Dear Alex and Jeffrey,
As you know, I am in the presidential race; specifically, I'm here in California for the winter, on the primary ballot as a Green and tramping
around the state speaking mainly to small groups of activists and greens
while trying to get spots on the alternative media. There's no point at this stage in trying to run a national campaign; what I really want to do is to advance a certain set of ideas, for which this setup is as good
as any. Depending on how California goes, I'll decide what comes next.
Basically, the greens in the US are in a realo/fundi situation, where the underlying content is the depth of confrontation with capital. I want to advance the fundi perspective, which I see as "eco-socialist"--a
position I have been working on for some time with Jim O'Connor and the Capitalism Nature Socialism group. You can see what I have in mind in the appended platform. Forgive the rhetoric and the condensation. Its logic is to stay away from the centrism of most electoral activity, and thereby to ignite the suppressed longing for radical change.
The realos, mainly centered in the Association of State Green Parties, are running Nader (and, I suppose, Medea Benjamin), hoping to literally cash in on his name recognition with federal matching funds. There are a
lot of well-intentioned folks in this, but their analysis is piecemeal, shallow and reformist, and the political practice is top-down, manipulative and dissociated from vital movement activity. I would say they are aiming at being a responsible opposition party, just enough left of the Democrats to appease the conscience, but no real threat to the ruling order. I want to bring that order down; and I think the times
are ripening for an assault.
Anything you can do to bring this to the general attention will be greatly appreciated. I'd love to talk further, if you could spare any time--at deedee's number 858-457-5616. Also, I'll be travelling in northern Calif in February, and could stop by Petrolia to say hello, give a talk, whatever.
Best wishes,
Joel
PS: there's more of my material on the website:
www.greens.org/ny/kovel/
including a position piece on the WTO wherein I try to envision a "World
People's Trade Organization."
PRESIDENTIAL PLATFORM JOEL KOVEL GREEN PARTY
I believe
o In the inherent dignity and worth of all beings; * That humanity is part of nature; * That human society took a wrong turn millennia ago, when the introduction of patriarchy and class set going a regime of domination and empire; * That the present stage of this regime is the global capitalist system;
* That the United States is the cockpit of the world system; * That the present world system is unsustainable as well as unjust, and must be overcome and replaced by one worthy of humanity and nature if we
and our children are to have a worthwhile future; * That the Greens can play a decisive role in this transformation, as its political agent; therefore, * That the Green program should prefigure an ecological society in harmony with nature.
Although we cannot rebuild the world in the here and now, we can point a
way through maximum feasible demands on the ruling order. We thereby denounce the system's betrayal of humanity and nature, and point the way
toward the distant goal of a better world. This approach underlies the formulation of the following planks in my platform:
1. Universal, democratically administered health care as a human right, through abolition of the managed-care HMO system and its replacement by a single-payer, tax-financed structure, with community control and access to alternative healing systems. 2. All-out assault on the causes of global warming, beginning with ratification of the Kyoto Protocols, and extending through a Comprehensive Ecological Transformation Act, to foster the creation of non-polluting technologies grounded in renewable energy sources; also to
create and train for new jobs, and a renewal of urban space as the location of these new centers of ecological production. This transition to be financed through taxes outlined below, and savings through military cuts (#4, 6). 3. Protection from the ecologically devastating effects of global capital: repeal of NAFTA, sharp restrictions on IMF, WTO, World Bank, leading to their replacement by democratically chosen organizations responsive to needs of labor and the environment. Specifically, banning importation of child-labor and sweatshop-produced commodities; rapid phase-out of pesticides; ban on patenting of life-forms as well of the release of trangenic organisms. 4. Fiscal policy: socialization of finance; beginning with the central banks and extending through community institutions, finance to be under democratic control, and eventual ownership. Tax policy: increase in progressive income tax on wealth to replace payroll and sales taxes; sharp confiscatory taxes on personal wealth over $2 million; carbon taxes, borne by corporate producers, and targetted to reversing global warming; Tobin taxes on electronic transnational capital flows; taxes on
stock options and mergers, along with increase in corporate income taxes. 5. Electoral reform: free and equal air-time for all qualified candidates, costs to be borne by the networks who have usurped publically owned airwaves; public funding for qualified candidates with limits on campaign expenditures; Proportional Representation. 6. Seventy-five percent cuts in military budget, with retraining of service personnel; abolition of the CIA; all-out effort to eliminate nuclear weapons (and power plants); no anti-missile program. 7. Repeal of Clinton's Welfare Act. Replacement with jobs programs (viz.
plank # 2), guaranteed income, along with income ceiling so that differential between most and least paid members of society is 4:1; minimum wage of $10/hour, with federal subsidies to small businesses to enable them to bear costs; comprehensive community care of mentally ill;
massive assault on all causes of homelessness. 8. Ending competition between states to hold or lure corporations; corporations to pay uniform community investment tax. 9. Expand worker's rights: repeal Taft-Hartley; ban on scabbing; full collective bargaining rights of all governmental employees; opposition to prison labor competing with free labor; 32 hour work week without loss of pay or benefits; family and educational leave support; Card-check recognition of union bargaining status. 10. Restore public education through college to the glory of its original promise, and ensure it is available and affordable to all Americans. 11. Full civil rights for undocumented workers, including enforcment of minimum wage; accelerated citizenship status for all who demonstrate a useful role in society. 12. Democratization of speech. Rewriting of 14th Amendment to deny corporations status as persons; building democratic and community media,
funded by a 2% tax on advertisments. 13. Dismantle the racist Prison-Industrial Complex. Moratorium on new prison construction; funding for comprehensive, degree-granting education for inmates; early-release for non-violent offenders. Abolish the death penalty. 14. Defense of full reproductive rights and full civil rights for sexual
minorities, including legalization of gay marriage. 15. Decriminalization of marijuana, with government controlled distribution to eliminate profiteering; legalization of hemp. 16. Support for small-scale ecological activities: subsidies and tax-breaks for organic agriculture, permaculture; financial incentives for credit unions, community banks, local currencies; encouragement of usufruct, for example, squatters, community gardens on abandoned property. 17. Open a national dialogue on transferring ownership of corporations to "stakeholders," beginning with workers and communites of location--many of the foregoing measures to be seen as transitional to this goal, which includes democratic and ecological coordination of the economy on a global scale.
To contact JOEL KOVEL: 858-457-5616 jkovel at prodigy.net www.greens.org/ny/kovel/