The Green Party
Welcome to The Greens/Green Party USA. The Greens/Green Party USA has been working since 1984 to make the hope of a more democratic, safer, cleaner world real. Our political goal is an America where decisions are made by the people and not by a few giant corporations. Our environmental goal is a sustainable world where nature and human society co-exist in harmony.
First organized as the Green Committees of Correspondence, The Greens/ Green Party USA is the oldest, continuously active Green organization in America. It was our organization that originated the Green Ten Key Values which are now accepted by nearly all Greens in the United States. The Ten Key Values when correctly understood point to a new society and way of life based on Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Cooperation and Non-violence. The Ten Key Values point to a world entirely different from our present world of violence, corporate greed, and ecological destruction.
There are many things that will have to be changed before a truly democratic and Green society can exist but one is the tremendous and unfair gap today between the rich and the poor; in fact even between the very rich and the average person.
Today in America the best paid one-fifth of the population receives about one half of all national income, while the bottom one-fifth receives less than 4 per cent. The distribution of wealth in America is even more unfair. Here, the top one-half per cent of all property owners control over 25% of all wealth; while the top 5% sit on nearly 70% of wealth and property. What chance does the average person have for exercising his or her democratic rights under these conditions!
Behind this unfair distribution of wealth and income stand a few giant corporations who own or control nearly all newspapers, television networks and radio stations, movie companies, book publishers, and other sources of information and means of communication. Both of America's major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, are dependent on these corporations and the few super-rich individuals and families associated with them. In fact, nearly all major offices in the US government, whether elected or appointed, are filled by individuals from this corporate network. What chance does democracy have under such conditions? What chance does nature and the environment have?
Today's industrial society, driven by a market system based only on profit, is rapidly destroying the very foundations in nature on which human existence depends: air, water, soil, forests, plants and animals, mineral and fuel resources. Over the past century, three-quarters of the Earth's original forests have been cut. Mechanized, corporate farming is destroying the soil essential for agricultural production all over the world at an alarming rate. Pollution of rivers and lakes, silting of streams, and depletion of underground aquifers threatens the world's fresh water supply. Even the Earth's atmosphere is being restructured by this profit-driven economy.
Global warming caused by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas is now increasing the world's average surface temperature at an historically unprecedented rate, raising sea levels, and changing global weather patterns on which human agriculture and industry and many plant and animal species depend. Global warming, combined with an expected future scarcity of fossil fuels, demands an immediate crash program for conversion to solar and wind energy and sustainable zero waste production. Yet no national government today is acting adequately on this need--especially the United States. Can serious planning and research for conversion to alternative energies be expected as long as giant petroleum corporations control much of the world's economy, and most government policy?
This list of problems needing immediate solution can go on and on. Corporate funded genetic engineering (genetically modified organisms or GMOs ) are creating artificial "Frankenfoods" which threaten to enter the environment and contaminate a species diversity it has taken nature millions of years to evolve. In society, poverty and lack of opportunity has created a vicious cycle of racism, addiction, economically forced military enlistment, violence, bitterness, and a massive prison industry.
Our future can be peace and a better world, or it can be endless conflict and ecological/ecomomic disaster. The difference between the two is whether or not we act to make the difference. The Green Ten Key Values speak to every issue identified here. The Greens/Green Party USA urges the public, voters, candidates and elected officials to become familiar with these values and be guided by them in their personal life and in public actions and decisions. We urge all Americans to organize around these values for a sane and better world. The Greens/Green Party USA stands for Green values in a straightforward, uncompromised way. We do not pull punches when hard, honest things have to be said. Through our publications and through organizing we tell the truth as it is and put forward real solutions to today's social and environmental problems.
The Greens/Green Party USA is supported entirely by memberships and small donations. We receive no corporate or foundation money. Explore this web site. Read our Platform and two Program documents as examples of some of the positions we take on specific issues. A Green movement strong enough to change our present society can only come from the actions and commitment of thousands of people. Voting once every 2 or 4 years is not enough. We need a society where people talk, think and act Green everyday. This is the kind of society The Greens/Green Party USA is committed to building. Join us in our fight for a sane, democratic and sustainable world. Join The Greens!
Twentieth Anniversary of the American Green Movement
Twenty years ago, on August 10-12, 62 people came together in St. Paul, Minnesota on the campus of Macalester College, to found the United States' first national Green organization, the Green Committees of Correspondence. The meeting brought together activists from New York City, New England, the Missouri Ozarks, California, and other areas. Participants divided into groups of three to imagine what a future green society would be like. Words such as "empowerment", "neighborliness", "connectedness with the earth" and "community" emerged from this exercise. A shared vision seemed evident, but also differences; some which would later become major issues among American Greens.
The official report from the St. Paul conference notes that "Several people thought we needed to work towards an independent political process, though many others argued third parties are a dead-end --." Thus the 'split' between "movement and party", between an activist and a ballot box oriented American Green movement, was present from the beginning.
The name "Committees of Correspondence" was chosen intentionally to "recall the network established by grassroots democrats in the struggle for Independence --". It was also stated that "The Committees of Correspondence will maintain gender balance and move towards racial, ethnic and class inclusiveness." The meeting ended at 3:00 p.m., Sunday, August 12, 1984.
