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Calling organized labor’s support for Democrats an “investment that hasn’t paid off,” Green Party leaders appealed to unions and all working Americans, calling for support for the election of Green candidates to Congress in the 2010 election. On Labor Day 2009, Greens expressed their solidarity with working people with a call to “come home to the Green Party.
Matt Reichel, Green candidate for the US House in Illinois, District 5, who will join a Labor Day march sponsored by the AFL-CIO and picket with laid-off public truck drivers next Wednesday at Daley Plaza (http://www.mattreichel.us):
“The continued loyalty of unions to Democratic candidates, regardless of Democrats’ actions while in office, has proven a disaster for working Americans. The Democratic Party has consistently favored the demands of corporations over the needs of workers. Despite a Democrat in the White House and control over Congress, Democrats have refused to make good on campaign promises.”
“Democrats have sent trillions of dollars in bailouts to Wall Street, while offering minimal help to workers, homeowners, poor people, and others affected by the economic meltdown. The Obama Administration, under the influence of pro-Wall Street White House staff like [economic advisor] Lawrence H. Summers, has retreated from the Employee Free Choice Act [EFCA] and from plans for public works projects that would employ millions. Living wages, anti-labor ‘free trade’ pacts, and the Taft-Hartley Act’s curb on union power aren’t even on the table. How much more abuse and neglect can labor take?
Morning Sunday, candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2002, the first Green to run for public office in Baltimore:
“We’re sending this message to union leaders and members: vote your future, help us send some Greens in Congress in 2010. With a few Green Representatives and Senators, we’ll accomplish two things. First, working Americans will have real representatives in Congress, since Greens do not accept contributions from corporations. Second, the presence of Greens will show Democrats that Republicans are no longer their sole competition. Democrats will have to follow through on their promises or get replaced by pro-labor Greens. A few Greens in Congress will change America’s political landscape, marginalizing Republicans and ‘blue dog’ Democrats, and strengthening the political power of unions.”
Sanda Everette, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States, retired teacher, former delegate to California Teachers Association and National Education Association meetings: “Unions, progressive organizations, and progressive Democrats will all benefit from the election of Greens to Congress and state legislatures. The Green Party supports EFCA, living wages, and the repeal of Taft-Hartley restrictions on workplace organizing. We have protested against international trade authorities like NAFTA, because of their veto power over labor and environmental protections, and we support the enactment of fair trade agreements. We’re firmly behind single-payer national health care (HR 676), which would relieve business of the economic burden of providing health care benefits, end management’s use of such benefits as leverage over employees, and create more jobs. We’ve called for a massive public works program to put millions of Americans to work, with new jobs in conservation, retrofitting, expansion of public transportation, and other ways to adapt our country to global warming and other 21st century realities.
“And we continue to invite labor activists and working people to run for Congress, state legislatures, and other public office as Greens.” [See Illinois Green Party press release, September 5, 2009, http://www.ilgp.org/groups/media/ILGPpress-releasses/green-party-to-laid-off-workers-consider-running-for-office]
“Labor’s investment in the Democratic Party hasn’t paid off. Instead, unions have lost power and membership over the past half century. In the past decade, union locals have endorsed Green candidates. If national union leadership joined us in our efforts to seat a few Greens in Congress, we’d see an end to politics limited to two pro-corporate parties.”
Howie Hawkins, Teamster (Local 317), Green candidate for Syracuse City Council in 2009 (http://www.howiehawkins.com), and 2008 candidate for Congress in New York, District 25: “The Democrats’ attitude towards unions has been ‘you have to support us, you have nowhere else to turn.’ That’s no longer true. Unions and working people have a home in the Green Party.”
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
“Labor’s Lost Love”
By Jonathan Tasini, president emeritus of the National Writers Union and president of the Economic Future Group, in The Los Angeles Times, February 20, 2005
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/20/opinion/op-labor20
Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
Summer 2009 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog
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Filed under: activism, grassroots democracy, Green Party, Labor Tagged: | EFCA, Employee Free Choice Act, living wage, NAFTA, single-payer universal healthcare, Taft-Hartley
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