Hello, Greens,

Re: Representation to USGP. While preparing our application for
affiliation, I have realized there are some issues to address. For the
most part I don't think we need to load all this onto the Bylaws, but we do
need to make (democratic) decisions.

The Indiana GP will likely be choosing representatives to the Coordinating
Committee of the GP (USGP-CC) sometime in the near future (indeed, reps can
be chosen at any time in advance of our accreditation, as far as I know, as
long as it is done properly).

Issue 1--Electing 2 reps.
========================

It seems that we will have 2 votes since "each state party shall have at
least 2 votes". (By the alternate method of apportionment, we have clearly
active locals in US cong. districts 7 (Marion co.), 9 (Monroe and Brown),
and 2 (St Joseph). (Am I missing any?) There are contacts and activity
elsewhere, but not enough to support representation. In any case, Indiana
just lost a district, going from 10 to 9 -- and would never receive 3 votes.)

Here is the rule in the bylaws:

Art II. sec 2.
"Each member state party shall have one vote on the Coordinating Committee
for every four Congressional Districts or major fraction thereof into which
the state is divided. Regardless, each state party shall have at least two
votes. State parties shall make a good faith effort, where reasonable, to
have delegates to the Coordinating Committee elected by clusters of local
Green groups.

For the purpose of tallying its number of delegates to the Green National
Committee a state party may include only Congressional Districts in which
there is an organized Green Party Local.

Criteria for an organized Green Party Local shall consist of:
-Recognition by the member state Green Party
-Bylaws and/or a constitution
-Adoption of the 10 Key Values and a mission statement and/or platform that
demonstrates this commitment.

The member state Green Party shall be responsible for maintaining a current
record and validation of active local affiliates, to be provided to the
GP-US on request for credentialing purposes."

[1/29/2002 http://www.greenpartyus.org/documents/bylaws.html]

Therefore, we will be electing 2 representatives to the USGP-CC. There
needs to be a democratic process for doing so, and there are some standards
for this (they apply to our own state offices as well):

"ARTICLE VII. ETHICAL STANDARDS

The Green Party accepts that it cannot order the internal politics of its
member states. Even so, the Green Party does have a vested interest in
ensuring that the internal politics of the Green Parties of the member
states meet the highest ethical standards and adhere to Green Values. The
Green Party therefore urges member states to:

1. In theory and practice commit to having a membership and leadership
reflective of the diversity of the human population within their own states.

2. Commit to opposing racism, sexism, ageism, classism, discrimination
against the differently-abled, and other forms of prejudice within the
State Green Party and in the larger society.

The Green Party recognizes that winner-take-all/first-past-the-post
electoral practices serve to maintain an outdated power structure and
prevent members of minority groups from having an adequate impact on policy
decisions or serving in leadership position. Therefore the Green Party
urges member states to:

1. Use proportional representation, as organizational capability develops,
to elect their internal leadership and their delegates to the Green Party
and/or Green conventions."
-----

Our two representatives should be chosen by "clusters of local Green
groups" where practicable (I don't believe this makes sense for us at this
time, though it's quite possible that in the future a Northern Indiana
group could elect one and a Southern Indiana group the other).

They should be gender-balanced, and should reflect the diversity of the
state (this can be racial, urban/rural, or ideological, to the extent we
wish to ensure a fair representation of central cleavages of view among
Indiana Greens). It may make sense simply to declare the same policy for
these positions as we use for the co-coordinators [see section 4.4 (also
3.1.1) at http://www.indianagreenparty.org/igpbylaw.shtml).

Finally, we want to have a procedure for filling empty USGP-CC rep positions.


Issue 2: Procedures for reps.
============================

There should be a process for USGP-CC reps to use for diseminating Green
Party information and determining the sense of the Indiana Green Party on
matters being voted on within the USGP.

It probably makes the most sense for them to use the Ingreens and
Ingreens-discuss lists for this purpose. I think it's important that
USGP-CC reps have the freedom to cast votes where there is no time to hold
a formal IGP vote or gather input from all members. In practice, there
will be few USGP matters that will garner much interest (and, indeed, most
Green Party votes are technical, procedural, and lopsided). However, there
should be a general way of instructing our CC reps. Like all IGP officers,
they are recallable if they misrepresent the positions of our party or the
views the of the members.

Issue 3: National candidacies.
=============================

A requirement of accreditation is that we "agree to support national
candidates selection by Green convention". This needn't be in the bylaws,
but imho the Indiana GP should have a discussion and pass a resolution
putting this on the record.

We clearly do so agree. In the aftermath of the Boston Proposal and
Carbondale, no Indiana Green groups are affiliated with the "Greens/Green
Party USA", and (prior to our organization as a party) we all supported
Ralph Nader in the 2000 election. I can not see any circumstance under
which we would reject (or sit out) a national Green campaign which can only
help build our party.

-----------------------------

I urge that these issues be put on the agenda of a state meeting for
resolution.


happy New Year and warm regards to all,

//jeff sutter jsutter@...
(member, Indiana Green Party, St. Joe Valley Greens)

2225 Riverside Dr.
South Bend, IN 46616
574-287-9854