At the July 5, 2026 meeting of the Georgia Green Party Coordinating Council, the council approved a motion to endorse a statement initiated by the SanctionsKill Campaign entitled Return Venezuela’s Stolen Wealth for Full Quake Recovery. The council encourages Greens to endorse the statement as individuals and as members of other organizations in which they participate.
Author: Ayman Fadel
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Ask Your Friends If Their Political Parties Support Israel’s Genocide in Palestine
Without further research we cannot pinpoint the date when Green Party activists first started calling the Occupation’s response to the October 2023 Operation al-Aqsa Flood a genocide. But we know that the Georgia Green Party’s annual convention on May 18th, 2024 acknowledged with the addition of Plank 13 to the Foreign Policy Chapter of its platform that “the International Court of Justice (had found) that a ‘plausible genocide’ is being conducted by the state of Israel against the Palestinian people, particularly with respect to its actions in Gaza”.
We point this out not for we-told-you-so points. As with so many of our policy warnings, we really wish we were wrong about this.
Rather we seek to urge Green Party activists to challenge their friends still voting for the corporate parties. We must each ask how can they justify their support for these policies when they clearly have options. Even if they continue to pretend that Palestinian lives do not matter, they might choose to work with us at least for their own liberation from the oligarchs governing our own nation. Only a political strategy, independent of those oligarchs can deliver on such a promise.
Its hard to image a human heart so inured to suffering to not recognize what our tax dollars are paying for right now in Gaza. Which leads one to the conclusion that they know, and either (1) they do not care; or (2) they cower in fear from what Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer calls the Israeli Lobby. Neither possesses the integrity required for position of trust among our elected leadership.
We cannot resolve an issue we refuse to face.
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Register for the 2025 Annual Convention
On May 24, 2025, the Georgia Green Party is convening its 2025 Annual Convention from 1 pm to 6 pm.
Pre-registration is required for virtual participants and encouraged by those who will attend in person. You may register here: http://db.georgiagreenparty.net/civicrm/event/info?id=181&reset=1.
We will gather at the Brownwood Recreation Center, 602 Brownwood Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30316.
If you are unable to attend in person, we hope to provide an option for remote participants.
Our conventions are open to public observation. Even so full participation in our party’s process is reserved, where permitted by law, to dues paying members of the party. If you are ready to help us build this party, you may join at this link.
This convention is for the purpose of electing the party’s internal leadership, to consider amendments to the party Platform and consider amendments to the bylaws, if any may have been reviewed by the state committee.
Seats within the party’s leadership structure up for consideration at this year”s convention include 8 two-year seats and 1 one-year seat on the state committee, plus 2 two-year seats on the state party’s Delegation on National Green Party Affairs.
Please join us and help us build a political home independent of corporate control.
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Annual Convention, Sat, May 24, 2025
On May 24, 2025, the Georgia Green Party is convening its 2025 Annual Convention. Full details are now available here: https://georgiagreenparty.org/register-for-the-2025-annual-convention/
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U.N. Special Rapporteur Asks Questions About “Altruistic Surrogacy” in Greece
The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Reem Alsalem as Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences. On July 8, 2024, she publicized her communication to the government of Greece regarding her concerns about “altruistic surrogacy” in its jurisdiction.
Ms. Alsalem wrote:
the regulation of surrogacy in Greece appears to disproportionately focus on the protection and security of the commissioning parents, while lacking effective safeguards and due considerations to the rights of the surrogate mother, and the children born through surrogacy.
The letter describes many ways in which the rights of surrogate mothers and the children born of these procedures are violated, and it is worth reading in full. Perhaps the most alarming questions revolve around the economic coercion practiced under the legal fiction of “altruistic surrogacy.”
[T]he regulation of surrogacy in Greece also has gaps concerning the protection of women living in situations of economic vulnerability. Indeed, according to information received, poor or migrant women are selected to be surrogate mothers precisely because of their vulnerable situation. Hence, according to data received, more than 60 per cent of surrogate mothers are not citizens of Greece. A study noted that most of them are from Bulgaria, Poland, Georgia, Albania, and Romania. This was intensified by the regulatory change in 2014, which allows surrogate mothers to not be Greek citizens, or even have permanent residency, placing migrant women at greater risk.
Additionally, I share the concern that, although according to Law 3089/2002 surrogacy should be carried out exclusively for “altruistic” purposes, there are allegations that surrogacy and egg “donation” are, in fact, carried out for financial reasons. It is possible to observe surrogate mothers who pretend to be the commissioner’s best friends (in accordance with the principle of altruism) but in reality, are usually younger non-Greeks than the commissioning parents or, in some situations, their foreign-born domestic workers.The Georgia Green Party Platform supports the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights and endorses the Draft International Convention for the Abolition of Surrogacy to protect women locally and globally from the exploitative surrogacy industry. The party commits to “protect women in Georgia and globally from the predatory domestic and global surrogacy market and its reliance on the trafficking of impoverished women’s bodies.”
