ManhattanGreenSheet -- January 2011

THE MANHATTAN GREEN SHEET – JANUARY, 2011
(Information/Commentary compiled by one member of The Manhattan Green Party (www.manhattangreens.org, email: ManhattanGreens@gmail.com -- also visit www.greenparty.org).)

ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR JANUARY
STOP SCHOOL CLOSINGS/CHARTER TAKEOVERS!
Jan. 27th 4:30-6:30pm, City Hall Plaza, Near the Brooklyn Bridge (Trains 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, R, A, C) Stand up to privatization! Rally with students, parents, teachers, community members. (email gloriabrand2@gmail.com) Mayor Bloomberg's Department of Education plans to close 26 more schools this year. Bloomberg has played a shell game with our most vulnerable children, shuffling them around from closing school to closing school. This process has disproportionately affected students of color, only serving to further perpetuate a separate and unequal school system in New York City. In addition, the DOE plans to grant more public school space to charter schools through co-locations, undermining resources and pitting school communities against each other.

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April 9, 2011 National Antiwar Demonstrations in NYC and San Francisco, sponsored by the United National Antiwar Committee of NYC (contact mailto:acpollack2@gmail.com, mailto:UNACpeace@gmail.com or write UNAC at P.O. Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054 or call 518-227-6947. http://nepajac.org/April9NYCPeace.pdf. Bring U.S. Troops Home Now: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan! End the sanctions and stop the threats of war against the people of Iran, North Korea and Yemen. No to war and plunder of the people of Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa! End U.S. Aid to Israel! End U.S. Support to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza! Trillions for jobs, education, social services, an end to all foreclosures, quality single-payer healthcare for all, a massive conversion to sustainable and planet-saving energy systems and public transportation and reparations to the victims of U.S. terror at home and abroad. End FBI raids on antiwar, social justice, and inter-national solidarity activists, an end to the racist persecution and prosecutions that ravage Muslim communities, an end to police terror in Black and Latino communities, full rights and legality for immigrants and an end to all efforts to repress and punish Wikileaks and its contributors and founders. Immediate end to torture, rendition, secret trials, drone bombings, death squads.

NEWS ABOUT THE GREEN PARTY

Arizona Green Party in response to Tucson: "Nonviolence is one of the Ten Key Values of the Green Party. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace. Peace is not just the absence of violence; it is a willingness to resolve conflict in a constructive manner with a spirit of good will and respect. ... bloodshed and brutality are not replacements for compassionate dialogue and diplomatic actions."

Green Party Alex White will be running for Mayor of Rochester, NY. White opposes control of the city school district, and supports a return to neighborhood precincts for the Rochester Police Department.
Updates of 2010 from Ronald Hardy of “Green Party Watch” (http://www.greenpartywatch.org):

Re Cathie Black's appointment as Chancellor of New York City schools, Tom Siracuse, retired public school teacher, told reporters that to support his application for Black's former job at the Hearst Corporation he was reading a book. Gloria Mattera called it "an outrage that Mayor Bloomberg has handpicked Cathie Black and the State Education Commissioner granted her a waiver so she could be hired.

May 7, 2010, Caroline Lucas becomes first Green Member of Parliament in United Kingdom -- Ms. Lucas won a hotly contested race in Brighton Pavilion to become the Greens' first-ever member of parliament.

May 31, 2010, Green Party and Cynthia McKinney Condemn Freedom Flotilla Massacre. "The Green Party, led by 2008 Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney, has been vocal and active critics of Israel's war on the people of Gaza. Dr. Justine McCabe, co-chair of the Green Party's Intl. Committee: "We demand immediate action from the US, including emergency orders from President Obama to cut off all aid to Israel."

August 21, 2010, The Green Party performed very well in the federal elections in Australia, with Adam Bandt winning a seat outright in Melbourne with over 35% of the first-choice vote, and the Greens winning about 12% of the vote in the lower house.

Nov. 3, 2010, election returns resulted in the Green Party gaining ballot access through at least 2012 in two of the most populous, New York and Texas (though lost ballot access in Illinois and Wisconsin). In NY through to 2014, thanks to Howie Hawkins for Gov. earning over 50,000 votes. In Texas to Ed Lindsay for State Comptroller winning over 5% of the vote through 2012. Tom Clements, Green Party Senate Candidate in S.C., netted the greatest number of votes, 118,000, 9.37% of the total.

