Proposals for 2007 Fall State Committee Meeting

Proposals for the State Committee meeting can be submitted, revised, and commented on here. The State Committee meeting is on SATURDAY NOVEMBER 17, 2007. The official deadline for submissions is SUNDAY NOVEMBER 4th, 2007.

Any two members of the State and Administrative Committees or any Green Local may submit a proposal for the State Committee to consider. No proposals will be accepted at the meeting, except by any StateCom delegates which are elected within 4 weeks of an upcoming scheduled StateCom meeting. If sponsors are bringing a proposal to the meeting for consideration, the sponsors are responsible for bringing enough copies of the proposals for all the delegates to have one.

Proposals should also try to follow the “Complete Proposal Guidelines”. This document contains a template that can be used as the starting point for constructing a proposal for submission.

If you have proposals that are ready to post, do not hesitate as it gives people more of a chance to read it and comment on it ahead of time and possibly improve it.

If you have the proposal already in a word processor document, please attach the document at the bottom of your post to facilitate the process of making the proposal package for the meeting.

Please read them completely so you are prepared for clarifying questions, discussion, and decisionmaking. If you have comments ahead of time, you can post a follow up here and you can contact the sponsors of the proposal.

Green-Rainbow Party to seek representation in Massachusetts anti-war coalitions
Sunday November 04, @11:42PM by Eli Beckerman, Jill Stein
from the (defunct) External Relations committee.
Background: The Green-Rainbow Party left the UJP coalition in February, 2005 with differences of policy perspective pertaining to UJP’s position on Palestine. Since that time, the GRP has failed to organize any significant anti-war activity on its own.

It is clear that the anti-war movement needs a political vehicle outside of the two-party system, and the Green-Rainbow Party represents the clearest political alternative. Because we are not connected to or funded by either the war machine or the oil establishment, we are able to truly advocate for peace. Because we understand the connections between war, militarism, injustice, racism, economic exploitation, and environmental destruction – we have a critical contribution to make to the anti war movement. We seek to build not just a movement against war, but also for peace and the closely related struggles for justice, sustainability and democracy.

Besides UJP (justicewithpeace.org), other anti-war coalitions include the Stop the Wars Coalition (stopthewars.org), the International Action Center (iacboston.org), and the newly formed New England United (newenglandunited.org), and there are likely others.

Summary: The Green-Rainbow Party will rejoin Massachusetts anti-war coalitions, so long as two GRP representatives are identified who are willing to attend planning meetings for any given coalition.

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Improving the State Committee decision-making process
Sunday November 04, @11:33PM by Jill Stein, Merelice, John Andrews
SUMMARY: Establishes a committee to review - and recommend revisions to - the current consensus process to make it more efficient and effective for use as a decision-making process for the State Committee.

BACKGROUND:
There is great interest within the GRP State Committee in revising our decision-making process to make it more efficient, and to allow the state committee to become more action-oriented.

We are therefore asking Adcom to propose a modified consensus process that would allow a full airing of issues, but which would be less prone to repetition, and would allow decisions to be made with less time devoted to seeking of uniform agreement.


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Addressing the Continuing Health Care Crisis
Sunday November 04, @11:24PM by Jill Stein, John Andrews
SUMMARY: Reaffirming the urgent need for single payer universal health care reform in Massachusetts; authorizing the GRP to reactivate our membership in the MassCare Coalition for single payer health care; and calling for the appointment of a GRP delegate to the MassCare Coordinating Committee.

