Green Party Endorses Global Sumud Flotilla
Green Party of Pennsylvania
Green Party Endorses Global Sumud Flotilla
The Global Sumud Flotilla is a diverse coalition of international participants, including those involved in previous land and sea efforts like the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla, Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and Global Movement to Gaza. The movement has repeatedly attempted to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza. The current flotilla left Barcelona, Spain, and Genoa, Italy, on August 31, and it reached Tunis, Tunisia, on September 9. While in Tunisian waters the flotilla has been attacked by drones dropping fire bombs.
GPPA Steering Committee Member Colleen Schmotzer (Allegheny County) explained why the Green Party has endorsed the Global Sumud Flotilla, “Our Four Pillars -- grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom, social justice, and nonviolence -- demand that we take this stand. The Global Sumud Flotilla embodies these values by organizing democratically across borders, confronting injustice with courage and without violence, and affirming the inherent worth and dignity of all people.”
The Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA), https://www.gpofpa.org, is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please email [email protected]. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/; and X, https://x.com/GreenPartyofPA
https://www.gpofpa.org/green_party_stands_with_handala_crew_seized_by_israel
Green Party 2025 Candidates will Appear on PA Ballot
Green Party of Pennsylvania
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
MEDIA CONTACT
Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader
267-977-0570 and [email protected]
Green Party 2025 Candidates will Appear on PA Ballot
On August 11, three Green Party's candidates were accepted on the 2025 General Election ballot by the Pennsylvania Department of State. The nomination of one Green Party candidate has been challenged.
Nomination signatures have been approved to place on the ballot Michael Bagdes-Canning for re-election to Mayor of Cherry Valley Borough in Butler County; Tony Dastra for Mayor of Lancaster City in Lancaster County; and Alexander Noyle for Auditor of East Norriton Township in Montgomery County.
The nomination of Theron Gilliland Jr for County Council in Allegheny County has been challenged by three voters who claim that Gilliland did not submit enough valid signatures. The challenge will be decided in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.
GPPA Steering Committee Member Colleen Schmotzer (Allegheny County) said, “I am excited to see so many Greens running for local offices in this day and age. We need to break the duopoly, and this is going to give us a chance to continue to do so here in Pennsylvania. We wish them all the best! Theron Gilliland’s Campaign was challenged, but the Green Party is fighting back.”
Green Party organizer Chris Robinson (Philadelphia) added, "Our candidates will give PA voters the opportunity to vote for an end to hunger and homelessness in our commonwealth. Green Party candidates also stand for an end to political corruption and corporations controlling other political parties.”
Those interested in volunteering and helping the Green Party continue to make history, may email [email protected]. Those who would like to contribute to the Green Party, may visit, https://www.gpofpa.org/join_us
The Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA), https://www.gpofpa.org, is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please email [email protected]. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/; and X, https://x.com/GreenPartyofPA
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Green Party Has "Hands On" World Peace
Green Party of Pennsylvania
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, April 27, 2025
CONTACT:
Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader
267-977-0570 and [email protected]
Green Party Has "Hands On" World Peace
Following the massive "Hands Off" demonstration on April 5, the Green Party asked its leaders to describe what the Green Party had its "Hands On."
By Erin King (Centre County)
Steering Committee, Green Party of Pennsylvania
Although I was a lifelong Democrat until 2024, I'd had my doubts about some Democrats in office. For the most part, I held my faith that many of them were determined to uplift the working class and remain on the right side of history.
The rudest awakening overtook my entire being when I witnessed my government's brutally amoral response to the apartheid State of Israel's full-scale attack on the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. On October 7, 2023, Hamas waged an aggressive onslaught against Israel, including seizing 251 Israeli persons as hostages; a direct response to decades of extreme oppression and violence imposed against Palestine and its indigenous peoples.
Soon I would learn that not only had Israel helped for some time to fund Hamas but later admitted to murdering its own people on October 7. I would also come to know several other facts, which revealed to me the United States' long, dark history with the Israeli government. The U.S. has wholeheartedly participated in ensuring that the apartheid, illegal occupation, and endless human rights violations in Palestine, continues -- with our tax dollars, no less.
Now, we are well into 2025. We still see no end to the genocide that persists at the hands of Israel and the U.S. against the people of Palestine. Israel has become so emboldened by our corrupt White House and Congress, it has also launched genocidal attacks against Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
I knew even prior to 2024 that I would never again vote for Joe Biden. I also did not feel any better about the prospect of voting for Kamala Harris. Eventually, I realized that I had heard numerous derogatory things about the Green Party --namely about Dr. Jill Stein -- over the years without doing any real fact-checking about the party. Once I decided to shut out all the ignorant screeching from the neoliberals and started to research the Green Party on my own, I discovered that this is where I need to be.
