Ensure prison conditions are humane and sanitary, including but are limited to heat, light, exercise, clothing, nutrition, libraries, possessions, and personal safety. Meet prisoners’ dietary requirements. Ensure availability of psychological, drug, and medical treatment, including access to condoms and uninterrupted access to all prescribed medication. Minimize isolation of prisoners from staff and one another only as needed for safety. Make incarceration more community-based, including through increased visitor access by families. Establish and enforce prison policies that discourage racism, sexism, homophobia and rape.
Ban private prisons.
Implement a moratorium on prison construction. Redirect funds to alternatives to incarceration.
Require that each state prison system install a rehabilitation administrator with equal authority as the highest authority.
Ensure that all prisoners have the opportunity to obtain a General Education Diploma (i.e. high school equivalency diploma) and higher education. Education has proven to reduce recidivism by 10%.
Ensure the First Amendment rights of prisoners, including the right to communicate with journalists, write letters, publish their own writings, and become legal experts on their own cases.
Provide incarcerated individuals the right to vote by absentee ballot in the district of their domicile, and the right to vote during parole.
Restore the right to hold public office to felons who have completed their prison sentence.
Conduct racial and ethnic disparity impact studies for new and existing categories of offenses.
Reduce the prison population, invest in rehabilitation, and end the failed war on drugs.
The United States has the highest incarceration and recidivism rates of industrialized countries, while our nation’s criminal justice system in general is too often inhumane, ineffective, and prohibitively expensive. With less than five percent of the world’s population, the United States locks up nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Our law enforcement priorities place too much emphasis on drug-related and petty, non-violent crimes, and not enough on prosecution of corporate, white collar, and environmental crime. The majority of prisoners are serving terms for non-violent, minor property and drug addiction crimes, or violations of their conditions of parole or probation, while the poor, the under-educated and various racial and ethnic minorities are over-represented in the prison population.
The negative effects of imprisonment are far-reaching. Prisoners are isolated from their communities and often denied contact with the free world and the media. Access to educational and legal materials is in decline. Prison administrators wield total authority over their environments, diminishing procedural input from experts and censoring employee complaints.
Our priorities must include efforts to prevent violent crime and address the legitimate needs of victims, while addressing the socio-economic root causes of crime and practicing policies that prevent recidivism.
We should oppose the increasingly widespread privatization of prisons. These prisons treat people as their product and provide far worse service than government-run prisons. Profits in privately run prisons are derived from understaffing, which severely reduces the acceptable care of inmates. We believe that greater, not lesser public input, oversight and control of prisons is the answer.
We should call for an end to the “war on drugs”, legalization of drugs and for treating drug abuse as a health issue. The “war on drugs” has been an ill conceived program that has wasted billions of dollars misdirecting law enforcement resources away from apprehending and prosecuting violent criminals, while crowding our prisons with non-violent drug offenders and disproportionately criminalizing youth of color.
We should also call attention to the fact that more than forty percent of those 2.3 million locked down come from America’s black one-eighth.
We should recognizes that our nation’s ostensibly color-blind systems of law enforcement and crime control, from police practices to prosecutorial prerogatives, to mandatory sentencing and zero-tolerance have effectively constituted an ubiquitous national policy of racially selective mass incarceration, a successor to Jim Crow as a means of social control, a policy that must be publicly discussed, widely recognized, and ultimately reversed. The nearly universal, though largely unspoken nature of this policy makes piecemeal reforms not accompanied by public discussion of the larger policy ineffective outside the context of a broad social movement.
Sign the Petition! The Green Party has long been in favor of legalizing marijuana. The End the War on Drugs section of our platform states the following:
End the “war on drugs.” Redirect funds presently budgeted for the “war on drugs” toward expanded research, education, counseling and treatment.
Amend the Controlled Substances Act to reflect that drug use in itself is not a crime, and that persons living in the United States arrested for using drugs should not be incarcerated with those who have committed victim oriented crimes.
Legalize possession, sale, and cultivation of cannabis/marijuana.
Strike from the record prior felony convictions for marijuana possession, sale, or cultivation.
