GreenStream on Aug. 23: Green Party livestream interview with Single-Payer organizer Ursula Rozum
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The next broadcast of GreenStream, the Green Party's livestream show, will feature an interview with Ursula Rozum, an organizer in the movement for Single-Payer health care in New York. The show will air on the party's Facebook page on Wednesday, August 23, at 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT.
Theo Williams, a member of the Green Party of New Jersey, will interview Ms. Rozum. Technical producer for the show will be Craig Seeman.
Read moreRhode Island Greens building Single Payer movement
We are reaching out to you today based on your previous support for the Green Party of Rhode Island and our efforts.
If you have not heard already, we are in the midst of a petition drive that is meant to pressure Senators Reed and Whitehouse to put a single-payer Medicare for All bill on the floor of the Senate to parallel the one entered in the House by Rep. John Conyers, HR 676, and co-sponsored already by David Cicilline.
Read moreNJ Gubernatorial Candidate Kaper-Dale Accompanies Deportee's Son to Capitol Hill Press Event
WASHINGTON, D.C -- New Jersey Green Party Gubernatorial Candidate Seth Kaper-Dale accompanied 13-year old Joel Massie, the son of a recently deported Indonesian refugee to an America's Voice Father's Day event in Washington, DC on Tuesday. Kaper-Dale and Massie were invited by America's Voice, along with New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Representatives Pallone and Gutierrez to highlight the effects of deportation of migrants.
Kaper-Dale is a pastor who most recently gained national attention when Indonesian community members, who previously took sanctuary in his church for 11-months, were deported by ICE.
Read moreGreen Party of California General Assembly
The General Assembly is the primary decision-making body of the Green Party of California (GPCA) and consists of delegates from each active county organization recognized by the GPCA. The General Assembly generally meets twice a year, once in Northern California and once in Southern California.
The General Assembly of the Green Party of California will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 17-18th in Sacramento at the beautiful Camp Pollock.
The General Assembly Planning Committee is asking that counties submit a list of their selected delegates to the State Meeting Planning Committee no later than Friday, June 9th.
Read moreHowie Hawkins
Green Candidate for Syracuse Mayor
Howie Hawkins has been an organizer for peace, justice, labor, the environment, and independent politics since 1967 when he got active in "The Movement" as a teenager in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Since moving to Syracuse in 1991, he has lived on the South Side where he has been active in the community on many issues. He is currently a Board member and the Treasurer for the Eat To Live Food Cooperative and for the Southside Community Coalition.
Howie works at UPS unloading trucks, where he is a member of Teamsters Local 317, He is also a supporter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, US Labor Against the War, the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare, and the Labor Notes network.
A former Marine, he helped organize opposition to the Vietnam War. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a leader in the anti-apartheid divestment movement to end US corporate investment in the system of racist labor exploitation in South Africa.
After attending Dartmouth College in the early 1970s, Howie worked in construction and helped organize a workers cooperative that specialized in energy efficiency and solar and wind installations.
He was a co-founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976 and the Green Party in the US in 1984.
Howie moved to Syracuse to develop cooperatives for CommonWorks, a federation of cooperatives that worked in the 1990s for a local economy that is cooperatively owned, democratically controlled, and ecologically sustainable.
Howie was active in the campaigns to establish the Citizens Review Board in the 1990s and the Living Wage Ordinance in the 2000s.
As the Syracuse Green Party's candidate for Mayor in 2005, Howie's campaign succeeded in putting public power – a city-owned power utility – on the city's agenda.
Howie has been a Green Party candidate for Common Council, Congress, U.S. Senator, and City Auditor. His vote has grown from 3% for Councilor At-Large in 1993 to a near win in 2011 with 48% of the vote for 4th District Common Councilor. In 2015, he received 35% of the citywide vote for City Auditor.
As the New York Green Party's candidate for Governor in 2010 and 2014, he campaigned for a ban on fracking, 100% clean energy by 2030, a $15 minimum wage, an end to Governor Cuomo's test-punish-and-privatize education agenda, and for progressive taxes and revenue sharing as the alternative to Cuomo's austerity budgets for schools, cities, and public services. In 2014, he received 5 percent of the vote, the most for an independent progressive party candidate for Governor in New York history except the 5.7% in 1918 and 5.6% in 1920 received by the Socialist Party candidates.
