The Georgia Green Party

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  • No on Four — protect presumption of innocence, juvenile process, reject dangerous intrusion by corporations into criminal proceedings

    CA #4 — Urging a NO vote
    Provides rights for victims of crime in the judicial process.

    Constitutional Amendment: SR-146 * SR-146-AP

    Enabling Legislation:  none identified

    Does the ballot question and measure name accurately and fully reflect the effect of passage without obfuscation?

    The name of this ballot question suggests that the victims of crime do not already have rights in the judicial process, when in fact they do.  Adoption of #4 would create a new class of such rights, including the right to notice, the right to not be excluded from judicial proceedings and the right to be heard with respect to the release of, a plea by or the sentencing of the accused, the right to retain counsel to represent the interests of the victim of an alleged criminal act.

    The framing of the ballot question fails to acknowledge that its ratification would apply to cases of delinquency (of minors) as well as criminal proceedings against adults.

    Who would benefit from the proposed change?

    Although presumably drawn for the benefit of the victims of alleged criminal acts, the most likely beneficiaries will be the prison industrial complex which reaps huge profits from our current system of mass incarceration, as the current punitive focus of our criminal justice system works against efforts for reconciliation between victims and offenders or the restoration of justice.

    A similar measure on this year’s Florida ballot is being criticized by the ACLU of Florida for its potential to extend new powers to corporate ‘victims’ of criminal acts who would be able to use the criminal justice system to assert its property interests in a punitive response and without respect to the interests of justice or rehabilitation. A reading of the language in this Georgia Constitutional Amendment makes clear that here in Georgia as well, the Court’s current confusion about the personhood of corporate entities would give Walmart for example undue influence in the resolution of simple shoplifting cases. In fact, the provision permitting victims to be represented by counsel will work to the advantage of corporations, and cash-strapped humans victimized by crime operating without the assistance of counsel would be relatively marginalized in the process.

    Who supports the passage of this measure?

    California billionaire Henry Nicholas

    Who supports the defeat of this measure?

    ACLU

    Georgia Public Policy Foundation

    What is the Georgia Green Party’s recommended position?

    The Georgia Green Party urges a NO vote on Constitutional Amendment #4.

    As the national ACLU wrote in their analysis around this nationwide effort, “Victims’ rights are not rights against the state. Instead, they are rights against another individual. . . . many of the provisions in Marsy’s Law could actually strengthen the state’s hand against a defendant, undermining a bedrock principle of our legal system — the presumption of innocence.”

    Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, in a 2015 interview on Democracy Now said that what is required is “transforming our criminal justice system from one that is purely punitive to one that is based on principles of restorative and transformative justice, you know, systems that take seriously the interests of the victim, the offender and the community as a whole.”

    In her book, she spoke of data pointing out that voters ‘often the most punitive’ were the ‘least likely to be crime victims’. She also wrote that “researchers found that racial attitudes – not crime rates or likelihood of victimization – are an important determinant of white support for ‘get tough on crime’”.

    As Re:store Justice, a California non-profit put it: “We believe that victims’ rights can be met most effectively by creating more opportunities for restorative and non-adversarial processes for both victims and offenders within and beyond the criminal justice system.  Acknowledging the humanity of victims and offenders allows us to identify and meet the full range of what victims may want from offenders. More than punishment and retribution, their healing may require that the offender is accountable, makes an apology, expresses regret and remorse and makes amends to the extent possible. While these actions cannot be required from an offender, when freely given, they may be the source of true justice.”

     

  • NO on Three — reject impoverishing rural schools to subsidize one of wealthiest industries in state

    CA #3 — Urging a NO vote
    Encourage the conservation, sustainability, and longevity of Georgia’s
    working forests through tax subclassification and grants.

    Constitutional Amendment: HR-51 * HR-51-AP

    Enabling Legislation: HB-85 * HB-85-AP

    Does the ballot question and measure name accurately and fully reflect the effect of passage without obfuscation?

    Not really. At least this name is honest that it deals with ‘working’ forests, though we consider calling a tree farm a forest, euphemistic and misleading. This measure seems more concerned with sustaining the profitability of the forest industry than with the conservation of habitat. And nowhere in either the ballot question, nor in the title assigned to this measure by the _______ Committee, is the voter advised of the adverse impact this change will have on local school funding, though the language of the change proposed to the Constitution does make concessions to that concern.

