The COVID-19 pandemic has created an economic disaster that puts our BIPOC communities at risk for disaster gentrification again: thousands of homes are at imminent risk of foreclosure while hundreds of thousands of renters are at risk for eviction. Meanwhile, corporate landlords have amassed hundreds of billions of dollars and are poised to take advantage of our vulnerability. Just as disaster can have a multiplier effect on our communities—increasing loss of housing, stability, wealth and widening racial disparity—local governments can pass policies that stabilize, build resilience, and repair historic harm.

–Puget Sound SAGE

As Council member Sawant highlighted in the recent rally for Rent Control, we are on the verge of another housing crisis when the moratorium on evictions ends.

In Washington State landlords were allowed to end month-to-month leases with 20 days’ notice, without providing a reason, great for real estate investors flipping houses, but not for people in the midst of a pandemic generated economic crisis. Homelessness threatens already marginalized people the most. The eviction moratorium expires in June.

The Sage Report on Disaster Gentrification Outlines critical steps to take now:

To tackle this crisis, local governments should take the following actions:

1. Reduce evictions and foreclosures by forgiving rent debt, extending the eviction and foreclosure moratoria, and making rent relief contingent on increased tenant protections;
2. Create opportunity for BIPOC communities to secure land and buildings to preserve affordability by robustly funding acquisition and preservation funds;
3. Increase BIPOC power in planning and development by establishing local planning and accountability through equitable development zones;
4. Preserve affordability and create a path for tenant ownership by passing a Tenant/Community Opportunity to Purchase Act;
5. Stop harassment of vulnerable homeowners by creating non-Solicitation/cease and desist zones;
6. Discourage property flipping for profit through a tax on certain real estate transactions.

Download Report

Green Party of Seattle will be giving away sunflower seeds [above seed non-GMO seed variety mix] from Earth Day on April 22 until May Day 2021, while supplies last. You may be asked to answer Sunflower Trivia questions. See you at Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle on Earth Day!

1. Sunflowers are fun and easy to grow.
2. Sunflowers are a North American native species.
3. Sunflowers come in diverse colors and heights, with the tallest recorded at 30 feet.  [Please grow the non-GMO and pollen bearing varieties.] 
4. Sunflowers are a tall and bright beacon to bees and other pollinators and can be spotted long distance.
5. Sunflowers will attract aphids away from vegetable plants nearby, and bring in more aphid eating ladybugs.
6. Sunflower heads track the sun throughout the day when they are young; mature Sunflowers face East. This solar tracking plant behavior is called heliotropism.
7. Sunflowers improve soil health for surrounding plants.
8. Sunflowers have long taproots that help aerate soil.
9. Sunflowers pull toxins and heavy metals out of soil to detoxify the earth.
10. Sunflower pollen helps support the immune system of bees; it is bee medicine.
11. Sunflower seeds grow out from the center in a Fibonacci Sequence pattern.
12. Sunflower leaves can be used for animal forage.
13. Sunflower seeds support brain health for humans.
14. Sunflower seeds and nectar feed wild birds including hummingbirds.
15. Sunflowers produce vegetable oil which is nutritious and has anti-inflammatory benefits.
16. Sunflowers may be companion-planted as the ‘fourth sister’ with other traditional native North American garden plants  squash, pole beans, and corn.
17. Sunflowers are the international symbol of Green Parties worldwide.

The Green Party of Washington Spring Gathering is May 2,2021, Join us for the movie 2040. See you at Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle on Earth Day!

The “Idealist” Green Party believes in Science and Solutions.

The Green Party of the United States originally introduced the Green New Deal as a sweeping plan to address the fossil fuel and war based economic structures that threaten our long term survival on this planet. Suppressing inconvenient facts does not make them go away and Climate Change is here, and we must take responsibility to reverse that change.

“Right now, our federal government subsidizes the rich agribusiness corporations and the oil, mining, nuclear, coal and timber giants at the expense of small farmers, small business and our children’s environment. We spend tens of billions every year moving our economy in the wrong direction. The Green New Deal will instead redirect that money to the real job creators who make our communities healthier, sustainable and secure at the same time.“

https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal

The ‘New Deal’ Concept is not that new.

