Articles by Green Papers

Health Care Reform, Single Payer May 28, 2013

The “I”- Word, the Media and Health Care Reform

OpEd News by Cecile Lawrence Last Thursday (May 23, 2013), the politically-focused media outlet The Hill reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had made the statement that undocumented immigrants who become U.S. citizens under immigration reform will not have access to “Obamacare” or Medicaid [1]. What is perhaps most striking about the statement, however, is that, as the report points out, Pelosi did not actually use the term “undocumented” in referring to the immigrants; she apparently chose to refer to them over and over as “illegals.” Most “liberals,” or progressives, will undoubtedly find Pelosi’s choice of words troublesome, since it…

Economy, Green Party, New York, political corruption, Public Campaign Finance Reform, State Politics May 21, 2013

Public campaign finance reform: clean money or throwing good money after bad?

by Howie Hawkins syracuse.com May 14, 2013 New York needs a Clean Money system of full public campaign funding. That’s how we end the privatized “public” elections funded by the 1% that make Albany a feeding trough for wealthy special interests. The so-called Fair Elections Act (A4980C-2013), which passed the Assembly and was delivered to the Senate on May 7, merely supplements the existing system of unlimited private campaign financing with partial public funding. This bill throws good public money after bad private money. The cesspool of pay-to-play influence peddling by wealthy private donors remains alive and well. The bill…

Green Party, on Obama, Third Party May 13, 2013

Standing Up

by Evan Lyne I admit that I was once very much in bed with the enemy. This past November, I worked for President Obama’s re-election campaign as an “Early-Vote Organizer,” also known as an “E.V.O.” For those of you who don’t know what it means to be an E.V.O, it basically means you’re the campaign’s bitch. I worked sixty hours a week (bare minimum) canvassing a county that was over 60% Republican, helped organize the main Democratic headquarters, trained volunteers, handled their petty complaints, and made late-night runs to the regional campaign office for supplies. One Friday night I drove…

Climate Change, Environment, Green Party, Third Party April 18, 2013

The Tar Sands Pipeline and Independent Eco-Politics

by Scott McLarty Wednesday April 17, 2013 Bill McKibben of 350.org says we don’t have time to challenge two-party rule and build a political alternative like the Green Party that takes the climate threat seriously. In reality, we don’t have time not to. Those of us who participated in the #ForwardOnClimate Rally against the tar-sands pipelines in Washington, DC, on Feb. 17 witnessed the environmental movement at its best and worst. It was at it best because tens of thousands turned out in freezing weather to demand that President Obama kill the proposal for the Keystone XL and Enbridge pipelines…

campaign reform, Democracy, Green Party, National Politics, Third Party April 17, 2013

On Statism, Socialism, Libertarianism, and the Greens

by Steve Welzer Green Party of New Jersey Undoubtedly, Greens, Libertarians, and socialists should cooperate in regard to our common effort to open up the electoral system to “more voices and more choices.” Beyond that, it is sometimes proposed that we jointly run candidates under the banner of “big tent” third party coalitions. Or we might hear entreaties from progressives who feel that it’s sectarian to have left-oriented electoralism split between socialists, social democrats, and Greens. The problem with these types of ideas is the fact that the ideological distinctions among the movements are more significant than is often acknowledged….