The Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings do not support the so-called “Lesser Evil” argument. In fact the sham of a SCOTUS confirmation absolutely underscores the necessity for us to build a mass party independent of Wall Street power which can actually organize and lead millions to fight back. The party of labor and ecology that we need would be calling upon and organizing workers and unions to strike, protest and truly resist the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett. This is the kind of mass party that we desperately need today. Instead, we have two ruling parties that do the opposite - they both organize in meeting rooms to put down labor resistance and militant protests. The Democrats are failing to offer ANY serious resistance to Barrett’s confirmation; this is a case of deja vu that should not come as a surprise to any of us by now. The same script is being played out again and the people who are telling us that they are the “Lesser Evil” are capitulating to her confirmation and hugging their so called “greater evil” cronies.  The consistent deadly betrayals by the political elite of the interests and lives of everyday people are once again masked by fake respectability politics during the pomp and circumstance of these hearings.

they see no future beyond our decaying system

Our upcoming popular resistance to the confirmation of Barrett will once again be blunted by a well-financed liberal wall of calls for “civility” by the Democrats. We will hear desperate pleas for more donations to the big nonprofits that function no differently than corporations. They will come to our demonstrations and implore us to “resist” by electing them to capitulate. Again. They will even host well-funded tightly-controlled “protests”, in order to funnel the righteous anger of the people back into the clutches of the Democratic Party. Again. These non-profits will ask us to pour our dwindling funds into their lobbyist organizations which pale in comparison to the rich corporate lobbyists. This is all ultimately a twisted political game to the political class and the non-profit leadership because they are primarily concerned with perpetuating their careers and their power. Why? Because they see no future beyond our decaying system. None of them will be calling for us to strike or pour into the streets or to do anything significant to hurt the bottom dollar of their corporate bosses. This will continue to happen time and time again as the contradictions and decline of our system deepen - until we break with the Two Party trap and build our own independent power.

We, the working class majority, desperately need to build our own parties which represent the interests of the people and the planet; not the Wall Street elite who are the proven enemies of labor, ecology and peace. Such a party may begin with humble and difficult beginnings, but the hunger for such an organization is real. Two-thirds of Americans today want more parties. To move towards a party that represents the interests of every day working class people, we need to ditch once-and-for-all the divisive language defining SOME of us are the "middle class" and some are less deserving, which politicians from BOTH ruling parties have consistently used to divide and conquer working people. They have wielded this rhetoric to deceive us into believing that "some" of us would be protected by them against the rest of us. That we are better off divided. This kind of divisive politics has paved the way for Trumpism and far worse. This class-divisive rhetoric, underscored by the lack of an independent party of labor, has set back the ability of the majority to build true power.

Now is not the time to play it safe. We have seen with this systemic response to the ongoing pandemic and economic crisis that none of us are safe. As the profit system continues its death spiral towards mass evictions, war, potential nuclear annihilation, environmental collapse and rising fascism, we are ALL at risk of perishing if we do not forge a new Ecosocialist system. To do this, we need to fundamentally redefine what a real party for the us should be - a vehicle for people with similar interests, that organizes to fight for those interests. A new mass party must have a fundamentally different structure than the corporate structure of the DemoPublican system. It must be built on organizing, not high-dollar advertising. We cannot beat them in a party they control with tactics they have billions to spend on. We must have a party that is involved in movements and which can make headways in labor. All of these things require the commitment of everyday people like us - a stark contrast with the “Coke or Pepsi” politics of our present electoral system.

a small handful of judges appointed by the servants of the elite that is incapable of being recalled by the direct will of the people.

The impending confirmation of Barrett to the Supreme Court and the complete capitulation of even the left-most congressional Democrats underscores the backwardness of our entire 233 year old system of the electoral college, of state-controlled gerrymandered districts and an anti-democratic Senate body. This system includes the archaic structure of the Supreme Court - a small handful of judges appointed by the servants of the elite that is incapable of being recalled by the direct will of the people. Despite several historic hard fought progressive victories embodied in the Bill of Rights, all of the sitting Supreme Court Justices have at one time or another, played a role in eroding many of those protections - the First and Fourth Amendments in particular. The last progressive Amendment to this country’s Constitution, lowering the voting age to 18, was passed almost 50 years ago in response to our powerful Vietnam Anti-War movement during which millions of youth stood up to the draft and the injustices of being forced to kill and be killed but not even able to vote. The gradual decline to a complete halt of progressive amendments over the last century, underscores the calcification of our political system ruled by corporate power, and its total resistance to bending or responding to the will of the masses. New generations have called this systemic dead end “late stage capitalism” and that is a wholly appropriate description. 

