Green Party Watch

Hat tip to Ballot Access News for this story:

On February 6, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania jury convicted State Representative H. William DeWeese of using state resources to work on partisan political activity during the period 2000-2006. DeWeese was in the Democratic leadership in the House during those years. He directed staff to use government employees and government computers to help challenge the 2004 petition of Ralph Nader, and the 2006 statewide Green Party petition. See this story. DeWeese is currently in the legislature, and has been a state legislator since he was elected in a special election in May, 1976.

Damon Eris writes at Poli-Tea Party (emphasis added):

There is an inspiring amount of third party and independent political activity happening at the occupation protests in New York and Washington DC.  Consider, for example, the case of the Greens.  In New York, Green party activists have been involved at Occupy Wall Street from the very first days of the protest.  A number of weeks ago a liaison from the party made an announcement at a general assembly pledging the full support of Green party activists all over the country and asking how Greens could help the movement.  A number of high profile Greens were present at the Freedom Plaza protests in Washington DC over the weekend, including Cheri Honkala, Howie Hawkins and Ralph Nader.  Now, it appears that Jill Stein, a former Green party candidate for governor of Massachusetts who is seeking the party’s nomination for president in 2012, has been visiting Occupy Boston in recent days and campaigning in support of the 99%. 

It is not difficult to understand why third party and independent activists would be attracted to the Occupy Everything protests spreading across the country.  A simple explanation is embedded in the movement’s most prominent slogan: We are the 99%.  The Democratic and Republican parties do not represent the interests of 99% of the American people.  They are the parties of the ruling financial oligarchy and political class.  They are the parties of the 1%. 

Democrats, obviously, are attempting to hijack this movement the same way the Republicans hijacked the Tea Party movement in 2009-2010 and the same way the Democrats hijacked the anti-war movement in 2005-2006.  At present, many participants in these protests appear to be vehemently intent upon maintaining their political independence.  Yet the same was true of Tea Party activists in the spring of 2009, and we know how that turned out.  The question is whether this movement will suffer the same fate.  The more important question is: what can be done to avert that outcome?

As someone who was active in the Tea Party movement until it was infiltrated and destroyed by the Republican party, I urge all Tea Party activists who have maintained at least a semblance of political independence to become involved in the occupation protests.  As an Independent, I urge all Independents to become active in this movement.  As an advocate of third party alternatives to the Democrat-Republican duopoly, I urge all third party activists to become involved in this movement.

Perhaps some may say they do not agree with the direction this movement is heading and refuse to become involved.  The funny thing is, if you become involved you can change its direction.  It is really that simple.   

June 25 – 26, 2011
The Havens Center
1805 West Alabama Street
Houston, TX 77098

Every summer, those of us interested in “greening” the state of Texas come together to socialize with like-minded people, learn about Green activities around the state, and, importantly, make decisions about the rules and issue positions of the party–decisions that will influence the course of this movement in our state.

Please make your plans now to join us!

http://txgreens.org/drupal/

-Mckinney to speak in Los Angeles on Saturday June 18th!!

EYEWITNESS LIBYA: CYNTHIA MCKINNEY REPORTS BACK ON THE MASSIVE BOMBIMG OF TRIPOLI
-Mckinney to speak in Los Angeles on Saturday June 18th!!

-Cynthia Mckinney was the 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate along with Vice Presidential Candidate Rosa Clemente.

The ANSWER Coalition is sponsoring a nationwide speaking tour featuring former Congressional representative and presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, who is currently in Libya on her second fact-finding mission. McKinney will offer an eyewitness report exposing the truth that has been concealed by the western corporate media.

Also speaking on the tour will be Akbar Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition.

McKinney and the other speakers will shed light on the devastating impact of the U.S./NATO bombing of Libya and the extensive civilian casualties that the White House, Pentagon and the media have persistently denied. McKinney is currently on her second trip to Libya during the NATO bombing. During her time there, she has visited several hospitals, and has conducted video interviews with doctors and the wounded.

Under the guise of humanitarian intervention and protecting civilians, NATO has carried out a massive bombing of Africa’s largest oil producer. McKinney’s report shows how devastating the bombing has been for civilians in Tripoli and elsewhere.

The reason for this thread is simple – Make a list of candidates you would like to see on the Green Party ticket in 2012. This would include the Presidential, Congressional, and Senate races. At the state and local level, also make a list of who you would like to see run.

