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Dear Reader,
In this issue of Green Politics you will find comments from one of our readers. We encourage all of you to send us your comments on what is happening in your community regarding grassroots struggles and actions in your community. We also welcome articles from our readers. You can get in touch with us at http://www.greenparty.org/newsletter/contact_us.php. To subscribe to receive your own copy in the future, simply send an email to newsletter-subscribe@greenparty.org. To get off the list, send an email from the subscribed account to newsletter-unsubscribe@greenparty.org.
In Solidarity,
The Publication Collective:
Phil Ardery Jr.
Devin Ceartas
Barbara Chicherio
Elizabeth Fattah
Wes Wegar
An Open Letter to Barack Obama on Iran
We want to draw your attention to an important petition that has been signed
already by a member of the Green Politics Publication Collective and the Green
National Committee (GPUSA).
We consider this an important cause, and we encourage you to add your signature, too. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time.
“Dear Senator Obama,
“We the undersigned may have different views on U.S. foreign policy with respect to Iran. We all, however, are deeply concerned about the stories in the press in the past few weeks suggesting that the Bush administration might be considering a military strike on Iran, that it might give a green light to such an attack by Israel, or that it might engage in other acts of war, such as imposing a blockade against Iran….”
Read the entire letter and get the option of signing it here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ObamaIran/?e
The LaVena Johnson Story: Rape and Murder in the U.S. Military
by Don Fitz
LaVena Johnson may be only one of over a dozen women to die under extremely suspicious circumstances while in Iraq and Afghanistan . A black woman from Florissant, Missouri (just north of St. Louis), she played the violin and had been an honor roll student at her high school.
LaVena Johnson reportedly died in Iraq on July 19, 2005, days shy of her 20th birthday. The Army called it suicide. From the very beginning her family did not buy that story and new evidence suggests their suspicions could be well-founded.
The increase in violence against women in the military is so sharp that Dr. John Johnson, LaVena’s father, is working with U.S. Representatives Ike Skelton and Lacy Clay (both from Missouri) to have a Congressional hearing that could request a reopening of the Army’s investigation of her death.
Greens/GPUSA Congress Meets
The annual Congress of the Greens/Green Party USA met June 29 in St. Louis. Green Politics is a publication of G/GPUSA. For the minutes from the Congress, click here.
St. Louis Roundtable Charts a Sustainable and Just American Future
Phil Ardery Jr.
Leaders, experts and activists in the movement to steer the United States away from climate-change catastrophe while protecting and improving the lives of low-income Americans and the poor throughout the world converged on St. Louis July 27-29 for a spirited roundtable exchange of ideas and proposals.
Dubbed “Surviving Climate Change: Producing Less and Enjoying It More,” the three-day eight-panel event focused on “developing solutions, rather than repeating the problems we all know exist.” (For a list of the 32 presenters and descriptions of all panels, see http://www.gateway-greens.org/2008/08-jun27_climateroundtable.htm ). Officially co-sponsored by Synthesis/Regeneration: A Magazine of Green Social Thought and the Webster University Department of History, Politics and International Relations, this Roundtable was the brainchild of Don Fitz, editor of Synthesis/Regeneration and co-coordinator of the Gateway Green Alliance in St. Louis. Fitz has articulated a way forward that requires mind shifts by both environmentalists and social justice activists. According to Fitz, “Toxic poisoning, peak oil and climate change all point to a need to dramatically reduce production. Unfortunately, environmentalists and social justice activists conclude that this means a need to consume less.” This wrong conclusion, Fitz told the Roundtable, traces to a failure “to distinguish between Type 1 Consumption, or consumption for genuine needs, versus Type 2 Consumption, which is luxury consumption, wasteful consumption, or consumption to feed corporate gluttony. Since roughly the 1950’s, America has witnessed an explosion of Type 2 consumption with no overall increase (and perhaps a total decrease) in Type 1 Consumption.”