One stance on which the Green Party is clearly "Hands-On" is that of being for World Peace, which resonates with me like never before. The Green Party truly cares about the American people and wants to create a country that works the way it's supposed to for all Americans and not just the billionaire class .The Green Party is against the money-torching, soul-crushing war machine that has taken over our economy for an eternity. Instead of rebuilding our infrastructures, investing in more modern, reliable public transportation across the country on a grander scale (similar to what exists in Europe), increasing funding for education, hospitals, healthcare, affordable housing, and mental healthcare, the vast majority of our taxes fund the U.S. military and endless, pointless wars and genocide.
This is the bottomless pit that our hard-earned tax dollars are thrown into year after year, with nothing to show for it other than millions of lives destroyed both here and abroad and everyday life becoming more and more difficult for many Americans. Those at the top of the food chain, many of whom hold state and federal offices, enjoy the lucrative financial benefits of starting a war every 15 to 20 years at our expense.
There is something very sobering about finally waking up to what a mess your country and its people have become, largely due to the two ruling parties and their continuously obscene abuse of the American war machine. I cannot begin to explain how, even through all the mess, I still refuse to give up on doing whatever I can to arouse people from apathy and convince them that to see a different, better result, they'll need to seek a better party and cut all ties with the ones that will never stop hurting us.
I believe in the Green Party and in its strong, overall message of "Hands On" inclusion, fairness and justice for all.
- The Green Party has "Hands On" world peace.
- The Green Party has "Hands On" an end to settler colonialism and the international crime of apartheid.
- The Green Party has "Hands On" a 50 percent cut in the Pentagon budget.
- The Green Party has "Hands On" closing more than 700 Pentagon bases abroad.
- The Green Party has "Hands On" ending U.S. arms sales to other nations.
- The Green Party has "Hands On" ťthe U.S. ratification of the Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons.
The Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA), https://www.gpofpa.org, is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please email [email protected]. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/; and X, https://x.com/GreenPartyofPA
For more information:
Platform Green Party of the U.S.; D. Foreign Policy; 1. Peace and Disarmament; https://www.gp.org/democracy#demForeignPolicy
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Who Elected Elon Musk?
By Jay Sweeney
Green Party Candidates will appear on PA 2024 Ballot
Activists Locked Out by PA Governor
Green Party of Pennsylvania
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, April 7, 2024
CONTACT:
Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader
215-843-4256 and [email protected]
Activists Locked Out by PA Governor
By Doug Mason
Due to PA Governor Josh Shapiro’s stance on climate change many environmentalists were enthusiastic supporters and promoted his 2022 campaign for PA Governor. Now it appears that they have been fooled.
Shapiro claims that he has an open door policy. When two dozen protesters from Pennsylvania Action on Climate (PAC) went to his office in Harrisburg on March 19, the door was locked and surrounded by a dozen capital police and state troopers. PAC had tried to set up a meeting both in person and online with the governor to no avail.
During this attempted office visit, three members of PAC were arrested on the floor of the Capitol building: Rev. Tim Seitz Brown, a Lutheran pastor from York; Rachel “Renzy” Neffshade, a Pittsburgh climate activist; and Doug Mason, chair of the Sierra Club Moshannon Group and of the Green Party of Centre County. The Moshannon Group has 905 members from Pennsylvania’s central counties from Maryland to New York. The Green Party of Centre County is a chapter of the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA, https://www.gpofpa.org). These three leaders were protesting Shapiro’s acceptance of bribes from the fossil fuel industry, despite his claims to be a climate advocate.
The three protestors attempted to read a statement from PAC, but it was ripped out of their hands. They were then handcuffed and taken to the basement of the Capital Complex to be processed. After about two hours, they were released on their own recognizance.
“I’m a 73 year old climate dissident who took the personal risk of acting in civil resistance against state government policies, as well as the business-as-usual activities of industry, economic systems, and individuals that fail to take urgent action to reduce and eliminate carbon dioxide emissions caused by fossil fuel use,” said Mason. “The risks I incur from this action are a small sacrifice compared to the scale and urgency of the threats of climate change to our existence.”
“I claim my right under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to conduct this nonviolent civil disobedience as an expression of my freedom of speech to petition to the government for redress of the extreme and manifest grievance caused by government policies and laws failing to effect carbon dioxide reduction or lacking in the power to enact necessary preventative and remedial actions to reverse the negative effects of carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and to limit fossil fuel extraction and halt the increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that are causing global heating and climate change,” concluded Mason.
