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High Profile Party Leaders Resign from Green Party
Cite: “mob of dogmatic, self-righteous authoritarians” within ranks

also published here

Paula Bradshaw and Rich Whitney, active in building the Shawnee Green Party in Carbondale Illinois since at least 1996, have released their letter of resignation from the national, state and local Green Parties. They tendered their resignation through official party channels in mid-June, 2021. In their letter of resignation, released this week, they wrote.

” . . . recent actions and statements of the GPUS Accreditation Committee, Steering Committee, National Committee Forum Managers, National Committee and the Lavender Caucus — all taken in support of the Lavender Caucus’s proposal to suspend the affiliation of the Georgia Green Party – betray the democratic principles and precepts upon which the party was founded and evince a clear intention by the party majority to suppress dissent, elevate policy positions to the status of inviolable “principles,” and rule by decree rather than by democratic process. It has become increasingly apparent that the GPUS is determined to become a rigid dogmatic sect rather than a political party in which policy questions and interpretations of the Ten Key Values can be freely discussed and debated, and in which minority viewpoints are tolerated.”

Paula Bradshaw is a podcast producer and three time candidate for the U.S. Congress, running with the nomination of the Illinois Green Party. At the time of her resignation, she served as a Delegate to the Green National Committee for the Illinois Green Party. Rich Whitney is an attorney who ran for Governor of Illinois taking 10% of the state-wide vote and leaving the Illinois Green Party with a state-wide ballot line. Rich Whitney served until this resignation as the co-chair of the Illinois Green Party.

Their resignation is likely the highest profile public fallout to date within the U.S. Green Party resulting from the tactics of what their letter characterizes as “a mob of dogmatic, self-righteous authoritarians” within its ranks.

In their heavily footnoted 13 page letter, the Central Illinois grandparents who have devoted 25 years to building the Green party while raising their family, cite a broad range of offenses by various members of party leadership which they assert violate the founding values of the party, including:

Notice is given of the intention of the Georgia Green Party to convene as its Annual Convention on Saturday, July 24th, from 10am until 4pm, for the purposes of conducting elections for internal party offices, considering a proposed amendment to… Continue Reading →

An authoritarian coup is afoot within the National Committee to purge the party of independent and critical thinking. Among other evidence of this is the complaint of the National Lavender Caucus filed with the Accreditation Committee seeking the revocation of this state party’s accreditation as a member of the national party. The Georgia Green Party has filed its response. Included in those pleadings was a witness list and a request that the committee schedule a hearing to take the testimony of our expert witnesses. The Accreditation Committee has failed to respond to our request for a hearing, and our allies on that committee have indicated that they are unlikely to do so. This weekend the party’s defense team is hosting depositions to take the testimony of its witnesses. And observers are welcome to join the call to observe the testimony live. Seats are limited and you can register here.

Resolved, that the Quick Decision Council on behalf of the Georgia Green Party, here endorses the Women Picket DC action and encourages Greens in Georgia and elsewhere to participate in these events.

The Coalition for the Feminist Amendments (“CoFA”) discuss the Feminist Amendments to the Equality Act. This event was organized by Feminists in Struggle (FIST), the original authors of these amendments, as well as the LGB Alliance USA, XX Amazons, and the Georgia Green Party, each an early endorser of this FAEA approach. The four speakers, Ann Menasche (FIST member and co-author of the FAEA), Tina Minkowitz (FAEA co-author), Callie Burt (Associate Professor, Georgia State University), and M. Lynette Hartsell (LGB Alliance USA), give an in-depth analysis of the Feminist Amendments and make a compelling case for joining this effort.

Dialoguing with Nasir

Kweku Lumumba Talks Green Party & How It’s Beneficial For Blacks

Kweku Lumumba, cochair of the Georgia Green Party this past month was interviewed on the podcast, Dialoguing with Nasir.

In their complaint (referred to in this document as the NLC complaint or the complaint), the complainant seeks action by the Accreditation Committee with the intended result of ‘suspending’ the Georgia Green Party, placing our state party on ‘inactive status’; or alternately to take action to ‘disaccredit’ our state party, by asking the Green National Committee to sever its relationship with the Georgia party.

. . .

The NLC complaint fails to state an actionable claim that either proposed outcome is justified. We urge that this committee (1) reject this complaint, (2) exercise patience that the party’s process for the democratic revision to its platform will function to resolve disputes among accredited members over platform language and (3) allow our state and national parties to return to the important work of building capacity for the election cycle which began as the polls closed November 3rd, 2020.

Read the entire response at the Read More link.

The National Lavender Caucus of the Green Party of the United States, on Christmas Eve, filed its complaint seeking the dis-accreditation of the Georgia Green Party, a member in good standing since 1999. The infrastructure of the national party has been captured by authoritarian tendencies which have no respect for the party’s values for feminism, grassroots democracy and a respect for diversity. Feminist voices within the party have been repeatedly silenced in every conceivable forum for engagement within the party, including its National Women’s Caucus (but see also here, here and here).

Sound on, please!

Stuart Parker interviews Hugh Esco about building the Georgia Green Party, and the challenges it faces situated in its historical context. Anchor.FM hosted Missing Peter Gzowski in Prince Georgia This week we spend, not 100% intentionally, our entire show interviewing… Continue Reading →