ABOUT US
THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES, ("GPUS"), founded in August of 1984, is currently the 4th largest political party in the United States, with over 200,000 registered voters, and over 140 currently serving elected/appointed public officials nationwide. Green Parties exist in over 90+ countries around the world, many of whom are members of the Global Greens, and The Green Party of the United States is only one small part of a larger, international Green Movement.
THE ARIZONA GREEN PARTY, ("AZGP"), founded in May of 1990, is the officially recognized and accredited affiliate chapter of the Green Party of the United States for the State of Arizona. Our party is currently the 5th largest political party in AZ, with over 3,000 registered Green Party voters statewide and 3 local county chapters that are currently active in Maricopa, Pima, and Coconino Counties. Starting in 1992, the AZGP has run over 90 candidates in partisan and nonpartisan races every election cycle since our founding, and has had a total of 5 AZGP members thus far who have been either elected or appointed to public offices up and down the ballot in Arizona.
THE GREEN PARTY ADVOCATES FOR phasing out the burning of fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable energy sources (wind, solar, hyrdroelectric, geothermal), a just transition to a democratically controlled eco-socialist economy through a Green New Deal, protecting/expanding worker's rights to organize and bargain collectively, ensuring fair and proportional taxation, mandating employers pay livable wages, reducing the cost of living and eliminating poverty, defending medical/reproductive/personal autonomy, ending police brutality and mass incarceration, reducing our bloated military budget, ending U.S./N.A.T.O. wars of aggression and global dominance, shrinking the military-industrial complex, and promoting free & fair elections in an inclusive grassroots democracy.
THE GREEN PARTY BELIEVES that our government must put the needs and interests of people, planet, and peace over short-term profits and economic growth. As both a political party and as a global movement, the primary goals & priorities of Green Politics are (in no particular order);
Guarantee Social Justice & Equality For All
Eliminate Poverty & Economic Exploitation
Dismantle Systems of Unjust Hierarchy & Oppression
Respect & Embrace Diversity in Society
Decentralize Wealth and Political Power
Defend and Expand Our Democracy
Promote Peace, Diplomacy, & Non-Violence
Provide Universal Access to the Necessities of a Dignified Life
Protect the Ecological Health and Integrity of our Planet
Ensure the Long-Term Sustainability of Human Civilizations
We believe that healthy food, clean water & air, a habitable environment, a lifelong public education, quality healthcare, decent and stable housing, high-speed broadband, and gainful employment, as well as opportunities for creative expression, community engagement, and civic participation must be guaranteed and provided to all Arizonans as fundamental human rights.
OUR PURPOSE in coming together as citizens into the (often rigid) legal, financial, and organizational structures of a statewide political party is to put ourselves in the best possible position to non-violently seize and utilize political power with the consent and support of the multicultural working class via the electoral system in order to promote, defend, and advance the Green agenda in the State of Arizona.
We believe that AZGP must exist as both a statewide hub for the promotion and advancement of Green policies, legislation, and Key Values, as well as acting as an independent political vehicle for building/utilizing the tools, resources, knowledge, and active membership necessary for effective and organized action within the current political system.
AZGP officially represents and is democratically accountable to the registered voters in the State of Arizona who have designated their political party preference as "Green Party" or "Green" on their AZ Voter Registrations. These voters are considered and referred to collectively as the "Arizona Green Party".
The Green Party is INNOVATIVE, INDEPENDENT, GRASSROOTS, PROGRESSIVE,
and guided by our FOUR PILLARS...
ECOLOGY |
DEMOCRACY |
PEACE |
SOCIAL JUSTICE |
...and our Ten Key Values!
1. Grassroots Democracy
All human beings must be allowed a say in decisions that affect their lives; no one should be subject to the will of another. We work to improve public participation in every aspect of government and seek to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We also work to create new types of political organizations that expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in decision-making.
2. Social Justice And Equal Opportunity
As a matter of right, all persons must have the opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, any discrimination by race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, religion, or physical or mental ability that denies fair treatment and equal justice under the law.
3. Ecological Wisdom
Human societies must function with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society that utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture that replenishes the soil, move to an energy-efficient economy, and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.
4. Peace & Non-Violence
It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society's current patterns of violence. We will work to demilitarize and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments. We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in danger. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace.
5. Decentralization
Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and militarization. We seek a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system controlled by and mostly benefiting the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all.
6. Community-Based Economics
We support redesigning our work structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy. We support developing new economic activities and institutions that allow us to use technology in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological, and responsive and accountable to communities. We support establishing a form of basic economic security open to all. We call for moving beyond the narrow 'job ethic' to new definitions of 'work,' 'jobs' and 'income' in a cooperative and democratic economy. We support restructuring our patterns of income distribution to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal monetary economy – those who take responsibility for parenting, housekeeping, home gardens, community volunteer work, and the like. We support restricting the size and concentrated power of corporations without discouraging superior efficiency or technological innovation.
7. Feminism And Gender Equity
We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as gender equity, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We recognize that the processes for determining our decisions and actions are just as important as achieving the outcomes we want.
8. Respect For Diversity
We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across the human spectrum. We believe that the many diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership roles. We encourage respect for all life forms, and increased attention to the preservation of biodiversity.
9. Personal And Global Responsibility
We encourage individuals to act to improve their personal wellbeing and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.
10. Future Focus And Sustainability
Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or 'unmaking' all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions. We must make the quality of all lives, rather than open-ended economic growth, the focus of future thinking and policy.