The previous few weeks had been contentious between the governor and environmentalists. Maya van Rossum from the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, concerned about hydrogen hubs, interrupted Shapiro at a Philadelphia union event, and a Dimock resident and disabled veteran, Ray Kemble, challenged him at another union event a few days later in Scranton over lax enforcement and water-supply losses.
Apparently the governor’s “open door” is not for people who are concerned about political corruption, hurt by fracking or want to comment on development of hydrogen hubs in PA. These three issues are connected because it is very likely that the way hydrogen is produced in PA will support the expansion of fracking.
The Green Party of PA, https://www.gpofpa.org, has opposed fracking since 2008, and it continues to represent the environmental movement in elections to this day. The Green Party of PA is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please email [email protected]. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/; and Twitter, https://twitter.com/GreenPartyofPA.
For More Information
Pennsylvania Action on Climate, https://www.pennsylvaniaactiononclimate.org
“Climate Activists Trying to Meet with Gov. Shapiro Arrested After Refusing to Disburse,” Patriot News, March 19, 2024, https://www.pennlive.com/politics/2024/03/climate-activists-trying-to-meet-with-gov-shapiro-arrested-after-refusing-to-disperse.html
Marcellus Shale Resolution, Green Party of PA, April 2011, https://www.gpofpa.org/fracking
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Green Party Kicks Off PA Nomination Campaign
Green Party of Pennsylvania
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 5, 2024
CONTACT:
Chris Robinson, Communication Team Co-Leader
215-843-4256 and [email protected]
Green Party Kicks Off PA Nomination Campaign
Getting Green Party candidates on the ballot will be extremely important this year in Pennsylvania because there will be vital issues which candidates from the two corporate parties will not touch. Clean water, public housing, rights during an eviction, reproductive rights, public transit, climate change, genocide, and neo-colonialism are all issues which will be addressed by Green Party candidates. Now is the time to get on the ballot candidates who have solutions for homelessness, mass incarceration, global wars, and rampant industrial pollution.
On April 3, the Green Party of Pennsylvania (GPPA, https://www.gpofpa.org/) announced the kickoff for the 2024 nomination campaign. Nomination papers are now being distributed state-wide.
The GPPA nominated Dr. Jill Stein on March 10 to be their candidate for President of the U.S. She has the answers for the big questions facing the nation. Co-leader Alex Casper (Philadelphia) of the GPPA Green Wave Team, says, “Jill needs our help, and so do our PA Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidates. Please help Greens win in 2024 so that we can make big changes happen.”
“For the Green Party candidates to appear on the General Election ballot,” continued Casper, “we will have to gather nomination signatures from 10,000 registered voters. The Green Wave Team will be hosting petition trainings each Wednesday at 7:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Please check the GPPA Calendar, gpofpa.org/calendar, to RSVP for the next petition training.”
The Green Party of PA, https://www.gpofpa.org, is an independent political party which stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party’s Four Pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please email [email protected]. Please follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gpofpa/; Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/pagreenparty/; and Twitter, https://twitter.com/GreenPartyofPA.
For more information:
“PA Greens Nomination Jill Stein for President of the U.S.” GPPA News Release, March 14, 2024, https://www.gpofpa.org/pa_greens_nominate_jill_stein_for_president_of_the_us
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GPPA welcomes Pope Francis to Pennsylvania
For Immediate Release
September 25, 2015
Contacts:
Jay Sweeney [email protected]
570-587-3603
David F. Ochmanowicz Jr. [email protected]
GPPA welcomes Pope Francis to Pennsylvania
The Green Party of Pennsylvania welcomes His Holiness Pope Francis to our beloved Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. His much-anticipated visit to Philadelphia is a joy to so many.
In Pope Francis’s recent encyclical about climate change and the environment, Laudato Si’ (Praise Be to You), he has shown his passion to live up to his adopted papal name Francis, after the Christian patron saint of animals and the environment.
“Pope Francis shares many of the The Green Party of Pennsylvania’s values.” said GPPA Chair Jay Sweeney. “He is outspoken on social justice, environmental and economic issues that our party has been equally outraged over”, Sweeney concluded.
“Pope Francis’s encouraging words and efforts to address climate change, his implicit opposition to fracking, his care and respect for people of all nations and his criticism of the ‘cheerful recklessness’ of pure unregulated capitalism show that we share mutual goals in these important areas”, said GPPA Steering Committee member David Ochmanowicz Jr.
The Green Party of Pennsylvania is an independent political party that stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. The Green Party of Pennsylvania stands for grassroots democracy, social justice, non-violence and ecological wisdom.