Grant amnesty and release from confinement without any further parole or probation, those who have been incarcerated for the use, sale, or cultivation of marijuana in federal and state prisons and in county/city jails, and who otherwise are without convictions for victim oriented crimes, or who do not require treatment for abuse of hard drugs. Provide the option for drug treatment to those leaving confinement.
Implement a step-by-step program to decriminalize all drugs in the United States.
Are you in favor of federal legislation of marijuana?
The Green Party makes a strong and urgent call for U.S. passage of CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly and ratified by 173 countries. It is also known as the Women’s Convention, the Women’s Bill of Rights, and an International Bill of Rights for Women. The United States is one of a very few countries and the only industrialized nation that has not ratified it.
Greens from all over the United States will join together in Washington, D.C. April 1-5, 2019 to lobby their congresspeople by asking them to take the the “Public Funding Only Pledge“. Additionally, they will be asked to sponsor or co-sponsor a bill in Congress to free our elections from any sort of bribery cash: special interest PAC, corporate or dark money donations. Instead, qualified candidates from every party would get an equal chance in TV, radio and printed ads, debates and appearances. This would allow other voices to be heard and the American voters to be aware of all of their choices.
The lobby starts on April 1st (Monday) and runs until the 5th (Friday). It will be in the halls of Congress. Information and downloads available at: www.greensvsgreed.org.Read more
It’s official we have the new 2019 calender and the lobby dates! Greens from all over the United States will join together during this week to lobby their congress to ask them to take the the public funding only pledge and also to sponsor or co-sponsor a bill in Congress to free our elections from any sort of bribery cash: special interest PAC, corporate or dark money donations.
Instead – qualified candidates from every party would get an equal chance in TV, radio and printed ads, debates and appearances. This would allow other voices to be heard and the American voters to be aware of all of their choices.Read more
Trenton — Saturday, January 19, 2019 — The Green Party of New Jersey is proud to join members of The March on the Pentagon (formerly: The Women’s March on the Pentagon) to form a peace contingent at the Women’s March on Trenton. This peace contingent seeks to put the anti-war agenda back into political activism and confront the bi-partisan war machine. Read more
The Green Party of the United States has identified “Green Candidates to Watch” in federal, state and local races on Election Day, Nov. 6, 2018.
The list includes Green candidates who are running energetic, well publicized, and well organized campaigns for local office across the U.S. The list is a sample of the many Green Party candidates running in the midterms who deserve attention. Read more
Exclusion of candidates violates the right of voters to be informed about all names on the ballot
Green Party candidates have been excluded from debates and polls across the country by news media and polling criteria that favor Democratic and Republican candidates. Exclusion means Green Party candidates cannot make their case to undecided voters or try to sway decided ones, which is especially crucial in races that determine ballot status. High numbers of undecided voters are a wild card in many races this year and may lead to some “Green” surprises on election day.Read more
On Saturday, the U.S. Senate made a terrible mistake that will harm all of us. The Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to a lifetime position as a Justice for the U.S. Supreme Court. Making this undemocratic decision even worse, the Senators who voted in favor of the confirmation voted in favor of party and against the interest of the majority of their constituents.Read more
The National Women’s Caucus of the Green Party of the United States thanks Professor Christine Blasey Ford for coming forward to offer her testimony about the wisdom of not choosing Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill a vacancy on the US Supreme Court. This testimony has not only demonstrated indelibly why Judge Kavanaugh should not be confirmed to this position, it clarifies for the nation the societal issues involved, in denial of harm and of victim shaming, that should inform any future candidate for the bench, or for any positions of power and judgment.Read more
At the just held, Traverse City State Membership Meeting (SMM), the Michigan Women’s Caucus was officially formed. Open to all members of the Green Party of Michigan, here is your chance to get in on the ground floor. Plans are to trade information and meet up at the Next SMM at the latest.
