Ideals And Determination United

by Michael Meo

Six people sat around the table at the Bipartisan Cafe on Southeast Stark Street a couple of nights ago in Portland. The discussion lasted for more than two hours, and included, as always, a multitude of issues; but the topic that cut closest to the bone was the question of the use of union money.

One way to effect progressive reform is detailed by Randy Shaw in his 1997 book, The Activist's Handbook: A Primer. Organize a community group around a thorough;y-researched issue with which you are utterly familiar. Present a well-designed, documented action item to the appropriate decision maker and back it with large numbers of demonstrators drawn from the affected community.

Shaw cites several cases in San Francisco and New York City as successful examples of his strategy, and the members of the Portland Metro Chapter of the Green Party of Oregon, beginning with the software security consultant Helen Umberger, are currently considering to what extent and in what manner to adopt, or to adapt, his recommendations.

Helen brought several pages of details to show us in the first week of October of the first instance of an issue which we would put forward -- the abolition, within the city limits of Portland, of the legal fiction of corporate personhood. It's a brilliant choice, perfectly crucial to our vision as a party for thoughtful, genuine progressive political action. In the two months since, however, for whatever reason, we've done nothing to put any part of it into practice.

Beyond the practical difficulties and our own human failings, the Shaw strategy rests upon a permanent estrangement of the progressive activist from the balancing act of actual governance. Politicians are there to be pressured into action: it is a view that I find in my philosophical discussions with her that Helen herself holds, but that cannot satisfy any political party, insofar as it is a political party.

And so none of us around the table -- the teacher of mathematics writing these lines; the software engineer serving as secretary not only of the Portland Metro Chapter but also of the state party Seth Woolley; the longtime activist and truck driver now working to found a Clackamas County chapter, Chris Henry; the Coos Bay psychologist and health care activist who just joined the Green Party, Dr. Rick Staggenborg; and the two librarians Jorden Leonard and Matt Pettigrew, the latter not yet a Green Party member -- none of us considered dropping the pursuit of political positions.

But won't Green Party candidates forever consign themselves to the margins of the political arena if they will not accept money from any organization? Matt asked Seth what harm there was in qccepting a hypothetical contribution offered by Patagonia (I am vaguely aware of a corporation by that name, producing I think hiking shoes and other sportswear -- google it yourself if you need to identify it).

So Seth outlined the framework for us. Each state party is an individual organization and does not take dictation from the Green Party of the United States, but, ever since it was formed by representatives of the state parties, GPUS has had the policy not to accept money from any Political Action Committee that has not been organized by Green Party representatives.

Large contributions in any case obligate the candidate.

On the other hand, all the major-party candidates benefit from PACs and "soft-money" organizations publicizing their cause and their campaigns under the rubric of "political education" of the electorate. If a Green Party candidate were to persuade a politically-astute Oregon-based union to fund a PAC to agitate for, let us say, a single-payer health plan, that would benefit any Green Party candidate: we are all in favor of health care for all the residents of the state, at no cost to the patient.

Lots of union have endorsed single-payer. More than one PAC is currently engaged in promoting progressive causes (the problem is, they're almost all identified with Democratic Party politics). The six of us at that table were already involved in the campaign YesforOregon, largely fueled by union money, to defeat the corporations' efforts in a referendum next month to overturn the decision of the state legislature to impose a reasonable, $150, minimum corporate tax.

Here we are, looking to put up lawn signs bought with union money; surely we also can operate in coalition with organized groups promoting our own causes!

The question will come up again. It is part of the agenda for the state convention to be held in January here in Portland. But around that table on a cold, clear night in December none of us felt that Green Party candidates had to reject the support of any campaign money designated for voter education.