Activism Pearls

pot of gold with rainbow

Lessons learned from Pulitzer Prize winning journalist [Huffington Post, The Intercept], Ryan Grim’s book, We’ve Got People.

“The states who implemented marriage equality early played a crucial role in creating pressure on the federal system. This is our history & legacy as progressive activists. That’s why I study it.” says Tina Shannon, podcast host and Rustbelt Progressive.

Pearls of Wisdom from We’ve Got People

Chapter 7: Triple Rainbow of We’ve Got People describes how coordinated efforts from activists came together to push recalcitrant neolib Dems in the right direction for LGBTQ+ community marriage rights.

This is an informative listen about how activists move society forward. It examples how political actions coming from different arenas with the same goal can suddenly gel to change the political landscape. We see you Medicare for All.


WA Single Payer Initiative #1362

Signature gathering has begun on Initiative to the Legislature #1362. There will be petition bins in various locations around the state. Get yours. Find out more from our allies at Whole Washington and Red Berets Medicare For All.

 

The Medicare for All March will be in July and will occur in multiple cities across the country. In Washington we ultimately want Medicare for All, but are also working for State Single Payer to help turn the tide nationally.

More info on the march soon. We expect Greens to show for this. It’s in our Platform. There is a virtual Livestream event in the works for our out of area, homebound, and disabled comrades that will coincide with the physical march in July.


Seattle Giving Garden Network Opportunities

Giving Garden Network logo

Want to garden and also help your community?

From our community Pea Patch folx:

The Seattle Giving Garden Network (SGGN.org) was started about 10 years ago by a group of giving gardener volunteers who wanted to network with other gardeners. Those initial volunteers held a ‘Jazz for Food’ concert to raise funds for SGGN. This network has provided seeds and starts to Giving Gardeners in addition to small grants for improvements to your p-patches.

Over the years that initial group has moved on to other responsibilities or other cities leaving all the responsibilities on the shoulders of one volunteer: Dianne Garcia.
Now Dianne is leaving for other responsibilities, she is about to become a grandmother.

This is an invitation for you to participate in keeping SGGN alive and well. Here are ways to participate in SGGN and keep it going.
Send email to SGGN.org and express your interest.

Choose one or many of the following opportunities. All these activities are established and your responsibility would be to continue it and provide your unique contribution.
 Liaison with the seed producing companies to obtain free seed packets and distribute the seed packets to Seattle Giving Gardeners. Reach out and connect with the seed growers! This is a Fall and Winter activity.
 Establish relationships with the Seattle Food Banks and learn what their clients really want in the way of fresh produce. Communicate this to the Seattle Giving Gardeners.
 Interface with Seattle Neighborhood Department that collects and distributes information about contributions made by all the giving gardeners to the food banks over the year. Know more about our city and how it works and get to know the individuals involved.
 Help organize a yearly meeting with all the Seattle Giving Gardeners to share the seed packets and information about what each garden is growing.  Last year it was via Zoom, in the past it has been a gathering with either a dinner (provided by Whole Foods) or a coffee and pastry gathering. This is an opportunity to use your social skills to bring people together.
 Maintain the SGGN.org website and allow gardeners to post photos OR create and maintain a Facebook page OR some other nifty tech way of sharing what gardeners are doing. Tech creativity and commitment appreciated.
 Interface with the national Seed Campaign platform to represent SGGN in their November fundraiser.  This is where SGGN gets funds for the Sprouts Project and funds for small grants to giving gardeners. This is the fundraising activity.
 Interface with GROW, the fiscal organization that holds the SGGN funds: https://www.grownorthwest.org/copy-of-our-work<https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=701b13d6-2f802ade-701b3b66-86e696e30194-8ad39cd71c95ad79&q=1&e=ce67aa60-0255-4504-87cb-c9ce38f0c415&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.grownorthwest.org%2Fcopy-of-our-work>. This is an opportunity to review and sign off on small grants for Seattle Giving Gardeners. Do you have a financial background and an interest in paying the bills?
 Coordinate all the above activities! Do you have organization skills to bring all these different activities together into an orchestrated whole?

I want to acknowledge Dianne Garcia who has been wearing all these hats for SGGN over the last few years.  As you can see, it will take many volunteers to fill her shoes. Thanks to Dianne for all her good work and commitment over the years. And congratulations to her on her new role as grandmother!

Now, what would you like to contribute? All these tasks will disappear without new volunteers coming forward. Truly SGGN will disappear without new volunteers filling these responsibilities.

Send an email to: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> to let us know what you would like to do. Please send it by June 15th and we will schedule
a  Zoom meeting for all who are interested.

Please share this note with all gardeners interested in supporting the Seattle Giving Garden Network.
Kit from Ballard Sprouts


Restorative Justice in Action

Restorative Justice in Action with Margaret Elisabeth, Co-Chair Green Party USA.

A healing discussion about confronting discrimination in the Green Party and the next steps we need to take for the sake of justice.May 22, 2021 09:00 PM Eastern Time, 06:00 PM Pacific TimeRegister here: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZYud-GvrT8sG9IEjEnqgckO…

A healing discussion about confronting discrimination in the Green Party and the next steps we need to take for justice. May 22, 9pm Eastern & 6pm PST.

Green Party of Seattle | Four Pillars of EcoSocialism

Non-Violence

Greens recognize the need for self-defense as well as the defense of others who are in helpless situations but oppose war for economic gain, prisons for profit, and a militarized police force at home. 
We advocate for de-escalation and non-violent methods to promote lasting personal, community, and global peace.

Ecological Wisdom

We are part of nature, not separate from nature. Future generations will benefit if we practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy-efficient economy; and live with respect for all natural systems. Let us be wise in the decisions we make today to preserve the integrity of our world for future generations.
Water is Life.

Grassroots Empowerment

Greens hold public representatives at every level of government fully accountable to the people who elect them. Greens support political entities which expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the building of beneficial and relevant public policy. 

Social Justice

We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia, and ageism and ableism, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law.

Ecosocialism is a vision of a transformed society in harmony with nature and the development of practices that can attain it. It is directed toward alternatives to all socially and ecologically destructive systems, such as patriarchy, racism, homophobia, and the fossil fuel-based economy.

Join the Green Party of Washington or check your local Seattle Chapter status HERE.


Sage Report on Disaster Gentrification

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.
Disaster Gentrification in King County Policy Brief

Download Report


Seventeen Facts About Sunflowers [Helianthus annuus]

Sunflower Variety non-GMO

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 Real Green New Dealers: Ecosocialists

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 Support Public Banking

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

Click image to comment. Fill in the blanks and press support, it is that easy!

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.


RCV & Systemic Change

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.