[statecom-discuss] Mike Heichman's statement for the SPWG meeting

[Betty H. Zisk]

I thank you for your advance statement--the rare one that came in, in
advance--and I have listened to you with respect as always. We disagree on
some pts but are in total agreement tht we want to improve statecom process,
and ultimately to preserve 10kv. I meant it when I said that this was the
rare meeting when I didnt need to step in as vibes watcher. Please consult
Merelice on Chuck's absence. I dont believe he is in total disagreement with
this SPWG process. I think he instead felt that too much had been
predetermined. (So did I and we will try to prevent that in the future.)With
love--as one who hasnt always loved your bluntness--Betts.) Here is the
inevitable addendum. But...

 If we can try to solve the problem of strong dissent in our midst (that
frankly isnt going to go away) maybe we can come to be an effective party. I
personally dont thinking taking the American flag down is an effective way
to attract other Greens or new members. David R and I disagree on ths--but
at least we didnt have a shouting match. I am still torn about coalition vs
issue politics. I wld seriously suggst that there is an appropriate time to
do both. I want to build a broad coaition re Greens--and will continue to do
so. And that means reaching out to sympatico groups. I also want the freedom
(which I have exercized many times) to indulge in single issue politics when
it affects Quaker freedoms as it often does. Preserving the rights of
prisoners. Preserving the rights of dissent. I have never felt these basic
values of mine were in conflict with GRP values. That is why I have
continued my 20+ year love affair with the Greens (now GRP)and I hope other
GRP members feel this way. Sometimes we are in despair and sometimes in
hope.

John Rensenbrink (a real spir leader in Maine Green Party and in national
politics)has had to remind me at roughly six month intervals that we are
sometimes up, sometimes down--but stay the course, we are in it for the long
run. I really just want to say that I love and respect all of you who keep
to the course however hard. I am still torn between teaching my 7 year old
granddaughter how to cook (she genuinely wants it) and going to Maine for
relaxation I dont get here very often. Yes I am lucky to have a place in
Maine. I guess I fit into owning rather than renting class on tht. But we
bought it as a run down hovel and all we cld afford on Maine coast.

 I invite you to come up to visit--just an hour above Portland. And I mean
that. I wld love to have Greens as company; I have had the men/s grp of my
middle son several times. I want to share Maine's bounty and my delightful
new cabin built in octagonal form and genuinely as green as we could make
it. Of course I found a fellow Green as an disaffected guy who has no
loyalties to build it. The result is amazing--for example bamboo floors
before bamboo was ever heard of in this country. (I mean four or five years
ago_. Cat door for real privacy for cat (if you dont know about this ask
me.) I digress and I am sorry. I am just trying to say that I found the
ideal getaway (and those who hate lobster dont agre with me) that is
affordable and wonderful and doesnt cost an arm and a leg. AND MORE
IMPORTANT I FOUND ALL THIS THROUGH TWO DIFFERENT CONTACTS--GREENS AND AFSC.
I WENT SAILING WITH AN AFSC GUY. I HAVE LOVED AND RESPECTED JOHN
RENSENBRIINK SINCE I MET HIM IN 1986. BETWEEN THE TWO OF US PUTTING OUR
HEADS TOGETHER I HAVE A CABIN AT AFFORDABLE PRICE.

I realize this may seem unfeeling to you. I am pledged to try again on
poverty in MA. Yes I realize I am priveleged, but you will note that I cant
spell worth a damn. I care, dammit, and I shldnt have to prove it by how
p00r I am.


 I have long since given up on affecting more than the students I teach. I
am damned tired. But I keep on the hard task of doing Green politics because
I dont know any other altenative to poltics as usual. Love you. Betts (And
all the GRP people who came out today. I really believe in face to face
meetings--I met old friends and took so much strength from them. Betts with
love and respect

-----Original Message-----
From: statecom-discuss-bounces at green-rainbow.org
[mailto:statecom-discuss-bounces at green-rainbow.org]On Behalf Of Mike
Heichman
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2007 10:33 PM
To: Discussion List for StateCom members
Subject: [statecom-discuss] Mike Heichman's statement for the SPWG
meeting


Members of the State Committee:

I hope to see many of you tomorrow in Worcester for the SPWG meeting.

Below is a copy of my statement.