    Who would benefit from the proposed change?

    The Georgia Forest Industry, mostly, and large tract land-owners who would benefit from the tax concessions provided by these changes.

    Who supports the passage of this measure?

    The Fair Forest Tax PAC was organized to support passage. To date, they have raised $8,700 and spent $3,150 in support of passage of this change. The money comes from a small handful of tree farmers and corporations in the timber and pulp industries.

    Who supports the defeat of this measure?

    What is the Georgia Green Party’s recommended position?

    The Georgia Green Party urges a NO vote on Constitutional Amendment #3.

    98% of Georgia forests are commercial forests, producing pulp, timber and related products. A 2010 report by Georgia Tech puts Georgia tax revenues from its forest industry at $448 million annually. Adoption of #3 is likely to put a significant dent into that figure, shifting responsibility for funding state operations onto the rest of Georgia and threatening an adverse impact on school budgets across the state, particularly for its rural counties.

    In the early 90’s Question #3 added the relevant Constitutional language to provide for preferential tax treatment for ‘conservation use property’. That measure included provisions permitting the state to provide grants to impacted local school districts, to account for the revenue lost to our schools by assessing land in these conservation use convenants without taxing the timber or pulp growing on the land. The rules required that land under such covenants be preserved for at least 15 years or that the land-owner pay the full weight of the taxes due if they were to harvest their tree farm any earlier.

    The changes offered with this year’s #3 change those rules so that a land owner can remove land from such a covenant after only ten years, instead of the original 15 years.

    These provisions of the state Constitution, Article VII, Section I, Paragraph III, subparagraph (f), were again amended in the General Election of 2008, after the Georgia Forestry Association PAC raised and spent roughly a quarter million dollars for their YES-on-1 campaign, including $30,000 contributed by Montana based Plum Creek, Georgia’s largest land-owner which is a part of the Nebraska based Weyerhaeuser Company, which owns 13 million acres nation-wide. Now economic interests in the timber and pulp industries are again seeking changes to these provisions.

    The 2018 changes now requiring approval of the voters include provisions to permit the Revenue Commissioner to receive up to 5% of the assistance grants created to offset the adverse fiscal impact on our local schools, to cover the cost of state administration of the program. HB-85, which provides enabling legislation sets the amount due the Department of Revenue at 3%, initially.

    Although our research has not identified any specific beneficiary by name, this year’s changes include a curious provision which seems narrowly drawn to extend the benefits of these tax advantages to one or perhaprs a small number of land owning tree farmers.

    And the key feature acknowledged in the ballot question adds a new subparagraph (f.1) to permit a distinct formula for the valuation and taxation of ‘qualified timberland property’. Such property would not be subject to the conservation covenants of subparagraph (f), but would nonetheless enjoy tax benefits which would shift the burden from large private land holdings to the working people of Georgia with further adverse impacts on local school districts.

    The enabling legislation which becomes effective should the voters approve the ratification of the underlying constitutional provisions which authorize it, HB-85, adds new additional tax examptions so that ‘conservation use property’ and ‘qualified timber property’ would be assessed and taxed at 40% of its fair market value, rather than its full market value, as provided by current law. This preferential tax treatment is in addition to the exclusion of the value of the timber subject to covenant under the ‘conservation use property’ provisions adopted in 1992.

    The HB-85 enabling legislation permits lands to be fragmented and subject to multiple convenants, although originally this legislation would only extend these tax benefits to tracts of 200 or more contiguous acres protected for at least 15 years by a single covenant.

    ‘Qualified timber property’ is required to consist of at least 50 contiguous acres. Thinning and timber sales are permitted uses for such tax exempt land, and no covenants are required as for ‘forest land conservation use’ designation, although both classes of property will benefit from the same cap at 40% of fair market value for tax purposes.

     

  • NO on Two — Reject business courts, a premature, anti-democratic, corporate power grab

    CA #2 — Urging a NO vote
    Creates a state-wide business court to lower costs,
    enhance efficiency, and promote predictable judicial outcomes.

