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Grassroots Democracy is the Key Value for Greens

by Peter A. White

The ten key values that the Green Party embraces cover a wide spectrum of political, economic, and environmental perspectives. They all contribute to the movement for humane social change.

To be successful in our quest to build a progressive third party, the Greens must embrace one key value strongly, both inside and outside our organizations: grassroots democracy. Implementing an organizing model that empowers people on the local level, through chapters and political committees, is the biggest challenge facing the Green movement.

Although the Greens have recently filed for recognition as the United States Green Party, the thirty-three state organizations that make up the Association of State Green Parties are at different levels of organizing. Each one is unique because of the local laws, the local organizers, and the lack of an "organizing model" within the Green Party.

In Massachusetts, the Green Party is struggling with the growing pains that resulted from the heroic Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke campaign last year. There are a handful of activists who have run the State Party for the last few years using majority rule, and there are about thirty local chapters that are committed to decentralization, concensus decision making and true grassroots democracy. The first State Committee meeting is set for September 22-23, where elected delegates from all the counties will decide the direction of the State Party.

Members of the Cape Cod Green Party are proposing an organizing model that would empower the local chapters and political committees as the primary decision-making bodies for all issues and policies. The MA Green Party would have to defer all decisions on bylaws, platforms, and positions until the local chapter members had a chance to discuss things and form a concensus, and this way the chapters would provide direction for their delegates to the State Committee. This would slow down the process, and delay action at times, but the local members would feel empowered and informed, which is the means and the ends that define grassroots democracy.

Some people feel that this approach is too slow and cumbersome, but true democracy moves very slowly, and leaves no one out of the process. The resulting empowerment of the local Greens and their communities is what will keep people involved in the Green Party, and what will change the power structure of our government in the future. Embracing the grassroots democracy key value is the key to the success of the Green Party movement.