[Marxism] "demo-green" paranoia and slander: in response to Craig Brozefsky

[Dayne Goodwin]

On Dec 31, 2007 7:40 AM,  <mlause at cinci.rr.com> wrote:
> The stretch goes all the other way.
>   . . .
> Also, Cobb did not take a "safe-state" strategy into the nominating process and win endorsement for it by the convention. He adopted this after the fact, to the great disgust of most of the Green ranks, which was reflected in the inability of the party to mobilize or enthuse very many people over the campaign.  Despite Cobb's misleadership, support for his nomination wasn't necessarily support for "safe state strategy."
   . . .


Anyone who is interested in facts, and history, should be able to
learn that the Demogreen leadership of the Green Party was discussing
and developing the "safe-states strategy" in the fall of 2003.  As a
member of the Independent Progressive Politics Network at the time i
was reading IPPN director and influential Green Ted Glick's arguments
for the Green Party to follow a "safe-states strategy" by late summer
of 2003.  David Cobb came to Salt Lake City early in 2004, February i
think, campaigning for the Green Party presidential nomination
explicitly as a proponent of "the safe-states strategy."

In 2004 Peter Camejo often pointed to a statement put out through
influential Green Party leader Dean Myerson's "Green Institute"
(Myerson, as the national "Political Coordinator" of the Green Party,
was basically current Green Party "Political Director" Brent
McMillan's predecessor) in December of 2003 where influential leaders
of the Green Party called for finding a way to support the Democrat
Party presidential candidate in 2004.  This document was available at
the Camejo-initiated Avocado Education Project website but i find that
this website is no longer active (www.AvocadoEducationProject.org).

My quick google effort to find the document turned up a Camejo
statement from June 2004 which refers to it.  The Camejo statement was
posted to the marxmail list by someone named Mark Lause
(http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w24/msg00020.htm).
 Here's the reference:

"The fear that the Green Party might be perceived as
reelecting Bush in 2004 led a group of 17 Green
activists to sign a statement saying that voting for a
Democrat (i.e. the lesser of two evils) in some states
is the best strategy for building the Green Party this
year. The signers of this statement included well-known
Greens such as Medea Benjamin, Dean Myerson, John
Rensenbrink, Anita Rios, Steve Schmidt, Ted Glick and
many others. Their presentation is clear and to the point."

One of the tactics used by the Demogreens who didn't want to risk
hurting the Democrats chances by running a serious national
presidential campaign was to delay the national/nominating Green Party
convention as late into 2004 as possible. This was a direct rejection
of a Nader candidacy because Nader had insisted that a serious
presidential campaign would have to be underway by the beginning of
2004.  The down-side for the Demogreens was that by the time the
convention took place in late June of 2004 in Wisconsin, Camejo had
won support from a large part of the Green Party in challenging and
scandalizing the safe-states strategy.

That's why the Demogreens were simultaneously back-pedaling away from
reference to the safe-states strategy and rigging the convention to
ensure that their non-entity Demogreen candidate David Cobb would get
the nomination.