Colleagues,
*1. What do you look forward to the most for the coming year?*
Despite so many daunting and truly frightening events happening in the world today, I optimistically look forward to the inevitable resistance to the absolutely untenable situation the vast majority of us are living in and I would be shocked if we do not see the beginnings of a new movement by the end of next year. The big question is who will have the organization to take these movements to better conclusions instead of leading them back into the dead end of the Democrats and cynical lesser-evilism?
I look forward to masses of people coming together in the realization that their collective situations, though all individually different, encompass many of the same issues and struggles no matter where they are. People have always come together to resist injustice and inequity since the dawn of human society and we must not give up on this historical reality.
In the next year we may very well see the rise of a new resistance and we must strive to be a force in leading this movement to better conclusions by emphasizing and underscoring the need for political independence from the parties of War and Wall Street. Being an “alternative'' party is not enough nor will this excite the very people who must change the world. We must work to become a vehicle for change or others will work to create their own vehicles without us. There will be no tricks or gimmicks - just listening to the people and having a lasting commitment to the movement.
Building organized political independence is one of the hardest things there is to do by design. Let’s be an integral part of that evolution!
*2. What is an area you see that GPUS makes a great impact?*
We are an anti-war party and despite our differences, we remain one of the most committed parties against imperialism among all of the richer nations. The war machine/imperialism, mass incarceration and local big developer domination are the true litmus tests that both Wall Street parties will consistently fail and betray us on - nationally and locally. We must continue to drive this home. Also, Democrats can claim support for a watered-down “Affordable Care Act” corporatist slush fund version of their GND but US Greens demand a worker controlled economy with real impact on people’s lives.
3. What's a committee collaboration that you would like to see?
I will submit a whole new thread on my ideas for how our committee infrastructure could work however in a nutshell:
The committee's “siloed” way of collaborating needs to be eliminated. We need to have a working committee resource hub that facilitates moving work along. Every week or two we would have new issue(s) or dates of relevance that we have a coordinated pipeline involving media, social media, Fundraising, and sometimes Outreach or Merch.
We should have national party organizing calls that would help to get us on the same page. We should encourage states to collaborate in hosting events in coordination with these national issues if they choose to and so that states and caucuses can partake and share resources.
To further explain what I meant by “working hub” is that we need a place where committees can coordinate on projects from their own angles. We would use the hib to recruit small teams for various projects including utilizing volunteers who may or may not be voters in committees. Relying primarily or almost solely on our committee appointment structure is also too inward a tradition and isn’t resulting in the addition of people with specific skills to build the national party. For example , while a speakers bureau is a good project, we need both speaker and writer teams that can issue short statements that they submit to the media committee with expertise on various topics. We need to train members (especially but not only YES members) to become fairly competent video editors who can edit short pieces with template themes that we can push everywhere. Almost everything that we put out (with exception of very sensitive events, needs to bring people back in as potential contacts.
Right now there are a handful of overachievers trying to do all of this work and staff focused on a lot of this work while fundraising suffers. This is an unsustainable situation and a sign of party stagnation. We have to rethink how our committees do work.
4. What's an area that you would like GPUS to make a greater impact? What tools or resources would you like to see GPUS to use in order to do so?
GPUS often functions in a far too inward way (sometimes with the only defense being tradition without realizing the fact that tactics must change) and therefore is focused on people who are comfortable with each other or who function in a safe zone. Our natural demographic allies are not left Democrats - they are the people who do not believe that the system works and/or who already know that the system is rigged. They are the hardworking people who are fighting to survive and people who are being crushed by this system.
We are too small at the moment in the vast majority of our states to do substantial local organization yet. Just existing as a party can be a literal battle. However, we can learn to create media and we can learn how to interview and submerge ourselves in these movements with local folks and bring those voices to the forefront. Anyone with a decent smartphone from the past five years and a $30-40 smartphone mic can create very good media, do decent interviews, etc. All you need is With a few cheap tools a team of editors can turn that media into a professional looking output. We are at an unprecedented age where these tools have become affordable.We have entered a media age (between mass movements) and it is important that our federation collectively becomes a media force and not surrender that to a handful of youtube personalities with varying fidelity to independent parties and a break with the duopoly. This work cannot all be siloed off to one or two committees. We need to learn to do this work and train others.
*5. What do you think is a good fundraiser?*
A good fundraiser is a fundraiser that builds lasting party community, organization and commitment.
Greens have had several local/federal candidates who have raised over $100,000, even $200,000 Jill Stein of course raised well over a million. But, because of how our system is set-up, too many of these milestones have not translated into lasting growth for the party because our strategy has been to try to beat the devil at his own game. We need to find a way to use our funds and fundraise to engage people with political education and deep canvassing with a media component. We need to use funds to train people with new skills.
I also think if we had consistent (let’s say monthly) national party leadership organizer meetings open to all recognized state/caucus and local officers and delegates, then we could coordinate fundraising better because we could work out ways that fundraising and outreach skills could be shared with the state parties. Healthier federation members create a healthier national party.
The GPUS National Committee is not the proper conduit for this - nor should we be. Organizing must be party wide and must involve training and deep discussion. Deferring to the National Committee to organize the party is yet another inward silo.
*6. What are your thoughts on building sustaining relationships?*
What keeps relationships going for organizations in our predicament is ultimately building solidarity and fostering a sense of humility and strong fidelity to the weight of the task before us. If GPUS dares to strive to be a part of building an entirely different society and system, then we need to respect that task and realize that it takes solidarity. Solidarity isn’t about loving one another as individuals or even liking everybody. It also isn’t about tolerating individuals who disrupt our work.
Solidarity ultimately comes from a love for humanity and its potential and confidence in what we can come together to build. This comes in part, from creating forums and platforms to have deep discussions about our party, our society, and what our actual program is. The NatCom listserv is not the proper platform for this. Solidarity means supporting and training our constituents and giving each other the skills to succeed. Our national party right now isn’t very welcome to newcomers. We have esoteric and disparate rules that are too often improperly weaponized and little in the way of a coherent program. Efforts to raise outreach and organization in states is too often rebuffed with claims of decentralization. But no organization in the history of the world that has made significant change has ever not had central communication and a certain level of accountability and clarity. We should provide a welcoming atmosphere that realizes that while our challenges are not the same in each state, this very fact underscores the necessity that we must collectively OWN the respective challenges in our various states. This is the kind of deep work that must be done and attempting to change or grow the party via shortcuts has consistently failed to take it to the next level.
Thank you for your consideration and ranking!
Warm Regards,
Tony Ndege
NCGP
Steering Committee candidate