The Democrats will never fight for us - they serve Wall Street, the war industry, and the corporate developers.

This is why a party capable of steering future mass movements forward to lasting organizational power (instead of into the two party trap) is necessary. The Democrats have proven time and time again that they will not protect us or even respect the majority will of its voters. Their purpose as a party ruled by the rich and their own interests is to protect the status quo of the wealthy elite above all else - including their own party's success at representing or even inspiring its voters. More than half of Congress are millionaires themselves. The Democrats will never fight for us - they serve Wall Street, the war industry, and the corporate developers. They will only occasionally concede to our demands and then spend the rest of the time eroding those concessions in lock step with Republicans. As the late great comedian and social critic George Carlin observed, it's all one big Wall Street club, including most of the politicians who are wealthy themselves- and we're not in it.

The North Carolina Green Party calls upon the people of North Carolina to support us and join us in our goal of fighting for a new and better system. We cannot accomplish this by simply voting for the “lesser” evil and putting far less resources in building something new. Now is not the time of pragmatism and fear-based retreat - now is the time to stand up and fight for our collective survival. 

Haz clic aquí para leerlo en español.

This month's news from the North Carolina Green Party: Organize with us to get out the vote for the Hawkins/Walker presidential campaign in NC, and please donate to our presidential campaign fundraiser. Read the NCGP's open letter calling on Gov. Cooper to put farmworker safety before profits during Covid, as well as our most recent activism in solidarity with BLM.

Photo: Norma Garcia-Lopez

NCGP to Governor Cooper: Farmworker Safety During the Pandemic Is More Important Than Profits 

Governor Cooper: 

In April of 2020, a letter was sent to you from the North Carolina Farmworker Advocacy Network (NCFAN), which is a coalition of organizations working to improve the living and working conditions of agricultural workers. In this letter, you were asked to use the power of your office to issue an executive order that would help to protect agricultural workers during the pandemic. In particular, NCFAN requested that you instruct agribusinesses to:

• Provide migrant farmworkers with access to healthcare services and other resources.
• Ensure migrant agricultural workers are not put at risk in their employer-provided housing.
• Ensure agricultural workers are able to protect themselves from exposure while working.
• Protect workers from retaliation who get sick.
• Ensure H-2A farmworkers are able to enroll in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), ensure Spanish interpretation for health information, and provide adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers serving agricultural workers.

These are not onerous requirements. As NCFAN has pointed out, you previously publicly committed to issuing this order, as reported in the News and Observer on August 14, 2020. Comparable orders have been issued in Michigan and Wisconsin. In fact, in 2016, long before the pandemic, both Attorney General Josh Stein and yourself told the NC Latino Congress that, once in office, you would work toward “improving the state’s ability to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate health and human services to North Carolina’s growing Spanish-speaking community.”

However, upon signs of resistance from the NC Department of Labor and Department of Agriculture, you quickly rescinded the commitment to the executive order. Both of the heads of these offices are Republicans, and both are themselves committed to protecting business (including large farmers and agribusiness) from any legal responsibility to protect workers beyond the bare minimum dictated by law. Since Republican legislators have spent the last decade reducing that responsibility, your office had an opportunity to begin to reverse the damage of laws created to benefit employers over employees. It should have been an easy decision to inform commissioners Berry and Troxler that their resistance to your order was not in line with the needs of the farmworkers in North Carolina, and that your administration, and the attorney general’s office, was quite prepared to enforce this order. As has been pointed out by NC Justice Center, in an article in the Greensboro News and Record on September 10, 2020, many businesses would have complied with your order regardless of the positions of the commissioners.  

The failure to issue the order is a betrayal of North Carolina farmworkers, and it calls into question your intent to govern on behalf of all inhabitants of the state. Farmworkers, with or without visas or other documentation, are used by agribusiness to make profits. COVID-19 disproportionately affects people in black and Hispanic communities. For Berry and Troxler, despite the high-sounding rhetoric, these people are disposable, whereas the profits of agribusiness are indispensable. We must ask, which position will you take Governor? Will it be people or profit? Health or illness? Empathy or indifference? The people expect better.

North Carolina Green Party Coordinating Committee

North Carolina Green Party Supports and Participates in the Black Lives Matter Movement

Several North Carolina Green Party members, including cochair Tony Ndege, Charlotte Area Greens cochair Jacob Samuels, past candidates Keenen Altic, Joshua Bradley, and Robert Corriher, assistant secretary Ade Mowry, Troy Winfree of Triad Greens, and others have been heavily involved in statewide protest movements against state violence and systemic inequity.

