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Newsletter of the Green Party of Ohio
Vol. III, No. 8, Nov. 27, 2003

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Contents

1. State Party News – Picking Delegates for Presidential Nominating Convention

2. National Party News – Green Party Presidential Candidates, Message from Green Party Presidential Candidate Carol Miller, Message from Green Party Presidential Candidate Peter Miguel Camejo, Greens React to Gay Marriage Court Decision, Greens at the FTAA Protests, National Green Party News Items

3. Special News Items of Interest – FTAA Doings, Bush Snubs EU

4. Opinion: Newsletter Editorial – ENDLESS CAMPAIGNING, Letters to the Editor

1. State Green Party News

A. Coordinating Committee Approves Procedure for Electing Ohio’s Delegates to the 2004 Green Party of the US National Convention

This week the Coordinating Committee of the Green Party of Ohio approved the rules that will be used in selecting Delegates to the National Convention. The plan is for a two-step process, the first step is to conduct a GPOH Presidential Poll of the State Party Membership regarding their choice for a Presidential nominee and the second step is to select delegates. Delegates would be bound to vote the results of the GPOH Presidential Poll in the National Convention's first Presidential Nomination Roll-Call Vote but would not be bound by this restriction in subsequent rounds.

Ohio has been assigned 23 delegates by the Accreditation Committee of the Green Party of the United States. To actually seat such a delegation, GPOH must follow the standards agreed upon by the National Coordinating Committee. The approved proposal is designed to ensure the Green Party of Ohio stays within the National guidelines to successfully seat as many Ohio Delegates as possible.

GPOH Presidential Polling will occur from January 4 to 10 AM on January 31, 2004. The results will be announced at the State Convention on 1/31/04 in Columbus. Look for details of the polling process to be announced in this newsletter and the Green Party of Ohio website (www.ohiogreens.org).

The results of the Poll will provide guidance to the GPOH Delegates to the National Convention. On the first roll call vote Delegates must vote, on a weighted basis, in line with the results of the GPOH Presidential Poll.

Selecting Delegates

Candidates to represent the GPOH in Milwaukee must affirm that they will abide by the rules laid down by the GPOH and the Delegate Accreditation rules of the Green Party of the US as approved by the GPUS Coordinating Committee. They must also affirm that they can and intend to go to the GPUS National Convention in Milwaukee,WI June 2004.

A vote will occur on 1/31/04 to select Delegates only if the number of Candidates to be a Delegate exceeds the number allotted to Ohio (23). To be included in the list of Candidates to be a Delegate, the person must meet the National Accreditation requirements and positively state their desire to be a candidate to the Secretary of the GPOH before the vote begins on 1/31/04.

The objective of the Green Party of Ohio is to have a delegation that represents the diversity of our Party. We want to have gender balance and appropriate racial/ethnic representation. To that end the top female candidates to be a National Delegate shall be counted as a chosen delegate until 50% of the delegates are female. The same process shall be used, if candidates to be a National Delegate identify themselves as members of an historically under represented group and request proportional representation. That group will then be counted as chosen delegates up to the rounded proportion of their current rounded percentage of the Ohio population.

2. National Party News

A. Green Party Presidential Candidates

Six Green candidates have declared their candidacy for the Green Party Presidential Nomination for 2004: Peter Camejo, (California), David Cobb (from Texas, currently residing in California), Paul Glover (New York), Kent Mesplay (California), Carol Miller (New Mexico), and Lorna Salzman (New York).

Our last newsletter carried messages from Candidates Cobb and Salzman. This week we feature a message from Candidates Miller and Camejo. Our contact with the “Vote Camejo” organization indicates that Mr. Camejo does not want to be on the ballot of the Presidential contest in any State but California.

B. Message from Green Party Presidential Candidate Carol Miller

Carol Miller Seeking Favorite Daughter Status in Green Party of New Mexico Presidential Primary

“FAVORITE SON” - Noun: A man favored for nomination as a presidential candidate by his own state delegates at a national political convention. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (NOTE: Favorite Daughter is not in the dictionary.)

A year of decisions

In February 2003, I was honored to receive a letter from the USGP Presidential Exploratory Committee stating that I had been among the names submitted by the states as a potential candidate for President of the United States. Since that time, I have been thinking about how I might best serve my party in the 2004 Presidential Election.

In May of 2003, I announced to the statewide Green Council of the GPNM that I was considering a ‘favorite daughter’ run in the NM Presidential Primary. I grew up in a state that often sent a favorite son to presidential nominating conventions. Favorite son delegates were used to leverage the selection of the President and Vice-President nominees, revisions to the platform, and committee chairmanships. Since the money primary has become the deciding factor by the duopoly, the practice of sending favorite sons and daughters has died out.

