GreenGram

The Green Party of New Jersey Bulletin

June 2001

INSIDE:

This month in the GreenGram, we profile our electoral candidates for 2001--a hope and a promise for the new millennium. 

Heading the GPNJ ticket is Jerry Coleman, former Rahway city councilman and the only GPNJ candidate in 2000 to outpoll Ralph Nader in several precincts!  Yes, we it agree that it is time for an African-American governor of New Jersey--our own Jerry Coleman.

David Alcantara of the Atlantic County Greens is running for State Senate.  David is an exciting and credible candidate with strong ties to labor and to the Latino community in south Jersey.  We urge all Greens, but especially those in the "southern tier" to actively work for David's campaign.

Emily Cook is running for Township Committee in Princeton Township--currently best known for overdevelopment and the "herd culling" professional deer hunt.  Let's support Emily's bid to bring humane attitudes and some good sense to her community.  

Jerry Coleman for Governor

Statement

There are several important issues that face the citizens of New Jersey.  These include:  urban sprawl, education, racial discrimination and profiling, health care, housing, employment, environmental concerns, tax relief and numerous others.  The Green Party has developed workable solutions to address these issues of concern.  As your next governor for the state of N.J. business will not be as usual.  The Democrats and the Republicans have destroyed our state long enough.  Together we can make history on Election Day in November.

Platform

Jerry Coleman - Personal

Jerry Coleman served two terms on the Rahway city council.  He was Council President In 1994.  During his tenure he was responsible for drafting Legislation To Improve Community Conditions.

Jerry is the co-founder and chairman of The Concerned Citizens On The Environment.

He has also served as a member of The Union County Area Allocations Committee of the Black United Fund Of New Jersey.  He used his business and accounting skills in reviewing proposals and funding requests from organizations.

Jerry has served as a member of the board of directors and chairman of the finance committee of the Rahway Community Action Organization (JFK CENTER).

Jerry was the co-founder and first chairman of the Union County Fair Housing Council--formed to end racial bias in housing rentals and sales--and the founder and first president of the Union County Senior Citizens Corporation--set up to help senior citizens apply for program funding.

He has served on the executive board of directors of the Montclair State University Alumni Association and was the founder and first president of the Montclair State University Black Alumni Association that was organized to encourage alumni to continue to support the programs of the college.

Jerry holds a BS in Business Administration And Professional Accounting from Montclair State University and is a graduate of the Rutgers Executive Masters Program In Public Administration.

He is the founder and President of Jerry L. Coleman Enterprise--Accounting & Consulting Services and has extensive experience in managing non-profit organizations.

Jerry has been an advisor to numerous church and community groups in the areas of fund raising, grant and proposal writing, community organizing and economic development.  He is an active member of the Cathedral Second Baptist Church in Perth Amboy, N.J.

J. David Alcantara for State Senate

Statement

David Alcantara offers viable and real solutions to increase job security, promote local industry and provide for a healthier and safer environment.  David supports:

David Alcantara - Personal

David Alcantara has been a local resident for over thirty years.  He graduated from Atlantic City High School and from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.  He received his law degree at the University of Toledo College of Law in Toledo, OH.

Ø       David lives in Galloway Township with his wife, Elen, and two children.

Ø       David has superb accomplishments in the community and public sector:

Ø       He founded Local 54's multi-lingual office, promoting union rights

Ø       He is the founder and president of the Pleasantville Charter School for Academic Excellence managing a $2 million budget

Ø       He served as conflicts prosecutor in Pleasantville for two years

Ø       He was the founding secretary of HAAC

Ø       He serves as trustee of the Atlantic Cape Community College for Minority Affairs

Ø       He has provided pro bono assistance to the Cape Atlantic Legal Services

Ø       He served as President of the Coalition for Peace and Justice in 1996-7

Ø       He formerly served as the assistant secretary to the Atlantic County Democrats

Ø       He is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Atlantic County Bar Association

More on David Alcantara

Since David has been active in Atlantic County but not statewide, the GreenGram asked David for a more personal introduction--beyond the "official bio" for campaign literature.  Here's the resulting life history--I hope you enjoy it as much as your editors did!

David's mother relocates to Atlantic City  in May of 1969.  David begins the 3d grade in the Atlantic City Public School system, quickly mastering the English language and graduating with honors.

