SUMMER 2005

FEATURES

Elaine Brown runs for mayor of Brunswick, Ga.
Former leader of the Black Panther Party now a card-carrying Green
By LaVerne Butler
D.C. Statehood Green Party
Elaine Brown, former chair of the Oakland-based Black Panther Party, is running for mayor of Brunswick, Ga.

Humanitarian, heroine and Green: Marla Ruzicka (1976-2005)
By Khurshid Khoja
Green Party of Alameda County (California)
On April 16, 2005, humanitarian activist and Green Party member Marla Ruzicka of Lakeport, Calif. was killed in a car-bomb attack as her vehicle traveled along the road to the Baghdad airport. She was only 28.

Think Green policy
Green Institute the only think tank on Green issues in the U.S.
By Doug Malkan
Green Party of Colorado
They call it the "only national policy institute in the United States based explicitly on the values and principles of Green politics."

Chicago Transit budget crisis and disability
By Dan Rodriguez Schlorff and Alex Briscoe
Illinois Green Party
Chicago Greens are working to improve service, decrease fares and increase innovative pricing incentives to win riders back to public transit.

Using baseball and the media to advance social values
A case study by a media maverick
By Adam Eidinger
D.C. Statehood Green Party
I dressed in a colonial costume on the first day tickets went on sale for Washington, D.C.'s new Nationals baseball franchise and purchased 20 seats--yes, in left field.

ELECTIONS

Greens spring forward in April and May elections
By Mike Feinstein and Brent McMillan
Green Party of California and GP-US Political Director
Twenty-nine Greens in 10 states ran in municipal, county and school district races in spring 2005, bringing 2005 totals to 38 in 11 states.

Aimee Allison campaign takes Oakland Greens to new level
By Mike Feinstein
Green Party of California
If the Green Party is going to become a significant player in U.S. politics, its ability to win urban, multicultural seats is one of the key political tests it must pass. The recent Oakland District Two City Council campaign of Aimee Allison gives much hope for just that.

Officeholder Retrospective
Passionate about my community
Four years on Laramie's City Council
By Amy Sunshine Moon
Green Party of Wyoming

CAMPAIGN TOOLBOX

Tips, tools, and ideas for running a successful Green campaign

Campaign media 101
By Becky Weber
D.C. Statehood Green Party
Green Campaign Schools typically feature at least one media skills workshop to help candidates and their campaign staff strategize about how to get their message out. At the Chesapeake Campaign School this spring, the Green Party's media coordinator, Scott McLarty, led two workshops on topics tailored for the needs of attendees.

Green Party Card raises $11K
Card program helping Greens get organized
By Emily Citowski
GP-US Operations Manager
Greens all over the country can now show their "Green Pride" by becoming card-carrying Greens. Introduced in early March, the Green Party Card program has already raised close to $11,000. Half of this money has been contributed back to the state parties.

WORLD

U.K. makes real progress
Local growth and closer to Westminster
By Mike Feinstein
International Committee
While much of the nation revolted against an election that failed to excite voters, for Greens in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom's May 5 General Election represented a big step forward.

Italian success in regional elections
By Valentina Corace
Italian Greens / I Verdi
Since 1994, Italian Greens have been in various Center-Left coalitions on the regional and national levels, ranging from four to nine parties. Being part of such coalitions gives the Greens a better ability to win seats in Italy's mixed winner-take-all/proportional electoral system, which, combined with a dozen or more parties running, makes it difficult for small parties to stand alone.

OPINION

Countering the vision of endless war
By Joanne Cvar
Pacific Green Party of Oregon
The current administration has been open about its plans for full-spectrum world dominance, and the lesser-known U.S. Space Command Vision for 2020, whose lofty goal is "dominating the space dimension…to protect U.S. business interests." Space is the ultimate high ground, crucial to gaining and retaining control. The so-called War on Terror will not end, they tell us, in our lifetimes.

A rural view of "The Long Emergency"
By Linda Cree
Green Party of Michigan
What happens when industrial societies run out of the fossil fuels they depend on? James Kunstler seeks to answer this question in his widely read book and article "The Long Emergency."

Democracy and dissent
By Peter LaVenia
Albany, N.Y. Green Party
One of the more striking features of the debate on party direction, policy, and ideology that has been raging with unusual ferocity in the last year is how little space we provide in the national organization for educated, intelligent discussion and internal dissent.

The majority political party in 20 years
By Jerry Kann
Manhattan Green Party
Where do you want the Green Party to be in 20 years? In 2025, I want our party to be the majority political party in the United States. I want most of the members of Congress, most governors and most members of state legislatures to be Greens.

Public power has a bright future in Racine
By Pete Karas
Green Party of Wisconsin
A public electric utility is a real possibility and an idea that is worth pursuing.

Letters to the Editor

We have met the crisis-and the crisis is us; A great campaign; U.N. is part of the problem

Editorial Cartoon

Profiles in Conservative Courage: Pharmacist Phil and the Morning-After Pill
By Mikhaela B. Reid
www.mikhaela.net

REPORTS

States
By various
A new state party, resurgence in other states, elections, and conventions.

Committees
By various
The annual national meeting, merchandising, strategic planning, and more exciting work by the national committees and working groups.

EVERGREEN

Interview
Patti Smith reaffirms that people have the power
By Deyva Arthur
Green Party of New York State
Patti Smith is most known for pioneering the music scene, starting in the 1970s with her own style of poetic folk-punk. She is a two-time Grammy Award nominee and is considered one of the foremothers of current music. Smith is singing out against the war in Iraq, and gave an interview for Green Pages in April at a rally with Ralph Nader sponsored by the Capital District Greens.

Commentary
Greentern
Musings from one of our spring interns
By Alex Evans
GP-US Intern
In conjunction with a political science class at my high school, I took on an internship with the Green Party of the United States for my final semester. It has been an incredible experience.

Book Review
Anti-war book features Green and Pink contributors
Medea Benjamin on the global peace movement
Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism
By Becky Weber
D.C. Statehood Green Party
Medea Benjamin, the Green Party's candidate for senate from California in 2000 and co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, has co-edited (with Jodie Evans) a new anthology of essays called Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2005). The book includes works from Green activists such as Wangari Maathai and Andrea Buffa, as well as from Cynthia McKinney, Alice Walker and Arundhati Roy.

Building Green
Green Party activists and architects design with sustainability in mind
By Howard Switzer
Green Party of Tennessee
So-called "green building" has moved from the fringes to mainstream in recent years. But the fancy designs that shelter magazines promote don't necessarily embrace sustainable technology, and they rarely mention the politics that have motivated the shifts in public policy with regard to building.

Poem
Politics
By Art Goodtimes
Green Party of Colorado