GPMN Winter Membership Meeting

http://www.mngreens.org/node/157

Start: Jan 5 2008 - 9:00am
End: Jan 5 2008 - 4:00pm

Please join together with Greens to talk, find out what is happening across the state and learn more at green workshops.

Location: Hamline University, 1536 Hewitt Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55104, 651-523-2800; http://www.hamline.edu/

We will be meeting at the Klas Center, 1537 Taylor Ave, in the Kay Fredericks Ballroom.Parking is available in all lots, (except Lot H).

*Workshops will include: Communicating the Green Party Message, Minority Community Leaders, Feminism, Organizing in the Green Party, "The Great Law of Peace", Putting together a Website, Energy solutions, How to Convene a Caucus, Social Justice

Sat, Jan 5, 2008 timeline:
9am Registration
9:30 Welcome
10am First group of workshops
11am Second group of workshops
Noon LUNCH - a potluck lunch will be provided.
Please bring your own plate, silverware, cup & bag to take your dishes home in.
1pm Third group of workshops
2pm GPUS election of 3 delegates
3pm Information about GP presidential candidates
3:30 Closing & Clean-up

*Contact BeckyKopp@mngreens.org with questions and if you need a place to stay.

Brown Withdraws, Renounces GP Membership

For Immediate Release
Brunswick, Georgia,
December 28, 2007

ELAINE BROWN WITHDRAWS
FROM GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Renounces Green Party Membership

_____________________________

OPEN STATEMENT TO THE GREEN PARTY

As of today, I am no longer a candidate for the Green Party nomination for president of the United States, and I hereby resign from all affiliation with the Green Party. I believe the leadership of the Green Party of the United States has been seized by neo-liberal men who entrench the Party in internecine antagonisms so as to compromise its stated principles and frustrate its electoral and other goals. They have made it impossible to advance any truly progressive ideals or objectives under the umbrella of the Green Party, and, thus, rendered it counterproductive for me to go forward as a Green Party candidate or member.

I believe this small clique that has captured control of the Party has transformed it into a repository for erstwhile, disgruntled Democrats, who would violate the Party’s own vision and sabotage the good will and genuine commitment of the general membership. Indeed, these usurpers foster a reactionary agenda, supporting partisans in and backers of the Bush wars and disavowing the Party’s more progressive tenets in favor of promoting high-profile participation in the politics of the establishment.

This became clear to me almost from the moment I announced my candidacy in February of 2007. I intended using my campaign to bring large numbers of blacks and browns into the Party, particularly from the hood and the barrio—as would come to be reflected in the lists of supporters and delegates I’ve submitted in connection with my candidacy. As I asserted I would use the respect I enjoyed as a former leader of the Black Panther Party to do so, some in the hierarchy seemed utterly fearful of the prospect of a massive influx of blacks and browns into the Green Party. Soon, there was wide circulation of false rumors that I was a one-time “government agent,” which was intended to discredit my history in the Black Panther Party so as to undermine my potential influence.—And, since then, I have had to devote significant time and energy to addressing these lies.—What this effort revealed, though, was how the Green Party, while advocating “diversity,” remains dominated by whites. Indeed, the Party is able to count less blacks, browns and natives in its membership than our national population percentages and certainly less than the Democrats themselves.

In effect, the present Green Party leadership promotes a kinder, gentler capitalism, a moderated racism, an environmentally-sustainable globalism, which I cannot support. They are dedicated to the underside of the Party’s platform, which falls short of repudiating the capitalist state, source of all the social ills the Party would address. They equivocate by promoting “an economic alternative to corporate capitalism and a socialist state,” advocate a “re-formulation” of the IMF, NAFTA, so forth, and advance the institution of “stakeholder capitalism.”

On the other hand, they demonstrate a willingness to override the best of the Party’s platform. My sharp criticism of high-profile Party members’ support for the “three-strikes” crime laws, the sole basis for the inhumane mass incarceration of people in the United States, particularly blacks—the repeal of which the Party’s platform advocates—has been met with outright enmity. And, to divert attention from this and other critical issues, the leadership has employed chicanery in their promulgation of defamatory lies about me—which they finally extended to character assaults on my supporters and critics of their unscrupulousness.

