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GreenGram

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The Green Party of NJ Bulletin - July 2008

Inside:
* McKinney/Clemente nominated in Chicago!
* New Jersey presidential petition drive
* Profiles of some 2008 GPNJ candidates
* Global Greens / Ingrid Betancourt
* Revival of the GreenGram


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McKINNEY/CLEMENTE NOMINATED IN CHICAGO!

A GPNJ Delegate's Report on the Convention

By Ted Glick (Essex County Greens)

[the following is taken from Ted's 7/14 Future Hope column,
"The Wheel Turns"]

It's hard to believe, sometimes, many times, that we really
can change the world. As Ingrid Betancourt once said, one
of our greatest obstacles is our skepticism. But then
moments happen - historical moments - like Saturday at the
Palmer House in Chicago, that give us renewed hope and energy.

It was historic that an African American woman, a six-
times-elected former Congressperson from Georgia, and a
Puerto Rican woman, a leader of the youth-based Hip Hop
movement, were chosen as the Presidential and Vice-
Presidential candidates of a party that will be on the
ballot in 30-40 or more states, enough states to
mathematically win the Presidency.

It was historic for the Green Party that it made this decision.

But most important of all, it was historic that a new,
multi-racial, grassroots movement was born, or re-born, in
Chicago. Though predominantly white, it is a movement with
strong women of color playing central leadership roles and
with an anti-racist consciousness on the part of many of
its white local, state and national leaders. It is a multi-
issue movement making the connections between racism,
sexism, heterosexism, climate change, war, poverty,
economic injustice, immigrant rights and other issues.
And it is by no means solely electoral. One well-attended
workshop discussed the plans of No War, No Warming for
nonviolent direct action at the Republican Convention and
a "no more stolen elections" campaign. This campaign will
gather pledges of people prepared to engage in nonviolent
civil disobedience if the fall of 2008 sees the kind of
voter suppression and election machine chicanery that we
saw in 2000 and 2004.

The timing for the McKinney nomination was fortuitous,
happening just as mainstream news stories and commentators
are reporting on and writing about Barack Obama's political
right turn, his abandonment or softening of a number of
liberal and progressive positions.

Cynthia McKinney's acceptance speech said little about
Obama. Instead she focused on the imperative need for the
values-based Green Party and its values-based political
platform, one she believes is in tune with the values and
viewpoints of a majority of the American people. She
skillfully and eloquently wove together a compelling call
for action on a range of issues. She was interrupted by
applause many times, as was a similar, if different, speech
by the VP candidate Rosa Clemente.

McKinney made clear what, to her, would be a significant
victory - 5% of the vote, which she saw as establishing the
Green Party as a legitimate political player on the
national scene. Though visionary and inspirational, Cynthia
McKinney had her feet planted firmly on the ground. She
also knew, based on personal experience, that her campaign
and her candidacy would experience multiple dishonest
attempts to discredit it. The day after her nomination she
educated Green Party delegates about the years of public
attacks on Martin Luther King, Jr. prior to his
assassination as he went beyond civil rights to give
leadership against the Vietnam War and for human rights
and economic justice.

Over 300 delegates and several hundred others from almost
40 states came together hoping for the best and, from all
indications, left feeling very inspired. They returned
home ready to roll up their sleeves and do the essential
follow-up to make this new political movement's first major
campaign - the McKinney/Clemente campaign - as successful
as possible.

It is to be hoped that as the news about Chicago spreads,
a growing number of people will get involved. Most
immediately, money is urgently needed, and people are
needed to be part of petition campaigns this summer -
right now - to get the Green Party on the ballot in
as many states as possible.

The emergence of the McKinney/Clemente campaign raises a
number of questions:

1) For those tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people
who are or have been members or supporters of progressive
third parties, will you come forward now when something has
emerged which is a qualitative step forward and which has
tremendous upside potential?

2) For those people who fully understand that the
Democratic Party is in no way part of the solution, will
you continue to criticize or do nothing to support the
Green Party and the McKinney/Clemente campaign even after
the Green Party has proven its staying power and has birthed
a clearly significant and needed, hopeful political alliance?

3) And finally, how much longer can our threatened
ecosystem and our suffering peoples wait before a critical
mass of independent progressives, radicals and
revolutionaries join forces in a strategic, mass-based
alternative whose presence and successes can move the
country forward in a way that nothing else can?

And one more question: what will those reading
this column do? What will you do?

* * * * * * * * * *

GPNJ Chair, Nick Mellis (who was one of our delegates to
the convention) had the following comments: "It was great
to see how our Presidential and Vice Presidential
candidates were active participants in so much of the
convention proceedings all weekend. They were accessible,
approachable, and very down-to-earth. Cynthia McKinney's
acceptance speech was so inspiring ... I think it will
motivate Greens around the country to go all-out for the
campaign. Rosa Clemente is quite the firebrand and clearly
an up-and-coming national leader.

