Black & Green Wednesday Forum

St Louis – In 2010 Green Party of New York candidate for Governor Howie Hawkins was the first to run for office on a Green New Deal (GND) platform. The GND seeks 100% renewable energy by 2030 along with the right to single-payer healthcare, a guaranteed job at a living wage and affordable housing. It would create 20 million jobs and end destructive extraction. The GND would mount a World War II-scale mobilization by investing in green businesses. It would redirect research funds toward wind, solar and geothermal energy. 

The South Central Michigan Greens local will hold its monthly meeting 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 18 at Biggby's Coffee, 1125 East Michigan Avenue in Emmett Township, east of Battle Creek. RSVP for the meeting on Facebook.

Co-founders Monika Dittman Schwab of Jackson and John Anthony La Pietra of Marshall will report on the May 4 "Spring into Action" Labor History Walk sponsored by the local. Other local activities will also be discussed, along with planning for candidate recruitment.

Now that some Democrats are promoting a Green New Deal — the signature program of the Green Party for the last decade—how should Green Party candidates run on that program in 2020?

Green Party Origins of the Green New Deal by Howie Hawkins

I was the first US candidate to run for office campaigning for a Green New Deal in 2010. As the Green Party candidate for Governor of New York, I called for a Green New Deal of more progressive taxes to fund expanded public spending on public schools, single-payer health care, public housing, and a job-creating emergency program for 100% clean energy by 2020.

Bucks County, Pennsylvania –The purpose of this town hall is to provide our community with the chance to learn about the ambition, opportunity, and promise of a Green New Deal, hear from political and community leaders, and help everyone understand that the GND isn't about taking away cows or cars; it's about building things up and investing in the American people.

Vera Cole, President of the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association, Jenny Isaacs, Chair of the Bucks County Green Party, and Russell Zerbo, a representative of the Clean Air Council, will speak about various aspects of the Green New Deal and take questions from the audience.

New Orleans – Join us for an evening of ritual, short films, music, discussion, imagination and real conversation: about the ecological crisis we collectively face here in the Gulf South and what we must do to confront it.

The National Road to a Green New Deal Tour is organized by the youth-led Sunrise Movement, and the Flagship New Orleans tour stop is anchored locally by the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy with a growing list of local co-sponsors. The Green Party of Louisiana is proud to get behind this effort, and as chair of our local New Orleans chapter, I'm writing to urge you to attend.  

• Celebrate Earth Day 2019 By Supporting the Green Party's Green New Deal

San Francisco, CA – The Green Party of California released the following statement today on Earth Day 2019.

In 1969, a three million gallon oil spill despoiled the coast of Santa Barbara and was the impetus for the creation of Earth Day. On April 22, 1970, twenty million people in the United States took part in Earth Day events and vowed to protect our only home. This year, it is expected that almost one billion people will recognize Earth Day, but it isn't enough. Only a few countries are to blame and ours is one of them.

Nassau County, New York – All Nassau Greens and friends are urged to attend a picket to urge Governor Cuomo to stop the Williams Pipeline. Join with other climate activists at the LIU Post Tilles Center Atrium this Monday, April 22, from 10:15 AM-11:30 AM. The Tilles Center is located at 720 Northern Blvd, Greenvale, NY.

Join us outside Governor Cuomo's Earth Day speech to demand he reject the Williams fracked gas pipeline proposed to run through New York Harbor. The Williams Pipeline is unnecessary, expensive and will harm both human and marine life. This fossil fuel infrastructure project is also totally incompatible with fighting climate change. Our planet requires more renewable energy, not additional harmful gas pipelines!

• We need system change, not business as usual.

As we celebrate Earth Day in 2019, we need to recognize that more than climate change threatens our environment and our very existence. We have passed or are approaching several Planetary Boundaries outside of which human society may not survive.

• Greens blast corporate cash-in from looming climate disasters and economic collapse; call for new economic paradigm to address effects of climate change.
  
  
• Betting on disaster brings profit for a few while the public pays the real cost in terms of pubic health and infrastructure.
  
  
• A Green New Deal will provide “green jobs” to aid transition away from fossil fuel economy.

I was attracted to the Extinction Rebellion by its call for net zero carbon emissions by 2025 – more in line what is needed to save life on the planet than what many other groups have been calling for. And the fact that it employs acts of civil disobedience as a main organizing tool and directly challenges the present actions by elected official everywhere as untruthful and grossly inadequate to the task. I attended the action at Rockefeller Center in January. Yesterday more than 60 were arrested in NYC near City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge while the London CD protests enter their fourth day.