These actions have included:

• A week-long occupation of the Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh, which helped to win the successful veto of the onerous SB 168.
• Dozens of protests in the wake of the murder George Floyd, including several events in the Triad where Ndege is a lead organizer in the Black Lives Matter movement.
• Demands for truth and transparency over the death of John Neville and other jail inmates.
• Demanding that Forsyth County and all NC counties sever their contracts with Wellpath, a for-profit corporation which is the largest healthcare provider for incarceration institutions in the country.
• Recent actions in solidarity with the #KenoshaUprising in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, who grew up in Winston-Salem.

Volunteer to Get Out the Vote for Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker

Let's get out the vote for Green Party candidates Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker! We can ensure automatic ballot access through 2024 for the NC Green Party by winning at least 2% of the votes for president in 2020 in North Carolina!

VOLUNTEER! There are many ways to help get out the vote for Howie and Angela. We need volunteers:

• to serve as coordinators across the state
• for door hanger canvassing (no face-to-face required during this Covid-19 crisis) 
• social-media content posters
• content writers 
• phonebanking and textbanking
• early-voting canvassing
• campaign yard sign placement and pickup 

Even volunteering an hour or two will make a tremendous difference. Join us for our statewide campaign meetings on Wednesday nights on Zoom to learn how you can help. Please register in advance for these meetings and sign up to volunteer! 

More and more voters are realizing that the two corporate parties have failed us. The Hawkins/Walker ticket represents real change in this country. While every candidate says that, the Green Party’s platform proves our commitment to broad sweeping system change to improve the lives of the working class, especially oppressed groups, as well as our environment. Our votes come from people who want something different and have no faith in continuing the same failed strategies; they're people who are fed up with our undemocratic electoral system and the corporate parties’ failure to protect and serve its citizens. 

None of our most urgent problems will be significantly addressed by either a President Biden or a President Trump. Voters overwhelmingly support Green Party positions like:

• Medicare for All
• An end to wars for profit / bring our troops home
• Slashing of the military budget
• End to the militarization of police
• End of the War on Drugs - legalize cannabis and expunge records of non-violent “offenders”
• A Real Green New Deal
• Equity and protection of marginalized peoples

This tells us what we already know: that we need to stand even stronger for what we want, and that's real change! 

It is critical that we take a stand and not only vote for our future and the future of new generations but also, most importantly—organize for a new mass party, not vote for our fears and hope for the best. The tactic of Lesser Evilism has not worked in over a century of attempts to reform either big-business party, and it certainly won’t work for us in 2020 or for the future of people or our planet.

REGISTER GREEN TODAY! 

Donate to Our NCGP Campaign Drive!

We're raising $7,500 to get out the vote for the Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker presidential ticket in North Carolina and to increase NC Green Party registration! Our goal: win at least 2% of the vote for Hawkins/Walker in our state. Two percent means the NCGP automatically retains its ballot line for 4 more years to run Green candidates. Otherwise we may lose ballot access for several months or longer, and we will be required to collect several thousand petition signatures.

DONATE NOW to help us organize for H20—and to build the North Carolina Green Party. The two major parties have utterly failed the people and the planet. Help us build our own political power independent of the two capitalist parties!

Your donation will be used for:

• Increasing voter registration and candidate interest for 2020–2024.
• Sending out mailers to statewide registered Greens.
• More signage and getting signs to volunteers in every town—rural as well as larger cities! 
• Door hangers and other important materials for Get Out the Vote and membership-building efforts.
• Training volunteers and having limited volunteer stipends. 
• Putting materials on campuses and other areas with a large percentage of likely voters.
• Other critical volunteer materials including PPE, hats, and badges.
• Phone banking and text banking for getting out the vote and membership drives.

Become a Member!

The North Carolina Green Party refuses all corporate contributions, so dues-paying members play a vital role ensuring our state and local organizations have the resources needed to build an independent party for people and planet free from the influence of the 1 percent.       

Who can Become a Member of the North Carolina Green Party? North Carolina residents who are registered to vote as “Green” are eligible to become members of the NCGP after they have affirmed Green Party principles (see our 10 Key Values and platform), set their own dues rate using a budget-friendly sliding scale, and initiated payment of those dues. You choose your own dues level on the honor system, based on what you can pay. Note: Residents who are ineligible to vote due to state disenfranchisement (including but not limited to reasons such as age, criminal record, or noncitizen/undocumented status) may also become members. Email the NCGP secretary at [email protected] if you feel you are ineligible to vote due to state disenfranchisement. All NCGP members, with the exception of noncitizens, shall pay modest annual dues.

Find out more: www.ncgreenparty.org/membership.

Find Us on Social Media

Like and follow our NCGP Facebook Page.
Follow us on NCGP Twitter.

