by Kat Swift, Green Party of†Texas

The†Green Party of Texas mourns†the tragic loss of Bill Holloway.†Bill was a dedicated leader who was currently serving as the†Co-Chair of the†Travis County Green Party†in†Austin,†TX.† He will be†missed as a mentor and a friend.††

Through his kind-hearted activism, Bill touched the lives of so many†people.† He was an active†Green Party†contributor at the local,†state and national levels.† Bill served on numerous committees in†the Green Party and in other organizations as well.†††

Bill Holloway passed away unexpectedly last weekend at his home in†Austin,†Texas. †We know†many will have questions regarding details.† Out of respect for†Bill, his family, and his lengthy legacy of community service, we†hope you understand our reluctance to speculate and request that†others will also be circumspect in their communication.

Our heart-felt condolences go out to all of Bill’s†friends and†family.† Bill was a very special person who will be sorely missed.

†

at the 2008 Travis County, Texas Green Party Convention

Florida†

†

The Green Party of Florida is celebrating! Cara Jennings was re-elected to the City Commission of Lake Worth, and Suzanne Mulvehill, a Green-endorsed candidate, joined her after winning a run-off election. Another member was elected who often votes with Jennings, though she is Independent. On a commission of five persons, the Greens now have a majority. Jennings said that in her second term she could put more progressive and radical programs into play. ìI understand better how the system works now,î she said. Jennings hopes to pass an ordinance a month, with ordinances relating to energy and environmental issues. Cara had widespread support from Greens throughout Florida, including financial support from the Green Party of Florida.†

Another Green, Ellen Brodsky, ran an impressive campaign against great odds, garnering 19 percent of the vote. She was vying for the position of Supervisor of Elections. Perhaps she will run again. Five other Green candidates in Florida are discussed in a separate article in Elections.

Florida Greens are experimenting with edible landscapes, resulting in beautiful, colorful yards, which provide delicious foods. Organic tomatoes, eggplant, onions, and cucumbers are among the harvest. The GPF co-chair is considering a business in rain barrels. Florida Greens are living their values!

†

Cara Jennings

†

Texas

Bienvenidos a 2009: Happy 10th Anniversary to the Green Party of Texas!

We hope you all plan a celebration this year to honor your managing to survive the last ten years as a Green in Texas and in gratitude to your volunteer efforts and that of our elected leadershipís, that have maintained the structural organization.

We are proud of our sisters and brothers who ran for electoral offices across the country in 2008, and to those who won, we look forward to the changes you will bring. As the 2009 election season ramps up, we hope to hear from Texas Greens who want to run for city council, school board, and other nonpartisan seats like your local water board.

Also 2009 is the next session of our Texas Legislature. With the help of a few state representatives, a bill to end the ëprimary screen-outí provision of the Ballot Access Election Code has been filed. Contact your state rep and let her/him know you support removing the primary screen-outóthis provision means that you canít vote in a primary AND sign a non-primary party or independent candidate ballot access petition. If we can remove this, ballot access in 2010 might be within reach.

The GPTX State Executive Committee (SEC) held a statewide Face to Face meeting over the weekend of January 23-25 in Tromball, outside of Houston. The agenda called for reevaluating the GPTX long-term strategic plan and establishing short-range strategy. For further details e-mail: SEC-contact@txgreens.org or call (210) 471-1791. If you can’t afford the call, use our toll free number and we’ll call you back: (888) 94-GPTEX (888-944-7839).

You bring Green values to Texas, keep living it!

†

Maine

†

In addition to several state campaigns getting more than 25 percent of the vote (see article in Elections) the Maine Greens are also pleased 2009 will mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Maine Green Independent Party. The party will mark this occasion with a special dinner during the annual convention, as well as a policy conference with the theme ìProgram for Maine,î to be held in October 2009. Organizers are recruiting experts on various topics to produce policy statements and participate in workshops at the conference. The party intends to position itself in the front of the pack on policy matters in the state, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, decentralization of decision-making, tax reform, and the creation of green jobs in the state.

In a statement to party members, activists, and community leaders throughout the state, Lynne Williams, state party chair, recently announced she would be running for the Green party nomination for governor in 2010. Williams is an attorney who has represented community groups throughout Maine in various struggles, including the fight against Plum Creek in the Moosehead Region, the opposition to LNG plants on Passamaquoddy Bay, lawsuits to force the state of Maine to protect threatened Canada lynx, opposition to inappropriately-sited wind plantation developments, and resistance to water mining by Nestle/Poland Springs.