It is my sincere belief that the Green Party as it now exists has no intention of using the ballot to actualize real social progress, and will aggressively repel attempts to do so. To remain in the fray or in the Party, then, would require a betrayal of my lifelong and ongoing commitment to serving the interests of black and other oppressed people by advancing revolutionary change in America.

McKinney Statement On Bhutto Assassination

Break past the corporate media blockade. Please pass on widely.

NO US TROOPS IN PAKISTAN:
Pakistan for the Pakistani People

"Free and fair elections, not U.S. troops, are the best strategy for achieving peace and stability in Pakistan."

Today, Cynthia McKinney, six-term former Member of Congress and current Green Party Presidential Candidate, announced her shock and disappointment at yesterday's assassination of former President and current Presidential candidate Benazir Bhutto. "I have long had close ties to the people of Pakistan; I traveled there twice, count many Pakistani-Americans among my personal friends, and I had the good fortune to meet Benazir Bhutto. I refused to meet Musharaff when I had the chance because he was always a dictator and I don't meet dictators," McKinney said.

Shortly after Bhutto's murder, reports began to surface that the U.S. had finalized plans to send troops to Pakistan. According to McKinney, "There is much that the United States can send to Pakistan, like helping with true democracy instead of rigged elections. The last thing U.S. troops and the Pakistani people need is the presence of U.S. troops in Pakistan."

During McKinney's most recent trip to Pakistan earlier this year, she traveled to a Karachi suburb where she met for the second time with the Balochi people of African descent who were among Bhutto's strongest supporters in the country.

"This is a sad time--especially for all the strong women in the world, for all the poor and desperate people of Pakistan who need and deserve attention and hope, and for all peace-loving people everywhere who hope that this tragedy is not used as a pretext for more war, more chaos, more destabilization of yet another basically peace-loving people," McKinney said.

According to McKinney, the real key to stability in Pakistan begins with free and fair elections using internationally recognized election observers in order to achieve a Pakistani government that reflects the will and dreams of the Pakistani people.

McKinney concluded with a caution that the United States should not view chaos in Pakistan, in the aftermath of Bhutto's murder, as a reason for becoming engaged in more war or for putting our troops into harm's way. "War is not an acceptable strategy to achieve democracy--not in Iraq, and not in Pakistan. Free and fair elections, not U.S. troops, are the best strategy for achieving peace and stability in Pakistan," McKinney concluded.

"I send my most heartfelt condolences to the Bhutto family and to all the people of Pakistan," said McKinney.

--
"It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral." General Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Press Club, February 17, 2006

"My brother need not be idealized . . . beyond what he was in life. To be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Eulogy of Bobby Kennedy by Teddy Kennedy, June 18, 1968

"Certain material weaknesses in financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that, for the 10th consecutive year, prevented us from expressing an opinion on the federal government's consolidated financial statements." David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, December 15, 2006

2007 Christmas Blog Post

This year I released my ebook, Souls in Peril, available free on this blog. As I write in the Preface, "I had intended to get back to writing before the 2008 campaign season, but a cleaning project led to genealogy, transcription, and reading projects, and now here we are, approaching another even-numbered year, and I feel that it’s more important to spend time working for the Green Party."

That genealogy project was a compilation of other projects from different sides of my family, which ended up in seven binders, for Spencer, my five nieces, and myself. It should be easier to copy next time because there is no onionskin paper! Who knows, by then it might all be on a biochip or something?

I now hold two offices in the Green Party. At the local level, I am on the 5th Congressional District Steering Committee, and at the national level, I serve on the Presidential Campaign Support Committee. In the past few weeks I have met Al Franken and Thom Hartmann, but the highest honor was meeting GP Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney. I also saw Ralph Nader earlier this year, and I have corresponded with many of our presidential candidates as part of my work on the committee, including Elaine Brown, former chair of the Black Panther Party.

At work I am still union steward and sat in on some meetings this year.

I did better in the chess tournament this year, earning 3.5 out of a possible 6.0 points. I may not play this year so I can devote more time to campaign efforts.