"These next four months are going to be exciting! Cynthia
and Rosa, together, are a dynamic duo and people are going
to be talking about this Green Party path-breaking ticket.
The next task for our state party is to make sure that we
gather enough petition signatures so New Jersey voters will
have a chance to vote for McKinney/Clemente on November 4."
[see article below about the petition drive]

Other delegates representing GPNJ at the convention were:
Richard Giovanoni, Ted Glick, Jane Hunter, Roger Merle, and
Mark Pokryska. Our delegation voted as follows: 6 votes for
Cynthia McKinney, 1 for Kent Mesplay, 1 for Ralph Nader,
1 for Jesse Johnson, and 1 for None of the Above.

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EXCERPTS FROM CYNTHIA MCKINNEY'S ACCEPTANCE
SPEECH AT THE GREEN PARTY CONVENTION

In 1851, in Akron, Ohio a former slave woman, abolitionist,
and woman's rights activist by the name of Sojourner Truth
gave a speech now known as "Ain't I a Woman." Sojourner
Truth began her remarks, "Well children, where there is so
much racket, there must be something out of kilter ... If
the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the
world upside down all alone, then women standing together
[in our time] ought to be able to turn it back, and get it
right side up again!"

As it was in 1851, so too it is in 2008. There is so much
racket that we, too, know something is out of kilter.

In 1848, just a few years before Sojourner uttered those
now famous words, suffragists met in Seneca Falls, New York
and issued a declaration. It began:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and
women are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to
secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to
refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution
of a new government."

Two hundred sixty women and forty men gathered in Seneca
Falls, NY and declared their independence from the politics
of their present and embarked upon a struggle to create a
politics for the future. That bold move by a handful of
people in one relatively small room laid the groundwork and
is the precedent for what we do today. The Seneca Falls
Declaration represented a clean break from the past:
Freedom, at last, from mental slavery. The Seneca Falls
Declaration and the Akron, Ohio meeting inaugurated 72
years of struggle that ended with the passage of the 19th
Amendment in August of 1920, granting women the right to
vote. And 88 years later, with the Green Party as its
conductor, the History Train is rolling down the tracks.

In 2008, after two stolen Presidential elections and eight
years of George W. Bush, and at least two years of
Democratic Party complicity, the racket is about war
crimes, torture, crimes against the peace; the racket is
about crimes against the Constitution, crimes against the
American people, and crimes against the global community.
The racket is even about values that we thought were long
settled as reasonable to pursue, like liberty and justice,
and economic opportunity, for all. Yes, Sojourner, there's
a lot out of kilter now, but two women, Rosa Clemente and
me, joined by all the men and women in this room, are going
to do our best to turn this country right side up again!

As I have said so many times during this campaign for the
Green Party nomination, politics is not a beauty contest;
it is not a fashion show; it is not a horse race. Politics
is the authoritative allocation of values in a society.
Politics is about values being reflected in public policy.
It is about having power over public policy. And we engage
in the political process because we want our values
reflected in public policy.

Had the Green Party's values been reflected in public
policy since the beginning of the Green politics movement
in this country, the United States would have long ago
implemented a livable wage; there would be no civil
liberties erosion; diversity would be respected,
appreciated and welcomed; education would be interesting
and relevant to students' lives and no student would
graduate from college $100,000 in debt! In a Green Party
USA, health care would be provided for everyone through
a single payer, Medicare-for-all type health care system.
We would have no homeless men and women sleeping on our
streets and everyone who could work would have work -
rebuilding our infrastructure, manufacturing green
technology, retooling our economy so that those who protect
us, train us, heal us and prepare us for tomorrow are
compensated in what is their true value to our culture and
our society. Vietnam War-era veterans would be our *last*
war veterans because we would never have been engaged in
war and occupation against Afghanistan and Iraq. We would
forego imperial designs on our neighbors to the north and
south, never building any wall of division, not ever
encroaching on their geographic or cultural sovereignty.
If Green Party values were now reflected in U.S. public
policy, there would be peace in the Middle East based on
self-determination, respect for human rights, and justice.
We would strive to perfect our democracy at home through
election integrity and no one would be denied their
rightful place in our Union due to discrimination. Our
neighbors in the global community would look up to us for
our cultural and technological accomplishments. We would
have apologized for genocide against the indigenous peoples
of this land and the abomination of chattel slavery. Our
country would have dignity on the world stage and in every
international forum, and no one in this country would be
made to live in fear.

Today's reality is harsh. But what's even harder for many
to accept and admit is that our quality of life today is
the making of the Democratic and Republican Parties. What
our country has become through *their* public policy is
reflective of *their* values. We will never get a United
States that is reflective of different values if we
continue to do the same thing. Those who delivered us into
this mess cannot be trusted to get us out of it.