What Does it Mean to be "Green"?
Green politics, at its core, is based around a dedicated and unwavering commitment to People, Planet, and Peace.
It is a commitment to the idea that all of us, no matter who we are, should have equal opportunities to participate in government, and an equal say in what happens in the communities we live in.
It is a commitment to ending cycles of harm in ourselves, in our homes, in our communities, and in our government; and instead making the radical decision to choose diplomacy, forgiveness, peace, and love in the face of conflict.
It is a commitment to fight for a sustainable and ecologically harmonious society, and for the right of future generations to have a habitable, beautiful planet to not just survive on, but to thrive on for many generations to come.
It is a commitment to stand in solidarity with the oppressed peoples and beings of all nations, and to adopt their struggles for freedom and justice as our own, as we would hope they would do for us.
And, above all, it is a commitment to the idea that ordinary people around the world have real power to influence our government and our society when we come together for the Greater Good of us all.
Greens on the Issues
The Arizona Green Party Supports:
Ecology
- An Eco-Socialist "Green New Deal" to get us off fossil fuels and onto publicly owned renewables through a just transition
- Reducing our energy and commodity consumption to sustainable levels
- Ecological education programs in public schools
- Investing in sustainable public transit systems that are safe, clean, and efficient
- Regulations enforcing & incentivizing sustainable practices in agriculture and other ecologically damaging industries
- Conservation of endangered species & ecosystems
- "Degrowth" policies to reduce overproduction, overconsumption, and waste
- Establishing a circular economy to reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle everything we produce
Democracy
- Inclusive Ballot Access and Party Recognition Requirements
- Open Debates & Equal Access to Public Media
- Ranked Choice Voting for all Executive Elections
- Proportional Ranked Choice Voting with Multi-Member Districts in non-executive Offices
- Public Financing of Elections, End "Citizens United"
- Transparent, verifiable election administration systems
- "Democracy Vouchers"
- Free all whistleblowers and political prisoners held captive by the United States
Peace
- An end to U.S. wars, bringing our armed forces back home, and closing international U.S. military bases
- Drastically reducing the bloated U.S. military budget
- Defunding, demilitarizing, and community control of the police and prison systems.
- Force the Pentagon and the Department of Defense to pay back public funds that they cannot account for
- End all U.S. financial support and arms sales to international human rights abusers and apartheid governments
- Join the U.N. General Assembly in calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza, an end to the embargo on Cuba, etc.
- Commit to nuclear disarmament and a policy of "no-first-use" for nuclear weaponry
- End the practice of unmanned "drone" combat
- Boost supply of international humanitarian aid to those in need in the forms of food, clean water, and medical supplies.
Social Justice
- A Living Wage for ALL workers that is indexed to inflation and the cost of living
- Universal Basic Income (UBI)
- Negative income tax (NIT) that reverses the federal income tax for those who fall below the federal poverty line
- Support the right of all workers to collectively bargain and join a union
- Quality, universal healthcare provided through a publicly owned National Health Service
- Reparations for American descendants of chattel slavery
- Provide amnesty & a pathway to citizenship for all tax-paying undocumented residents
- Decriminalization of all drugs, legalization of those with therapeutic potential
- Recognition of drug addiction as a public health issue, not a criminal issue
- "Land Back" for Indigenous Communities & Full Indigenous Sovereignty
- Universal housing and rent control programs, "housing first" policies
- Zoning & Land Use reform to address the housing crisis
- Universal child-care/elder-care services
- Fully-funded public schools that provide tuition-free kindergarten through post-secondary education
- Provide free Breakfast/Lunch to all public school students, end "school lunch debt"
- Comprehensive, age-appropriate, and LGBTQIA+ inclusive sex education, including content regarding relationships & consent
- Cancellation of Student & Medical Debt
- Science and equity-based solutions to Covid-19 and other global pathogens
- Protecting bodily & medical autonomy for ALL people
- Full equality and legal protections for the LGBTQIA+ community
- Common sense safety regulations on firearm ownership
The Arizona Green Party Opposes:
- Capitalism, Fascism, Neoliberalism, & Eco-Fascism
- The failed "War on Drugs" and "War on Terror"
- More money for wars of U.S. aggression
- Expansion of the U.S. empire through neocolonialism
- Racism, classism, ageism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of social discrimination
- Overproduction, Overconsumption, & Waste
- All bans on immigration/migration
- Creation of a wall or other physical barrier at any of our state/national borders
- Private prisons & policies of mass incarceration
- Corporate control of our economy/elections
- Lowering taxes on the wealthiest Americans
- Restrictions on the right to an abortion, "forced birth" policies
- Restrictions on the LGBTQIA+ community's right to live and love as they are
- ESA Voucher programs that funnel public dollars to private schools
- Environmentally destructive industrial & agricultural practices (animal agriculture, monoculture, logging, strip mining, etc.)
Join The Arizona Green Party!
Connect with members of the Arizona Green Party on our Discord server. Here we can strategize, organize, and just socialize! Also, check us out on Facebook (page & group), Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Register Green. The more people who register Green, the stronger the Green Party and the louder our voice.
Become a Member. The Green Party refuses all corporate contributions, so dues-paying members play a vital role ensuring our state and local organizations have the resources needed to build the party. Green members are committed to Green principles and a spirit of activism, and we show this by investing in the Green Party. Like union members, Green Party members identify with the key values of our organization; so we invest in it, are afforded a voice and a vote in it, and are a part of something that benefits the whole.
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