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Michigan Greens Endorse Maureen D. Taylor for Detroit City Council, Expand Calls to End War in Iraq at Quarterly Statewide Meeting. Green Party of Michigan June 28, 2005 For More Information Contact:
The Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) endorsed grassroots activist Maureen D. Taylor in her campaign for a seat on Detroit City Council at the party's quarterly state membership meeting Saturday in Dearborn. Michigan Greens also took several new steps to rally the growing majority of public sentiment against the war in Iraq, supporting petition drives and billboards to let elected officials know the people want them to "Bring the Troops Home Now". Party volunteers will draft a timely flyer for use in reaching out to young people on the twin problems of the war and the economy. And GPMI representatives will carry the same proposals to a national Green meeting next month in Tulsa. Closer to home, Michigan Greens gave unanimous support for Reverend Edward Pinkney and the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO) in their efforts for voters' rights and justice in Benton Harbor. The party called on authorities to uphold a recall effort led by BANCO, throw out an unauthorized lawsuit that seeks to overturn the will of the people, and dismiss trumped-up charges against Rev. Pinkney. The statewide meeting also saw the annual election of officers. Nine of the 14 seats on the GPMI Steering Committee will be filled by new people as the party prepares for the candidates, ballot issues, and structural challenges of the 2006 elections. Greens Hear from Grassroots Activist Maureen D. Taylor, Then Endorse Her Candidacy for Detroit City Council The featured speaker of the meeting was Taylor, who has served the people of her community for years, including a dozen years as the chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO). As suits her background, Taylor is running a grassroots campaign in the non-partisan Detroit City Council race. However, she has worked with Greens and other citizen-activist groups on the issues of treating water service and other utilities as human rights -- and recognizing customers squeezed by high utility bills as still deserving of those rights, and some human decency and respect. Among her coalition partners in these issue campaigns have been the Sweetwater Alliance, Water Warriors, the Highland Park Human Rights Coalition -- and the Detroit Green Party. GPMI's Detroit "local" had already endorsed Taylor, as had the nearby Huron Valley Greens of Washtenaw County. She said she welcomed their support, and the backing of the state party. Taylor answered questions from the meeting clearly and fully, and with a touch of down-to-earth humor. Question topics ranged from the city's budget problems to transportation to jobs . . . and the answers all came back to the everyday people trying to make a living -- and live with it -- in Detroit. GPMI treasurer Randym Jones thought Taylor's "remarks were very inspiring, both as to style and content, and her extemporaneous responses to people's questions were an excellent demonstration of how to deal with the public's concerns while telling them where you stand." "It's important," Jones added, "for the voters in Detroit to now understand the linkages between [Taylor's] campaign and the Green Partyof Michigan's policy positions." The speech and Q&A session were videotaped, and will be shown on cable-access stations across Michigan. Taylor is using her full name -- including her middle initial -- on the ballot to avoid confusion. 120 candidates will be competing in the August 2 primary election for the top 18 vote totals and spots on the November 8 general-election ballot to elect nine Councilmembers. And one of Maureen D. Taylor's opponents happens to be named . . .*Marino* Taylor. Green Patriotism Includes Supporting the Troops by
Bringing Them Home Now Detroit Greens have already put out the message in a big way, on a billboard which says both "No Blood for Oil" -- graphically -- and "Bring Our Troops Home Now!" in so many words. The group will lend its basic design, and the state party its organizational aid, to other Green locals -- and individual Greens in areas without local groups -- who want to put up their own billboards. Michigan Greens will also be thinking statewide and acting locally with petitions calling for "immediate, staged withdrawal" from Iraq. Where state law and local charters don't throw up too many roadblocks to a popular vote on the issue, formal referendum petitions may be filed, as is the plan of Greens in Wisconsin. Other localities may bring the petitions to their local board or council for action -- a parallel with the many votes at town meetings this year in Vermont. At their meeting Saturday, Michigan Greens unanimously passed a resolution supporting anti-war referenda in local areas. The party "encourages all locals and individuals to investigate how to hold them in their own areas." GPMI has also signed onto an advertisement in the July 4 Ann Arbor _News_, sponsored by Michigan PeaceWorks, which calls for "a change in our national priorities, from war to human needs at home and abroad. Money spent on military interventions in Iraq and elsewhere must be redirected to promote peace and prosperity for all." Individual Greens are also participating in similar ads in other papers across the state. The ad shows how closely the war in Iraq and the poor economy at home are related. An ad-hoc committee of Michigan Greens will develop a flyer to reach out to young