Now, what is the point? The point is that we can all see who we would like to see nominated, perhaps names we had never before considered, and see what the consensus is.

Just throw any name out there, from environmentalists, radicals, independents, non-Greens, celebrities, politicians, etc. Try to make your list concise by organizing it around the Presidential, Senate, Congressional, and state/local races.

Here’s a quick example(I live in Los Angeles):

President: Laura Wells, Howie Hawkins, Cynthia Mckinney, Cindy Sheehan, Bernie Sanders, Cornell West, Kent Mesplay, Ralph Nader

Senate: Jesse Ventura, Laura Wells, Jello Biafra, Matt Gonzalez, Ian Murphy, Howie Hawkins, Kent Mesplay, Mike Feinstein

Congress: Laura Wells, Cornell West, Deacon Alexander, Mike Feinstein

Los Angeles mayor: Ed Begley Jr., Deacon Alexander, Derek Iverson, Julia Butterfly Hill, Tom Morello

For local races, perhaps it would be best to consult your state Green Party and see what they think.

This is an example. The key in to throw out as many names out there as possible. The goal is to present this list to the national Green Party and state Green Party and ask them if we would consider nominating them on the Green Party ticket.

Cornel West: ‘We’ve got to think seriously of third-party candidates, third formations, third parties’

From Chris Hedges’ column this week at Truthdig:

“We have got to attempt to tell the truth, and that truth is painful,” [Professor Cornel West] says. “It is a truth that is against the thick lies of the mainstream. In telling that truth we become so maladjusted to the prevailing injustice that the Democratic Party, more and more, is not just milquetoast and spineless, as it was before, but thoroughly complicitous with some of the worst things in the American empire. I don’t think in good conscience I could tell anybody to vote for Obama. If it turns out in the end that we have a crypto-fascist movement and the only thing standing between us and fascism is Barack Obama, then we have to put our foot on the brake. But we’ve got to think seriously of third-party candidates, third formations, third parties.”

Email from Green Party activist Edy:

Forward this around the country!! Thanks!!

So I had a conversation online and the question came up if it would be un-Green like to take money from Republicans in order to help fund a campaign. Ralph Nader didn’t do it in his 2000, 2004 runs to give you some perspective, but what about the rest of the Greens?

I would suppose I would personally be ok with the idea, as long as the money wasn’t directly donated by some corporation.(Figuring out if it was directly donated from a corporation could be tricky).

What if the money was given to us by Democrats? Would that be more acceptable? What if the race involved only a Green up against a Republican and a Democrat donated money to our campaign? Again, as long as it’s not corporation money.

I know how much big money is tied up with both parties, so taking money which isn’t necessarily corporate-donated could be tricky.

The point that I want to make is that we are a political party. We are playing hardball against both corporate parties. No more time for saying “Next time” or “I’m busy.” (Insert not so important issue/excuse that you couldn’t give two hours a week to help the Green Party). We need money. That’s the reality. This is not the time to be timid or over-sensitive to the Green Party stance. Remember, what is the goal? To elect Green Party representatives and to improve the lives of our fellow citizens.

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By Ralph Nader at Nader.org:

The unfolding multiple nuclear reactor catastrophe in Japan is prompting overdue attention to the 104 nuclear plants in the United States—many of them aging, many of them near earthquake faults, some on the west coast exposed to potential tsunamis.

Nuclear power plants boil water to produce steam to turn turbines that generate electricity. Nuclear power’s overly complex fuel cycle begins with uranium mines and ends with deadly radioactive wastes for which there still are no permanent storage facilities to contain them for tens of thousands of years.

Atomic power plants generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity. Over forty years ago, the industry’s promoter and regulator, the Atomic Energy Commission estimated that a full nuclear meltdown could contaminate an area “the size of Pennsylvania” and cause massive casualties. You, the taxpayers, have heavily subsidized nuclear power research, development, and promotion from day one with tens of billions of dollars.
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Ralph Nader at Nader.org:

Dear Vice President Biden:

Word has reached us from reliable sources that the unions in Wisconsin tendered an invitation sometime last week or earlier for you to appear at one of the growing rallies in Madison protesting the legislative straitjacketing of public employee unions. Since you have just returned from trips to Russia and other autocratic nations where you talked about facilitating more democracy and competitive elections, it was no surprise for us to hear from our sources that you were eager to go to Madison. After all, you like to call yourself a “union guy”.