That's why I signed up to do something I've never done
before so I can have something I've never had before:
My country, made in the likeness of the values of
the Green Party.

We need an opposition party in this country. With 200
elected officials already, the Green Party can become this
country's premier opposition Party. One thing is clear,
Democratic and Republican values are not Green Party
values. And honestly, I believe Green Party values are the
values held by the majority in this country. And through
our vigorous Power to the People campaign, we will proclaim
our presence to every nook and cranny of this country. We
are needed now, more than ever and here's an example of why.

It is hard to not hear the warning signs of a new war: a
war against Iran. Dick Cheney told us to expect war for the
next generation. The Republicans launched this war economy
and their presumptive nominee said that we could stay in
Iraq for the next 100 years and he even sang a song for the
bombing of Iran. The Democratic majority in Congress just
voted to fund the war into 2009 and has 200 sponsors on a
bill that declares war on Iran by calling for a naval
blockade. A naval blockade is a declaration of war! The
Democratic presumptive nominee wants to increase the size
of the military and the budget for an already-bloated and
wasteful Pentagon. I am the only candidate who has
consistently voted against the Pentagon budget, voted
against the war in Iraq, and I voted against the bills that
funded it. The Green Party was against the war when it
started, is against the war now, and is against any
military action against Iran that might take place
tomorrow. The Green Party is a peace party. A Green vote
is a peace vote.

Not a word has been mentioned in this political season
[by the Democrats or Republicans] about the disparities
that exist within our country with the recognition that
public policy can erase them. Only a sick government would
place a banker in-between a student and her teacher; an
insurance lobbyist in-between a patient and his doctor.
Only a sick government would place a wealthy family and
their huge corporation and its genetically-modified
frankenfood peddled by force in-between us and the
organic food that's healthy for us to eat and that
farmers would prefer to grow.

I am no longer willing to trust the ones who are
responsible for getting us into this mess to provide
the solution to get us out of it.

The Green Party long ago took a stand for racial justice:
against profiling, against police brutality, against
discrimination of any sort, and for reparations stemming
from the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Green Party long
ago took a stand for gender equity. The Green Party long
ago took a stand against all discrimination. The Green
Party is a justice party. A Green vote is a justice vote.
And the day after the election, if voters have been
disfranchised and don't believe the announced election
results, it will be the Green Party that will be there,
as it was in 2004, to demand election integrity.

It is for all these reasons and more that I re-declare my
goals in the language of my sisters who convened at Seneca
Falls, NY 160 years ago. They wrote: "It is their duty to
throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
their future security."

When I was first running for Congress and it was the Year
of the Woman, women all over the country were saying, "We
want our seat at the table." And when I got to Washington,
I saw that policy was really made in a room, with a window
and a door, and there's two seats at the table. The window
is for us to look through while our representatives make
policy for us so we can see what they're doing. At the
table, one seat is for the Democrats and one seat is for
the Republicans. Now, we don't know who did it, but one of
them put a lock on the door and slipped a key to the
corporate lobbyists who can come and go at will and whisper
what they want to the Democrats, and then whisper what they
want to the Republicans, and the result is that we the
people, who pay for those seats and determine who sits in
them, want one thing, but because the corporate lobbyists
can come and go at will, our values get overridden and our
representatives give us something else.

That's how we end up with everyone saying they're against
the war and occupation, but war and occupation still gets
funding. That's how we end up with everyone saying they're
against illegal spying on innocent people, yet end up with
a telecom immunity bill being signed into law. That's how
we end up with everyone saying they're in favor of
universal access to health care and no one implementing
what the physicians, nurses, and health care providers
support, and that's a single payer health care system in
this country.

All over the world, Green Party members are working as
elected leaders in government to make public policy reflect
our Green values. Wangari Maathai, former Parliamentarian
from Kenya, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate: Green Party member.
Ingrid Betancourt, recently released hostage in Colombia,
former Senator and Presidential candidate: Green Party
member. Green Party members make public policy at the
national level on every Continent ... but not yet in our
country. Twenty years ago, Green party activists saw
through this two-party box that voters have been put into
in this country and started the Green Party here.

Politics is about shared values being reflected in public
policy. And these Green Party candidates standing with me
on this stage are the kind of people who will implement the
kind of public policy that reflects our shared values.

We are in this to build a movement. We are willing to
struggle for as long as it takes to have our values prevail
in public policy. A vote for the Green Party is a vote for
the movement that will turn this country right side up again!

I want to invite everyone who shares our values to join our
Power to the People campaign. C-Span viewers can learn more
about us at www.runcynthiarun.org. I want to work with the
nominees of the other small political parties so we can
form a united front.

