Growing the Green Party

Support Green Party Work

Greens in Virginia, and beyond, have long stood on the plank of campaign finance reform as a way to stem the undue influence of money in establishment politics. This stance has long been a criticism directed at political opponents. However, as our active grass roots networks produce more serious efforts to organize new locals and conduct electoral campaigns our own Green fiscal matters become increasingly important. Organizing and emerging as a political force for change means that Greens need now to begin to assemble and use monetary resources. No longer can we allow a healthy skepticism about money in politics to preclude our proper and wise use of necessary resources in accordance with our Green values.

Against all odds, and spending much less money than the dominant party candidates they run against, Greens have enjoyed phenomenal success in campaigns for office. Doing more with less had certainly been virtue of Green politics. But, even the most frugal organizations need funds to make it possible to carry their message to a wider audience and to cover the inevitable costs incurred as a statewide organization emerges. Therefore, the Green Party of Virginia affirmed at its last quarterly meeting, in December of 2001, the need to undertake more serious fundraising efforts.

Until now voluntary payment of dues has been the primary source of funds for the GPVA. Soon a letter will be going out to Green Party of Virginia members as a friendly reminder of how important it is to the state party for members to be faithful in paying their dues. Please consider this request seriously when it arrives in your mailbox. Greens across Virginia have already contributed blood, sweat, and tears to further the work of their locals and the state party. Now we must ask additionally for everyone to dig deep and support this work financially. If we, as active members, do not put our money where our collective mouths are, how can we expect others to join us in our work? a more sound financial footing will increase our effectiveness and allow us to further proclaim our political values. To be credible, we must be fiscally responsible.

Funds are needed for three core purposes: to advocate for Green Party platform issues statewide, to assist with organizing more Green party locals across the commonwealth, and to provide better support for existing locals.

A key element in accomplishing all of these purposes is providing adequately for effective, stable and consistent communications.

Most of the new members of the Green Party of Virginia have become active in the party after being inspired by news of Green Party successes. Therefore, GPVa investment in effective grassroots-building communication tools for Greens in every locality in the state will undoubtedly grow more loyal Greens and lead to more electoral success.

In other states, communication and organizing strategies have included hiring full- or part-time staff to consistently present and efficiently distribute Green news and thought, and to help organize and assist new locals. Opinions may differ on the degree to which paid staff is necessary here and now but, all will agree that current budget constraints render the question of employing statewide staff for the Green Party of Virginia moot.

GPVA recently created a vital working committee to identify and initiate the fundraising tasks of the party. Over the next few months this committee will strengthen its efforts to raise substantial funds for the GPVA by writing a solid and achievable plan for that work, to be presented at the upcoming statewide GPVA Quarterly Meeting. Moreover, the Structural Reform Committee of the GPVA is preparing and refining a proposal for the current fundraising work group to be firmly established as a standing committee of the state party.

We must begin now to expand our effectiveness by expanding our resources if we are to develop into a strong mature political voice in Virginia. Pitch in. It's a good cause.

Don Durham is a member of the Richmond Greens

The Green Party's Opportunities from the Nader Campaign

Last year, Ralph Nader was the Green Party's first presidential candidate to qualify for the ballot in Virginia. He was also the first alternative party presidential candidate to qualify for the ballot in Virginia without using paid petition gatherers. Nader and his running mate Winona LaDuke received 59,398 votes in Virginia, which was 2.17% of the state's total popular vote.

The strong support of the Central Virginia Greens helped Nader and LaDuke to achieve their best results in the City of Charlottesville, where they won 9.04% of the popular vote. On a precinct level, the best results came from the Alumni Hall Precinct, with 13.8% of the vote; the Clark Precinct, with 11.2%; and the Jefferson Park Precinct, with 10%.

Nader and LaDuke also ran strong in nearby Albemarle County, winning 5.54% of the vote. The best results at the precinct level were in the Batesville Precinct, where the Greens won 9.9%; the University Hall Precinct, with 8.7%; and the Porters Precinct, with 7.3%.

Campaigning by the Rockbridge Greens helped the Green Presidential ticket to win 4.81% of the vote in Lexington, and in the surrounding county of Williamsburg, 3.17%.

With the support of the New River Valley Greens, Nader and LaDuke won 4.5% of the vote in Montgomery County. Their strongest showing was in Precinct G-1, with 8.8% of the vote; Precincts A-2 and G-2, with 8.2%; and Precinct A-3, with 7.2%. The Green ticket also won 3.87% of the vote in Radford, and 4.25% of the vote in Floyd County.

In Arlington County, the Green ticket won 4.73% of the vote, including 7.6% in the Ashton Heights Precinct and 6.7% in the Lyon Park Precinct. The Arlington Courthouse Greens campaigned for Nader and LaDuke and affiliated with the GPVA in February.

The NOVA Greens and RAIL NOW! Greens also supported the Green Presidential campaign in Northern Virginia, helping Nader and LaDuke to win 5.1 % of the vote in Falls Church and 3.68% in Fairfax City. The Green ticket also won 3.79% of the vote in Alexandria, including 6.3% in the George Washington School Precinct and 5.3% in the Mt. Vernon Recreation Center Precinct.

