996 and 2000.

The High Springs Herald carries a story about Michael Canney, who is running for Seat 4 in the April 14th Alachua (FL) City Commission election. His website includes information about Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson Jr., who it seems resigned, and now is about to be re-appointed without discussion. H/T to Anita Stewart for the story, posted to her FaceBook page.

In this article at the News Gazette, Republican Mayoral nominee Rex Bradfield bemoans his loss in that race, expresses dismay that the voters voted along party lines, and explains that he thought the Green Party nominee Durl Kruse would take votes away from the Democrat.

Over at Independent Political Report, writer Ross Levin covers the campaign of Lee Scott Laugenour for Lenox, Massachusetts town select board. Langenhour is an active member of the Green-Rainbow Party and, according to this article at the Berkshire Eagle, is a ten year resident of the town, serves on the board of the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, and has been married to his husband for four years. To carry the thanks forward, Levin pays kudos to Green Ferret.

Levin also writes about Green Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond, CA here, noting that she is pushing for green building requirements in that city. The Contra Costa Times reports that the proposal is

“in the middle of the pack when it comes to how stringent its requirements would be for commercial construction, and a little above the middle when it comes to residential construction.”

Finally, in a press release the Green Party national office announced that the District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on the Green’s constitutional challenge to the manipulation of presidential elections. The statement says that the court has issued a ruling that, while dismissing the plaintiff for lack of standing, did not reject the validity of his arguments challenging the Electoral College based on the Mal-Apportionment Penalty clause of the 14th Amendment. The case was filed pro-se by Asa Gordon of the DC Statehood Green Party.

WASHINGTON, DC — The DC Statehood Green Party is sponsoring a forum, with a panel and open discussion, on the growing demand for statehood for the District of Columbia on Thursday, February 5.

The forum, titled “DC Statehood, Now Is The Time!”, begins at 7:00 pm and will take place at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) School of Law, 4200 Connecticut Avenue NW, in Building 39, Room 201..

The forum will feature an array of guest speakers. The following have confirmed:
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From the DC Statehood Green Party:

DC Statehood Green Party to Congress: The District of Columbia needs statehood, not ‘voting rights’

• Statehood Greens challenge the misconception that a constitutional amendment is necessary for DC statehood

• DC statehood is important for America — not just for District residents

WASHINGTON, DC — Leaders of the DC Statehood Green Party urged Congress to set aside proposed legislation for ‘DC Voting Rights’ and instead draft and enact legislation to make the District of Columbia a state.

The DC Statehood Green Party, which has promoted the goal of DC statehood since its founding as the DC Statehood Party in 1970, joins the Stand Up! for Democracy in DC (http://www.freedc.org) and DC Statehood — Yes We Can (http://dcstatehoodyeswecan.org) coalitions in calling for Congress and the White House, which are now under the control of Democrats, to take action to make the District America’s 51st state.
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Glen Ford’s Black Agenda Radio Commentary takes on the corporate media and their un-democratic control over what parties and candidates the “public” gets to hear about.

“Giant corporations control the political menu in the United States.”

We need to stop using the word “democracy” to describe the every two or four years exercise to fill electoral offices in the United States. The ritual is in fact a commercial enterprise utterly dominated by corporations that control not only which individuals are nominated by the two Big Business parties, but what ideas and political programs are made visible to the public. Citizens cannot possibly make free and informed choices when the only views to which they have access are those fed to them by the giant communications corporations that monopolize the American political conversation. When money and the rich man’s media are the supreme arbiters of which ideas, parties and candidates are permitted to effectively compete in the public arena, then democracy does not exist.

Read the rest here.

Is corporate media “rigging the election”, and if so, what can citizen parties do to change that?

Posted here in its entirety:

DC’s ‘Second Party’ challenges the Washington Post to give DC Statehood Green Party candidates fair coverage in the 2008 election

• Three local candidates speak at a press conference near the Post’s front door on July 31; Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney sends a statement

• Four Statehood Green candidates for partisan office in 2008:
Keith Ware for the US Senate
Joyce Robinson-Paul for the US House
Maude Louise Hills for Delegate to the US House
David Schwartzman for At-Large Member of Council

WASHINGTON, DC — The DC Statehood Green Party held a press conference this morning in front of the downtown Washington, DC offices of The Washington Post and challenged the newspaper — and all DC area media — to give the party’s candidates fair coverage during the 2008 election season.

Speakers at the 11 am press conference, including three local candidates, noted that the DC Statehood Green Party is the District’s ‘Second Party’ in terms of electoral clout. Statehood Green candidates have collectively received more votes than Republicans in recent general elections for partisan office, even when the two parties have run the same number of candidates. In 2006, the five Statehood Green candidates received a total of 47,421 votes, while the five Republican candidates received 32,658 votes (http://www.dcboee.org/information/elec_2006/general_2006_results.shtm).
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