Greensweek: The Green Bulletin

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Vol. 1, No. 14
Monday, November 24, 2003

Green news
Upcoming events
Green Action: call Congress; write a letter
Good reads

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GREEN NEWS

CAMPAIGN ALERT:
In less than 3 weeks, San Francisco voters will decide who will be their next mayor. Greens can help candidate Matt Gonzalez beat the Democratic machine: (1) Make a contribution: visit http://www.mattgonzalez.com/, or mail a check to Gonzalez for Mayor, 168 Seville St, San Francisco, CA 94112. The more, the better: the donation limit is $250. (2) Throw a houseparty: invite people over to raise money for Matt. Get materials and information on the website. (3) Come to San Francisco and volunteer to get-out-the-vote. Call Leslie B at the San Francisco Green Party office at 415-701-7090 or contact Matt's campaign directly at 415-734-9340. Latest news: actor ('West Wing'), political activist, and Democrat Martin Sheen has endorsed Matt. More: http://www.mattgonzalez.com/ http://www.gp.org/makemattmayor.html

GREAT LAKES REGION: 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, December 5-7. See the listing under Upcoming Events below.

CHESAPEAKE REGION: The national Coordinated Campaign Committee and Greens in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania are organizing a two-day Campaign School in Baltimore, at the University of Baltimore on January 31 and February 1, 2004. See the listing under Upcoming Events below.

CALIFORNIA: The Green Party of California has endorsed California Senate Bill 917, The Code for Corporate Responsibility Bill, sponsored by Senators Richard Alarcon (D-San Fernando Valley) and Martha Escutia (D-Norwalk). The bill requires corporate directors to ensure that profits do not come at the expense of five elements of the public interest: the environment; human rights; public health and safety; the welfare of communities; and employee dignity. California Greens recently added a Corporate Accountability plank to their platform. California Greens also pledged support for the striking United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) in their action against Vons, Albertson's, and Ralph's supermarkets. While employers' profits have risen 91% since 1998, they're refusing workers' demand for an affordable health plan. Greens across California are honoring the picket lines; some, including 33rd Assembly District candidate Tom Hutchings, have joined the strikers. More: http://www.cagreens.org/

CALIFORNIA: Green Santa Monica councilmember Michael Feinstein has announced that he will travel to Austria in early December to challenge newly elected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, using the latter's hometown of Graz as a backdrop. Feinstein plans to question the gov's commitment to green building guidelines, water and energy efficiency, enforcement of existing laws, and a comprehensive plan for affordable housing. The event, coordinated by the Austrian Green Party during a gathering of about 350 Green Party municipal officeholders from all over Europe, is timed to occur less than a month before Schwarzenegger introduces his budget for the state. More: http://www.smmirror.com/volume5/issue23/michael_feinstein_to.asp

CALIFORNIA: Missing from last week's news about Patrick Driscoll, Green candidate for US Congress from Sacramento (5th Congressional District) in 2004, was his web site: http://www.driscollforcongress.org/

FLORIDA: Greens from all over the US and several other nations gathered in Miami last week for the rallies against the FTAA summit. Read the text of the 'Stop the FTAA!' resolution, passed by the Coordinating Committee of the Green Party of the United States on November 13, at http://www.gp.org/press/pr_11_18_03.html. See coverage of the rallies, including reports of widespread police violence against protesters, at the Green Party's press page http://www.gp.org/press.html and at the FTAA pages of the Independent Media Center http://www.ftaaimc.org/en/index.shtml; http://www.ftaaimc.org/en/. Latest news: over 250 arrests; many still held in jail; reports of brutal treatment in the jails. Among those arrested were two Democracy Now! producers and several Indy Media reporters; police ignored their press credentials. More than 50 people were arrested while holding a peaceful vigil outside the jail in solidarity with those inside. They were surrounded by riot police and ordered to disperse. As they did, police attacked and blocked many from leaving.

Help needed! Green organizers ask all Greens & friends who attended or supported the FTAA protests to contribute at least $5 -- and more if you can -- to the Miami-Dade Greens. Make check payable to the 'Green Party of Miami-Dade County,' and mail it to Miami-Dade Green Party, PO Box 560325, Miami, FL 33256. Visit http://www.stopftaa.org/ for Miami officials' phone numbers to complain about police abuses. Call local media and members of Congress immediately to protest the police attacks: US Congress Switchboard, 202-224-3121.

IDAHO: Nicole Duke, an Idaho Green Party member who was appointed to the Emmett Library Board earlier this year, plans to introduce an anti-PATRIOT Act resolution to her fellow board members this week. Nicole will also urge the other board members to place warning signs in the library, as have been already posted in the East Bonner and Boise public libraries as a result of direct action from Green Party activists. More: http://www.idahogreenparty.org/

MASSACHUSETTS: Members of the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts and the national Lavender Green Caucus are praising the Massachusetts high court decision in favor of marriage rights for same-sex couples, but note that the court ordered the Massachusetts legislature to come up with acceptable legal language in 180 days. Register your demand for uncompromised equal rights with state legislators at the web site of the Massachusetts House of Reps at http://www.state.ma.us/legis/memmenuh.htm. More: http://www.massgreens.org/ http://www.lavendergreens.org/