working-class people by linking these two issues; the group will also help organize ways and opportunities to get that message out -- at county fairs, festivals, and other public events as well as door to door. GPMI treasurer Jones strongly supports this multi-level campaign for peace. "It is important to emphasize our principle opposition both to The War, as a useless waste of valuable taxpayer resources squandered under false pretenses, and to war in general, as an inadequate and violent response to the important problems of international relations. "Talk, while cheap and plentiful, should be preferred to the pointless cutting short of young, vital lives in the pursuit of vague and ambiguous foreign policies. . . . We call on all citizens to bring the discussion of the war -- and their opposition to it -- home to their elected officials." "The Green Party has been against this war since before its beginning," Jones points out, "and we are clearly expressing, through our official actions, a distinct political view different from the status quo position." But that position, he adds, "reflects the majority view in this country." Elections co-ordinator John Anthony La Pietra agrees. "More and more people are coming to understand it's okay to believe that peace is patriotic, and that the best way to support the troops is to bring them home. "The theme of the July 4 parade in my hometown Marshall this year is 'Celebrate America'. We want the people from Michigan and across the nation who have been sent to Iraq, and kept there too long, home to celebrate with us. We don't want any of them to be the next person to die for a mistake." Greens Demand Justice for Rev. Pinkney, BANCO from
Berrien County Legal System Over Benton Harbor Recall GPMI is also contributing $100 to Rev. Pinkney's legal defense fund. "There is some evidence of election fraud in the recall -- evidence that Yarbrough and the local establishment tried to sabotage the recall and harass voters," notes La Pietra. Rev. Pinkney has a signed affidavit from one man who says Yarbrough offered him $10 to say that Pinkney gave him $5 for his vote. Other claims against Pinkney are refuted by public record and sworn statements. Rev. Pinkney was not a party to the original civil suit, filed by Berrien County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Cherry against the City of Benton Harbor and its then-clerk, Jean Nesbitt. But many of Cherry’s speeches in court and several of Cherry’s allegations were aimed at him. So was the conclusion of the judge in the case -- Paul Maloney. Now, Pinkney and his attorney, Tat Parish of Watervliet, are having to fight several battles at once to get justice. BANCO members who organized the recall of Yarbrough are trying to have that ruling overturned -- because, under state law, prosecuting attorney Cherry had no right to sue to undo the recall without direction to do so from the Berrien County Board of Canvassers. And they certified the 297-246 result -- after giving Yarbrough the recount he asked for. But that motion lost its first round -- denied by the chief judge of the county's Trial Court . . . Paul Maloney. Even if Cherry had not exceeded his authority in suing the City of Benton Harbor and its clerk for the invalidation of the recall, he should have lost his case. Not enough votes could legally be challenged, much less disqualified, to overturn the 51-vote margin for recall and change the result -- even if all of the disputed and discarded votes were for the recall. But the judge hearing the initial case concluded from the evidence presented that there must have been more questionable votes anyway. And that judge was Paul Maloney. And when Pinkney tried to get his case heard by judges and prosecuted by attorneys other than the ones he's been watching at the Berrien County Courthouse for five years, and protesting all around town and in the media, the appeal was heard by -- Judge Paul Maloney. La Pietra agrees with Rev. Pinkney on the larger implications of the case: "If a judge can sit on the bench and make laws and change laws to void an election or cancel your vote, we are in serious trouble. We must fight.” Election of New Officers Starts the Push to 2006 One of the officers re-elected was chair Sylvia Inwood. Her fellow Detroit Green, Lou Novak, called her opening remarks "heartfelt and inspiring." "Listening to her speaking of her decision to stay the course in the city of Detroit, I heard why I will be staying the course in the Green Party. Great stuff." The officers will serve until GPMI's spring meeting in 2006, and will help the party get ready for next year's major off-year elections. Along with two representatives elected by each local, they form the GPMI State Central Committee. As preparation for the coming campaign season, SCC was directed to investigate the status of the anti-Affirmative Action proposal misleadingly titled the "Michigan Civil Rights Initiative" and prepare to take action in opposition to MCRI on behalf of GPMI. Michigan Greens also passed two proposals to be
carried to the national Green Party of the United States (GPUS) annual
meeting next month in July. One would encourage Greens in all states
to start anti-war petition and referendum efforts or other
broadly-accessible methods of bringing the issue to the people. The
other says in so many words that the purpose of the Green Party is
"to build an alternative party that represents the vast majority
of working and community people, not to support the Democratic
Party.” Green Party of Michigan
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