BACKGROUND
• The Mass. Health Care Reform (“Chapter 58”) has failed to address the larger dimensions of the health care crisis that is engulfing the Commonwealth. While it does provide needed subsidies for some low income uninsured, it has failed to address the fundamental forces that are driving our health care system toward collapse;

• The average cost of health insurance continues to skyrocket in Massachusetts to a current cost of over $9000 per person per year, the highest cost in all 50 states. This price is increasingly out of reach for all but the very affluent;

• Even the middle class is now being priced out of healthcare. The most recent Census Bureau statistics show that 2/3rds of the newly uninsured have incomes exceeding $75,000;

• While Chapter 58 provides needed relief for the uninsured below poverty level, those receiving partial subsidies (in the 100-300% poverty level) must pay premiums and copays that are unaffordable to many lower income recipients;

• Chapter 58 fails to provide affordable health care for those above the subsidy ceiling. Yet Chapter 58 requires the uninsured above 300% poverty to purchase unaffordable, stripped down policies that do not protect either health or financial security. Illustrating how steep these costs are is the price a couple in their late 50s would pay for a Chapter 58 plan: an annual premium of $8,638, with a $2000 per person deductible before coverage even kicks in. Even at that, pharmaceuticals would not be covered.

• The extreme fiscal stress on our state and municipal budgets is not being resolved by Chapter 58. The burden of subsidizing a wasteful, rapidly escalating health care bill is unsustainable.

• Chapter 58 is one in a long list of over a dozen states that have attempted to solve the health insurance crisis through a major expansion of piecemeal coverage – without controlling price inflation or streamlining the costly insurance bureaucracy. Such reforms have uniformly failed within a couple years.

• The health insurance bureaucracy now consumes 31% of the health care dollar. The state agency providing coverage – the “Connector” – is adding an additional 4.5% to this already unbearable overhead. The cost of this administrative burden is nearly five times higher than Medicare’s and 11 times higher than Canada’s.

• The Chapter 58 “individual mandate” establishes a new punitive approach to the problem of uninsurance. Those who cannot afford health insurance face a punishment of more than $1000 per year, surpassing the fines for most criminal violations on the books, including domestic assault (maximum $1000 fine) and child labor laws ($50 fine). This policy is unjust, likely unenforceable, and proving to be exceedingly unpopular. As of September, 2007, less than 2% of those required to purchase such coverage had signed up.

• Adopting a single payer system of health insurance, as provided for in the Massachusetts Health Care Trust, would save $7.7 billion annually that could be redirected from paperwork and insurance profits to insure coverage for all uninsured, and improved coverage for everyone else.

• Experience in developed nations across the globe is virtually uniform in showing that single payer systems are the only means of achieving universal health care.


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Management of GRP Committees
Sunday November 04, @10:52PM by John Andrews, Merelice, Nat Fortune
from the (none) committee.
This proposal provides for more effective functioning of working committees by having a definite membership, an activity reporting process, and clear responsibilities for reactivating dormant committees.
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Addressing the Fossil Fuel Crisis
Sunday November 04, @10:45PM by John Andrews, Nat Fortune, and Jill Stein
from the (none) committee.
Intense activity is underway at local, state, and national levels to address issues associated with fossil fuel use. The GRP has very important insights into the associated problems, and needs to go on record.
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Sunset Proposal
Sunday November 04, @09:47PM by Nathanael Fortune, Merelice
from the co-chairs committee.
This proposal adds a sunset provision to party statements of policy. The goal is to ensure a periodic review of existing and future statements ensure that they remain up to date and continue to reflect the current thinking of the party.
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Expectations of GRP Endorsed Candidates
Sunday November 04, @04:28PM by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
from the CDLC committee.
1. We often ask a lot from our GRP candidates.
2. At this stage in our development, we are a small and resource poor party. We often feel that we do not adequately support our candidates despite our best intentions.
3. We understand and appreciate that running as a GRP candidate is an extra obstacle in being elected or re-elected.
4. Some GRP endorsed candidates have run for political office without adequately publicizing their membership in the GRP and without building the GRP being one of the major goals of their campaigns.

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Respecting Ideological Diversity as We Build the GRP
Sunday November 04, @03:39PM by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
from the State Committee committee.
1. Membership in the GRP is legally open to any person in the Commonwealth who registers to vote as a GRP member. Additionally, we permit others to join us who pay dues and/or are legally prevented from registering to vote.

2. We ask that GRP members be in general agreement with our 10 key values and in general agreement with our party statements.

3. In addition to the above, GRP candidates are expected to agree with two of our statements, Palestine and Equal Marriage Rights.