Clearly, this action provided a much-needed cathartic experience after eight long years of the Bush regime.

Protesters hurl shoes on the Presidents last day
by Jamilla El-Shafei, Maine Green Party and event organizer

Hundreds of protesters, many Green, hurled shoes as they marched in Washington, D.C on President Bushís last day in office. On January 19, several thousand ended up gathering at DuPont Circle for a rally and march to the White House for a day of action called “Shoe Bush“. This references the Iraqi journalist Mutadhar Al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad.

In the Middle East, throwing a shoe is a great insult. The intent of the “Shoe Bush” action was to draw attention to the fact that Bush and Cheney were leaving office with no criminal investigations, no impeachment proceedings, no accountability whatsoever for their actions at home or abroad. The failure of Congress to enforce the Constitution and hold Bush and Cheney responsible is an insult to all Americans. The protest called for the Obama administration to appoint a special prosecutor against Bush and Cheney.

The day of action began with a rally led by D.C. activist Jay Marx and kicked off with a performance from the Raging Grannies, an ensemble of singing grandmothers. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright gave an inspiring speech as she stood on a stage, flanked by combat boots and a banner that read “The end of an error.” Iraq Veteran Adam Kokesh followed with his personal story about the mission in Fallujah and coming home to join Iraq Veterans Against the War. Many other speakers from a wide variety of organizations spoke out, with keynote speaker, David Swanson of After Downing Street and author of “Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union,” made the case for why we should shoe Bush and appoint a special prosecutor.

“We will throw shoes for the widows and orphans in Iraq, we will throw shoes for Mutadhar Al-Zaidi, a hero to billions, we will throw shoes to end torture, to end wars, to end occupations, to end warrantless spying, and to end the very idea that a President does not have to obey law,” said Swanson.

After the rally, protesters took to the street with shoes and combat boots in hand marching down Connecticut Avenue to the gate of the White House. Veterans threw combat boots and others followed with shoes collected from supporters. The White House guards stood ducking and dodging the shoes as secret service looked on but made no arrests.

People headed back to DuPont Circle, and by this time a crowd of several thousand had gathered to listen to music by Chris Wireless of Laughing Sam and to have some fun throwing shoes at the 25 foot high inflatable Bush effigy. As people hit the effigy with the shoes, raucous laughter burst out. In spite of the frigid cold, people stayed late into the evening and continued to throw shoes, even while as the effigy was being deflated. Clearly, this action provided a much-needed cathartic experience after eight long years of the Bush regime.

New York Greens hold forum to educate about new drilling methods
by Deyva Arthur, Green Party of New York State

The Steuben Greens decided not to wait but to take a proactive approach to encroaching natural gas drilling. With state hearings not far away, they felt residents of western New York needed to be prepared. This local Green Party held a forum on the health and environmental impacts of new horizontal gas drilling techniques proposed for the district. While natural gas drilling is becoming a more popular energy alternative to oil, communities across the country do not know the full environmental consequences of this industry.

The forum, organized in conjunction with the Bath Peace and Justice Group, began with a documentary film, (Title) by Two Cent Films and Crestone Media. The film documents the impacts of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in Colorado, and features Theo Colburn, a research chemist who has studied the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluids.†

Schoharie Valley from Vroman's Nose. photo by Andy Coates

With several public hearings coming up sponsored by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the Steuben Greens wanted local residents to be ready to voice their opinions about the substantial increase in drilling and held a discussion on how drilling impacts health and the environment. The forum was meant to prepare people to give testimony at the DEC hearings in Bath, Elmira and Allegany (near Olean).

The DEC has scheduled these hearings to receive comments on its “Draft Scope for Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on Well Permit Issuance for Horizontal Drilling and High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing to Develop the Marcellus Shale and Other Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs.” The scope states the DEC has received applications for permits to drill horizontal wells to evaluate and develop the Marcellus shale for natural gas production. Wells will undergo a stimulation process known as hydraulic fracturing. While the horizontal well applications received to date are for proposed locations in Chemung, Chenango and Tioga Counties, drilling could expand to other counties such as Delaware, Sullivan, Otsego, and Schoharie, where natural gas production has not previously been pursued.