I'm asking for your vote because in reality the only
"wasted" vote is a vote against conscience, a vote against
our dreams.

Vote your dreams. Vote your conscience.

Vote our future. Vote Green.

Thank you, Green Party, for granting Rosa and me this
supreme honor. Now let's go out there and get busy.
We've got a lot of work to do!

Power to the People!

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Rosa Clemente Bio (from Wikipedia)

Rosa Clemente is a community organizer, journalist and
Hip-Hop activist. Born and raised in the South Bronx,
she is a graduate of the University of Albany and Cornell
University. A much sought-after commentator, political
activist, community organizer and independent reporter,
Clemente has been delivering workshops, presentations and
commentary for over ten years.

Clemente's academic work has been dedicated to researching
national liberation struggles inside the United States,
with a specific focus on the Young Lords Party and the
Black Liberation Army. While a student at SUNY Albany, she
was President of the Albany State University Black Alliance
(ASUBA) and Director of Multicultural Affairs for the
Student Association. At Cornell she was a founding member
of La Voz Boriken, a social/political organization
dedicated to supporting Puerto Rican political prisoners
and the independence of Puerto Rico.

Clemente has written for Clamor Magazine, The Ave.
magazine, The Black World Today, The Final Call and
numerous websites. She has been the subject of articles in
the Village Voice, The New York Times, Urban Latino and The
Source magazines. She has appeared on CNN, C-Span,
Democracy Now and Street Soldiers. In 2001, she was a youth
representative at the United Nations World Conference
against Xenophobia, Racism and Related Intolerance in South
Africa and in 2002 was named by Red Eye Magazine as one of
the top 50 Hip Hop Activists to look out for.

In 1995, she developed Know Thy Self Productions (KTSP), a
full service speakers bureau, production company and media
consulting service. Seeing a need for young people of color
to be heard and taken seriously, she began presenting
workshops and lectures at colleges, universities, high
schools, and prisons. In the past ten years she has
presented at over 200 colleges, conferences and community
centers on topics such as: African-American and Latino/a
Intercultural Relations; Hip-Hop Activism; The History of
the Young Lords Party; Women, Feminism and Hip Hop.

In 2003, Clemente helped formed and coordinate the first
ever National Hip Hop Political Convention that drew over
3000 activists who came together to create and implement a
national political agenda for the Hip-Hop generation. Ten
days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged parts of the south,
Clemente traveled to the areas as an independent journalist
and her on-the-ground reports were broadcast on independent
radio stations all over the world, including Air America,
NPR, Pacifica Radio, Democracy Now, Indymedia, Hard Knock
Radio and many more independent and mainstream media outlets.

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EXCERPTS FROM ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY
VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ROSA A. CLEMENTE

Good Afternoon - Buenas Tardes.

It is with much honor y mucho orgullo that I am here today.

People often say words can't express how joyful they are.
Well, I am from the Hip-Hop generation, and we can remix
anything!

Today my words will, hopefully, not only express my honor,
my humbleness, but my readiness to take on this task and
the responsibility that I have been asked to accept. The
only way I can even begin to accept this nomination is that
I must understand that I am just a vessel, a representative
of the work of an entire generation.

The Hip-Hop movement was created by Black and Brown youth.
I stand on the shoulders of a generation of young people of
color who clearly understand that we are suffering from
structural racism, institutional racism and capitalism.

We are fighting for survival. We are faced with issues that
are getting progressively worse:
. No livable wage;
. No affordable housing;
. The Aids pandemic in the African-American and Latino communities;
. Lack of a free healthcare system;
. The stranglehold of media conglomerates that marginalize
communities with stereotypical, racist and sexist propaganda.

We can lead the nation with a microphone. Hip-Hop has
always been that mic, but now the Green Party can be the
power that turns up the volume of that microphone.

My friend Omowal Adowl from the grassroots artists movement
asked me this question: "How did a 36-year old Black Puerto
Rican from East Tremont and Harrison Avenue [in the Bronx]
get on a stage to accept the nomination of the most
progressive innovative political party in the country?"

In order for me to answer that question, I have to start
from the beginning. [After growing up in] what is still the
poorest Congressional District, in September, 1990, I began
my studies at the University at Albany. In the first
semester I was a typical freshman. I partied, I drank and
did other things that would get me on probation!

When I came back the second semester I enrolled in two
classes: Puerto Rican History and the History of the Civil
Rights Movement.  It was then that I went from being a
Puerto Rican chick from the Bronx to changing my major and
running for president of the Albany State University Black
Alliance.

Later I received a Masters from Cornell University, but I
remained an activist. I learned under my mentor, Dr. Jams
Turner, that we must be scholar-activists. It may not have
brought me financial success, but it has brought me
personal fulfillment and joy. I have never looked back.
This is how I have been in all my activist circles - from
the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement to the National Hip-Hop
Political Convention and REACH, a media justice coalition.