The next SMM is set for Saturday, November 10th after the elections.Read more
Wikileaks and the Future of Malign Institutional Secrecy
The Green Partysupports worldwide efforts to promote institutional transparency, because many social evils arise from the concealment of malign actions and policies. Wars, domestic repression, and economic mismanagement are all enabled by secrecy and deception of the public. Accordingly, the Green Party US Peace Action Committee calls for the immediate release of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, by the UK authorities and dropping of all charges against him by the US government.Read more
The United States Government is engaged in a campaign of personal destruction directed at Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange. Under the cover of questionable legal arguments, The US has carried out a relentless, multifaceted, punitive program aimed at making an example of an Internet publisher who has challenged the power of the US national security establishment. Through the actions of the US government, Assange has been stripped of his political asylum, imprisoned by the UK, and is awaiting extradition to the US to face espionage charges with a penalty of life imprisonment. He is being held in Belmarsh prison, a high-security facility, officially for the minor crime of a bail violation but for the ultimate purpose of rendition to the US. Assange was recently moved to the hospital wing at Belmarsh, and reports indicate he is in poor health.Read more
The arrest of Julian Assange not only puts the free press in the United States at risk, it puts any reporters who expose US crimes anywhere in the world at risk. As Pepe Escobar wrote
“Let’s cut to the chase. Julian Assange is not a US citizen, he’s an Australian. WikiLeaks is not a US-based media organization. If the US government gets Assange extradited, prosecuted and incarcerated, it will legitimize its right to go after anyone, anyhow, anywhere, anytime.”Read more
Strong Support For Wikileaks Publisher’s Immediate Release Among Michigan Greens
(DETROIT, MI – 04/15/2019) Leaders and members of the Green Party of Michigan issued strong reactions to the arrest of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange by Metropolitan Police officers last Thursday. Greens cited journalistic freedoms and whistleblower protections should be available to Assange, who has been confined inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.Read more
Pippa Bartolotti, former chair of the Wales Green Party, addressing the rally
Albany, New York – The Upper Hudson Green Party rallied today in support of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, and against his imprisonment and potential extradition to the United States to face charges. These consist of aiding Chelsea Manning in remaining anonymous as she leaked evidence of grave war crimes by the United States government to Wikileaks, which commentators have pointed out is standard journalistic practice.Read more
Green Party Members Organize Protest at UK Embassy in Washington, DC at 5:00 p.m. today
The Green Party of the United States strongly and unequivocally condemns the arrest of Julian Assange and calls for his immediate release. Assange was expelled from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London this morning and is being held in the United Kingdom for extradition to the United States, where he is very likely to face espionage charges. Assange is the publisher of Wikileaks, which published documents exposing US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, human rights violations at the Guantanamo Bay prison and State Department cables that showed corporate corruption of US foreign policy.Read more
Albany, New York – A rally in support of Julian Assange, against his arrest and the attempt by the United States to extradite him from the U.K. will be held in Albany, outside the Leo O’Brien Federal Building in Clinton Square, today, April 16 at 5:30 p.m. The rally is being organized by the Upper Hudson Green Party.
The Green Party strongly and unequivocally condemns the arrest of Julian Assange and calls for his immediate release. Assange was expelled from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Thursday April 11th and is being held in the United Kingdom for extradition to the United States, where he is very likely to face espionage charges. Read more
The Sangamo Valley Green Party will be hosting a gathering of activists today at 6:00 pm in the Old State Capitol Plaza in Springfield, Illinois to observe the release of Chelsea Manning, following President Obama’s commutation of her 35 year sentence. Manning, who leaked evidence of US war crimes to WikiLeaks while serving in the army, was held for months in solitary confinement, a violation of international law. Springfield residents, including Greens, came out in 2012 to raise money for Manning’s defense at a local Music for Manning fundraiser and the occasion of her release provides an opportunity for local activists to gather and celebrate Manning’s freedom and the inspiration she represents to transparency advocates.Read more
Water is essential to all forms of life. The Green Party calls for an international declaration that water belongs to the Earth and all of its species. Water is a basic human right! The U.S. Government must lead the way in declaring water a fundamental human right and prevent efforts to privatize, export, and sell for profit a substance that is essential to all life.
