The nice part about posting in support of Ralph Nader is that it's easy to
tie the Green Party in to local issues. I'm a member of the Civil Rights
Preservation Fund, a group that formed after the July 24th protests
against the International Society for Animal Genetics. Since then, we've
helped with the Minneapolis vigil and march for the October 22nd National
Day of Protest Against Police brutality and with a vigil for Gennadiy
Baladin, the 17 year old Apple Valley teen who was shot by police this
past weekend. We've also been raising money to help offset the legal costs
of the 58 people still being charged with crimes related to the July 24th
demonstration.
The Minnesota Greens have consistently helped out the Civil Rights
Preservation Fund with these issues. They have allowed us to table for
free at their events, and members created a video of the July 24th
demonstrations in support of the Civil Rights Preservation Fund,
which they played at the Target Center Rally. The University of
Minnesota Greens have allowed me to speak about the CRPF and police
brutality issues at their Nader Rallys and have helped distribute
information about Council Member Jim Niland's proposal on police tactics
at political demonstrations, which will be discussed on Nov. 13th.
This is what Nader means when he talks about building a strong
democracy. He, and the other Green Party candidates, are REALLY committed
to empowering local community groups. The CRPF doesn't have many
members and the green party has been funding us, not the other way
around. Winning our support is more effort than it's worth. But the
Green's aren't helping us for any tactical reasons. They are helping us
because we represent a local issue, and they are committed to building a
grassroots democracy. Community empowerment is a common promise in
election years, but I've seen the Green party back up it's promise and I
haven't seen the major parties do so.
Ben Marzinski
Ward 6
