Local Reports

Rockbridge Greens Celebrate Ten Years

The Rockbridge Greens celebrated the tenth anniversary of the group's founding with a special pot-luck party at the Blue Heron Cafe in Lexington. The event, which took place Wednesday, November 14th at 6pm, was attended by many of the groups members, a number of whom had been present at the founding meeting ten years ago. The mainly social gathering featured live music by Steve Parent and Adrian Marks, and a brief business meeting to elect the group's 2002 steering committee and officers.

Founded in 1991, the Rockbridge Greens now have more than 130 members and are one of the largest Green locals in Virginia, according to treasurer Eric Sheffield.

According to a spokesperson, "What makes the Greens unique is that they combine the direct action and education efforts of single issue citizen groups with the broad agenda and running candidates for office of political parties." In Rockbridge this has translated into a wide range of activities over the last ten years.

The Rockbridge Greens have sponsored educational forums on topics as diverse as low-debt housing, sustainable logging, organic agriculture, initiative and referendum, the unsustainable growth economy, and controlling urban growth. Greens have organized or participated in campaigns to have an elected school board in the county, oppose a commercial airport, keep the circuit courthouse downtown, and maintain the Moores Creek reservoir.

In 1997, the Greens organized a community- finance effort that raised $56,000 in low-interest, direct community loans for the opening of the Blue Heron Cafe. The community-finance project received national attention and in 1999, the Healthy Foods Market Coop replicated the project when, with assistance from Greens, they raised a similar amount to finance their expansion.

In 1999, several Rockbridge Greens, along with other members of the community, were instrumental in founding Hull's Angels, the community group created to save Hull's Drive-In Theatre. The theatre is now America's first non-profit, community-owned drive-in.

Since 1993, the Rockbridge Greens have run fifteen candidates for local office, four of whom were elected.

Several Greens have also held appointed offices in the local governments. In 2000, Rockbridge Greens participated in the petitioning effort to place Ralph Nader on the ballot for president, marking the first successful attempt to place a Green on the ballot for statewide office in Virginia.

At the meeting on the 14th, the Rockbridge Greens looked back at the lessons learned in their first decade, and began to chart a course for the next ten years. For information on future meetings or the Rockbridge Greens, call Eric Sheffield at 261-4306 or Catherine Bodnar at 463-6768.

Richmond Greens

The Richmond Greens plan to run and/or endorse progressive candidates for Richmond City Council. We want to see the City of Richmond given back to the residents of the City, out of the hands of the bad management and monied interests that we believe currently characterize and control our city government.

Presently, we are trying to focus attention on ways to utilize tax and other economic incentives to promote conservation and use of alternative energy sources in buildings in Richmond and the surrounding counties.

Much of Richmond Greens' recent efforts have been on an individual basis, with some of us focusing on issues of local government, some of us doing public access cable programming, and others putting our energies into state-level party organization and reform. We are all attempting to better educate ourselves about issues of concern, including noise pollution, women's reproductive freedom, the current crisis of terrorism, the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, dubious U.S. policy in Asia and the Middle East, and recent legislation which dangerously encroaches upon American's civil liberties.

Richmond Greens welcomes new members. Please visit our web-site at http://www.vagreenparty.org/richmond/ and subscribe to our discussion or announcement list-serve for announcements of monthly general meetings, committee meetings and other events in the Richmond area.

Loudoun Greens

In late November, the Loudoun Greens presented a $100 award at the annual History/Social Science Fair hosted by the Loudoun County Public Schools and Loudoun Education Foundation. The local joined the Fair to encourage, recognize, and reward scholarly and in depth research and exhibits by high school students using the 10 Key Values as a criteria. The Fair was a wonderful event, and the initiative by the Loudoun Greens put them in the company of Shenandoah University, The League of Women Voters, the University of Maryland, the Loudoun Museum, Rand McNally Corp., Motorola, and 23 other distinguished community donors. This resulted in the local's name being included in the program, as well as an on-stage forum for newly-elected Soil, Water, Conservation District Director Ann Robinson to mention the Ten Key Values and to read in full the Value featured in the winning exhibit: Personal and Global Responsibility. In addition to the cash award, the winning student was invited to the December meeting of the Loudoun Greens local as the guest of honor.

Arlington Courthouse Greens

The Arlington Courthouse Greens were formed in the Fall of 2000 as a group meeting in support of the Nader presidential campaign. In February 2001 at Norfolk, they were accepted as a recognized local by the Greens of Virginia. The Arlington Courthouse Greens have continued to meet weekly for the past year and have supported numerous local events including the Nader MCI super rally, a Live from Death Row featuring inmate Kenny Collins at Howard University, and the J20 march/rally in opposition to the Bush inauguration. Members of the local have been prominent in state party affairs including as co-clerk, webmaster, and active participants in the structural reform committee.

The group has also been active in the organization of the Northern Virginia Jobs With Justice Coalition. Members participated in various successful actions including the July 19, 2001 picket of the Holiday Inn in Alexandria in solidarity with hotel workers struggling to improve their working conditions and the Sept. 22, 2001 "speak-out" organized by child day care workers of Alexandria attempting to win health care coverage from the city.

The Arlington Courthouse Greens are currently working with the Alexandria Greens, the Tenant and Workers Support Committee of Alexandria, and the Northern Virginia Jobs With Justice Coalition on plans for "In the Darkness of the Hour: Beyond Despair and Violence", a workshop and "call to action" for those committed to justice and peace in Alexandria and Arlington county. It is our hope that this event, tentatively scheduled for Jan 2002, will serve to bring progressive individuals and groups together to work on meaningful actions to counter the post Sept. 11 atmosphere of fear, revenge, and repression.

