CAMPAIGN 2006 STRATEGY (California)
Now Playing: part 1 of 10
Topic: Green Party
By Peter Miguel Camejo
September 14, 2005

On August 24, 2005, over thirty Greens from around the state met in
Oakland, California to work on developing a strategy for the 2006
Green Party statewide campaign. This exploratory committee put forth
an innovative vision that could help build the Green Party and
transform it into a more powerful political organization.

OUR VISION

The committee proposed building a statewide campaign that is
integrally linked to the living social movements and our potential
voting base. A campaign that helps builds those movements and turns
the Green Party more directly into the electoral expression of mass
social struggles.

The success of such an approach depends on the development of
strategic alliances with activists and movement leaders that
understand the failure of the two corporate parties to truly defend
and represent their communities or their issues and who are rooted in
mass movements or their communities. Today, there are Green Party
members in organizations fighting for peace, labor rights, social
justice, ecological balance, civil liberties and environmental justice
all over California but often they see these efforts as separate from
their support or involvement with the Green Party.

There is also a race and class divide. Large numbers of people are
voting for us and even registering Green but have no organizational
relationship or contact with us. It is not part of their experience,
especially those that have not been to college, to attend meetings or
get involved in organizational matters.

CAMPAIGN ORGANIZING EVENTS

To understand the concept we are proposing and how it differs from our
previous state wide electoral efforts let me give some examples of
what our 2006 state campaign meetings will be like. In particular,
when we hold a campaign meetings, representatives from select local
organizations such as anti-war activists (like from Cindy Sheehan's
organization), representatives from MAPA, Hermandad Mexicana, Centro
Azteca, CTA, ILWU, Muslim community leaders, environmentalists, etc,
will be asked to speak. In each case they will speak about their
specific community or issues. We do not want too long a list of
speakers but in each case we should have a few such speakers.

We will also encourage groups to table at our meetings and we will
provide people attending the meeting information on how to become
involved in those issue focused organizations.

When our candidates speak to large audiences especially on campuses it
would be so useful to immediately point them to tables where they can
get information on getting involved on specific issues. It immediately
gives a new kind of vision to what the Green Party is, an electoral
expression and organizing center for progressive movements, a party
that tells the truth about our political system and why these issues
exist to begin with.

In this way our campaign meetings become organizing events. They begin
to present the Green Party as an electoral expression of the movements
for peace, social justice, ecological sustainability, civil liberties,
gay and women's rights, labor rights and so on.

THE 2002-03 EXPERIENCE

During the 2002 and 2003 campaigns for Governor and my 2004 VP
campaign we gradually began to take steps to connect with
organizations and communities outside the party. I want to describe
some of those experiences so it becomes clear exactly why we think
this is possible and could be quite effective.

CAMPAIGN 2006 STRATEGY
Now Playing: part 3 of 10
Topic: Green Party

ANTI-THREE STRIKES MOVEMENT

During the Gubernatorial and the 2004 campaign whereever possible I
tried to raise the issue of the death penalty and three strikes. At
some of my campaign meetings Geri Silva the Executive Director of
FACTS (Families to Amend Three Strikes) spoke with me. At one meeting
Donna Warren brought Harold Hall an African American who served 18
years in prison until it was discovered he was innocent. Watching
several hundred young people listening to Harold Hall himself explain
how such injustices occur in our society has an educational impact
that cannot be easily expressed in words.

Leading this work and educating the Green Party on Three Strikes has
been Donna Warren the African American Green leader from South Central
LA. As our candidate for Lt. Governor she was the only African
American in 2002 running for a State office and made such an enormous
difference to the perception of our campaign and Party.

Under her guidance I raised at every televised debate in 2003 the
issue of three strikes. The impact this had was reflected when African
Americans became the racial group delivering the largest vote
(percentage wise) for the Green Party in the recall election (6%),
Latinos came a close second at 5%. Keep in mind the Democrats were
running a Latino for Governor, Cruz Bustamente. For the Green Party to
receive such a solid vote in the Latino community reflected the
support we are gaining. Our largest support was demographically from
youth and the poorest people in California (9% for each category).

Again we need to continue our efforts on these issues. I especially
want to raise the case of Santo Reyes now doing life in prison for
cheating on a DMV test trying to get a driver's license so he could
work as a roofer to support his family.

LABOR AND THE MINIMUM WAGE

Thanks to the relentless work of a group of Greens, especially Tim
Smith of Sonoma, and also Cres Fallucci and Pat Driscoll from
Sacramento the Green Party with other allies is now petitioning to try
and place a referendum on the ballot to raise the minimum wage. Just
to match what it was in 1968 the minimum wage needs to be increased to
$8.65 per hour. This effort will result in many benefits for working
people's perception of our Party. It will provide a way for
progressive leaders in the labor movement to break ranks with the
Democratic Party's control over the Unions and join with us in an
effort desperately needed and supported by millions of Californians
possibly a majority. We should welcome sympathetic labor leaders to
come to our rallies and speak on this issue.

Most of the speakers we want to bring to the podium will be strategic
allies of ours even if they cannot endorse us. Let us become the
vehicle to educate the labor movement on what having a party that is
independent from the corporate rulers can mean. When Matt Gonzalez ran
for Mayor the AFL CIO would not endorse him but some union locals and
union leaders did. In Matt's race they all so Greens can win. They
need to see we can organize and that people are listening to us.

When Aimee Allison ran for city council in Oakland California an
historic bolt of lightening occurred when a large meeting of long
shore men at their union meeting endorsed her and said they were
endorsing her because she is a Green and will no longer automatically
endorse Democrats!