Upon arriving in the US, David is surprised at the people with very long hair, lots of colorful clothing, protests and peace signs everywhere.  Amazing!!  But wonderful.  Back in Honduras, any such longhaired men would quickly and without question be grabbed by the " police " (military) and taken to the police for a razor cut.  Hmm…

1977 summer - David works as a special officer with the Atlantic City Police Department and makes several arrests.  David learns some basics of being a police officer but learns to respect the duties, obligations and dangers of being a police officer, as well as how arrogance and over zealousness can develop.

1978-1981 - David graduates with a BA in Philosophy from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. David's thesis paper is on the theory of tolerance in politics.

1979 - David becomes the President of the Latin American Political Association of Georgetown University.  He also becomes a member of People for an Alternative Society.  David is summoned to appear at the Student Court and given a private reprimand for protesting, along with about 20 other students, a one-time lecture given by Henry Kissinger.  The protest dealt with the immoral bombing on Christmas day of civilians in Cambodia.  David's name appears all over the Washington Post.

1980 - David Attends the University of Florence, Italy, studying philosophy, economic theories and democracy.  In the meantime, David learns to speak and write Italian fluently.

1982-3 - David works as a labor organizer and founder of the Spanish Office at Local 54 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  The Spanish Office later develops into the Multilingual services office of Local 54, its biggest department.

1983-85 - David attends and graduates from the University of Toledo College of Law.  While there, David works at the Advocates for Basic Legal Equality in Fremont, Ohio, birthplace of one of the US President.  At ABLE, a poor people's advocate center assisting the poor with their legal rights, one of the attorneys, Peter, is beaten up by local Sheriff's officers for his helping poor Mexican Americans with their farm worker's rights.  Peter sues and wins in court.

1985 - David works with the Student Law program, helping the underprivileged with their legal rights, under the great tutelage of professor Robin Kennedy.  This involves helping poor people with drafting their child support, divorces and other pleadings in court.

1985-6 - David Works as a supervisor at the Tropicana Hotel/Casino.

1987-8 - David works with the Honorable Judge Michael Connor as his judicial Clerk with the Atlantic County Superior Courts.

1988-1989 - David works for various law firms but notices the lack of helping the underprivileged.

1989-2001 - David starts and continues with his own law firm.

1986-98 - David starts, founds and begins the Pleasantville Charter School for Academic Excellence.

1980-2001 - David becomes a member of the Atlantic County Democrats, acting as its assistant secretary from 1997-99.

David is presently a member of the NAACP, ACLU, MALDEF and the founder of the Latin American Political Association.  David is also a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the New Jersey Bar Association, and the Immigration section of the Federal Bar Association.

David is married, has two daughters.  His wife, Elen, is Armenian in origin and a refugee from Russia where Muslims wanted to kill her and her family for not being Muslim.

David converted to the Society of Friends in 1996 and attends the Quaker Meeting on a regular basis.

Food for thought from David:

"The search of the young today is more specific than the ancient search for the Holy Grail.  The search of the youth today is for ways and means to make the machine - and the vast bureaucracy of the corporation state and of government that runs that machine - the servant of man.  That is the revolution that is coming.  It could be a revolution in the nature of an explosive political regeneration.  It depends on how wise the Establishment is.  If, with its stockpile of arms, it resolves to suppress the dissenters, America will face, I fear, an awful ordeal."
William O. Douglas, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1969  

Emily Cook for Princeton Township Committee

Statement

The neighborhoods that have grown around Princeton University have long had reputations of being more progressive.  This includes the Township of Princeton.  However, this distinction has been diminishing over the last several years partly due to a governing body, which has grown more indifferent to the needs and wants of the Township residents.

There are several major capital improvements happening in Princeton at once – producing yearly property tax increases way above the rate of inflation, making it prohibitive for working class and elderly to afford Princeton.  Tax increases include a recently approved bond referendum of  $78.5 million for school improvements, a  $1.6 million increase in the Township municipal budget reflecting overrun costs of a mismanaged municipal building project.  And there are tax costs associated with expanding the public library.

The unneeded municipal building project reflects how the Committee has acted beyond the control or accountability of the Township residents.  Indeed, the Committee obscured this year’s spending by providing only small print copy of the budget to the public.  The final draft was not available online.  Residents, if they could even decipher the budget, were given only 2.5 days to pick up a copy before the public hearing on the issue.

Princeton’s pursuit of protecting open space is laudable but has never addressed the inevitable development of these areas into public parks, requiring destruction of woods for soccer fields, requisite maintenance with gas powered machinery and destruction of wildlife habitat for baseball fields.

