Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 13:43:53
From: Mitchel Cohen <mitchelcohen-AT-mindspring.com>
Subject: Green Party USA: An Open Letter to the Green Party of Germany


PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL CONTACTS & MEDIA

The Greens / Green Party USA 
Founded, 1986 

G/GPUSA 
PO Box 1406 
Chicago, Illinois 60690 
1-866-GREENS2 
gpusa-AT-igc.org
http://www.greenparty.org 

Media Contact: mitchelcohen-AT-mindspring.com

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GREEN PARTY OF GERMANY

Green Party USA Urges German Greens to Condemn Bombardment of Afghanistan. 
NO Troops!

Dear Greens,

The Green Party USA expresses its support for the 70% of German Greens 
opposed to the war against Afghanistan and to the 11 of 16 regional Green 
Party organizations in Germany critical of sending 4,000 combat troops. The 
GPUSA urges German Greens to stand strong against this war regardless of the 
political consequences.
 
“Most Greens worldwide recognize that this is a war for oil and political 
domination and will do nothing to protect US citizens or any people from 
terrorism,” says Nancy Oden, a recent victim of airport harassment in the 
United States. She adds, “Joschka Fischer and the minority of Greens who are 
propping up the German government have put power before principle. Their 
claim that they must participate in the war effort in order to make it more 
humane is obscene. They seem to be saying that by keeping themselves part of 
the government they can make “humanitarian” cluster bombs or “cancer-free” 
depleted uranium casings. This is nonsense. It is time for rank-and-file 
Greens in Germany, and everywhere, to promote a different kind of leadership, 
one that will not sacrifice moral and political principles on the altar of 
electoral expediency.” 

The Greens first joined the German government after the 1997 elections.
Since then, Green officials have been sharply criticized in Germany as well
as throughout the world, for failing to uphold Green values. In 1999,
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer provoked a bitter internal brawl when he
supported the US-led bombardment of Yugoslavia. By participating in the
war, German Greens rationalized the use of depleted uranium and thereby
violated several basic Green principles, including nonviolence, and
opposition to nuclear power and weapons. 

In 2000, Green Party leaders intensified the hostility by supporting the
transportation of radioactive nuclear waste through residential
communities, even though an accident could poison the countryside. Before
participating in the Social Democratic led government, German Greens had
strongly argued that such transportation bolstered the nuclear industry and
must be opposed. Many Greens participated in and provided leadership for
militant anti-nuclear protests. All those years of clear political and
moral leadership on the leading questions of our day have now been
compromised. What is the point of remaining in government if it means
selling out one’s principles on such vital issues?

Germany’s support for the US war on Afghanistan is another such critical
issue. We understand that this could result in a major split in the Green
Party in Germany as well as the bringing down of the Coalition government.
On the other hand, the Coalition government COULD decide, under pressure,
to take the antiwar route and WITHDRAW its support for the US war. That
would preserve the government coalition as well as heal some of the rift in
the German Green Party – IF today’s proponents of war truly cared about
such concerns.

Mitchel Cohen, a representative from New York to the Green National Committee 
of GPUSA, argues that “should German troops be sent to Afghanistan, it would 
be the first time since the Hitler era that they are used beyond Europe. This 
has an ominous ring for many of us. History is, if nothing else, the power of 
memory against forgetting. Once again we are seeing what theorist Fredy 
Perlman described as that ‘rationally planned extermination of human beings, 
the central experience of so many people in an age of highly developed 
science and productive forces,’ although they are not calling the victims 
‘Jews’ this time. The warmakers are much more sophisticated, but just as
power-hungry 
and just as deadly.”

On November 17, Greens parliamentarians supported Chancellor Schroeder in
one of Germany’s rare votes of confidence. They kept him in power by the
narrow margin of two votes more than the simple majority he needed. Green
parliamentarians could have set an antiwar example for the entire world,
but failed to do so. This weekend’s meetings present the rank-and-file of
the Green Party of Germany with the opportunity to rectify those serious
errors, and reclaim the moral high ground.

