ON THE END OF MULTICULTURALISM AND THE BEGINNING OF SOCIAL PLURALISM
Every night on CNN, Lou Dobbs continually returns to the issue of illegal immigration. In his enveloping rhetoric, he proposes that corporations and what he terms “socio-ethnocentric special interests” serve to weaken American borders and threaten American jobs. These two sides supposedly are in a secret partnership for their own interest. However, what he fails to reveal is that the corporations that thrive on the global form of late capitalism actually want his rhetoric that prevents looking at illegal immigration in the context of human rights, and instead villifies any advocacy organization that tries to do so. These immigrants are considered either as a productive resource or as an absolute threat to national sovereignty, but hardly ever as human citizens of the world. The content of humans crossing the border at great peril is actually contained and pacified by the global form of late capitalism, forever defined outside of the context of a free society. The inherent competitive nature of capitalism pits American workers against foreign-born workers even though both are exploited by the overall system. Workers and immigrants should be natural allies, but any possible solidarity against capitalism is thus thwarted and all people in the country are used for mass production or passive consumption regardless of being native or immigrant. Dobbs ignores this aspect by taking a position that looks like it is outside of political ideology, but is in fact the complete success of an ideology that classifies any attempt at human rights as a willing partner with corporate power. The immigration issue is a microcosm of a larger issue of multiculturalism and how it can present diversity only to be subsumed under global capitalism.
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Arkansas Greens Running for Office
On Saturday, April 12, 2008, the Green Party of Arkansas nominated, during the first session of its nominating convention, 3
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Deshefy Accepts Nomination Of Green's 2nd Congressional District Convention
Scott Deshefy accepted the Green Party of CT's 2nd Congressional District at a Nominating Convention on Saturday, April 12, 2008,
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Greens To Hold First Ever 2nd Congressional District Convention Scott Deshefy To Seek Green Nomination
The Green Party of CT will hold a Nominating Convention on Saturday, April 12, 2008, at 2:00 pm, at the
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Greens: 2008 is Congress's last chance to assert the rule of law and impeach Bush and Cheney for high crimes and abuses of power
Green Party leaders and candidates called on Congress to use the remaining months of the Bush Administration to impeach and
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Green Party Election Success
In addition to the victories of David Doonan and Roger Sherman in New York, the following Greens have won so
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Thanks
Thanks to everyone who donated to support the recent GPNY fund drive. If you haven't donated, please know that the
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Gas or Electric – What’s Your Preference?
I visited the New York Auto Show last Sunday and was curious to see if the rising cost of gas had increased people’s interest in hybrids or all-electric cars. Apparently not, since the biggest crowds were gathered around the Porsches and Lamborghinis. As gas prices go up it will be interesting to see if more people start buying hybrids. This has been the case in Europe where hybrids are more popular than here.
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DC Statehood Greens support DC Council Bill 17-0527 to stop the public property land grab in Washington, DC
The DC Statehood Green Party supports passage of DC Council Bill 17-0527, to prevent District government from disposing public properties
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DC Statehood Green Party urge support for the Reconstruction Platform
Statehood Greens noted that the Reconstruction Party is consistent with the Green Party's platform, positions, & principles, and that Greens
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Green Party Update On The 2008 Election
Illinois Greens select US Senate candidate, run record number of US House candidates . . . Cynthia McKinney wins Wisconsin
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VOTING MATTERS AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS
Since 2008 is an election year, many in the nation are more aware of voting than in non-election years. But voting is vital not only in the strict confines of a democracy, but as part of a larger political movement such as that embodied in the Green Party. There are many issues related to voting that are vital, such as how votes are counted and verified. But in order to recognize voting as a component of a movement, one must see voting as more than just a confirmation or rejection of particular candidates while the government structure continues unabated. Instead of looking at the symptom of the modern nation-state, political representation, one must use voting as a tactic that fulfills a larger strategy for progressive change. In that respect an alternative such as the Green Party can reevaluate what political organization can mean.
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Cynthia McKinney Wins Big in Wisconsin
he Wisconsin Green Party Spring Gathering and Presidential Preference Convention was held today at the River Center at the Gruenhagen
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Greens urge endorsement of UN resolution declaring access to clean water a human right
Green Party leaders called for the US to support a United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) resolution declaring clean water
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Obama’s Not So Much Mandate?