Join our statewide and regional NCGP Facebook groups to connect with Greens:

North Carolina Green Party
Charlotte Area Green Party
Triangle Area Green Party
Triad Area Green Party
Eastern NC Green Party
Western NC Green Party

In solidarity with people and planet against profits,

The North Carolina Green Party

Haz clic aquí para leerlo en español.

Photo: Norma Garcia-Lopez

Governor Cooper: 

In April of 2020, a letter was sent to you from the North Carolina Farmworker Advocacy Network (NCFAN), which is a coalition of organizations working to improve the living and working conditions of agricultural workers. In this letter, you were asked to use the power of your office to issue an executive order that would help to protect agricultural workers during the pandemic. In particular, NCFAN requested that you instruct agribusinesses to:

• Provide migrant farmworkers with access to healthcare services and other resources.

• Ensure migrant agricultural workers are not put at risk in their employer-provided housing.

• Ensure agricultural workers are able to protect themselves from exposure while working.

• Protect workers from retaliation who get sick.

• Ensure H-2A farmworkers are able to enroll in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), ensure Spanish interpretation for health information, and provide adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers serving agricultural workers.

These are not onerous requirements. As NCFAN has pointed out, you previously publicly committed to issuing this order, as reported in the News and Observer on August 14, 2020.   Comparable orders have been issued in Michigan and Wisconsin. In fact, in 2016, long before the pandemic, both Attorney General Josh Stein and yourself told the NC Latino Congress that, once in office, you would work toward “improving the state’s ability to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate health and human services to North Carolina’s growing Spanish-speaking community.” 

However, upon signs of resistance from the NC Department of Labor and Department of Agriculture, you quickly rescinded the commitment to the executive order. Both of the heads of these offices are Republicans, and both are themselves committed to protecting business (including large farmers and agribusiness) from any legal responsibility to protect workers beyond the bare minimum dictated by law. Since Republican legislators have spent the last decade reducing that responsibility, your office had an opportunity to begin to reverse the damage of laws created to benefit employers over employees. It should have been an easy decision to inform commissioners Berry and Troxler that their resistance to your order was not in line with the needs of the farmworkers in North Carolina, and that your administration, and the attorney general’s office, was quite prepared to enforce this order. As has been pointed out by NC Justice Center, in an article in the Greensboro News and Record on September 10, 2020, many businesses would have complied with your order regardless of the positions of the commissioners.  

The failure to issue the order is a betrayal of North Carolina farmworkers, and it calls into question your intent to govern on behalf of all inhabitants of the state. Farmworkers, with or without visas or other documentation, are used by agribusiness to make profits. COVID-19 disproportionately affects people in black and Hispanic communities. For Berry and Troxler, despite the high-sounding rhetoric, these people are disposable, whereas the profits of agribusiness are indispensable. We must ask, which position will you take Governor? Will it be people or profit? Health or illness?  Empathy or indifference? The people expect better. 

North Carolina Green Party Coordinating Committee

Haz clic aquí para leerlo en español.

We have lots of news this month from the North Carolina Green Party. Check out our events coming up soon, how to volunteer for the Hawkins/Walker presidential campaign, and some of our recent activism!

“Why the Democrats Are a Dead End for People of Color” Event with Angela Walker

Register for the Zoom event: Wednesday, September 2, 8:00–9:30 p.m.

Join Green Party / Socialist Party 2020 candidate for vice president, Angela Walker, and a panel of other organizers as we discuss how both parties of Wall Street have proven time and time again over the last century that they’re a dead-end trap for People of Color and for any substantial change toward our collective survival.

For decades the Democrats have faked left and moved right. They talk about inclusion to get our votes and then they consistently betray us. This is because the Democrats and Republicans are owned by big business nationally and corporate developer money locally and have no intention on changing that. They rule us by buying our political misleadership class, by scaring us away from alternative options, and by keeping us afraid of our own power. But they will never include us in decision-making and certainly never give us power. This is slavery by another means: we need freedom! 

This two-party capitalist system is destroying our planet and our communities. We need truly revolutionary change to stop it! In order to fight for real revolutionary change we must organize independently of Wall Street corporate bosses and big-money grants and donors. Register for the Zoom event: Wednesday, September 2, 8:00–9:30 p.m.

View and share this event on Facebook.

Left Unity Study Group: Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth

Register for the Zoom event: Thursday, September 3, 8:30–10:00 p.m.

The North Carolina Green Party and the Northern Piedmont Chapter of the Socialist Party-USA invite you to join our study group on the writings of revolutionary authors and their contributions to the practice of freeing ourselves from the forces of ecocide, genocide, poverty, war, and imperialism.