Favorite child campaigns are good for the Green Party. I encourage other states to run and send favorite sons and daughters to the Presidential Nominating Convention in Milwaukee in June 2004.

Each state has the opportunity to kick off a presidential delegate campaign today, get our platform and values out into the public, to stand up for the national and global vision of the Green movement. Not in June, but today.

Under New Mexico law, the Presidential primary is actually an election for convention delegates with the percentage of votes won being equal to the percentage of the delegates each candidate will have at the convention for the first ballot. After the first ballot, those votes are in play and can go to any candidate or to no candidate (NOTA, or None of The Above). By running as a favorite daughter, I am asking members of the GPNM to trust me to represent their votes at the Convention.

Running in one state versus running nationally

Many wonderful Greens throughout the country have been urging me to become a national candidate and run for the nomination in every state. It is hard to describe what a great an honor it was to receive the paperwork to become a candidate in Washington, DC, - a city where I have lived and still spend months every year. A city, which as the DC Statehood Green

Party grows, will become the 51st state in these United States.

I am running on the principle that in order for the Green Party to become the new political force this country so desperately needs, we have to run full out, all out in every election cycle including 2004. I am available to debate this issue, to make the case for running and to articulate our values.

However, for a variety of personal, political, and work-related reasons, I will not be expanding my campaign for convention delegates outside of the state of New Mexico. This is not the year for me to run a national campaign.

I am willing to help form a Favorite Child committee. Contact me: carolmiller@newmexico.com.

C. Message from Green Party Presidential Candidate Peter Camejo

Memo

From: Peter Miguel Camejo
To: Green Party of California Coordinating Committee

I would like to have my name placed on the California presidential primary ballot for 2004.

I do so not with the intent of running for President, but as a "favorite person" candidate.

What this means is that you seek to express a point of view to take to the national convention. It carries no standing except the weight of opinion.

I am opposed to all proposals to capitulate to the Democrats. This includes partial capitulation such as the "Safe States" strategy. The Green Party is under enormous pressure and attacks including some from liberal or progressive Democrats. I consider the campaign against Ralph Nader and the Green Party part of the same anti-democracy campaign that includes the Patriot Act, and the open primary proposal which would allow only two candidates in elections, in effect eliminating all third parties. The purpose of the anti-Green campaign is to prevent a progressive view from being heard, the suppression of any real opposition to the pro-corporate policies of the present administration in Washington. The year 2004 will be one of the tests we will have to pass to survive.

I believe the Green Party point of view should be heard and people should be free to vote for it. We should respect Greens who disagree. It is part of our internal democracy to debate any and all positions held by people who have agreement on the Ten Key Values. But in my opinion, if the Green Party urges a vote for the Democrats it will be the beginning of the end for our Party.

I am making this request now and not before because I did not wish to give the appearance of running against Ralph Nader. Now that he has withdrawn I think it will be of value for the internal discussion and for public exposure for me to join the primary for President. I hope I will have the support of the CC in helping place my name on the ballot.

D. National Press Release on Gay Marriage Court Decision

GREENS HAIL THE MASSACHUSETTS COURT RULING ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Religious extremists plan to vilify gay Americans with a Federal Marriage Amendment, warn Lavender Greens.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Greens praised the decision on Tuesday by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts challenging restrictions against the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Greens note that the court said the state "failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples" and ordered the legislature to come up with a solution within 180 days.

"The ruling overturns the second-class citizenship of gay people, which is a huge leap forward," said Starlene Rankin, Lavender Green Caucus delegate to the Green Party of the United States. "But it stops just short of recognizing same-sex marriages. We're concerned that the Massachusetts legislature will come up with language that confirms the restriction of marriage rights to different-sex couples, possibly through an amendment to the state constitution, as the Hawaii State Supreme Court did three years ago."

Members of the Lavender Green Caucus are urging Greens and friends in Massachusetts to contact state legislators. The caucus represents gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, intersexed, and queer members of the Green Party of the United States.

"We demand legal language that opens up the definition of family, and an end to laws restricting marriage and all its rights, privileges, and benefits to one-man-one-woman couples," said Brandon Lacy Campos, chair of the Lavender Green Caucus. "We must address this demand to all state legislators, and to Congress and the White House, too."

Greens are warning of a vicious backlash by antigay forces, including a Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. President Bush has indicated he would back such an effort.

"For me, restriction of same-sex marriage rights is a question of religious discrimination as well as anti-gay bias," said Owen Broadhurst, a Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party member. "To define marriage in terms established only by more politically powerful religions amounts to law respecting an establishment of religion in the most personal and intimate of relationships and kinship."

