SHADOW CABINET

Six members of the newly created Green Shadow Cabinet gathered at the anti-drone conference in Syracuse, New York last weekend.  Front row from left: Howie Hawkins, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Col. Ann Wright, David Swanson.  Back row: Keven Zeese, and Bruce Gagnon

It was a real surprise and honor for me to be invited to serve as Secretary of Space in the Green Shadow Cabinet. (I joked that I will have the largest area of responsibility and travel to deep space will take years at a time.)

Dr. Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, the 2012 Green Party presidential and vice-presidential nominees, marked the beginning of Earth Week by announcing a new Green Shadow Cabinet that will serve as an independent voice in U.S. politics, putting the needs of people and protection of the planet ahead of profits for big corporations. The Cabinet will operate in the tradition of shadow cabinets in other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, responding to actions of the government in office, and demonstrating that another government is possible.

The Green Shadow Cabinet includes nearly 100 prominent scientists, community and labor leaders, physicians, cultural workers, veterans, and more, and will provide an ongoing opposition and alternative voice to the dysfunctional government in Washington D.C.. It is organized into six federal branches: Democracy, Economy, Ecology, Foreign Affairs, General Welfare, and Justice. Topics include the economy, environment and climate change, health and general welfare, democratization, rights of workers, wages and labor, community power, closing military bases, ending wars for resources and restoring the rule of law.

Among the top priorities will be advocating for full employment through a Green New Deal and confronting climate change and the ecological crisis through a program of creating a carbon-free and nuclear free energy economy.

Not everyone in the Shadow Cabinet belongs to the Green Party.  You can see the entire cabinet here