Wisconsin Green Party endorses The Natural Step and the Eco-Municipality
Movement at Summer Gathering/Membership Meeting
Wisconsin Green Party
www.wisconsingreenparty.org
August 28, 2007
Released August 26th, 2007
Jeff Peterson, Co-chair, St. Croix Valley Green Party
peterson@lakeland.ws 715 472-2728
Ruth Weill, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party, spokesperson@wisconsingreenparty.org 414 350-2107
Ron Hardy, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party, spokesperson@wisconsingreenparty.org 920 292-8129
(Luck, WI) The membership of the Wisconsin Green Party passed a resolution
endorsing The Natural Step and the Eco-Municipality movement at their Summer
Gathering and Membership Meeting held on Saturday at Anathoth Farm in Polk
County, Wisconsin.
"The four principals of The Natural Step are right in line with our Ten Key
Values," said Ruth Weill, Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party. "The Eco-Municipality movement is closely aligned with the vision that Greens are
working towards all over the state."
Beth Garrett, The Natural Step study group facilitator from Fort Atkinson,
Greg David, Green elected Jefferson County Board Supervisor, and Paul
Moderacki, Administrator of the Village of Johnson Creek gave a short presentation on Saturday
morning to gathering attendees. The membership unanimously passed the resolution of endorsement immediately following
the presentation.
Garrett, David and Moderacki gave a second presentation at the Caf Wren in
Luck Saturday evening to a crowd of more than 60 Greens and Polk County
residents.
"This movement is about ensuring that children born seven generations from
now have a chance at survival, and a quality life," said Jeff Peterson,
Green elected Polk County Supervisor, and organizer of the event. "We held
this event to invite citizens and community leaders to join the statewide
effort and to work towards making Polk County sustainable."
Wisconsin, with eleven communities self-designated as Eco-Municipalities, is
a national leader in The Natural Step movement.
The Wisconsin Green Party Gathering was held at Anathoth Community Farm,
which is dedicated to sustainable living, alternative energy, and a peaceful
planet. The farm is celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer. The community, founded
by Green Party members Mike Miles and Barb Kass, is home to social activists and homesteaders, composting toilets and
solar showers, photovoltaic electric systems and a straw bale home.
Resolution below.
Wisconsin Green Party
http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org
Anathoth Community Farm
http:/www.anathothcommunityfarm.org
****************************************************
Resolution to Endorse The Natural Step and the Eco-Municipality movement
throughout Wisconsin
WHEREAS the 4 principles of The Natural Step affirm these key values of the
Wisconsin Green Party: Ecological Integrity, Respect for Diversity, and
Human Rights, and
WHEREAS the process used to implement the 4 principles of The Natural Step,
one of creative and inclusive participation, seeking to empower local
communities to determine their own future, resonates with these key values
of the Wisconsin Green Party: Personal and Collective Empowerment, Emotional
Awareness and Honesty, Participatory Democracy in Economic and Political
Life, Local and Regional Autonomy, and Feminism, and
WHEREAS Green Party members all over the state are working within the
Eco-Municipality movement to make their communities sustainable using The
Natural Step,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that on this day, August 25th, 2007, the membership
of the Wisconsin Green Party endorses The Natural Step, and the
Eco-Municipality movement that is occurring throughout Wisconsin.
______________________________________________________________
The 4 principles of The Natural Step
In the sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically
increasing 1) concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's crust,
2) concentrations of substances produced by society, 3) degradation by
physical means, and in that society, 4) people are not subject to conditions
that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs.
The 10 Key Values of the Wisconsin Green Party
Personal and Collective Empowerment
As Greens, we believe that patterns of dominance must be replaced with a
culture of liberation. Dominance and other forms of oppression are barriers
to personal and collective empowerment. We combat societal prejudices and
inequities based on race, gender, class, age, sexual orientation, and other
social divisions. We seek to develop societal ethics that nurture the full
potential of each human being. We utilize cooperative decision-making
processes. We try to remain sensitive and receptive to continual change as
both positive and inevitable.
Ecological Integrity
The cycles of life and the interconnectedness of all things must be
acknowledged and respected. This means developing a politics that is based
on the assumption that people are part of nature, not on top of it. We must
think and act in terms of the viability of ecosystems. We work under the
principle that economic justice and ecological integrity are mutually
consistent and achievable. Greens are willing to take strong action to
protect and restore the earth.
Global Responsibility
We seek to establish friendly relations with other nations in the spirit of
mutual respect and assistance. We work to identify and resist forces in our
country that hinder the democratic self-determination of other peoples. We
respect and encourage indigenous models of development rather than the
imposition of Western industrialization. We seek to provide genuine
assistance to grassroots groups in the Third World and help them in their
efforts towards self-determination, and liberation.
Participatory Democracy in Economic and Political Life
We struggle to create a political economy that allows citizens to control
the decisions that affect their lives, and establishes human and ecological
work structures, appropriate technologies, and equitable distribution of
social resources and jobs for all.
Local and Regional Autonomy
We support efforts of grassroots communities to empower themselves. An
equitable distribution of wealth and power among regions must he insured. We
seek to promote and nourish regionally based culture, while guaranteeing the
human rights of all ethnic, cultural, and racial minorities.
Nonviolence
Greens promote effective alternatives to the patterns of violence that
afflict families and nations.
Respect for Diversity
Greens welcome and honor cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious,
political, biological, and spiritual diversity within the context of social
and ecological interdependence.
Emotional Awareness and Honesty
We believe that awareness of feeling and unconscious behavior patterns in
ourselves and others-and of their social and historical roots-act as a
foundation for the creation of a cooperative community, participatory
institutions, social harmony with nature, and self-empowerment. We value the
integration of intuition with intellect in human consciousness.
Human Rights
We believe that every human being is entitled to quality health care,
nutrition, shelter, economic security, relevant education, meaningful and
rewarding work, full reproductive rights, childcare, and a safe and healthy
environment. The opportunity for the fulfillment of creative potential-both
individual and societal-can only be realized through a fully democratized
society, where everyone has equal political access to decision-making and
enjoys complete freedom from political persecution.
Feminism
We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and
economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination
and control, with more cooperative ways of interacting which respect
differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the
sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with
moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our
decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want.
For more information visit http://wisconsingreenparty.org/