WHO'S NEXT???-GPUSA-US Green Party leader Ode

Paul, the internet warrior, friend of Oden and a ghost from my past is back! i'm really too busy doing activism and community organizing to have to deal with defending myself on indymedia. But, oh well, here goes.

i guess i should have known Paul Prior would come after me. It was one of his favorite activities earlier this year when i was working for Nancy Oden and G/GPUSA and it's one of the reasons i don't work for them anymore.

i put my heart and soul into my work for G/GPUSA for many years, but when these sectarians pulled their coup last winter and started abusing their staff and not following their own bylaws, myself and many other Greens backed out and are now part of the new Green Party of the United States.

Lots of former GPUSAers are also involved in starting an organization called the "Green Alliance" (working name) that will fill the void left by the dysfunctional G/GPUSA.

The Green Alliance (working name) is a new membership based organization for Green Party activists that organizes alongside, and works within the Green Party of the United States and the ballot-line Green Party organizations of each state and county.

The Green Alliance will work to have its perspectives adopted by the Green Party, while reserving the right to speak and act independently on behalf of its own members.

We envision the creation of a National Clearinghouse to facilitate networking, resources and information between Green Activists and Green Organizations.

Our founding meeting will be January 19-21 in New Orleans, LA and we hope many Greens, will attend and participate. i'll post more information about this meeting as details become available.

Peace,
Starlene

Here's the thing - I've been a star-struck Green for only a short time and because of these interchanges I'm starting to lose faith in staying a Green, and feeling sad about the party. Don't both of you feel more for the party than for yourSELVES? Although I appreciate the explanations, shouldn't this have been done on your own emails, and not for the whole flag-waving US to see on here? The party that represents hope for me is looking really idiotic, and its really sad.

If there's a 'splinter faction' that has virtually the same name then its time to have another fucking vote - now that this incident has happened - and get it the fuck another name already.

yeah, isn't it sad? Now that it is time to pull together as never before, people are at each other's throats over bullshit.

Obviously too much time on some people's hands -- listen up, this is NOT good publicity work, "Folks" (I am coming to hate this word these days -- sounds like Bush-speak). Grow up -- discuss these issues in private and hash it out amongst yourselves before each of you individually spring to the attack and bring in the public at large.

Please Forward to All Appropriate Lists. Thanx.
- Mitchel Cohen

Dear Greens & other progressive activists,

As Media Coordinator for the Green Party USA, I am STUNNED -- that's the ony word I can think of -- by the nasty sectarian attacks being made on Nancy Oden, a co-coordinator of the Green Party USA, who was detained and harassed by the military at an international airport in Maine last Thursday. A handful of folks from a rival Green organization are apparently using this dreadful incident as an opportunity to engage in sectarian palace politics. This is not the time or place for that (if it is EVER that time).

If ANY progressive person -- not just our own Green Party USA members -- was harassed and detained by military personnel carrying automatic weapons in this manner, the Green Party USA would RUSH to defend them and offer our
assistance, despite our political and even personal disagreements. This is what the leaders of the other Green organization should have said: "We have our disagreements, but THIS is beyond the pale. Let's work together to stop
it." But they chose a different, dreadful path.

One of the critical pieces of information that HAS been exposed as a result of all the media queries pertaining to the Oden detention is that the FBI now admits to compiling and distributing a potential terrorist list to airports
across the country.

WHO is on this list?
WHY are they on it?
WHAT are the criteria for being deemed a "terrorist" (as well as a "potential" one)?

Aren't these more significant questions to pursue than to speculate on whether Nancy Oden was culpable because she may not have kissed the ass of the military personnel who stood over her. Fact is: She was frisked, her bags were searched, and she was CLEARED -- nothing found. STILL she was denied entry to the plane, her ticket not refunded, and she was denied the right to fly on ANY plane out of Maine airport.

Several Congressional reps are looking into this matter. It is troubling indeed that a group like Reclaim the Streets has been placed on this "terrorist" list. Who else? Again, I beg, BEG Starlene, N. Allen, Walter Sheasby, and the handful of others who are acting in a most foolish and
sectarian way, to join in the Green Party USA's effort against the repeal of the Bill of Rights now under way under the guise of fighting against Terrorism. Or start your own effort against the erosion of our civil liberties. It doesn't matter, just

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, instead of attacking the victim!

For more info, please go to http://www.greenparty.org or call 1-866-GREENS-2.

- Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party USA
Media Coordinator

Here is yet another viewpoint on this matter; an email I was cc'd on:

It is good to hear from you. My main source of info on Nancy is my personal dealings with her, in which her self-promoting personal ambitions were hard to miss. My secondary source is the article from the Bangor News at http://www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.html?ID=44598 Notice that she makes mostly unsubstantiable charges.
If it were most any other activist, I would believe the activist, but in Nancy's case, I simply cannot. She got elected to the G/GPUSA CC on a platform of "Real democracy, where we the people ..." and then proceeded to centralize power to the coordinating committee (which is supposed to carry out the decisions of the Green National Committee, not give orders to it), and eliminate other democratic safeguards with G/GPUSA operations. Eleven of the thirteen state parties affiliated with G/GPUSA called for a referendum on the Boston Proposal for Unity, which Nancy proceeded to quash by threatening to fire the staff if they obeyed the by-laws and went forward with the referendum. A motion to recall Nancy was made in the GNC, but was refused recogition by the CC. Former CC members Howie Hawkins, Sarah Nelson, and Dorothy Byrne can vouch for the veracity of these claims.
Since a new coordinating committee was elected this summer, Nancy has chased off the other two members of the CC, all the way out of G/GPUSA entirely. You can contact John Stith and Les Evenchick to confirm this history. (Les hates GP-US more than he hates GPUSA, but he has come to recognize that Nancy's stories are not on the up-and-up.)
That the 1-866 number goes to Nancy's home phone is just further evidence that Nancy is personally trying to control every aspect of G/GPUSA.
Plus, I'm sure you realize G/GPUSA is not the organization that ran Ralph Nader for president. If you go to greens.org, you'll see that only four state parties are still affiliated with G/GPUSA. Thirty-three are affiliated with the Green Party of the United States. Of the four still affiliated with G/GPUSA, three support GP-US as the national party, and two are in the process of disaffiliating with GPUSA. Even Illinois, where G/GPUSA now has its mailing address, has disaffiliated from G/GPUSA.
A number of people who have worked with Nancy have corroborated my misgivings regarding her story of the airport security, including Starlene Rankin, former Secretary of G/GPUSA, and Walt Sheasby, former GNC rep from California.
I, for one, do not wish to ever again be a hood ornament in Nancy Oden's demogoguery. She has thoroughly discredited herself over the past year (and beyond), and only wishes to hurt the Green Party. Her vindictiveness knows no limits. The best way to handle her is to ignore her and hope she goes away.
Sorry for ranting. I'm just getting to say what many, many Greens have been wanting to say about Nancy Oden for a long time.

Having grown up in Bangor and Orono, having spent years there as a radical political activist during the 1960's and 1970's, I can say with absolute certainity that the Bangor Daily News has virtually no credibilty as an accurate or objective source of news. The poster who suggested that the paper consistently mirrors the politics and bias of the local corporate elite is right. That rag has a well deserved reputation for being historically rightwing, anti-labor, anti-green mouthpiece for those in power, remains an ardent advocate of unrestricted gentrifcation and a fierce opponent of local oppositional politics. Take a stroll through their editiorial section online. Then take a gander at their archive at the University of Maine at Orono, look at the coverage of Viet Nam, US intervention in Central America, the Gulf War ect.

Date sent: Mon, 5 Nov 2001
Subject: Followup re Green Party Activist Nancy Oden & Airport Incident

Dear fellow progessive activists (Green & otherwise),

I am deeply dismayed by what has transpired in the wake of the detention of Green Party activist Nancy Oden at the Bangor airport.

First, some personal thoughts, followed by a new press release from Mitchel Cohen of the Green Party USA.

In the two days since I sent out a "Call to Action" incorporating the GP-USA's original press release, there has been an astonishing uproar -- largely directed *against* Nancy Oden and her colleagues. Rather than
rally to her support, a number of individuals from other Green factions have questioned the credibility of Ms Oden in unduly harsh language -- putting what look to be partisan political motivations ahead of movement
solidarity.

FOR THE RECORD: I am not aligned with ANY Green Party faction, I do not know Nancy Oden personally, and I am horrified to find myself in the middle of a partisan political conflict. My ONLY concern is the potentially grave implications this case presents for the entire
progessive movement if it goes unchallenged.

People have every right to raise questions about whatever details of this incident they feel need clarification. But that should in no way obscure the essential fact: that a leading progressive activist was forbidden to board ANY airplane leaving Bangor, Maine, and was thereby
prevented from attending a Green Party USA conference in Chicago, where she was scheduled to make a presentation.

In other words -- to put this in its most basic terms -- she was denied her rights of free speech and assembly as enshrined under the First Amendment; and the people in Chicago were likewise denied the right to hear her speak in person. These are activities that are absolutely essential to all political organizing -- let us not forget that it was the suppression of these very kinds of activities that were central issues in the American revolution.

