The Greening of California By Michael Eisenscher http://www.zmag.org/greening_of_california.htm With all the furor surrounding the uncertain outcome of the presidential election, and fury on the part of some Democrats (and even some self-identified lefties) at Ralph Nader for "spoiling" Al Gore's stumbling campaign, it is easy to miss just what the Green Party accomplished during this election season and to ignore the achievements of other Green Party candidates. Did Nader cost Gore the election? Was Nader a spoiler as some have charged? Nationally 20% of all Democratic voters, 12% of all self- identified liberal voters, 39% of all women voters, 44% of all seniors, one-third of all voters earning under $20,000 per year and 42% of those earning $20-30,000 annually, and 31% of all voting union members cast their ballots for Bush. Were they all "spoilers" too? When looking for someone to scapegoat for the miserable Gore showing, it is convenient to point fingers at Nader, but in truth if Gore lost this election, he lost it on his own (with considerable help from his buddies in the Democratic Leadership Council). When a sitting Vice President, running in the best economy in 20 years, backed by 99.9% of all union and African American leaders, running against an inexperienced, often bumbling candidate like Bush can't attract more than 50% of the votes, who is really to blame? Gore could not even carry his home state of Tennessee. Was Nader to blame for that too? Had he won there, he'd have won the election. Pointing to Ralph Nader as the cause is misdirected and self-deceptive, if not disingenuous. There will never been a time when there will not be a lesser evil. To excoriate those who resolve not to play the lesser evil game for voting their convictions, and doing so on behalf of a candidate whose platform, record, and personal integrity are heads and shoulders above that of the Democrat and Republican, is destructive of the very democratic values Nader's present critics claim to cherish. Rather than damn him, we ought to be grateful to Ralph Nader and his Green supporters for helping to reinvigorate U.S. politics and for expanding the democratic space in our civic culture. The Green Party is now a force to be reckoned with in California politics, displacing the Peace & Freedom Party as the most significant voice from the left in electoral politics here. Ralph Nader got 2.7 million votes nationally, including at least 5 percent in 11 states (10% in Alaska) and the District of Columbia. He garnered 4% in eight more states. In California, Nader polled 372,598 votes (3.9%). More than 463,000 people signed Nader's ballot access petitions. The Nader campaign had 150,000 volunteers and 45,000 donors. Over 450 new Green Party locals and 900 campus organizations were founded. 25,000 students volunteered and registered tens of thousands of first-time voters. There were over 600 house parties. Over 115,000 people signed an online petition protesting Nader's exclusion from the Presidential debates. At least 77,000 people attended super-rallies, paying up to $20 each to get in. 266 Greens ran for office; 16 won elections in November and 14 won elections in the spring. In California, the Party increased its membership of 110,000 by 25%. Medea Benjamin, the Green party candidate for U.S. Senate in California, entered the race with no prior experience as a candidate for office, but with a long and respected record as co-founder and executive director of Global Exchange as a human rights advocate and activist. She was one of the architects of the massive Seattle and DC protests against the WTO, World Bank and IMF. Her considerable organizing experience, boundless energy, and razor sharp intellect enabled Medea, aided by a number of seasoned Green Party operatives, to move her campaign from near total obscurity onto the center stage of politics in California. Medea received her nearly 300,000 votes (3.1%), a significant accomplishment in itself for a first-time candidate who was essentially blacked out of the major press and electronic media. With far less name recognition and media exposure, she ran only slightly behind Nader's 3.9%. But in San Francisco County she polled 11.1% to Nader's 8.2%; in Alameda County she polled 7.0% to Nader's 5.7%; in Mendocino County 12.0%; in Humboldt County, 11.8%; Santa Cruz County 9.8%; in Sonoma County, 6.1%; in Santa Barbara County, 5.8%; in Butte County, 5.6%; and in Yolo County, 5%. The achievements of her campaign cannot be measured by the votes alone. In the course of her campaign, Medea raised $250,000 (one- fiftieth that raised by Feinstein). She opened six offices across the state, recruited more than 400 volunteers, was endorsed by seven newspapers. Medea spoke on more than 50 campuses, helping the Green Party to establish 20 new campus chapters. She secured public endorsements from 25 current and former elected officials, from more than 30 union officials and two local unions (bucking considerable pressure to stick with the California Federation of Labor's Feinstein endorsement), from eleven social justice and social action organizations, and more from than 100 distinguished public figures, including David Brower and Helen Calidicott, Noam Chomsky and Angela Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich and Michael Lerner, Ed Begley, Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Bonnie Raitt, Manning Marable and Norman Solomon, Alice Walker and Cornel West, Jim Hightower and Tom Ammiano. Medea met with the editorial boards of every major newspaper in the state except the LA Times, and most of the weekly papers. She appeared on or was interviewed by nearly every community radio station and NPR affiliate, as well as appearing on talk-radio stations like KGO. Despite her persistent efforts, however, the television media and mainstream press refused to cover her campaign. The only serious television coverage she got was when she and a 125 supporters sat in at the San Francisco station of KRON while it was broadcasting one of only two debates in which Dianne Feinstein agreed to participate, from which Medea was excluded. Feinstein spurned more than a dozen other debate invitations. Medea did, however, debate GOP candidate Tom Campbell three times, as well as appearing with him on other occasions in joint interviews to protest Feinstein's refusal to debate. Despite these considerable achievements, the campaign was not without its deficiencies. Foremost among them was the failure of the Green Party nationally to draw to it significant African American, Latino and Asian voters, although Benjamin did better in that respect than Nader. In the face of what minority group voters perceived to be a direct threat in the prospects of a Bush presidency, Greens were largely unsuccessful in cracking the iron wall of support for the Democratic ticket erected by the Black ministry, trade union leaders, and established civil rights, environmental, women's and other mainstream movement organizations that have operated traditionally within the orbit of the Democratic Party. Starting far too late to have an effective impact,the Greens were unable to garner significant labor support, though Nader did get the endorsement of the United Electrical Workers and California Nurses' Association, and of a number of individual union locals. By the time the Greens got around to approaching unions for endorsements, the AFL- CIO had already committed itself to Gore and Feinstein, making it far more difficult to approach local unions for their support. Benjamin did, however, put up a credible challenge to Feinstein for the endorsement of the California Federation of Labor, securing a substantial minority vote that some estimated at close to 40% (it was a voice vote) during the Federation's political convention last summer. The real test for the Greens comes after the election in its ability to meet the challenge of establishing a permanent institutional presence in the political life of local communities and its skill in building alliances and coalitions across movements that establish its credibility and viability as an ongoing political force and serious alternative to the two major parties. In addition to its proposals for electoral and campaign finance reform (public financing, instant run-off voting, proportional representation, same-day voter registration, voting on weekends, etc.), the Greens need to be at the forefront of the current protests against the widespread denial of voting rights to African Americans, Haitians and others in Florida and throughout the South that demonstrate the old Jim Crow system still survives even decades after the last voting rights march protested such abuse of Constitutional rights in the former Confederate states. They also should take up the banner for restoration of voting rights to African American men and others who have been disproportionately subject to the denial of those rights by a biased, often racist criminal justice system. The Greens could also help expand the electorate by campaigning for the right to vote for permanent resident immigrants. If the Green Party is to root itself for the long haul in American politics, it will have to work aggressively over the next few years between elections to earn the confidence and trust of these constituencies. That requires that Greens be there on the issues and in the struggles of importance to African American and other minority communities and the labor movement, and that they engage in a respectful dialog with these forces about how to increase political independence while recognizing their political alliances with and dependence upon progressive elements within the Democratic Party. Adopting a progressive pro-worker progressive platform is not enough. Copyright � 2000 by Michael Eisenscher. All rights reserved. Michael Eisenscher served as labor liaison for the Medea Benjamin Campaign. He is currently Director of Organizational Development for the University Council of American Federation of Teachers. The views expressed in this commentary are his alone. He can be reached at (510) 649-8626 or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
