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Working toward a future where people and planet are valued, and our government represents all of us.

June 2022

Green Party Enlisting PA Volunteers

“Right now, gathering signatures on the Green Party petitions to nominate state-wide candidates is a great opportunity for new activists,” said GPPA Steering Committee Member Beth Schongar (Allegheny County).  “First, it will give them a great opening to talk to people about the Green Party and progressive politics,” said Schongar. “Volunteers will be asking voters to help us get candidates on the ballot and increase everyone’s choices on Election Day. Most voters are glad to help and interested to find out that the Green Party is real and active. It can lead to interesting conversations and recruit new members.”

“Second,” continued Schongar, “getting enough nomination signatures to put us on the ballot will give Green Party candidates the opportunity to join debates, particularly with the League of Women Voters. It will also allow our candidates to issue news releases and join other forums to share Green Party views. When our candidates present Green Party policies, it helps people realize that the Green Party is the future. Petitioning and campaigning are our opportunities to make our views known and increase participation. Let’s make the best of it by getting out and collecting signatures on the Green Party’s nominating petitions!” ...read more

PA Green News, 

By Chris Robinson.

This Unjust System Cannot Survive the Storm

By Michael Bagdes-Canning, Green Party Candidate for PA Lieutenant Governor

I think our justice system is unjust. Worse, even the injustice is applied unjustly. The poor and disenfranchised are unlikely to get a fair shake. 

Moral philosopher John Rawls wrote in his Theory of Justice (1971), "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared by others."

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit in a courtroom, where injustice was prevalent. I was there to support a friend who had participated in an action around an environmental issue ...read more

Only the Green Party Climate Plan Rises to the Emergency

– by Michael Bagdes-Canning, Green Party Candidate for PA Lt. Governor

On September 7, 2021, Joe Biden said of climate science, “So, folks, we've got to listen to the scientists and the economists and the national-security experts. They all tell us this is code red. The nation and the world are in peril. And that's not hyperbole. That is a fact. They've been warning us, the extreme weather would get more extreme over the decade, and we're living in real time now.”

You can sense his urgency, no?

Yet on April 11, 2022, Biden’s Interior Department reopened public lands for drilling. This was on the heels of his, now blocked, plan to auction 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to the homicidal fossil fuel extractors and his equally disastrous plan to export more gas to Europe ...read more

Let’s Expose the Rank Hypocrisy of the Two Corporate Parties

– By Michael Bagdes-Canning, Green Party Candidate for Lt. Governor of PA

My whole political outlook has changed since 2014, when I was called by a distraught parent about a fracked-gas well on fire near Summit Elementary in the Butler School District. As it turns out, the well wasn’t on fire, it was flaring. That was still alarming. Flaring wells are emitters of all sorts of toxins, and this one was dangerously close to the school ...read more

 Campaign Updates 

by Chris Robinson.

GENERAL ELECTION, November 8
The following Green Party candidates have been endorsed by the Green Party of Pennsylvania meeting of delegates on March 13. 

Christina “PK” DiGiulio (Chester County) for Governor of Pennsylvania 

PK told GREEN STAR,”I am so proud to be running alongside Michael Badges-Canning. His is a mind which has experienced the frontlines and knew he could do something. So the next time anybody asks us if we think we are going to win, I suggest asking yourself and us, ‘What does winning mean to YOU?’ Your truth matters. My truth matters. When we can value that in each other, we are on a path to the truth.”
You may volunteer for PK’s campaign committee at [email protected].
You may follow PK’s campaign here;

Twitter: @PKforPA 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PKforPA

Michael Bagdes-Canning (Butler County) for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania 

Michael told GREEN STAR,  “We have the best government that money can buy – only you and I are priced out of that market. PA is frequently ranked as one of the most corrupt states in the U.S. When you search for “PA corrupt government”� you’ll see references to politicians who have been convicted of crimes. Those, however, are only examples of illegal corruption. It does not count the legal corruption which goes on every single day in Harrisburg. Politicians from the two corporate parties have all sorts of legal means of being bought, and they are for sale. One of the ideas that I will hammer is the need to clean up Harrisburg. Among the ideas I will be pushing are a gift ban, campaign finance reform, and an end to partisan gerrymandering. We need a government which is responsive to our needs, not the needs of the ruling class.”
You may volunteer for Michael’s campaign committee at [email protected].
You may follow Michael on;

Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/mike4pa64/

Twitter, https://mobile.twitter.com/bagdescanning

Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/mikebagdescanning

 
Richard L. Weiss, Esq. (Allegheny County) for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania 

Richard told GREEN STAR, “The latest UN report on climate change underscores the need to immediately make all efforts to stop emissions of greenhouse gases. This can be accomplished through a just transition to renewable energy that provides permanent jobs, and does not cause cancer like mining and burning fossil fuels. The technology exists today. All we need to do is implement it. And the first step is to halt fracking which is ruining the water and health of Pennsylvania.

