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.

Bombing Tripoli is Wrong: Recommended Guidelines for Green Thinking and Action

By John Rensenbrink, Senior Advisor to the Maine Green Party

The continuous NATO bombing of Tripoli must stop. It’s wrong. It’s criminal. It’s self-defeating. It’s unutterably stupid. Bombing has never won a war. The bombing is a major departure from the United Nations R2P (Responsibility to Protect) resolution.  The R2P gave no authorization of any kind to bomb and bomb in order to bludgeon the Gadaffi regime into submission and elimination and thus achieve a regime change. The R2P resolution by the UN Security Council was to protect civilians in imminent danger.

If NATO, and the Obama-led hawks in Washington, had really wanted to protect civilians, and if they had really wanted to stave off the suppression of the rebellion by Gadaffi (as they say they did), why wouldn’t they have taken action to prevent the flow of all arms to Gadaffi; and, in order to do that, worked diligently through persistent diplomacy to persuade all nations to desist allowing arms to find their way to Gadaffi.  That could be effective and in keeping with R2P.

Green Parties in many places are in internal turmoil about this. Tempers are flying. Accusations abound. Some more reasonable voices say don’t get involved since both sides stink; and besides, we don’t really know enough about what is actually going on. Others say it’s a a clear instance of intervention and Greens should condemn all interventions.

This seems plausible. But I’d like to know more. Does being against intervention include being against non-military intervention, too?  Is supporting the people of Gaza, and thereby supporting Hamas, with shiploads of goods and medicines something that should not be done since it’s an intervention? If nations were to take critical non-military sanctions against the Syrian government, should that be opposed as  intervention? The action by the World Court to bring leaders of governments to the bar of justice – should that be opposed as intervention?

My answer to these questions is the need to distinguish carefully and sharply between military and non-military interventions, opposing the former and learning to judge each case of the latter with the following principle in mind: does the non-military intervention protect and help people in their struggle for freedom and justice with governments who use violence against them. If so, then such intervention should not be opposed and can be actively promoted.

When U.S. Greens, and other Greens in the world, declare strong opposition to military intervention (meaning physically violent actions) by the U.S. government, do they also mean that we should oppose military intervention and violent means of any kind by any nation or insurgent group? I hope so. Or is only the United States doing it that’s bad? I favor a clear stand of being opposed to military and any form of violent coercion by physical means by any government or insurgent group in the world. U.S Greens can get so mad at their government that they get mesmerized by their own anger and say or do what seems to be, and is often taken to be, unvarnished anti-Americanism.  We can do better than that.
 

US Greens celebrate Egypt's success

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States congratulated the Egyptian people and called President Hosni Mubarak's resignation a huge step towards democracy, human rights, and stability for their country.

"The Egyptian revolution is a victory for the people of Egypt, and also the victory for an idea -- the idea that violent regimes can be overthrown through nonviolent means," said Romi Elnagar, member of the Green Party of Louisiana and wife and mother of Egyptian-Americans. "While police and rampaging pro-Mubark thugs killed 350 and injured thousands more, the protesters themselves remained overwhelmingly peaceful."

Green Party response to State of the Union

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party leaders offered comments on President Obama's 2011 State of the Union speech to Congress and the nation, scheduled for Tuesday, January 25. The Green response covers major issues the President will discuss in his speech, as well as topics he won't address.

"There's a lot of talk about Democrats and Republicans 'reaching across the aisle' during the State of the Union. What about the gap between Washington and the rest of the country, much wider than the aisle between the two Titanic parties?" said Carl Romanelli, 2006 Green candidate for the US Senate in Pennsylvania.