“The rush to use natural gas as a transition fuel has serious negative environmental consequences.” David Cyr

As natural gas drilling increases, Greens such as David Cyr of the Green Party of New York State are speaking out. He said, the “politicized concept of ëenergy independence’ is producing an un-clean net result. Ö The rush to use natural gas as a transition fuel has serious negative environmental consequences. Whenever a corporate solution to an environmental problem seems remarkably green, look into it again – much more carefully.”

Cyr said it is predicted that over the next 20 years natural gas use will double and efforts to find new sources increase. To the west of the country there already is a sizable natural gas industry; now companies are eyeing the east, especially from Virginia up to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

As the Stueben Greens are finding, natural gas companies use newer methods for drilling. Cyr said natural gas companies have to go deeper and in more difficult places to find sources. Halliburton has developed a “high pressure, horizontally bored and hydrofractured drilling process Ö which essentially ó rather like alchemy ó converts stone into gas.”

Cyr said the natural gas industry has increased use of shale gas drilling by 300 percent since 1990 and is in turn creating substantial amounts of hazardous waste that can easily contaminate fresh water. In his description of the process he said, “The vertical holes are drilled far deeper and the bits bore multiple horizontal holes over great distances. A large number of hazardous chemicals are combined with enormous quantities of good fresh water. That “slick water” mixture is used to flood the drilled holes. By means of huge diesel burning air compressors, it’s then pressurized up to 8,000 psi. That converts as much as a thousand times more water than traditionally used into toxic wasteÖFar higher volumes of toxic fluids, and much higher pressure is used to make those fluids behave as powerful explosives to shatter stone formations that lie beneath water supplies.”

Cyr warns the public is ill informed regarding the impact of gas drilling and it is up to activists like the Stueben Greens to educate communities about the dangers. He said, “cheerfully optimistic TV advertisements assure viewers that gas corporations are going to bring about energy independence for America, by using new technologies providing amazing quantities of domestic ëgreen’ energy production. They don’t mention the invasive scale of well sites required to achieve that; nor their expropriation of enormous quantities of fresh water which is more valuable than the gas squandered to get it; nor the staggering amount of hazardous waste the new technology produces.”

Greens in Maine keep Town Meeting going
by John Rensenbrink,†Maine Independent Green Party

In the past year there came a troubling challenge to fundamental Green values of democracy in my hometown of Topsham, Maine. In the struggle that ensued, it is apparent how basic, from the ground up, the long struggle is for real democracy at every level, and how all struggles at all levels are deeply connected.

The challenge came from a strong effort by influential notables in Topsham to abandon our town meeting form of government and substitute it with a seven-person Town Council. The notables had successfully persuaded the town to establish a nine-person Charter Commission with the seductive argument that the town, having grown three times its size in thirty years, needed to have a close look at its form of government. They then worked successfully to run for the Commission. The Select Board appointed three people, while residents elected six positions, but it seemed only two members would be willing to keep our Town Meeting.†

A strong local government based directly on the sovereignty of the people is fundamental to self-governance.†

The Commission began meeting in January 2008. Already at their second meeting, they publicly announced their intention to come up with a town council form of government abandoning Town Meeting. They would work out the details in the next several months in time for it to be voted on in November during the presidential election cycle. This appalled residents partial to Town Meeting. We felt it would have been far more appropriate for a Charter Commission to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of various forms of government before coming to a conclusion. This would have put our existing town meeting form of government at least on an equal basis with other governmental possibilities during the months of discussion leading to the election.

A group of residents formed to resist the Charter Commission’s plan. We had a strategy – to not help improve the Charter Commission’s cumbersome proposal, to attend and express our opinion at their locally televised meetings, and to make a point of saying the Commission was headed in the wrong direction.

Following an initial meeting several of us cohered to do the hard labor: organizing, advocating, advertising, door-to-door canvassing, interviewing, TV programming, putting up signs all over town, phone calling, emailing, web-siting, fundraising, and participating in the one and only debate – all the things needed for a †strong campaign. In our partisan political loyalties, we were Republicans, Democrats, Greens, and Independents.