You may volunteer to get Richard on the ballot at [email protected]
You may follow Richard’s campaign here, Twitter: @RichardLWeiss

Jay Ting Walker (Allegheny County) for PA House District 23
      Jay told GREEN STAR, "

      You may follow Jay’s campaign on;

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/JayTingWalker

Twitter, https://twitter.com/Jaytingwalker 

Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/jaytingwalker/

Donations and volunteers from across the state are more than welcome on my website, http://jaytingwalker.com/

Zarah Livingston (Allegheny County) for PA House District 32

National ‌Green‌ ‌News 

Edited by Noah Alter

Leaked Supreme Court Roe v. Wade Decision Could Mean Massive Danger to Reproductive Healthcare, Invasion of Privacy

The Green Party of the United States has expressed grave concern over the most recent threat to basic human rights, namely women’s reproductive rights. As a collective, regardless of political alignment, we must demand the right to safe, legal, and confidential access to reproductive health. The leaked draft from the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade speaks volumes as to the reality of the steep decline in basic human rights in our supposed ‘first world country,’ and we cannot stand by and let this irrationality persist.

The National Women’s Caucus Spokesperson of the Green Party of the United States, Holly Hart stated, “this is an extremely disturbing decision from the Supreme Court. It would overturn decades of understanding and policy that protected women’s privacy and health. If access to safe abortion is handed to state legislatures, we will see a greater erosion of access throughout the country. Tragically, some of the most severe limitations and hardships will fall on poor women, and women with health problems. Denying access to safe abortions in the past has done little or nothing to reduce their number. Instead, we can expect to see ‘destination clinics’ where women will have to travel. Those without resources will resort to ‘back-alley’ abortion providers.”

To further the concern, individuals on the far right have never truly been considered ‘pro-life.’ Why is this? In this country, we have yet to establish legitimate measures, which will enable us to achieve the notion of ‘pro-life.’ Rather, their approach in prohibiting women’s productive rights should be considered ‘pro-birth.’ Prior to birth and throughout life, those on the far right are nowhere to be found when the discussion of expanding or establishing maternity/ paternity leave, sick leave, social medicine, nutritional assistance (e.g., WIC), housing assistance, financial assistance, etc. is brought to the table in either Harrisburg or Washington D.C. Until the United States has achieved the point where an individual no longer struggles and worries about the exorbitant costs of raising a child, privatized medical care, baby formula, and even end-of-life care, we cannot, at any point, claim a ‘pro-life’ stance. The notion of ‘pro-life,’ in my opinion as an adopted child, goes from birth until death, not just 9 months. Regardless, women’s rights are human rights, and we must respect the right to choose.

Along with setting a dangerous precedent with totalitarian implications, overturning Roe v. Wade decision allows certain states to interfere in private and protected decisions that are essential to reproductive healthcare as a human right. 

We must protect the right to safe, legal, and confidential access to reproductive health. story link

Global Green News

Edited by Hal Brown.

Green Party of U.K. Desire to leave N.A.T.O.

Asked to confirm again that the Greens want the UK to leave NATO, he added: “Yes, that is our long-term policy that we would like to see far greater focus on peacekeeping institutions and institutions that support a reduction in our nuclear weapons and countries moving away from nuclear weapons.” ...read more

Australia Greens Jump in Popularity

A big policy agenda

In the case of a hung parliament, the Greens would demand a halt to all new coal, gas and oil projects for at least six months while they negotiate with Labor over climate policy. It would also push for a coal export levy to fund disaster recovery and clean export industries.

In their 2022 electoral platform, the Greens are again aiming high. Their headline policies include:

• free dental and mental healthcare

• a treaty with First Nations peoples

• wiping out student debt…
• read more

A Conversation with PVQ Leader Alex Tyrrell on Status of Green Movement in Canada

“The problems in the Green Party of Canada over the past few years have been profound,” Mr. Tyrrell replied. “That being said, the Green Party of Quebec is an independent organization working to elect candidates to a different parliament. While some people are discouraged about what has happened at the federal level, many more are ready to get to work on the provincial election.”

When asked what his current stance is on the cohesiveness of the Green movement across Canada, Mr. Tyrrell stated that one of the main issues the Green movement is struggling with in Canada is a profound “lack of ideological cohesion and consistency.” read more

Green Party of Pennsylvania
http://www.gpofpa.org/