We face a worldwide water crisis. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people lack access to safe drinking water. If current trends persist, by 2025 as much as two-thirds of the world’s population will be living with a serious scarcity of water. Multinational corporations recognize these trends and are moving fast to monopolize water supplies around the world. They argue that privatizing water is the best way to allocate this valuable resource, and they are scheming to have water declared a human need so that it can be commodified and sold on the open market ensuring that the allocation of water will be based on principles of scarcity and profit maximization.
We do not agree. With water sold to the highest bidder, the rich will have plenty while the poor will be left with little but polluted water. Short-term profits will preclude any concern for long term sustainability. We must stop this privatization before the infrastructures become so established that it will be impossible to avoid a disaster of epic proportions.
Jesse Johnson, Mountain Party of West Virginia 2010 Gubernatorial Candidate
Opposes Grab by Oil and Gas Industry for More Political Power, Protection for Fracking
Endorses Proposal 2 to Give Protection Against Warrantless Searches of Electronic Devices
Grand Rapids, Mi – The Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) urges a NO vote on Michigan Proposal 2020-1, which would tie the state’s operating budget to continued oil and gas drilling — including fracking. GPMI also calls for a YES vote on Proposal 2020-2, which would block warrantless searches of electronic devices.Read more
Operators flare off a well in southwestern Pennsylvania. Credit: Bob Donnan
PHILADELPHIA – It has taken slightly more than a decade for hydraulic fracturing to entrench itself in PA, forming a beltway of 10,000 wells that arc from the southwest to the northeast. Colloquially referred to as fracking, the process involves drilling and pumping high pressure chemical-laden water and sand deep into underground shale deposits to release and capture gas and oil. Over the years, it has become evident that economic prosperity has fallen short of original promises, while alarming reports of public health decline, potent greenhouse gas leaks, and environmental devastation have bubbled to the surface.Read more
Residents of Newark, New Jersey learned last year that their water was poisoned with high levels of lead, something the government failed to inform them about even though it knew about it in June 2017. When people learned of the problem, the government first denied it and then tried to blame homeowners and downplayed the severity of the impacts. Then, the city offered half-hearted solutions.Read more
Uwchlan Township, Chester County, PA – All three statewide candidates of the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA) toured a portion of Sunoco’s Mariner East Pipeline at the invitation of the Uwchlan Safety Coalition on Tuesday, September 18 (see video at the bottom of the page). Governor and Lieutenant Governor hopefuls Paul Glover and Jocolyn Bowser-Bostick and U.S. Senate candidate Neal Gale met with homeowners and community members negatively impacted by drilling and operations in Chester and Delaware counties.
In November of 2015 I launched my radio show, The Offensive Feminist with Jenny K on Cave Radio Broadcasting. This happened to coincide with the public disclosure of lead found in the water of Flint, a story which I followed for all 100 episodes before going on hiatus in January of this year. As I followed the news on the breaking Flint Water Crisis, I noticed discrepancies and contradictory information being shared in the news.Read more
It has been four years too long since the residents of Flint were forced to drink poison in order for a pipeline to be built. High levels of lead are still being found across the city, including in local public schools, yet this is not being reported widely across the state. When Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz signed the order to switch residents over to the Flint River for drinking water in 2013, he was fully aware that the city’s water treatment plant could not properly treat water as shown in documents for the KWA pipeline beginning in 2009.Read more
The Green Party of Colorado (GPCO) expresses its opposition to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposals of federal oil and gas lease sales on Sept. 6, 2018 of approximately 22,175 acres of land in Huerfano, Kiowa, Lincoln, Washington, Weld and Baca Counties, Colorado. Green Party key values of ecological wisdom, future focus and sustainability inform our recognition that these proposals are shortsighted and misguided.
“The BLM is couching this leasing in terms of “the Administration’s priority to make America safe through energy independence,” and supporting jobs, but in reality this is an attempt to create short term capital at the long term expense of the climate and local environment,” said Andy Hamilton, chair of the Mesa County Green Party in Grand Junction. “A transition to renewable energy sources would better address the real needs of the working class.”Read more
Today, Governor Rick Snyder announced his budget for FY2019. The Governor has yet again neglected to mention that the city of Flint still does not have access to clean, safe drinking water while proposing an additional investment of $25.9M to Flint for service line replacements. He neglected to mention that Michigan is currently giving 130 million gallons of our groundwater to Nestle while only charging them $200/year when they make over $300 million/year from our public resource.
