*************** GREENGRAM *************** The Green Party of NJ Monthly Bulletin February 1998 issue (Part 2 of 2) - Action Against MAI - Protesting the Coyote Hunt in NJ - Reports from the Counties - Culture Section - California Plenary Report - Endnotes ACTION AGAINST MAI February 7-17 has been designated an international period of action against MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investments, which has been dubbed "NAFTA on steroids"). What follows is an action alert regarding this vital issue. If you'd like to sign on to the International Joint NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) statement, please contact me and I'll fax your name and affiliation to Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. I can also provide sample letters to send and sample questions to pose to our government. - Madelyn Hoffman 732-252-0797 Dear Friends, Negotiations for the OECD's Multilateral Agreement on Investment will reach a critical point on February 16 and 17 when each country will send top ranking political officials to Paris to assess whether and how to complete negotiations. NGOs around the world are planning actions from February 7-17 to let negotiators know they will face strong public opposition if they finish the agreement to meet an April 1998 deadline. Because OECD governments face internal disagreements in negotiations, public criticism in these countries can help tip the balance and prevent governments from finishing the MAI. It is also important for groups in non-OECD countries to take a stand to undermine the efforts of the OECD and Northern corporations to pressure developing countries to sign the MAI. We urge you to take some action against the MAI during this time. - Mark Vallianatos & Andrea Durbin, Friends of the Earth-USA SUGGESTED ACTIONS: 1. LOBBY/PRESSURE NEGOTIATIONS - Write a letter to the government raising questions about the impacts of the MAI and stating your own opposition to the MAI. Most OECD countries are sending high level political officials rather than technical negotiators to the next critical negotiating session on the 16th and 17th of February. If you can find out who they are, target them directly. Otherwise, a letter to the finance or trade ministry will work. 2. INCREASE GRASSROOTS PRESSURE - If you have local chapters or activists that can respond to alerts, request them to fax, call, e-mail or write the negotiators/Finance Ministry. 3. INCREASE PRESS COVERAGE- Your actions can be used to attract media coverage. Next Tuesday we will send a sample press release describing the international opposition and activity around the world. 4. PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS - In the US, NGOs will stage a rally on the steps of Congress and distribute handcuffs to members of Congress to show how the MAI will tie their hands from regulating foreign corporations. 5. TARGET CORPORATIONS DIRECTLY - In the UK, NGOs are protesting outside the headquarters of some of the multinational corporations that actively lobby for the MAI and will benefit most if the agreement is finished. For an expose of corporate lobbying for the MAI contact Corporate Europe Observatory (paxaran@antenna.nl). 6. TARGET KEY ISSUES HOLDING UP NEGOTIATIONS - Governments have to resolve disagreements on reservations, culture, investment boycotts, and environmental and labor provisions before they finish the MAI. Public pressure exploiting these disagreements can make it more difficult for negotiators to conclude negotiations. For more information on this strategy contact Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute (tclarke@web.net). The international week of action will have the greatest impact if we can show the wide range of activities planned and taken by NGOs around the world. Please send a short summary of planned actions that your organization will be taking to Friends of the Earth (mvalli@aol.com) as soon as possible. We will compile these summaries and send everyone a full list of international actions for use next week. This should be available by Tuesday, February 10. If you want to take part in anti-MAI activities over the next two weeks but are not sure which organizations in your country are already planning actions, we can suggest NGOs to contact that are aware of anti-MAI activities in their country and region. Please contact: Mark Vallianatos or Andrea Durbin, Friends of the Earth US, 1025 Vermont Ave, NW, 3rd Floor, Washington DC 20005. Mark Vallianatos phone 202- 783-7400 x231, fax 202-784-0444; Andrea Durbin . ---------------------------------------------------------- PROTESTING THE COYOTE HUNT IN NJ Roger Sedmont of the South-Central NJ Greens recently participated in a seven day fast to protest the continuation, for a second year, of the Coyote hunt in New Jersey. Stu Chavitz, Chair of the Anti-Hunting Committee of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, is in the middle of a fast which will last for all 17 days of the hunt plus one day for each Coyote killed during last year's hunt (five) for a total of 22 days. Animal freedom activists around the state are fasting to raise awareness of the Coyote hunt and the proposed Black Bear hunt. Clearly the statute of the Fish and Game Council, to "protect and conserve all wildlife" is being violated. The way Fish and Game