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Green Party of Michigan
http://www.migreens.org
February 28, 2005
Ecological Wisdom * Social Justice * Grassroots
Democracy * Non-Violence
For More Information, Contact:
-----------------------------
Louis Novak, Meeting Manager/Green Party of Michigan
meetingmanager@migreens.org
John Anthony La Pietra, Media Committee/GPMI
jalp@internet1.net
Greens Link Global, Local Activism at Quarterly Meeting
Gather in Kalamazoo; Hear from City Commissioner
Cooney and Activists Helping Build Peace Coalitions, Rebuild Palestinian
Homes, Protect Water Rights, Work for Peace
The Green Party of Michigan (GPMI)
heard from speakers showing the links between peace, social justice,
grassroots democracy, and environmental wisdom -- locally and globally
-- at its quarterly State Membership Meeting February 19-20 in
Kalamazoo.
GPMI members agreed unanimously to
a resolution offering $100 and active support for the Rebuilding
Alliance, which works with other groups to rebuild homes in occupied
Palestine -- and to stop or slow the Israeli army's bulldozing of more
homes.
Executive director Donna Baranski-Walker
showed a short film, "On the Ground", documenting the
Alliance's efforts to rebuild the home American peace volunteer Rachel
Corrie was living in, and defending,when she was run over by one of the
US-made bulldozers.
Alan Kaufman, a GPMI representative on the
International Committee of the Green Party of the United States (GPUS),
offered the resolution -- which details the social and environmental
impacts of the policies of occupation and repeated destruction of
families' homes.
Another featured guest at the
meeting was long-time Kalamazoo progressive activist and City
Commissioner Don Cooney, who spoke about "Being Green in
Office".
Cooney, who joined the Green Party
before his latest re- election in 2003, reviewed some of the
accomplishments of Kalamazoo progressives and the role he has played in
those campaigns to shape policy and educate people on the issues. He
also answered questions from the audience about how to put Green values
and principles into practice as actual policy.
Cooney's speech came on Sunday
afternoon, just after he and Greens from across the state joined a broad
coalition of local peace activists in their weekly rally at the Federal
Building. At the meeting, GPMI members also took several other actions
for peace, including:
* Appointing Aimée Smith the state's first
representative
on the GPUS Peace Action
Committee. Smith, who has
recently moved to Michigan
from Massachusetts, is the
co-chair of the national
committee, tasked with helping
Greens coördinate with other
peace groups and efforts.
* Signing on to sponsor the Huntington Woods Peace,
Citizenship and Education
Project's "Community Teach-In
on Iraq" 9am-4pm
Saturday, April 9 at St. John's
Episcopal Church (on Woodward
at 11 Mile Road). The
keynote speech will be given
by Royal Oak native,
former California State
Assemblyman, and long-time
peace activist Tom Hayden.
Also on the agenda are
panel discussions on foreign
policy, the morality of
war, and the effects of war
on America's home front.
Greens are well aware of their unique position as a
political party as well as a movement, and discussed many possible ways
to put their belief in grassroots democracy into action this year and in
2006. Among them:
* Recruiting candidates and
campaigners for elections in 2005
and 2006.
* The importance of appointed boards and committees
at all
levels -- and the need to
fight the partisan bias in
laws governing many of these
appointments, especially
at the state level.
* Possible involvement in bringing statewide
initiatives to
the people and getting them
on the ballot. Greens have
some experience with
statewide petitioning. The party
collected almost double the
required number of signatures
to get on the ballot in 2000.
And GPMI is the only
statewide party which has
actively supported the current
petition drive to let voters
decide whether to restore
Michigan's century-long ban
on dove-hunting.
* Helping Greens in other states win or regain ballot
access.
Michigan Greens also unanimously appointed the party's first-ever
election challenger: John La Pietra of Marshall, to serve in that
city's referendum election on the 22nd.
And Greens recognized that
grassroots democracy often overlaps with social justice. The two
founding members of the national GPUS Rural Caucus, Linda Cree and Aimée
Dunn of Marquette, gave a presentation on the new group, with many
examples of how issues such as wind power and "resource
colonization" can look different from urban and rural perspectives.
Rural and urban Greens both pay
considerable attention to the environment. The meeting included
presentations on water and renewable energy. The former --
"Water as Commons, Water as a Right" -- was given by JoAnne
Bier Beemon, former drain commissioner of Charlevoix County.
