Campaign 2006 strategy.

• Author: Camejo, Peter M.
• Position: Salvaging Democracy

On August 24, 2005, over 30 Greens from around the state met in Oakland, California, to work on developing a strategy for the 2006 Green Party statewide campaign. This exploratory committee put forth an innovative vision that could help build the Green Party and transform it into a more powerful political organization.

The committee proposed building a statewide campaign that is integrally linked to the living social movements and our potential voting base. A campaign that helps builds those movements and turns the Green Party more directly into the electoral expression of mass social struggles.

The success of such an approach depends on the development of strategic alliances with activists and movement leaders that understand the failure of the two corporate parties to truly defend and represent their communities or their issues and who are rooted in mass movements or their communities.

Today, there are Green Party members in organizations fighting for peace, labor rights, social justice, ecological balance, civil liberties, and environmental justice all over California but often they see these efforts as separate from their support or involvement with the Green Party.

There is also a race and class divide. Large numbers of people are voting for us and even registering Green but have no organizational relationship or contact with us. It is not part of their experience, especially those that have not been to college, to attend meetings or get involved in organizational matters.

The Latino community

Many Green Party members may not be aware that during 2002 there were mass demonstrations in various cities among Mexican-American workers with banners "Vote Verde" (Vote Green). How this happened is instructive. I met with a small group of Mexican workers in Los Angeles where one young worker told me, "You have to meet with Miguel Araujo, the leader of Centro Azteca."

My first meeting with Miguel and several other Centro Azteca leaders, which lasted about four hours, revealed to me their great frustration with the Democratic Party and the shock it was to them to learn that the Green Party in California was sympathetic to the rights of undocumented workers--quite different from the Green Party in Mexico that endorsed Fox for president.

This simple fact shows the importance of running candidates for state wide office. It allows large numbers of people to learn about our party and what it stands for.

From this meeting began a process of increasing collaboration between the Green Party and many leaders in the struggle to defend migrant rights. I found it particularly interesting once in San Jose when a couple of really nice and supportive local elected progressive Democrats (hopefully they will become Greens) came to a rally for the right to a drivers license and they saw signs reading "Vote Green" among the workers and the coordinators of the march shouting "Vote for the Party that defense your rights! Vote Green!" I think it not only surprised them but also made them aware of the growing strength and sympathy for the Green Party. These marches had a deep impact on the reporters that covered them as it completely altered their concept of the Green Party.

Our work with the non-partisan organization Centro Azteca opened the door not only to these demonstrations but to almost every single Spanish language radio program and talk show. Miguel Araujo has the second most popular talk show in Spanish in the Bay Area. The end result was a sharp rise from our receiving 1% of the Latino vote in 2000 to 8% in the 2002 elections. In Northern California, that figure probably reached 15%.

It was not only Centro Azteca that drove our increasing reception in the Latino community. South West Voter Registration Project, led by Antonio Gonzalez helped us get exposure in the Latino community starting with our first gubernatorial candidate Congressman Dan Hamburg in 1998. Dan Hamburg did a marvelous job debating both the Democrat and the Republican before 1,000 Latinos.

With my run in 2002, this support grew. Soon we were being endorsed by Spanish language community papers and knowledge of the Green Party reached much deeper into the Latino community. This led to a meeting with the staff of La Opinion, the largest Spanish language daily and they began regular coverage of our campaign.

Matt Gonzalez's electoral and legislative achievements deepened...