You know that Nader - in addition to never identifying explicitly as a socialist - was also never a member of the Green Party? The Greens approached Nader about running on their ballot line as a means of popularizing the Greens. In the presidential campaign of 1996 Nader okayed the Greens using him as their candidate in any state where they were able to get him on the ballot - but Nader conditioned this on the understanding that he would not personally campaign. I know that in Utah in 1996 a very small newly formed branch of the socialist organization Solidarity did successfully petition to get Nader on the 1996 ballot (our initial perspective was to offer to help the Greens but we discovered we were about twice as big as the Utah Greens, about six members vs. three members). Nader was also supporting Labor Party organizing throughout these years.
In 2000 Nader campaigned as the Green Party presidential candidate and did so well that it became a major capitalist class/Democrat/mainstream media priority to make sure Nader would not repeat that campaign. Green Party national leadership was amenable to establishment pressure and in fall 2003 did not respond positively to Nader's offer to be their presidential candidate again in 2004. Led by Ted Glick (ironically a longtime leader of the "Independent Progressive Politics Network", founded mid-'90s, and before that the "National Committee for Independent Political Action", founded mid-'80s) and others the Green Party leadership devised the 'safe states strategy' of running a low profile no-name candidate (they chose David Cobb) so they couldn't possibly harm the Democrat John Kerry campaign. They also set their 2004 national convention for extremely late in 2004 (June 23) to minimize the Green Party presidential campaign. Ralph Nader announced his Independent presidential campaign on Feb. 23, 2004. On June 21 Nader announced he had chosen Green Party leader Peter Camejo as his Vice Presidential 'running mate.' Camejo was nationally influential in the Green Party and had done notably well as the Green Party candidate for governor of California in two recent California elections. Camejo participated in the national Green Party convention in Milwaukee unsuccessfully making a last-minute proposal that the Green Party allow individual state parties to choose to support Cobb or Nader. The convention was divided but the Cobb pro-Democrat Green Party leadership managed to defeat this proposal and nominate Cobb, preventing local Green Party independence to officially support Nader-Camejo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Green_National_Convention Howie Hawkins has been a longtime builder of the New York state Green Party. If the 2004 national Green Party convention had been a one-person, one-vote democratic proceeding the Green Parties of California and New York alone could have outvoted the rest of the nation. Hawkins supported the Nader-Camejo side of the debate and edited the important 2006 Haymarket book "Independent Politics: The Green Party Strategy Debate." Hawkins long introduction to this book is afaik a unique source for this history. Hawkins documents both sides of the debate within the Green Party in this book. I stopped closely following Green Party developments a few years after this 2004 fiasco but i think it stands alone as *the* major 'error' in the party's history. I disagree with the second part of fkalosar's comment that "I think Hawkins is an authentic ecosocialist even though as co-founder of the Greens he shares in the blame for the Party's many errors over the years." No, Hawkins has stood against the Green Party's errors over the years. I think the Walker/Hawkins campaign has a chance to disprove Mark's knowledgeable prediction that it will be the 'last hurrah' of the Green Party by developing into (part of) a politically independent working class political movement. btw Matt Gonzalez and Peter Camejo were close comrades in the California Green Party. Camejo facilitated creation of the Nader/Gonzalez 2008 Independent presidential campaign before his death in September 2008. Dayne On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 11:17 AM <[email protected]> wrote: > Everyone goes on about the secret lovers of Trump who will vote for him > but won't admit it. There are probably also secret anti-Trumpists who fear > ostracism and worse if they admit they're voting for bidenharris. Who > knows how this will play out? > > This is not an endorsement of bidenharris. I'm voting for Hawkins despite > the flood of vitriol here against the Green Party, not all of which is > undeserved, though the snippier examples are IMO wide of the Marxmail mark. > > Frankly, I'm voting for Hawkins as a protest because I live in the > District of Columbia, which will automatically vote in a landslide for any > Democrat who has not been officially declared dead. What I would secretly > like is for Trump to be defeated and Hawkins to get the five percent he > needs to qualify for campaign financing next time around. Fat chance, I > know, but ... . > > I think Hawkins is an authentic ecosocialist even though as co-founder of > the Greens he shares in the blame for the Party's many errors over the > years. He has also pulled off a socialist coalition of sorts behind his > candidacy. > > How substantial is this? Compared with the goofy Jill Stein candidacy of > 2016, it's IMO rock solid. Hawkins was a Teamster for decades, loading and > unloading parcels--that IMO BTW FYI qualifies him as working-class even > given his middle-class family background. NB--not a personal smear agains > Stein, whom I admire, but that campaign had all the traditional Green > weaknesses on full display. > > Smears have been voiced here against the Greens. "Bourgeois > hippies"--Ralph Nader isn't a hippy, though he is (in sharp contrast to > Hawkins) pro-capitalism--a difference that shows signifcant evolution of > the Green Party, which cannot now be considered a capitalist party as M. > Lause demonstrated earlier. "Never elected anyone to office unlike > Socialist Algernative"--the Wikipedia entry on the Green Party lists a > significant number of Greens who have held public office over the years. No > disrespect to Kshama Sawant BTW FYI. > > I don't regard Mark Lause's prediction that this is the last hoorah for > the Greens as a smear because it may very well be true, alas. From what > I've seen of Hawkins so far, I hope he himself can/will continue as a > socialist, but idolatry in any form is a bad business that is sure to > disappoint sooner or later, so that remains to be seen. > > _._,_._,_ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#1447): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/1447 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76751875/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