4. While I personally support the above two statements, I have always opposed that they be part of the criteria for support of our candidates. I did and do not support making any issue a “first among equals”. One of the important values of our party is respect for diversity. We should embrace and discuss our ideological differences.

5. Our statement on Palestine has always been controversial within the party. I know of at least one campaign where our position on Palestine has been harmful to our candidate; there may have been more.


6. Our statement on Equal Marriage Rights has been controversial among some of our Muslim members in the Boston chapter. It is not only that they disagree with the issue; the major problem is that it has been labeled as being so important. Recently, two of our active members in the Boston chapter have taken a leave of absence from our chapter; my understanding is that this was the most important political reason for their decision.

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Review/Revise the State Committee Meeting Standing Rules
Sunday November 04, @10:57AM by Merelice, Nat Fortune, Jill Stein, John Andrews
from the not functional committee.
For the last couple of years, when a StateCom agenda has diverged from the established agenda, the first thing that needed to be addressed at the meeting was discussing, providing reasons for, and accepting a proposed agenda that differed in some way (for example, adding a workshop or discussion group). This has been a time-consuming, tiresome, and unnecessary way to start the meeting.

Also, there is at least one inconsistency with the bylaws which state that AdCom is responsible for selecting the co-facilitators for StateCom meetings.

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Continue GRP actions against mortgage scams
Sunday November 04, @10:13AM by Merelice, Nat Fortune, Jill Stein, John Andrews
from the Rainbow Coalition Caucus committee.
Last Spring, the Rainbow Coalition Caucus identified the mortgage crisis as an issue that would address the needs of people that the GRP wishes to reach. This led to the formation of the Mass. Association Against Predatory Lending which included NACA (Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America), City Life/Vida Urbana, and the office of City Councilor Chuck Turner. These groups engaged in actions against CountryWide, the nation's largest source of scam mortgages, which resulted in an agreement between CountryWide and NACA to restructure loans so they will be affordable to the mortgagees. MAAPL is now engaged in developing legislation, discussing other steps, and expanding to include more housing advocacy groups. This activity clearly is identified with the GRP.
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How We Treat Each Other = How We Change the World
Thursday November 01, @09:34PM by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
from the State Committee committee.
I think that many of us believe that a major internal problem in our party is the disrespectful behavior by a few members of our party. We have seen over the years a number of activists driven out of our party because of behavior that they could no longer tolerate. Many of us have been complicit by our silence which has enabled this behavior to continue. I believe that we would like to do something about this problem but our community doesn’t yet know what we can do.


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PLAN FOR A 2-DAY GRP ANNUAL CONVENTION
Wednesday October 31, @08:56PM by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
from the Convention Planning Comm committee.
1. The Green Party’s annual convention is the highest decision-making body of our party. It is the place where we do essential business like the election of officers, the endorsement of major candidates and decide important and controversial policy questions. It is the place where we have the largest number of members in attendance and also the place where we bring the occasional members, new members and allies and guests that are interested in exploring our party.

2. I believe that experience has shown that we need the time of 2-day conventions to adequately do our business. We never have enough time at State Comm. meetings to adequately do our work. We need to make more time to do the work necessary to move our party forward.

3. The work of a 2-Day Conventions should include the following:

A. Election of Officers
B. Evaluating the Work of Statewide Committees and the recruitment of new members
C. Evaluation of our Campaigns-Electoral and Movement
D. Proposals
E. Important Political Discussions/Workshops
F. Skills Workshops
G. Internal Work

1. Every year we should have an in-depth examination of one of our “10 key values”
2. Meetings in Caucuses: In years past, we have had successful workshops like “Women’s Caucus & Male Allies” and “People of Color Caucus” and “White Allies”

H. Cultural Event/Fundraiser


4. This event is so important that we have made the excellent decision of having a permanent standing committee to do the work of planning our conventions. Sometimes this has worked well and sometimes it hasn’t.