Beemon, now director of the Great
Lakes Center for Public Policy, talked about the many pressures on water
resources and offered a draft of a "Water Bill of Rights" for
comment.
The workshop on renewable energy
was led by Maynard Kaufman of the Van Buren County Greens. Kaufman
has been a Green since 1989; his house produces all the electricity it
needs, and so is completely "off the grid".
One action taken at the meeting
which blended all four of the "Pillars" of the Green Party and
movement was a resolution to urge the national party to invite Dr.
Wangari Maathai to the United States and arrange a speaking and
appearance tour for her -- to include Michigan.
Dr. Maathai, founder of the Green
Belt Movement in Africa, won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize "for her
contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace".
She is a member of the Kenyan parliament, and Assistant Minister of
Environment, Natural Resources & Wildlife.
The next State Membership Meeting
of the Green Party of Michigan will be in Detroit in May. For more
details, please contact Meeting Manager Lou Novak or visit the GPMI Web
site:
http://www.migreens.org
If you are interested in videotapes of four of the
workshops at the meeting (all of which are cleared to be shown on
cable-access TV stations), please contact John La Pietra of the Media
Committee at:
jalp@internet1.net
# # #
created/distributed using donated labor
Green Party of Michigan *
548 South Main Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 *
734-663-3555
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GPMI was formed in 1987 to address environmental issues in Michigan
politics. Greens are organized in all 50 states and the District
of Columbia. Each state Green Party sets its own goals and creates
its own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:
Ecological Wisdom
Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice
Non-Violence
Community Economics
Decentralization
Feminism
Respect for Diversity
Personal/Global Responsibility
Future Focus/Sustainability
*===========**===========**===========**===========**===========*
reference materials:
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text of resolution supporting the Rebuilding Alliance (attached)
text of draft "Water Bill of Rights" (attached)
text of "recruiting statement" of GPUS Rural Caucus (attached)
text of Nobel Prize lecture by Dr. Wangari Maathai:
http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-lecture-text.html
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text of resolution supporting the Rebuilding Alliance
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Whereas Greens identify four "Pillars":
1) peaceful resolution of international disputes,
2) social justice, 3) grassroots
democracy, and
4) ecological wisdom;
And whereas the Rebuilding Alliance (RA) is currently
engaged in a campaign to finance and rebuild the home
of the Nasrallah family in Gaza;
And whereas the Nasrallah family's home was the house
in Gaza that American Rachel Corrie was killed in
front of by a massive bulldozer operated by a member
of Israel's Defense Forces;
And whereas Rachel Corrie was engaged in non-violent
resistance to Israel's Occupation of Gaza, and thus
was seeking to assist resolving the conflict there
peacefully;
And whereas the Nasrallahs' home was destroyed simply
to allow Israel to construct its "Wall" nearby;
And whereas at no time before or since the destruction
of the Nasrallah home has there ever been any
evidence -- in fact not even an assertion by any
Israeli official -- that any member of the Nasrallah
family had engaged in any illegal activity whatsoever;
And whereas both the Occupation and the Wall have been
condemned by virtually every properly constituted
body concerned with adjudicating International Law
as constituting collective punishment;
And whereas extensive grassroots resistance to Israel's
Occupation, including both Israelis and Palestinians,
has ranged from refusal by members of the Israeli
Defense Forces to serve in the Occupied Territories
to extensive rebuilding by Israelis, Palestinians,
and their supporters internationally of houses
destroyed by Israel (this grassroots approach has
been mirrored here in the United States by solidarity
activities);
And whereas this rebuilding has included efforts by the
Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD),
which has conducted its campaigns under the slogan
"We refuse to be enemies";
And whereas the predecessor organization to RA was a
principal ally of ICAHD in such efforts, including
participating in fund-raising activity in Ann Arbor
and elsewhere in Michigan;
And whereas the Rebuilding Alliance includes on its
National Board of Directors the parents of Rachel
Corrie;
And whereas housing is a fundamental human right;
And whereas the Occupation and construction of the Wall
have had, and continue to have, devastating effects
on the ecology of Palestine, including but not limited
to damage to the fragile surface soil and destruction
of large numbers of olive trees;
Therefore be it noted by this body that the campaign to
buy and build a home for the Nasrallahs is consistent
with all four Pillars of the Green Party;
And be it further noted that this body notes the
undeniable role played by successive United States
Administrations in supporting the Occupation, to the
detriment of peace and basic human rights (in this
context, participation here in the United States in the
campaign to rebuild the Nasrallahs' home constitutes
both resistance against the unjust, unwise, and damaging
policy of the United States as to Israel/Palestine as
well as tangible solidarity with Palestinians and
Israelis who seek an end to the Occupation and instead
work to build a just peace);
Therefore be it resolved that:
The February 2005 State Membership Meeting (SMM) of the
Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) endorses the campaign
by the Rebuilding Alliance to build a home for the
Nasrallah family in Gaza, and authorizes RA to note
and publicize this endorsement.
