National Convention shows Green Party is a Political Home for the Occupy Movement

Occupier-turned-candidate for US Congress, Ursula Rozum of New York

Whether it was the slew of Occupiers turned candidates, such as US Congressional Candidate Ursula Rozum of Syracuse, NY, or State Senate candidate Asher Platts of Portland, Maine, or the attendance of prominent figures within the movement such as Captain Ray Lewis, Margaret Flowers, Rev. Pinsky of Batten Harbor, MI, or the Wisconsin Capital Occupation organizer-turned-Jill Stein-campaign-manager Erika Wolf, this year at the 2012 Green Party convention it became incredibly clear that the Occupy Movement has a political home in the Green Party.

Occupier-turned-candidate for State Senate, Asher Platts of Maine

“This seems a really natural fit,” said Asher Platts, who since returning from three months of Occupying Wall St in NYC, and Freedom Plaza in DC, was elected Chair of the Maine Green Party, “the Green Party has been working on the same issues as the Occupy movement for the past 20 years. These long-time activists have been building this organization for two decades, and now people are finally beginning to understand what we've been saying all along-- the two party system isn't working, corporate money buys our politicians before they even get elected, and we need to make rapid and radical changes to the way we organize our society for a more just, equitable, and peaceful world.”

Dr. Margaret Flowers, a long-time single-payer advocate and an organizer of the October 2011 occupation of DC, addressed the crowd in a Keynote speech saying, “Social Movements are what is needed to make change, but when they have been most successful is when they have had an electoral arm to that movement. The Green Party is that electoral arm of this movement.”

Long-time homelessness activist and Green
Party Vice Presidential Nominee Cheri Honkala

Cheri Honkala, a long time anti-foreclosure activist, founder of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights campaign, and formerly homeless single mother accepted the nomination of Vice President.

Recounting how in the 1980s, she occupied an abandoned house after a drunk driver hit and totaled the car that she and her son were living in after losing their apartment, “I faced a choice-- occupy an abandoned heated home, or freeze to death in the streets. I chose to live, and I chose to let my son [actor and screenwriter Mark Benson] live. It was at that moment, that awoke in me, a burning desire for Justice.”

Green Party Presidential Candidate, Jill Stein

The Green Party's National Convention concluded with the nomination of long-time environmental activist Dr Jill Stein as their presidential candidate.