The most disturbing project this year in the Township has been a deer-killing project costing over $135,000.  Sharpshooters were hired to gun down deer in a wasteful effort to “cull” the population.  The Township produced an ordinance prohibiting even the feeding of deer in your own backyard.  Residents were under surveillance via helicopters and, subsequently, four people were served summons for allegedly feeding deer.  

As a candidate for Township Committee I recommend the following solutions:

Princeton Township residents are entitled to a conscientious governing body!  

Emily Cook - Personal

Emily is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.  She has lived in Princeton Township for over fourteen years.

Call for Proposed By-Laws Changes

The by-laws of the Green Party of New Jersey may only be amended by a vote of the membership at the Green Party of New Jersey annual convention.  Current by-laws require that any proposed changes be published to the membership 30 days prior to the annual convention.  Please submit any proposed changes to Jane Hunter (janemhunter@att.net or 732-560-0276 or 792 Watchung Road, Bound Brook, NJ 08805) or to any member of the Executive Committee by August 1 in order to allow time for publishing the change by August 23, 2001.  This will allow a vote at the convention on September 23.

Call for Nomination of Officers

GPNJ officers are elected each year at the annual convention for a one-year term.  The officers are Chair, 2 Vice-chairs, Secretary and Treasurer.  One of the Vice-chairs is traditionally a member of an "underrepresented group" (minority, female, etc.) and chairs the Ad Hoc Diversity Committee.  Terms are currently limited to two years.

If you would like to run for GPNJ office or would like to nominate another GPNJ member, please submit a brief candidate statement for publication and member review by August 14, 2001, to any member of the Communications Committee.

Grassroots

Grassroots focuses this month on some innovative ways our locals our reaching out to the community and organizing internally.

Atlantic County Green Party

The Atlantic County Greens are now meeting regularly and are sponsoring David Alcantara's candidacy for State Senate.  They recently took advantage of co-scheduling (i.e., meet in the same place just before or after) a meeting with UnPlug Salem to introduce our gubernatorial candidate, Jerry Coleman, to the UnPlug membership.

Burlington County Greens

After moderate fundraising success during Campaign 2000 and our spaghetti dinner in January, Burlington had nearly $700 on hand.  For tax, accounting, and organizational purposes, we had outgrown our shoebox.

To ensure tax-free treatment of our funds, setup of a deposit account required an "employer identification number" from the IRS.  This was obtained in one day, by telephone, without filing any forms.  Once the EIN was received, our members felt that credit union membership was the Green alternative for our deposits.  In addition to helping local development and business in southern NJ, we realized that our local itself could benefit by offering credit union membership through membership in the Green Party of Burlington County.

After some investigation, we selected South Jersey Federal Credit Union.  Benefits include freedom from fees, $25 initial deposit, and a free credit/debit card.  SJFCU was happy to have us join and required only a copy of our duly adopted bylaws (which described our own
membership criteria) and a letter with various details, signed by our officers.

A credit union account in the IRS-recognized name of your local is an important party-building and socially responsible tool.  We recommend it highly.

South Jersey / Cape Greens

South Jersey Greens go high-tech media!  Greens Roger Merle on Outdoors Naturally most every Saturday from 8-9am on a RADIO/TV/Intemet simulcast AMI 440, @ www.wmvb..net
and call (856) 293-1440.

Rich Raimonde also participated in a simulcast opportunity on the Alan & Lynne Show on Thursday, May 17.

Committee Activities

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee has been shopping around for quotes on an insurance policy to cover our public events.  We have an agreement in principle that this is necessary and desirable.

The EC is working on formalizing the procedures for having locals affiliate with the GPNJ. This is especially necessary since the Nader campaign led to the spontaneous sprouting of new Green locals.
The EC is also considering several reimbursement requests:  for literature and for travel requests to this
summer's Green national meetings of the ASGP and GPUSA..

Communications Committee

The Communications Committee is actively recruiting members for the Webmasters Council and for the GreenGram editorial board.  Please contact Jane Hunter at 732-560-0276 or janemhunter@att.net if you are interested in either of these working groups.

Also, if you know of any GPNJ-related email list server you would like to have listed on our website, please notify Jane by email.

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee needs members and a Chairperson.  The committee has essentially two functions:  budgeting and fundraising.  GPNJ is in desperate need of both.

Membership Committee

The annual GPNJ convention will be held on Saturday, September 23, at the Labor Education Center, New Brunswick.  Please mark your calendar and plan to attend!

Policy Committee

The Policy Committee has an ambitious agenda for the next few months to create a long-range plan of action for policy committee.  Action items include identifying and indexing existing policy position manuals, establishing a research framework, managing versions of issue statements and policy development, developing a vision for the committee and for GPNJ, establishing research and reference resources.  A process for managing immediate response statements will be developed.  The committee will consider the process for managing and the contents of procedures manuals for GPNJ.

