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Green Party at two big September events - Party calls for green solutions to economic and environmental crises
Green Party at two big September events - Party calls for green solutions to economic and environmental crises
GREEN PARTY OF PENNSYLVANIA
http://www.gpofpa.org
For Immediate Release:
Friday, September 4, 2009
Contacts:
Hillary Kane, Chair, 267-971-3559, hillarya@upenn.edu
Ed Bortz, Green Party of Allegheny County, 412-231-1581, ebbortz@gmail.com
Three Rivers Climate Convergence Sept. 20-25
Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Festival Sept. 18-20
The Green Party of Pennsylvania is mobilizing for two important events in September. Through teach-ins, marches, and fun festivals, the party will be supporting its core principals of social justice and ecology.
In late September, all eyes will be on Pittsburgh as the city hosts the G20 Summit. The "G20," or Group of Twenty, is an organization that represents the finance ministers and central bankers of the world's twenty largest economies. This group meets periodically to make policies and decisions about world trade and global financial markets, typically behind closed doors. The group does not have a charter and its debates are not public, yet its decisions have impact far and wide.
The Green Party, along with many other activist organizations, believes that the G20 makes policies to primarily benefit the rich and facilitate the growth of financial markets with little concern for the impact these policies have on the world's poor and working people, let alone the environment.
As with previous meetings of the G20, many social movements are coming together to put on a week of teach-ins and activism to respond to these harmful policies. Activities in Pittsburgh will culminate in a Peoples' March (http://pittsburghendthewar.org), Friday, September 25th, beginning at 12 noon at the corner of Fifth & Craft Avenues in downtown Pittsburgh.
The "Three Rivers Climate Convergence" (http://3riversconvergence.org/), also happening that week, aims to connect the climate crisis with the global financial crisis and to call on world leaders to take real action to create "alternatives & initiatives to create localized, low-carbon sustainable communities and economies" rather than corporate-led "solutions" that merely exacerbate the problem. More events are listed at: http://g20media.org
"We are hopeful that thousands will come to Pittsburgh to clearly present alternatives to the G20 Finance Ministers' agenda, an agenda that has given us war, poverty, injustice, and a melting planet," said Ed Bortz, Green Party of Allegheny County Secretary. Coincidentally, the coal industry is also having a major national conference earlier the same week in Pittsburgh; the marches and activities are a response to that event as well. The Green Party of Allegheny County has been working with local organizers to promote the event. Green Party leaders Jesse Johnson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Johnson_%28politician%29) of West Virginia and Malik Rahim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_Rahim) of Louisiana will be in Pittsburgh to speak at various events that week.
The Green Party of Pennsylvania will also be at the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Festival (http://www.paenergyfest.com) in Kempton, Pennsylvania September 18-21. The festival offers a fun atmosphere for the whole family and features workshops from energy experts and demonstrations of renewable energy technology.
"This festival is a great opportunity to meet many like-minded people on sustainable energy issues," said Green Party of Pennsylvania Steering Committee member Jessica Ashman. "It grows bigger each year, and it's always been an excellent venue for us to reach out to people, and vice versa."
The Green Party of Pennsylvania, (http://www.gpofpa.org), is an independent political party founded on the four pillars of grassroots democracy, social justice, ecological wisdom and nonviolence.
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