    Constitutional Amendment: HR-993 * HR-993-AP

    Enabling Legislation: HB-185 * HB-185-SCS (Senate Committee Substitute)

    Does the ballot question and measure name accurately and fully reflect the effect of passage without obfuscation?

    No. Adoption would create concurrent jurisdiction in equity cases between publicly elected superior court judges, and the judges of the newly created business court who would be appointed by the Governor.  The ballot question implies that these new courts would only sit on cases involving ‘certain complex business disputes’. In reality, these changes to the Constitution would permit the Governor appointed judges to consider any case of equity, whether or not they involved ‘complex business disputes’. Jurisdiction over a case might be transferred from superior court to the business courts by agreement of the parties; but no reciprocal provision exists to transfer a case in the other direction. Presumably a new case filed originally by a plaintiff in a business court would provide no mechanism for a defendant to transfer jurisdiction back before an elected judge.

    Who would benefit from the proposed change?

    Who supports the passage of this measure?

    Who supports the defeat of this measure?

    What is the Georgia Green Party’s recommended position?

    The Georgia Green Party urges a NO vote on Constitutional Amendment #2.

    The Senate Substitute to HB-185 outlines an office to conduct a study on the scope of jurisdiction for these proposed courts.

    This enabling legislation intended to effectuate the creation of the business court system anticipated by the adoption of this amendment, died when the General Assembly adjourned in 2018, with HB-185 having been tabled in the Senate. Although adopted by the Georgia House on February 15th, 2017, the version which the House sent to the Senate was related to matters involving the Probate Courts. The bill number was picked up as a zombie, gutted, and substituted late in the 2018 session and recommended to the Senate by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Four days later, on March 27th of this year, the bill was tabled in the Senate, and later died with adjournment.

    So the enabling legislation for this constitutional amendment was not adopted by the Senate, where it originated, and has never been considered by the Georgia House of Representatives.

    At best, consideration of this proposal by the voters of Georgia is premature. As worst, it serves as an anti-democratic means for removing jurisdiction over a broad swatch of litigation from elected judges and assigning those cases to judges appointed by the Governor.

  • No on One – Taxpayers and Elected Officials should Prioritize Tax Expenditures, not a private industry group

    CA #1 — Urging a NO vote
    Creates the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund  to protect water quality, wildlife habitat and parks

    Constitutional Amendment: HR-238 * HR-238-AP (pdf)

    Enabling Legislation: HB-332 * HB-332-AP (pdf)

    Does the ballot question and measure name accurately and fully reflect the effect of passage without obfuscation?

    No, an existing fund of the state, repealed by the enabling legislation, already provides a source of dedicated funds for these purposes. The effect of the adoption of this measure would be to divert certain sales taxes from the general fund to this purpose, denying the ability of the Georgia Assembly to allocate those funds in other ways to meet our shifting priorities.  While it took a two-third majority of both houses to put this question before the voters, with no change to the Constitution the Assembly already has the authority to allocate these funds and more for these purposes.

    Who would benefit from the proposed change?

    Members of the Outdoor Industry Association would benefit most by seeing the tax collected on their retail sales dedicated to public expenditures likely to increase demand for their products, rather than being allocated in the General Fund for other priorities of the state.

    Who supports the passage of this measure?

    Outdoor Industry Association — a trade organization including DuPont
    and a wide number of outdoor outfitter manufacturers.

    Russell M Currey, Boxwood Capital, LLC ($10,000)
    Tall Timbers Research, Inc. ($10,000)
    James Lews Glenn, Sea Island Company ($5,000)
    James A Lanier, Jr., Retired ($5,000)
    Scott Satterwhite, Retured ($5,000)

    The Conservation Fund ($50,000)
    The Nature Conservancy ($50,000)
    The Trust for Public Lands Action Fund ($10,000)
    The Georgia Conservancy
    Georgia Wildlife Federation
    Park Pride

    Who supports the defeat of this measure?

    What is the Georgia Green Party’s recommended position?

    The Georgia Green Party urges a NO vote on Constitutional Amendment #1.

