[candidate-development] The crushed of the world...

[Yarden]

John Walsh,
Greetings,

I regret that you have not bothered to study the analyses and 
statements of principle that led to the formation of the Green parties, 
in the U. S.

Since I spend much time doing this, there is little reason for my not 
sharing it with you or anyone else who can read, reason and discuss.  
The rhetoric of current prevailing political ideology does not easily 
lend itself, nor do the various means of imparting that ideology, to 
such scrutiny.

Thus, many people in our party are immersed in issue politics, because 
they are not aware of how one would seek election if they did not 
address people's 'issues.'  This became such a standby of running for 
office under the ideology of "no taxation without representation" that 
the number of thinkers declined in proportion to the manipulators.

So much for issue politics and competitors for office who say "I can 
deal with your issues better than the other guy!"  Or planners of our 
future who compete by saying "The most important 'issue' is .   .   .   
. whatever, and by giving it priority, leaves the whatever with the 
status of a competing issue, or makes the word 'issue' unusable for 
planning by leaving it meaning anything that somebody cares about, 
usually something which if they really care about it they will not 
leave in the hands of someone seeking office.

Yes, John, I know that the role and tasks of the GPUS are different 
from those of Green parties in many other parts of the world, not least 
because its political leaders have the overwhelming military power, 
economic dependence, and continuing commitment to control  of the 
environment, and have to be looked at differently than if this were not 
the case. I did manage to make a point of this at our strategy sessions 
in Reading.

Imperialist policy decisions are dependent on war and other forms of 
violence in extremely intricate ways understood much better by bankers 
and economists than by liberals or by the people they elect to office.

As an ecological party, we are committed to the protection of the 
environment, not as 'environmentalists,' but out of our knowledge that 
we are a animal species in the planetary environment with specially 
evolved abilities to extend abilities to adapt, and now, the recently 
developed technologies to alter our environment or destroy it through 
energy transfers not hitherto possible.  And when I hear people speak 
of a transformative politics, my imagination of what is possible is 
fully aroused.  I was recruited into the Green Party (as it was called 
at the time) by a young scientist, a physicist in the field of plasma 
physics, who said, "The notions that there are technological solutions 
to everything is false.  Some problems require social solutions."  This 
is particularly true of energy problems.  There was a strongly 
supported suggestion at the NC conference in Reading that the GPUS 
focus on energy policy in the 2008 national elections.  Try figuring 
out how U. S. (or is it globalization) policy on energy distribution 
generates violence, wars (many small ones in addition to the bigger 
ones that involve U. S. or NATO military), violence, brutality, 
poisoning of animals and plants, destruction of whole ecological 
systems, the list is endless.

Any good Democratic (or Republican) politician knows that these are not 
'issues' for most people who can be gotten to the polls.  What the 
hell, look at those people in Louisiana, what do they know about 
anything.  They can't even get mad enough about what goes on in their 
backyards to do something about it.  And any good liberal, even the 
ones in the Democratic party know that what you are telling us is, 
indeed, the case. And like any good American liberal, they are against 
the continuing war and presence of U. S. troops in Iraq, hate the 
oppression of the Palestinians by Israel, are angry about the 
displacement and fear of injury on the part of large local populations 
in Sudan and say that the U. N. is not doing enough, and do not know 
what to say about Kososvo.

Do not get me wrong.  My reason tells me that there must be space in 
our party, or any party whose political concern is for the ecological 
future. for everyone, however immersed in, or free of, received ideas 
(ideology) that keeps things going the way they are going.  I do not 
believe that the culture that we are evolving is not better able to 
confront reality of our ecological destructiveness than are others.

I am struggling every day as a party worker to better understand our 
principles and how they may be applied, how much is contradictory, how 
much is immersed in prevailing ideology, and what can be brought to 
bear on immediate problems.  Currently I am reading, re-examining my 
own experience, thinking, talking to people who are mostly outside the 
party and are friends. I am doing this in connection with an 
examination of three of the listed Ten values that are best not 
separated when studied (Feminism, Nonviolence, and Respect for 
Diversity).  It has quickly become clear that when we speak of Respect 
for Diversity, we are talking about a fundamental quality of systems in 
which our species -- a self-reflective one, and 'in' language -- is 
present and participating.  The recognition of the ecological need for 
diversity in self-sustaining systems, is a concept very different from 
that of a cultural relativism which studies functionality without 
reference to enormous population shifts that result from alterations in 
the earth's environment that will be continuing for some time.  It is 
important to distinguish both intellectually, and practically, that 
there is no reason to include Millennialist, or other "not-of-this 
world" cultures, when we are trying to act as though people, live, 
breathing individuals and their animal (human) freedoms are to be 
respected more than their received cultural environment.  In a 
multi-cultural society, it may be as necessary to help free recent 
entrants into that society of the assumptions of their repressive 
cultures as it is for us to free ourselves of our own ideological 
assumptions, and especially those which suggest to us that we are 
helping people to preserve quaint forms of domination of person by 
person, peculiar to the hierarchies of that culture and its 
institutions.