Fredericksburg Greens

Hoping to shake things up in the North-Central region is the newly-formed Fredericksburg Green Party, which also serves Stafford and Spotsylvania counties. According to coordinator Dr. Chris Fink (who moved to the area recently from Florida, where he served as coordinator of the Tallahassee Green Party), the new local is currently concentrating on administrative setup and membership building, but will soon begin mounting campaigns, some in conjunction with the Mary Washington College Greens, on local sprawl and development issues. "We want to pick a few well-defined goals at first, ones for which we can expect good public support. This will gain us exposure and the confidence to pursue progressively thornier problems." The group's state affiliation status will be voted upon at the December meeting in Charlottesville. For more information, contact Chris at 540-374-1330, or online at cfphd@earthlink.net. The Fredericksburg Green Party's homepage is on the web at http://www.fredericksburg.vagreenparty.org

NOVA/Alexandria Greens

The Alexandria Greens have been working as a local in development since July of 2001. We have been meeting on a monthly basis, focusing on affordable housing issues, single-payer health insurance, transportation issues and Jim Lowenstern's campaign for House of Delegates.

Jim Lowenstern ran a grassroots campaign in a three-way race, and was able to garner a total of 385 votes, or 2.7% of the total. He mobilized about a dozen volunteers on Election Day and was invited to various candidate forums (including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Ethnic Coalition of Northern Virginia, an event at Northern Virginia Community College, and two debates at the Beatley Library).

Jim raised awareness about expanded Metro rail service, single-payer health insurance, and environmental issues in his district. The campaign also raised the visibility of the Green Party, since local television and the Washington Post covered Jim's campaign, and volunteers helped Jim get the word out by canvassing and leafleting at local supermarkets.

We are now coordinating our local plans for 2001, including the following projects:

1. A citywide canvassing research project, which aims to determine political opportunities and important issues in the city of Alexandria.
2. Coordinate with Arlington Greens on the anti-death penalty campaign that they are developing with local grassroots groups.
3. Continue to work on affordable housing issues.
4. Elect local Greens to City board and other local offices to influence decision-making.
5. Begin to work on local ballot measures, including instant runoff voting and proportional representation.

New River Valley Greens

The New River Valley (NRV) Greens are currently taking Virginia Polytechnic and State University to task for their outdated coal power plant, which does not meet Clean Air Act standards. In May of 2001,Virginia Tech applied for a permit to double their energy output from this plant. This has spurred the NRV Greens to undertake a public relations campaign to spread awareness on this air quality issue. Since Virginia Tech claims not to have enough money to bring their plant up to standards, the NRV Greens are running "bake sales" to raise the estimated $1,000,000 needed to retrofit the plant. At these bake sales, Montgomery County air quality information, along with Green Party literature, is distributed to passers-by. At the end of the bake sale campaign, a check for the proceeds will be ceremoniously given to the Virginia Tech administration. We are sure that our contribution will be "warmly received" and plan to hold a press conference to alert the Montgomery County community to Virginia Tech's apparent financial difficulties. We hope that with enough community support we can get Virginia Tech to reprioritize their funding allocations.

As another campaign, the NRV Greens are working on student voter registration in Blacksburg. Harnessing the vote of the large college student population in this community would enable Green candidates a fighting chance for locally held offices. One of the hurdles currently in our path is a local power structure intent on self-preservation and thus not exactly keen to locally register college students. We have had to contend with local elec- tion boards giving out incorrect voter registration information in their attempts to disenfranchise voters. With increasing student and local involvement in our organization, we hope to be successful with both of these endeavors.

Central Virginia Greens

Central Virginia Green members have been working independently on a variety of issues. Members have started Charlottesville Clean Water to bring the issue if the risks of water fluoridation to the attention of the public. Members have been active with the anti-globalization effort, traveling to Quebec and New York for the protests against the corporatization of the planet. Other members have been active in protests against the war. Additionally, Roger Clarke of the Central Va. Greens organized a November, 2001 public forum at the University of Virginia to illuminate the struggle of the tribes of eastern Virginia against the injustice of the proposed King William Reservoir. Leaders from the two most crucially impacted Native American Indian tribes, the Mattaponi and the Pamunkey, spoke eloquently, and were bolstered by the strong presence and solidarity of leaders of the Chickahominy and Upper Mattaponi tribes. "Early 2002 is crunch-time on this seminal social justice issue," said Roger, "and Greens in Virginia must be ready to go to the wall to defend these venerable cultures against powerful developers' greed." Roger further reported that great solidarity was in evidence between the tribes' own resistance and the support and organizing of the environmental non-profit community of activists. "They continue vigorously to support the tribes' leadership against the reservoir, and to help the tribes organize across the state -gaining great support among college and university students at UVA, VCU, VT, W&M, ODU, MWC, and elsewhere. The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Shenandoah Ecosystems Defense Group, the Alliance to Save the Mattaponi, the Southern Environmental Law Center, and the Native American Student Union at UVa are all to be congratulated on their ongoing efforts. Greens and progressives must contact them now," stressed Roger, "to join in this essential, seminal effort to preserve justice - social and environmental - in Virginia. Volunteer to help our ‘First Americans,' Virginia's tribes, fight the reservoir, by visiting SaveTheMattaponi.org. Contribute what you can - any amount is important," said Roger. Make checks to The Mattaponi Heritage Foundation, 1467 Mattaponi Reservation Circle, West Point, VA, 23181." (Your tax-deductible contribution to the MHF, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, goes to support the Mattaponi People in their fight for justice and the defeat of the King William Reservoir. The Central Virginia Greens meet the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at the Main Branch of the Jefferson Madison Library on Market Street at 7pm.