Mike Heichman



TESTIMONY BY MIKE HEICHMAN
For the SPWG meeting on May 6, 2007

I. SPWG

Thank you so much to all of the members of SPWG and all of you who have
come together today to help build and move our party forward. I believe
that the work that we do together is essential to our efforts to do our
part to improve the lives of the people of this Commonwealth and beyond.

I want to thank the members of SPWG for agreeing to play a major role in
this important task. I was impressed with the membership of this
Committee-a combination of people who are currently active and those who
have been more active in the past

Reflecting on and evaluating our history and our practice is an
essential task for our party. I believe that it is also very important
that this effort not be a one-time shot. Instead it should become a
“permanent committee”.

RECOMMENDATION #1: As part of its report, SPWG will come up with
recommendations on how the party (through this committee) should
continue this process of reflection/evaluation and making future plans.

I was also very pleased when Boston City Councilor, Chuck Turner, who is
the most impressive person that I have ever know and worked with,
decided to represent the Rainbow Caucus in the work of this committee.
Unfortunately, I was disheartened to learn that Chuck has resigned. Our
party must be about diversity! And for this wonderful person and leader
to so quickly resign from the work of this committee is disheartening.
We must do more than just acknowledge his absence.

RECOMMENDATION #2: I call on SPWG to conduct an internal investigation
of the resignation of Chuck Turner from this committee. The purpose is
not to cast aspersions. The major purpose is to have a deeper
understanding of what happened in order for SPWG and the party to have a
deeper understanding of our process so we can better move forward in the
future. (This is certainly consistent with SPWG’s mission.)


II. Internal Operations of the GRP

a. “Why can’t we get along?”

An African-American named Rodney King was beaten by the LA Police.
Unknown to the police, someone had witnessed and recorded the event with
his video camera. Despite the video, months later the jury came in with
a verdict of not guilty. The result was a major riot. During the riot,
Mr. King came out and addressed the press and asked a very important
question, “Why can’t we get along?”

Fellow members of the GRP – “Why can’t we get along?” I believe that
this is an essential question. While I do not know of any videotape
evidence, a member of the public who would read our archives would find
a great deal of mean spirit and cruelty.
How many members have left our party and/or refuse to get more involved
because of this internal violence and disrespect? Some people have given
so much to our party. Yes, none of them are perfect or above
constructive criticism or accountability. However, it is painful to see
them being so disrespected.

Emma Goldman asked, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your
revolution.” We are not going to grow our party unless we develop a
richer spirit. If we can’t do a better job of getting along with each
other and having more fun, we are not going to get more people to become
part of our party.

RECOMMENDATION #3: SPWG will lead an investigation of the reasons why we
have so much divisive conflict and misbehavior in our party and come up
with a list of recommendations on how we can both lessen the incidents
and intensity of misbehavior and increase the positive spirit of party
building.

b. The State Comm.has some major structural problems.

The State Committee is wasting a lot of time and is loosing members who
have lost patience about having their time wasted. This is true for many
reasons. Some of them are:

i. The State Comm. has lost its sense of its major functions. I believe
that these functions are:

a. the making of policy between conventions
b. improving communication and coordination
c. evaluating the progress of the party
d. Instead of focusing on the above, it often spends time debating the
wording of endorsements (currently the function of Adcom) and debating
the wording of our positions on issues (the function of the Platform Comm.)
e. Additionally, every delegate should be expected to be an active
member of a statewide committee.

ii. The State Committee needs to improve its internal coordination.
There is an inadequate amount of advanced preparation for our 4
meetings/year (both collectively and individually). On the day of the
meeting, our facilitators often come unprepared to facilitate the
meetings and some of the individual members come with unprepared.

iii. Sometimes the State Comm. often meets without a quorum or there
will be a “pretend quorum”. This is an incredible waste of time, as well
as being disheartening. The State Comm. needs to change its quorum rule
to make it easier for those who do attend its meetings to be able to
conduct its business.

iv. The consensus process is working very poorly and is wasting a lot of
time. The State Comm. should modify the process of running its meetings
and making decisions. It should enter a period of improving its advanced
planning, experiment with different ways of conducting its business, and
reflecting on the new practices

v. The new vetting process is not working. Initiators of proposals
should be encouraged (not required) to vet their proposals to the
appropriate committee(s). Committee should be encouraged but not
required to vet these proposals. We should go back to the old system of
expecting that members of State Comm. will …

a. read the proposals well before the meeting.
b. offer their support by co-sponsoring if they are in agreement.
c. share their concerns with the sponsors with a mutual attempt to
resolve concerns before the meeting.


