Make Juneteenth a Federal Holiday

Juneteenth Day is an opening for the American Republic to honor promises  made years ago. It celebrates the day a Federal General announced that slavery was over in the Union at Galveston, Texas in June 1865 at the end of the Civil War. 
Martin Luther King recognized that the way forward must include economic justice.  The great injustice of the Civil War, besides the many lives lost, is that the white slave owners were compensated for the economic losses of the war, but the formerly enslaved African Amercans were not given the promised 40 acres and a mule; we are long past the time to rectify this injustice.  The Pacific Green Party calls on the federal government to pass a Reparations Act and make Juneteenth a national  holiday.
A crucial link in enabling police violence, “qualified immunity,” as a legal defense for oppressive and violent police practices, enables
modern day lynchings. The nation is haunted by Jim Crow every time a black person is killed.  Now white Americans are marching in solidarity with African Americans and other people of color demanding justice. 
Pacific Greens call for a renewal of justice by making law enforcement fully accountable in both civil and criminal law for their actions.
"E Puribus Unum: from many comes one nation; but for the African American community this Latin motto is thin as the copper coating on a modern penny, a hollow claim of national solidarity," said Charles Newlin, Pacific Green press contact

Pacific Green Party Nominations for Senate, House, State and County Offices

On Saturday, June 6th, members of the Oregon Pacific Green Party gathered  in record numbers via virtual convention to nominate their candidates for state and federal offices.  The nominees and offices are:

Continue reading

Pacific Green Party of Oregon stands in solidarity with the Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities and their allies in protesting against police brutality

The Pacific Green Party of Oregon stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters mourning for yet another member of the African American community dead at the hands of yet another callous police officer.  These deaths and related targeting of communities of color and in poverty perpetuate deep trauma in the African American community and must stop immediately.  The practices leading to those deaths need to end.

The Pacific Green Party also stands in solidarity with protesters demonstrating against police violence.  We  focus on the real issue:  systemic racism reinforced by police violence against people of color and the marginalized.

“Greens value non-violence and social justice, so protesting police violence is a no-brainer; but it is clear to us that African-Americans, Indigenous and People of Color are subject to systemic racism.  Death-by-Cop has to stop,” said Charles Newlin, Media contact at the Pacific Green Party. The recent murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department, and of Breonna Taylor and David McAtee by the Louisville PD, as well as the recent racially-motivated murder of Ahmaud Arbery must not continue going unpunished. 

Between 2013 and 2019, police in the US killed 7,666 people, according to data compiled by Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group - an unchanged toll of approximately 1000 “deaths-by-cop” a year.

Continue reading