The Green Party Platform Committee
Report to the Association of State Green Parties


[including proposed Green Platform revisions/amendments and resolutions as of March 2000]


The Report of the Platform Committee of the ASGP is submitted to the state Green parties and Greens throughout the US in preparation for the Green Nomination Convention and 2000 Green Presidential Campaign.

[Note that the dates in the following Timeline/Agenda, which was passed by a near unanimous vote earlier this month, have been modified slightly as a result of suggestions made during the comment period by state parties. To accommodate the required three-week voting period, the schedule has been adjusted.]

The Green Party Platform
Timeline/Agenda and Process for the 2000 Nominating Convention

March -- proposed Platform revisions, submitted by local/state party and individual Greens to the Platcom in 1998/99, as sorted and organized by topic by the Platform Committee, are circulated to all state parties and interested Greens. State reps distribute the proposed revisions within their states and a sixty-day local discussion/comment period begins...

April/May - Sixty day Platform discussion continues. By May 31st, the state reps forward their state party's responses/votes on the proposed revisions back to the Platcom. The responses/votes are taken under consideration [sorted and compiled] by the Platcom, which will recommend and distribute an amended set of revisions.

June 1-21 -- the Platcom reviews the state party, local input and votes, and assembles proposed recommendations for the Nominating Convention.

June -- the state parties review the amended changes and return their comments/votes and/or recommendations to the Platcom.

June 22 -- Thursday afternoon: Platcom meeting to discuss the recommended revisions and proposed key areas of the Green Party Platform. The final Platcom proposal is distributed to the Coordinating Committee.

June 23 -- Friday afternoon: The Coordinating Committee meets to discuss and vote to adopt the proposed Green Party Platform and key areas for Saturday's agenda.

June 24 -- Saturday morning: After opening tasks, the Platform-Coordinating Committees' recommendations go to the floor of the Convention, per the Rules of the Convention. Key areas proposed for discussion, debate and majority vote include the Green key values, democracy and political reform, economic justice, health care, human rights, the environment, a Blue-Green Agenda and a set of positions on the "Battle after Seattle - Beyond the WTO". Specific submissions to be considered will be chosen by the ASGP Coordinating Committee by preference vote prior to the Convention on Friday, from submissions that have been through the Platform Committee process -- no submissions from the floor of the Convention or the ASGP Coordinating Committee meeting will be considered. Only those highest priority items for which there is time to consider in the agenda will be addressed on Saturday. Each item addressed shall have 15 minutes - 3 speakers for 2 minutes for each position (to support or reverse the decision of the Platform Committee) followed by a vote.

The Convention facilitators manage the floor debate and time limits will keep the process moving.

Work done prior to the Convention by the state parties, ASGP, Coordinating Committee and Platcom is adopted in the areas of the Platform that have ongoing support, beginning with the basic document which has been accepted by the ASGP as a work-in-progress.

Saturday afternoon: The Platform debate and votes conclude with adoption of the full Platform document and consideration of resolutions from state delegations, which require a simple majority of the delegate assembly to approve. The afternoon session will close with a series of "open session" speeches from state delegations on the critical importance of a strong and unified Green campaign and progressive voice in the 2000 national debate and presidential campaign.

These speeches are distributed to the press-media and circulated to the respective state's news organizations. Each state party and/or delegate group at the Convention in this way will be able to address the most pressing and/or critical issues in their state/region/local area by elaborating their key areas of concern and Green platform positions.
# # # #
Saturday afternoon (continuing): featured speakers

Saturday evening: dinner and keynote speakers

Sunday: Presidential-Vice Presidential Nomination and Election. Reports from state parties and delegates and the nominations, roll call votes, election of the Green 2000 President and Vice President candidates, and acceptance speeches.
***********************************************************
AZ YES YES
AR YES
CA YES
CO YES
CT YES
DC YES YES
HI YES YES
ME YES YES
MA YES YES
MI YES YES
NV YES
NJ YES
NM YES YES
NY NO NO
OR YES YES
PA YES
RI YES YES
TN YES
UT YES
VA YES YES


GREEN PLATFORM COMMITTEE REPORT

The Platform Committee recommends that the following proposed revisions/amendments (PRA's) and resolutions be distributed, discussed and debated by the state parties and among Greens within each state, according to the approved Platform Timeline/Agenda and Process.

Proposed revisions and amendments to the current Green Platform of the Association of State Green Parties have been circulated over the past two years to encourage deliberative, democratic debate at the state and local level. The current Green Party Platform document, accepted by the ASGP as a work-in-progress, has been statistically/factually updated by the Platcom.

The following list of proposed revisions and amendments to the Platform (in the form of numbered positions, for ex, PRA-1, PRA-2, etc) have been identified by section of the current document and formatted to encourage debate and direct voting. Where there are several positions within an individual proposal, the Platform Committee suggests that state parties vote on the overall proposal -- and make comments regarding specific positions within the proposal. State parties have the options to - [recommend for inclusion], [not recommend for inclusion] and [return to Platform Committee for further revision and development].

Please mark your votes [recommend], [not recommend] or [return]

After the sixty day discussion/debate/voting period by the state Green parties (April/May), responses will be compiled and sorted by the Platform Committee and redistributed back to the state parties for consideration as part of the Platform recommendations to the state Green Parties Coordinating Committee and 2000 Green Convention. In this regard, the state parties development of a proportional voting system is progressing on a parallel path and the Platcom process of opening up discussion/debate and voting to all Greens is a step in this direction.

Re: Resolutions

The Platcom has grouped the twelve resolutions that have been submitted separately and the Platcom is recommending that these be voted on individually. Please mark your votes [support] or [do not support]

Re: Key Areas of debate at the Nominating Convention

In the Timeline/Agenda proposal, the Platcom is recommending that the Convention debate focus on "key areas" of the Green 2000 Campaign. The Platform Committee has proposed several key areas and positions that we feel are core concerns in the 2000 Green campaign. Additional key areas, of course, can be suggested during the April/May discussion period leading up to the Convention, and/or suggestions made to add to the key areas or agenda.

The Platform Committee, accepting its responsibility to focus the Green 2000 Campaign message and strengthen a progressive Green voice, recommends the following key areas for discussion and debate at the Green Party's 2000 Nominating Convention:

1) The Green KV's -- Key Values
2) Democracy
3) Economic Justice / Labor Rights
4) A Human Rights Agenda
5) Health Care
6) Environmental Sustainability



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