Jesse Moorman, Application for Coordinating Committee

I am hereby applying for membership on the Coordinating Committee of the California Green Party.

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

In 1966 I realized that the political and economic system we have could not be sustained, and that the failure of those systems was likely to be catastrophic. On the other hand, I could not see any political movement that could achieve the necessary changes. It seemed that it was not possible to avoid a cascade of catastrophic failures. I misjudged the strength of the system, the economy continued for decades on its reckless course, and we did not meanwhile die in nuclear annihilation.

 

In the 1980s, when I  learned about the Green movement and the initial success of the German Green Party, I began to have hope for the change that was needed. So I organized a Green group in my Los Angeles neighborhood. After 2 or 3 years of having a Green movement, some of the members across the state felt that it was time for a political party. A substantial part of the movement clearly did not want a political party, but we who did were free to try to form one. Thus we had a statewide meeting (somewhere like Fresno) and decided to take the step to organize a party. We were the Green Party Organizing Committee.

 

I was one of the very first persons to register as a member of the California Green Party early in 1990. I was very active in all aspects of the Green Party Organizing Committee, and I was on the original GPOC Coordinating Committee, and was on the Los Angeles County Council for its first few years. I may have remained on the Coordinating Committee after we got ballot status, but I don't exactly remember, because I ran for Congress in the former 27th District of California -- Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale, and I could not have continued effective work on the CC. In that election I got 5% of the vote, 11,003 votes, and quite an education about the electoral system.

 

I remained active in the Green Party, mainly on the county level, for a while after the 1992 election, but I could not continue the intense involvement that I had for a few years. Since 1993 or 1994 I have had only occasional involvement with GP work, such as during Nader's 1996 campaign. For some years I had no contact at all with the Party.

 

In December 2011 I attended the General Assembly in Los Angeles, and, partly because the election was coming up, I again felt somewhat energized to be involved with the Party.

 

WHAT I WANT TO ACHIEVE

 

I want to help develop strategies that can sustain and empower the party. The Green Party in the United States has been an institution that challenges its activists psychologically. Even though we have been so badly marginalized, for so long, by such misguided interests, we know that we are right and that we must keep our ideas and values in the public consciousness. We are involved in asymmetrical warfare for the public mind, and we should try to make it feel rewarding and invigorating, perhaps interesting and fun, while we prepare for the time that we can make the necessary political changes. And, at that fateful hour, we will need to have enough capable and trustworthy people to take responsibility; we should know them and work with them before the changes take place.

 

Jesse Moorman

 

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