Hospitable Shout-Out from a Reader of Green Politics
Green Politics reader and green activist David Peltier writes to invite friends to visit the Red Cedar Ecology Center which he built on the central coast of Oregon. David tells us, “The Center is a one room new cabin on our 30 acres, which we call Madre Corazon (heart of the mother -- Spanish). We do sustainable forestry and create enhanced handicapped access for people to enjoy the forest. My land partner, Carlos P. Nunez MFT PhD, is a quadriplegic person. We are working on the Ocean of Peace Community Forest project, asking 110 acres of US Forest Service (USFS) land to be donated to our community, which includes Waldport, Yachats, Seal Rock, and Newport. Please come out and help us save a forest. You can stay for free in a clean cabin and wake up with birds singing.”
Court Denies Relief to Mumia Abu-Jamal
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District, Philadelphia, has dealt a setback to legal efforts to reverse the 1982 conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia is an award-winning Pennsylvania journalist who exposed police violence against minority communities. On death row since 1982, he was wrongfully sentenced for the shooting of a police officer. Mumia's fight for a new trial has won the support of tens of thousands around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, The European Parliament, Alice Walker, Paul Newman, Maya Angelou, Sister Helen Prejean, Danny Glover, Rage Against The Machine, the Detroit and San Francisco City Councils, Amnesty International, and many others. For the latest legal news about Mumia, click here http://freemumia.org/articlesnewspg/legalupdate-7-22-08.html.
U.S. Anti-War Activists Meet in Cleveland
More than 400 U.S. anti-war activists from 26 states met in Cleveland June 28-29 for a conference sponsored by the National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation. It was the first time since the Iraq War began in March 2003 that an open and inclusive conference had been called to discuss and debate the anti-war movement’s future. Socialist Action, self-described as “a nation-wide group of revolutionary socialists dedicated to fighting for a world organized to satisfy human needs, rather than greed,” published a thoughtful and informative account of the conference proceedings. To read the entire article, authored by Andy Pollack, click here: http://www.socialistaction.org/pollack39.htm
Agrotech Corporations Pursue Patent Strategy To Exploit Climate Change
ETC Group, Canadian-based civil society organization, has learned that the world's largest seed and agrochemical corporations are stockpiling hundreds of monopoly patents on genes in plants that the companies will market as crops genetically engineered to withstand environmental stresses associated with climate change - including drought, heat, cold, floods, saline soils, and more. ETC Group's report warns that—rather than a solution for confronting climate change—the promise of so-called "climate-ready" crops will be used to drive farmers and governments onto a proprietary biotech platform.
"In the face of climate chaos and a deepening world food crisis, the Gene Giants are gearing up for a PR offensive to re-brand themselves as climate saviours," says Hope Shand, Research Director of ETC Group. "The companies hope to convince governments and reluctant consumers that genetic engineering is the essential adaptation strategy to insure agricultural productivity. Monopoly control of crop genes is a bad idea under any circumstances, but during a global food emergency with climate change looming, it's unacceptable and must be challenged."
Read the entire news release issued by ETC Group, and find a link to the full report here: http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=688
First Study Finds MRSA in U.S. Pigs
Scientists from the University of Iowa have conducted the first test of U.S. swine for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the bacterium responsible for more U.S. deaths than AIDS. Of the 200 pigs the team tested, 70 percent carried a strain of MRSA, ST398, that is known to affect humans.
The Republicrats: A Plague on Both Their Houses
Larry Pinkney, in an article for The Black Commentator, which he serves as an editor, gives some needed perspective on the U.S. Presidential election hype. According to Pinkney, “We can yet say NO to this corporate media sell-out of humanity in the name of materialistic dribble and mindless consumerism. We can yet make a difference…. There is much work to be done outside the garbage of the U.S. Democratic and Republican parties [i.e. the Republicrats] - who must be uncompromisingly relegated to the dust bin of broken promises, hypocrisy and lies, from whence they came. Onward then. There is so much to be done.”
Read Pinkney’s entire article here: http://www.blackcommentator.com/276/276_kir_republicrats_plague_both_houses.html
From Robert Kennedy to Obama: Liberalism's Last Fling
Writing in the New Statesman, John Pilger finds parallels between Robert Kennedy's pursuit of the U.S. Presidency in 1968 and Barack Obama's pursuit in 2008. Pilger asserts that "Like Kennedy, Obama may well 'chart a new direction for America' in specious, media-honed language, but in reality he will secure, like every president, the best damned democracy money can buy." For the entire article, click here. http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=489