Hip-Hop is the mic for the mic-less, the face of the
faceless, the speech of the speechless. We amplify our
politics, our pain, our love, our need for social justice -
through the mic, the music, the art, the culture. Jeff
Chang tells us in his seminal book, Can't Stop. Won't Stop:
"We are a generation that the United States has decided to
marginalize, imprison and send to war to fight people who
look like us." But we are also a generation that is clear
that many of our freedom fighters go by the names of Fred
Hampton, Mumia Abu Jamal, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells-
Barnett, Pedro Albizu Campos, Nat Turner, John Brown,
Harriet Tubman and Fannie Lou Hamer.

When Kanye West said George Bush does not like Black
people, I would extend that to say neither does the
establishment of the Republican or Democratic parties!

We will not be fooled again like we were in New Orleans.
As a journalist I felt disgusted that there were no young
journalists of color receiving the means to go down there.
I raised money, went down to the 9th ward and gave money
directly to our people, spoke to our people and broadcasted
THEIR story. A story of struggle. A story of disappointment.
A story of disbelief. But also a story of hope, courage,
Black and Brown unity.

We cannot allow white supremacy to continue to divide us as
African descendants. When New Orleans flooded, Puerto Rico
cried, Brazil cried, Cuba cried, Panama, Mexico, Chile,
Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic all cried. We must
continue to resist as a diverse people. We must organize.

As youth, particularly as youth of color, we must be the
torch bearers of truth.

We Must Remember that youth have always taken risks. From
the Soweto uprisings in South Africa; to African-American
and Mexicano children in the '50s and '60s who walked out
of schools; to the 17-, 18- and 19-year old men and women
who joined the ranks of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, the Black Panther Party, the American Indian
Movement, the Black Liberation Movement, the Young Lords
Party. Young people have always been the catalyst of change.
I bring these organizations up because they understood the
need to tell their message and create their own media.

We Must Remember, as the Hip-Hop generation, we must make
a call for media justice. Not only as something we talk
about, but something that is inherent to our humanity.

We Must Remember we know the world in which we live and
we've always believed Another World is Possible.

We Must Remember our ancestors who broke those chains
everywhere around the world, because they knew another
world had to be made. The answer is not always Yes We Can,
but We Will Do.

We Must Remember the words of the great abolitionist
Frederick Douglas: "I prefer to be true to myself, even at
the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than
to be false."

So for this first time in my life I have a choice - and in
every state where the Green Party is on the ballot, you
have a choice. Lets push ourselves to achieve victory. It
may not mean moving into the White House but moving the
people back into the streets and to the ballot box.

As we move forward I am clear that this is a historical
moment - an African-American woman, a Puerto Rican woman -
women who trace their lineage back to Africans, who were
enslaved in the Americas and the Caribbean. Two women whose
parents were born in different countries and because of
their skin were relegated to second class citizenship. Two
women who believe that in 2008 the social injustices faced
by people of color - and increasingly poor and working
class whites - will subject their children to second class
citizenship. We can no longer waste our time and energy on
those who are already moderating themselves to the right.

I leave you with this story: The campaign against Vieques
started 66 years before May 2005. The Puerto Rican people
came together and said: "I don't care if you believe in
independence or statehood, but at the end of the day the
Navy needs to get out of Vieques." After years of united
struggle, which included Brazilians, Africans, Puerto
Ricans, progressive whites, political prisoners, and many
others around the world who were united under the idea that
the Navy must leave Vieques - it happened: On May 3rd,
2005, I was able to witness a historical moment when
midnight struck and Lolita Lebron and Rafael Cancel
Miranda, former political prisoners, knocked down that
gate and 50,000 people marched forward in victory and
solidarity. That is resistance and we have to continue to
make that happen.

As I stand here today, I know that I am in the midst of
another historical moment . . .

El Maestro, Pedro Albizu Campos, was a Puerto Rican
politician and advocate of Puerto Rican independence from
the United States, and the leader and president of the
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death in
1965. He said, "When tyranny is law, revolution is order."
The Green Party is that revolution.

Yo soy Boricua, ya que tu lo sepas. Pero yo soy Verde tambian.

Peace.

------------------------------------------

LET'S GET CYNTHIA AND ROSA ON THE BALLOT IN NEW JERSEY!

To ensure that New Jersey voters will see the
McKinney/Clemente Green Party ticket on their November
ballots, we must ramp up our efforts to gather petition
signatures!

All petition booklets must be submitted to the Division of
Elections by July 28. A minimum of 800 signatures is required.