This last becomes especially vicious when used as a recruiting ground 
for the military whether from the hills of West Virginia, or Puerto 
Rico, or 'tribes people' of Laos.
Elie Yarden,
Cambridge

On Saturday, July 21, 2007, at 01:54 PM, Walsh, John wrote:

> Often we think of war and imperialism as just another "issue."
> Please read this.  It is profoundly disturbing.  We have an obligation 
> here in the heart of the empire to ensure that such things cease.
> Believe that the attached might give us all pause to think at this 
> time of frustration with the national state
> of affairs, when thoughts of giving up, poor me, etc., enter the head.
> ******
> By any standard, this woman, as a Vietnamese peasant, engaging foreign 
> forces, was a hero and a patriot, as
> was her leader Ho Chi Minh.   Think - there was damn little support 
> services nor compensation, if any,
> for her heroic endeavors and the horrors of her induced disease.  All 
> of us, no matter the perceived
> deprivation with respect to the war, certainly cannot match the 
> entitlement to complaint - apparently
> absent in her lifetime.  Humbling.   Tony
> *****
>
>> 1. Posted for Merle Ratner - Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & 
>> Responsibili
>
>> Dear Sisters and Brothers,
>>
>> I am heartbroken to report that our dear sister, Nguyen Thi Hong, 
>> passed
>> away at 10:45 on July 20th, 2007 in Ho Chi Minh Hospital for Tumors
>> (about two hours ago.)
>>
>> Ms. Hong was a liberation fighter with the National Liberation Front
>> serving in many capacities.  She and other women were known as the 
>> Long
>> Haired Army.  She was exposed to Agent Orange both during her service
>> during the war and after liberation, through living near a "hot spot" 
>> in
>> Bien Hoa. Due to her exposure to Agent Orange she suffered from 
>> multiple
>> cancers, liver problems and other illnesses.  After the end of the 
>> war,
>> she workedas a seamstress, among other occupations, and her beautiful
>> craftswomanship is evidenced in several pillow covers in my home.
>>
>> During her time with us in the US, I shared a room and often a bed 
>> with
>> Ms. Hong.  I witnessed her tremendous determination and courage in the
>> face of terrible pain.  She had a tumor growing through the skin of 
>> her
>> breast where the cancer had grown back after her mastectomy.  The
>> bleeding from the tumor could only be stopped by binding up her wound
>> with gauze and bandages every day.
>>
>> Despite being tired and sometimes short of breath, Ms. Hong was hard
>> working and militant.  When we encountered right wing demonstrators 
>> who
>> attempted (unsuccessfully) to disrupt our press conference at the 
>> Court
>> of Appeals hearing on the lawsuit of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims,
>> Ms. Hong declared that she was ready to fight them, even in her
>> wheelchair. Nguyen Thi Hong was a both strong and articulate. Her 
>> words
>> moved the many audiences she addressed, with her quiet dignity and
>> directness.
>>
>> Ms. Hong also showed a great deal of sympathy for and solidarity with
>> ordinary US people struggling with poverty and injustice. When we
>> encountered homeless people in the streets of New York, Ms. Hong asked
>> how it was possible for people to be homeless in the richest country 
>> in
>> the world and asked what could be done to help them.  She also 
>> expressed
>> her sympathy for me and others she met who were unemployed and her
>> concern about our daily lives.
>>
>> Thousands of miles from home, Nguyen Thi Hong was caring and involved 
>> in
>> the lives of her family.  Several times a day, her family would call 
>> her
>> on my cell phone and she would inquire about everyone's welfare and 
>> give
>> advice about family issues.
>>
>> Ms. Hong had a wonderful sense of humor and would tease me on a daily
>> basis about my horrible Vietnamese language skills, about my coffee
>> addiction and so many other things.
>>
>> Nguyen Thi Hong was hopeful about her struggle with her illnesses,
>> determined not to give up fighting for life.  But at our final 
>> summation
>> of the visit, she said that she thought she would be going home to her
>> ancestors before the end of the year.  We are sorry that her journey 
>> has
>> taken place before we were able to visit her and her family in 
>> Vietnam.
>>
>> Nguyen Thi Hong is an example to all of us of how to spend ones life
>> dedicated to service of the people and the struggle for national and
>> human liberation.
>>
>> We will miss her and always try to live like her!
>
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