Well run political campaigns are often like well crafted movies. The best ones have exceptional script writers, who dutifully supply the actors with the words the talented thespians wouldn’t otherwise mouth. The much praised “race” speech Obama gave on Tuesday, 03/18, was evidence of the presence of masterful spinmeisters, that are diligently working behind his stage’s curtain, providing soothing phrases not always consistent with his actions. Obama has been displaying a pattern of ideological unreliability, and a quickness to discard inconvenient friends… a profile in cowardice.
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Greens warn that election of Obama, Clinton, or McCain will not reverse the meltdown touched off by the subprime mortgage crisis
Greens blame bipartisan failure to recognize Enron-style abuses, SEC and Federal Reserve Board indulgence of banks and lending institutions for
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Greens Doonan, Sherman Elected in NY
Green David Doonan was elected Mayor of Greenwich, NY in voting
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THE NEED FOR A COUNTERCULTURE
During the early part of the primary season, as Republican candidates had one of their debates, a small piece of legislation was in Congress that would establish a Woodstock museum. Supposedly the museum would begin being built during the 40th anniversary year of the music festival that ended the 1960’s. Of course Republicans took great pleasure in ridiculing this bill, especially John McCain who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam at the time. Setting aside the fact that his remarks could have illuminated the inherent baselessness of that past war, the general attitude of many Republicans and conservatives toward that era show that the basis of their ideology today is to refute the many movements and ideas of the 1960’s. The revolutions and dramatic change of that time are minimized in conservative rhetoric as part of a counter-revolution and restoration of the old order. These movements and ideas forty years ago were summed up by the counterculture, and what was missing in the ridicule is the fact that a counterculture always attempts to create a new society. The counterculture of the 1960’s in particular may not have completely succeeded, but it offered a template for future attempts and illustrates the need for a recurring counterculture as a phenomenon in the United States and the world.
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More Green-Rainbow voters go to the polls; Party looks forward to bigger strides locally.
The Green-Rainbow Party learned the results of its February 5th presidential primary last week, which saw an increase in participation
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Green 'Peace Party' positions against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars compared to pro-occupation Clinton, Obama, and McCain
Green Party leaders today compared the Green demand for an immediate end to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan to
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Press Release: Greens Victorious in Campaign to Remove Robert E. Lee Quote from Tax Decal
The Arlington Green Party expressed satisfaction today that its campaign to remove a quote from Confederate General Robert E. Lee
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THE HUMAN MIND AND DEMOCRACY
It is assumed that democracy is a good thing, based on the premise that it is the best way to prevent dictatorships. However, as recent history has shown, there have been cases where a government elected through a democratic process assumed absolute power, usually through the catalyst of a supposed state of emergency. There is the democracy of small groups and there is the democracy of the nation-state, both seeming to arise from the historical period of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment also was the introduction of reason as the main organizing principle of human action, and there is an implied connection between the exercise of reason and the best possible application of democracy. The positive perspective on reason and democracy that began with the Enlightenment has shaped the current discussion of how to have a just government and society, going to democracy as the default method. But it has ignored the inherent structural characteristics that is needed in order to have any exercise of power, any meaning in reality, or any functioning economic system. It is in fact these structural characteristics that has demonstrated that the Enlightenment was not necessarily a complete reform of the human condition, and that the movement toward transcendence that occurs in structures has at times moved reason and democracy toward a negative and destructive direction against human needs or wishes.
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California Greens wish Matt Gonzalez well as he leaves Green Party to fight for ballot access as VP on Nader independent ticket
The Green Party of California reacted favorably today to reports that former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
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Greens urge economic pressure and cutoff of all military aid to Israel as Gaza situation worsens
Calling the Siege of Gaza an international emergency, the Green Party is urging Congress to reject President Bush's FY2009 budget
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Greens respond to Ralph Nader's decision not to seek the Green Party nomination
Green Party leaders expressed their disappointment in Ralph Nader's decision, announced on Thursday, not to seek the 2008 Green presidential
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