WISCONSIN: The Wisconsin Green Party supports legislation introduced by State Rep. Pocan and Sen. Plale banning the use of touch screen voting machines in Wisconsin until they are proven to be accurate and fair. Wisconsin Greens said that any touch screen voting machines must provide a paper trail and use 'open source' software to ensure transparency and accountability. In October, the Wisconsin Green Party passed a resolution calling for UN election monitors for the US 2004 Presidential and Congressional elections and the use of voting machines that incorporate a paper trail. The resolution also advocates for purchasing voting machines that can accommodate IRV voting. More: http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org/

WISCONSIN: The Wisconsin Lavender Greens have announced their new website: http://lavender.wisconsingreenparty.org/

NATIONAL: Greens with disabilities are organizing an identity caucus. There now is a mailing list for Greens with disabilities, also welcome to Green disability advocates, professionals and parents of people with disabilities; visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/disabledgreens/ or send a message to disabledgreens-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Members plan to organize a system to ensure that members with limited or no e-mail access can also be included. More: contact Cyndi Norman at cyndi@tikvah.com

UPCOMING EVENTS

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4: Alternatives to the current Israeli /Palestinian policy: Robyn Lundy, the National Organizor for the Tikkun Community, will present proposals for a middle path to peace that is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian. 7 pm at St Paul and St Andrew Church, 263 West 86th Street in New York City. More: NYTikkun@well.com

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, http://www.GreatLakesGreens.org/

JANUARY 31 - FEBRUARY 1, 2004: The national Coordinated Campaign Committee and Greens in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania are organizing a two-day Campaign School in Baltimore. Intensive workshops, classes and training exercises will be held at the University of Baltimore. Who should attend: any Greens, anywhere, planning to run for office or serve as a campaign manager, press secretary, fundraiser, volunteer coordinator or other campaign principal in 2004. There will be a fee for materials, but no Greens with serious plans to be involved in a 2004 campaign will be turned away for lack of funds. Save the dates and stay tuned for more information. To subscribe to a weekly announcement list or to sign up for overnight homestays with local Greens, contact Ann Forno, annforno@jhu.edu.

GREEN ACTION

CALL CONGRESS

Call, fax, write a letter, or pay a visit
Contact information: Congressional switchboard:
(202) 224-3121
US House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/
US Senate: http://www.senate.gov/
Write a letter to the editor, a guest op-ed column,
essay, or article

Tell your Senators to reject Bush's Energy Bill, which already passed in the House. The bill will weaken the Clean Air Act; enable widespread drilling for gas and oil on public lands, including lands on which drilling is currently banned; grant billion-dollar giveaways to the nuclear and coal industries; grant $22 billion in tax breaks to oil and gas companies; provide $18 billion in loan guarantees to private corporations to build a natural gas pipeline from Alaska; exempt polluting energy corporations from the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts; impose $29 billion in clean-up costs on the public instead of charging industry for environmental damage caused by MTBE, a gas additive that taints drinking water; and increase U.S. dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power rather than on safe, clean, renewal energy sources. Stop legislated pillage of the environment! More: http://www.gp.org/press/pr_11_20_03.html
Urge your Senators and Reps to do all they can to block the Republican Medicare prescription drug bill that emerged from a House-Senate conference last weekend. The bill is a swindle of all Americans who need medicine and medical treatment and a move towards total privatization of public health care. Tell them also that the bill advanced by Sen. Ted Kennedy and moderates in Congress and all corporate-based managed care reforms are also unacceptable. The only solution to the health care crisis is single-payer national health insurance, which guarantees quality coverage for all, regardless of income, job status, residence, age, or prior medical condition, as well as choice of health care provider, under a tax plan in which the overwhelming majority of Americans would pay less than they do now for private coverage. More: Physicians for a National Health Program, http://www.pnhp.org/
Tell your Senators to keep student information private! Under a little known provision of the 'No Child Left Behind' Act, schools are required to turn over their entire student rolls, including confidential contact information, to military recruiters. This is unnecessary -- all branches of the military have hit their recruitment targets for the last two years. The only way to prevent military recruiters from getting this student information is if a parent 'opts-out' -- but the unfunded No Child Left Behind Act has no allocated budget to tell parents about this option. Urge your Senators to use their influence to remove this section of No Child Left Behind.

Repeated from earlier Greensweeks but still current....

Tell your Senators to protect retiree benefits by eliminating Section 631 of the Senate Prescription Drug Bill, which would allow employers to eliminate ALL retiree health benefits (not just prescription drugs) for retirees eligible for Medicare or state health plans. More: http://capwiz.com/aarp/issues/alert/?alertid=3629616 or call legislators at 1-800-580-5739.
Tell your Senator to vote NO on the Senate's version of HR 1904, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 and instead to support efforts that protect communities from forest fires without weakening environmental protections. More: http://wildforests.com/wildforests.asp?id=181&id3=wildforests&id4=ES&
House Republican leaders are trying to block a resolution overturning the FCC's media deregulation plan from reach the floor for a vote. Urge Reps to force the vote and pass the resolution. More: http://www.mediareform.net/ http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1010-13.htm
Tell Congress to support paper records for electronic voting machines. More: http://www.verifiedvoting.com/fair_elections.asp
Tell Congress to support a $215 million increase for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). More: The Save ADAP Committee, a working group of the AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition (ATAC) http://www.atac-usa.org/

GOOD READS