When the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs, A. Philip Randolph, Helen Keller, and Norman Thomas re-established itself in 1973, Howie joined and remains a member. He is also a member of Solidarity, a democratic socialist organization that stands for "socialism from below," the self-organization of the working class and oppressed peoples.
My journey from pastor to politics
For those of you who have followed my decision to run for governor and wondered about my journey from pastor to politics, I invite you to check out the video below produced by Corin Lea Pankow.
Some are concerned that a person who has held a leadership position in any religious community is somehow dangerous for politics. I appreciate the concern but I hope I can persuade said people to see that an ideology of liberation, justice & communalism is what grows out of my faith tradition. These things are key to a political revolution--and a revolution is what is needed in New Jersey and in this country.
Read moreGreen Party of Virginia Calls for Medicare for All
Corporate Parties Unable to Address the Crisis
Richmond, VA – The Green Party of Virginia calls for a Medicare type healthcare system for all Americans. At a time when our legislators from the two corporate led parties have demonstrated the inability to adequately address the crisis before us, we call for a federally administered single-payer health care program. Universal single-payer health care means comprehensive coverage for all Americans as a right of citizenship.
Support Single Payer
The Green Party supports single-payer universal health care and preventive care for all. We believe that health care is a right, not a privilege.
Our current health care system lets tens of thousands of people die each year by excluding them from adequate care, while its exorbitant costs are crippling our economy. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world without a national health care system.
Under a universal, comprehensive, national single-payer health care system, the administrative waste of private insurance corporations would be redirected to patient care. If the United States were to shift to a system of universal coverage and a single payer plan, as in Canada and many European countries, the savings in administrative costs would be more than enough to offset the cost of additional care. Expenses for businesses currently providing coverage would be reduced, while state and local governments would pay less because they would receive reimbursement for services provided to the previously uninsured, and because public programs would cease to be the "dumping ground" for high-risk patients and those rejected by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) when they become disabled and unemployed. In addition, people would gain the peace of mind in knowing that they have health care they need. No longer would people have to worry about the prospect of financial ruin if they become seriously ill, are laid off their jobs, or are injured in an accident.
The Green Party supports a wide range of health care services, including conventional medicine, as well as the teaching, funding and practice of complementary, integrative and licensed alternative health care approaches
Greens recognize that our own health is also intimately tied to the health of our communities and environment. To improve our own health, we must improve the quality of our air, water and food and the health of our workplaces, homes and schools.
The Green Party unequivocally supports a woman's right to reproductive choice, no matter her marital status or age, and that contraception and safe, legal abortion procedures be available on demand and be included in all health insurance coverage in the U.S., as well as free of charge in any state where a woman's income falls below the poverty level.
Stand with the Green Party and stand with the American people. Please sign our petition.
Gather up, Greens! Left Forum, May 20 Meetup, Greens in DC and More
Green Party of New York Newsletter
With news of Trump's airstrikes in Syria continuing the destructive US policy of permanent war around the world, it is even more important for Greens to gather, learn from each other and get stronger. We have many opportunities to do just that in the coming months.
In This E-blast:
Read moreActivists Rally: Demand Albany Pass NY Single-Payer Bill
With the country once again debating the future of health care, activists rallied Tuesday in Albany, NY in support of a bill that would create a universal, publicly-financed health-insurance plan for all New Yorkers.
Rallygoer and Green Party candidate for Albany Mayor Dan Plaat believes having a state single-payer plan in place would have a positive impact on local economics. "It reminds me a lot of the anti-fracking movement. Each year the rally gets a little bit bigger. More partners are made and more people catch on to the necessity and the importance of this issue in getting this law passed, this piece of policy done."
The New York Health Act has passed twice in the Assembly, which expects to pass it again for the third year in a row. Assembly Health Committee Chair and bill sponsor Democrat Dick Gottfried says support for universal health care is growing with the public and in the state Senate, where it is co-sponsored by nearly half of all senators.
Read more