RECOMMENDATION #4: SPWG will investigate (maybe a questionnaire to
members of State Comm.) the operations of the State Committee and make
recommendations on how it can become a more effective body.

c. The Committees need to be strengthened.

I’m sure that all of us want to create a program so that our party can
be more effective and also to grow. However, do we have the
institutional structure, materials, etc. to support the growth of our party?

Thousands of hours were spent last year in support of our slate of
candidates. How has this led to the growth of our party? While I believe
that the past campaigns and candidates should have done more (and still
can do more) to bring more people into the party, the fault lies with
the party more than the past campaigns.

How much of the following conditions changed since the last election?

1. During the campaign, we did not have a membership brochure.
(Additionally, for most of the campaign, we did not have a common piece
of campaign literature, which was about the party and our 4 statewide
candidates.) These omissions drove me crazy! It is now 5 months since
the last election. We still don’t have a membership brochure? If we are
serious about growing the party, we need a membership brochure and we
need to have it translated into different languages (I suggest that we
start with Spanish.)

2. We need to improve our website. I had heard that this was happening.
Is this true? If so, when will it be ready?

3. We often hear that some members of our party condemning our
candidates (and other members of our party) for ideological deviations.
While I believe that the requirement for membership in the party or to
be an endorsed candidate should only be for people to agree that they
are in general agreement with our 10 key values and in general agreement
with our platform, I believe that there are others who want to have a
higher standard for our candidates. Regardless, the important point to
emphasize is that we do NOT have a functioning platform. After the
election, the Platform Comm. had two meetings and decided to focus its
attention on creating issues documents (an excellent idea!). My
understanding is that the Platform Comm. has stopped meeting.

4. I believe that we should be a party that has many foci (electoral,
building the “movements” for peace, and economic, ecological and social
justice, creating and strengthening local chapters, etc.). I believe
that many/most of us believe that the electoral focus is an important
part of what our party should be doing. As the Interim Coordinator of
CDLC, I want to share my concern that unless more people get involved in
this committee that we will not have the human resources to make and
implement plans for a successful 2008 election season.

5. As I write this there is a major annual event going on in Jamaica
Plain-the Wake Up the Earth Festival. There have been times when we have
had a table. Potentially we could have had a table this year. However,
we would have nothing relevant to “put on the table”. I know that SPWG
will focus much of its attention on building and supporting a political
program that we can “put on the table”. However, we also need some
materials. We need a membership brochure (discussed above). We need
buttons, bumperstickers, party shirts, etc. We also need to publish
party newsletters, and even better, a party newspaper on a regular
basis. Is there any significant movement on these fronts currently
taking place?

6. Etc.

RECOMMENDATION #5: SPWG will call for the immediate re-establishment of
our committees. SPWG will call on all committees to meet on a regular
basis. SPWG will encourage all delegates to the State Comm. to join and
become active in at least one statewide committee. SPWG recognizes that
our party cannot wait until SPWG “finishes” its business. SPWG also
recognizes that we cannot grow our party unless there are ample
structures to involve both existing and new members.


III. Our Political Program

I write about our political program last because I believe that will be
the primary area of SPWG’s discussions and work. While coming up with a
political plan for our work is essential, I believe that we will not be
successful in growing our party, no matter what we decide to do
publicly, unless we strengthen our internal operations.

While coming up with a strategy is about making decisions and focusing
our attention and limited resources more wisely, we should also be very
wary of saying “NO” to members of our party. As long as members of our
party are operating in accordance with the 10 key values (which we must
agree is open to interpretation), and in general agreement with our
general platform (which is unfinished and terribly out-of-date), then
they should have at least our tolerance if not our active blessings.

What should be our primary goal of our party? Our primary goal should
never be to elect our members to public office. Our primary goal must be
to work to bring about a major transformation of our Planet. In order to
do this, we need to focus on 4 connecting transformations:
-the transformation of our belief system
-the transformation of our lives
-the transformation of public policies
-the transformation of the institutions that control our lives

I propose a 3-pronged strategy for 2007-8:

A. “Movement Building”

I propose that we should establish four statewide committees (Peace,
Economic and Social Justice, and Ecological Justice). (The number 4 and
the names of the committees are only intended to be suggestive.) After
each committee has recruited at least 10 GRP members (the # 10 is
suggestive), the committee will be recognized by Adcom, given a place on
the website and an e-mail address, and encouragement to do its work.

