--Howie Hawkins GPUSA Message to the Denver Convention Good morning. For those of you not familiar with us, The Greens/Green Party USA started in 1984 as the Committees of Correspondence. Our annual Green Congress changed the name to Green Committees of Correspondence in 1989 and to The Greens/Green Party USA in 1991. That compound name was meant to convey the notion of the "movement party," or the "anti-party party" -- the concept popularized by Petra Kelly -- the anti-party party that is as active in nonviolent direct action outside the halls of government as it is representing inside the halls of government. The Greens/Green Party USA is currently about 1200 dues-paying members and structured as a confederation of 40 affiliated locals, 15 of the state Green parties, and 4 other statewide organizations of GPUSA members. Brothers and Sisters, GPUSA would like to convey three messages to this convention today: First, why we support the nomination of Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke. Second, why we support Unity, first in the Green Party movement and then also with other independent, pro-democracy parties and movements. And third, to invite your collaboration on a National Green Gathering next year focused on the practical nuts-and-bolts of local organizing. To the first point: At our annual Green Congress in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, GPUSA delegates adopted a unanimous resolution to support the nomination of Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke for President and Vice-President. Some call GPUSA the radicals or "fundis" of the US Green movement -- and I don't think too many of our members would disavow that label. We may be to the Left of Ralph Nader on some issues. But we also know when to give credit where credit is due. All the socialists and radicals in this country combined have not given the corporate elite as many practical, real life, Excedrin headaches as Ralph Nader has over the last 35 years. Those of us in the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance wouldn't have instigated the mass occupations at nuclear plant construction sites that stopped the nuclear industry dead in its tracks 20 years ago if it weren't for Ralph Nader's Critical Mass Energy Project, which armed us with the facts and arguments we needed. In fact, it wasn't only future US anti-nuclear activists at the 1974 Critical Mass conference. Petra Kelly was there, too. And she was at the conference on Cancer and the Environment organized by Ralph Nader in 1970. And she always credited Ralph for getting her into the environmental and anti-nuclear movements. So the cynics who claim Ralph just joined us in 1996, or is using us, don't know their history. Ralph Nader played a foundational role in getting us started. And here we are 30 years later. The Post-Seattle Left has exploded on the scene. It is challenging the core institutions of capitalist globalization. It is bringing Teamsters and Turtles together and forging the Blue-Green coalition of workers and environmentalists. And it is Ralph Nader's Global Trade Watch that is once again arming the activists in the streets with the facts and analysis we need. So who better than Ralph Nader to head the Green ticket? We can all unite on that -- fundis and realos alike. And Winona LaDuke didn't just start yesterday either. I first met her at a Clamshell Alliance Safe Energy Fair. She was only a freshman or sophomore at Harvard but she was already a published expert on how nuclear imperialism was exploiting indigenous people in the US, Canada, Australia, and Namibia. She was who we brought in to teach us then and she is still teaching us today. So Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke make a powerful ticket. Already the polls show we have the potential to surpass the 6% won by Eugene Debs on the Socialist Party ticket in 1912 and even the 9% won by James Weaver on the populist People's Party ticket in 1892. And if we get into double digits, anything could happen. In other words, for the first time in a century, since giant corporations consolidated their hold on our political economy, this country will have a progressive people's party that is independent of corporate sponsorship and control. That potential puts an historic responsibility on us -- which brings me to our second point: We have to get our own house in order. It makes no sense to have two national Green Party organizations. It is time to end the organizational divisions and create a unified, national Green Party. I am here to reaffirm that GPUSA seeks unity negotiations, as it always has. We are encouraged that the ASGP Coordinating Committee adopted a resolution yesterday to enter unity negotiations without preconditions. But unity within the Green Party movement is only the first step. We need broader unity with the other independent, pro-democracy parties and movements. We should develop a strong relationship with the Labor Party, and we are glad that Tony Mazzochi will be speaking for them to this convention. We need unity with the people supporting Dave McReynolds who is running for President on the Socialist Party ticket. Many of us here have worked with Dave in the War Resisters League and the peace movement. We need to relate to the three dozen organizations in the Independent Progressive Politics Network, and we are glad that their National Coordinator, Ted Glick, is here. We hope many of you will speak with him. We should develop relationships with groups like the Black Radical Congress, whose National Council is meeting this weekend in Detroit. Look around you. This is an area we need to work on. All these groupings agree on 90% of the issues. And we have a common enemy -- the corporate power structure. There are more of us than there are of them -- that tiny corporate ruling class. We need a united electoral front of all the pro-democracy forces -- a united party or alliance of parties. Building this kind of unity is the prerequisite to realizing the historic potential that this campaign makes possible. If we do that, we can change the way things are. [Unity is not easy. [There's a story about the new Labour Member of Parliament in the UK who tells the veteran Labour MP sitting next to him in the House of Commons on his first day, "I can't wait to take on the Conservative enemy in debate." The old veteran MP turns to him and says, "The Torries are the opposition. Your enemies are on this Labour side of the aisle." [Too often we fall into this trap. We spend more energy fighting each other than we do the corporate power structure. [The enemy is not in this hall. We can oppose each other on particular questions. We should oppose each other -- it's a sign of real democracy. [But we are opponents on these questions. Not enemies. [Too often in the Green movement, we attack the person, not the position. We smear and ridicule our opponents instead of trying to persuade them. [Our key value of Nonviolence is not just about not punching, cutting, or shooting people. It's about what Ghandi called "satyagraha" and King translated as "soul force." Soul force means using words and actions to persuade and win over our opponents, not to crush our opponents with character assassinations and organizational manuevers that divide instead of build consensus and unity. [If we are going to build unity among ourselves, we have got put our key value of Nonviolence into practice with each other.] Our third message to this convention is about how we build on this year's campaign in the coming years. The Nader/LaDuke campaign is building a framework. We could come out of this campaign with over 40 ballot-qualified state Green parties and with Green politics being an unavoidable part of American public debate. This campaign will frame up this house. Then we've got to finish it and put in the doors and windows and sinks and cabinets. GPUSA decided at its Green Congress last month to focus the 14th National Green Gathering next year on the nuts-and-bolts of local organizing, on how to consolidate the foundation of this framework at the grassroots. How do we build locals with hundreds, not just handfuls, of members? How do we relate to organized labor, which is showing signs of political independence for the first time in a generation? How do we organize across diverse cultural and ethnic communities? These are the kinds of questions we want to address in an interactive conference next summer. GPUSA invites your collaboration -- ASGP, the state parties, and other pro-democracy groups. Brothers and Sisters, some of us have been working at this since 1984. We've had our disagreements. But we are still here. We may not be where we wanna be. We may not be where we oughta be. But we're sure not where we were. We are moving forward. We invite all of you to stop by the GPUSA literature table just outside the hall so we can talk about how we can move forward together. Thank you for this time. -- **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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