{news} Fwd: [usgp-nc] Let's take heart

Wed Aug 5 22:44:40 EDT 2009

the context for this inspirational email from one of the founders of the
USGP is a very hotly contested election for the positions on the Steering
Committee of the National Committee for 09-10.  not only are positions on
the SC contested, but there is a procedural challenge to the online voting
process that the current SC is proposing to use for this election.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Rensenbrink <rensen at suscom-maine.net>
Date: Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Subject: [usgp-nc] Let's take heart
To: "The natlcomvotes ((aka National Committee Votes)) listserv is for
decision-making and management of GP-US affairs." <
natlcomvotes at green.gpus.org>

Hi everyone,

 Let's take heart. We had a superb ANM at NCCU in Durham. Very well
organized, high spirits, a lot got done there and for the future. We
repaired relationships, built new ones, celebrated ongoing ones. We showed
that we are an up and coming party. Huge thanks to those who worked so hard
to make it a success.  Champagne everyone -- loft a toast to ourselves in
cyber champagne!

 For me there were many high points. A personal high was the Workshop Kat
Swift, George Martin and I did, with Jan Martell presiding, on "A
Constructive Critique on the U.S. Green Party and Recommendations for
Improvement." We expected about 20 to come. Well, there were over fifty,
standing room only.

 I think this high number and the responsive atmosphere within the Workshop
are also reasons for taking heart. After the short presentations, a vigorous
and serious discussion followed. No recriminating innuendos, no b.s., no
blaming, not even any inadvertent blaming. Talked a lot about leadership and
about the SC.  Three members of the SC were present.

 I say, we can do this. We CAN engage in soul searching without having to go
through a lot of negative thrust and counterthrust.  It also means that we
do need these annual meetings, we need always to recall, together and face
to face, why we are here as a political party, where we are going, and what
we can do to get there -- things practical, wise, envisioning and pertinent
to our situation as a very promising political party in the wasteland of
American politics.

 I had jotted down notes of what I wanted to say before I spoke. When I got
home I wrote the piece below from the notes and from memory. I figure I
might as well append them to this post and you may read them -- or not, as
the spirit goes and the wind blows. I make three points about how we hinder
ourselves and then make eight recommendations.

Be well,

John Rensenbrink

Maine

*Presentation by John Rensenbrink at the Workshop on “A Constructive
Critique of the U.S. Green Party and Recommendations for Improvement.”  July
24, 2009, at  The Annual National Meeting of the Green Party of the United
States held July 23-26, North Carolina Central University in Durham, North
Carolina.

First of all, congratulations to us all!  We are still here!  After 25 years
we are still alive and kicking! Many new parties and would-be new parties
have come and gone since 1984, but not only have we survived, we have grown
and continue to grow.

We’ve done this in the face of enormous obstacles. It’s no secret that we
have been deliberately suppressed. Consider the deafening silence about us
by the New York Times, or the vicious distortions of a Rush Limbaugh, or the
patronizing put-downs of The Nation.  Not to mention the tooth and nail
efforts of the two dominant parties, especially the leadership echelons of
the Democratic Party, to kick us out of the electoral process, and keep us
out. I strongly recommend reading Theresa Amato’s book just out, “Grand
Illusion: the Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny.” It is a damning
indictment, well written and thoroughly researched, of a corrupt and broken
political system.

We get that kind of treatment because we are doing the right thing. We
threaten that corrupt and broken political system and the politicians who go
to bat for the giant corporations and for the banks who pay their way and
line their pockets. We challenge them at the core of their power, the power
of public office. We are building a political party for resistance and
transformation – dedicated to taking power away from the oligarchy and
placing it in the hands of the people in their communities.

But have we done enough? No we haven’t.  Could we do more? Yes, we could.

Here are three ways in which we hinder ourselves. After that, I will pose
eight recommendations for improvement.

Three Ways We Hinder Ourselves

First, we tend to accept a marginal status for ourselves. We buy into the
culture of powerlessness that afflicts the public at large.  We must define
ourselves, not be defined.

Second, we are way too much caught up, as a national party, in internal
housekeeping matters and we exhibit a puzzling and almost lethal obsession
with rules. Not that rules are not vital and important; there is always
plenty to be concerned about in that regard. But rules are not first.
Relationships are more important. Developing and projecting a focused, hard
hitting, and holistic message is more important. Building and developing a
conversation with the American people is more important.

Third, we tend to act more like an NGO (non-governmental organization) than
a political party. This is due, partly at least, by the fact that most of us
come from and continue to be engaged in activism – activism for this cause,
that cause, the next cause, and so forth.  That affects how we think about
Message and Action. But a political party is a holistic venture and
adventure.  It aggregates the interests expressed by the various movement
causes; it consolidates and coordinates those interests; and, extremely
important, something the dominant parties never do, a political party
educates the public.  By education we don’t mean indoctrinate. We mean
informing and inspiring public consciousness. We do it through our
candidates, our media activities, the coalitions we build, and by our party
work generally.

Eight Recommendations (offered as illustrative of the kind of things we can
do to help ourselves).

We should strongly consider the use of mid-term party conventions to further
develop our platform and thus help make that a living and timely document.
Doing it every four years for a presidential election is not enough and the
platform tends to get lost in the pressure of a presidential nominating
convention.

We can and should use the odd-years for regional meetings (2011, 2013, 2015,
etc.).  Both this point and the previous one are examples of structuring
ourselves to spark, enable, inspire the building of relationships, so very
necessary for our growth, confidence building, and trust of one another.

I for one am very interested in the creation of an ongoing, though informal,
group (a non-identity "caucus") devoted to evolving a holistic Green
politics and policy.

It seems to me that the Steering Committee can and should initiate a
nation-wide process from the grass roots up devoted to developing our
national message as a Green Party.

We can, I firmly believe, if we put our minds to it, pick two Congressional
candidates in each election cycle for whom the national party in conjunction
with state parties provide resources with the intent of winning those races.

I think we are ready now as a national party to come up with a political
strategy that unites short term goals, intermediate goals, and long term
goals.

Scott McLarty has often urged each and all of us to cultivate our local
media and for all of us to write letters and op-eds on the same timely issue
of the day  at approximately the same time– he points out how powerful that
can be, if we did this nation-wide on a continuing basis.

It may be a very good and necessary thing for us to conduct a national Green
Party Constitutional Convention to take a hard look at the structure of our
national party.

My presentation was followed by presentations by Kat Swift and George Martin
-- Janet Martell presiding. A lively discussion followed the presentations
that focused mostly on leadership and the USGP Steering Committee.*
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