So the voice of experience within the Green Party. Nothing like experience. Copy and pasted from a list-serve where I was asked why I left the Green Party. —————————- OK Folks, This is the beginning of this discussion. This is not about me and why “I” left the GP. My experience has been mirrored by many others. Let us remember that the Minnesota Green Party was an active, vibrant political party. That was then, this is now. Although it must first be pointed out that there are many good, decent people left in the party. People of the calibre of Farheen Hakeem, Dave Bicking. People that I like and trust. Next, I would like to put my Green Party “creds” out there. I joined the MN Green Party, like many after the 2000 election campaign of Ralph Nader. I ran as one of 64 candidates for state rep in District 44A. I was “primaried out” of that race by a former St Louis Park Mayor, who was a Democrat and “joined” the GP for that election. After the election, he disappeared and was never seen again by the St Louis Park or state wide Green Party. I had been active in various campaigns and then became a National GP Delegate for Minnesota in 2004. I went with others in Minnesota to the GP Convention in Wisconsin. I supported the then candidacy of a man called David Cobb. This man came to Minnesota and told us “The Democratic Party is where progressive politics goes to die.” Something which I firmly believed in and still do. I also was told that the Greens needed to develop new leadership. I believed in that also. For us to survive after Nader had “passed on.” I was to find out later that, IMHO I and others had been tricked. Anyway, after this I became a National Delegate after I had heard of some “shenanigans” on the National level. Right at the same time I volunteered to be an Official Green Party Observer in the GP and Lib Party sponsored Vote Re-Count in Ohio, 2004. What I witnessed there horrified me and affects me to this day. What happened there is so much worse than most people realize. I even wrote a personal “news account” while I was there. That is still available. There were eight other people who went with me. They have all been deadly quiet about what happened there. They are all Democrats. Apparently I am the only one who has continued to make a stink. Remember now, I believe that the Dem Party is “where progressive politics goes to die.” Same as progressive social movements. Then I started to work as a National Delegate. What I discovered was horrifying. I had heard that the Conventions were “fixed” to ensure that Ralph Nader could not obtain the nomination. I discovered that it was my humble opinion that these charges were right. It explained (in part) why Nader had chosen to not join the Greens. It also explained why Nader never chose to seek the Green endorsement but instead just the nomination. I and others fought real hard to hold the National Green Party accountable. However, since the way that decisions were made on the National level were themselves fixed, we found that avenue impossible. Put into current political terms, since the Greens needed a “super majority” to make decisions. That was the National version of Consensus. What that created in reality was that a determined minority could block any and all actions. This can so easily be shown by the Republican minority in Congress. It is a very effective strategy if your goal is to destroy the current structure. Just block, block,block. There is so much more to this but I do not have the time for now to expand on it. I tried, repeatedly as a National Delegate to inform the Green membership about this and was blocked at every turn. With procedural moves, “running out of time” moves etc etc. Then I ran for US Senate in 2006. At that time I sought the Green nomination and endorsement. I still had hope in the Greens. As a candidate I received an 86% endorsement. Before that though, David Cobb showed up in Minnesota. He was doing a talk about what happened in Ohio and Voter Suppression. His other guest was at that time was the Minnesota Republican Secretary of State. I had asked David Cobb for a public endorsement, to help my campaign. I had worked personally with David Cobb at the Wisconsin Convention 2004, to ensure his endorsement. I had also worked with him in the Ohio Re-Count. He refused. I have since found out lots of very unsavory things about Mr Cobb. His ties with a variety of Democrat Party friendly organizations. He would not even tell me “no” to my face. He told my campaign manager Dori Ullman. Apparently, he said that “I do not listen to people.” I then received 86% of the votes at the Minnesota Green Convention. Although I did have (very private) meeting with Annie Young who asked me to drop out of the race. At Maria’s Cafe on Franklin Ave in Minneapolis. I suspect this is the source of the “I don’t listen to others” idea. The Local v.s. National Discussion. At this point we must look at the discussion of running local v.s. national races. There is a strain of the GP which wanted to run only small, local races. It turns out these folks were IMHO the players behind the David Cobb race of 2004. Now while I agree that it is a legitimate discussion, it must also be said that it is only one strain of thought. However, to get back to the idea of a minority blocking going forward must be addressed again. Now this minority of “local only” again chose to block any discussion of working on the National level. Just as Republicans did so in the US Senate, so did IMHO the “local only” folks. It was and is highly undemocratic in nature. But there it is. Then in 2008, I tried again. I was almost done with the GP but not quite. I joined up and volunteered to be the State Wide coordinator for Cynthia McKinney for Prez. I LOVED McKinney and still do. However, there were folks who decided to throw me off of the campaign. Actually myself and others who wanted to build this into a real campaign. Not a symbolic campaign. I have heard that one of those people was Annie Young. As an aside, this mirrored EXACTLY what happened when I volunteered to be MN National Coordinator for the David Cobb for Prez campaign 2004. By this time many of the Nader supporters had heard of what was happening. Many left the Greens in disgust. I ran for US Senate again 2008. However, this time my attempts to gain Green endorsement was half hearted at best. At the Convention in Mankato I sought the endorsement, without even organizing. In part because many of the Nader supporters (natural allies) had left in disgust. Cam Gordon stood up, read a letter from Annie Young on why I should not be endorsed. The GP voted and I was one vote shy of the needed super majority of 68%. The undemocratic minority won again. I then officially left the Green Party. There is much more to this than what I have written but this is a brief synopsis. I have many good friends and allies still in the Greens. I have many more who have left. As an aside, I will have to do another synopsis of when Dean Zimmermann was IMHO set up by the FBI. Then on what some of his “friends” in the Greens did, that was undemocratic, when we wanted to make a statement of support of our friend and ally, Dean Zimmermann. It encapsulates exactly just how undemocratic these “local only” folks are. Who, in the final analysis have very close ties to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party. Where progressive politics and social movements go to die. Dear Dissident Voice Editor I am not sure if you could or would but I am requesting this article be posted in Dissident Voice as a counter response to your article by Bill Kaufmann about the Rocky Anderson campaign. I have cced in Lydia Howell (Peabody Award winning journalist who is called the Amy Goodman of Minnesota) Dori Ullman (campaign manager) Kari Sprung (campaign video specialist) Ken Pentel (former Green Party candidate for Governor) Danene Provencher (former Co-Chair of the Greens for Nader campaign) Kurt Sperry and Paul Konkoly (both with the Rocky Anderson campaign. These people can all independently verify the veracity of everything I have put forward. Michael Cavlan RN Candidate US Senate 2012 Minnesota Open Pprogressives* *legal political action group- precursor to a new political party in Minnesota. OK. This is the start. I explain why I left the Green Party. This is just scratching the surface. But it is a good start. I am personally convinced that the Minnesota Green Party, which was a major party in 2000-2004 was sabotaged by a certain political party. Where progressive politics and movements go to die. Almost like that is it’s function.. Consider this story a warning on how progressive movements and active opposition to the pro-war, corporate duopoly can be subverted. The National Green Party may be dead but the need for a national dissident opposition movement remains.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 06:11:35 +0000
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