CAMPAIGN 2006 STRATEGY
Now Playing: part 7 of 10
Topic: Green Party

BUILDING A CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION

We need to improve our message and how we deliver it. With just a
little bit of funding we can make some great campaign posters and
plaster California on these issues. Lynda Hernandez who was Ralph
Nader's 2004 California campaign director has agreed to serve as our
Southern California coordinator. She has a long list of key ideas for
getting our campaign field organization and infrastructure in place.

We need artists, people who know how to design and make posters,
leaflets and a hundred other tasks which in the end are just as
important as the candidates themselves.

We need musicians to come up with a campaign song like Matt Gonzalez
had in his campaign and we need poets like those from Stanford that
wrote about our previous campaigns.

We are beginning to structure a State wide campaign effort that will
involve having campaign coordinators at the County level as well as
commissions working on different aspects of our vision. We want to
assist the local candidates in whatever manner we can. We need to help
them build on the ground efforts to do door to door work especially in
campaigns we feel we can win.

We want to see if we can link up with registration drives like the one
planned by MAPA.

Our reach out work will be far stronger in this campaign than it has
ever been. The down slate candidates will have much stronger campaigns
as we focus on issues and communities and try to get our candidates
before as many audiences as possible and on as many radio and TV shows
as we can. Several if not all of the candidates need to have their own
press conference announcements, web sites and literature. The down
slate candidates need to work up strategies to focus on covering
aspects of our over all message and target audiences and media around
those issues.

Organizing the media work will also be critical. Cres Fallucci one of
our most experienced media people has agreed to help on this effort.
We are starting to get volunteers for the campaign throughout the
State. If you are interested in working on the campaign please email
rachelodes@....

CAMPAIGN 2006 STRATEGY
Now Playing: part 10 of 10
Topic: Green Party
INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

There are some amazing events taking place around the world. It can be
of value to invite some international guests to talk to our citizens
about their nation's experiences around the issues we are facing. For
instance in New Zealand a campaign to end the winner-take- all system
replacing it with proportional representation was led to victory
against the two major parties opposition. Matt McCarten who led the
campaign for proportional representation is today forming new unions
organizing the under class that work in hotels, McDonalds, restaurants
and other jobs through a new organizing concept. These new unions are
independent of the two major pro corporate parties in New Zealand. I
think many progressive unionist in California would be extremely
interested in learning about both of the campaigns that Matt McCarten
has helped lead. (Matt, a Maori, has tentatively agreed to come to
California during the campaign.)

Another example that we should take advantage of us is the total
defeat of the two party system in Venezuela. There a mass alternative
movement developed that eventually succeeded in winning the election
for president with a vote of 67% with every TV station, daily
newspaper and all the corporate money opposed while the two major
corrupt parties that had ruled Venezuela for 40 years collapsed and
received between them 5% of the vote. Today Venezuela has many parties.

Some years ago in the 1990s I brought a Venezuelan congressman friend
of mine to talk to the Progressive Alliance of Alameda of which the
Green Party was part. That person explained to us why we should never
support either Democrats or Republicans and how they were growing in
Venezuela by being principled and clear before the people on what they
stood for. Today that Venezuelan that was here with us in California
is now the Ambassador to the United States from Venezuela, Bernardo
Alvarez Herrera. To have some mass leaders of the people of Venezuela
talk about how the people can win elections against two entrenched
money machines could be of great value to our campaign. These are some
of the ideas we want to pursue during our 2006 campaign.

Of course we recognize the United States is very different from New
Zealand and Venezuela (a gallon of gasoline is 25 cents in Venezuela).
Nevertheless these international experiences can help inspire our people.

Please join with us if you agree with the orientation we are outlining
as we begin our exploratory committee for the Green Party state wide
2006 campaign.

September 14, 2005

Why re-invent the gdi listserv?
Topic: Green Party
In my opinion, the gdi list (Greens 4 Democracy and Independence) has been an opposition block within the Green Party that formed around the 2004 Nader for President campaign, not a clear ideological tendency within the Green Party. List discussion indicates substantial areas of agreement and disagreement exist between gdi list members over the G4DI's perspectives and tasks in the coming period. Unfortunately, the gdi list does not appear to be a forum where a discussion that can clarify those areas of agreement and disagreement can take place.

It seems to me that the gdi list has been dominated by a faction consisting of the G4DI's more conservative, non-socialist and anti-socialist wing. That might explain why, until about a month ago, I didn't have posting "privileges," even though I have been a member of the gdi list since 01 December 2004. That's why in April 2005 I joined the GDI free speech list, which was started by folks who experienced a curtailment of their posting privileges under the moderatorship of Steve Greenfield, who just quit the GDI after announcing his decision to return to the Democratic Party.

I took the initiative to set up the gid list (Green for Independence and Democracy) in order to create a setting where a regulated, uncensored discussion can take place among self-identified Green members and sympathizers about how to steer the Green Party US (and / or alternative expressions of the Green Party movement) toward independence from the corporate parties, and to fight to preserve and apply the best traditions of grass roots democracy from the workers and green movements.

In my opinion, the gid list should be open to any self-identified Green Party member or sympathizer willing to accept its mission statement as a basis of unity. I don't want to limit gid list membership to those who are generally in agreement with me about how to move the Green Party movement toward political action independent of the corporate parties.

As far as I am concerned, anyone who has been posting on the GDI and GDI free-speech lists is welcome to participate in discussion on the gid list, provided they are willing to observe the limit on daily postings and refrain from engaging in the use of negative personal characterizations and criticisms of a personal nature.

gid web address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gidlist/

gid list subscribe:
gidlist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

-Doug Mann, Minneapolis (gid list owner)