We could certainly fix the water mains in Flint much faster if Nestle was charged an equitable fee for their water withdrawal. He has yet again neglected to include the full costs of fixing Flint in the 2019 budget, allowing for this crisis to continue and be passed on to his successor. While he may be leaving the state with a projected “rainy day” fund of $922 million, he is also leaving our state with our own version of Katrina with a cost to fix of $1.2 – $4 billion.Read more
Phoenix, AZ — At their recent state meeting (Saturday, January 27, 2018), members of the Arizona Green Party (AZGP) endorsed five of their candidates for the 2018 Election. The candidates are:Read more
December 11, 2017 – The final day to file objections to candidate ballot access petitions has passed, and the Illinois Green Party slate for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board of Commissioners went unchallenged. Your Illinois Greens will be on the ballot in the March 20, 2018 primary election!
In keeping with the Green Key Values of diversity, social justice and feminism, we support full legal and political equality for all persons regardless of sex, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity, characteristics, and expression.
The Green Party affirms the rights of all individuals to freely choose intimate partners, regardless of their sex, gender, or gender identity.
The Green Party recognizes the full civil rights of sexual and gender minorities. The existing civil rights act prohibits discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, and disability. We will work to add sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression to the existing civil rights act.
The Green Party will be inclusive of language in local, state and federal anti- discrimination law that ensures the rights of intersex individuals and prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, characteristics, and expression as well as on sex, gender, or sexual orientation. We are opposed to non-consenting intersex genital surgery.
The Green Party affirms the right of all persons to self-determination with regard to gender identity and sex. We affirm the right of choosing non- binary and gender fluid identification. We therefore support the right of individuals to be free from coercion and involuntary assignment of gender or sex.
We will pursue legislation where offenders must pay compensation to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA) people who have suffered violence and injustice.
The Green Party will end all Federal military aid to national governments whose laws result in the death, other harm, or imprisonment of its citizens and residents who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA).
The Green Party will enact a policy that the U. S. Government recognize all same sex marriages or legal equivalents such as civil unions, in processing visitor and immigration visas.
The Green Party would end security surveillance and covert infiltration of organizations that promote rights for sexual and gender minorities.
Calls for Systemic Social Justice Reforms on Transgender Remembrance Day
As Transgender Awareness Week wanes and Transgender Remembrance Day begins, we in the Green Party of Virginia are mindful of the 34 known trans and gender non-conforming individuals who have lost their lives to transphobic violence this year. (1) The Green Party Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity platform plank, in keeping with the Green Key Values of diversity, social justice and feminism, supports full legal and political equality for all persons regardless of sex, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity, characteristics, and expression.(2)Read more
The National Women’s Caucusof the Green Party of the United States released a statement today in support of the Transgender Day Of Remembrance (TDOR), which is observed this year on November 20. The statement is appended below. TDOR is observed in remembrance of people subjected to discrimination, violence and murder directed against transgender, intersex, non-binary, gender-nonconforming people, and anyone who appears to be stepping outside of normative gender stereotypes.