Spencer got his driver’s license, and can drive anything from a Jeep Wrangler to a Honda Insight. He lifts weights, snowboards in the winter, and plays lacrosse in the spring and summer.

This year his high school team, the Stillwater Ponies, won the state lacrosse tournament for freshmen and sophomores. In the final game the opposing team was disqualified for using varsity players. I missed that game -- I was at the June state summer meeting, briefing members on the anti-racism training I organized in May – but I saw the semi-final game and they played excellently.

Spencer washes dishes and sets up banquets for Grand Catering, which serves the Andiamo and other St. Croix paddleboats. On top of all that, he is doing well in school, studying German and playing trombone in band and orchestra. I bragged about him at a childhood neighborhood reunion we had this summer.

This year I celebrated the solstice with a pilgrimage to a "cold water" spring fed from underground, providing an open water pond for ducks. I spent the sunset in the center of a snowy labyrinth, reflecting on the past and the future, then joined others for a potluck dinner.

Tonight I attend a peace vigil with my dear Wendy.

2006 Christmas Blog Post
http://tomstream.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

McKinney seeks Green nomination

Cynthia McKinney announces she's seeking the Green Party nomination for President:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=03cOM9r51Nw

PBS airs Ralph Nader documentary

*** Please Forward this Email Widely ***

PBS airs "An Unreasonable Man" on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007

Over the last 50 years, Ralph Nader has done more than anyone to change the way we view ourselves, government, and the giant corporations.

He has been responsible for more progressive legislation than any congressman, senator, or president.

Yet he has been ferociously attacked not only by the corporate political establishment, but by many of those who most agree with him.

Has Nader abandoned the progressive cause, or have progressives betrayed their principles?

Hear Nader's harshest critics and strongest supporters argue over the impact of Ralph Nader.

Who is Ralph Nader?

What has Ralph done for our country?

What makes Ralph run?

Why did General Motors, the most powerful corporation in the world, send women to seduce Ralph in a Safeway store?

What does the life of Ralph Nader tell us about this one man, about ourselves, about our times?

Find out the answers to these questions during the national broadcast premiere of:
"An Unreasonable Man"
Tuesday, Dec. 18 at 9 PM/8 PM Central
on PBS's Independent Lens series

See the trailer, reviews and links to local listings below.

Invite your friends over to watch, and help spread the word!

Click Here For the Local Broadcast Schedule In Your Area:
http://www.itvs.org/shows/broadcast.php?showID=7713

Watch the Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9Hal0gycg

Learn More about Ralph:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/unreasonableman/

Elaine Brown platform and positions

Elaine Brown has just listed her platform and positions on her web site:

http://www.elainebrown.org/

1. Repeal of the “three-strikes” crime laws, restoring a juvenile justice system, funding programs of education and rehabilitation for those incarcerated and transitional housing and employment for those released, and restoring voting and other civil rights to prisoners and former prisoners.

2. Full and free health care for everyone, as exists in most civilized countries.

3. Complete and free primary, secondary and higher education for everyone, eliminating the exclusion of the children of poor and working families from obtaining a college education.

4. Complete opening of the borders of the United States accompanied by the institution of a guaranteed minimum living wage of $25/hour for all workers, so as to elucidate the so-called immigration question now confounded by racist assaults on Mexicans and Central Americans coming into the U.S. to work and to provide all people working in the United States with a decent standard of living.

5. Creation of a base of free or low-cost, decent housing, so as to eliminate homelessness and provide every human being the fundamental right to a decent place to live.

6. The repeal of all laws that discriminate against or dehumanize people on account of ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexuality, religion, age, or disability, and the creation of laws that guarantee non-discrimination and human rights to all.

7. Institution of laws and policies that promote purification and cleansing of the air, water and land and that outlaw polluting, contaminating or adulterating them, toward reversal of the pollution of nature itself, particularly as this pollution seeps into and devastates the lives of black and brown and other poor people trying to breathe and live in the ghettos, barrios and hollers of this nation.

8. The payment of reparations by the United States government to native peoples for the theft of land and to Gullah/Geechee and other African slave descendants for slave labor.

