Greens for Greens ™

From: The Independent Political Report

The leaders of the Swedish Green party have confirmed that they intend to step down only a year after the next general election, in 2011.

Peter Eriksson has confirmed that he and colleague Maria Wetterstrand do not intend to seek changes to party rules which could see them step down as party spokespersons soon after forming a coalition government with the Social Democrats and Left Party, Svenska Dagbladet reports.

  Green party rules stipulate that no officials can hold posts with the party for longer than nine years and no exception is to be made for Eriksson and Wetterstrand.

“I can say that we have strong successors that can take over,” said Peter Eriksson to the newspaper.

Eriksson and Wetterstrand are seeking ministerial posts in the next government after a general election to be held in 2010. Eriksson stated that their positions as party spokespersons does not affect any eventual role within the government which would most likely be dominated by Mona Sahlin’s Social Democrats.

Eriksson and Green party press spokesperson Agneta Börjesson confirmed to the newspaper that the party has not discussed the situation, or any prospective new leaders, at any length.

Börjesson defended the party rules which would bring to a close the terms of the popular duo who replaced Lotta Hedström and Matz Hammarström in 2002.

“It is a very sound idea we have that one should not occupy a position for ever.”

The party has plenty of time to consider applications from candidates to replace Eriksson and Wetterstrand, as they will not be elected until the party congress in May 2011. 

Gay rights supporters should protest Obama’s choice of antigay minister Rick Warren to deliver inaugural prayer, say Greens

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
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Obama should have the US sign UN statement endorsing universal decriminalization of homosexuality

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party activists challenged gay voters and advocates of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights to protest President-elect Barack Obama’s invitation to Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation.

“Unless we make our anger known now, Mr. Obama will continue to betray gay people,” said Starlene Rankin, co-chair of the party’s Lavender Green Caucus (http://www.lavendergreens.us). “Barack Obama’s claim to be a ‘fierce advocate for equality’ is not credible when he chooses a pastor notorious for his ill-informed and slanderous opinions about homosexuality and vigorous support for Proposition 8.”

“The invitation signals that Mr. Obama may repeat the Clinton approach to gay rights. President Clinton, taking gay votes for granted, signed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act into law and authorized the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ military policy. We’ve had generations of gay rights advocates and other progressives insisting that we need to elect Democrats, then we’ll push them towards pro-gay agenda. Instead, gay people have remained second-class citizens in the Democratic Party and told to hush up when they’re politically inconvenient. For those tired of bipartisan retreats from promises of human rights and justice, the Green Party remains the party of real change in America,” added Ms. Rankin.
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The Green Party of The United States supports workers occupying a factory in Chicago after layoff: bailout money isn’t being used to help working Americans

Green Party leaders said today that the incoming Obama Administration and Congress should take six major steps to reverse the financial meltdown and restore financial security for Americans.

The steps include

• a Green public works program,
• aid for state and municipal governments,
• expansion of mass transit,
• Single-Payer universal health care,
• a peace dividend gained by ending the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and
• an end to the wasteful war on drugs.

Green Party candidates running for local, state, and national office in 2008 promoted many of these ideas even before the crisis precipitated.  In September, Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney published a ten-point list of solutions and reforms in response to the Wall Street meltdown, titled “Seize the Time” (http://votetruth08.com/index.php/learn/mckinney-messages) .

The Green Party expressed support for United Electrical Workers union members occupying a Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago after the plant was shut down and they were laid off with three days’ notice and told they had no assurance of receiving severance and unused vacation pay.  The company’s creditor, Bank of America, received $25 billion from the government’s financial bailout package.  Greens said that the bank’s actions, including refusal to allow Republic to give workers 60 days notice (as required by law), demonstrates how bailout money isn’t being used to assist working Americans facing financial hardship.

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