For the last two and a half months before the election on November 4, we gradually gained momentum. There were solid connections with traditionalists who did not want a change, progressives who valued the scope and meaning of town meetings, and those who though not attached to Town Meeting nevertheless did not like the version of a Town Council proposed by the Commission. Crossing many political, economic and cultural lines, we became The Committee to Vote No on the Charter (CVNC).

It was difficult to be optimistic when the regional daily newspaper, the Times Record, endorsed a Town Council, despite numerous op-ed pieces against it in their newspaper and the CVNC meeting with the editorial board of the paper. Another regional paper, the weekly Forecaster, did the same. To counter the daily newspapers, the coalition put special CVNC flyers, placed ads, and contributed commentary in The Town Cryer, a local monthly, which is mailed gratis to every household in Topsham. This strategy proved very successful.

Still, a formidable hurdle was reaching out to new residents not familiar with Town Meeting. For the past 20 years, Topsham has been the fastest growing town in Maine, increasing from 4000 inhabitants in 1975 to over 11,000 today. A flood of people would be voting (it was the Obama election) but many unknowledgeable to Topsham ways. Also troublesome was the language of the referendum on the ballot. It invited a Yes vote if anyone was unsure how to vote and hadn’t paid much attention to the public debate.

Come election night, the counting in Topsham on our referendum was done by 9:00 p.m. We won! Hallelujah! It was a convincing victory with a 600-vote majority of 2950 to 2325.

CVNC immediately called for the creation of an ad hoc town committee to come up with recommendations to make Town Meetings more accessible and participatory. The hope is to incorporate a code of ethics and recall provisions in our current form of government, forestalling any attempt to depart from Town Meeting government. The Board of Selectmen approved our proposal for a Topsham Government Improvement Committee on December 4. Four members of the CVNC have applied to be on it, including myself, and chances are good we will be appointed.†

We will strive to make Topsham’s Town Meeting a strong vehicle for community participation in government and for unity in the face of stringent economic times. Securing the basis for self-government also then provides the basis for greater degrees of local self-reliance in meeting social, economic, and ecological problems. We can try to work this into emerging efforts for regional cooperation as we move along.

A strong local government based directly on the sovereignty of the people is fundamental to self-governance. It ties in with community self-reliance in the basics of life, which in turn ties in with a solid and creative foundation for effective democracy at the regional, national, and global levels.

The leading members of the ìCommittee to Vote No on the Charterî (CVNC) who defeated a Charter Commissionís efforts to abolish Town Meeting in Topsham, Maine. From left to right, Angela Twitchell, John Rensenbrink, Jim Howard, and Liz Armstrong. Photographer: Charles Crosby

An excerpt from the Green presidential candidateís speech

More than 20,000 people rallied in Washington D.C., January 10th as part of an international call to action with protests simultaneously occurring across the county and around the world to support people in Gaza and call for end to its destruction. A keynote speaker in Washingtonís “Let Gaza Live” rally was 2008 Green presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney.

Only days before, McKinney narrowly escaped when the boat she was on to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza was intentionally and repeatedly rammed by the Israeli military in international waters. The Israelis then sprayed gunfire around her boat; despite the envoyís broadcast they were unarmed. McKinneyís boat was able to make it to land safely, but was unable to deliver the much-needed medical supplies.

Still reeling from her own personal experience, McKinneyís speech in Washington pointed out the role of the U.S. government in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and called citizens to speak out and to vote.

Everywhere else around the world the carnage that is Gaza is being seen and the people are revolted by what they see.

†

Here are Cynthia McKinneyís words at the “Let Gaza Live” Rally:

We don’t see the images. They are neatly censored from our view in this country. But everywhere else around the world the carnage that is Gaza is being seen and the people are revolted by what they see.

They see dead babies, decapitated bodies, defenseless relief workers killed. Maimed men, makeshift morgues, mortified mothers.

They see exploding white phosphorus shells, cluster bombs, depleted uranium munitions.

They see what is reportedly the world’s fourth most powerful military using all of its power against a defenseless people.

In fact, they are witnesses to 15 days of war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

They see Hugo Chavez expel Venezuela’s Israeli Ambassador and they see lawmakers in Ecuador condemn Israel’s actions, calling for an investigation into Israel’s crimes against humanity.

