Green Mass Group is proud and humbled to have entered the emerging arena of people-powered media. We have big designs on a grassroots, decentralized, and democratized truth-telling apparatus working in synergy and solidarity with other institutions of the same nature. We see a variety of important institutions in existence that need to be supported and nourished, and we dream of a slew of other institutions that do not yet exist. We hope to play a small part in organizing the voices of the people of the Commonwealth and beyond into a beautiful and powerful chorus that reflects and articulates our deepest desires so that they may become reality.
Please join me in welcoming Rick Purcell as my Lieutenant Governor running mate! As my lieutenant governor, Rick will mobilize grassroots support across the state for our campaign for a healthy, secure green future. He’ll also galvanize opposition to the corrupt status quo at the root of the many crises we currently face. We’ll be joining Rick in his hometown of Holyoke this Saturday for an official announcement. See below for biographical information on Rick. Saturday’s event will also mark the kickoff of our signature gathering campaign. For those who have been anxious to get involved, now is the time! See below for details on the lieutenant Governor/signature drive kickoff event, including ways to get involved in signature collection if you can’t come on Saturday.
In other news, our campaign is eligible to receive public financing from the state this year. As you may know, public financing loosens the grip of wealthy special interests on our political system, and makes it possible for people powered campaigns like ours to compete statewide without being hijacked by deep-pocketed special interests. As a longtime advocate of public financing for political campaigns, it’s an honor to be asking you tohelp us qualify for matching funds. If our campaign raises the minimum required to qualify ($125,000), the state will match that amount and everything we raise over it DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR!! So if we can raise $250,000, we will be able to mount a half million dollar campaign! And Massachusetts politics will never be the same. Please be as generous as you can, and give today so that we can take advantage of yet another amazing opportunity.
From internal feuds and co-optation of the Tea Party movement to copycat “movements” like the Coffee Party, or Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s silly yearning for a “Tea Party of the radical center“, it is clear that the tax day teabags have made their mark on the United States.
Taking a good look at the pictures from the April 15, 2009 Tea “coming out” Party, I can’t help but think that many of the grievances are valid and even accurate criticisms of the US federal government today (e.g. “Stop Spending $$$ Our Grandkids’ Future” or “Obama’s Hockey Stick” showing exponentially rising federal debt). Of course, the pictures also make it clear that jumping into bed with the Tea Partiers could make for a nasty relationship. “Taxes Kill Freedom”, “Taxation Is Just Piracy With Paperwork”, “Taxes Destroy Ambition”, and lots of mistaking corporatist Obama as a socialist.
So what exactly is this political moment? And what is the role of the Greens?
LEXINGTON, Massachusetts – Jill Stein, Green-Rainbow Party candidate for governor, described the health care bill passed by Congress Sunday as lobbyists’ legislation which offers few benefits at staggering cost. She warned Massachusetts residents to brace for skyrocketing prices and an accelerating health care meltdown, and vowed to renew her push for “real solutions.”
Here are her remarks, made in a speech to supporters during a teleconference Tuesday morning:
“The health reform passed on Sunday is not the solution the American people have been looking for, but rather a triumph of business-as-usual. It will bankrupt individuals and local governments by forcing them to buy the expensive policies in a health-care system designed to exploit instead of to serve. Starting today, we begin the real battle to move beyond this costly non-solution and replace it with the health care system America needs.
Coming from the Financial Times, this seems to be quite an important, well, admission. Jeremy Rifkin lays out an interesting case that our civilization is on its deathbed, on life support, and that revolutions in both technology and consciousness are necessary for our resuscitation.
I think he fails to recognize — or at least include in his analysis — the paradigm shift that will define our species’ salvation, which is, in my opinion, a shift away from economic growth and towards a steady-state ecologically-grounded economy. The biosphere consciousness that he talks about will necessitate this. This is fundamentally incompatible with capitalism, and I wonder if his new book dances with this and this Financial Times article simply side-steps it.
The global economy has shattered. The fossil fuels that propelled an industrial revolution are running out and the infrastructure built with these energies is barely clinging to life. Worse, more than two centuries of rising carbon emissions now threaten us with catastrophic climate change.
I can only dream of the day when Radiohead’s Thom Yorke comes to Massachusetts for a Jill Stein / Green-Rainbow Party benefit concert, and breaks out three new songs for the occasion. I have a fond memory of Yorke during the 2000 presidential elections, holding up a “Let Ralph Debate” sign on the stage of Saturday Night Live at the end of the show when the whole cast mingles.
Maine shows us the way, though with Clean Elections they’re playing with a different beast. I dare a single Massachusetts State Legislator who allowed Clean Elections to be destroyed without even going on the record to defend that move on Green Mass Group. I double dare you!
Maine Green Independent Party will run 18 candidates for state legislature in 2010
AUGUSTA- On Monday, March 15th, the Green Independent Party of Maine turned in signatures to qualify 18 legislative candidates throughout the state, the second highest total in 12 years of holding official ballot status.
“We made legislative recruitment a top priority this year. With sweeping changes in electoral reform that came out of Augusta last year, we no longer need the governor’s race to keep party status. We turned our resources toward legislative seats, where we have better opportunity for success,” said Anna Trevorrow, Chair of the state Green Independent Party.
The party has nearly doubled its number of qualified candidates from 2008, and has expanded its geographic outreach. The Greens have qualified 15 candidates for State House and 3 for State Senate.
The criminal, anti-democratic racket described in this NYT article is just the latest blatant display of greedy Wall Street manipulation of the global economy.
I’m starting to think that a focus on unearthing the dirt behind Goldman Sachs and its political influence might shine some daylight on the criminal convergence of politics and economics at the start of the 21st century.
There are good discussions popping up in some different places about Green-Rainbow electoral strategies, and I’d like to take this opportunity to create an ongoing dialogue that could help catalyze some action.
Leo Maley points out on Blue Mass Group that there will be something like 25 open seats this year in the Legislature. In the same space, he also argues that the Green-Rainbow Party has no business running for high office without having demonstrated political viability or acuity at any level other than a small crop of municipal officials.
Jason Pramas ponders pretty much the same question at Open Media Boston, with a little less devotion to the Grand Old Democrats, and a little more interest in seeing a local electoral focus take hold.
Of course, the Green-Rainbow Party’s electoral strategy for 2010-2012 was to go after State Rep. seats with an eye towards winning one or two in 2012. And Jill Stein’s gubernatorial bid emerged as a powerfully synergistic opportunity to help spur stronger legislative challenges. A strong municipal field in 2011 would also be synergistic with this top-to-bottom-and-up approach.
February 8, 2010 at the State House, Boston, Massachusetts
INTRODUCTION
Thank you so much for being here today. This is the year we the people regain control of our Commonwealth and our common future. It’s time for a Commonwealth that listens to the people, works for the people, and answers to the people. It’s time to bring the voices of ordinary people into this election and into the halls of power. It’s time to break the stranglehold of lobbyists and insiders, and get Beacon Hill back to work for the families and communities of the Commonwealth. It’s time to start building the healthy, secure green future we so urgently need, richly deserve, and is within our reach. My name is Jill Stein and that’s why I’m running for governor.
