Katrina and the Inner-City Challenge for Greens

Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, Louisiana two years ago. And (for about fifteen minutes) Democrats, Republicans, and the So-Called Liberal Media actually had a serious discussion about class and race in America. In the coming days we shall read and hear a lot of self-serving partisan poppycock from liberal Democrats that everything that happened in New Orleans was the fault of Bush Republicans. In point of fact, the New Orleans inner-city Democratic Party Machine was up to its neck in cronyism and incompetence long before it was up to its neck in floodwaters.

The next great challenge for the Green Party of the United States is cracking the monopoly of the Democratic Party Machines within communities of color in the inner-city. Greens will never be able to really challenge the Democrats until we do this and we'll never effectively apply our 10 key values until we can start applying them where it is needed the most.

In a recent interview in Yes Magazine, Green activist, Malik Rahim brilliantly articulated a vision for inner-city New Orleans that goes way beyond the usual Democratic and Republican nostrums:

I think that we can show, not only people in New Orleans, Louisiana, or in America, but globally what happens when people of conscience come together, in spite of their government. If we can rebuild New Orleans in such a way that we break the dependency upon fossil fuels, if we look at alternative energy in our reconstruction and look at new methods, if we could move away from a levee system and start developing a storm protection system that no longer challenges nature, but works with nature. If we break the shackles of racism, and become a truly progressive city. If we could develop the schools and the education system, if we can work to develop health care for everyone. If we could do these things, we’d know that the sacrifice by all the thousands of volunteers from Common Ground and others wasn’t in vain, and I believe that the rest of the world can look at us as a model.

New Orleans as a model? What a revolutionary notion.

Read More and challenges by Cynthia McKinney and Donna Warren at Green Commons:

Katrina and the Inner-City Challenge: Cynthia McKinney, Malik Rahim, Donna Warren

Politics as Usual

Earlier today I read a comment from Alex on a post at GreenCommons. In it, he published a 2004 letter from Donna Warren, a letter that revealed the passion that Warren has for her beliefs and one which, I am sure, Alex is in full agreement.

Wish we had more people in the party who could deliver a message as well as Alex and Donna have done.

Donna was firing back at the Congressional Black Caucus for their attacks on Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo during the 2004 Presidential election. Donna was pretty blunt.

In 2000, Congressman Julian Dixon sold me out like a $2 dollar whore when, as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, he announced the CIA was not complicit in the destruction of the inner cities by crack cocaine. I’m tired of being sold out like a $2 dollar whore by Black people living the good life as my representative in our nation’s capitol.

Recently, I come across a new site, called the Courage Campaign. They have lofty goals, clearly stated.

The Courage Campaign was created to revitalize the California dream from outside the political system. We are progressives who activate and enable the grassroots and organized leadership to take on the problems that have held back our state for the past 30 years.

We have three main objectives:

1. To create a permanent field organizing presence. We have built a statewide voter file and user interface tools that our friends and allies can use at little or no cost to them in an ongoing campaign to encourage and enable actions and engagement.
2. To create channels of communication and coordination among progressive groups in California. We have formed The Courage Coalition, a statewide alliance of diverse organizations ranging from the Sierra Club to Justice For Janitors to build capacity, assets and support.
3. To fight for good government. As a start, we've written The Truth In Initiatives Act which calls for massive new disclosure in the initiative process that will pave the way for broader reform in the future. We are working to pass it through the California legislature but will qualify it as a ballot initiative if necessary.

Yet, when I did though all of this, it appears to be just another front for the Democratic Party, like moveon.org or DFA. The reason that I bring this up is the profile of one of the "bloggers" at Courage Campaign.

Elliott Petty, Blogger. Elliott is a dynamic young community organizer dedicated to empowering his community through grassroots organizing for social and economic justice. A devout follower of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Caesar Chavez and Marcus Garvey, Elliott Petty is earnestly guided by the principles of Justice, Integrity and Self-Determination. After stopping Wal-Mart from taking over Inglewood, CA in 2004, Elliott continues to advocate for core democratic principles including living wages, access to health care, responsible economic development and local job creation. He is also president of New Frontier Young Democratic Club.

Elliott sounds very much like he has the values that Donna Warren was talking about, but he also could be just another Democratic hack.

So why bother to write this? Well, as everyone looks at coalitions for social / political change, it pays to make sure that you know with whom you are dealing and that everyone is clear about your objectives.

The purpose of a political party is to elect people

I sometimes find people a bit strange. When someone announces that they are running for Congress, as Daniel Brezenoff did here, it is so easy to pick up the phone and call him. I found a few who did, and some who did not. Those who did, like Donna Warren, have called on others to support him. As Donna said on an LA email list in response to a query from Alex Walker (copied here with her permission)...

So let's prepare for the next race. Can we put into place a team that can immediately jump into action and get the signatures, plan
the campaign, do the door knocking and get out the votes? Can we raise the money we need to print out brochures, flyers, and signs? Can we contact the neighborhood councils, community groups, churches, and greens in the 37th District and muster a real run for this seat?

We can if Alex and the Alex's of LA County get together to do these vitally important tasks to get a green elected. In the meanwhile, let's get Daniel to Congress where he can open the door for other greens to run.

Looking for Daniel, I found that he wrote a very excellent supporting OpEd for Gabrielle Weeks's City Council Campaign. It ran in the long Beach Press Telegram. A google search on his name will let you read some more, for example this letter to the editor at Time.

Maybe these links will help you get to know Daniel a little better.