Upcoming Green party convention
There’s a storm brewing over convention rules at the upcoming Green nominating convention the end of June, with some wanting to force rules that block open discussion of issues. Peter Camejo, twice Green candidate for governor in California, opposes this.
Open letter from Peter Camejo
No convention of elected delegates rights can be limited from anything they wish to do by any rules set up prior to the convention. A democratic convention always has the right to suspend any rules. One of the most classical anti-democratic rules used by bureaucrats and Democrats in the labor movement is to not allow motions and votes from the floor. The goal of a convention should be to promote the wishes of the majority or in the case of Greens the best consensus that can be reached. Any rule that tries to block that passed by anyone prior to the convention can be and should be over ruled by the convention.
Everyone knows that our convention must decide between support for Nader or Kerry. Obviously most Kerry supporters prefer a more indirect approach such as the safe state strategy or whatever you want to call it. Some just call it not running at all which is another way to say vote Kerry. While some Greens would object to my description of the choice the fact is that three motions will dominate our discussion, run David Cobb for president, support Nader or run no one and endorse no one. Anything that blocks that discussion and honest vote is aimed at weakening democracy in the Green Party.