My lord, there are infinite enemies and you don't even respect your own internal democratic processes within the Green Party.
-- Nathan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>; <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 10:49 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] Greens for Nader!
Why support the Nader/Camejo campaign? There are many reasons, first of all to clearly oppose the bipartisan consensus for the wars, occupations, and empire and bring the opposition to the attention of masses of people who want to Bring the Troops Home Now -- a necessary condition for rebuilding anti-war, global justice, and other social movements whose voices have been drowned out by the Anybody But Bush loudspeakers.
The second reason is to support the Greens for Nader initiative: <http://greensfornader.net/>.
It is the principled Greens working on the Nader/Camejo campaign -- not the fearful Cobb/LaMarche faction running to help elect John Kerry -- who have what it takes to grow the Green Party into a social force capable of displacing the Democratic Party and becoming the main political party of the working class and our allies.
Greens for Nader is now circulating a petition drafted by Peter Camejo, Matt Gonzalez, and Jason West to "protest the campaign against the voters by Democratic Party operatives trying to keep Ralph Nader & Peter Miguel Camejo off the ballot." Click on <http://www.petitiononline.com/glfn/petition.html> to sign the petition.
Here is the content of the petition:
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To: Green Party Members and Supporters
The following statement was issued July 13, 2004 by leaders of the Green Party throughout the United States supporting the Nader/Camejo ticket in 2004
The undersigned Green Party members protest the campaign against the voters by Democratic Party operatives trying to keep Ralph Nader & Peter Miguel Camejo off the ballot.
These Democrats seek to prevent voters from hearing an anti-war, anti-Patriot Act choice that defends our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and supports the rights and health of working people.
The Democrats are backing a candidate that supports the war, wants additional troops sent to the Middle East, voted for the Patriot Act,and other critical pro-Bush policies. In choosing John Kerry as their standard bearer the Democrats go against the majority views of their own party that are closer to the positions defended by Nader/Camejo for peace and justice.
The Democrats along with the Republicans have steadfastly refused to allow run off elections such as IRV (Instant Run Off Voting) that would allow people to be free to vote for the candidate they support, would avoid a so-called spoiler effect allowing the will of the electorate to be respected.
This decision not to pass IRV is not accidental. They oppose free elections. They have saddled our nation with one of the most undemocratic money dominated electoral system in the world. They do not want the people to be able to openly express their views or to be free to organize alternative choices. Yet 25% of the people are no longer even registered Democrat or Republican and 100 million voters do not vote.
The polls indicate approximately ten million people are supporting Nader/Camejo. These voters are primarily independent voters and youth. We the undersigned join with these millions of voters who want to vote for peace, civil liberties and a better life for Americans and the world's people in our support for the Nader/Camejo ticket.
We call on all Americans of all political parties who support our call for free and clean elections, for opening up the electoral system for counting every vote, to help us get Ralph Nader and Peter Miguel Camejo on the ballot and to demand they be included in all televised debates.
Sincerely,
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And here's news of the press conference that Camejo, Gonzalez, West, and others held to protest the Democratic Party's undemocratic way to deny representation of the voices against the occupations:
Green Leaders Endorse Nader-Camejo Ticket Camejo, Gonzalez condemn attacks by the Democratic Party on Nader, call for fair elections
SAN FRANCISCO -- Vice-presidential Candidate Peter Camejo and San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez defended Ralph Nader's right to run for president at a news conference in San Francisco Tuesday morning.
Camejo, who was the California Green Party candidate for governor in 2002 and 2003, also release a statement showing support by Greens Leaders throughout the Nation for the Nader/Camejo campaign and announced that Nader will appear at a rally in San Francisco on July 16 in the Mission High School auditorium.
More than 500 Green Party leaders signed a statement of support drafted by Camejo, Gonzalez and Jason West, Mayor of New Paltz, NY. Among the signers are Green presidential candidates Carol Miller and Lorna Salzman, former Lt. Governor Candidate Donna Warren, Kevin McKeown, Mayor Pro Tem of Santa Monica, CA and many Green elected officials, party leaders and activists from across the United States. The list of signers is at: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?glfn
As Nader's running mate, Camejo addressed criticism leveled at Nader by the media and accused Democrats of interfering with free elections by trying to impede ballot access for the Nader/Camejo ticket.
"It is frustrating to me the lengths the Democrats will go, to attack Nader for wanting to run and express their views," said Gonzalez. Yet they won't put the same energy into trying to reform the two party system that is clearly the culprit in the dilemma that faces Americans.
"The mystery of the 2004 campaign is that tens of millions of Americans oppose the war in Iraq, possibly a majority of Americans oppose the Patriot Act, and yet John Kerry and John Edwards, who are for the Patriot Act and for the war, are about to become the recipient of these tens of millions of votes of people who disagree with them," said Camejo.
"Everyone knows that the majority of registered Democrats oppose the politics of their party's candidates and are closer to the politics of the Nader/Camejo ticket," added Camejo. "So why aren't these tens of millions of people saying they will vote Nader/Camejo, for peace, and to abolish the Patriot Act? It is because we don't have run off elections," Camejo said.
Both Gonzalez and Camejo emphasized that the Democrats along with the Republicans have steadfastly refused to allow run off elections such as IRV (Instant Runoff Voting) that would allow people to be free to vote for the candidate they support, would avoid the so-called spoiler effect, allowing the will of the electorate to be respected.
"If the spoiling of a presidential election in Florida has not lead to the reforming of our electoral process, then one wonders what will," chided Gonzalez. "In the United States if we are going to encourage people not to run because of a different outcome, even though there are millions of people who want to cast a vote for the Nader/Camejo campaign, if this undemocratic solution is the best we can do, then I absolutely reject it, I will not participate in it."
"The Nader/Camejo campaign is telling people to vote for what they believe in," exclaimed Camejo. "Kerry could never win the election if he told people to vote for what they believe in because the overwhelming numbers of people who are going to vote for him do not agree with him."
"This can only happen because we have an unfair and undemocratic system, dominated by corporate money, and the media has continually failed to tell this part of the story," said Camejo.
Gonzalez pointed out that the attacks on Nader/Camejo for running for office are really problematic. "They are running for public office in the U.S. because the actually hold views that are different from the two other major party candidates, yet they are being villainized for doing so," said Gonzalez.
"I want to remind people the facts are overwhelming," Gonzalez said. "At least 7 million Democrats voted for Bush in the 2000 election."
Instead of attacking the Nader/Camejo campaign, Gonzalez said, voters should focus on changing a system that is dominated by only two political parties.
<http://www.votenader.org/media_press/index.php?cid=113> -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/> ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk