************** GreenGram PART 2 ************** The Green Party of NJ Monthly Bulletin April 1998 issue HOFFMAN SPEAKS AT ANTI-NUCLEAR RALLY IN CONNECTICUT On Saturday, March 28, at the invitation of the Green Party of Connecticut (GPC), Madelyn Hoffman addressed an anti-nuclear rally sponsored by the GPC in New London, CT. The Connecticut Greens are working with several statewide and New England-based grassroots organizations committed to keeping Millstone's nuclear power plant closed. Speaker after speaker at the event talked about the high cancer rates in the areas surrounding this now dormant nuclear power plant -- and gave the 200 members of the audience plenty of ideas about how to make their voices heard. Madelyn, speaking in her capacity as GPNJ Organizer, talked about the Unplug Salem campaign in New Jersey which includes a plan to get PSE&G customers to stick a coupon on their gas and electric bills which says "Unplug Salem, Or I'm Switching." This will allow customers to inform PSE&G of their opposition to paying for nuclear power. If you're interested in obtaining these stickers or fact sheets about Salem Nuclear Power plant, please contact Madelyn Hoffman at 973-252-0797. COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY AND SELF RELIANCE IN THE GLOBAL AGE As it has for the past two years, the Mid-Atlantic Sustainable Communities Network will again offer a full-day program within the Mid-Atlantic Environmental Conference at Ramapo College. This year's theme is "Going Local: Creating Community Sustainability and Self-reliance in the Global Age." It will take place on Saturday, April 25, from 9 am to 6 pm. Keynoter will be Michael H. Shuman of the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C. His new book, Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age, has just been published. It is available from The Free Press at (212) 698-2358. PROGRAM (to be held in the Alumni Lounge) 9-9:30am: INTRODUCTIONS: Tula Tsalis, Mid-Atlantic Sustainable Communities Network. 9:30-10:45am: KEYNOTE: Michael H. Shuman of the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C., will give an account of how dozens of communities are regaining control over their economies and will lay out the community process and forms essential for this transition. Facilitator: Trent Schroyer, Ramapo College, TOES/US. 11am-12:20pm: SUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS: This panel will examine what economic localization is; why sustainability requires localization, what constitutes a sustainable localized economy, and issues of transition in the creation of sustainable local economies. It will look at these issues in terms of existing examples of sustainable and localized economic efforts in the United States and abroad. Fred Curtis, Economics Department, Drew University. Facilitator Bob Stone, GEO Newsletter, Grassroots Economic Organizing and Energy Cooperatives. Michael H. Shuman, respondent. 12:30-1:30: Lunch. 1:30-2:45pm: THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL POWER ON COMMUNITIES: Are the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and other corporate vehicles to economic power a corporate license to loot? According to Jim Hightower of Austin, Texas, "MAI is the ugliest piece of work to come down for a long time ... it is the death knell to existing international law ... and can even impact a local school board wanting to give preference to organic farmers in their lunch programs." Agreements such as the MAI would rewrite the rules so that community concerns and values are irrelevant. How can we change the rules of free trade to support communities? Ward Morehouse, President of the Council on International and Public Affairs, Co-director of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy, Editor, Building Sustainable Communities: Tools and Concepts for Self-Reliant Economic Change. Ruth Caplan, Co- Chair, Alliance for Democracy, Economic Working Group of Washington, D.C. Respondent, Madelyn Hoffman, Green Party of NJ. Facilitator: Paul Mayer, Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy. 3-5pm: FOOD, HEALTH & SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION: What is wrong with our food supply? How can we protect our communities from unhealthy food and toxins? How can we be "citizen" consumers to enhance safety, choice, community & democracy. Kathy Lawrence, Director, JUST FOOD, a New York City based organization working to create a more just and sustainable food system. Dr. Michael H. Hamm, Associate Professor, Dept. Of Nutritional Sciences. Rutgers University. Respondents: Trina Paulus, V.P., Cornucopia Network of NJ & Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture. Dr. Pamela Ransom, Women's Environment and Development Organization. Dr. Howard Horowitz, Ramapo College, Facilitator. 5-6pm: CLOSING CIRCLE: BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES. For information about GOING LOCAL or The Mid-Atlantic Sustainable Communities Network call (201) 529-7740 or (914) 987-2450. To subscribe to the Mid-Atlantic Sustainable Communities Network listserver, e-mail: majordomo@igc.org, and write a one-line message as follows: subscribe SUSCOM-L. For a description of the full three-day "Fourth Mid-Atlantic Environmental Conference" at Ramapo College (April 23-25) contact Shirlee Caruso at (201) 529-7050 (scaruso@ramapo.edu). Ramapo College, 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, New Jersey. FROM THE COUNTIES: At their monthly meeting on April 1, the Mercer County Greens decided to support the campaign of Carl Mayer to win the Democratic primary for U.S. Congress in the 12th C.D. Mayer has in the past run for both Congress (1992) and State Assembly (1993) as a progressive Independent. He won a seat on the Princeton Township Council in 1995. Carl has been helpful to the Greens on many occasions and his political positions are very compatible with ours. He was a Nader's Raider (he began his public service career with Nader's Center for Responsive Law in Washington, D.C. in 1981) and retains a close relationship with Ralph. In fact, Ralph Nader has stumped for Carl in each of Carl's campaigns, and he will be in Jersey appearing with Carl on April 4. Hopefully, with a little help from the Mercer County Greens, Carl Mayer will win the Democratic primary in June and then unseat the rightwing Republican first-term incumbent Mike Pappas in November -- at which point the Greens will have a real friend in Congress! (Carl will address the Green Party convention on April 18) The Ocean/Monmouth Greens held a meeting on Thursday, March 26 at the Manalapan Library. The current activities and the history of the Greens were reviewed for the benefit of several new members. Plans were made to set up a table at the Ocean County Fair, to be held the week of July 7 at Miller Air Park. The tables will be staffed from 5-10 PM on Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 AM to 10 PM Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and 11 AM to 6 PM on Sunday. The local is also planning to have a presence at the Monmouth County Fair, to be held during the week of July 20. Please call Earl Gray at 732-219-5841 or Rena Amada 732-849-9050 to volunteer your time. Their next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, April 23 at 6 PM at the Manalapan Library. NEW YORK GREEN PARTY TO RUN GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN; COULD OBTAIN BALLOT LINE In March the Green Party of New York State announced that it will seek to become the eighth recognized political party in NY by running a candidate for Governor this year. The criteria for securing a ballot line in New York is for a party's gubernatorial candidate to receive over 50,000 votes (Ralph Nader polled 75,000 votes in New York State in his 1996 presidential run). At a recent meeting of Green Party activists statewide, the party voted to run a full slate of statewide candidates for Governor, U.S. Senator, State Comptroller, Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor in this fall's elections. The Greens are presently an official political party in New York State for federal election purposes. Although the Greens are seeking to field a candidate for Governor who is a current elected officeholder, several Green Party activists are also under consideration. "New York desperately needs a progressive alternative to the policies of the Democrats and Republicans. It makes little difference whether Pataki, Vallone or McCaughey-Ross is elected Governor. We need a political party that will stand up for Main Street, not Wall Street. We're going to get the same failed policies that have made the gap between the rich and the poor wider than in any other state in the nation. We are going to get more prisons and corporate welfare while rich corporations increase profits by laying off workers, polluting our air and water and evading taxes. Neither the Democrats or Republicans are going to enact universal health care or child care, protect consumers, defend workers' rights of strengthen our schools because that's not where campaign contributions are. Fundraising and opinion polls, not issues or participatory democracy, dominate our state's political process," stated David Levner, Clearinghouse Coordinator for the NYS Greens / Green Party of NYS. While the Greens stated that they were in active discussions with a progressive member of the New York City Council to run for Governor, they reported that the candidate was not City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, the co-favorite with Lt. Governor Betsy Ross to win the Democratic nomination. Vallone is actively participating in efforts to create an independent "progressive" party to support his candidacy and to obtain the 50,000 votes needed to qualify a new party. The Greens stated that they do not consider Vallone progressive, Green or independent of the Democratic Party. The Greens voted to run a Green activist candidate for Governor if need be. Candidates being considered include Mark Dunlea, a former elected Green official as a Poestenkill Town Board member and a statewide anti-hunger and economic justice advocate who received 11.5% of the vote for Rensselaer County Executive in 1995 and won the Democratic primary for the 108th State Assembly in 1992, and received more than 20,000 votes as a Green/Democrat in the general election; Howie Hawkins, a recent Green