    This change if ratified would provide a dedicated pot of public sales tax money which would be spent according to the priorities of a private trade association, and do so in a way which would bind the hands of future elected officials to prioritize expenditures outside the scope of those preferred by this industrial trade group.  The existence of this tax allocation would serve as cover for the Assembly to cap funds for this purpose to that generated by this tax dedication.  The effect of this change is non-lapsing and to revisit this allocation would again require a vote of the citizens in a General Election.

     

  • Ballot Questions 2018: Corporate Welfare, Significant Cost to Georgia Taxpayers

    Please help us spread the word.  You can print the Summary of the Georgia Green Party’s Recommendations on the 2018 Ballot Questions front and back, then cut them in half to get two leaflets per sheet you print.

    The democratic will of Georgians has been thwarted. Wealthy private contributors, including anonymous donors, not voters, determine candidate viability. Elected officials draw maps to choose their voters, before voters can choose their elected officials. Barriers to ballot access deny voters the ability to choose our preferred candidates and parties, while exclusion from polls and debates deny voters information on our options.

    Voting may have been reduced to a choice among competing evils. But the corporate oligarchy must still seek our permission to amend the constitution.

    The Georgia Green Party urges Georgia voters to use that power to say NO. The Georgia forestry industry is among the largest and most profitable in this state. That may give them the power and resources to purchase policy. But it is no reason to excuse them from their obligation to help fund our public schools. While #3 is perhaps the most egregious example of corporate welfare on our 2018 ballot, it is by no means the only one.

    With your help, with your vote, we can deny this abuse of power and defeat these ill advised changes to the Constitution of Georgia.

    For further background on the Green Party’s position, please visit:
    http://www.GeorgiaGreenParty.org/2018_ballot_questions

    Green Values are Majoritarian Values
    Peace and NonViolence * Social Justice
    Grassroots Democracy * Ecological Wisdom

     

    Georgia Green Party Recommendations on 2018 Ballot Questions

    NO on #1, sales taxes should be spent on the evolving priorities of the community, not be dedicated by the Constitution to the priorities of the Outdoor Industry Association

    NO on #2, reject these experimental, premature and anti­-democratic business courts which would favor lawyered­up
    corporations over Georgia citizens

    NO on #3, reject impoverishing Georgia public schools, particularly in rural communities; one of Georgia’s largest industries does not need a 60% property tax exemption to remain profitable, the working people and home­owners of Georgia should not have to subsidize their profit to fund our public schools

    NO on #4, reject this billionaire pet project; protect the presumption of innocence for the accused and equal protection under the law; constitutional rights have traditionally protected people from their government, not from one another; let’s not pit human defendants against corporate ‘victims’

    YES on #5, facilitate Special Local Option Sales Taxes for educational purposes in counties with multiple school systems

    NO on A, reject this measure to deny Atlanta residents notice and hearings for millage rate increase

    YES on B, preserve access to federal tax credits and county property tax exemptions for nonprofits which operate homes for the mentally disabled, even when they use private financing for construction or renovations

     

  • Georgia Delegates split on Hotly Debated Green Platform Measure
    Vote over prostitution policy turns out largest vote in GNC history

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    Monday, July 2nd, 2018

    For further information, contact:
    Bruce Dixon, 404-797-2087
    Delegate, chair, Georgia Green Party

    Qadija Tatum-Aamir, 912-517-6655
    Delegate, Georgia Green Party

    Preston Thacker, 817-456-3765
    Alternate, Georgia Green Party

    Hugh Esco, 912-571-1833
    Secretary, Georgia Green Party

    Georgia Delegates split on Hotly Debated Green Platform Measure
    Vote over prostitution policy turns out largest vote in GNC history

    The National Committee of the Green Party of the United States has decisively rejected a proposal to amend its national party Platform to rewrite its position on the state regulation of prostitution. In a seven-day vote which ended 73-63-6, Sunday at midnight, Pacific, the measure failed to achieve the support of the two-thirds required for amendments to the Platform. Consequently the GNC declined to adopt the position advanced by the Illinois Party which would have criticized the Nordic model, currently supported by the Platform, and would have endorsed instead the New Zealand model, which seeks to decriminalize ‘all aspects’ of the sex-industry.