But:
* to be safe we should submit at least 1,500 signatures
(hopefully closer to 2,000);
* we must submit a good number of our signatures by Friday,
July 25. Waiting until the last day to submit is dangerous.
If we submit booklets on July 25 and some of them are found
to be deficient or have technical problems, we still will
have the weekend of July 26-27 to fix the problems and then
re-submit on Monday, July 28.

If you don't already have a petition booklet and an
instruction sheet, get them from your County Coordinator,
from a GPNJ officer, or download them from the Web site of
the Division of Elections:

www.njelections.org/2008-nomination_petitions.html

There is a special Page 2 form that must be inserted and
there are special instructions about notarization of the
booklets. Call Nick Mellis (609-393-4349) or Steve Welzer
(609-443-6782) to get all the relevant info.

Then please hit the streets! With some effort you can
expect to get between 10 and 20 signatures per hour. That
means if you commit seven or eight hours to this task over
the next two weeks you could gather 100 signatures and make
a major contribution to the campaign.

If you're only able to obtain a total of 20 or 30 or 40
signatures, OK - *every signature will be appreciated* -
but we certainly need some of our members to turn in 50 or
100 or more. The next two weeks are critical to get our
candidates on the ballot!

P.S. - Right after the convention we received .PDF's of
some very nice "McKinney for President" tri-fold brochures.
Contact Steve Welzer if you'd like one emailed to you (they
were created by the Green Party of Rhode Island, so the
local contact info has to be typed over before copying).

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PROFILES OF SOME OF OUR 2008 CANDIDATES

(The following is taken from the Web sites of some our
candidates. Over the next several issues we will be
profiling and reporting on all of this year's GPNJ campaigns.)

* * * * * * * * * *

Patricia Alessandrini for Freeholder

www.newmenu.org/votepat

Freeholder, Bergen County

I am committed to social change, both domestic and
international, which is why I am a member of the Green
Party. We badly need election and tax reform in this state
and in this country. We also need a change of priorities
when it comes to spending taxpayer money; for example, more
money should go to making sure everyone has affordable and
excellent healthcare. If you agree that what we need is a
real change, please vote for me and for the other Green
Party candidates on the ballot this election day.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ed Fanning for Congress

US House of Representatives. District: 5
Counties: Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, Warren

www.newmenu.org/edfanning

Product Manager. 27 years working in the Financial Services industry.

Important Issues:
. Increase minimum wage to $10 in 2009 and $12 by July 2010.

. 100% Public Financing of elections. Put officials to work
for us, the taxpayer, instead of corporations.

. 25% reduction in military budget by 2012. Savings
primarily spent on health care, rebuilding country's
infrastructure, educating youth & unemployed and rebuilding
the country impacted by Katrina and other natural disasters.

. Universal, single payer health care. Health care is a
basic human right. Period. A single payer system will save
$350 billion alone in administrative costs.

. New Deal program to invest billions to develop solar,
wind, and hydro energy.

. Make the U.S. the leader to halt Global Warming.

. All U.S. troops AND CONTRACTORS out of Iraq in 2009. No
new Blackwater government contracts and take all possible
steps to rescind existing contracts.

. Congressional censure of Bush/Cheney's Iraq and torture
policies within first 30 days of new Congress. We must show
the world that U.S. citizens do not abide by the policies
of war criminals.

. Immediate ban on sales of automatic weapons. Improved
controls on gun sales and registration.

. Rescind Patriot Act.

. Rescind the Bush Tax cuts which disproportionately favor
the very wealthy. Impose tax on non-retirement security
portfolios in excess of $1,000,000.

"If you agree with my policies, make the choice to support
the candidate whose policies represent you, the people."

Contact/donate info:
Ed Fanning
4 Highland Ave.
Dumont NJ 07628
(201) 384-6448

* * * * * * * * * *

Jason Grover for Congress

US House of Representatives. District: 2
Counties: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May,
Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem

www.newmenu.org/jasongrover

Photojournalist for a Spanish Weekly, Freelance
Photographer/Writer, DJ, and Construction Laborer.

Important Issues:

Iraq War: The United States has been in Iraq for over five
years and what have we gained besides; 4,113 soldiers dead,
over 30,333 wounded, and $534,714,068,999 spent on a War
based on proven lies. There must be a deadline to withdraw
from Iraq, with troop reductions starting now.

Health Care: Single payer healthcare for all. Health care
should be a human right not a profit hungry machine. The
War in Iraq cost $300 million every single day and
politicians would like you to believe we don't have the
money for healthcare. While they themselves enjoy benefits
denied to 46 million Americans.

"A vote for me is a vote for: an end to the Iraq War,
National Single Payer Healthcare, stewardship of the
environment and an end to corporate money that has control
over the Democrats and the Republicans."