9. Total dismantling of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction by the United States, and recognition of and adherence to all international agreements as to war, crime and human rights.

10. Imposition of wealth taxes and reduction of taxes for poor and working people, toward a complete and fair redistribution of the wealth of the nation.

Cynthia McKinney For President Tour Schedule

http://twincities.indymedia.org/newswire/display/32239/index.php

This is the completed schedule for the Cynthia McKinney for president tour in Minneapolis/St Paul for Sunday-Monday December 9-10th.

Questions, please contact
Farheen Hakeem (612)964-9143
Michael Cavlan (612)327-6902

Come and listen to this dynamic peace and justice candidate for president in 2008. Showing of documentary film American Blackout, on the election fraud of 2000 and 2004 showing the disenfranchisment of blacks and others in the respective presidential election, starring Cynthia McKinney. McKinney will speak after the movie showing.

Sunday December 9th
6pm-8 pm
Owen Science Building
St Thomas University
S.W. Corner of Summit Ave and Cretin
St Paul

Monday December 10th
9 am breakfast meeting with community activists
Marie's Cafe
1113 East Franklin Ave
Minneapolis

10:30 am
Press Conference
Global Exchange Building
Greenway Conference Room
Corner of Lake St and Chicago
Minneapolis

11:30 am Fundraiser and Lunch
Same location

1-3:30 pm Personal Interviews with Cynthia
With various Journalists in Minnesota

4pm Talk with Workers at Ford Plant in St Paul
Details TBA

5 pm. Leave for Wisconsin

Related
http://www.runcynthiarun.org

Cynthia McKinney A Small Taste Of Her Courage

So lets get courageous for her.

Michael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eootfzAhAoU

Open letter to greens from the Jared Ball Campaign

An open letter to all Green Party members from the Jared Ball campaign.

Dear Fellow Greens,

We embarked on this campaign which put forward Jared Ball, an African American college professor who was born in Washington D.C. and is a Desert Storm veteran, for the Green Party's Presidential nomination as an organizing effort to bring in new constituencies to the Green Party. It is our goal to create through the Green Party a political movement that extends across race and class to provide a political voice for the diverse “True American Majority.”

We welcome all other Green Presidential candidates to partner with us in our efforts to grow the Green Party. The 2008 campaign season is our opportunity to show this country the many faces of the Green Party and the vibrant array of ideas that we bring to the table of determining Americas role in solving the problems of: mass incarceration, world hunger, global warming, quality accessible health care and education, and the creation of just equitable humane economic systems. As candidates working together we will raise the profile of our campaigns and assure that we have candidates on the ballot in all 51 states. We invite other Green Party candidates for president to join us in planning joint events with local candidates and activists who are working on anti-war or social justice issues. Together we will create a groundswell of interest in the Green Party and will show the mainstream candidates for the do nothing corporate shills that they are.

In addition we call out to all Greens asking you to come on board to help your Green Party Presidential candidates get out the word to all Green Party members and beyond. We and all the presidential campaigns need your help to assure that Greens and potential new Greens are well informed about their choices before deciding which candidate to support. We offer this campaign as an outreach tool, in particular as an outreach tool to Black and Latino communities and need the help of volunteers in each state to make this effort a success. Together we can grow the Green Party and assure that we come out of the 2008 election cycle stronger and better organized than we go into it.
Jared Ball, with DC-based artist and co-campaign manager Head-Roc and their “Capitol Resistance” campaign tour speaking truth to power while upsetting the set up is asking for your support and assistance in bringing us to your area. Schedules are tight and resources limited so lets get creative and pool our efforts to do regional events. If you would like to plan a Jared Ball “Capitol Resistance” event in your area please contact contact us.

Sincerely,

Head-Roc, Co-campaign Manager/Cultural Outreach Coordinator headroc@jaredball.com

Anita Rios, Senior Campaign Manager rhannon@toast.net 419-243-8772

To volunteer contact our volunteer coordinator Nora Gaines at: nora@jaredball.com

Check out our website at :http://www.jaredball.com,

Stock up on some fly gear at http://www.cafepress.com/jaredball