5. Sometimes our party calls for special conventions for special reasons. The Expcom was an excellent example of a one-day special convention which endorsed our 2006 slate of candidates for the statewide elections. It is unclear at this time whether or not we will call for a special convention in early 2008 in regards to either the presidential or US Senate race.

6. We are a political party. An important part of our political work is elections of all kinds. Municipal elections (in odd number years: 2007, 2009, etc.) in towns often happen in the early spring. Municipal city elections have preliminary elections in September and final elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. During statewide elections, especially during years when there are statewide elections, there are major efforts to gather signatures in the spring. The primary is in September and the final election is the first Tuesday in November.

7. We often spend much time at State Comm. meetings debating the date of the convention. Given our busy electoral season, this is not a surprise. I believe that it will be best if we decide on a regular meeting date well in advance of the annual convention.

8. I believe that the best date to have our regularly scheduled conventions will be after the November election and before Thanksgiving for the following reasons and benefits:

A. It will not conflict with any campaign efforts since all of the electoral campaigns will be over.
B. It will be an ideal time to evaluate our campaigns and movement work for the year and discuss our future plans.
C. It will be a good time to take advantage of the energy of our campaigns and invite our new activists and member to join us.
D. If this date is known in advance and becomes part of our regular process, publicizing our convention can take place during the year.
E. We will have plenty of time to do outreach to invite our allies and public. In years past we invited allies to have tables. We should think of having activities that will attract more of our members, allies and the public like keynote speakers.
F. We should have at least one major cultural event/fundraiser-like the David Rovics concert.
G. The weather should be conducive for a convention. The hurricane season will be over. It won’t be too hot and it is unlikely that there will be a serious snowstorm, but who knows?
H. The more that we will do it later than mid-November the more we will loose the energy from our recent electoral campaigns, the more we will be competing with the holiday season and the more likely that inclement weather would be an obstacle.


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New Committee Structure-Supercommittees
Wednesday October 31, @08:43PM by Mike Heichman
from the All Working Committees committee.
I formally submitted this proposal on July 6, 2007 for the July 29, 2007 State Comm. Meeting. This proposal had been written and co-sponsored by Bill Cunningham (Option A) and Ron Francis (Option B). It was not discussed or acted upon because of a an wise use of our limited time (my opinion).

Summary:
Justification: Most of the Committees are dormant or operating with minimal energy. This New Supercommittee structure will replace the current system.

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Roles and Responsibilities of Members of the State Comm.
Wednesday October 31, @08:36PM by Mike Heichman
from the State Committee committee.
I formally submitted this proposal on July 6 for the July 29, 2007 State Comm. Meeting. This proposal had been co-sponsored by Bill Cunningham. It was not discussed or acted upon because of an unwise use of our limited time (my opinion).

I have made some revisions based on feedback and further thought.

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Improve the Operations of the State Committee
Wednesday October 31, @08:21PM by Mike Heichman and Elie Yarden
from the State Committee committee.
I formally submitted this proposal on July 6, 2007 for the July 29, 2007 State Comm. Meeting. This proposal had been co-sponsored by Bill Cunningham and Ron Francis. It was not discussed or acted upon because of an unwise use of our limited time (my opinion).

I am resubmitting this with minor changes, based on feedback from Bill Cunningham before the August State Comm. Meeting. Additionally Elie Yarden has made two recommendations which I have added to my proposal.

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Green-Rainbow Party Presidential Election Plan
Wednesday October 31, @09:39AM by Jamie O'Keefe, Elie Yarden
from the CDLC committee.
2008 is a presidential election year and we need to finalize our process for placing announced GP presidential candidates on our March 2008 primary ballot. We will use the 2004 plan as a template and make the changes as required by the 2007 party convention in August.
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Green-Rainbow Party SignUp Leaflet
Sunday October 14, @05:30PM by Luis Bosch, Larry Eli
from the Holyoke Local Chapter committee.
At present, there is no Green-Rainbow party recruitment leaflet for local organizers to use. The proposed leaflet is oriented to the "street-level" organizing in communities such as Holoke.
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