Dear Green Party member,

During the past five years, I have been at the forefront in the struggle for human dignity and social justice:

* I've walked the streets of working-class latino neighborhoods helping organize tenants fight wealthy landlords, unsympathetic city bureaucrats, and abusive police officers.

* I've confronted racist School Board members who have relentlessly scapegoated Mexican schoolchildren for problems that were caused by their own ineptitude and incompetency.

* I've been on the picket lines with workers fighting for the right to organize collectively into labor unions to increase their wages and improve their working conditions.

* I've filed criminal complaints against rich politicians who have abused their public trust to ensure that they will be held accountable for their actions just like everybody else.

Working on these and other issues has provided me with a unique insight into how to make the Green Party a major player in California politics. I've learned that for our party to grow, it must do more than just run candidates for public office upon occasion; its members must become actively involved in the community it strives to represent literally on a daily basis; we all must be at the forefront in the struggle for human dignity and social justice.

As member of the County Council, I have three top priorities:

* I will focus organizing the Green Party around those issues which have mass appeal to the interests of working people whether its demanding more affordable housing, agitating for universal healthcare, fighting racism and immigrant-bashing, guaranteeing the right to work at decent wages and working conditions, or protecting civil liberties and human rights.

* I will forge strong and enduring relationships between the Green Party and progressive elements within local labor unions, civic groups, environmental organizations, and communities of color. By doing this, we start building a solid base of support that will enable us to elect Greens to seats on local city councils, school boards, and other public offices.

* I will develop a strategy to identify and recruit Greens with strong records of community involvement as viable candidates for city council and school board races that are winnable. If the Greens are to succeed in the electoral arena, we need to build our party from the bottom up starting with those races which are the easiest to win and most visible in our communities.

By implementing these priorities, we will begin the process of making the Green Party the party of choice for a majority of working Californians.

If you share this vision, please vote for me on Tuesday, March 5th.

In solidarity,

Duane J. Roberts
[email protected]

Duane exposed the fact that Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly's former assistant accepted a $1,000 "consulting fee" from an Anaheim school board member who at the same time was lobbying the City Council on land use matters near $1.3 million worth of undeveloped commercial property he owned.