Howie Hawkins, the Green Party of NY’ s candidate for Governor of NY State, on energy and Continue reading

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party of NY’ s candidate for Governor of NY State, on education in Continue reading

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party of NY’ s candidate for Governor of NY State, on cleaning up Continue reading

Howie Hawkins the Green Party of NY' s candidate for Governor of NY State, speaks about his Continue reading

The recent statements of Rand Paul reveal the inherent limits of defining freedom as liberty, and the failure of containing libertarianism within conservatism. When Rand Paul won the Republican Kentucky primary to become the candidate for U.S. Senate, it was assumed that it was a major victory for the Tea Party movement. A few days later the candidate, the son of outspoken libertarian-minded Congressman Ron Paul, stated that if he were in Congress at the time he would probably alter the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Particularly, he found a problem with private businesses having to comply with this law. Paul added that private businesses that discriminated should be publicly condemned and not be patronized, but that these businesses had the right to not be “forced” by the government to allow everyone. The media coverage of these statements has greatly expanded to such a degree that it was seriously questioned whether Rand Paul was fit to be a candidate for any office. But the media coverage appears to portray the statements as more a case of racist attitude rather than the cognitive dissonance that can occur with a strict adherence to defining freedom as solely liberty. Continue reading

The Green Party state convention in Albany nominated a full slate of candidates for statewide office in New York this Continue reading

Says Democrats' and Republicans' Support for Charter Schools Benefits Their Campaign Contributors, Continue reading

Speech given by Howie Hawkins at the Green Party of NY Statewide Candidate Nominating Convention, May 15, 2010, Albany, NY. Continue reading

The Green Party of Continue reading

     The Green Party will have to gather signatures this summer to get its candidate for Governor on the ballot, and Continue reading

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Continue reading

Autonomous solidarity is a form of association that can be truly an expression of justice as it balances freedom and equality. A big question, that is not necessarily at the forefront of public debate, is whether autonomy or liberty is more important. Liberty can easily be defined as freedom from government tyranny, and obviously is quite valuable in its own respect regardless of political ideology. There can be a leftwing or rightwing movement for liberty. Autonomy, on the other hand, must be defined strictly from its origins in ancient Greek. Autonomy translates into “self-law” and is the act of people creating the institutions that govern their lives in such a way as to be able to decide on actions that directly affect themselves. This definition implies that direct democracy is the best method to achieve this goal, whereas the definition of liberty never proposes a way to accomplish itself. In fact, some have argued that democracy can be a detriment to liberty since it can become mob rule. A republic where representatives govern has been seen as an improvement on direct democracy. But a republic carries with it the baggage of an inherent elitism, and over time has been shown to be also imperfect. If a democracy and a republic were compared based on the negative connotations of mob rule and elitism respectively, then an interesting factor emerges. The will of a mob may infringe on liberty at times, but this will has the potential to change over time. In contrast, the goal of an elite is always to perpetuate itself and its hierarchy. If democracy can be corrected to insure that liberty is not sacrificed, it will result in more autonomy. Therefore, autonomy has a more long-term importance. This autonomy can exist on the individual level or collective level, but the element of a new type of association must be formed in between in order to balance individual freedom and collective equality. This is what is called autonomous solidarity. Continue reading

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WASHINGTON, DC -- President Obama must put pressure on Israel immediately to stop the construction of settlements and displacement of Continue reading

By Tom Siracuse: The Republican Party is appealing to the prejudices of the white working class by supporting the “Tea Party”. They have encouraged these prejudices over many years but when they get into office, they temper their ultra right rhetoric and resemble the Democratic Party. It is not because the Republican Party is ignorant, crazy or particularly racist. Fostering racism and xenophobia enables the Republican Party to confuse the American people and especially the white working class and that prevents them from focusing in on what is really happening–saving the capitalist elite by reducing its taxes, restoring its profits by cheapening the cost of labor through high unemployment, denying climate change by maintaining the super profitable oil and coal industries, militarizing the economy through expanding the arms industry and keeping the banks deregulated so that they can continue to engage in ultra profitable speculation. Continue reading

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The inherent flaw of the bailout was that it did not address the structural flaws of the economy, which could be addressed by a non-corporate and community-based economic democracy. The economic crisis that occurred in September of 2008 initiated a mode of public policy that bridged two presidential administrations and two political parties. Commonly referred to as the bailout of the financial system, it gave government support to large corporations in an attempt to avoid a depression as great as the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Though enacted before the transition from the Bush administration to the Obama administration, president Obama has fully supported this approach in his first year in office. Even though it was argued that these large financial institutions were “too big to fail”, the use of taxpayer money to save large corporations illustrated a long-term economic trend in public policy to favor corporations in general in the U.S. economy. It can be argued that an emphasis on local ownership, and expanded ownership as well, may be a far better alternative to sustain a stable economy. The 2008 bailout can be critiqued as a symptom of a larger economic problem. Continue reading

March 20 is the 7th anniversary of the US invasion of IraqWASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party candidates, leaders, and other Continue reading

Sunday March 6, 2011 8PM Eastern, 5PM Pacific LIVE Green Party Rochester Mayoral Candidate Alex White is running Continue reading

Update: Gov. Paterson did announce Fri afternoon that he will not see election this fall.(CNN) - Embattled New York Gov. Continue reading