INFORMATION ABOUT THE GREEN ALLIANCE

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE GREEN ALLIANCE

The Green Alliance was established in January 2002 to organize Green activists and diverse progressives into local democratic organizations of the Green Party and Movement, and to promote radical social, ecological, and economic democracy as a solution to capitalism's exploitation and ecological destruction. It is comprised of individual members, local/county/state organizations, and anti-oppression caucuses. For more info contact: The Green Alliance, 1300 E. 47th St., PMB #343, Chicago, IL 60653. E-mail: <alliance@greens.org> (subscribe to the GA listserv to at the same address). Web: <http://www.thegreenalliance.org>. Tel: 773-752-2801.

VISION STATEMENT OF THE GREEN ALLIANCE

To Renew the Spirit of the Green Party, We Must Build a New Green Movement.

Growing the Green movement and party as the alternative to the politics of capitalist abuse of humanity and nature is the highest priority we face.

Green politics are different from traditional politics to the extent that our ballot-line party is in a fruitful relationship with a grassroots movement from below. In this dialectic, the party is vitalized by the movement, while the movement is connected to the mainstream by the party. Neither is absorbed into the other, both work in conjunction to build the vibrancy of green democracy.

We envision the destiny of the United States Green Party as the organizational focus of the green movement within this relationship.

We reject the traditional strategy of piecemeal reform of the capitalist power structure. We wish to challenge the system itself and not merely its current policy or personnel.

We believe that theory and action must grow in concert; that open debate of ideas is essential if knowledge is to grow; that theory must serve as a compass to guide our practice; that unity can only be built if we organize in a way that affirms the value of those most oppressed and least represented in this capitalist society; and, that our success must be measured by the advancement of those oppressed social groups.

We seek an organization in which the leadership is assumed by representatives of those groups who are specially oppressed and have the most to gain from the liberation and transformation of this capitalist social regime.

We join with those who say we must focus on grassroots organizing among our constituencies on the local level, building a deep as well as a broad base. People of color must play a central leadership role in building progressive independent politics.

We believe that the politics we project must go beyond liberalism and populism and openly embrace radical solutions. We must strongly affirm a commitment to a sustainable economic system and not simply a negative rejection of capitalism.

Criticism must point the way toward a genuine solution of extremely vexing problems, and not simply move the focus from one issue to another without illuminating the totality.

In our method of bringing change about and constructing a new world within the shell of the old, we must strive for a movement that grows and is sustainable, not one that rises and deflates with each protest against a specific outrage.

Action must be based on a clear conception of what needs to be done, not on isolated gestures of discontent. Nihilism and cynicism feed off of each other, leading from disillusion to despair. If we are to succeed, we must be known for the vision that we believe in, not for what we reject.

We wish to rekindle and sustain the radical spirit of the popular movements of the twentieth century: from the CIO sit-downs to the ban-the-bomb marches; from the civil rights movement to the anti-war mobilizations, and the revolutionary feminism and student radicalism of the 1960s and 70s. On the other hand, we reject the left tendency toward sectarianism, dividing groups over terminology that often seems arcane to the outside world.

We wish to rally all progressives to our cause, whether they identify most closely with anti-racism, feminism, anti-colonialism, anarchism, socialism, social ecology, economic democracy or other progressive movements. A common denominator that can be applied to all these movements is the term RADICAL, for they all seek fundamental change, and we submit this often abused but still inspiring word as a theme to unite the many into one.

For all these reasons the Green Alliance will take steps to build a vigorous movement that will strive for grass roots organizing as the key to creating a new world based on a sustainable economic system. We hope to recruit all those who see themselves not as dividers but as growers of the overall movement for social change.

The Green Alliance will strive for recognition as an important social force for change. It will be self-financed by membership dues so that our members, not corporations, own and control the organization.

The new Green Alliance will be an independent membership organization for Green Party activists that organizes alongside, and works within a unified national Green Party and the ballot-line Green Party rganizations of each state and county. It will work to have its perspectives adopted by the Green Party, while reserving the right to speak and act independently on behalf of its own members. We will measure our success by the growth of the green movement.

We envision this Green Alliance as a model of democracy for the Green Party, with a mass membership of activists, organized into grassroots affiliates that finance and control the organization democratically from below.

We reject liberal conceptions of any Party that imply the logic of top-down decision- making, where politicians and elite cadres, funded by corporations, dictate the options in party primaries to an atomized mass of unorganized party voters.

We seek nothing less than a radical movement from below; not an end to politics, but an end to politics as usual. Not an end to parties, but the unification of all who want to end the control of the political system by people of wealth.

Our mission also extends to the active defense of nature from the system of profit and the restoration of ecological integrity to the planet earth and all the beings on it. For the security of the earth and all its species, we can demand no less than a new and powerful green movement, for the radical transformation of the nature of politics and for the flourishing of the Greens here and everywhere.