The Women’s Caucus held a webinar event on Friday, November 20 featuring Green Party members and transgender women Veronika Fimbres, Avery Seal, and Cynthya BrianKate, who discussed TDOR and the unique challenges faced by transgender women.Read more
The National Women’s Caucus of the Green Party of the United States released a statement today in support of the Transgender Day Of Remembrance (TDOR), which is observed this year on November 20. The statement is appended below. TDOR is observed in remembrance of people subjected to discrimination, violence and murder directed against transgender, intersex , non-binary, gender-nonconforming people, and anyone who appears to be stepping outside of normative gender stereotypes.Read more
On June 28th, 1969 the Stonewall Riots erupted onto the streets of New York City and led to the Gay Rights movement in the United States. We’ve reflected on various aspects of Stonewall over the years and, 51 years later, our streets are full of protests demanding a change. As #BlackLivesMatter protests are sweeping the country and state after state are passing legislation to restrict transgender participation as full, equal citizens in life, Marsha P. Johnson (pictured to the left) wants better for us. Marsha was there that June night in 1969 and the echoes of the bricks thrown still resonate loudly today.Read more
BALTIMORE – The Baltimore City Green Party (BGP) reached full positive consensus at its Monthly General Meeting on July 29, 2017 to issue a statement affirming the centrality of the struggle for Trans Justice in the larger struggle to realize a better Baltimore. While oppression of trans folks has been ongoing in our city, the attack on and resistance of this community is particularly acute now. So, BGP is raising its voice and the voices of its membership:Read more
PHILADELPHIA – On March 22, delegates to the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA) spring convention voted to support the Lavender Greens’ objection to the recent actions of the Georgia Green Party (GGP). This support had been requested by Vice-chair Garret Wassermann of the Green Party of Allegheny County, who had objected to homophobic language in a GGP statement.Read more
ALBANY, NY – There has been considerable discussion over the last few weeks within the Green Party about transgender rights. The Lavender Caucus of the Green Party of the United States issued a statement calling on the state Green Party of Georgia to retract its endorsement of the “Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights” or face decertification by the national party. Some Greens have condemned Georgia’s actions outright while others have called for a respectful dialogue to facilitate understanding of the different points of view.Read more
On December 17th, the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 86-8, passed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This bill increases the military budget to an obscene $738 billion. Senator Cory Booker did not vote. Neither did Senators Harris, Klobuchar, Sanders or Warren. How can presidential candidate Booker speak out in a national interview exactly one month ago today about the need to contain military spending and executive power in declaring war and then not vote on the NDAA which both increases military spending and fails to rein in executive power? This is unacceptable — New Jersey is the loser here.Read more
HUNTINGTON, NY – The Green Party of Suffolk continues its support of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). TDOR is a worldwide event held every November to raise awareness about discrimination, violence, and murder directed against transgender (living as or expressing a gender other than the one expected at birth), intersex (biologically in-between or outside male and female), and gender-nonconforming (acting in any way contrary to gender stereotypes) people, to commemorate the lives of transgender, intersex and gender-nonconforming people around the world who have been killed due to this kind of discrimination and violence within the past year, making a more safe, understanding, and accepting world.Read more
In 1898, Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States and has been held by the U.S. in the form of a colony ever since. In response to international pressure, in 1952, the U.S. established the “Free Associated State” status for Puerto Rico but continued to claim that Puerto Rico belongs to, yet is not a part of, the United States. The root of the crisis is the colonial status of Puerto Rico as echoed in the UN Decolonization committee resolution on Puerto Rico adopted on June 22, 2015 which states ñthe condition of political subordination prevents Puerto Rico from taking sovereign decisions to attend to its serious economic and social problems including unemployment, marginalization and poverty (Crisis and Colonialism in Puerto Rico by Olga Sanabria Davila).
Greens support the right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence in conformity with United Nations Resolution 1514(XV) of 1960. Greens call for the release of all Puerto Rican political prisoners, such as Oscar Lopez Rivera, who has been held in U.S. prisons since 1981. Read our full platform plank on Puerto Rico.
October 30th, 2020, marked the 70th anniversary of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico’s uprising in Jayuya, Puerto Rico, in 1950, against the United States Military Government, which was brutally imposed on Puerto Rico by Washington DC. The Latinx Caucus supports the decolonization and Independence of Puerto Rico as a sovereign Nation and joined the International Community in a Media Blitz to establish henceforth on that day, October 30th, “International Day of Solidarity with the Independence of Puerto”.Read more
I think a lot about the future of Puerto Rico. Especially after the hurricanes and recent earthquakes. Puerto Rico has been in a recession the last twelve years. It also has been plagued by corruption and the imposition of the Junta (financial control board) has just made matters worse.Read more
Greens Deplore Conviction of Cheri Honkala as attack on First Amendment rights
Green Party leaders responded to yesterday’s ruling in the case of United States vs. Honkala with strong words of condemnation for government officials involved and strong support for Honkala. On June 10, 2019, a federal court in Washington, D.C., issued a guilty verdict in the case, finding former Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Cheri Honkala guilty of charges of trespassing. Honkala is an internationally-known activist and founder of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC).Read more
The US territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands remain devastated from hurricane Maria in 2017. People still lack adequate food, water, housing, power, transportation, communications, schools, and health care while Trump seeks to cutoff disaster relief funds. 45% of Puerto Ricans and 22% of Virgin Islanders live below the poverty lineRead more
United Nations Hearings On The Decolonization Of Puerto Rico, June 24, 2019.