After listening to Nancy Oden's interview with Amy Goodman on this morning's Democracy Now!, I am even *more* disturbed about what took place at the Bangor airport. If you missed the program, the audio is available at the webactive.com website, where allDemocracy Now! programs are archived. It was the 2nd segment on today's broadcast. Here is the URL:

http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/exile.html

If you want to go directly to the streaming audio, use this URL, and once you're connected, move the slide-bar about 25% to the right:

http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/exile/dn20011105.ra

In closing, I appeal to all Green Party activists, please transcend your differences and leave behind the animosities of the moment. Please put your energies into defending our basic political rights, which are imperiled by our divisiveness.

Messages have been circulating on the Internet that purport to discredit Nancy Oden and the 11/2/01 press release of the The Greens/Green Party USA (G/GPUSA) concerning an incident at the Bangor International Airport. See http://www.greenparty.org/bangor.txt.

Here are the facts, as of this writing:

1. Nancy Oden is one of three members of the national Coordinating Committee and a member of the Structure Working Group, Negotiating Committee, and the Clearinghouse & Budget Working Group of the G/GPUSA. The G/GPUSA is not the same organization as the Green Party of the United States (GP-US) although some people are members of both organizations. See http://www.greenparty.org/contacts.html, http://www.greenparty.org/working.html and http://www.gpus.org; last accessed 11/07/01.

2. The G/GPUSA and Nancy Oden have taken a public stand against the US bombing in Afghanistan. See http://www.greenparty.org/afghanbomb.html and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alaskagreenparty/message/736; last accessed 11/07/01.

3. Nancy Oden is, apparently, a well known environmental and Green activist in Maine. I did a search of her name in the Bangor Daily News web site and retrieved 25 article references since 1999. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's newsletter CounterPunch refers to her as "a top U.S. Green Party official and a member of the party's coordinating committee. An organic farmer, peace activist, and all-around firebrand, she lives in Jonesboro, Maine." See her interview at http://www.counterpunch.org/oden2.html; last accessed 11/07/01.

4. According to the Bangor Daily News, Nancy Oden "was singled out for added extensive [security] screening" at the Bangor International Airport while attempting to travel to a national G/GPUSA meeting in Chicago. See http://www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.html?ID=44958; last accessed 11/7/01.

5. Government authorities have refused to state unequivocally why Nancy Oden "was singled out for added extensive [security] screening" though the article states clearly it was not because of her behavior at the airport. See the Bangor Daily News article and http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/grn-n06.shtml; last accessed 11/07/01..

6. Government authorities have refused to state unequivocally that Nancy Oden's name is not on a list of suspected terrorists. See the references for paragraph 5 above.

7. According to the Bangor Daily News, Nancy Oden, " 'was uncooperative during the screening process,' said American Eagle spokesman Kurt Iverson, who added that Oden reportedly would not stand still when security staff tried to wave a metal-detecting wand over her."

8. According to Nancy Oden, a National Guard member "grabbed my left arm, he started yelling in my face, 'Don't you know what happened? Sep. 11, don't you know thousands of people died?' I said, 'You can't do that.' He went to grab my arm, and I said, 'Don't touch me.' I saw an older airline guy shake his head, 'No,' and he backed off." See the G/GPUSA press release and the CounterPunch interview.

9. According to the Bangor Daily News, "Oden was told she could not take her scheduled flight to Chicago, and that she could not travel on any other airline at the airport that day."

Those are the facts, you can judge for yourself why you think Nancy Oden was grounded last Saturday by American Airlines. For whatever reason, though, I still think any reasonable person who values civil liberties should be concerned by the government's apparent refusal to address the questions about how and why Nancy Oden was selected for extra security scrutiny in the first place. It's worth noting that in an incident similar to what Ms. Oden reported, The Nation reports in its 11/19/01 edition (p. 7) that two School of the Americas Watch activists were stopped at the US-Canada border on 10/10/01 and prevented from entering Canada after one of them showed up in an FBI database. The other activist, a German citizen, was detained over night and threatened with deportation by the INS.

Even if they have some substance, I also find the personal attacks upon her by others reprehensible. I'm speaking chiefly of a character assassination piece attributed to Brent White (see http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4487&group=webcast), who claims no first hand knowledge of the airport incident. These kind of hatchet jobs smack of the dirty tricks of the FBI during the COINTELPRO days when activists were turned against one another to destroy progressive organizations.
(See Brian Glick's War at Home http://www.southendpress.org/books/titles6.shtml#warat for a history of these tactics and how today's activists can avoid the mistakes of yesterday). I have little confidence that these tactics are no longer used by official and unofficial agents and organizations to disrupt the work of progressive groups. Any progressive person should ashamed of originating or carelessly forwarding such ad hominem attacks. For the record, I do not know Nancy Oden or Brent White and I have no reason to believe White is a government agent. But I think his message is bad karma and bad politics.

>But I think his message is bad karma and bad politics.