Sunday, June 01, 2008

Feedback wanted on New/Revised Platform Planks

The Green Party is different from the corporate parties and the difference becomes obvious when reading the Platform. The Platform is a dynamic document voted on at the quadrennial convention and reveals the heart of the party including further illumination of the ten key values. Efforts have been underway to revise and improve the 2004 Platform.

You can review new amendments to the 2004 Platform by going to the following link: http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/draft/work/index.html. Please examine and submit to your State Committees for further consideration. All comments or objections can be submitted to the Platform Committee until the final deadline of July 6th.

There are 4 chapters to the Platform. One of the Platform Committee's aims was to produce a tight Platform that candidates can use as a handy reference, distribute at campaigns and give to other Greens. Also, when Greens go to events, forums, protests, etc. they can use the Platform to recruit new Greens.

Some suggested new additions to Platform 2008 are 1) Labor - Greens support the EFCA (Employees Free Choice Act) bill - passing through the Congress; 2) Foreign Affairs. - Military. See under Nuclear Weapons: Greens strongly oppose research and development of the US RRW (Reliable Replacement Warhead). In reality the RRW is a new nuclear weapon and not in compliance with NPT; 3) Energy - (see in column 2 under Chapter III) an upgraded as well as updated Energy plank; 4) Population - first time we have had a plank on population other than Women's Right to Choose. Some of the changes have already proven to be controversial so please check on the platform amendments to make sure you and your State can support the revisions.

The editors of the draft are:

Chapter I: Jenefer Ellingston Jellingston at greens dot org and Jane Zara jjzara at aol dot com

Chapter II: Jack Ailey jjailey at comcast dot net, John Ely johnbethany at earthlink dot net and

Gene Hunter hunter at pjsnet dot de

Chapter III: Wes Rolley wrolley at charter.net and Mike Ewall catalyst at actionPA dot org

Chapter IV: Erik Douglas politicaltao at taotetao dot com and Jon Olsen joliyoka at gwi dot net

You are encouraged to review the proposed changes and send comments or objections to the Platform Committee editors listed above. Also, please distribute this article widely.

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