The controversy over Israel's refusal to allow an official visit by two members of Congress highlights the negative effects of a misguided bipartisan attempt by representatives of both major political parties to attack and smear the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights and freedom. By an overwhelming margin in July, the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution to condemn the BDS movement and to endorse an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution. Legislatures in more than two dozen U.S. states have passed measures condemning the BDS movement or banning contracts with businesses involved with it. Continue reading

Elections Watchdog Seth Woolley Will Run for Portland City Council Portland, Or. – Elections watchdog and Pacific Green Party activist Seth Woolley will run for Portland City Council in 2020. Over the past several years, Woolley, 38, a who works as a software engineer for Uber, has watch-dogged Portland's elections and filed election-laws complaints with city and state agencies, while pushing for better government. This is reflected in his platform of progressive election reform, government accountability and environmental protection. Continue reading

Insert photo above: Don Fitz, right, a member of the Green Party of St. Louis, comments on the Green New Deal at a panel discussion (Photo: Austin Huguelet/Springfield News-Leader) SPRINGFIELD, MO – In Missouri's halls of power, the Green New Deal is often used as a punching bag. When the state's dominant political party came together for its annual convention this year, Republicans like U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner blasted Democrats' wide-ranging plan to tackle climate change as a waste of money. Republicans who dominate Jefferson City agreed, writing resolutions urging the rest of Missouri's representatives to oppose the idea. Continue reading

TROY, NY — The Democrats and Republicans in this town better watch out, because the Green Party is coming for them this fall. The Green's nominee for city council president, you see, is a well-known Troy politician with a solid following and a long history in government. She is really going to give those corporatist Republicrats the old heave-ho. Continue reading

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Green Party candidate Allen Smith brought his 9th Congressional District campaign to the Duke Energy Center in Uptown Charlotte on May 30. Smith and the Green Party want to see the multi-billion-dollar energy company, and other utilities like it, become publicly owned. Continue reading

An interview with Ben Manski by David Cobb for The Progressive When establishment media began to cover the Green New Deal, I thought of Ben Manski. When I first read about tens of thousands of students going on #ClimateStrike I thought of him again, because I remember him promoting this idea five years ago. As an activist committed to “building a democracy movement for the USA”—the motto of Manski’s pro-democracy Liberty Tree Foundation he founded in 2004, he helped set the table for the Seattle WTO protests, the movement against corporate personhood, the Wisconsin Uprising, and much more. He has been ahead of the curve time and time again, so much so that folks in Madison, Wisconsin, where he lived from 1982 to 2013, took to calling him “The Manski with the Planski.” Continue reading

A rabbi in Youngstown, Ohio, who is running for the Green Party’s presidential nomination, was fired from his part-time job as spiritual leader of a local congregation because, he says, of comments he made criticizing Israel. Dario Hunter, in an interview published on Feb. 19 on Cleveland.com about his bid for president of the United States, had said that the United States should stop providing any aid to Israel because of its’ “horribly atrocious” treatment of Palestinians. Continue reading

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) – A Connecticut elections commission has approved a state campaign grant for a Green Party candidate — the first in the 12-year history of the Citizens' Elections Program. Green Party candidate Mirna Martinez is running for a vacant state House of Representatives seat in New London, and has qualified for $14,075 in funding. The Day reports she is the third candidate to qualify for funding leading up to the Feb. 26 special election. Continue reading

Conway, AR – There is a legal case and a moral case against Senate Bill 163, which would make it harder for third parties to get on the ballot in Arkansas. The legal case may not be as strong as I thought it was, but the moral case ought to be strong enough. First the background. In Arkansas, parties can appear on the ballot by winning 3 percent of the vote in the previous presidential or gubernatorial election. Failing that, they can collect 10,000 signatures. Continue reading