[statecom] Summaries of Green-Rainbow Party Annual Conventions 2001-2007

[Gracegrnrnbw at aol.com]

Larry - this is an interesting summary - of course, the number of staetcom 
members, members of adcom continued to increase until 2007.   So I don't know 
why you chose 2005 as the beginning of a down swing.

your characterization of what issues interested people and in what 
perecentages is speculation I doubt would match with fact although we have no way of 
measuring it.

Most of the "camp" you seem to assume is a minority of our party is actually 
interested in economic and racial justice and is working on our by far most 
visible activity - the foreclosure crisis.   And as has been true from its 
inception, the Rainbow agenda has never seen environmental justice as separate from 
our work but intimately integrated into it.   

I would continue to encourage us to move away from either/or us/them type 
paradigms.   We will not save the environment while ignoring our human society's 
injustices to each other - they are one of a complete pattern of creating 
artificial hierarchies of values when, in fact, all life is precious and 
prioritizing some of it over other parts is, I believe, a key component of what got us 
(as a society) into this mess...

Reflection sounds like a good idea and I have a dream for us that we can 
start to see differences as opportunities for learning and coming together - I 
believe that moving to become a learning organization will help us a great 
deal...

Grace
In a message dated 6/21/08 1:06:00 PM, tetrahedrons at crocker.com writes:


> Dear GRP member,
> 
> The attached document entitled "Summaries of Green-Rainbow Party Annual
> Conventions 2001-2007" gives a bird's eye view of the history and evolution
> of our Party.  I took the most important information available for each
> annual convention from the GRP webpage, and formed a chronolog of Party
> activity and the players in the years from 2001-2007.
> 
> I think this chronolog will help people in the Party see where the Party
> has been, where it is now, and where it should or could go.
> 
> I am trying to find out who the AdCom members were for the years 2005 and
> 2006 (Co-chairs, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership, Communications, and
> Fundraising) and also who the GPUS reps were for these two years.  As you
> will see in the chronolog I constructed, there are no minutes for the
> annual Conventions posted on the webpage Green-Rainbow.org for these two
> years that relate this information.   Please email me whatever information
> you have, whether from personal notes or documents or from memory.  You
> could also call me at 413-256-6044.
> 
> I am also looking for information about the size of the Party membership
> for each year.  In some instances the Party size was given in the
> minutes.  Another parameter of interest would be the voter turnouts each 
> year.
> 
> I am intrigued by the apparent reduction in energy and enthusiasm in the
> Party commencing in the year 2005 and continuing to the present, albeit
> perhaps with some upswing in energy and enthusiasm now.  The reduction in
> energy and enthusiasm since 2004  may obviously be laid at the feet of the
> increasingly great obstacles the American public feels with Bush's
> reelection in 2004, with no ground swell for his impeachment, with the
> increasing economic and cultural degradation and hardship people have been
> reeling under, etc.  All factors that produce a dispirited public, which
> naturally have repercussions in the energy and time Green people can put
> into our Party's positive activities.
> 
> On the other hand, perhaps some soul searching is in order within our Party
> to see if leadership approaches, directions taken, policies adopted and
> published, workshop topics covered and political messages conveyed in
> Conventions have detracted from the energy and enthusiasm that had existed
> up through 2004.
> 
> This observer notices two distinct directions or camps within our Party at
> the present.  Both camps are interested in altering opinions amidst the
> Massachusetts public at large in the areas of economic and health justice.
> In addition to these vital areas, the majority camp of 75% to 80% has as
> its top area of concern the immediate grave dangers of global warming and
> peak oil - an equal opportunity destroyer of life - whatever a person's
> diversity makeup.  The minority camp representing some 20% - 25% has as its
> top area of concern the psychological injustice (having an impact on
> economic and health injustice) coming from the range of diversity areas.
> 
> It is this Party member's opinion that it is past time that this general
> disagreement as to Party priority-identity-mission be addressed in a deep,
> rigorous, and extensive discussion - perhaps in a roundtable, free-flowing
> discussion without the artificial strictures of the stacking mechanism
> (going round and round the circle instead, with a person passing if they
> want).  Perhaps an October surprise StateCom could give over its morning
> session to this, with a limited number of proposals to deal with in the
> afternoon.
> 
> Otherwise we are really two parties acting as though we were one, when we
> are not.  It is as though some people on one side of a canoe are paddling
> the opposite direction from the people on the other side.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Larry Ely, Secretary GRP
> 




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