Counterpunch, August 10, 2004
Crossroads for the California Green Party Will It Be Nader or Cobb? By TODD CHRETIEN
In the next couple days, the California Green Party will decide whether or not to hold a state-wide convention to consider putting Nader/Camejo on the ballot. What will the party do?
Abraham Lincoln once said, "If I can save the union by freeing none of the slaves, I will do it. If I can save the union by freeing some of the slaves, I will do it. And if I must saved the union by freeing all of the slaves, I will do it."
In other words, he was confused and he waffled at the beginning of the war. He wasn't sure what to do. As the war dragged on in 1861 and 1862, with the danger of Britain intervening on the side of the South looming over him, Lincoln decided that the only way to win the war was to rally the North to the cause of emancipation and to arm the slaves to fight for their own freedom. Lincoln did not bind his hands over issues of "process." He determined that the cause of justice outweighed the inertia of the constitution and took his stand on the side of action.
Today, the Green Party of California, as well as that of Vermont, is engaged in a very sharp debate, and it is not about "process." It is about the political direction of the party. One group supports David Cobb's nomination and defends the central pillar of his campaign, the "smart state" strategy. Another group argues that Cobb's nomination was the result of a rigged convention process that defied the will of the majority Greens by choosing Cobb over Nader/Camejo in order to grant backdoor support to John Kerry.
Perhaps this would have remained an academic debate about internal Green Party process, but two new facts have re-opened it. First, although it was in motion before the Milwaukee convention, the campaign by the Democratic Party to disenfranchise millions of voters who support Nader/Camejo by employing Florida tactics to keep Nader off the ballot has developed into the most serious attack on democratic elections in the United States since the end of Jim Crow. Second, it has come to light in the past 48 hours that the California state Green Party, according to its own election code, can hold a state nominating convention in order to place a candidate on the ballot. These two facts give California Greens the motive and the opportunity to nominate Nader/Camejo for the California ballot, according to the rules and precedents of previous elections.
Most Greens, especially in California, are only just becoming aware of the debate over the Milwaukee convention. The case laid out by Forrest Hill and Carol Miller in their essay "Rigged Convention, Divided Party," explaining why the Milwaukee vote was undemocratic will be carefully studied by California Greens. Leading Green Dean Myerson has replied in a lengthy rebuttal to some Green Party lists.
However, even some who believe that the rules used in Milwaukee were unfair, but that they could only be reformed next year at the next national convention, are now open to considering changing the California nomination to Nader/Camejo. To begin with, the California Greens can hold a state-wide nominating convention, as the party did in 1992, 1996 and 2000. Holding the state-wide nominating convention will be the best way available at this time to understand the will of the more than 160,000 California rank and file Green Party members in California.
The California Green Party has been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dramatically raise its profile. Far from being a burden, holding a highly publicized nominating convention (in the days before the lunatic circus called the RNC) will act as a megaphone for the youth and the disenfranchised to hear what the party has to say about the need for an alternative to the two pro-war parties. The convention would take place just as campuses across California are opening session and could be the launching pad for an aggressive recruitment drive to win thousands of young people to the party. Besides the war radicalizing students, Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Democratic majority in Sacramento are ramming through catastrophic cuts to public education, which led to huge walk-outs and protests of state and community college students last spring. These students are alienated from mainstream politics and they are not enthusiastic about Kerry's Bush-lite program.
full: http://www.counterpunch.org/chretien08102004.html --
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