From Puerto Rico To Palestine, Colonialism Is A Crime!
Latinx Caucus of the Green Party of the United States – Every year the United Nations holds hearings on the Decolonization of Puerto Rico during which individuals, groups and organizations from Puerto Rico, the United States, and other countries testify in support of decolonization and for the independence of Puerto Rico. We are grateful to the UN, to Keisha Anita McGuire and the UN Committee of 24, (that deals with Colonized Nations under domination of Colonizers), for holding these very important hearings.Read more
S.E. Walton Alfonso Webson of Antigua & Barbuda President of United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization of Puerto Rico New York, NY 10017
Your Excellency,
My name is Darlene Elias, and I am a National Co Chair of the Green Party of the United States. Thank you for permitting me to speak before yourself and this prestigious committee.Read more
A Call to Action on Puerto Rico Collective was formed in July of 2015. It is an integral part of the rebellious, militant and determined diaspora that understands that the precarious political, social and economic conditions that confront Puerto Rico are a direct result of its colonial relationship of subordination to the United States.
La mayoría de los ciudadanos estadounidense creen que su gobierno respecta el estado de derecho. Eso es lo que sus escuelas enseñan. Pero, si uno estudiaría por su cuenta la historia de Estados Unidos, uno se daría cuenta que el gobierno de Estados Unidos cree que el fin justifica los medios.
Los libros de historia de Estados Unidos dicen que España le cedió a Puerto Rico como un botín de guerra después de la Guerra Hispana-Americana del 1898. Eso suena inocente. ¿Pero qué realmente sucedió?Read more
Darlene Elias, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States, addresses the Unity March for Puerto Rico. The march was held in Washington, DC on November 19, 2017.Read more
We are asking for participation from East Coast Chapters. Specifically we are asking that each East Coast State send 5 volunteers to represent the Green Party at the march. Darlene Elias, Latinx co-chair, and several other Latinx Caucus members are planning to attend and would like to join with other Green Party members at the march.Read more
The Green Party stands in support of our Muslim sisters & brothers
The exploitation of fear fuels Islamophobia and drives reactionary activists to promote propaganda and messaging to keep the narrative alive. A network of bloggers, think tanks and propaganda mills have raised and spent hundreds of millions of dollars since 2001 to propagate misinformation about muslims and Islam.
Islamophobia manifests in this country in the form of:
police-state surveillance, infiltration and entrapment;
a Clinton crime-bill statute criminalizing ‘material support of terrorism’ used to prosecute and incarcerate a volunteer board seeking to send humanitarian relief to the people of occupied Palestine;
a chilling impact on political discourse to rival COINTELPRO, the Red Scare, the HUAC, the Palmer Raids;
hate crimes including assaults, murders, mass shootings, graffiti, vandalism and arson targeting mosques and community centers, muslims and those mistaken for muslims;
the promotion of mis-information and false narratives which justify the dehumanization and the othering of a quarter of our global neighbors and 1-2% of our neighbors here in the United States;
public fear and public policy shaped by folks whose Arabic vocabulary seems limited to the pejorative misuse of two words expressing key concepts of the Islamic faith: jihad and sharia.
As Green Party candidates and activists, we have a role as an opposition party to educate ourselves and our communities on issues related to Islamophobia, racism, sexism and gender-identity and to prioritize work to support the struggles of the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities. We must make an active contribution to the work of defending the human rights of our neighbors. We can build enduring alliances by engaging with the political crisis now present in this country.
On this page we will collect resources useful to our work to engage effectively in challenging the Islamophobia we encounter in the world around us.