Caucuses

Labor Caucus

GPNJ now has a labor caucus, which will focus on labor issues, suggest labor policies and positions and generally represent a labor perspective within GPNJ.  You are welcome to join the labor email list by subscribing to gpnj-labor at yahoogroups.com or by sending a blank email from the id you wish subscribed to gpnj-labor-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Report on EcoVillage Cohousing Community Field Trip

Green Party members and friends took a trip to the EcoVillage cohousing community in Ithaca, NY

Rave Review by Linda Price, Cumberland County Greens 

Imagine, 176 acres of pristine hilltop, 30 super-energy efficient duplexes, a Common House, and an acre stocked pond -- only one mile from a culturally active university town. You have just imagined EcoVillage at Ithaca, NY. 

Taking up only 3 of those 176 acres, this experiment in cohousing emphasizes community without communal living, efficiency without giving up amenities, and ecological consciousness without being extreme. 

The houses are examples of innovative architecture and beauty, with space-saving design and white oak trim throughout.  Individualism spills out the front doors onto the gardens that line the pebbled footpath, aptly named Rachel Carson Way (Rachel Carson was the author of Silent Spring, the 1962 book credited with initiating the modern environmental movement).  Some gardens boast vegetables and herbs, others a brilliant display of blooms, while still others leave nature and wildflowers to have their way. 

Backyards are meccas of privacy.  Some units have trellises or balconies.  Some have greenhouses and flagstone porches.  All have triple-paned, south-facing windows for passive solar heating.  A typical unit spends only $288.00 a year for natural gas heating. 

The Common House is available to all, with a spare bedroom for company overspill.  Meals can be shared there three nights a week, and it boasts a laundry room, professional offices for rent, teen and toddler rooms and a sunlight lounge for socializing.  Participation in all of this is optional and voluntary. 

Tours and guests are welcomed and the Green Party of New Jersey and friends took advantage of this on Saturday, May 12th.  EcoVillage co-founder Liz Walker, explained the inception of EcoVillage ten years ago and the learning experience it has become.  The first neighborhood cluster of houses (30 units/90 residents) opened in 1996.  Second and third neighborhoods are planned, with groundbreaking to begin in September of this year. 

Our group of Greens was given a tour through one of the houses and the grounds.  Despite chilly weather, the turnout was good, with over 20 people attending.  The day culminated in dinner at the world-renown Moosewood Restaurant, a mostly vegetarian eatery in Ithaca. 

A Second Chance to See for Yourself!

A second trip is planned for July 22 -- a charter bus will be available for that trip. 

This is an experience not to be missed.  Communities such as EcoVillage demonstrate that sustainability is attainable and pleasurable!  For more information about the July 22 trip or about EcoVillage, contact Steve Welzer at EcoVillager@aol.com or (609) 443-6782. 
 

Statement of Support for the Charleston 5 from the Green Party of New Jersey:

The Green Party of New Jersey supports the DC Statehood Green Party, the Association of State Green Parties, the International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Black Radical Congress and many other organizations in demanding dismissal of charges leveled against the Charleston 5, dockworkers who face felony charges for "rioting" in the wake of a military-style police assault ordered by the state of South Carolina to break up a union protest against union-busting and the use of scab labor in the Charleston shipping industry.

We demand that the suit brought by Winyah Stevedoring Inc. (WSI), the company that hired the nonunion workers, against the two union locals and their presidents be dropped or dismissed.

We demand that the state of South Carolina not support plans by WSI, Nordana, or any other company to break the power of the ILA or any other union, and that it cease using police power to suppress union protest.

We support the right of workers to organize and bargain with employers, to protest peacefully against unfair practices, full rights to political participation, and the right to a decent standard of living for African Americans, for other people of color, and for all working people and poor
people in South Carolina and throughout the U.S.  We endorse the announced march on Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, on June 9 to demand that the state drop the criminal charges against the Charleston 5 and that WSI drop the civil lawsuit against both locals and
their members, and we endorse the call by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for a day of solidarity with the Charleston 5.

We urge members and friends of the Green Party to contribute to the legal defense of the Charleston 5.  Contributions should be payable to:

The Dockworkers Defense Fund
910 Morrison Drive
Charleston, SC 29403

Attn: Robert J. Ford.  

Calendar

Activities of Interest to Greens

GPNJ Meetings and Activities