"Such an amendment would be the first time the U.S. Constitution was used to vilify and roll back rights for a class of Americans," said Grace C. Ross, co-chair of the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts. "Having realized that they will never succeed in outlawing abortion rights categorically, extremists who want their religious beliefs enacted as law plan to target gay people in the next election. Shame on President Bush for joining them; shame on President Clinton for encouraging them by signing the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. In the struggle for any civil rights, there have always been repressive forces that try to roll back the march toward justice for all. While they sometimes succeed in the short run, may the Massachusetts decision be a reminder that if we keep fighting for justice, ultimately we will prevail."

E, Greens Relay Eyewitness Accounts of Police Violence Against Peaceful Protesters and Violations of Legal Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders attending the rallies against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) summit this week provided firsthand reports of police violence against peaceful protesters.

Officers of the Green Party of the United States witnessed numerous instances of rights violations, including arrests without charges and brutal treatment, by police against people gathering peacefully for nonviolent protest. On Wednesday afternoon, about thirty police officers raided the Information Clearing House, a legally rented space set up by the Florida Fair Trade Coalition media working group, searching it with neither permission nor a warrant.

Read the complete press release at www.gp.org

F. Selected Items from “GREENSWEEK”
http://www.gp.org/greensweek/index.html
Green Party of the United States: http://www.gp.org

CAMPAIGN ALERT: Matt Gonzalez, Green candidate for Mayor of San Francisco in the December 9 runoff election, can win! According to a CBS 5 Poll, conducted by Survey USA and reported November 14, shows Gonzalez is leading multimillionaire Democratic candidate Gavin Newsom by two points, 49% to 47%, with 4% undecided and a 4.4% margin of error.

You can help Matt by going to his website to donate or volunteer or mail a check: <www.mattgonzalez.com> Gonzalez for Mayor, 168 Seville St, San Francisco, CA 94112. The more, the better: the donation limit is $250.

CALIFORNIA: Peter Camejo has formed an exploratory committee and will have his name on the March 4 California primary ballot for President as a 'favorite son' candidate in California. Camejo is the second Green to announce a state-based campaign for President; in July, Carol Miller declared her 'favorite daughter' candidacy in New Mexico.

DECEMBER 5-7: Calling all Great Lakes Greens! The Green Party of Kenosha/Racine will host the Great Lakes Campaign School to help progressive candidates and campaign staff prepare for the 2004 elections. Kenosha/Racine Greens are planning a weekend of training sessions for folks from Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. The event will be held at the DeKoven Center in Racine, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Suggested fee to attend, including tuition and food, is $50. No one will be turned away for inability to pay. Carpools are being planned. The Green Party of the United States is co-sponsoring the Campaign School, to make it more affordable to aspiring candidates. Speakers, including elected Greens and those with extensive Green campaign experience, will be announced soon. Sessions will include how to develop a campaign plan, raise funds, attract volunteers, develop a 'Green" message, and work with the media. More: 262-633-7133, petekaras@yahoo.com, www.GreatLakesGreens.org

3. News Items of Interest

by Grant Lawrence

Protecting Miami >From "Terrorist" Protestors

Armored Personal Carriers patrolled empty Miami streets looking for those protesting the "Free Trade of the Americas," another unfair trade agreement. Already some protestors have landed in jail because they have protested this fascist vision for a "New World Order". A central command center coordinates the patrols of the streets and the Bay looking for dangerous protestors who may want to shut down the city. Thank goodness there is the Patriot Act to protect us from protestors that can terrorize a city. Soon Patriot Act 2 will make sure that these terrorists will get what they deserve.

http://www.click10.com/news/2645002/detail.html

Union Demands Congressional Investigation into Police State Created in Miami

The United Steel Workers of America demands a congressional investigation into police state tactics at the Free Trade Area of the Americas in which the First Amendment right of Freedom to Assemble was violently and blatantly violated.

It is condemnable enough that a massive police state was created to prevent American citizens from directly petitioning FTAA negotiators for redress of their grievances," said Leo W. Gerard, USWA international president, in a letter to Congressional leaders.

"It is doubly condemnable," he added, "that $9 million of federal funds designated for the reconstruction of Iraq were used toward this despicable purpose. How can we hope to build democracy in Iraq while using massive force to dismantle it here at home?"

http://www.uswa.org/uswa/program/content/737.php

Bush A No Show at EU

The European Union Parliament will not guarantee Bush a standing ovation so the President's advisors decided that he would not give a speech. Bush's every appearance in the U.S. is stage-managed, and the fact that he may have to give a speech to others with differing opinions would be too much like a democracy. This would have to be avoided at all costs.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12713155&method=full

4. Opinion

A. Editorial – by Paul Dumouchelle, Editor, Green Party of Ohio Newsletter

ENDLESS CAMPAIGNING

Sacrifice, conflict, struggle and more of the same – that is the future for Green Party members. We must wage an endless campaign against the dominant forces in our society that degrade our lives, our livelihoods and the ecological systems upon which all life depends.

