Sisters and Brothers,

Now is the time for Greens in the labor movement to get organized.

The Wall Street creditors and corporate free traders are dictating an economic policy that promises a “new normal” of high unemployment, millions of foreclosures, and radically diminished rights and standards for unions and workers.

The Democratic leadership's commitment to this bipartisan austerity agenda has opened up a huge political vacuum for independent labor and green politics. We believe that the Green Party can become America's labor party.

We can see the possibilities all over the country, from the growing number of local union endorsements of Green candidates to some first tentative murmurings about political independence from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Workers around the world have unleashed a planetary wave of mass strikes and demonstrations against corporate exploitation and public sector austerity. The same issues of youth opportunities, high unemployment, low wages, and austerity budgets underlie the strike wave in China, the mass demonstrations in Europe, and the revolutionary upsurge against exploiters and autocrats in the Middle East and North Africa.

We have the same problems in the US. The fight back that was sparked in Madison is spreading. It needs political expression that is independent of the two-party system of corporate rule.

That is why we think it is time for Greens who are workers, members of unions, and/or active on labor issues to revive the Green Labor Network of the of the Green Party of the United States.

We propose:

That we organize Green Labor Network and seek recognition as an accredited caucus with a voting seat on the Green National Committee. (For accreditation as a caucus, we need to sign up at least 100 members in at least 15 GPUS-affiliated states and adopt bylaws and a platform.)

That we speak out as the Green Labor Network on the issues of the day.

That we bring our Green Labor policies into the Green Party platform process.

That we bring our Green Labor policies into the 2012 Green presidential nomination process and the 2012 elections.

That we hold a first face-to-face meeting of the Green Labor Network at the Annual National Meeting in Alfred NY, August 4-7.

That we start communicating to organize around these goals on the Green Labor Network listserv: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . To sign up for the Labor Green Network listserv: go to http://lists.gp-us.org/mailman/listinfo/labor

Let us know what you think on the Green Labor Network listserv.

In solidarity,

David Doonan, IWW, Mayor of Greenwich NY, web manager: gp.org

Theresa El-Amin, SEIU organizer, 1986-1996, CWA member 1966-1985, NWC delegate to GNC

Howie Hawkins, Teamsters Local 317, New York delegate to the Green National Committee, Syracuse NY