Our goal is to develop a better understanding of how we should act in response to these forces, building on the work of those who have trod these paths before us. Collectively, we face both problems that have been charted historically and new problems that arise from the ravages and crises of capitalism and its effects in our time.

Our first work will be Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth. Please register for the Zoom meeting at this link. In this work, Fanon addresses the psychological and physical effects of colonization on the indigenous inhabitants of colonized areas and the response of the colonized peoples to these effects.

Using Fanon’s description of struggle for self-determination in French-controlled Algeria, we’ll explore what the indigenous of Algeria felt during this struggle and if Fanon's insights can be extended to the struggles of humanity today to achieve a better life for all. Specifically, what practices were engaged in to achieve independence for the people of Algeria? Are those practices relevant to current struggles? What new practices might be deduced from the history of African colonial struggles? Register for the Zoom event: Thursday, September 3, 8:30–10:00 p.m.

Join our Left Unity Study Group to view this and more political education events on Facebook.

Volunteer with NC Greens for the Hawkins/Walker 2020 Presidential Campaign

NC Greens we are ramping up our get out the vote effort for the Green Party nominees for president and vice president: Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker! Can you help? We need volunteers to phonebank, textbank, design graphics, write letters to the editors in support of our candidates, canvass, flyer, and place signs. Most important, we need volunteer coordinators across the state. Please visit www.ncgreenparty.org/h20 to sign up as a volunteer!

Better Ballot NC Ranked-Choice Voting Effort

A new group, Better Ballot North Carolina, has formed in North Carolina to pursue the implementation of Ranked-Choice Voting in our state. You are invited to the statewide launch September 12. Ranked-Choice Voting, which has different counting methods for different types of elections (e.g. multi-candidate single-winner or multi-candidate multi-winner races) allows voters to rank their candidates in order of preference. The value of RCV is that it eliminates the argument that a voter’s true preference must be  sacrificed in favor of an undesirable but "lesser-evil" candidate.  With RCV, if the voter’s first choice does not win in the first round of vote tabulation, or even if the choice is eliminated in the first round, the voter’s second choice then transfers to that candidate, who has lost nothing by being a second choice. 

Better Ballot North Carolina is composed of members from a number of different organizations and political proclivities, including North Carolina Greens. Registered in NC as a nonprofit, the group’s goal is to educate North Carolinians about the value of Ranked-Choice Voting in offering more candidates with diverse views and ideas. Visit the group at www.betterballotnc.org, and sign up to attend the statewide launch meeting on September 12.

NCGP in NC Black Lives Matter Movement, Justice for #JohnNeville 

Several NC Green Party members, including Co-chair Tony Ndege, recently-elected Charlotte Area Greens Co-chair Jacob Samuels, past candidates Keenen Altic, Joshua Bradley, Robert Corriher, assistant Sec. Ade Mowry, Troy Winfree of Triad Greens and others have been heavily involved in statewide protest movements against state violence and systemic inequity. These actions have included:

Newly-elected Charlotte Greens co-chair Jacob Samuels holds a sign for Jacob Blake

Photo credit: Allison Isley, Winston-Salem Journal

NCGP members Keenen Altic, Matthew Skolar, and Tony Ndege protesting at Resist RNC

Resist RNC: Rally & Protest in Charlotte Aug. 24

Several NCGP members including Cochairs Tommie James and Tony Ndege and 2018 Green candidate Keenen Altic were present at the recent RNC protests. We heard several strong speakers and advertised upcoming NCGP events. Many protesters were very receptive to our call for independent power from both parties of Wall Street. One member was arrested and is out on bail, marking the second arrest of an NCGP member in the past month for protesting.

Become a Member!

The North Carolina Green Party refuses all corporate contributions, so dues-paying members play a vital role ensuring our state and local organizations have the resources needed to build an independent party for people and planet free from the influence of the 1 percent.       

Who can Become a Member of the North Carolina Green Party? North Carolina residents who are registered to vote as “Green” are eligible to become members of the NCGP after they have affirmed Green Party principles (see our 10 Key Values and platform), set their own dues rate using a budget-friendly sliding scale, and initiated payment of those dues. You choose your own dues level on the honor system, based on what you can pay. Note: Residents who are ineligible to vote due to state disenfranchisement (including but not limited to reasons such as age, criminal record, or noncitizen/undocumented status) may also become members. Email the NCGP secretary at [email protected] if you feel you are ineligible to vote due to state disenfranchisement. All NCGP members, with the exception of noncitizens, shall pay modest annual dues.

Find Us on Social Media

Like and follow our NCGP Facebook Page.

Join our statewide and regional NCGP Facebook groups to connect with Greens:

North Carolina Green Party
Charlotte Area Green Party
Triangle Area Green Party
Triad Area Green Party
Eastern NC Green Party
Western NC Green Party

In solidarity with people and planet against profits,

The North Carolina Green Party

Haz clic aquí para leerlo en español.