Contact/donate info:
Grover For Congress
1336 Greenwood Dr.
Vineland, NJ 08361
(609) 364-9057

* * * * * * * * * *

Alvin Meyer for Freeholder

www.newmenu.org/alvinmeyer

Freeholder, Bergen County

I established and operated a small business for 25 years.
In my early 20s I became a social and political activist.
I was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and was an
early opponent of the Viet Nam War. I began speaking out
against the Iraq War before it began and am an active
advocate against the repressive and illegal actions of
the current administration.

Important Issues:

Open Government
* strict compliance with the Sunshine Law
* swift and free response to requests for public information
* seeking ways to expand access to public meetings and public records

Responsible Government
* protection of citizens' rights from Public Domain abuses
* initiating a full-scale cost and service analysis of
privatization - has it or has it not worked as expected
* disallow all forms of double dipping at all levels of government
* prohibit awarding of contracts to anyone or any business that
contributes more than $500 to any candidate for county office

Government for the Common Good
* aggressively reduce Bergen County's carbon footprint
* support and expand recycling in every municipality
* make certain that sources of clean water are protected
and will meet future needs
* conduct a full-disclosure public dialog about the safety
of the nearby Indian Point Nuclear facility

I think it is incumbent on all elected officials to promote
constituents' rights to a fair and impartial judicial
system, privacy, economic and social justice, access to
education, good jobs, health care.

Bergen County is a great place to live and raise families -
for most. We can - and should - do better regarding
homelessness, hunger, low-cost housing, education and job
opportunities.

"Vote for Alvin Meyer in November. Vote Green Party.
We advocate for you."

Contact Alvin Meyer
Phone: (201) 493-8044

* * * * * * * * * *

Steven Welzer for Congress

US House of Representatives. District: 4
Counties: Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean

www.newmenu.org/stevenwelzer

Founder, Green Party of New Jersey
Member, National Committee, Green Party of the United States

Worldwide, few democracies limit voters to just two choices
on the ballot. Surveys indicate that American voters would
be interested in seeing the growth of new parties to
provide more voices and more choices in elections.

The Green Party is stronger on environmental issues than
either the Republicans or the Democrats. We recognize that
the global warming crisis necessitates rapid action in
areas such as renewable energy and fuel efficiency.

The Green Party advocates a new direction for foreign
policy. America has almost 800 military bases all around
the world, more than any other country in history. The U.S.
military budget is almost as large as the rest of the
world's defense spending combined! We ought to be setting
an example in favor of peaceful diplomacy rather than militarism.

The Green Party stands for the renewal of local community.
Big Business and Big Government both drain resources from
local economies. We advocate community-based economics and
a grassroots form of democracy. The federal budget is
bloated! Cut federal taxes and enable those dollars to work
for us more directly at home!

"The Democrats and Republicans could use some competition.
Send a message that it's time for a new political alternative!"

Contact/donate info:
Welzer for Congress '08
PO Box 2029
Princeton, NJ 08543
(609) 443-6782

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GLOBAL GREENS GATHERING

For reference, see: www.globalgreens.org

Background

The Greens constitute a global, social-political movement
without precedent. With over three decades of experience
serving in local, state and national governments on six
continents, we recognize that to achieve our goals, our
movement must think and act both globally and locally.

Since the 1980s, Green parties and social-ecological
movements from different countries have gathered together
periodically with the objective of establishing common
strategies to deal with the problems that humankind faces.
During the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development ("Eco-92"), Greens from all over the world
convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to define joint actions.

In 2001, the first Global Greens Gathering took place in
Canberra, Australia. Green parties and activist
organizations from almost 90 countries formed a Network and
Coordination based upon our Global Greens Charter. In 2006,
in Nairobi, Kenya, Greens met in conjunction with the World
Social Forum, reuniting the Young Global Greens (a network
of youth groups). Brazil was chosen by the Coordination to
host the second Global Gathering, which was held May 1-4
in Sao Paulo.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Accomplishments of the Gathering

by John Rensenbrink (excerpts)

Having attended the first Gathering as a U.S. delegate in
Canberra, Australia in 2001, I was keenly interested to see
how and in what directions we would evolve . . .

* On Friday (May 2) representatives of each of the 88
participating national Green parties and political groups
were invited to come up to the platform. As their country
was called, each country's representative (and sometimes
several!) climbed the few steps and took their place in the
ever growing line that eventually stretched from one side
of the auditorium to the other. It was a deeply moving
ceremony to see Greens from every continent and from most
every country on earth ... all together and united on
powerful fundamentals about life and politics.

* Ingrid Betancourt of Colombia was declared Honorary
President of the Global Greens at a special ceremony during
the Congress. She was still in captivity at that time.
There was a showing of her extraordinary address to the
first Gathering in Canberra in 2001. Her husband, Juan
Carlos Le Compte, was with us in Sao Paulo and he
contributed powerfully to a well-attended press conference.