And despite the obvious facts of an Israeli-sponsored terror campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, a piece of territory roughly twice the size of the District of Columbia, they see the U.S. Congress support a resolution totally supporting Israel, even though Israel is in violation of U.S. and international law.

They see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, swaggering in insult to black America by initially refusing to seat Roland Burris from Illinois in the Senate, yet that same Reid cowers before the pro-Israel lobby, and they wonder why.

And sadly, they see the U.S. President-elect, who roared onto the scene like a lion, remain as quiet as a lamb in the face of the utter inhumanity of Israel’s actions, and they wonder why.

And then, they see us. Gathered here in front of the White House, reaffirming our own humanity. The tears of the Palestinians roll down our cheeks, even as we bury our own victims of police murder.

A new day is coming in U.S. politics. We will use the power of our vote to change U.S. policy. We will no longer check our values at the door and support politicians and political parties that fail to deliver.

Not one more bomb to Israel.

In defense of humanity, we will not give up and we will win.

†

Cynthia McKinney at the rally. photo courtesy of http://whitehouseprotest.org/

†by Wendy Thompson, Detroit Green Party, UAW convention delegate and former president

In December, an auto caravan traveled from Detroit to the White House to speak out for declining conditions for union autoworkers. Then in January, more than 150 autoworkers and community supporters, including Green Party members, held a rally in front of the Detroit Auto Show. They voiced anger about the anti-union conditions that outgoing President Bush has placed on federal loans to the auto industry. Wages, benefits and working conditions are to be forced down to non-union levels. At least half of the money the company transfers to the union for health care is to be in company stock. Protesters are circulating a petition requesting that President Obama rescind the Bush restrictions.†

Union autoworkers and supporters protest declining conditions this January at the Detroit Auto Show. photo by Alan Pollock

After Election Day, union autoworkers were portrayed by legislators and the media as “lazy and overpaid” with a wage of $70 an hour. Actual union wages are $28, not including benefits. To protest these lies by members of Congress, in early December autoworkers organized a caravan to Washington. D.C. with participants coming from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Delaware.

At a press conference in Washington members of the auto caravan called for health care and pensions for all, and for shuttered auto plants to be converted to making much-needed mass transit and light rail vehicles, or alternative energy equipment such as wind turbines. Later the auto caravan protesters gave an earful to Alabama Senator Richard Shelby and met with Michigan Representative John Conyers, who has introduced a single-payer health care bill, HR676.†

After World War II, the United Auto Workers (UAW) promoted small cars and single payer health care, but management preferred a health care system that was not government based. They liked the control it gave them over their workforce. For the union, company-paid health care was just a fallback position. Now, because bad management decisions have led to a loss of market share, we face a crisis.

I retired three years ago at the age of 57, opening up a decent job for a young person. Since then, management has been trying to get out of its commitment to provide retirement benefits for me and many others. This is a serious concern, as the majority of my Detroit working-class neighbors rely on UAW pensions or survivors benefits.

Everything changed for autoworkers when the Delphi Corporation, one of the largest auto parts manufacturers, declared bankruptcy. It became clear that the company was trying to get out from under its contractual obligations. Pension and health care benefits were reduced. The union agreed to concessions, and broke with the principle of solidarity by negotiating two-tier wages and benefits for new hires. But these concessions only encouraged the corporations to further attack workers.

Now Bush’s anti-union actions may cause unions to cease to exist as a viable social force. That would make a whole lot of corporate heads happy, but it would end up depressing the wages of all workers. Union workers make 25 percent more than non-union workers but without that standard, non-union wages would also plummet.

The autoworker caravan has continued its organizing with a website, and will be sending out the first batch of petition signatures to President Obama. We are also gathering names for an open letter to Southern transplant autoworkers (non-union workers). People can go to the website and add their names to the letter. In the early spring, we plan to visit various plants and talk with workers.

Additional information can be found at www.autoworkercaravan.org.