Check out the following news and updates from the North Carolina Green Party (NCGP):

North Carolina Green Party Cosponsors Protests Against Police Violence and Racism and Calls for Immediate End to Police Immunity

The NCGP continues to emphatically support the protests and actions in North Carolina, across the US, and around the world that have arisen in response to decades of systemic police violence and institutionalized racism that culminated in the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.

NCGP has been busy supporting the push for racial and economic justice in North Carolina, standing alongside Black Lives Matter activists in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Charlotte, Raleigh, and all over North Carolina. NCGP cochair Tony Ndege is a founding organizer of Black Lives Matter Winston-Salem and has co-organized several protests in his city, and many other Greens including recent candidates Joshua Bradley, Robert Corriher, and Keenen Altic have been involved in dozens of actions throughout the state. We support these protests and the burgeoning movement to end the US policing and carceral system, which is designed to suppress opposition to the economic supremacy and white supremacy of the capitalist class.

The system that murdered George Floyd is showing the world not only its contempt for the lives of people of color but also its inability to address the economic, ecological, and social problems that beset the US. As we call for justice and reparations for people of color that have suffered for generations under the heel of systemic racism, we also call for an end to the underlying economic system that has created the conditions for police violence and murders in the first place: capitalism.

Above, NCGP cochair and BLM Winston-Salem cofounder Tony Ndege leads chants at a Solidarity with Minneapolis march in Winston-Salem, NC. Photo: Andrew Dye, Winston-Salem Journal

“To understand police violence, one has to acknowledge the historical role of capitalism and racist exploitation in dictating the priorities of policing,” said Wayne Turner of the North Carolina Green Party. “That priority, despite slogans and police mottoes, has always been the protection of private property and the suppression of working-class organizing and extending the brutal legacy of slavery and cheap labor under Jim Crow to generations of black and brown communities.”

“By shifting funding away from social programs that promote the health and well-being of the general public and address economic inequality and instead shifting toward more policing, the US has allowed militarized police forces to become the face that governments present to the public,” said North Carolina Green Party cochair Tommie James. “We shouldn’t send swat teams to deal with mental-health issues or use deadly force when responding to a supposed traffic violation.”

NCGP supports a radical reconfiguration of the role of policing in the US. A first step should be to end qualified immunity of police, which shields police officers and other government officials from legal actions by victims and families, even if their civil rights were violated. It is necessary that we redefine the role of police and sheriff’s departments, who are seen by much of the public as the protectors of wealth and property, as suppressors of dissent, and as actively funneling the poor and people of color into our bloated prison system that reduces individuals to a life of legalized slavery.

Marcus Smith was killed in Greensboro in 2018, illegally hogtied and left to die after he asked for help. There are ongoing legal efforts to hold the police department accountable.

Governor Cooper Vetoes NC Senate Bill 168

NCGP members participated with other activists for more than a week in a sidewalk occupation in front of the governor’s mansion to urge Governor Cooper to veto NC Senate Bill 168. The NC Senate and House passed the bill at 2:30 a.m. June 27, establishing that all death records are confidential and not available for public review without family authorization. The bill sat on Governor Cooper’s desk for days until the deadline of July 6, when he finally signed the veto. If the bill had become law, it would have made it more difficult to get justice for victims of police violence.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline Abandoned by Duke Energy and Dominion

Environmental activists have won a hard-fought victory this month: Duke Energy Corporation and Dominion Energy announced July 5 they have abandoned the proposed $8 billion pipeline, citing continued regulatory delays and uncertainty. The pipeline would have carried natural gas 600 miles through West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina and underneath the Appalachian Trail. The NCGP has spoken out about this issue since 2015, and we have consistently called for the socialization of all utilities, including energy.

Despite the utility companies’ claims, the NCGP has noted that the natural gas was largely meant for overseas sales and not for consumption in North Carolina. Meaning, the operation to transport fracked natural gas to the coast served mainly to increase profits for Duke and Dominion shareholders and not for the public good. The real win will come when we replace privatized energy utilities with public ownership and operation. 

Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker Win Green Party of the United States Nomination!

For the first time ever, a Green presidential ticket will appear on the North Carolina ballot! We are thrilled to report that on July 11, retired Teamster and lifelong Green activist Howie Hawkins was nominated by the Green Party of the United States as its 2020 candidate for president. Hawkins was nominated after receiving a majority of votes in the first round of voting at the party’s national convention, where he received 210 out of 355 total votes (59.15%) cast by Green delegates from across the US. A call to approve Angela Walker, a truck driver from South Carolina, as the vice-presidential nominee was approved by a majority vote of 221. In their acceptance speeches, the nominees highlighted the connection between climate change and social justice and the importance of enacting a real Green New Deal.