About PA State Assembly candidate (http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/) Hugh Giordano: "Hide your unions, Democrats, because the Green Party is coming to take them away. Hugh Giordano, a 26-year old, Roxborough native and food workers' union organizer for Local 152, ran on the Green Party ticket for a seat in the 194th. He lost, but garnered 18% of the vote (23% in Philly)--an unprecedented number for a third-party candidate. Giordano's words in a letter to union workers: "We owe the Democrats and Republicans NOTHING, because they have done NOTHING for our members, for our contracts, and for the movement. How much longer are we going to support a bunch of failures?" Hard working Giordano had many people come out for him. More from his letter: "Many labor unions still believe the Democrats are 'labor's friend'. Really? How can this be when they failed to pass EFCA, they bail out the super rich, failed to pass Single-Payer health care, pass horrible trade laws (NAFTA), attack pensions, and most of all -- are in the pockets of the same people we fight every day, the corporations! ... we CANNOT run as a Democrat or Republican; those two parties are too corrupted and entrenched. We must strengthen and build a THIRD PARTY! ... The corporate Democrats ONLY win because we fuel them, but then they turn their backs on us. ... The Green Party is the party of labor. They have a platform that is 100% pro-labor (repeal Taft-Hartley, NAFTA, and prosecute CEO's who break the law). (http://www.gp.org) ...It's time we make history and do the right thing."

NY Green Party issues being addressed in NY for 2011 include: a ban on hydrofracking for natural gas; education; state budge/progressive revenue options; single payer health care; climate change; and peace/cut the military budget.

Sam Smith of Progressive Review in CounterPunch (http://counterpunch.org/) writes in praise of the success of Green Party Fred Horch in Maine and the past success of John Eder there. "The big parties gave up human relationships long ago. Which is why we have such a hard time relating to them. But you can't text your way to the presidency, you can't Facebook a revolution and you can't save the planet with twitter. At some point real people have to join with, talk to, and help other real people."
UK Young Green membership spiked by 10% in just one weekend when Parliament voted to trebel the cap on university fees in England to 9000 pounds per year. The young people are abandoning their support for the Liberal Democrats.

GREEN ACTION OF THE MONTH

December 12, 2010-EMPTY PLATES SPECIAL: Take Care of the Hungry Not the Wealthy! Protest by Manhattan Greens, Union Square, NYC
Julia Williams, 12th US Congressional District, Detroit, MI in 2010 organized a state and national EMPTY PLATES protest: THE BEGINNING: ONE SMALL OUTCRY!!!! DEC. 12, 2010

“I call for all of us who reject the economic terrorism of our legacy parties to RISE UP and hit the pavement! I want to see grandmothers and mothers, grandfathers and fathers, children, union members, students, Greens, Socialists, any group that rejects the idea that forced starvation can in any way “be good for our country”, become a visible, palpable, physical presence, and demonstrate on December 12th! “

Following is part of "Empty Plates" protest flyer! We stapled green copies of it to empty white paper plates and handed them out. In the center of each paper plate we hand wrote "Fight Economic Terrorism: White House 1-202-456-1111, Call Congress 1-866-220-0044."

WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF OUR HUNGRY, NOT OUR WEALTHY! TELL BARACK OBAMA, “USE AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO START A WPA!”

Patrick Martin, WSW: “In a society which took seriously the value of human life and the future of its children, the spectacle of 50 million people at risk of hunger, including 1 million children, would be a social emergency. Given that the United States once boasted of its ability to feed the planet, the indifference to the growth of hunger at home is a national scandal.” A new report from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture reveals 50 million Americans exist under the poverty line and were too poor to buy adequate food last year. That is approximately 17.4 million families. More than a third of these households, with over one million children, were forced to skip meals. “

From the Dept. of Agriculture or Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine:
• Nearly 1 in 4 American children live in households that struggle to put food on the table. That’s 16.7 million children.
• Nearly 1 in 4 children in America is at risk of hunger. Among African-Americans and Latinos, 1 in 3. (16.7 million children)
• About half of all American children will receive SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—Food Stamps) benefits at some point before age 20. Among African-American children, 90 percent will enroll in SNAP before age 20.
• 1 in 8 people is enrolled in SNAP. Nearly half are children.
• More than 90% of SNAP benefits are used up by the third week of the month.
• 1 in every 2 babies born in the United States is enrolled in WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children).

Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2009.
• More than 1 in 8 people in the United States lives below the poverty line, which is $21,756 for a family of four in 2009. 1 in 5 children in the United States lives below the poverty line.
• Most Americans (51.4 percent) will live in poverty at some point before age 65.
• A person working full-time at the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year. The official poverty line for a family of three—one parent with two children—is $17,285.

From Bread for the World website: http://notes.bread.org/
• U.S. has gone from 1st to 9th place among nations in percentage of its population that graduates from college. U.S. 24th in the portion of children who have a high school degree. The main reason the U.S. economy was so dominant for much of the 20th century is because U.S. workers on the whole were so much better educated than other workers across the world.

GREEN QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE MONTH
1) Briefly, how have you served Green Party in the past and/or how do you intend to serve it now?
2) What are the three most burning issues that you would like the Green Party to fight for?
3) Explain 3 ways Green Party can ramp up membership at local, state and/or national levels.
Please email answers to libbyliberalnyc@gmail.com.
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GREEN CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING FOR THE MONTH

Howie Hawkins (Green candidate for NY Gov. 2012:

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 do nature and the environment have?

Hawkins Recommends: 1) TAX THE RICH! 2) WPA-STYLE JOBS PROGRAM! 3) STATE SINGLE PAYER MEDICARE FOR ALL! 4) FULLY FUNDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES, END OF MAYORAL CONTROL, PREVENTION OF PROPERTY TAX CAP, CALL TO OPPOSE CHARTER SCHOOLS! 5) END DRONE STRIKES! 6) END SPYING, END CRIMINALIZATION OF POLITICAL DISSENT, END ATTACKS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES! 7) FULLY END THE ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS, INVOKE LEGALIZATION AND TAXATION OF DRUGS AND END MASS IMPRISONMENT OF NON-VIOLENT OFFENDERS! 8 ) END TORTURE! 9) END THE SCAPEGOATING OF MUSLIMS! 10) RAISE MINIMUM WAGE TO $12 AN HOUR! 11) BAN ON HYDRAULIC FRACTURING! 12) FOCUS ON CLEAN ENERGY PROGRAMS! 13) BAN ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS! 14) STRONG TENANT RIGHTS AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING! 15) BRING THE TROOPS HOME! END THE WARS NOW! CUT THE MILITARY BUDGET 50-75%! END ECONOMICALLY FORCED MILITARY ENLISTMENT!

Hawkins: the nation needs a new "New Deal," a "Green New Deal." It would include the promise of full employment with government as employer of last resort; a single-payer health plan; and full funding for education. He also called for an end to tuition in the city and state universities, a state bank to invest government funds and pension dollars, and a more progressive tax structure. (Hawkins as candidate for Governor had only 3 paid staffers, spent $50,000 in total on his campaign. Compare that to what the corporate-financed campaigns cost Paladino and Cuomo. Hawkins explanation as to why his campaign was not corporate-financed? “We want to be supported by the people, not the special interests.”)

Gloria Mattera … the four pillars of the Green Party: Non-violence and the demilitarization of the United States; social and economic justice; ecological wisdom; and grassroots participatory democracy.

[Betty] Davis, a retired school teacher and principal and veteran of the Ocean Hill/Brownsville fight for community control in the 1960s, said, "Cuomo's proposal for inter-school competition for performance grants is just going to be way for the state to force down the throats of reluctant parents, teachers, and school districts the agenda of Bush's No Child Left Behind and now Obama's Race to the Top. It's all about high-stakes testing and public school closings, charter school openings and privatization, mayoral control and union busting. The first thing the state needs to do is fully fund the public schools, particularly in inner cities and rural communities with limited property tax bases, as mandated by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court decision.”