To this end, the SMM:
* directs the GPMI treasurer to contribute $100 of
GPMI funds to the campaign;
* urges locals and members of the GPMI to support
the campaign financially and through
other
supportive activities such as hosting
house
parties;
* directs the State Central Committee (SCC) of the
GPMI to create a working committee to
support
and advance such efforts; and, finally,
* directs the delegates of the GPMI to the National
Coördinating Committee (CC) to submit
this
Resolution to the Coördinating Committee
of the
Green Party of the United States (GPUS)
so as
to place before that body a formal
request that
a similar Resolution be adopted by that
body.
The Rebuilding Alliance
Box 610061
Redwood City, CA 94061
info@RebuildingAlliance.org
www.RebuildingAlliance.org
[------------------------------------------------]
text of draft "Water Bill of Rights"
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A Water Bill of Rights for the People of the Great
Lakes Basin (draft, 2/5/05)
1. Water is life.
2. Water is a right. Water is NOT a commodity,
it is an unalienable right.
3. The water of the Great Lakes Basin belongs to
the inhabitants of the Great Lakes Basin.
4. Water of the Great Lakes cannot be privately
owned. Persons and/or corporations shall not be
allowed to sell what they do not own.
5. Any person or corporation that pollutes or
diminishes the quality of the water of the people
is guilty of a trespass and destruction of public
property.
6. Water diversion or sale of the water of the
Great Lakes Basin constitutes a taking or theft
from the people.
7. The surface water of the Great Lakes and the
groundwater of the Great Lakes Basin are contiguous.
8. Water is in continuous motion through the
hydrologic cycle. Water moves from lakes to the air
to precipitation to the land to groundwater and runoff
to streams and rivers, and back to lakes and seas.
9. Water has value. Water is more valuable than
oil. Water is priceless.
10. The Great Lakes Basin freshwater ecosystem is
globally rare and endangered.
11. Water in the Great Lakes Basin is finite and
in balance.
12. Any diversion of the water of the Great Lakes
Basin diminishes all life in the Basin.
13. Water diverted out of the Basin is gone from
the Basin forever; there is a net loss.
14. Water needs, outside the Great Lakes Basin,
which are created by squandering water resources or
diminishing water reservoirs or polluting water or
by creating water-dependent industry, farming and
residential need, or created by growing populations,
cannot be cited as constituting compelling need for
Great Lakes water diversion.
15. Anyone who diverts or takes or removes water
from the Great Lakes Basin for profit takes the
property of the inhabitants and citizens of the
Great Lakes Basin, and diminishes all life in the
Basin.
16. The elected representatives of the state have
a right, a responsibility, and a duty to protect the
inhabitants and citizens of the Great Lakes Basin
and to protect the water of the Great Lakes Basin
from pollution, diversion, and/or taking of water.
Great Lakes Center for Public Policy
JoAnne Bier Beemon, Director
For more information on the "Water Bill of Rights",
or to help refine a draft, contact:
joanne_beemon@hotmail.com
[------------------------------------------------]
text of "recruiting statement" of GPUS Rural Caucus
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The idea of a Rural Caucus gained momentum in a
talking circle at the GPUS national convention in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin in June, 2004. It was strongly
felt that rural people need more of a voice within the
Green Party, and that it is important that the Green
Movement keep its roots firmly planted in the land.
Various issues confront rural America today:
threats from industrial agribusiness and GMOs; loss
of farmland, wetlands, and wilderness areas to ill-
planned development; pollution of soil, air, and
water; resource colonization by timber, power, and
mining interests; and dramatic losses in biodiversity.
Low wages and unemployment mark rural life, making
it hard for people to stay on the land, and in many
areas the countryside is webbed with power lines,
studded with transmission towers, stripped of its
forests, and threatened with unsightly mega-scale
windfarms.
If you would like to help keep rural America green
(and make it Greener), get involved! Send your name,
address, and phone # to:
Aimée Dunn
P.O. Box 1153
Marquette, MI
49855
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