Become a Member!

The Green Party refuses all corporate contributions, so dues-paying members play a vital role ensuring our state and local organizations have the resources needed to build an independent party for people and planet free from the influence of the 1 percent.       

Who can Become a Member of the North Carolina Green Party? North Carolina residents who are registered to vote as “Green” are eligible to become members of the NCGP after they have affirmed Green Party principles (see our 10 Key Values and platform), set their own dues rate using a budget-friendly sliding scale, and initiated payment of those dues. You choose your own dues level on the honor system, based on what you can pay. Note: Residents who are ineligible to vote due to state disenfranchisement (including but not limited to reasons such as age, criminal record, or noncitizen/undocumented status) may also become members. Email the NCGP secretary at [email protected] if you feel you are ineligible to vote due to state disenfranchisement. All NCGP members, with the exception of noncitizens, shall pay modest annual dues.

Find out more: www.ncgreenparty.org/membership.

Find Us on Social Media

Like and follow our NCGP Facebook Page.

Join our statewide and regional NCGP Facebook groups to connect with Greens:

North Carolina Green Party • Charlotte Area Green Party • Triangle Area Green Party • Triad Area Green Party • Eastern NC Green Party • Western NC Green Party

In solidarity with people and planet against profits,

The North Carolina Green Party

Haz clic aquí para leerlo en español.

June 30, 2020

2020 Presidential Recognition Process

On Monday, December 2, 2019, the North Carolina Green Party (NCGP) submitted its slate of presidential candidates to the State Board of Elections. North Carolina state law dictated a December 3, 2019, deadline for our party to submit our presidential primary candidates’ list to the State Board of Elections. The list the NCGP sent to the State Board included only one candidate, Howie Hawkins. We’d like to outline why. 

The NCGP has a committee (the Endorsement Committee) that reviews candidate qualifications for all elections, including president. Both that committee and the NCGP Coordinating Committee reviewed candidate qualifications for the 2020 presidential primary and made determinations prior to submitting our list to the State Board of Elections. 

As a GPUS-affiliated state party, it is the NCGP’s right and responsibility to set our own qualifications to be recognized as an NCGP candidate, no matter the office. Like many states, our ballot access is dependent upon a Green Party presidential candidate appearing on November 2020 ballots. North Carolina law is unique in that it allows the NCGP to retain our ballot line for the next 4 years if the national Green Party’s presidential nominee appears on the ballot in at least 37 states. Therefore, it was essential that we develop a method of assessing a candidate’s ability to run a successful presidential campaign. That includes having a base of support, a campaign team, the ability to raise the bare minimum of funds to run a national campaign, and a campaign that is actively working to get on the ballot in every state. 

With that in mind, the NCGP developed our policies and procedures for assessing a candidate’s capacity to run a national campaign. You can read these policies and procedures on our website. The NCGP’s requirements are not strenuous and were established with the goal of running viable nationwide presidential campaigns that show evidence of planning to achieve ballot access in most if not all states. The first metric we established is that the candidate must be officially recognized as a Green Party of the United States (GPUS) presidential candidate. Therefore, we sent a statement explaining our state-mandated deadline and our recognition requirements to the two candidates who had been officially recognized by GPUS at that time: Dario Hunter and Howie Hawkins. No other candidates had been recognized by GPUS at that time. You can learn more about GPUS’s presidential acknowledgment process, developed by its Presidential Candidate Support Committee (PCSC), on its website. 

Please celebrate Earth Day with the North Carolina Green Party by joining us in a critical demand of the environmental justice movement: the fight against corporate criminal and energy giant Duke Energy Carolinas.

My name is Forrest Hinton—cochair of the Triad Area chapter of the North Carolina Green Party, reproductive justice activist, black lives activist, LGBTQ rights activist, and member of the Working Class and Houseless Organizing Alliance in Greensboro.

I’m writing to wish you a happy Earth Day on this 50th anniversary!

With the news that Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for president, our hearts go out to our friends and the millions of Bernie supporters who invested so much of their time, passion, and funds over the last several years to fight for economic and social equity and justice, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal.

Please keep your fire burning and break from the corporate two-party system that continues to fail us over and over again! No more lesser of two evils. We, the North Carolina Green Party, invite you to stand with us and demand an actual democracy that represents all of us. Now more than ever, we’re reaching out to all of you to help us build a better world.

