BLUE-GREEN ALLIANCE CHALLENGES TWO-PARTY AND GLOBAL CORPORATE DOMINATION

The Green Party and Greens in the United States and around the world joined workers and labor organizations in recognition of Workers Memorial Day, commemorating people killed or injured on the job, on April 28, and international labor celebrations on May Day.

The Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) sees 2000 as the year of the Blue-Green Alliance (blue for “blue-collar”), in which more and more working people abandon the Democratic and Republican Parties and candidates and vote for third party candidates, including Greens.  Many voters have grown frustrated with two-party domination and betrayal of job rights and security, promises of health care reform, and the assurance of a clean and safe workplace and environment.

Recent developments in the Blue-Green Alliance:

•  Environmentalists, union members, students, and many others marched in unity against the WTO in Seattle last year and against the World Bank and IMF in Washington, DC in mid April, in protest of their authority to gut workers rights, good wages, health and safety standards, and environmental protections around the world. Greens supported the demand of AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney that third world debt be forgiven.  Greens took part in every aspect of organizing, from provision of housing to media work to civil disobedience. As George Becker, president of the United Steelworkers of America, said, “Globalization works only for multinationals, not for workers.”
•  The Green Party goes far beyond the Democratic Party in supporting the right to a living wage, collective bargaining, guaranteed quality health care under for single-payer national health insurance plan, caps on CEO compensation, and the challenge to corporate dominance.  (Visit the Green Party Platform at www.gp.org.)
•  Front-running Green presidential candidate Ralph Nader has been a participant and supporter of the Labor Party since its founding in 1996.  Mr. Nader has done legal work in support of unions for several decades.  His speech on the Ellipse on April 16 won cheers from thousands of World Bank/IMF protestors, and he has replaced the Reform Party’s Pat Buchanan (who now draws about half of Mr. Nader’s near-6% in polls) as the leading critic of corporations among presidential candidates.  On Monday, May 1, Mr. Nader met in Detroit with leaders of the United Auto Workers union to discuss possible endorsement, as well as the threat of “free trade” to workers in the US and abroad, including the loss of 100,000 auto jobs in the US over the past six years because of NAFTA.

 Labor Party founder Tony Mazzocchi will speak at the Green Party National Nominating Convention for President of the United States on June 24-25 in Denver, Colorado.