    “I suspect many of us started out pretty green in regard to our overstanding of this measure. But as the debate unfolded, it became clear that advocates for #912 seemed quite naive about how the world of prostitution operates,” said Georgia Delegate Qadija Tatum-Aamir, Georgia Delegate who voted NO, an environmental artist, sustainablist and educator raised in Wisconsin who currently lives in Brunswick Georgia. “This is why I chose to lend my voice, because I do have personal experience. Thankfully enough of us did, that it has resulted in 912’s defeat.”

    “My support for #912 was intended to protect and empower sex workers as we would any other worker,” said Preston Thacker, Georgia Alternate from Savannah, and a participant with a network of socialist Greens active throughout the US party. Thacker’s vote was the fifth since being named as an Alternate by the 2017 Clarkston Convention, and is motivated by their own non-binary identity and relationships in the LGBTQIA+ community with those who have engaged in sex work for survival and as a substitute for a traditional 9-5 job. “I felt compelled to take a stand on the issue, and my vote was based on my opposition to oppression of all kinds, human trafficking, oppression of LGBTQIA+ sex workers, and the lack of a legal framework that protects their interests and prevents their oppression by bosses, in this case the pimps, johns, and madams.”

    The vote on #912 brought out a record setting turn-out, 144 votes cast of 157 total eligible. “It is the first time in a while since I have participated in this big an effort on the National Committee to defeat a measure. We tend to agree on most questions put to us,” said Tatum-Aamir. “I am very grateful to have been a part of this effort.  It gives me hope.”

    “My initial anger over this proposal was tempered by the forgiveness expressed when Ms. Moran reminded me that we really cannot blame young people for not understanding how Amnesty International’s position and that of other respected organizations has been corrupted on this issue,” said Hugh Esco who organized with a broad coalition of Green Party activists, including members of the party’s National Committee, for the defeat of #912. Esco is a former Green Party nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, a former member of the Green National Committee and the current Secretary of the Georgia Green Party.

    Rachel Moran is the author of “Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution”, and the founder of an international organization, Survivors of Prostitution Abuse Seeking Enlightenment, SPACE Intl. Dr. Melissa Farley is the director of Prostitution Resesarch and Education in San Fransisco, California, and the author of a 2011 book on prostitution and trafficking in Nevada. Opponents to #912 found the online library curated by Dr Farley invaluable to their efforts to encourage a science based approach to this area of public policy.

    The Nordic, Swedish or Equality model still advocated for by the national party’s platform exists to protect those prostituted from arrest, empower them with the police powers of the state to prosecute abusive johns and exploitative pimps and provide them with social services when they choose to leave the ‘life’, to support their successful exit. Those working in prostitution dropped 75% over twelve years in Sweden, which has not seen the trafficking and organized crime suffered in nearby Denmark and Germany where prostitution is legal.

    “While I am grateful we decisively defeated #912, the support this measure did recieve is indicative of the extent to which a pimp’s perspective has so ubiquitously embedded itself in the rape culture which shapes our public consciousness. The policies advocated by #912 would have served to further normalize the attitudes of men which have been the focus of this #metoo moment,” said Esco. “We must do a better job of countering these destructive narratives. Our Party cannot make its contribution to this movement to end the sexist oppression of women until we learn to deconstruct the rhetoric of agency and empowerment abused by the pimp’s lobby to distract us from the question of consent and to confuse our discussions about these important questions of public policy.”

    The Platform of the Green Party of the United States claims ‘Feminism and Gender Equity’ as a ‘key value’. Feminist activists have been at the heart of building the party since its inception. The Georgia Green Party is an accredited affiliate of the Green Party of the United States.

    Last night’s rejection of #912 means the Green Party of the United States continues to assert that women and children need, not a right to work in the sex-trade; but substantive alternatives such that they need not face that prospect. For those who have been trafficked or prostituted, they also need the social services which can make real their choice to exit the industry for those ready to do so.

    — 30 —

    #912: 2018 Platform Amendment Proposal – De-Criminalization of Sex Work
    Proposal: https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=912
    Vote: https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/propresult?pid=912

    Platform of the Green Party of the United States
    http://www.gp.org/social_justice_2016/#sjCivilRights

    The Georgia Green Party
    https://georgiagreenparty.org/

    Prostitution Resesarch and Education

    Home

    Survivors of Prostitution Abuse Seeking Enlightenment
    http://www.spaceintl.org/

  • Ballot Access 2018

    We got petitions ready to go.  We are ready for you to step up and create a public face for the Georgia Green Party in your community.  With your help, Green Party candidates can get on the Georgia ballot in 2018.  Below is a link to our 2018 petition, along with guidance on its effective use.