PREAMBLE TO THE GREEN ALLIANCE BYLAWS

Green politics is an ecological approach to politics that links social and ecological problems. Ecology studies the relationships among organisms and their environment. Political ecology brings human institutions and ideologies into this holistic perspective.

We find that the same institutions and ideas that cause the exploitation and oppression of humans also cause the degradation and destruction of the environment. Both are rooted in a hierarchical, exploitative, and alienated social system that systematically produces human oppression and ecological destruction.

For the Greens, therefore, the fights against racism, sexism, class exploitation, bureaucratic domination, war, and all other forms of social domination and violence are central to the movement for an ecologically sustainable society. In order to harmonize society with nature, we must harmonize relations between human beings.

The Greens carry forward the traditional values of the Left: freedom, equality, and solidarity. We are inspired by the four pillars of the global Green movement: ecology, grassroots democracy, nonviolence, and social justice. We want to create a truly democratic society without class exploitation or social domination. But Greens expand this notion of a classless, nonhierarchical society that is harmonized with itself to include an ecological society that is harmonized with nature as well.

To the social movements, the Greens say that in order for humanity to progress toward a democratic society, we must resolve the ecological crisis so that people are still around to enjoy democracy. To the environmental movements, the Greens say that in order to have an ecological society, we must have a democratic society so that people have the power to choose ecological sustainability. To survive, we must have ecological sustainability. To choose ecological sustainability, we must have the power of democracy.

ETHICS AND VALUES

The Members and Affiliates of the Green Alliance acknowledge truth, justice, and civility as the basis for their conduct towards each other, and towards all people, without regard for class, race, color, creed, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or age. They consider it the duty of every person to claim their human rights, not only for themselves, but for every person; not to create new privileges, but to abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression and establish equal rights and duties for all. They consider it the duty of every Member to contribute according to their abilities in order to enjoy the rights of membership. No rights without duties; no duties without rights.

The Members and Affiliates of the Green Alliance subscribe to the Ten Key Values of the Green Movement: Ecology, Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy, Nonviolence, Decentralization, Community-Based Economics, Feminism, Respect for Diversity, Personal and Global Responsibility, Future Focus/Sustainability.

GREEN ALLIANCE PRINCIPLES OF UNITY

The Members and Affiliates of the Green Alliance Subscribe to the following Principles of Unity:

PROGRAMMATIC PRINCIPLES

1. Grassroots Democracy: We call for new political institutions that empower grassroots people to participate in the public decisions that affect their lives: face-to-face citizen assemblies that control public policy from below through mandated, recallable, and rotating representation.

2. Economic Democracy: We call for new economic institutions that empower grassroots people to participate in the economic decisions that affect their lives: democratic economic institutions including cooperatives, decentralized public enterprises, and participatory economic planning processes that enable people to democratically control the economy from below.

3. Social Justice: We call for the strict protection of civil rights and liberties and for the guarantee of social and economic rights, including the rights to a decent job, income, education, housing, child care, and health care. We actively oppose all forms of social discrimination and oppression, including racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism, and class exploitation.

4. Ecological Sustainability: We call for replacing ecologically destructive practices with ecologically sustainable ones, including: nuclear and fossil fuels with safe renewable energy; incinerators and landfills with waste reduction, reuse, and recycling; toxic materials with safe, biodegradable materials; chemicalized agriculture with organic agriculture; and resource depletion with sustainable use.

5. Peace: We call for massive immediate cuts in military spending, conversion to a peace-oriented economy, the destruction of all nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, an all-sided demilitarization of society, and international solidarity with all people fighting for democracy, peace, justice, and the environment.

ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES

6. Independent Politics: We believe that the Green Party should stand completely independent of the corporate rulers and their political representatives, the Democratic and Republican parties.

7. Movement Parties: We believe that the Green Party should be a movement party, working with grassroots movements and engaging in the full array of nonviolent means to achieve our goals, including public education, demonstrations, boycotts, strikes, lobbying, civil disobedience, alternative institutions, and electoral politics.

8. Nonviolence: While affirming the right of all people to self-defense, we work for our goals through nonviolent means.

9. Multicultural and Gender Parity: We build our organization on the basis of full participation of all people and take affirmative action to include members of groups oppressed on the basis of economic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, and age in the membership and in leadership roles in numbers at least proportional to their numbers in the community.

10. Proportional Representation: We use systems of proportional representation in the election of representatives, officers, and other leadership in order to insure that political, gender, ethnic, geographical, and other diversity in our organization has its fair share of representation and power.

11. Democratic Decentralism: The membership decides policy in our organization. The majority has the right to determine organizational policies. Minorities on any question have the right to abstain from implementing policies with which they disagree and to express their dissent publicly. Only members in leadership roles as officers, staff, candidates, or delegates to larger associations are obligated to implement and articulate organizational policies so that majority decisions have organizational effect.

THE GREEN ALLIANCE: A NATIONAL NETWORK OF GREEN POLITICAL CLUBS

The Green Alliance is a national network of Green Party political clubs, which are local membership organizations for Green activists.