* Johan Hamels of Belgium moderated the key plenary on
Sunday morning at which the assembly of world Greens took
up amendments to the "21 Commitments for the 21st Century"
Declaration (available on the Global Greens website). The
first draft had been distributed via the web before the
conference - and the 80-plus amendments came from many
workshops and meetings during the weekend. It was exciting
and instructive to watch Johan conduct the meeting. Doing
this is never easy. This one was moderately difficult
(sometimes hitting typical roadblocks), but Johan made it
look almost easy. When I expressed my great admiration to
him later, he thanked me, but also said that he has been
doing this often for the European Greens meetings and that
by comparison, this one was a gentle event. It is true that
the mood and behavior of the delegates was one of wanting
to cooperate, wanting to come out with a strong and united
declaration on the major issues facing the planet. This was
accomplished.

* An important structural innovation was adopted during the
Sunday plenary, initiated and promoted by the Australian
Greens under the leadership of Bob Brown. The plenary
established a Global Greens Secretariat. The tasks of this
new body include: scheduling and organizing further Global
Greens conferences; promoting the Greens' common presence
at global events; facilitating the publication of
statements on matters of global urgency; urging and
supporting inter-federation communications; helping to grow
the Global Greens website; cooperating with the Global
Greens Network (GGN); and developing close liaison with the
Global Young Greens.

* The United States delegation, headed by the two co-chairs
of its International Committee, Julia Willebrand and
Justine McCabe, conducted a workshop on Saturday on the
relationship of the United States Green Party with other
Green parties in the world.

* A big highlight was the report during the Saturday
afternoon plenary by two representatives of the Young Greens,
Douglas Arege of Kenya and Jana Schoenfeld of Germany.

* There were forums on "Biodiversity and the Climate
Crisis", and "Sustainable Cities" on Thursday (sponsored by
the Heinrich Boell Foundation of Germany) and a forum
during the weekend on issues facing Greens in government.
These were in-depth analyses for the most part,
enlightening, and they provided background and foundation
for the workshops and plenaries on Friday afternoon,
Saturday, and Sunday. Presentations by my colleagues from
the United States - Bruce Gagnon, Julia Willebrand, Ross
Mirkarimi, and Mike Feinstein - were very well received.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Green Party of the United States - www.gp.org

For Immediate Release: Thursday, July 3, 2008

US Greens elated, relieved at news of Colombian Green Party
leader Ingrid Betancourt's rescue

WASHINGTON, DC - US Green Party leaders expressed gratitude
and relief after learning of Ingrid Betancourt's rescue on
Wednesday after she had been held hostage by Colombian
rebels since 2002.

Ms. Betancourt, who served as national legislator in
Colombia, ran for President as member of the Partido Verde
Oxygeno (Oxygen Green Party), and led campaigns against
political corruption, was a special friend to US Greens.

At the recent Global Greens Congress, held in May in Sao
Paolo, Brazil, Ms. Betancourt was made President of Honor
of the Global Greens Coordination, the 12-member Steering
Committee of the Global Greens.

See:
www.globalgreens.org/ggc/ggc_homepage
www.globalgreens.org/brazil2008/resolutions/ingrid_betancourt

"We are thrilled that Ingrid Betancourt's captivity has
ended, and we can only imagine the suffering she
experienced during the past six and a half years," said
Carl Romanelli, Pennsylvania Green and member of the
party's International Committee. "We're happy not just for
Ms. Betancourt, but also for her family and friends after
their long and agonizing wait."

[Juan Carlos Lecompte, Ms. Betancourt's husband, had been
scheduled to attend the US Green Party's 2008 National
Convention in Chicago, but he understandably changed his
plans upon release of his wife. Instead, Ingrid Betancourt
forwarded a recorded greeting to the convention.]

------------------------------------------

REVIVAL OF THE GREENGRAM

With this issue we are reviving the regular production of
our party's newsletter, the GreenGram.

We inspire each other and help move our project forward by
sharing news and reports of our campaigns, our national and
statewide activity, our local events, our plans, problems,
and solutions. That's the function of the GreenGram. If you
want to help in its production, please join the GPNJ
Communications Committee. If you are a state or local party
officer, if you are a member of a committee, if you are a
candidate or a volunteer with news to share ... please
submit your reports or thoughts for publication. That way
the GreenGram can become a source of cohesion for Greens in
New Jersey and an effective outreach tool to spread the
word about our movement.

The deadline for the August issue will be July 31.
Please submit material for inclusion to:
SteveWelzer@msn.com (or call: 609-443-6782).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GreenGram

Green Party of NJ Bulletin
P.O. Box 9802, Trenton, NJ 08650 ---- www.GPNJ.org

To subscribe, become a member of GPNJ!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!