Our Green values oblige us to support popular movements for peace and demilitarization in Israel-Palestine, especially those that reach across the lines of conflict to engage both Palestinians and Israelis of good will.
We support the implementation of boycott and divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, which includes pressuring our government to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel; and we support maintaining these nonviolent punitive measures until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by
Ending its occupation and colonization of all Palestinian lands and dismantling the Wall in the West Bank
Recognizing the fundamental rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
We support a U.S. foreign policy that promotes the creation of one secular, democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis on the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan as the national home of both peoples, with Jerusalem as its capital.
Both in Israel and the US, conversations about reparations and the Palestinian right of return are stifled by arguments explaining why injustice must go on and a yearning for the status quo.
The calls “Black Lives Matter” and “Free, Free Palestine,” serve to remind us that Palestine is not free and that if the lives of Black people mattered, there would be no need for the call. In both cases, people are in the grips of a cruel, racist system that refuses to let go. In both cases, people are being hunted down, caged, strangled, and shot to death, and the root cause of their suffering is rarely addressed.Read more
FLANDERS, NJ – “The so-called Peace Plan announced by Trump/Netanyahu legitimizes the illegal actions of the Israeli government and reinforces the system of apartheid that already existed,” said Madelyn Hoffman, the Green Party of New Jersey’s candidate for US Senate in 2020. “As if to add an exclamation point, the IDF once again took aim at Gaza and started bombing on 1/29/20.”
We spent the last week in Occupied Palestinian Territory, commonly referred to as Israel, where we traveled around the country to visit communities in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Bethlehem, the West Bank, the Nagab, and more.Read more
The controversy over Israel’s refusal to allow an official visit by two members of Congress highlights the negative effects of a misguided bipartisan attempt by representatives of both major political parties to attack and smear the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights and freedom. By an overwhelming margin in July, the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution to condemn the BDS movement and to endorse an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution. Legislatures in more than two dozen U.S. states have passed measures condemning the BDS movement or banning contracts with businesses involved with it.Read more
The Nakba — the expulsion of the majority native Christians and Muslims from historic Palestine from 1947-1949, a dispossession that continues to this day — is the core of the conflict, not the military occupation. For a sustainable and just peace, Palestinian refugees’ international human right to return to their homes in Israel must be honored. And the only plausible way that can happen is if Israel-Palestine becomes one democratic state with equality before the law, the national homes of two peoples.
The March of Return is a scream for life so that we may leave the walls of our prison. These are the words repeated by Ahmed Abu Artema in his many lectures and interviews. Abu Artema is the brain behind the most powerful expression of unarmed Palestinian resistance, The March of Return, which began on March 30, 2018, and has become a weekly occurrence in the Gaza Strip for close to a year.
“Why would we die here in silence? We want our message to reach the world. We want to say to the world ‘here there is a people. A people searching for a life of dignity, human rights and freedom.'”Read more
I applaud your publishing Michael Galant’s excellent (Nov. 18) essay, “Chris Murphy wants a new foreign policy.” As Murphy’s constituent, so do I.
Still, I couldn’t agree more with Galant about Murphy’s bellicose attitude toward Palestinians and apparent veneration of a Zionist Israel. Consider a 2015 press release issued on Murphy’s becoming a ranking member of the Mideast Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he says:Read more
In recent weeks, racism against Palestinian people and the expansion of apartheid-Jim Crow policies have escalated. The Israeli lobby and its supporters attacked freedom of speech in the United States, showing how far they will go to prevent the US public from being aware of their behavior.
If more people in the US become aware of the truth about Israel’s genocidal policies, the economic lifeline and political protection of the United States will disappear. Israel could be forced to make significant changes that recognize the human rights and self-determination of Palestinians.Read more
New York City – On Monday, May 14, Israeli forces killed at least 58 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded thousands. Today’s march is the response to the near-culmination of the historic #GreatReturnMarch, where for six weeks, tens of thousands of Palestinians — families, children, elders — have been gathering along the fence that keeps 2 million people penned in in an open air prison.
In grief and rage, we will mourn those who have been killed. With respect and inspiration, we will amplify the demands of Palestinians: the right to live in freedom and dignity, and the right to return home.