candidate for Mayor and Congress in Syracuse, and a worker co-op organizer; Dania Vega, a recent Green candidate for Onondaga County Legislature who received statewide media coverage, including a New York Times profile, when the Greens successfully sued to restore the 17-year old Latino and youth activist to the ballot; and Craig Seeman, a Brooklyn Green activist and co-founder of the Brooklyn Greenback alternative currency program, who received nearly 20% of the vote in the 1997 special Assembly Election in the 52nd District. The Greens are actively seeking people of color and women as candidates for the five statewide offices. "Both parties pay lip service to environmental protection while fundraising from and supporting corporate polluters. The concept of a sustainable economy that promotes a high quality of life for all while protecting our planet is viewed as heresy by the Democrats and Republicans. It took both parties to re- institute the death penalty. Even with a $1.8 billion state surplus, they can't pass a state budget on time, let alone one where the public and rank and file legislators have any input. Basic rights of gay and lesbians, Native Americans, women, students, and seniors are ignored. Both parties compete to seek how much pain they can inflict upon poor people, particularly children and women," stated Mark Dunlea, Chair of the Legislative Committee of the NYS Greens. The Greens also plan to run candidates throughout the state this fall for Congressional and State Legislative races. The Greens will select their statewide candidates at an upcoming Assembly on May 9th in Central New York. A statewide convention to ratify platform issues and to formally kick off the campaign will be held in Albany on June 20th. The Greens have elected about 10 candidates in New York State in recent years, including one this fall for Town Board in Woodstock. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ENDNOTES . The Greens held the first of what is expected to be a bi- monthly study group session on March 29. A presentation by Steve Welzer kicked off a discussion of "Green Identity" and then Harold Lewis offered some thoughts regarding the Key Value of "Decentralization." The discussion was lively and wide-ranging and specific topics emerged as potential themes for future sessions: Differences/Similarities: Green Party, New Party, Labor Party; Are We of the Left or "Neither Left Nor Right"?; How Do We Get "From Here to There"?; New Jersey-specific Issues. Twelve people attended this inaugural meeting of the Green Party study group; Dana Natale hosted and facilitated the event. . The Green Party of New Jersey mourns the passing of one of the nation's leading political activists. Former Congresswoman and founder of the New York City-based Women's Environment and Development Organization, Bella Abzug died on March 31, several days after having made a presentation to the United Nations. Bella presided over a public hearing called "Turning the Tides," held in Trenton in September 1997. The hearing brought together activists and experts who drew the connection between rising rates of cancer and asthma and toxic chemical pollution. The country and the world will miss this fiery and passionate woman, who was committed to building the broadest possible movement to challenge corporate irresponsibility toward the environment, health, the economy and human rights. . On March 26 Roger Sedmont of the Gloucester County Greens testified before a meeting of the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA) in Wilmington, DE to urge them not to encourage the building of an incinerator in Pennsville, NJ (in Salem County). The incinerator is being proposed with the expectation that the DSWA will be its biggest customer. Only if the DSWA were to ship 2,000 tons of garbage daily (requiring 150 trucks!) across the Delaware River could the incinerator hope to be profitable. Sedmont suggested that Delaware would be better off concentrating on reduction, re-use, recycling, and composting -- and New Jersey would be better off without another incinerator! . On March 3 Green Party candidate Cris Moore was re-elected to the City Council of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Moore received 59% of the vote in a four way race! He got almost twice as many votes as he received last time he ran (and won) four years ago. His nearest opponent, a conservative candidate, got 26% of the vote. Moore garnered a majority in every precinct of the city, which is impressive in a four-way race. E-mail congrats to: moore@santafe.edu. . From David Levner (levner@panix.com), the NY State Greens Clearinghouse Coordinator: The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), passed in 1991, promoted mass transit to lessen pollution. A reauthorization bill (S. 1173 or ISTEA 2) passed the Senate on March 12. ISTEA 2 will include new funding for mass transit projects and require state departments of transportation to build bicycle lanes. Unfortunately, Senator Dale Bumpers (D-AR) decided not to propose an amendment that would have imposed the same gasoline efficiency standards on sports utility vehicles as now exist for cars. Now the action shifts to the House