I am tired of whiners who compare the Green Party of Ohio’s tiny accomplishments with the overwhelming ills of our society and who then decide to turn away from the struggle. My sense is that people like this simply have no comprehension of the titanic conflict in which we are engaged. Even if we had strong, active locals in every County of the State we’d still have a major effort to overcome the systematic bias of our election system against third parties. Even if we consistently ran competitive candidates and won our share of the elections we’d still have a major fight to enact our legislation against the entrenched opposition from the Major Parties. Even if we gained a majority in the legislative councils of our cities and states we would have to fight corporate interests tooth and nail over the policies we enacted.

Similarly, we must engage in political campaigns at all levels whenever possible. We must campaign for local races. I believe this is critically important and it is why I ran for City Council in my hometown of Dublin in 2001. It was why I led the petitioning campaign to get Bob Fitrakis on the ballot for Columbus City Council in 2003. I also believe we have to run a candidate for President. I came to the Green Party in 1996 through the attention Ralph Nader created in his campaign. We simply cannot sit out the national campaign for the Presidency in 2004. The Green voice must be part of the debate and we need to fight for every vote we can and be proud of all the support we gain.

In short, our struggle will never end - the alternative to committing to the Green Party’s endless campaign is to stand idly by as the two corporate parties use political power to pursue immoral wars in our name, bolster an unjust economic system and poison our bodies.

B. Letters to the Editor

Dear Editors:

I enjoyed reading David Berenson's editorial about Kucinich and the Green Party, and I agree with a number of the points he made. Just to give you some background about where I'm coming from. The WC Green Party is an organization that started on Westminster College campus about a year and a half ago, and has since become one of the cornerstone for campus Green organizing in PA. Our college has the second oldest Mock Convention in the country, and this year one of our members is heading the campaign for Kucinich. I am from OH and still vote in that state. So, being both close to the border and an OH voter I have these additional comments to make.

A) Kucinich is in my opinion one of the best choices for the Presidency that we have had in a long time. While the Green Party should and I believe will continue to run high profile, media intense election campaigns for both state and national office, the Green Party believes in working from the ground up in a grassroots way.

B) Keeping this in mind it is my feeling that the Green Party sometimes shoots too high by running candidates for Senate instead of running them for House, etc. To build a grass roots party we need to first get people into the smaller offices and work our way up.

C) OH is still a state where you can't officially register Green. While this is unfortunate, I personally believe that given this we can use your flawed primary system to our advantage (I believe that the primary system should be abolished totally, and in place a run off should be offered, if need be... like there is in any other common sense country).

I voted against Bush in the Republican primary in 2000, and I plan to vote FOR Kucinich in the Democratic primary in 2004.

D) Given this I believe that it would be in the Green Party's best interest to take their candidates for President and run them for Senate, or something else. Save the money on a national election for a viable state campaign, and endorse a candidate in the primaries who can really make a difference. What you do in the general election is up to you - maybe do what they did in France last election and go to the polls with a close pin on your nose!

Thank you,

Isaac Ludwig

Westminster College Green Party PR Chair

P.S. I am still interested in working with the Columbiana Greens to form a chapter and viable base down there. I will be done with school in May and will work then, and also over Christmas break (most of January).

Dear Editors:

I do not know what Green should make of Dennis Kucinich -- or what to do at this point. I find it amazing and wonderful that he is still standing -- even if the polls show him lagging. A native of Cleveland, I find him to be a superb progressive in the tradition of the New Deal.

Nader has carried on the role of conscience -- as the late great Norman Thomas did years before.

I trust that the Greens will stay the course -- as Kucinich will be denied the nomination. But his voice must not be lost, nor that of Ralph Nader.

Big Brother may well prevail -- and any dissent may be silenced.

Tom

Dayton Ohio

Publication Details

The Green Party of Ohio Newsletter is published by the Green Party of Ohio. www.ohiogreens.org The Mission of the Newsletter is to aggressively promote citizen involvement in making real the Green dream for Ohio and America as stated in the GPOH Platform, the USGP Platform and those parties’ formal policy positions.

The Mission of the Green Party of Ohio is to focus the political power of the people to:

1. preserve and restore viable ecosystems,

2. establish social justice and equity,

3. foster participatory democracy,

4. promote and practice nonviolence as a means of conflict resolution, and

5. ensure the rights of a community-based economic system for all people.

Letters to the editor are accepted but please keep them brief and the Editor reserves the right to publish or not publish any such letter and edit them to fit the newsletter format. The Green Party of Ohio Newsletter does not represent official GPOH policy unless specifically stated. The Green Party of Ohio Newsletter operates under the guidance of the State Coordinating Committee Media Committee, which can be contacted through the State Party Website. Paid for by the Green Party of Ohio Political Action Fund (OH1066) P.O. Box 112, Berkey, OH 43504

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