    For a bit of context, the officers and state committee continue to explore litigation and legislative strategies to build on our victory last year in Federal Court, which provide the first break-through in Georgia’s ballot access regime since 1982, when the 5% rule was bifurcated to provide for a 1% standard for state-wide ballot access.  That was thirty-five years ago.

    In North Carolina a change to the law was just enacted which will for the first time make it possible for the Green Party to put its candidates on the ballot in that state. You will hear more in the weeks to follow about opportunities to engage with us at the state Capitol in the next session.

    But we will have nothing to discuss with legislators in January, unless we are also building a campaign which seeks to comply with the existing ballot access regime governing access by Green candidates to the Georgia ballot.

    We are urging Greens across Georgia to devote at least one day, between now and the close of polls, 7:00 pm, Tuesday, November 7th, 2017 and commit it to collecting petition signatures for our state-wide slate.  We are creating a new Facebook group specific to the 2018 petition drive, where folks are encouraged to document your local ballot access efforts with reports and photographs, raw signature counts, tactical assessments about what works and what does not, questions about the process and anything else relevant to putting Green Party candidates on the ballot in Georgia in 2018.

    Party officers are already in conversation with candidates interested in seeking the Party’s nomination in 2018. As they prepare to publicly launch their campaigns, there is work we can do as a Party to prepare the way.  The clock is ticking towards our ballot access deadline and your party needs you to step up at this time.  Not everyone can run for office this year.  But we can all carry a petition.

    For folks living in or near to municipalities holding local elections this year, please consider taking Tuesday, the 7th off from work to staff a polling place, finding a place 150′ from the building where you can engage voters and ask them to sign your ballot access petition. If you are out there campaigning for your local candidate, and if asked whether your local candidate is endorsed by the Greens, simply be clear, that while the Party has not considered that question, that this particular Green (that would be you) does.

    If that does not make sense, give your party a day of your labor this coming weekend, perhaps find a festival or fair or queue you can work.  Lines outside of nightclubs, sidewalks in your town square, the community rooms in your dorm, the potluck after church, all of these make excellent opportunities to engage Georgia voters, collecting their signatures to put Greens on the Georgia ballot.

    This is the latest petition:

    https://georgiagreenparty.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ba_petition_2018_statewide_by_convention.pdf.

    If you have never circulated a petition before, I urge that you take a look at this next link as well.  Judging from the email address and phone numbers, this is from perhaps 1998 or 1999.  Please ignore those old numbers and address, as no longer relevant.  But otherwise the advice on how to effectively circulate a ballot access petition is solid.  Only change is that we are now asked to collect birth dates as well.

    Remember, print only on legal size paper, with the affidavit on the back of every petition, collect signatures from only ONE-COUNTY-PER-PAGE and handle your petition in such a way you are ready to face a perjury accusation over your signature on the affidavit.
    http://www.greens.org/georgia.static/pdf/HowToCirculate.pdf

     

  • Let’s Build a Party

    The Georgia Green Party intends to build a democratic membership based organization with the capacity to contest in our communities, state and nation for the political power necessary to implement a Green vision for a just, peaceful and sustainable future for coming generations. This is an invitation that Greens from across Georgia gather with members of the recently elected state committee to continue our consideration of our strategic plan and how it is we’d like to step up and serve the building of this political party.

    Join Us! Let’s Build a Party
    Sat Sept 30th, 9 AMMacon, GA

  • Challenging Islamophobia, Green Party Briefing Paper for candidates and activists

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Green Party’s Coordinated Campaign Committee has released a briefing paper titled “Islamophobia: Another Social Construction of Racism”. The paper is a guide for use by Green candidates and activists.

    “We are very pleased indeed to offer this new tool for Green Party candidates and activists,” said Hillary Kane, co-chair of the committee. “We want to help Green Party activists be effective organizers in resistance to the frightening Islamophobic rhetoric and policies coming from the current administration.”

