Green Politics: Ten Key Values

1. ECOLOGICAL WISDOM
How can we operate human societies with the understanding that we are part of nature, not on top of it? How can we live within the ecological and resource limits of the planet, applying our technological knowledge to the challenge of an energy-efficient economy? How can we build a better relationship between cities and countryside? How can we guarantee the rights of non-human species? How can we promote sustainable agriculture and respect for self-regulating natural systems? How can we further biocentric wisdom in all spheres of life?

2. GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY
How can we develop systems that allow and encourage us to to control the decisions that affect our lives? How can we ensure that representatives are fully accountable to the people that elected them? How can encourage and assist the "mediating institutions" -- family, neighborhood organization, church group, voluntary association, ethnic club -- to recover some of the functions now performed by the government? How can we relearn the best insights from American traditions of civic vitality, voluntary action, and community responsibility?

3. PERSONAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
How can we respond to human suffering in ways that promote dignity? How can we encourage people to commit themselves to lifestyles that promote their own health? How can we have a community-controlled education system that effectively teaches our children academic skills, ecological wisdom, social responsibility, and personal growth? How can we resolve interpersonal and intergroup conflicts withoutjust turning them over to lawyers and judges? How can we take responsibility for reducing the crime rate in our neighborhoods? How can we encourage such values as simplicity and moderation?

4. ANONVIOLENCE
How can we, as a society, develop effective alternatives to our current patterns of violence, at all levels, from the family and the street to nations and the world? How can we eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth wi thout being nai ve about intentions of other governments? How can we most constructively use non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree and in the process reduce the atmosphere of polarization and selfishness that is itself a source of violence?

5. DECENTRALIZATION
How can we restore power and responsibility to individuals, institutions, communities, and regions? How can we encourage the flourishing of regionally-based culture, rather than a dominant monoculture? How can we have a decentralized, democratic society with our political, econ- omic, and social institutions locating power on the smallest scale (closest to home) that is efficient and practical? How can we redesign our insti tutions so fewer decisions and less regulation over money are granted as one moves from the community toward the national level? How can we reconcile the need for community and regional self-determination with the need for appropriate centralized regulations in certain matters?

6. COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMICS
How can we redesign our work structures to encourage em- ployee ownership and workplace democracy? How can we develop new economic activities and institutions that will allow us to use our new technologies in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological, and accountable and responsive to communities? How can we establish some form of basic economic security, open to all? How can we move beyond the narrow 'tjob ethic" to new definitions of "work," "jobs," and "income" that reflect the changing economy? How can we restructure our patterns of income distribution to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal, monetary economy: those who take responsibility for parenting, huuse- keeping, home gardens, community volunteer work, etc.? How can we restrict the size and concentrated power of corporations without discour aging superior efficiency or technological innovation?

7. POSTPATRIARCHAL VALUES
How can we replace the cultural ethics of dominance and control with cooperative ways of interacting? How can we encourage people to care about persons outside their own group? How can we promote the building of respectful, positive, and responsible relationships across the lines of gender and other divisions? How can we encourage a rich, diverse political culture that respects feelings as well as rationalist approaches? How can we proceed with as much respect for the means as the ends (the process as much as the products of our efforts)? How can we learn to respect the contemplative, inner part of life as much as the outer activities?

8. RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY
How can we honor cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity within the context of individual responsibility to all beings? How can we reclaim our country's finest shared ideals: the dignity of the individual, democratic participation, and liberty and justice for all?

9. GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY
How can we be of genuine assistance to grassroots groups in the Third World? What can we learn from such groups? How can we help other countries make the transition to self-sufficiency in food and other basic necessities? How can we cut our defense budget while maintaining an adequate defense? How can we promote these ten Green values in the reshaping of our global order? How can we reshape world order without creating just another enormous nation-state?

10. FUTURE FOCUS
How can we induce people and institutions to think in terms of the lonE- range future, and not just in terms of their short-range selfish interest? How can we encourage people to develop their own visions of the future and move more effectively toward them? How can wejudge whether new technologies are socially useful and use those judgements to shape our society? How can we induce our government and other institutions to practice fiscal responsibility? How can we make the quality of life, rather than open-ended economic growth, the focus of future thinking?

This list of values and questions was composed at the founding meeting of the Green Committees of Correspondence in August, 1984 and revised by the Interregional Committee in March 1986. We feel that the issues we have raised below are not being addressed adquately by the political left or right. Green politics differs from traditional politics in that its purpose is to promote these values, rather than to gain political power by using issues which are currently fashionable. These are values, not doctrines, and are thus outlined with questions rather than asssertions. We invite you tojoin with us in refining our values, sharpening our questions, and translating our perspective into practical and effective political actions. The Green Committees of Correspondence is a nationwide network of grassroots Green organizations dedicated to promoting these values; our name is taken from the organization which promoted liberty during the American Revolutionary Era.

For information on the Green Party of California, contact them at Tel: (916)448-3437; email: gpca@greens.org, website: www.greens.org/cal