The Green Alliance gets you connected with grassroots Green activists across the country who share two central goals:

1) building rank-and-file democracy and power in the Green Party so that it lives up to its principle of grassroots democracy, and

2) educating and acting for a radical social, ecological, and economic democracy in place of capitalism's exploitation and ecological destruction.

"Membership" rights in the statutory Green Party are limited to voting in party primaries or caucuses for some party nominations and some party officers once every year or two. The laws governing party structures in each state and territory do not provide for local party membership assemblies open to all rank-and-file members with decision-making powers.

The Green Alliance is for Green activists who want to do more than privately cast a vote in primaries or caucuses. Political party clubs, a long-standing tradition in this country, are how like-minded grassroots activists have come together to act collectively to influence the nominations, platforms, and actions of their parties. Green political clubs provide a way for Greens to be active in the Green movement on an ongoing basis.

The Green Party especially, given its commitment to grassroots democracy, needs dense network of local organizations. The Green Alliance exists to help these local political clubs organize and to network them across each state and across the country.

THE GREEN ALLIANCE: PUTTING MOVEMENT INTO THE PARTY

The Green Party aspires to be the electoral arm of progressive movements for democracy, peace, justice, and ecology. The Green Alliance is about putting the Movement into the Party. The Green Alliance is certainly active in electoral politics and will support its members for election to party offices and public offices. But the Green Alliance is also active in public education, legislative lobbying, community organizing, alternative institutions, and nonviolent direct action.

Moreover, the Green Alliance does not believe fundamental social change can be won simply through elections. Much of the power structure -- the private power of giant corporations, the permanent state bureaucracy, the military and police agencies -- are not up for election. Green governments initiating fundamental reforms will need direct action by the people in order to counter the direct action of the corporations (capital strikes) and military (political repression) in resisting changes if real changes are to be carried through.

The Green Alliance is an independent civic organization that works along side and supports the Green Party, but which also takes its own independent positions and actions on the issues.

GREEN ALLIANCE STRUCTURE

The Green Alliance consists of: Members, Local/County Organizations, State Organizations, Affiliate Organizations, Anti-Oppression Caucuses, National Congress, National Council, Coordinating Committee

Members: The basis of organization of the Green Alliance are the individual Members. The Members are the source of authority and policy in the Green Alliance. The Members make decisions by acting individually in local meetings of the Green Alliance and by electing and instructing delegates to the State Organizations, the National Council, and the National Congress.

Local/County Organizations: The Green Alliance is organized locally by county (or similar political jurisdiction). Subject to consent by the Coordinating Committee and the State Organization if there be one, counties may combine or divide as they see fit and function as counties for organizational purposes, such as representation in the National Congress and the sharing of dues receipts from their jurisdiction.

GREEN ALLIANCE NATIONAL DECISION-MAKING

The National Congress is the highest decision-making body of the Green Alliance and it meets each year. The National Congress is comprised of delegations representing State Organizations, Local/County Organizations, Anti-Oppression Caucuses, Affiliated Organizations, and the At-Large Caucus.

Local/County Delegations Affiliation is open to any County or State Organizations of Greens, that, by an official act, agrees to accept and abide by the Bylaws of the Green Alliance. State and County Organizations which wish affiliation can apply by submitting an Affiliation form to the National Clearinghouse. A county or state affiliate may be a statutory Green Party organization or an independent organization of Members of the Green Alliance. Chartered County Organizations without a chartered State Organization from their state are entitled to send to the National Congress 1 delegate for every 10 members of the Green Alliance in good standing. (1-9 members = 0 delegates; 10-19 members = 1 delegate; 20-29 members = 2 delegates; and so on.)

To Affiliate with the Green Alliance, Local/County Organizations must have: (a) a democratic structure defined in written rules or bylaws; (b) proportional representation through preference voting in the election of officers and representatives to the National Congress; (c) at least 10 members of the Green Alliance.

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

A Voice and a Vote in Organizational Decisions; A Link to Green Party activists and organizations around the country; Green Alliance Publications: The Green Alliance Bulletin, (monthly) with minutes of Coordinating Committee, National Committee, and National Congress meetings, proposals, letters, notices, news and contact information for Green Alliance committees and affiliates, and The Green Alliance Magazine (first edition June 25, 2002, monthly, web-based, printed copies available by request); Participation in the Green Alliance listserv for News and Discussion and the Green Alliance Issue Action listservs; Organizing Assistance and Training; Referrals of interested Greens in your area.

GREEN ALLIANCE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

Any person aged 14 and older can join the Green Alliance who: 1) agrees with the Green Alliance Principles of Unity (below), 2) participates in their county and state Green Party organizations, and 3) registers to vote in their state Green Party in states which maintain party enrollment lists, except for persons who are not qualified to vote by reason of age, alien status, or felony conviction.

Dues are $45 a year, payable in annual or monthly installments. $15 will be rebated to your local if it is affiliated with the Green Alliance and $15 will be rebated to your state Green Alliance if it is organized.