One interesting aspect of this first meeting is the participants' attempt to define "Greenness". The following draft definition ends the meeting's official report:
"Green" politics interweaves ecological wisdom, decentralization of economic and political power wherever practical, personal and social responsibility, global security, and community self-determination within the context of respect for diversity of heritage and religion. It advocates non-violent action, cooperative world order, and self-reliance."
Here can be seen the earliest form of today's well known Ten Key Values; a statement of principles which reflected the diverse origins of the American Green movement.
Mark Satin has posted (radicalmiddle.com/ten_key_values.htm), that the Ten Key Values grew out of a late night session at St. Paul led by grassroots activist Jeff Land and himself. West coast author and feminist activist Charlene Spretnak and members of Murray Bookchin's New England Institute for Social Ecology were also primary contributors. After this session, an East coast, West coast dialogue went on for several months, which ended in the release of a final version at the end of 1984 superseding the paragraph quoted above.
Greens today still debate the exact meaning of the Ten Key Values: which today are generally listed as Ecological Wisdom, Grassroots Democracy, Decentralization, Community-based Economics, Feminism, Respect for Diversity, Personal and Global responsibility, and Future Focus/Sustainability. Never-the-less, whatever any one Greens' individual interpretation, there can be no doubt that underlying the ten principles is a vision of definitely radical implication; no less than the creation of a new world from the shell of the old!
(Reprinted from Green Politics, Fall 2004)
The Greens, Past, Present and Future
Two opposed images of reality struggle for acceptance today. One is the world of happy, wealthy, zestful consumers, projected daily from corporate controlled TV screens. The other is the violence, emotional isolation, job insecurity, environmental pollution, global climate change, and resource depletion we experience-either directly or indirectly-in our actual lives. More than anything else, the Green movement is a movement to help people recognize the falseness of the first image. Once this has happened, people will began more and more to work together to change reality to become the kind of world they really want it to be. However, for the Green movement to succeed it is important that Greens themselves have a clear image of who they really are. One of the best ways to do this is to understand Green history, the story of the Green movement past and present.
Past: As the article above explains, the United States Green movement began 20 years ago with the Green Committees of Correspondence (GCoC), founded in August 1984. The GCoC did not represent any one political philosophy; generally, however, it emphasized activism, education, and community organizing over electoral politics. Looking critically at the American politic system, the majority of the GCoC felt that until much grassroots organizing had been done-as an early Green pamphlet put it, until there were "active Green groups in every neighborhood and town in the country"-a Green electoral party could be no more than symbolic. These early Greens also envisioned the Green movement as working for a radical, overall change in American society, not just reforms. The organizational form adopted to reach this goal was a network of dues paying members, grouped in multi-state Regions and connected through a national Clearinghouse.
By the beginning of the 1990s, however, some Greens were becoming impatient with the GCoC's strategy of radical, slow, long-term organizing. These Greens-mostly members of the GCoC-called for the immediate creation of state Green parties, and some for a national Green party. Because of this, two factions began to compete inside the GCoC. One, a "movement" faction, supported the GCoC's original strategy of activism and community organizing; the other, a "party" faction, called for a turn to electoral politics. In 1990, state Green parties were organized in Alaska and California. In 1991, in order to resolve the conflict between movement and party factions, the name of the GCoC was changed to The Greens/Green Party USA (TG/GPUSA). Organizationally, this meant that The Greens would remain an activist ("movement") party based on dues paying members, but that it would include a place for the affiliation of state Green parties.
In 1996, several state Green parties came together to form the Association of State Green Parties (NASGP) outside The Greens/Green Party USA. In 2000, Ralph Nader was nominated by the NASGP as a Green presidential candidate; his campaign was also endorsed by TG/GPUSA. In July 2001, the NASGP changed its name to the Green Party of the United States (GPUS).
Present: As a result of the above history, there are two Green parties in the US today. One, The Greens/Green Party USA traces its beginning to 1984. The other, the Green Party of the United States, can trace its roots to the formation of the ASGP in 1996, and is essentially a split of more politically conventional Greens from the GCoC and TG/GPUSA. This year, the GPUS is running David Cobb as its candidate for pres ident; Ralph Nader is running as an independent; and at the recent Green Congress in Chicago, The Greens/Green Party USA reaffirmed it commitment to the mission of the original American Greens, long-term activist organizing for true democracy and a Green society. Such a vision of radical hope is one of the most valuable resources any party can offer society.
Future: As the global ecology continues to deteriorate, the gulf between rich and poor widens, and the US government settles into what appears will be a permanent militarized economy, Greens everywhere will face fundamental questions about how to proceed, as ordinary' ( non-activist ) citizens. Will America's traditional once-each-four-years trip to the polls politics be sufficient in times such as these; or is a more activist approach to politics necessary? What can be done to assure a secure future for family, children and grandchildren in the difficult times which are no doubt ahead? These are questions each Green and each American can only answer for her or himself. One thing is certain however: the Green Party USA and the principles guiding it will be a significant part of whatever future unfolds.
(Reprinted from Green Politics, Fall 2004)
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