In the discussions party members had prior to adopting this position, the question of “altruistic surrogacy” attracted focus. Evidence showing how jurisdictions which allowed surrogacy under this label had abuses like those Ms. Alsalem suspects are happening in Greece persuaded the party that abolition was the best policy.
Join the Georgia Green Party and help it promote this important human rights issue.
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Does Donating or Selling Eggs to the Surrogacy Industry Empower Women?
Nordic Model Now!, “a secular, feminist, grassroots women’s group based in the UK that is campaigning for the abolition of prostitution and related practices (such as lap-dancing, pornography and surrogacy),” reports that the London Egg Bank is placing advertisements for women to donate and/or sell their embryos for the purpose of surrogacy.
The Georgia Green Party supports the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights and endorses in its platform the Draft International Convention for the Abolition of Surrogacy to protect women locally and globally from the exploitative surrogacy industry. The party commits to “protect women in Georgia and globally from the predatory domestic and global surrogacy market and its reliance on the trafficking of impoverished women’s bodies. We urge would-be parents who might have considered surrogacy to consider instead the meaningful contributions they might make as foster or adoptive parents, provided that the conflicting interests of all parties to these family formation practices are ethically and legally protected.”
Neither egg donation nor gestational surrogacy is risk free. Commercial interests exploit the economic desperation of young women as a locus of production for an industry predicted to be worth $34 Billion by 2027. In contrast, our Platform advocates livable wages and financial support for the students they target with these ads.
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Hearing on Platform Amendment Proposal to Remove Endorsement of Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights — Dr. Heather Brunskell-Evans
Did you miss this? Watch a recording.
The Georgia Green Party Platform Committee invites the public to attend a hearing Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 11 AM Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -04) on HR02 – Remove Endorsement of Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, a proposal to amend the platform. The May 18, 2024 Additional Nominating Convention is scheduled to consider all such platform revisions.
The hearing is scheduled for the purpose of taking the testimony of Heather Brunskell-Evans, a co-author of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights. Dr. Brunskell-Evans’s website is http://www.heather-brunskell-evans.co.uk/.
The teleconference hearing uses the Zoom platform. Registration is required. Use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtdeiopj4pHtE28nGCEfmXC2k3-RX8rFVv
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
After Dr. Brunskell-Evans’s opening statement, participants may ask questions. Priority will be given to Georgia Green Party State Committee members, then other party members, then residents of the State of Georgia and then others. You may also submit questions in writing to the Platform Committee.
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Additional Nominating Convention 2024 of the Georgia Green Party
On May 18, 2024, the Georgia Green Party is hosting via teleconference its 2024 Additional Nominating Convention.
Notice is given of, and Greens from across Georgia are urged to attend, the 2024 Nominating Convention of the Georgia Green Party. We will convene on Saturday, May 18th, at 10am, with plans to adjourn at 4pm that afternoon.
This nominating convention is our opportunity to nominate candidates for public office ahead of qualifying for the 2024 General Election, to elect the party’s internal leadership, consider amendments to the bylaws which have been previously reviewed and amendments to the party Platform. Green Party members and others registered to participate in the Convention are invited to show up at 9 am to caucus for the purpose of naming delegates from their county to the 2024 Nominating Convention of the Georgia Green Party. This virtual event will be hosted on an online conferencing platform and pre-registration is required.
This meeting will consider nominations for internal party offices, including eight two-year seats and five one-year seats on the state committee, plus two two-year seats and two one-year seats on the state party’s Delegation on National Green Party Affairs. The Nominating Convention will also consider proposed amendments to the state party platform and proposed changes to the bylaws as such may have been previously reviewed by the state committee.
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Legal Notice for 2024 Nominating Convention
To register for the 2024 Georgia Green Party Nominating Convention on February 17, 2024, visit https://georgiagreenparty.org/nc2024/.
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FAQ for Georgia Greens Asking about the 2024 Presidential Election
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Georgia Greens Asking about the 2024 Presidential Election
Greens are understandably excited about supporting a Green candidate for Georgia’s 16 electoral college votes. As the Georgia Green Party has already begun receiving inquiries from Greens eager to begin action and from representatives of campaigns for candidates seeking the party’s nomination, the Georgia Green Party has put together this document to answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). If, after reading this document, you have other questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Section 1: Information for Candidates
1. How can a candidate earn the nomination of the Georgia Green Party?
Contact the Secretary of the Georgia Green Party and let us know of your interest. Read more below.