Lisa Thurman, a member of the Coordinating Committee of the GPUSA,
emphasizes that her organization does not believe that the current war is a
result of the September 11 attacks, and should be halted. “We express our
deepest condolences for all those who have suffered from the events of
September 11,” notes Thurman, a Green Party candidate for the US Senate in
North Carolina. “Greens in New York City joined everyone else in helping to
dig people out of the rubble of the World Trade Center. They provided
blood, food and supplies, and helped save lives. But we understand that
killing innocent people in Afghanistan will not bring anyone back to life.
If anything, it will only enrage more hostility against the US. The war is
being carried out to ensure control by US companies of oil from the middle
east.” 

According to Thurman, “The Green Party wants to protect all of us from mass 
violence. We believe that one of the ways to accomplish this is to stop using 
the US military to protect corporate interests. Germany must not be complicit 
in that power-grab. This means immediately ending the US military presence in 
the Middle East, and a cessation of all arms shipments abroad.” On behalf of 
the Green Party USA, we hope that members of the German Green Party can 
return to basic Green values and register our opposition to the killing of 
innocent people to insure the interests (and profits) of the oil companies. 

Greens throughout the world have an historic opportunity and responsibility
this weekend to SAY NO TO WAR. As novelist Arundhati Roy notes: “When
you’re talking about dropping a bomb that explodes and burns everything in
a 1-kilometer radius, it’s not just human beings that are being killed but
the earth itself.” The future will be what we the people struggle to make it.

Signed,
Maris Abelson, Lisa Thurman, and Nancy Oden,
Coordinating Committee
The Greens/Green Party USA

(forwarded by Mitchel Cohen, Media Coordinator, 
The Greens/Green Party USA)

*******************************************
LETTER OF GREEN PARTY OF ST. LOUIS:

Dear Greens,

The following is the final wording of the statement approved by the
November 7, 2001 General Meeting of the Green Party of St. Louis.It is one
of the most intensely discussed documents we have produced and truly
represents the collective thought of the group. Different versions were
proposed, combined and modified at two political meetings as well as the
general membership meeting.Many portions were hotly debated, especially the
statement (eventually approved) that “Terrorism does not cease to be
terrorism because it is carried out by a government.”

 Solidarity,
 Don Fitz
 Green Party of St. Louis

 STATEMENT ON THE WAR ON AFGHANISTAN

 1. We express outrage at the attacks of September 11, 2001 on people in 
 the US and the attacks by the US and British governments on Afghanistan in 
 eary October, 2001.We express our deepest condolences to those bereaved by 
 these acts. We call for an immediate cessation of violence, both by those who
 perpetrated the atrocities of September 11 and by those nation states 
 which have bombed Afghanistan.

2. We call on the government of the US and all countries to protect the
security of their peoples by doing the following:

a. Pursue those responsible for the September 11 massacres through criminal
investigation and prosecution in national or international courts, not by
bombing civilians or hunting and killing individuals on mere suspicion of
terrorism.These courts should also carry out investigations and
prosecutions of acts of mass murder during the last 50 years by the US
military and US client governments.Terrorism does not cease to be terrorism
because it is carried out by a government.

b. In order to remove both causes and targets of violence, all nations
should withdraw military troops from occupied lands and cease having troops
outside of their own borders;

c. In order to reduce the dangers of nuclear disaster, all nations should
(1) halt plans to transport nuclear waste [and instead store it on site],
(2) shut down all nuclear reactors, (3) eliminate all programs for nuclear
material in space, and (4) eliminate all stockpiles of nuclear weapons;

d. In order to reduce the dangers of mass murder by biochemical weapons,
all nations should halt research on and production of chemical and
biological weapons;

e. All nations should ratify a protocol for international inspections and
sanctions by trade isolation for states not in compliance with the
elimination of foreign-stationed troops, nuclear weapons, nuclear power,
 nuclear waste transportation, chemical weapons and biological weapons; and,
 
f. Do not let the privacy, civil liberties, and right to dissent of your
citizens and the non-citizens among us become casualties of the crisis.

3. The US and its people must recognize that there are some just causes for
the hostility and resentment shown against us in some countries and seek to
remove these causes:

a. Alleviate the global inequalities of wealth which are enforced by the
power of the US military and multinational corporations;

b. End our dependence on oil, which is the chief motive for American
imperialism in the Middle East and Central Asia, by pursuing conservation,
efficiency and renewable sources of energy; and,

c. End the racist sentiment of Western culture that killing civilians who
are people of color or are not Christians is unimportant.

Approved by the November 7, 2001 General Meeting of the Green Party of  St.
Louis.