According to protocol the invitation to speak was forwarded to the White House where the political operatives turned it down. Political operatives do not turn down the Vice President of the United States without clearing the decision with President Barack Obama.

We know that your role is always to play the “good soldier” but in this case can you verify the above reports? If you choose not to, can you say at least that you want to go to Madison to speak to one of the diverse gatherings—the likes of which has not been seen for many years—of workers—union and non-union—farmers, students both from Universities and high schools and other hardworking people both active in democratic causes and inactive but wanting to lend their support to opposing the Republican reactionaries and corporatists?

What say you, Mr. Vice President?

Sincerely yours,

Ralph Nader

Nader says. “Why don’t we say what’s on the minds of many legal experts? That the Obama administration is committing war crimes. And if Bush should have been impeached, Obama should be impeached.”

Taken from a transcript at Democracy Now!

Posted by Ross Levin at IPR:

For some time, Matt Gonzalez represented the Green Party as well as his constituency on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He also ran what was perhaps the most competitive Green campaign for mayor of a major city in US history, losing by about six percentage points to Gavin Newsom. He later left the Green Party and became Ralph Nader’s running mate in 2008. Now he is back in power in San Francisco, having been appointed to be the chief attorney of the city’s Public Defender’s office. From The Bay Citizen:
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On Fox News, Ralph Nader discusses the new dynamics in Congress that will draw a new line between the “corporatists” and the “anti-corporatists”:

Read “Nader: Progressive-libertarian alliance ‘the most exciting new political dynamic’ in US” by Stephen Webster at RawStory.

Chris Hedges at Truthdig interviews Ralph Nader and together paint a persuasive argument in an article “The Left Has Nowhere To Go”.

A vote for Nader or Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney in 2008 was an act of defiance. A vote for Obama and the Democrats was an act of submission. We cannot afford to be submissive anymore.

Some exerpts, on the complicity of the Media:

“The so-called liberal media, along with Fox, is touting the tea party and publicizing Palin,” Nader said.
…
“If we don’t raise hell, we won’t get any media,” Nader said. “If we don’t get any media, the perception will be that the tea party is the big deal.”
…
“Three thousand people rallied to protest the invasion and massacre in Gaza two years ago,” Nader said. “It was held four blocks from The Washington Post. It did not get a single paragraph. People should march over to the Post and say ‘Fuck you! What are you doing here? You cover every little blip by the right-wing and you don’t cover us?’

On the Unions:

“Every major movement starts with field organizers, the farmers, unions, and the civil rights movement,” Nader said. “But there is nothing out there. We need to start learning from what was done in the past. All over the country people are pissed off. They hate Wall Street. They know they are being gouged. They know they are slipping behind. They know their kids will not be as well off as they were, and they were not that well off. But no one is putting it together. Who could put a thousand organizers in the field, besides George Soros? The labor unions. They have the money. They have a lot of cash. These idiots are going down. The UAW is a paradigm of a suicidal, supplicant labor union. It is disgusting. They are a puppy dog of GM, Ford and Chrysler.

Please read it all here.

Although the Connecticut Green Party has no candidate for governor this year and is running a write-in campaign for US Senate, CT Green candidates running for a variety of statewide, congressional, legislative and local seats have been steadily making news. Here are some recent stories:

CT News Junkie: Nader Endorses Krayeske in 1st Congressional District

Hartford Courant: Putting Voters in the Driver’s Seat (letter from Mike DeRosa, candidate for CT Secretary of State)

Norwich Bulletin: 2nd District Incumbent, Challengers Duke It Out in Willimantic

Ralph Nader, the legendary activist who ran for president on the Green Party ticket in 1996 and 2000, will make several appearances with New York Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins in New York’s Capital District on Wednesday 10/20. To RSVP and invite friends, see the facebook event “Ralph Nader and Howie Hawkins in the Capital Region Weds 10/20″. Here are details for the events with Nader and Hawkins:

Nader/Hawkins schedule for Wednesday October 20th:

11-12: Howie Hawkins and Ralph Nader on Capitol Pressroom with Susan Arbetter, broadcast on PBS/NPR stations across the state at various times. Check local listings. read more »