For Immediate Release
July 1st, 2021
For further information, Contact:
Ann Menasche <aemenasche@georgiagreenparty.org>
counsel assisting in defense of Georgia Green Party
Hugh Esco <hesco@georgiagreenparty.org> 912-571-1833 (cell, sms)
Secretary, Georgia Green Party
High Profile Party Leaders Resign from Green Party
Cite: "mob of dogmatic, self-righteous authoritarians" within ranks
Paula Bradshaw and Rich Whitney, active in building the Shawnee Green Party in Carbondale Illinois since at least 1996, have released their letter of resignation from the national, state and local Green Parties. They tendered their resignation through official party channels in mid-June, 2021. In their letter of resignation, released this week, they wrote.
" . . . recent actions and statements of the GPUS Accreditation Committee, Steering Committee, National Committee Forum Managers, National Committee and the Lavender Caucus -- all taken in support of the Lavender Caucus’s proposal to suspend the affiliation of the Georgia Green Party – betray the democratic principles and precepts upon which the party was founded and evince a clear intention by the party majority to suppress dissent, elevate policy positions to the status of inviolable “principles,” and rule by decree rather than by democratic process. It has become increasingly apparent that the GPUS is determined to become a rigid dogmatic sect rather than a political party in which policy questions and interpretations of the Ten Key Values can be freely discussed and debated, and in which minority viewpoints are tolerated."
Paula Bradshaw is a podcast producer and three time candidate for the U.S. Congress, running with the nomination of the Illinois Green Party. At the time of her resignation, she served as a Delegate to the Green National Committee for the Illinois Green Party. Rich Whitney is an attorney who ran for Governor of Illinois taking 10% of the state-wide vote and leaving the Illinois Green Party with a state-wide ballot line. Rich Whitney served until this resignation as the co-chair of the Illinois Green Party.
Their resignation is likely the highest profile public fallout to date within the U.S. Green Party resulting from the tactics of what their letter characterizes as "a mob of dogmatic, self-righteous authoritarians" within its ranks.
In their heavily footnoted 13 page letter, the Central Illinois grandparents who have devoted 25 years to building the Green party while raising their family, cite a broad range of offenses by various members of party leadership which they assert violate the founding values of the party, including:
* suppression of Paula’s speech on the National Committee
* suppression of speech by others on the National Committee and elsewhere
* an unprecedented attack by the Steering Committee on a caucus of party activists
* the suppression of real policy discussion on issues raised by gender ideology
* a betrayal of core Green Party values, including: Grassroots Democracy, Feminism and Non-Violence
* dogmatism and sectarianism within the party
Their letter concludes:
"For the above reasons, we have come to the conclusion that the Green Party of the United States can no longer serve as a vehicle for social progress. There are still some good people in the ILGP and GPUS, but the national organization has been captured by a mob of dogmatic, self-righteous authoritarians and we can no longer support it. Therefore . . . , we resign from the Illinois Green Party." (emphasis added)
At the heart of the conflict which led to this resignation has been the demands by the party's Lavender Caucus that the Georgia Green Party be ejected from the national confederation. These demands were in reaction to platform amendments adopted at its 2021 Bonaire Convention amending the Platform of the Georgia Green Party to endorse the Declaration on Women’s Sex-based Rights. This Declaration has so far been signed by 18,616 signers from 137 countries and 347 organizations. The Declaration reaffirms women and girls’ existing sex based rights under international law. It challenges the discrimination women face as a result of changes in law and policy, replacing sex with gender identity as a protected class. Critics claim that 'gender identity' is built on circular definitions and sexist stereotypes. The Declaration and the Georgia party platform amendments challenge the medical “transitioning” of minor children, incapable of informed consent, known to result in sterility and other severe medical issues, 'turning healthy bodies into life-long medical patients' according to Georgia party officers.
At its meeting this past Sunday evening, the Steering Committee of the Green Party of the United States scheduled two weeks of debate starting on July 5th and a one week vote concluding at midnight July 25th, on GNC #1062. The proposal is the result of a complaint by the Lavender Caucus, referred by the national party's Accreditation Committee to the party's National Committee. Its adoption would revoke the accreditation of the Georgia Green Party as a member of the national party.
Dissenting voices on the proposal and the differences over policy which motivated it have been suppressed over the past year as documented in the Whitney-Bradshaw letter of resignation and elsewhere.
A report of a minority of the Accreditation Committee has been filed, but its publication is still pending. That report takes issue with both the process and the findings of that committee's majority.
-- 30 --
State Party Chairman and
Three-time Congressional Candidate
Both Resign from Green Party
https://www.dialoguenotexpulsion.org/internal-democracy-threatened/women-silenced/Bradshaw-Whitney-Resignations
Women Silenced,
Internal Democracy Suppressed
in Self-Professed Feminist Political Party
https://www.dialoguenotexpulsion.org/internal-democracy-threatened/women-silenced
Pleadings Offered in Defense of Georgia Green Party
https://www.dialoguenotexpulsion.org/nlc-vs-ggp/pleadings
Video Depositions of
Expert Witnesses Called in Defense of Georgia Party
https://www.dialoguenotexpulsion.org/nlc-vs-ggp/testimony
GNC #1062: Disaccreditation of the Georgia Green Party
https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=1062
Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights
https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/