of Representatives where Transportation Committee Chairman Shuster (R-PA) hopes to move his bill, H.R. 2400, to the floor soon. Greens are urged to call or write their Congressional Rep. to express support for ISTEA 2. The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. You can find your Representative and her/his phone number and address at the Vote Smart web site, http://www.vote-smart.org. ------------------------------------------------------ SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE GREEN PARTY OF NJ Saturday, April 18, 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM Location: Rutgers Labor Education Center, Cook/Douglass campus Ryders Lane and Clifton Ave., New Brunswick It's been quite an inaugural year for the Green Party of New Jersey. Our membership has more than doubled, our committees and locals have started to function as vital sub-units of the party, and we feel that we have taken major strides toward becoming a significant new force in the politics of this state. The Annual Convention is a time for members to make their voices heard on the variety of issues that face our party, to sign up to participate on statewide committees, to modify the organizational bylaws, and to elect party officers. Non-members are welcome to join us as observers -- check out this dynamic new party and learn about the emerging international movement for Green politics. An extensive collection of Green Party literature will be available for browsing and for sale. At this year's Convention, every party member who attends will have a vote (those who are not yet members but who pay dues at the Convention will be able to vote immediately). In future years, as the number of members grows, the locals will elect representatives who will have voting rights at the Convention. The agenda for the day includes: reviews of last year's electoral campaigns; presentations by the current party officers; reports from statewide committee chairs and county coordinators; introduction of some 1998 Green Party candidates; a vegetarian pot-luck luncheon; the debut performance of the Green Party's Eco-Chorale (so bring your marakas and tambourines!); consideration of policy proposals and bylaws changes; election of 1998 party officers. Longtime national Green leaders Mark Dunlea and Anne Goeke will be featured speakers. Dunlea is under consideration to become the 1998 Green Party gubernatorial candidate in New York (if their gubernatorial candidate receives over 50,000 votes this year the New York Green Party will obtain its own ballot line and voters in New York state will be able to register as "Green Party"). Goeke is a Pennsylvania Green Party activist and has been a co-leader of their initiative for ballot access reform in that state. She was one of the women (along with someone named Madelyn Hoffman) who was under consideration to be Ralph Nader's national running mate in 1996. Annie will be in Brazil from March 24-April 3 helping to organize an upcoming conference toward the establishment of a Federation of Green Parties of the Americas; she can tell us all about that on April 18. Also addressing the convention will be: . Virginia Ahearn, Director, New Jersey Peace Action . Larry Hamm, Peoples Organization for Progress . Darlene McKnight or Rev. Bob Moore, Coalition for Peace Action . Carl Mayer, progressive candidate for U.S. Congress, 12th C.D. Our closing ceremonies will include the powerful poetry of Joanne N'Jie Ashe. More than just the political expression of the environmental movement, Green Parties are emerging as the most viable progressive alternative to the status quo parties in state after state in the U.S. and in countries all over the world. We feel that we are the party for the 21st Century, and more and more voters and activists are beginning to agree. As new solutions are being sought to the looming ecological and social crises facing humanity, it is the fresh perspective of the Greens that is showing the way toward an egalitarian, ecological, and communitarian society. Join us in New Brunswick on April 18! The Rutgers Labor Education Center is located at the corner of Ryders Lane and Clifton Avenue in New Brunswick. Take the NJ Turnpike to exit 9; then Route 18 North (less than a mile) to Route 1 South. Proceed slowly as you get onto Route 1 South, because you want to make an IMMEDIATE right turn into the Sears parking lot. At the very back-left corner of the Sears parking lot there is an outlet road that leads directly toward the Labor Education Center parking lot (make a quick left after exiting the Sears parking lot). ----------------------------------------------------------------- There will be no admission charge for GPNJ members; $5 registration fee for all others (covers the cost of the luncheon). For more information call Green Party Chair Gary Novosielski, 201-507-5477, or write us at the address below. ____ I'll be there! ____ Please send me more information ... ________________________________________________________________ Name Phone No. ________________________________________________________________ Address E-mail address Mail to: Green Party of NJ, P.O. Box 9802, Trenton, NJ 08650 Web site: http://www.gpnj.org