2. What do I need to know about the Presidential Preference Caucus?
The Nominating Convention Rules of the Georgia Green Party provides in Article V a Policy on the Presidential Nominating Convention. This policy outlines the process whereby the Georgia Green Party prepares for the Quadrennial Presidential Nominating Convention for the nomination of candidates for President of the United States seeking the Green Party nomination. https://f908ee.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/GGP-NC-Rules.pdf
3. How can my preferred candidate be included on the Georgia Party’s Presidential Preference Caucus ballot?
A state convention delegate must nominate a candidate for inclusion on the Georgia party’s Presidential Preference Caucus ballot. That candidate must meet specific qualifications outlined in the rules. The convention delegate must be a member of the Georgia Green Party and must be recognized by the convention as a Delegate for their county affiliate or caucus. The most essential first step to being a delegate is to join the party. For information on how to do that, visit:
https://georgiagreenparty.org/join-or-contributeto-the-georgia-green-party/4. How can my candidate get on the Georgia ballot in the 2024 November General Election?
The nominee of the Georgia Green Party, to appear on the Georgia 2024 November General Election ballot, must meet a petition-gathering requirement and be certified to the Secretary of State by the Party as its candidate. If a petition form for your candidate of choice is not linked here, obtain a copy of the necessary petition form and instructions and contact the Secretary of the Georgia Green Party. As campaigns contact the state party, the necessary forms will be generated and linked from this FAQ.
5. When can we begin circulating the petition? When is the filing deadline?
The period for circulating this petition begins 2024-January-11th (estimated), and the filing deadline is expected to be Tuesday, 2024-July-09. We traditionally ask petition circulators to turn in their petitions the weekend before they are due to allow time for their final preparation for filing on Tuesday morning and for use as evidence for potential litigation to ensure our candidates’ places on the ballot.
6. How many signatures will it take to place our candidate on the Georgia ballot?
The requirements of the Georgia Election Code for presidential races were struck down as unconstitutional on March 17th, 2016 in a case, styled, Green Party of Ga. v. Kemp, 171 F. Supp. 3d 1340 (N.D. Ga. 2016). Under the 2016 Court Order, we are required to file 7,500 valid signatures to place a Presidential candidate on the Georgia ballot. To survive the validation process, we urge Green Party supporters (1) to avail themselves of the training provided by experienced petition circulators in the party; and (2) to help us raise a minimum of 15,000 signatures.
7. Will the Georgia Green Party campaign for my candidate?
Prior to the Presidential Preference Caucus, the Georgia Green Party will not differentiate in its treatment of candidates, meaning that it will neither endorse a candidate nor provide support to one candidate in preference to others. It has been our practice (though not mandated by rule) that our officers are asked to remain publicly neutral with regard to the Presidential race until after our Presidential Preference Caucus has been conducted. This does not preclude Georgia Green Party members from supporting the candidate of their choice under the guidance of the candidate’s campaign.
If the Georgia Green Party nominates a candidate, the Coordinating Council (the governing body of the Georgia Green Party) would be empowered to make decisions regarding the extent of the support the party can provide to the candidate’s campaign.
Section 2: Information for Georgia Greens
1. When can I start gathering signatures for my candidate to appear on the Georgia 2024 November General Election Ballot?
The formal petition gathering process begins 2024-January-11. Preparation for a successful petition gathering drive is essential, so contact the candidate’s campaign and the Georgia Green Party and express your willingness to help. You will also want to communicate with the campaign of your preferred candidate to see how you can connect and work with other supporters.
2. What can I do to persuade the Georgia Green Party to nominate my candidate?
Make sure you and other Greens are eligible to participate in the Presidential Preference Caucus of the Georgia Green Party by joining the Georgia Green Party. Seek election at the Georgia Green Party’s Nominating Convention as Delegates to the Quadrennial Presidential Nominating Convention. Educate fellow Greens on the merits of your candidate and ask them to vote for them at the Nominating Convention.
3. Regardless of the nominee, I understand that 16 Greens need to run as Electoral College members. I’m interested in doing that. What do I need to do?
Presidential Elector is a publicly elected partisan office. To be nominated as a member of the Georgia Green Party’s slate of Presidential Electors requires, as for any other partisan office, that you must be a member of the Georgia Green Party. You must be a registered voter in Georgia. You must file a Notice of Intent to Seek the Nomination of the Georgia Green Party, supported by an Affidavit of Candidacy, the affidavit must be notarized and include a money order with a nominal filing fee (3% of the $50 compensation, should you be elected, or $1.50). Contact the Georgia Green Party to indicate your willingness to pursue this or any other candidacy for public office.
4. What other actions can I take to promote Green politics in Georgia?
Thanks for asking. There are so many ways you can help!
Join the Georgia Green Party! Spread its posts on social media. Tell people in your circle that there is an alternative that promotes people, peace and the planet over profits. Consider running for office. Learn about the party’s platform and participate in its amendment process. Become a county contact. Help form an affiliate. Contribute money.