Putin: Questions for Jill Stein and the Green Party Leadership

Jill Stein, Putin and Flynn at a Russian State Dinner Nov. 2016

Jill Stein, Putin and the Green Party's Internal Life. 

by Sean O'Torain.

Fellow members of the Green Party. I would like to raise some questions for the Green Party leaderhip and also make a few comments. I am speaking here with restraint in the hope that we can elicit a response from the leadership of our Party and have a reasonable discussion.

My main questions are these.  

What was Jill Stein doing at a dinner in Russia sitting at the same table with Putin and Trump's now disgraced ex National Security Advisor Flynn?

After the collapse of Stalinism a brutal Russian capitalist class rose out of the ruins and took over. Putin represents this class. He represents this  brutal Russian imperialism which represses its own working class and opposition and invades other countries. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the fossil fuel industry. He bases himself on nationalist propaganda and on the support of the extreme reactionary anti women Russian Orthodox Church. This is who Jill Stein was meeting with!! There was no way that Jill Stein did anything but harm to the environmental movement, to the women's movement and to working people in Russia and internationally by meeting with Putin. I hope Jill Stein and the Green Party leadership explain what they think they were doing. One thing they have done is make it much more difficult to defend and build the Green Party here in the US. Along with everything else we now have to defend Jill Stein sitting down with Putin. If the Green Party leadership were wanting to damage the Party's growth it could not do so much more effectively.  If the Green party does begin to grow significantly think how many times this photo with Jill Stein sitting with Putin and Flynn will be dragged out by its enemies.    

Now to another question.  I want to know who took this decision that Jill Stein would visit and have dinner with Putin and Flynn? At what meeting was this important decision taken? What body of the party decided this? I know I never heard of any such meeting which discussed this. I know that I never heard any discussion about this issue, that is would it be a good idea for Jill Stein to meet Putin or not? I look forward to an answer on this. The Party leadership has a duty to tell the Party membership what body took this decision, where and when it met, who was invited to attend, who was not invited to attend, and who spoke. I never got any invitation to such a meeting and I know of nobody else who got an invitation.  If the Party leadership does not provide this information it will prove that it is acting in an undemocratic way. 

I am not confident that I will get an answer to my reasonable questions. The reason I am not is I am becoming more familiar with the way the Green Party operates. There is a clique at the top that undemocratically runs the Party. I do not know the varied policies of this group. There appears to be different currents and backgrounds within this clique. But they seem to agree on some things including that the Green party should not be aggressively eco socialist or give a lead to the explosive new movement by aggressively advocating its policies and mass direct action.

The Green Party because of its conservative leadership is being left behind by this new wonderful movement. If the Green Party had been aggressive and radical on the issues it professes to stand for it could have been at the center of this new movement instead of being mainly ignored by this new movement. The Resistance Movement, The Indivisibles, and on and on; where is the Green party in relation to these movements and the many others. Why did the new movement not see the Green Party as the vehicle through which to fight. The Green party is being passed by. And it is being passed by because of the conservative politics of its leadership. Its refusal to fight for eco socialism in the 2016 elections. Its refusal to seek to put down roots in the rank and file of the trade union movement and in workplaces, working class communities and schools and colleges.  

And central to this is the undemocratic structure of the Party. The so called consensus method and along with this the refusal to have a dues paying membership. There are a few currents of thought in the Party that keep these false undemocratic organizational methods in place. First there is the genuine but profoundly misguided currents mainly in the rank and file who think that consensus and a non dues paying membership is the most democratic way to work. They refuse to see that in fact these combine to make up the most undemocratic method of internal life.

The consensus method lets minorities rule over majorities. This consensus method along with the non dues paying membership method create a culture in the party where everybody can do just about whatever they wish. The combination of these methods make it impossible to have a coherent cohesive disciplined party. Any member can say I am not doing this or I am doing that and claim to be covered by the consensus method. The non dues paying structure is part of the undemocratic method. It is not just a question of the Party having low funds it is also a democratic question. It is so because it is at the root of where the Party funds come from and so who calls the shots. 

If the membership are not funding the Party then the membership do not feel that they can impose their democratic will on the Party. They feel in reality that they have very little rights. Along with this is the related question. The Party needs funds. And these have to come from somewhere. If they do not come from the membership they come from somewhere else. And whoever or whatever that somewhere else is has great power over the Party. Consensus and non dues paying are undemocratic and both are related to this case of Jill Stein meeting with Putin. The Party membership had no say in this and because of the consensus based and non dues paying based culture do not even feel they have the right to raise their voices and demand an exclamation and demand accountability. Think about why there was no out cry in the Party at Jill Stein visiting with Putin.

I have said that there are different forces within the Party that support consensus and non dues paying who genuinely but mistakenly believe that these methods are the most democratic way to run the Party. I absolutely disagree with these members but I respect that they consider they are acting in a democratic way and in the best interest of the party.  But there is another current of thought in the Party who support the consensus method and non dues paying method but who do it for a very different reason. For them I have no respect and am committed to oppose them.

 This current of thought, this clique which dominates the leadership of the party recognize that if the internal life of the Party were run on a majority rule basis with the rights of all minorities to be heard and run on the basis of a dues paying membership where only dues payers could make decisions then the Party would become a whole different body. It would become democratic. And, and it is here where these forces are different from those who support the consensus method and the non dues paying membership who believe these make the party more democratic.

These forces at the top of the party support the consensus method and the non dues paying membership because they know that these methods make the Party undemocratic and most important of all allow them to keep control of the Party.  Think about this. In the last election great emphasis was given to who funded the Republicans and the Democrats. This hurt both of them. But we could not effectively join in the attack on them for this. Because who was funding the Green Party? Whoever pays the piper calls the tune. In the case of the Green Party whoever is funding it is calling the tune. And the clique who runs it does not want the membership to democratically call the tune so they support the consensus method which allows them to do what they like and they support the non dues paying membership which in reality disarms the membership.  

If members of the Green party think I am being too hard consider this. The Party last year passed the eco socialist plank. But this never appeared in the campaigning of the Party in the elections. The Party leadership just ignored it. They just ignored the decision of the Party. Then Jill Stein visits with Putin. This was never discussed or decided by the Party and I very much doubt if it had there would have been agreement that she should do so.  The leadership of the Party could act in these undemocratic ways because of the culture in the Party which flows from the consensus method and non dues paying approach. This culture basically allows anybody to do just about whatever they like. And in most cases, because they control the apparatus and the money in just about every case it is the clique at the top of the Party who do whatever they like and who dictate to the Party. 

If the Green Party is to have a future it has to fight for its eco socialist policies, it has to seek to move to build as a workers party and it has to change its undemocratic internal life. Politics means fighting on many fronts. In the case of the Green Party today it means fighting against the corporations and their apparatus which are destroying life on earth. For members of the Green party it also means fighting within the Green Party for eco socialist policies, to make it a workers party and to end the undemocratic internal life.