Green Party of New York State www.gpny.org

Media Advisory

For Release:
June 3, 2010

For More Info:
Gloria Mattera 718-369-2998
Cecile Lawrence 607-625-5844
Colia Clark 646-657-7208
Julia Willebrand 212 877-5088
Howie Hawkins 315 425-1019

Join Hawkins in Calling for a Green New Deal

The Green Party kicked off its 2010 statewide campaign by evoking the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt in calling for a new Green Deal, one that emphasized human rights, living wage jobs for all, single payer health care, immigration reform, peace, and the right to education.

United States Senate candidates Colia Clark and Cecile Lawrence joined with state comptroller candidate Julia Willebrand and Lt. Governor candidate Gloria Mattera to officially announce their campaigns in front of the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument in Manhattan.

They were accompanied by Green Party gubernatorial nominee Howie Hawkins, who officially launched his campaign in early May.

The candidates talked about the need to speak for the average New Yorkers, just as Eleanor Roosevelt did during the Great Depression, traveling America on behalf of her disabled husband to meet with everyday Americans grappling with the Great Depression. Eleanor not only joined her husband in speaking for economic rights but became a civil rights advocates, rejecting her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and inviting Marian Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial after she was banned by the DAR. Ms. Roosevelt later became chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and led the drive to pass the UN Declaration of Human Rights which remains so critical today as the major parties promote torture, the curtailment of civil liberties and attacks on immigrants..

Gloria Mattera, a peace and health care activist from Park Slope in Brooklyn, pointed out how "the initial draft of Social Security in 1935 under FDR included not only pensions for seniors, but an Employment Assurance Program to provide useful public jobs at living wages for those who could not find work in the private sector, and National Health Insurance, a single public payer plan to provide universal health care. FDR's state of the Union in 1944 called for establishing the right to a living wage job, the right of a sustainable income for farmers, the right to housing and health care, and the right to good education. These are the rights that the Green Party fights for every day while the two major parties do the bidding of corporate America."

Mattera criticized the Democrats for once again refusing to make health care a human right, instead passing a health insurance mandate to penalize any American who fails to buy expensive and inadequate health insurance.

"America spends twice as much money on health care as the other industrial countries, yet our health care system performs more poorly than the other countries while leaving 50 million outside the system. The root cause of the problem with the American health care system is the waste and greed of the private health insurance system. So what Obama and Democrats claim was a historic victory was instead the passing of a massive taxpayer subsidy for private health insurance, while reducing access to health care for tens of millions," she added. Single payer for NYS, which the Greens advocate, is "off the table" for the Democrat's Cuomo/Duffy ticket.

Before joining the Green Party, Mattera was involved in the Founding Convention of the Labor Party. Mattera holds a Masters Degree in Special Education. After teaching children with special needs for 5 years, Mattera entered the field of Child Life. She has worked with under-served, immigrant children and their families in the NYC public hospital system for over 20 years. Mattera is a long time Executive Board member of Physicians for A National Health Program NY Metro Chapter and on the steering committee of Develop Dont Destroy Brooklyn.

Cecile Lawrence, who is running for the US Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, is originally from Jamaica. She has been living in upstate New York for over 18 years and has worked in college administration, non-profit administration and in college teaching. Dr. Lawrence has been active in the fight for universal health care and opposing the method of drilling for natural gas called High Volume Horizontal Hydrofracturing that threatens the health and welfare as well as the water of all of the residents of New York State. She has a PhD in Philosophy, Interpretation & Culture from Binghamton University (S.U.N.Y.) and is a graduate of the University at Buffalo (S.U.N.Y.) Law School. A resident of Tioga County, shes been a board member of local civic organizations such as the YWCA and the Southern Tier Independence Center, and is currently a member of Tioga Peace and Justice.

"The on-going disaster in the Gulf of Mexico constitutes a national emergency. Why has the Obama administration refused to put BP into receivership as suggested by Robert Reich? The evidence of wanton disregard for safety of its workers and protection of the environment by the corporations involved, especially BP, is not in dispute. Yet President Obama continues to defer to the oil and gas corporations.," she stated.

"As your Senator, I will not be voting for the continuation of tax-payer subsidies for corporations, whether theyre agricultural, mining, drilling or manufacturing, that wreak havoc upon peoples lives as well as the natural world in which we all live. On the contrary, I will work hard for real change for the better in the White House, in the Senate, and in the daily lives of people in the state of New York," Lawrence added. The Green Party has called for a ban on high volume horizontal fracturing for natural gas and a shut down of nuclear power plants, investing instead in clean and renewable energy.