The outbreak of the specific coronavirus strain now working its way through the US has exposed many weaknesses in the US healthcare system, and in the way the US treats its working class and poor. As the Democratic and Republican parties argue over helping the 1% versus the rest of the country, the North Carolina Green Party recommends that both federal and state governments undertake the following actions to ensure that working-class families and the poor, including the homeless, have a chance to emerge unscathed, both physically and financially, from the impact of COVID-19.

Check out the following news and updates from the North Carolina Green Party:

North Carolina Green Party’s First Presidential Primary March 3

Thanks to all of our Green voters who showed up to vote Green on Super Tuesday, or during early voting!

For the first time ever, the North Carolina Green Party (NCGP) held a state-run presidential primary to apportion delegates to the national Green Party's Presidential Nominating Convention, to be held this July in Detroit. Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, co-founder of the national Green Party and the first US candidate to run on a Green New Deal in 2010, won with 67% of the vote! Howie is committed to independent working-class politics for a democratic, socialist, and ecological society. North Carolina’s four delegates to the Green Party of the United States (GPUS) convention will be elected at our Spring/Summer Gathering and carry their votes to Detroit on July 11. 

Howie Hawkins at Duke Energy press conference, Charlotte, May 2019.

Charlotte Greens Stand Up Against Duke Energy

Charlotte Area Greens joined other local activist groups to protest Duke Energy’s proposed 6.7% rate hike hearing held by the NC Utilities Commission January 26 in Charlotte. Over 70 people showed up for the hearing and dozens of protesters gathered outside for a press conference. Charlotte Greens were at the front of the crowd, and the event was covered by major local TV and radio stations.

Duke Energy is proposing to raise its rates to force its captive ratepayers to cover the cost of state-mandated cleanup of coal ash contamination from Duke's dirty energy plants. The NCGP is calling for an end to Duke’s monopoly power—make them clean up their mess, and bring our energy grid under public control.

Charlotte Area Greens Lilly Taylor, Allen Smith, and Tommie James with other activists at Duke rate hike hearing.

NCGP Adapts to COVID-19 Outbreak

In light of the need to limit personal contact to avoid the spread of COVID-19, the NCGP Coordinating Committee has decided to move our Spring/Summer Gathering to an online venue via video-conferencing. 

The NCGP will be releasing a statement about the impact of the virus on North Carolina, and what the pandemic has revealed about public health response under intensely neoliberal capitalism, with continued privatization of the healthcare system, the concomitant underfunding of public resources, and the lack of hospital beds. One obvious problem is that a universal healthcare system would have removed the need to find funding for the millions of uninsured and underinsured citizens that will come into contact with the virus. The Hawkins campaign has developed a vision for a universal healthcare plan that is worth your attention: Medicare for All as a Community-Controlled National Health Service.

Upcoming Statewide and National Meetings

Planning has just begun for our statewide Spring/Summer Gathering, which will be scheduled for sometime in May or June. As noted above, due to the need to limit personal contact to avoid the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the NCGP Coordinating Committee voted to move the venue to an online format. This will be an important meeting, and all members are encouraged to attend. We will be electing delegates to the Green Party's Presidential Nominating Convention, among other business—details will be forthcoming at least three weeks in advance of the gathering.

The GPUS Presidential Nominating Convention is scheduled to be held at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, July 9–12. However, this venue may be changed to an online format depending on the development of the COVID-19 crisis.  Registration is now open at https://www.gp.org/2020_tickets. National meetings are a great place to find out more about what other state parties are doing, attend workshops, and meet face-to-face with Greens you may have only met online. Minority scholarships and some travel funding may be available.

Become a Member!

The Green Party refuses all corporate contributions, so dues-paying members play a vital role ensuring NCGP's state and local organizations have the resources needed to build an independent party for people and planet free from the influence of the 1 percent.       

Who can become a member of the North Carolina Green Party? North Carolina residents who are registered to vote as "Green" are eligible to become members of the NCGP after they have affirmed Green Party principles (see our 10 Key Values and platform), set their own dues rate using a budget-friendly sliding scale, and initiated payment of those dues. You choose your own dues level on the honor system, based on what you can pay. Note: Residents who are ineligible to vote due to state disenfranchisement (including but not limited to reasons such as age, criminal record, or noncitizen/undocumented status) may also become members. Email the NCGP secretary at [email protected] if you feel you are ineligible to vote due to state disenfranchisement. All NCGP members, with the exception of noncitizens, shall pay modest annual dues.

Find out more at our Membership Page.

Find Us on Social Media

Like and follow our NCGP Facebook Page.

Join our statewide and regional NCGP Facebook groups to connect with Greens:

North Carolina Green Party • Charlotte Area Green Party • Triangle Area Green Party • Triad Area Green Party • Eastern NC Green Party • Western NC Green Party