In 1935, during the Great Depression that followed unregulated banking catastrophe and war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced his ‘New Deal’ plan. The WPA [Works Project Administration] put people to work on infrastructure projects during an all time high of 20% unemployment. The financial system was re-regulated, and the Social Security program was created to get elderly and infirm folks out of breadlines and hobo camps. Healthcare Reform and the creation of the post war NHS was being discussed in Great Britain, but that did not materialize here in the United States, yet.

In 2016 the Green Party officially added an Ecosocialist plank to the national party platform. The term Socialism does not scare Greens. [Much like being against Fascism.] A free market economy at the local level helps communities thrive and ingenuity flourish.

“Our ecosocialist Green New Deal encompasses two major programs, an Economic Bill of Rights and a Green Economy Reconstruction Program. The Economic Bill of Rights will finally fulfill President Roosevelt’s 1944 call upon Congress to develop programs to secure basic economic human rights for all.”

Howie Hawkins

“But the testing time has now arrived. In a civilized country when ridicule fails to kill a movement it begins to command respect.”

Mahatma Ghandi from Freedom’s Battle

All true Progressives recognize that we can not keep doing the same things and expect to get different results…

Greens appreciate that Progressive Democrats are looking at actual solutions but continue to be concerned that within a Duopoly party funded by multinational corporations that shareholders will always be more important than People and Planet.

Systemic changes in the political process like Ranked Choice Voting, Repeal of ‘Money=Free Speech’ Citizen’s United, Term Limits, Ending Redlining and Gerrymandering, and Taxing the Rich would empower the Grassroots. We are living through a Pandemic in which over 70% of citizens want Healthcare for All and there is no political recourse in sight.

People and Planet; a Sustainable Future. That is not idealism, that is Progressive Evolution.

Better late than never Dems?

Greens and other Ecosocialists- please comment on Public Banking Senate Bill 5188.

Invest in a state economy that supports local entrepreneurs, family farm holdings, in-state businesses and green technology. Protect our biodiversity, public lands, and food security with long term investments based on real worth. Protect citizens from boom and bust profiteering. Divest our state and municipal pension funds from fossil fuels, detention centers, and for-profit prisons.

Green Party of Seattle and King County Greens continue to support a local public banking system. The feasibility study brought forward by Sawant and O’Brien in 2018 is even more relevant now that divestment from fossil fuels is trending beyond the Left Coast.

A Sustainable Future for Washington State is not speculative or hypothetical and it does not live on Wall Street.

Film screening and panel discussion Thursday January 28 @ 6pm PST.

FairVote Washington will screen a documentary called Eastpointe about a town where RCV was introduced by court order in 2019 to mitigate the effects of systemic racism. Black voters made up 40% of the population and 0% of the elected officials. See what happened.

RCV or Ranked Choice voting is hard to explain in two sentences.

Along with “explainer videos” they also have some Literature with bullet points available for download. RCV promotes community engagement with issues and decreases the pay-off for running campaigns based on fear of the other candidates. Our candidates should give us something we want to vote for. The lesser of two evils serves no one.

North King and South King County Chapters of Fair Vote Washington advocate for Ranked Choice Voting in our state. Get involved, get on the mailing list, help get the word out.

Greens were out at Judkins Park gathering signatures to get an Ecosocialist ballot line in Washington State… doing what the SOS insisted and getting physical signatures… long story short SPD needs to check themselves.

Tuesday, January 26th at 9:30AM, the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety Committee will meet to discuss and vote on on police use of tear gas, chemical weapons, flash bangs, and “crowd control” weapons.

Sign up for public commentary begins at 0730 for Council Bill 119981.

CB 119981: “AN ORDINANCE amending Ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 Budget, including the 2021-2026 Capital Improvement Program (CIP); changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels, and from various funds in the Budget; and adding or modifying provisos.”

Comment Peaceful Warriors.

Medicare For All/ Single Payer Allies at Whole Washington have brought a timely piece of legislation.

Read it here.

If we want to create a Sustainable Future we must imagine it first. GPSEA streamed this film on !nauguration Day.

“Fact Based Dreaming” is how the director describes 2040 The Regeneration. Using items from the “Drawdown List” the film is a vision of what the future will look like if we reprioritize. The film was made in Australia, a place where Greens are overtly influential. Plenty of veiled and non-threatening references to the destructive toll of Extractive Capitalism. The film basically shows what could be an Ecosocialist future.

If you missed it the first time GPWA is deciding if they want to show it again, but they have to vote to purchase the screening. Did you see it? What did you think?