2012 Green Party presidential candidates Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala honored Earth Day by announcing formation of a new opposition “Green Shadow Cabinet.” The purpose of the cabinet is to advance a vision of sustainability and prosperity to fight the culture of fear and poverty. It will build unity and action around real solutions to save our planet and the livelihoods of our people.
Now more than ever it is time to challenge the corporate destruction of American life. The bipartisan sequester of March 1 has already begun to shred basic services and endanger the housing of millions of families. The President and Congress are already working on a bipartisan “bargain” to cut Social Security and raise Medicare deductibles up to $1331.
Now more than ever it is time to resist the corporate destruction of the planet. The battle over the deadly XL pipeline is proceeding apace. Poisonous fracking is expanding into every state.
Now more than ever it is time to build the independent political networks we need to go over onto the offensive. We can no longer pretend we are winning when we confine our battles to the silos of individual issues or movements.
“The Cabinet will debunk the exploitative policies of the duopoly,” said Stein and Honkala, referring to the two-party system. “It will respond to current events in a timely manner, and bring leading progressive activists into supportive collaboration. It will raise the bar for just, sustainable, transformative solutions and demonstrate our capacity to govern – as Greens and independent allies.”
The Cabinet is not formally affiliated with the Green Party. It is called “Green” because it is a project of the Stein/Honkala Green Party presidential campaign. It is also called “Green” because building a people’s movement is inseparable from the struggle for democracy, and unavoidably political. We cannot break the power of the two-party system unless we build a political organization of our own. As the leading national progressive opposition voice for 20 years, the Green Party must be part of the framework for building the political arm of the movement.
The Green Shadow Cabinet includes names of the most prominent writers and activists in America, as well as numerous unsung leaders that battle daily in the trenches to save the planet and save lives.
Some of the Green Shadow Cabinet members include (organizations for identification purposes only):
Shahid Buttar (Executive Director of Bill of Rights Defense Committee), Michael Rattner (President, Center for Constitutional Rights), Cliff Thornton (a leading anti-Drug War activist), Ajamu Baraka (Founding Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network), Ethel Long Scott (Executive Director of the Women’s Economic Agenda Project), Sandy Perry (CHAM Ministry and Affordable Housing Network), Rev. Bruce Wright (Refuge Ministry), Dr. Margaret Flowers (Physicians for a National Health Plan), Dr. Patch Adams (Gesundheit! Institute), and David Cobb (Move To Amend).
Join with the Green Shadow Cabinet in raising your voice against corporate austerity and oppression! Enter the debate for America’s future!
Sandy Perry is a longtime housing advocate from San Jose, CA.
