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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	109
Proposal	GPUS Presence at Million Worker March
Presenter	DC Statehood Green Party, Louisiana Green Party, Wisconsin Green
Floor Manager	Gray Newman
Phase	Closed - Adopted
Discussion	08-23-2004 - 08-29-2004
Voting	08-30-2004 - 09-05-2004
Presens Quorum	Two Thirds of Active Accredited States/Caucuses
Consens Quorum	A Majority of Yes and No Votes

Background

On Sunday, October 17, 2004, there will be a march on Washington DC.
This mobilization is being proposed by the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union, Local 10, in response to the attacks upon working families in America,
the illegal preemptive war on Iraq, and the millions of jobs lost during the
Bush administration and with the complicity of Congress.

ILWU Local 10, a union with an outstanding history of successful struggle,
proposed this march out of a frustration with the major party candidates and an
understanding that no matter who was in office working people and their allies
would need a social movement to hold the politicians accountable. They wrote in
part: We shall therefore be representing ourselves during this march,
independent from all politicians, while putting forward to the entire country,
our program for the betterment of Americas majority working population.

The demands of the March are Green Party demands (see
http://www.millionworkermarch.org/article.php?id=28#dem).

This march offers an opportunity for the GP to develop relationships with
the wings of the labor movement and anti-war movement that prioritizes
building street heat over campaigning for ABB , to fight for our needs no
matter who wins the election. These are forces in the labor movement who should
be Green Party members and help both leverage trade unions to support the Green
Party and also to help continue transforming the Green Party into the kind of
party we need to be to become a more effective vehicle for the needs and
aspirations of working and oppressed communities across the USA.

At the same time, in part because of AFL-CIO leadership pressures to devote all
resources to electing Kerry and view the march as a distraction, working on the
march will continue to provide opportunities for the GP to build relationships
and credibility with the forces in the trade union movement which have most
affinity with the Green Key Value of grassroots democracy like the good
people at Labor Note. It will also bean opportunity to do internal education in
the GP about the labor movement and its organizations.

This march also offers us, and the Green presidential campaign, another
opportunity to build relations with and provide some leadership to the
anti-war movement as some anti-war forces in the East Coast have already
oriented towards the MWM as the major anti-war mobilization between the RNC and
the election.

When ILWU member and march organizer, Clarence Thomas, spoke to the GPUS CC, he
received a standing ovation. When he spoke to both Cobb and Camejo, he received
positive feedback. Now, as a Party, we can make it official.

Proposal

The Green Party of the United States, as well as the Labor Green
Network, shall formally sponsor (and assist with logistics where applicable
including some support from the national office and send members to participate
including helping to organize buses from GP organizations across the US where
feasible) the Million Worker March in Washington, DC, on October 17 and will
approve an ad-hoc organizing committee including members of various state Green
Parties to be determined later. We will produce literature (to be developed by
the Labor Greens) solidarizing with the demands of the MWM and labor in general
(here and internationally). We will organize a contingent behind the GP banner
and attempt to recruit to the Green Party.

Resources

None

References

http://www.millionworkermarch.org/

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