Greens win 560,000 votes in 1992, seat 11 candidates One year after official founding of the Green Party USA, Green Party members across the U.S, won 11 seats in local partisan and nonpartisan elections. Eighty Green candidates ran for national, state and local offices in 13 states: 15 for U.S. Congress and Senate; 28 for state houses; 22 for county and city offices; and 16 for other elected municipal and community positions. Green candidates polled over 560,000 votes for an average showing of 16% nationwide. Prior to the elections. Greens already held 50 seats in local offices ranging from town councils and mayors to county commissions and boards of education. The current nationwide total of Green officeholders is now 56 in fourteen states. The new officeholders include: Arkansas: Stephen Miller, Fayetteville City Council.CzMfornia: Lois Humphreys, Leucadia Water Board; Dona Spring, Berkeley City Counci; Carol Skiljan, Encinitas School Board; David Tarr, Romona Water Board; Barbara Carr, La Mesa School Board; Tim Moore, Ramona Community Planning Group; Dan Tarr, Valledeoro Planning Group; John Beall & Nancy Bemardi, Evergreen Resource Conservation D/^rn'cr. Hawaii: Keiko Bonk-Abramson, Hawaii Council Northwest Greens Members of the Columbia Willamette and Southern Willamette Greens participated in Farewell to the Rupublicrats, a forum at the Red Rose School in Portland on creating an independent party based in the social movements. The forum also included representatives of the social democratic New Party; the Pacific Party, a group which split from the Columbia Willamette Greens two years ago to launch a ballot access drive in Oregon; and the Oregon Alliance for Progressive Politics (OAPP), an umbrella organization of labor, feminist, minority, single-issue and community groups. Despite relief at the defeat of ballot measure nine (which would have declared homosexuality abnormal and legalized discrimination in Oregon), a sense of urgency pervaded the discussion. Nationally, said Diane Meisenhelter of The Greens, “Clinton is really very conservative, and he inherits tremendous problems. As he falls, we must have an alternative to offer people. If ever there was a time for coalition building, it’s now.” Others voiced a similar assessment of state politics. Passage of a property tax limitation measure a year ago has precipitated a fiscal crisis in Oregon. Democratic governor Roberts’ proposal for a regressive and unpopular sales tax was rejected by the legislature, while a far more equitable ballot measure to tax corporate and commercial property at a higher rate was defeated by a campaign of expensive lies (Roberts came out against the measure). Environmentalists feel betrayed by Democratic Representative Peter Defazio and other “timber Democrats.” Meanwhile the far right, represented by the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) is planning to place a “milder” antihomosexual measure (like the one which just passed in Colorado) on the ballot in both Oregon and Washington. The OCA is also poised to take over the state Republican party. Fed up with the paralysis and corruption of the major parties and faced with persistent hard times, more people than ever are willing to consider radical alternatives to the established order. The right is organized and ready to capitalize on this. Greens and the non-sectarian left, many at the forum felt, had better act now to develop and put forward an emancipatory and sustainable alternative. Forum organizers are planning a follow-up event for January 24th, 1993. Contact Johanna Brenner, 1615 SE 35th Place, Portland, OR 97214, (503) 234-2306. Southern Willamette Greens will also be putting on a forum in Eugene in late January. Contact Joseph Boland, 258 E. 3rd St., Eugene, OR 97401, (503) 343- 5088. The Boise Green Community is working with a group of trained mediators to plan a grassroots meeting between loggers, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory workers (INEL is part of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex), and environmentalists. Greens believe that joint solutions can be found to the ecological and economic problems. Contact Jon Knapp, Boise Greens, 1210 N. 11th, Boise, ID 83702, (208) 336-8471. That Anarchist Tendency Free Society, $ 10/year US, $ 15/year elsewhere; Youth Greens, P.O. Box 7293, Minneapolis, MN 55407. Newly emerging from the Youth Greens is this forthright and articulate journal, a chronicle of activists’ battles, and battles among activists. Always exciting and inciting. Love and Rage, $ 13/year; P.O. Box 3, Prince St. Station, New York, NY 10012. At the very least, this paper is worth reading as the house organ for the Love and Rage Network, a decentralized, direct action, anti-establishment confederation. It includes much commentary on current events, including those Flipped by the national consciousness, and a seccion en espanol. Amor y Rabia. Madworld Survival Guide, $7 cash for 6 issues; P.O. Box 19\3n, New Orleans, LA, 70179-1377. Anyone advocating civil disobedience in Louisiana deserves our support. MSG is loaded with tips on smashing the state, surviving the city, and building a less maddening world. Society and Nature, $20/year; P.O. Box 637, Littleton, CO, 80160-0637. This thick new journal, a cooperative venture among political ecologists studying cooperation, based in Greece and the United States, is theoretical in nature, yet much of it conveys a distaste for empty theorizing, and is itself empty of apparently endless sentences such as this one. A good start and a good read. Our Generation, $25/2 years; Suite 444, 3981 Boulevard St-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec H2W 1Y5. One of the oldest eco-anarchist journals is still one of the best. A fine, intelligent selection of papers from new left and social ecologist perspectives. They recently did RAIN the honor of reprinting last issue’s long piece on decentralization and cities. RAIN Spring 1993 Volume XIV, Number 3 Page 59
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