WHAT WE STAND FOR: TEN KEY VALUES

Grassroots Democracy Ecological Wisdom Social Justice Nonviolence Decentralization Community-Based Economics Feminism Respect for Diversity Personal and Global Responsibility Future Focus and Sustainability

NorthWest Indiana Green Party Membership Form for 2003 Date: ________________________ Name _______________________ Address ______________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ County: ______________________ Phone Number: ________________ Email Address:_________________ _____________________________ Skills: _______________________ _____________________________ I am in agreement with the 10 Key Values as stated in this brochure have a sincere desire to work to improve the political and ecological atmosphere of the NorthWest Indiana area. Signature _____________________ Suggested minimum donation of $10 per year will help pay for printed materials to further the goals of the organization and are waivable if desired. Please send this form, along with payment as appropriate to: Treasurer:______________________ We believe that citizens of this region share important interests and values, and can work together to improve political and ecological values of the area. A watershed is an area of land that collects moisture and drains into a marsh, stream, lake or groundwater. It is a basic ecological unit, more real and meaningful than mere county lines. Where artificial lines divide, nature unites.
Comprising the Kankakee and Little Calumet-Galien watersheds

Guests are always welcome. Come help us build a political alternative in Northwestern Indiana. Next meeting: ___________________ ________________________________

Contact:: LaPorte, Jim Coplen 219-778-2943 Valparaiso, Jesse Cohn 219-462-6231 Hobart, Robert Bailey, 219-947-2279

What is the Green Party?

The Greens altogether consist of an international party with organizations around the world. Germany was home to the first real Green Party, which is now part of that countrys ruling coalition. The biggest Green success stories in America have been at the local level, building experience and a base constituency. Intervening in local issues often leads to global implications. What differentiates the Green Party from the Democratic Party is a new way of framing issues and forming constituencies. Where conventional politics poses a difference between environmental and labor interests, Green politics suggests that the two have common interests. Social justice and ecology, along with other key values strongly bind the two. How would this be relevant to our region? We could apply a Green analysis to urban sprawl, which is both an ecological and social justice issue. Greens insist that economic progress must be driven by community needs, not by developers, who may pursue the strip-mallification of farmland, force the destruction of face-to-face community life, hour-long commutes, racial resegregation, and our dependence on cheap oil. Conventional approaches offer little hope for controlling unplanned growth. Creating jobs at any cost suggests the interests of those concerned are in conflict. In keeping with the Greens key value of Community Based Economics, we might ask why new construction is not used for decaying urban cores, instead of more urban sprawl. We share not only economic interests with urban centers in our area, but the Kankakee River watershed. We should work to build locally controlled, democratically-run economic development agencies with incentives for construction we really want - for instance, the blighted "brownfields," the creation of locally-owned businesses that serve community needs, and refurbishing old structures with energy-conserving technology. These are examples of how the Green Party could bring positive change to Northwest Indiana by addressing our mutual interests. NWI Greens will unite the most important local issues into a larger program for change a global vision - proposing solutions that are in keeping with the Ten Key Values. We need your input - not as a focus group member, but as an active participant in policy-making. Join us and experience grassroots democracy in action!

Electoral campaigns
Many voters hesitate to embrace Green values because of the perception of Green candidates as spoilers who ruin the chances of Democrats in tight races. Popular thinking has been: 1.) Greens can never win, so voting Green isn't practical. 2.) If Greens can't win, then voting Green steals votes from liberal candidates. Nothing could be further from the truth. Green votes send a message.

What does the future hold? One thing for sure: if citizens fail to build an alternative, such as the Greens, our two-party system will be less representative of the average voter. It will instead become more of a tool for corporate power and right-wing ideology. Campaigns of the Democrats and Republicans consists mostly of expensive commercials and media spectacles. Popular third parties are left to push for grassroots democracythe only kind which ordinary citizens can participate.

Green links
The crisis of democracy in America has been caused largely by the Democrats centrist strategy moving to the right to attract Republican votes. By doing so, Democrats have sold out much of their traditional makeup: women, blue-collar workers, people of color, gays and lesbians, and civil libertarians. Voting Democratic sends the message that we will submit because we have nowhere else to go. But when Greens get only a fraction of the vote, Democrats are forced to earn the votes of their constituentsand to put our issues back on the public agenda. Greens can win If we fight only from the political margins for now, the future is looking Greener. Nader got 2.7 million votes in 2000. Because of the Nader campaign a much stronger Green organization exists. Including, for the first time, an Indiana Green Party. Over 450 new Green Party (was this nationwide or statewide?) locals and 900 campus organizations were founded. At least 25,000 students volunteered and registered tens of thousands of first-time voters. While Nader fell short of the 5 million votes needed for national ballot access for the Greens, other Green candidates won. Of 266 Greens who ran in 2000, 16 won elections in November, and 14 won elections in the spring. There are 177 Greens now holding office in 24 states.

NWI Greens email.contact: info@nwigreens.org St. Joe Valley Greens http://sjvgreens.org Indiana State Green Party http://www.indianagreenparty.org History of the Indiana Greens http://www.indianagreenparty.org/history.shtml Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org Global Green Coordination http://www.globalgreens.info