is handling these animals makes it apparent that the mandate they really operate under is to optimize the population of game animals for the benefit of sport hunters. Black Bears, for instance, are being re-introduced into southern New Jersey where they become cut off from the more appropriate habitat of the forested areas west and north of the Delaware. When the bears, in desperation, become a menace to humans and their crops, a cry goes up to "control" them. Sport hunters are all too happy to oblige. To get a little ecotopian here: Instead of confining wild animals to islands of wilderness, a wholly unnatural condition for them, while humans develop all the rest of the land mass of the planet . . . perhaps it would make more sense ecologically to leave most of the earth wild and politely confine ourselves to islands of clustered human population and development. All we are saying is give the rest of life on earth a chance. ---------------------------------------------------------- BURLINGTON COUNTY GREENS At a meeting held January 22 the Burlington County Greens discussed the idea of having a presence at this summer's Burlington County Farm Fair, tentatively scheduled for July 15- 18. This Fair is a large and popular event that regularly draws 100,000 visitors over four days. The Democrats and Republicans always have booths and often other third parties also have some kind of display. The local is hoping that the state level Green Party will be able to help them with the financing and staffing of a booth and with provision of literature, buttons, bumperstickers, etc. The necessity of having a brochure or pamphlet that introduces the Green Party by explaining its philosophy, history, projects, and accomplishments will be conveyed to the GPNJ Executive Committee. Coordinator Frederick Disque was interviewed by the Burlington County Times in January regarding the activities of the local. ---------------------------------------------------------- MORRIS COUNTY GREENS A Morris County chapter of the Green Party started to get off the ground with a meeting January 14 at the Morristown Library. Highlights from the December 20 Executive Committee and Council meetings held in New Brunswick were presented by Ronald Giorgio. Joe Fortunato discussed the upcoming January 17 progressive coalition-building meeting in Montclair. Ideas for expanding membership in the Morris County Greens included a direct mail campaign, auctions, letters to the editor of local newspapers, recruitment parties, and special events. ---------------------------------------------------------- MERCER COUNTY GREENS At their monthly meeting on Feb. 4, the Mercer County Greens discussed an agenda for the upcoming year and initiated three specific projects: (1) Fostering bikeways. The county has a plan to widen Princeton Pike and the Greens should press for inclusion of a bikeway -- along the model of those that have been included with some of the new roadbuilding in West Windsor Township. We will attempt to find out what local and county officials should be lobbied regarding this issue. We also will raise the question of why the position of statewide Bicycle Advocate has been left vacant for so long. Glenn Swann will coordinate this project, which will include outreach to bicycle groups and others with an interest in transportation alternatives. (2) Protesting overdevelopment; advocating a revival of downtown shopping within the context of supporting local enterprise (private and public). We should be in the forefront of the growing backlash against the "malling of America" and the misguided policies of municipalities competing to offer tax abatements and other concessions (corporate welfare) to big businesses in the name of "jobs" and "ratables." In Princeton, for example, the long-established Whole Earth Center health food store/organic grocery is threatened by the opening of a Wild Oats chain store. Greens in each township could do research on the situation in their municipality and seek to play a constructive role as champions of community-based economics. Steve Welzer will coordinate this project. (3) Public access to local political meetings via cable TV to foster participatory democracy. Susan Deckert said that the disability community in particular would have an abiding interest in this issue. Nick Mellis will coordinate this project. It was suggested that Greens try to make the time to attend municipal council meetings, both for the sake of learning about pressing local issues and to participate in such a way as to gain visibility for Green activism. Local press releases, news articles, letters to the editor, door-to-door canvassing, and local coalition-building are also important. We could build good relations and good will (and have some fun) in such simple ways as volunteering to help Habitat for Humanity construction projects one day a month. At our next meeting we will be addressing the question of Green identity, toward producing some literature with a consistent philosophical orientation and consistent appearance (develop a logo?) and toward holding seminars and educational forums throughout Mercer County. Several members of the Greens attended the Utne Salon on Feb. 1 where the video "Affluenza" was shown and discussed. The next meeting of the Salon is scheduled for March 8; it has