In Richmond, Nader and LaDuke won 3.68% of the vote. Richmond Greens member Dana Woods helped the Green candidates to get 22.4% of the vote in Precinct 505, which was the best precinct- level result in Virginia. The Richmond Greens also achieved impressive results in Precinct 206, with 15% of the vote; Precinct 502, with 11.2%; Precinct 204, with 10.7%; and Precinct 113, with 9.7%.

Campaigning by the Mary Washington College Greens and other Greens in Fredericksburg won 4.88% of the vote for the Green candidates. In Rappahannock County, the Rappahannock Greens' support helped Nader and LaDuke to win 4.58% of the vote. In Roanoke, the Blue Ridge Greens campaigned for Nader and LaDuke; the best results were in the Highland 2 Precinct, where the Green candidates won 7.8% of the vote. The best results of the Tidewater Greens' campaign in Norfolk were in the St. Andrews Precinct, where Nader and LaDuke won 6.3% of the vote. Nader and LaDuke won 3.28% of the vote in Waynesboro with the support of the Valley Greens.

Other counties and cities with high percentages of Nader voters included Harrisonburg, with 6.44%, Williamsburg, with 5.05% and Nelson County, with 4.44%.

Knowledge of this information provides the GPVA with several opportunities for future organization:

1. The results help the GPVA to identify places to start new locals. The Arlington Courthouse Greens, the Richmond Greens, and the Mary Washington College Greens are locals that grew out of the Nader campaign. Other counties and independent cities with relatively high percentages of Nader voters would be good places to try to start new locals. The GPVA voted to affiliate the Fredericksburg Greens at the December 15th state party meeting. Williamsburg may also be a good place to start a local.

2. The results help existing locals to identify places where they might increase their membership; precincts with high percentages of Nader voters could be fertile ground for recruiting new members and candidates for local and state offices. The success of the Richmond Greens in precincts with large populations of minorities is particularly encouraging.

3. The results help both the GPVA and the locals identify potential Green voters in future elections at the local, state, and national level.

Tom Yager is co-clerk of the Green Party of Virginia and a member of Arlington Courthouse Greens.

vagreenparty.org News

The Web Committee was formally approved by consensus as a standing committee of the GPVA at the February 2001 quarterly business meeting of the GPVA and has been on a roll ever since. This working group is responsible for the state website, official e-mail lists, the membership database and other ongoing GPVA information technology projects.

Here are the highlights of the group's accomplishments:

• Procured a new domain name for the website.
• Procured hosting services from the Green Internet Society.
• Updated the old pages with a new look and added new content.
• Created forwarding e-mail accounts for officials and representatives of the GPVA, making it easier for our membership and interested parties to con-tact the GPVA.
• Created new e-mail listservs for communication among the members of the GPVA.

We hope that you will check out the new e-mail listservs as well. We have separated the lists into distinct topic areas, so that members will only receive e-mail that truly interests them. Here is a description of each:

The business list - gpva-business - is for e-mail discussion of party business only. It is limited to members of the GPVA. Upcoming meeting agenda items, candidate nominations and reaction to the GPVA committee reports are appropriate discussion topics here. We encourage all GPVA members who have an interest in building the party to participate in this list with concise and to the point postings.

The activism list - gpva-activism - is for e-mail discussion of current events, upcoming actions, and Green philosophy. What a great way to publicize your local's latest project!

The external list - gpva-ext - is for e-mail discussion of items forwarded by our representatives to Green bodies out-side the GPVA. This discussion can get pretty lengthy, but your input is important.

Finally, we have created an announcements only list - gpva-announce - for members of the GPVA. This will be low volume - about four to six announcements of state meetings or other important events per year. All members who have e-mail are entreated to join this list.

To sign up for any of the lists, send an email to listname-request@vagreenparty. org where listname is the name of the list you want to subscribe to. The body of the message should only say: subscribe (and nothing more). If you use hotmail, turn off rich text format (from the tools menu) in order for this to work. If you have any problems subscribing, send an e-mail to webmaster@vagreenparty.org.

The web committee has many upcoming projects, including a discussion board on the state website. The committee is open to any member of the GPVA who is interested - technical expertise is not required. To sign up, send an e-mail to webmaster@ vagreenparty.org.

From the Editor

During the 2000 election cycle, Ralph Nader said it would take 1 million people donating 100 dollars and one hundred hours per year in order to transform our society. Consider this is a kind request for you to do just that.

Become involved. Join the local in your area and participate. If there isn't a local near you, contact us and we'll help you form one.

Educate yourself. With the mainstream media being controlled by fewer and fewer large corporations, it becomes increasingly important to educate yourself, to seek out alternative sources for information. Ralph Cole has been recording progressive speakers for ten years. Order videotapes from: Ralph@ justicevision.org for $5. Read Michael Moore at michaelmoore.com for fresh insights. Read Ralph Nader's commentaries at essential.org. Educate yourself. America needs you to get involved.

Begin to participate. Join a local, join a committee, join a listserv, write an article for this newspaper. Give your time. If you can't give your time, give your money. We'd like both, but we'll take either.

If you believe in grassroots democracy, social justice, ecology, and nonviolence, you are like millions of people around the world. The planet is dying and the oligarchy is moving towards total control, you need to get involved. The future is up to you.