For those of you who don't know, Richard Winger is a libertarian, not a leftist, so we can't expect him to say what we would say. Nevertheless, his publication Ballot Access News <http://ballot-access.org/> is a must-read for any advocate of a third party in the USA -- a very informative journal worthy of our support.
>Interestingly enough, I just got a mailing today from the Green
>Party of California, soliciting funds to help oppose Prop. 62. That
>they're doing so less than two weeks before the election doesn't
>speak well to the GP's organizational abilities, but never mind
>that. It's interesting that, although California is obviously a
>"safe state," the mailer doesn't even mention David Cobb,
>nevertheless urge me to vote for him.
If California Greens had been better organized, they would have been able to at least put Nader/Camejo on its ballot. In general, the Green Party is very far from what it should be, both in terms of organizing capacity and political orientation.
The national Green Party, as well as many (perhaps all) of the state Green Parties, has yet to become committed to a perspective that the Green Party has to grow out of, and in turn helps grow, social movements; nor has it acquired capacity to do so yet. That's one of the things that Peter Camejo and his Green allies want to change; at the same time, they are trying to bring together various political currents committed to independent political action.
Here's what Camejo has to say about the above two points in his interview with Ernest Tate:
<blockquote>The Green Party has a membership in the order about half a million people. It is increasingly becoming a big centre of progressive activity, but only electorally. The Green Party is not very active at other levels.
The anti-war demonstrations are organized by people who are mainly outside our organization. The Green's support the demonstrations, but doesn't take the leadership of them. The Green Party is a rainbow of opinions about of a lot of issues that have come together within a single organization. There's been a recent shift in the approach of other progressive and left organizations, but until now they have not become members of the Green Party. That's now beginning to happen. They're following what Solidarity did in joining us. I think others will too. But I think there's some feeling among progressives that the Green Party has too many internal problems and difficulties and that it may not be the instrument that they think can be most effective in making social change.
At this stage I'm urging everyone to join the Green Party and help us fight to keep it independent of the Democrats and to democratize its internal structure and deepen its involvement in the community, for example, in the unions. We have tens of thousands of members in California's unions, but we have yet to organize them. We have been trying to organize caucuses in the unions and this, I think, is how the next period could go if more forces keep joining.
We are making headway among Latinos, especially in California. We feel it's possible we could become an arena in which different progressive groups begin to work together to build an alternative force against those who favour the government's policies towards labour.
Ninety percent of our people, in the last few years, have made no financial gain when you make adjustments for inflation, in a period in which the GDP of the United States has risen more than ever in its history. At this moment, profit margins are now the largest ever in the history of the United States. Corporations are now paying the lowest tax rate they've ever paid. They once paid 33% of all our taxes; now they're only paying 7.8%. Meanwhile the minimum wage has dropped from $8.15 to $5.15, adjusted for inflation.
But there are changes happening where the Green Party has had influence. In one city, because we elected a person to one position, we were able to have the minimum wage raised to $10.50, and in another to $8.50.
We have also succeeded in giving the right to undocumented workers to vote, a democratic right that's now on the ballot because of the influence of the Green Party in San Francisco. We can see the beginnings of an alternative political force emerging, and it would be good to have all those who are doing work in other areas to come into the Green Party and work together.
But there is no unanimity on this. For example, we have a party in California called the Peace and Freedom Party which has about 70,000 registered members. While we're starting to work together -- in my campaign I'm welcoming one of their candidates to speak with me at all my meetings -- we have yet to bring our two forces together.
The Green Party has 160,000 members in California and the Peace and Freedom Party has 70,000. Therefore, there are about a quarter of a million people in California who have clearly broken from the Democratic and Republican Parties. That lays the basis for the beginning of a movement that will fight for social justice. ("Ernest Tate interviews Peter Camejo," September 8th, 2004, <http://www.marxsite.com/Camejo%20Interview.htm>)</blockquote>
That's roughly the political direction that I support, recognizing that it will continue to be an uphill struggle to move the Greens and others in that direction together. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.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/>