been suggested that the next several sessions be devoted to an intensive study of the three "Ishmael" books by Daniel Quinn. ---------------------------------------------------------- CULTURE SECTION Forty-Sixers Firstest boomers Are there many like Bill? yup Worstest boomers Don't remember inhaling, don't remember Knowing Dreams sank, Assets soared (All capital flows toward Rome) Two incomes made affordable The house with the garden (of the Finzi-Continis) Are you OK? Not if they're not OK Other peoples, other species Future generations will wonder at your blindness The Millennium must not be yours Sixty-Eighters So far, just aging Not much changing the world Not much having fun What has become of the Long March Through the Institutions ??? dress down fridays ??? Still time, sisters and brothers Regerminate, Greens The Millennium could be ours - by Hollie Livelightly ---------------------------------------------------------- CALIFORNIA PLENARY REPORT On January 19 Green Party delegates from around the state of California convened in San Francisco for the first state plenary meeting of 1998. Finishing touches were applied to the soon-to- be-published document: "California GP Policy Directions for 1998." Also, a number of planks were added to the previously produced sixty-page party platform. Hundreds of California Greens have reviewed and written sections, making it the most extensive and collectively derived platform of any state Green Party in the country. The economics sections engendered considerable debate and were sent back to committee. The plenary also passed a few changes to the party bylaws, ratified the GPCA CC signature on the Global Green statement on global warming from Kyoto, heard presentations on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), and unanimously approved the request that both G/GPUSA and ASGP refrain from proceeding with any filing at the FEC to attain national party committee status until such time as 2/3 of affected states (including California) have approved it. The proposal is based closely on a statement circulated by Holle Brian and Lowell Nelson of the Minnesota Green Party. The plenary was addressed by 1998 gubernatorial candidate Dan Hamburg, candidate for Lieutenant Governor Sara Amir, and a number of other candidates for offices across the state. - based on a report by Hank Chapot of the Oakland Greens ---------------------------------------------------------- ENDNOTES . Greens around the country participated in vigils on January 30 to mark 50 years since the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who was well ahead of his time in advancing a worldview based on nonviolence, social justice, and community-based economics. Paraphrasing Gandhi: "Cultivate independence from the institutions of the oppressors. Don't become sucked into dependence upon their consumer culture. Don't buy their cloth, spin your own. Live simply, but with dignity; retain your autonomy, your local culture, your integrity." Anybody ready to listen to that message yet? . All locals are encouraged to get a banner. Our beautiful "Green Party of New Jersey" banner is done at a very reasonable price - $70 - by a small sign shop in Gloucester County. Let's give them more business! Arrangements can be made through party Vice Chair Jim Mohn 201-861-7360. . Singers and musicians are still needed for the Eco Chorale. What's a movement without its music? Contact Steve Welzer 609- 443-6782 to sign up. . Due to expanding interest, the Global Cinema Cafe ("Peace, Justice, and Human Rights") has changed its venue. As of this month their programs will be held at the Third World Center of Princeton University, located at the corner of Olden Lane and Prospect Avenue in Princeton. On February 8 at 4:00pm (note the new starting time) they will be showing Marlon Riggs' "Ethnic Notions." In celebration of Black History Month, the Cafe will present this powerful Emmy Award winning film that traces the evolution of stereotypes and their place in popular culture. Professor Noreen Duncan, Chair of the English Department at Mercer County Community College and past president of the Central Jersey Network of Black Women will introduce the film. Refreshments served. Free, but contributions appreciated. The Green Party is a co-sponsor of the Global Cinema Cafe. For more information: 609-497-3998. . "There are things happening elsewhere in the world that you don't hear much about in America. Like polls finding the Green Party to be the third most popular party in Germany. Or the news that one of Brazil's 26 state governors is a Green. Or that the French environmental minister is one also. Or that the Green Party candidate for mayor of Stuttgart came in second with 40% and exit polls showed him the most popular candidate among all voters under 50. Or that there are now Green parties in over 70 countries." - Sam Smith in The Progressive Review (December 1997) ----------------------------------------------------------------- The GreenGram is circulated monthly in an effort to keep all GPNJ members informed about recent matters and upcoming events. Members are encouraged to provide brief submissions of news items or opinions, as well as event announcements. The deadline for the March issue will be February 27. 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