Julia Willebrand, who received more than 110,000 votes for State Comptroller four years ago, is running for that position again. Willebrand, a former professor, spoke out against the drive by both parties to expand charter schools, which has proven to be a financial boondoggle at taxpayer expense for Wall Street financiers and hedge funds.

"I will push for legislation to end the free feeding at the public trough that developers and hedge fund managers have been getting while union members endure pay freezes and you cope with service cuts. As the state's chief financial officer and sole trustee of the Common Retirement Fund I will ensure that your $129 billion nest egg is invested in safe, secure, socially responsible instruments which provide a good return. My administration will end pay-to-play payoffs andreckless Wall St style casino investing. I will use the power of the audit to see that the taxes you invest in schools, housing and public transportation are used wisely and honestly," she added.

Dr. Willebrand graduated from City College at 32 and received an MA and a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University and was a Fulbright Scholar. She was UFT delegate when a teacher at PS 84. Willebrand serves on the National Sierra Club Corporate Accountability Task Force, was chair of the NYC Sierra Club Solid Waste Committee, chair of the Manhattan Citizens' Solid Waste Advisory Board, and on the Steering Committee of the Citywide Recycling Advisory Board, and has testified frequently at hearings on solid waste, air and water pollution, and sprawl.

Colia Clark, who is running for the Senate seat presently held by Chuck Schumer, talked about the need to make a quality education a right for all New Yorkers, regardless of their race or economic status.

"A quality education is essential to equality of opportunity. Too many working families and communities of color find their children trapped in an education system that fails them. And a college education is an unrealistic dream for too many New York families, and even if they succeed, they are drowned in debt. The voters of NYC approved making CUNY tuition free but this right was stripped from us by the backroom dealings of the bondholders and other Wall Street barons. The Greens will reclaim the right to a college education for the average New Yorker," said Ms. Clark.

Ms. Clark is a veteran of the civil rights movement. Her work has included activism in the fields of women's rights and workers' rights, as well as activism and advocacy for homeless people and youth. Most recently, she has worked with the Cynthia McKinney for President campaign with "Power to the People". Clark is a chair of Grandmothers for the Release of Mumia Abu Jamal. During the Civil Rights era, Colia Clark was a Special Assistant to Medgar W. Evers, field Secretary for the NAACP. Clark later joined the Mississippi Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) doing voter registration work.

Ms. Clark has recently been active in humanitarian relief efforts for Haiti. She believes that the rebuilding of Haiti starts with the removal of occupying troops from the UN and the US.

"As Senator from New York, I will stand for legislation which encourages the US Congress to end the longstanding US policy of meddling in the affairs of our southern neighbors. The age of the Monroe Doctrine has long been outdated. Our Southern neighbors in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America are becoming more and more distant because of the USA bully economics, politics and social policies and programs. Its time for a new way of doing business on Capitol Hill. The USA must free itself from the arrogance of power and work in cooperation and equity with its neighbors. We need to bring American troops home not only from Iraq and Afghanistan but the hundred other countries where we waste our tax dollars acting as the bullies of the world."

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for Governor, is a member of the Teamsters Union in Syracuse where he unloads trucks for UPS.

"A Green New Deal will not only provide New Deal-type social programs for jobs and health care, but also take the next needed step toward economic democracy and empowerment through cooperative and public enterprises in key areas. We need to democratically direct investment to meet pressing social and environmental needs . The Green progressive tax reform agenda - making Wall Street bail out Main Street - would give New York at least $20 billion next year to initiate a Green New Deal. New York needs to establish a state bank because the big Wall Street banks have largely abandoned lending to business. Because these big banks prefer short-term speculation in financial assets to long-term investment in physical assets and business expansion, we need a publicly-controlled bank to finance a sustainable green economic recovery."

Hawkins added that "we need at least one million jobs to have full employment in New York State. New York should initiate a WPA-style direct public jobs in public works and services. Jobs in child care, elder care, and parks and recreation programs can put people to work immediately with little training. Second, New York should invest in improving our housing and infrastructure, including energy efficiency retrofits, mass transit, inter-urban rails, and water and sewer lines. We need to convert rapidly to a sustainable green economy to avert irreversible climate catastrophe, ocean acidification, and other environmental damages that are leading toward ecological collapse.

The Green Party is committed to ecology, grassroots democratic, social and economic justice and nonviolence. It needs at least 50,000 votes for Governor to help restore its rights as an official political party in NY.