    Green Party of the United States
    http://www.gp.org
    @GreenPartyUS

    For Immediate Release:
    Monday, April 17, 2017

    Contact:
    Scott McLarty, Media Director, 202-904-7614, scott@gp.org
    Hillary Kane, co-chair of the Coordinated Campaign Committee, 267-971-3559 (cell)
    Hugh Esco, co-author of briefing paper, 912-571-1833 (cell)

    Briefing paper and brochure

    Results of Green participation in April 4 local elections: 8/20 victories

    The paper debunks and deconstructs misinformation in the popular narrative about Muslims and Islam and suggests concrete steps which Green candidates and activists across the nation can take to defend human rights and freedoms against unconstitutional encroachment.

    “It is great that the Green Party is tackling Islamophobia head on by using this paper as a tool to debunk many myths and misconceptions that have plagued so many political party organizations,” said Farheen Hakeem, former co-chair of the Green Party of the United States and the first Muslim leader of a national party with FEC recognition in U.S. history.

    “It’s important for folks to read and understand this paper as we enter a time period where Muslims are targeted perhaps more than any other group. Post Trump America is more frightening than post 9/11 America for Muslims,” said Ahmed Eltouny, second vice chair of the Green Party of New Jersey and alternative delegate to the party’s National Committee.

    The paper is a collaboration between two veteran Green Party organizers. George Friday is former co-chair of the Green Party of North Carolina, a board member of Move to Amend, a life-long organizer, and long time anti-racism trainer. Hugh Esco is current co-chair of the Georgia Green Party and a two-time candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia.

    Mr. Esco initiated the project when anti-Muslim rhetoric was on display during the 2016 presidential election. The paper is built on extensive research on Islam and deals with the bigoted response to it by reactionary political forces in the U.S. and western Europe.

    The paper synthesizes research documented in nearly a hundred citations from ten books, including the Quran, 39 articles from nearly as many periodicals, eleven academic studies by government agencies, advocacy organizations, and scholars. It incorporates feedback on late drafts from a handful of Muslims, many of them Green Party voters, supporters, and members, who address Islamophobic attacks on a daily basis.

    “This nation has a long history of demogogic political rhetoric. It is a tired old tactic to appeal to voter fears and ignorance which unfortunately still seems effective at winning elections,” said Mr. Esco.

    “Those in power have repeatedly appealed to this nation’s racism to divide working people and to maintain control of the wealth our labor provides,” said George Friday. “We hope this research will help Green Party activists across the country interrupt the hateful narrative and the spectrum of violence it enables.”

    The 13-page briefing paper is available for download from the Green Party’s website along with a trifold brochure summarizing its findings. The trifold was introduced at a book signing held in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 31 featuring Arun Kundnani, author of a history entitled “The Muslims are Coming: Islamophobia, Extremism and the Domestic War on Terror,” a work cited four times in the briefing paper. A video of Dr. Kundnani’s talk is embedded at this website, operated by the Party’s Coordinated Campaign Committee, which hosts the briefing paper and summary brochure as well.

    The paper summarizes research on a $200 million industry of propaganda designed to demonize people based on their faith.

    “As the Quran puts it, we should enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, but all scriptures for all faiths would agree on that,” said Hugh Esco. “If we are to end war and live in peace with our Muslim neighbors, both domestically and globally, we as Greens must embrace our role in challenging the Islamophobia and other forms of racism used to justify our nations violent policies.”
    MORE INFORMATION

    Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
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    @GreenPartyUS

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    ~ END ~

  • Voting as if a Just Peace Matters

    The 2016 Presidential race again offers us a choice among corporate financed candidates and parties who have demonstrated by word, action and policy their antagonism to Islamic aspirations that we struggle for peace with justice for an ummah which embraces all of Creation. One of them would build a wall to exclude your families from re-uniting here.  The other has built a political career on the bodies of innocents murdered in this nation’s illegal, immoral and imperial wars of aggression, conquest and occupation.

    The Green Party offers a welcoming political home to our immigrant neighbors, and immigrant or not, as well to our Muslim neighbors too often vilified by our nation’s racism and Islamophobia.  Please check us out.