B. Chapter Building

The Membership Comm. will come up with a plan to strengthen existing
chapters and build new ones. The Committee will also encourage old and
new members to join in other party projects where no chapter is in
current existence. The State Comm. will invest in this project by
contributing at least 50% of its discretionary funds to this project
(Fall, 2007 and 2008).

C. Electoral

It is my belief that we are in a period where it will be very difficult
to recruit new candidates, except for small local offices in towns,
which require little financial and human resources. I will be very happy
if I’m wrong about this. As long as the candidates will state that they
are in general agreement with our 10 key values and in general agreement
with our platform, we should encourage and support (to the best of our
ability) those who step forward to run for office.

In addition to the above, I propose the following for 2008:

I believe that we have a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of the
growing disenchantment with the growing corruption and evil of the
existing political and economic system. There will be growing opposition
to foreign wars. There will be increasing disenchantment as our ecology,
economy and society continues to crumble.
The question for us is whether or not our party will be in position to
take advantage of this deteriorating situation.

While I respect and support those of us who want to focus more of our
attention locally, I also believe that there is a tremendous opportunity
of having a focus on the larger picture. How large will depend on our
capacity to take advantage of the upcoming electoral opportunities.

1. We should establish a small subcommittee of CDLC to coordinate the
Presidential 2008 Campaign. While it is true that we will not have to
get any signatures to have our candidates in the March Presidential
Primary and to place the Green Party’s endorsed candidates for President
and Vice-President on the November ballot, we DO need a small committee
to do the bureaucratically necessary things to keep in contact with the
National Green Party and announced candidates, to keep in touch with the
Secretary of State’s office, and to plan a modest statewide campaign.
This will not happen by itself.

2. We should establish a small and diverse subcommittee of CDLC to
explore whether or not we can find one or more candidates to run for the
U.S. Senate or Congress. The reason we should attempt to do this is that
the public will continue to be directed by the media to focus on the
national and international picture. While I do not believe that it is
likely that we will find a candidate and have the resources to run a
“winning race”, we have demonstrated that we have the growing capacity
to attract significant public attention to our alternative politics
without having much financial and human resources. We should decided
that this will not be a priority for our party unless we can find our
candidate(s) before the end of 2007 (preferably earlier).

3. We should encourage and support GRP candidates to run for the state
legislature. We should provide them with campaign manuals (This will be
done.) and endorsed candidates will be given a place on the GRP website
and a list of GRP members who live in their district.

4. I strongly support Ron Francis’s Local Ballot Initiative. He is
hoping that his process will find agreement to support an advisory
question on the ballot in many districts across the state. I believe
that his project has the capacity to bring about a growing awareness of
the public about what our party believes in, to challenge their own
belief system and to build our party at the local level. His project has
already identified a small number of activists interested in this
project and there have been two successful meetings in Somerville and
Northampton and tentative plans for another meeting in June.

IV. Fundraising & Staffing

RECOMMENDATION #6: As part of its “final” report, SPWG will recommend
that Adcom hire a staff person. The major purposes of the staff person
will be to work with the Fundraising Committee (40%), the Membership
Committee (40%) and other party structures (20%) to help implement the
new strategic plan.

I hope that SPWG will take the time to come up with an excellent plan.
While I know that this is a major project, I hope that many of you will
also become more involved in the party in some other capacity. I also
hope that it will be able to make a progress report to the July 8 State
Comm. meeting and that some kind of “finished” document be presented,
discussed and acted upon by the GRP’s 2007 convention, which I hope will
be held no earlier than this October.

With Great Appreciation for your Love for our Party,

Mike Heichman
mikeheichman at verizon.net
617-265-8143
State Comm. Member, Suffolk County, active member of the Boston chapter,
and Interim Coordinator of the CDLC



_______________________________________________
statecom-discuss mailing list
statecom-discuss at green-rainbow.org
http://www.green-rainbow.org/mailman/listinfo/statecom-discuss