†

The life of California Green, Peter Camejo
by Mark Dunlea, Green Party of New York State

Peter Miguel Camejo was a student leader, a civil rights advocate, a socially responsible investment pioneer, author, and a founder of the California Green Party. He died in September from lymphoma cancer with his wife Morella at his side, only days after completing his autobiography.†

Camejo used his eloquence, sharp wit, and barnstorming bravado to blaze a trail for 21st century third-party politics in the U.S. He ran for president in 1976 as the Socialist Workers Party candidate. He made three gubernatorial runs in California as a Green, including one in the 2002 election when he earned 5.3 percent of the vote. In the 2003 recall election, he debated Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis. In San Francisco, Camejo captured 15 percent of the city’s vote, placing second – ahead of the Republican Party’s gubernatorial candidate. This was an unprecedented electoral accomplishment for a third party in San Francisco, and in California. In the 2004 presidential election, he was Ralph Nader’s vice-presidential running mate. He always considered himself a socialist at heart, calling himself a “watermelon Green – Green on the outside, red on the inside.”

photo by Luke Thomas

Camejo’s example and tireless party work served as an inspiration to potential Green Party candidates across California. Camejo’s 2002 gubernatorial campaign was the precursor to the election, or near election, of several high-profile Green Party candidates. Former Green Party San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzales successfully harnessed the voter energy precipitated by Camejo’s gubernatorial run and nearly toppled Democrat Gavin Newsom during San Francisco’s 2003 razor-thin mayoral run-off election.?

“Among the many causes Peter championed were a living wage, health care for all, and making the U.S. the world leader in renewable energy,” noted Ralph Nader. “He was a passionate advocate for electoral reform, pressing for proportional representation and instant run-off voting [which allows voters to rank their top choices] in an effort to overturn the 200 year-old dysfunctional money-dominated, winner-take-all system that disrespects the will of the people.”†??

Peter Miguel Camejo was born in 1939 to wealthy Venezuelan parents. Because his mother felt more comfortable with the American standard of health care, she gave birth at a New York hospital in the Bronx, giving Camejo dual citizenship. He spent his early childhood in Venezuela.

Camejo earned a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT, and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He dropped out to pursue civil rights work in the American south, where he marched in Selma, Alabama. Later he resumed his studies at UC Berkeley, but was expelled for his vocal criticism of the Vietnam War. His official transgression was “unauthorized use of a microphone” as part of a Free Speech Movement demonstration. Then-governor Ronald Reagan included college-student Camejo on his 1968 list of the 10 most dangerous Californians, noting that he was “present at all anti-war demonstrations.”

“Peter Camejo was a rare transcendental figure of the American left.” Antonio Gonzalez

“Peter Camejo was a rare transcendental figure of the American left,” wrote Antonio Gonzalez. Rooted in the historic Trotskyist left of the Fourth International, Camejo was culturally a creature of the New Left sixties, during which he excelled as a leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and anti-Vietnam-war movement. In the early 1980s Camejo came to believe that the fundamental problem of American left politics was its inability to connect to the American experience.†

Howie Hawkins, a co-founder of the Green Party in America who worked with Camejo in 2006 on the book Green Party Strategy Debate, remarked, “Peter had a fierce commitment to civil liberties and civil rights that led him to champion grassroots democracy, including within the Greens. He wanted to see democracy extended into the economy. He always wanted to make sure that the rank and file of any movement he was involved with knew what was going on and had a way to participate. His Avocado Declaration in the 2004 Presidential race put the need for political independence into historical context for the Greens.”

“History shows that the Democrats and Republican are not two counterpoised forces, but rather complementary halves of a single two-party system,” Camejo wrote. “For over 130 years the two major parties have been extremely effective in preventing the emergence of any mass political formation that could challenge their political monopoly. Both major parties have been dominated by moneyed interests and today reflect the historic period of corporate rule. Every major gain in our history ñ the battles for Bill of Rights, to end slavery, and to establish free public education ñ has been the product of direct action by movements independent of the two major parties and in opposition to them. Since the Civil War, without exception, the Democratic Party has opposed all mass struggles for democracy and social justice.”

Greg Gerritt reflects on his life as a Green and his new direction
by Greg Gerritt, Green Party of Rhode Island and founding member of the Green Party in the United States

After 25 years of actively working within the Green Party apparatus in the United States, I have decided to step out of the bureaucracy and devote all of my Green Party time to working with Green candidates. My colleagues have asked me to reflect a bit on my work as a Green over those years, so here is the very short version.

