OntheWilderSide

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On Wednesday, October 1, 2008 Gathering at 7pm, the Babylon Green Party Gathering will host a special guest speaker veteran activist Marge Harrison on Community Organizing. The evening will also include information and literature for Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney.  www.BabylonGreens.org The event will be held at Pisces Café, 14A Railroad Avenue, Babylon, NY (631-321-1231) www.piscescafe.net (map) Come hungry! For directions to the Babylon Green Gathering, call 631-422-4702 or email ian.wilder@yahoo.com Children are welcome. All gatherings are free of charge, and open to the public.

Marge Harrison, a lifelong resident of Nassau County, lives in Merrick with her husband and teenage son. For the past twenty years, she has been a library/research teacher at a Long Island public high school and has served as an officer and the political action organizer of her teacher union local. Harrison has served on the board of PeaceSmith House and was a founding co-chair of the Long Island Progressive Coalition. As coordinator of the Long Island Public Power Project, she organized for a democratically-run alternative to the Long Island Lighting Company and for the demise of the Shoreham Nuclear Plant, serving on Governor Cuomo’s Shoreham Fact-Finding Commission. From 1982 to 1994, Harrison was a vice-chair of the New York State Democratic Party, representing the party’s Reform Caucus, and remains a local Democratic committeeperson. In 2005, she earned a Ph. D., completing a dissertation on suburban politics. Currently, Harrison’s political work focuses on efforts to protect and improve public education.

Ms. Harrison will discuss community organizing, a topic much in the news due to the Republican Party’s attack on those who work primarily in low-income communities. Community organizing is a profoundly democratic and American undertaking, focused on equipping people to ensure that there is government “by the people and for the people.” Harrison will address the rules and ethics that guide community organizing and what differentiates community organizers from others involved in public life.

Babylon Green Party Gatherings are held on the first Wednesday of every month:

• The post-election November 5, 2008 Gathering will feature prof Karl Grossman on Media Reform.
• The December 3, 2008 will be our annual Green Party Holiday Party with music?!
• The January 7, 2009 Gathering will feature Kirby Einhorn of LI Wins on the necessity of immigrants to the LI economy

The Green Party is an alternative party to the Democrats and Republicans. The four pillars of the Green Party are: Nonviolence/Peace; Grassroots Democracy; Social and Economic Justice; and Ecological Wisdom.

For more information about Green Party activities, please go to www.gpsuffolk.org or call Green Party of Suffolk Chair Roger Snyder at 631-351-5763. You can enroll in the Green Party by checking the box marked “Other” on the voter registration form and writing in the word “Green” on the line next to it. Click here to find a voter registration form. You can send donations to the Green Party of Suffolk,14 Robin Drive, Huntington, NY 11743.

Filed under: activism, Babylon Politics, cynthia mckinney, election, Election 2008, elections, events, grassroots democracy, Green Party Websites, local, long island, Long Island Politics, More Events Calendars, New York State Politics, News, Nonprofit Orgs, Political Websites, progressive politics, Rosa Clemente, US Politics, video Tagged: | community organizer, Marge Harrison, pisces cafe, saul alinsky, Susan Blake, susan june blake