I first heard about the Green Party when I learned of the initial success of the German Green Party in 1980. I immediately noted we needed a Green Party in the U.S. Early in 1984, John Rensenbrink and a few colleagues called the first Green Party (GP) meeting in the U.S. in Augusta, Maine. I did not know about that first meeting, but I went to the second meeting in February 1984, and until November 2008 I have been continually involved in some sort of Green Party bureaucracy.
†

"If the Green Party ever becomes the kind of political force we hope it will be, no one, absolutely no one, will be more responsible than Greg Gerritt." Richard Walton, Green Party of Rhode Island.

In 1986, I was the first Green in the U.S. to run for state legislature. It was the right-sized district for a shoe leather campaign, about 8200 people, and after knocking on about 90 percent of the doors in the district, I received 16 percent of the vote in a three party race, nearly winning in my own community and coming within 6 percent of placing second. To this day I maintain that state representative races, especially in states with relatively small districts, are excellent for Greens to win with shoe leather campaigns.

†

In my campaign, I focused on bad forest practices, a bad economy, and credibility on economic issues. The ability to demonstrate that a Green economy can lead to prosperity is what will determine our long-term success. Unless Americans believe a green economy works and can provide a decent living for them and their neighbors; we do not get elected. Good candidates address this daily.

In 1991, the Green National Gathering in Elkins, West Virginia, was a tumultuous affair. I was chosen to lead a committee coming out of this event that would explore what type of structure the GP should use for its national committee. In 1992 each committee member wrote an essay on what they thought would be best. I compiled the essays and submitted them. My suggestion was that we become a federation of state parties, with each state party being fairly autonomous. I maintained this was useful because it could partly compensate for the ridiculous array of election laws we face and would prevent a small number of state parties from controlling the whole party.

To this day, I maintain state representative races, especially in states with relatively small districts, are excellent for Greens to win with shoe leather campaigns.

The federation approach was continued when we transformed from the Association of State Green Parties to the Green Party of the United States. Although some Greens still advocate for individual membership, which would give California dominance, the association of state parties has proven to be a viable structure.

While the GP caught a wave with Ralph Nader in 2000, the world and the party has changed, and for 2008 we needed a candidate dedicated to the party. As a member of the Presidential Campaign Support Committee, I led efforts to educate the state parties and the potential candidates about the nomination process, and helped them prepare for a crazy year.

I was proud of the four candidates who made it to the convention, Jesse Johnson, Cynthia McKinney, Kent Mesplay, and Kat Swift, all of whom used their campaigns to build the party. I am also proud that my last major action for the Green Party was to lead the workshop at the national committee meeting the morning after the nomination to help our nominee, Cynthia McKinney, integrate her campaign into the party structure.

As I step away from the bureaucracy, my next Green project will be to create a consulting business called the Green Party Candidates and Campaign Resource Center. It will be a small network of experienced Green campaigners and former candidates who will work with Green candidates, campaign teams, and state parties to help them run better campaigns. I have already lined up a number of cooperators for this project, and, now that I no longer have any official positions, I am moving swiftly on the project, recruiting Green campaign consultants, and publicizing it so by the time the 2010 election season rolls around, many months from now for winter elections, we shall have a team in place, ready and able to help every Green candidate who can use it. It will have no bureaucracy and no nay-sayers and, after 25 years in the bureaucracy, I am really going to enjoy that.

Anyone who wants to be involved, drop me a line at gerritt@mindspring.com.

Arkansas:
Richard Carroll elected State Representative – 89 percent of vote. Rebekah Kennedy ran for U.S. Senate receiving the highest vote total ever for a Green for this position at 21 percent.

California:
Seven elected, including Bruce Delgado, Mayor of Marina City – 53.7 percent and Ross Mirikami, re-elected to San Francisco Board of Supervisors – 77 percent.

Colorado:
Art Goodtimes elected County Commissioner – 48 percent.

District of Columbia:
Seven Greens elected to Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.

Florida:
Cara Jennings re-elected to City Commission of Lake Worth – 55.1 percent.

Illinois:
Ran 52 Green candidates for a variety of offices with 10 for U.S. Congress.

Massachusetts:
Five elected to Town Meetings and one to County Assembly.

Maine:
Two elected, including John Eder, former state legislator, to Charter Commission of Cumberland County. Four of six candidates for state offices received more than 25 percent of the vote.

Wisconsin:†
Eleven out of fourteen county board candidates elected, including four in Dane County (Madison).