Elaine Brown's Open Statement to the Green Party
[Admin note: We're posting this statement in its entirety because, while it is posted on Elaine's website, it doesn't have a permalink there. When and if such a link is made available, We'll excerpt the statement and point to the full text there.]
May 1, 2007
Vicious Rumormongering Will Not Deter Me
from My Campaign for the Green Party Presidential NominationThe vicious rumor being floated among Green Party members that I am or ever have been a government agent is a lie. I have never consorted with the U.S. government or any of its myriad agencies against the interests of black people, the Black Panther Party‹of which I was a leading member‹or any other people. I have dedicated my very life to the freedom of all oppressed people. Because these rumors are unfounded, unsupported by one scintilla of evidence or any citation to any specific act, they are, in the end, indefensible and, therefore, all the more insidious. I stand on my history of struggle in the Black Panther Party and since that time as the strongest refutation of this lie.
On the occasion of my announcing my candidacy for the Green Party presidential nomination, Mike Feinstein, a ranking California Green, and Nan Garrett, chair of the Georgia Green Party, launched this sinister campaign to discredit me, Feinstein, in a series of telephone calls to key Greens across the country after meeting me in March, and Garrett, in a recent, nationally-distributed, vitriolic email. It is particularly ironic that, while neither Feinstein nor Garrett has any history of involvement with the cause of the freedom of black people, they would challenge the credentials of the former Chairman of the Black Panther Party. This dangerous rumormongering is especially egregious as to Garrett, who, as a lawyer, makes her accusation without even the appearance of presenting evidence.
Their lie is based on a statement made at a meeting held by Cynthia McKinney in 2000, when she was a Congresswoman. Even though this meeting was not a Congressional hearing, Feinstein and Garrett would elevate its record to an "official" document. McKinney, who claimed to be conducting an investigation into the FBI's COINTELPRO activities against blacks, had invited only two former members of the Black Panther Party to her meeting to serve as ³witnesses,² Kathleen Cleaver and Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt. At the meeting, Pratt is recorded to have asserted that I was an "agent"This is a statement he has never dared make directly to me, and I challenge him now to do so and to present one iota of evidence to support his J. Edgar Hoover-like accusation against me.‹And, I would assert that, as McKinney has stood by surreptitiously and allowed her so-called forum to be used to validate Pratt¹s lie, she has endorsed that lie.
Cleaver and Pratt were expelled from the Black Panther Party in early 1971 as conspirators in a plot led by Eldridge Cleaver to take over the Party, whereby they denounced Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, David Hilliard, Fred Hampton and others, called for their deaths and declared the Weather Underground group the "vanguard" of revolution. Their attack against the Party resulted in internecine violence and, even, death. All of this is documented in the Black Panther Party newspaper, housed in its entirety in an archive at Stanford University.
One other glaring irony in all of this is that, while Feinstein is promoting McKinney as the Green Party presidential candidate, despite that McKinney remains a Democrat to this day, it is McKinney who has engaged in activity that has undermined the efforts of black people for freedom, specifically in her vote in favor of the Bill Clinton "three-strikes" crime bill.
Raising suspicion about someone as a traitor, a "government agent," was a key tactic employed by the FBI under its COINTELPRO operations against the Black Panther Party. The resulting distrust frustrated our efforts and destroyed lives. That was what the FBI intended. When J. Edgar Hoover declared in 1968 that the Party was "the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States," he announced he would wage a campaign to discredit, disrupt and destroy the Black Panther Party.‹While the Party is long gone and Hoover is dead, COINTELPRO is, clearly, very much alive.
Given all of this, I call for the resignations from the Green Party of Mike Feinstein and Nan Garrett. In the alternative, I urge the Green Party leadership to impeach Feinstein and Garrett or otherwise remove them from their ranking positions. Their rumormongering has done more than defame and endanger me. It has embroiled the Green Party in destructive, counterproductive activity‹and at a critical crossroad.
The mass rejection of Bush and his policies has opened a door for opposition. It is the Democrats, however, who are poised to walk through that door, and only to replace this Bush with another Clinton. The Green Party proffers a progressive agenda, though it has failed to gain the support of the very constituencies it would serve‹especially blacks, the majority of whom remain dedicated to the Democratic Party. I stand,and still, as a prospective nominee for the presidency who is singularly committed to the Green Party agenda, capable of bringing blacks into the Party ranks, veteran in articulating the contradictions between black and other poor and working people and the Democrats, and able to stir national debate on the issues, toward the election of more Greens and, ultimately, real progressive change in the United States of America.
ElaineBrown.Org 2007
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but I am also an old white man. It would be stupid to believe that doesn't play a role in my perceptions.
That said, I am disappointed because I feel like her message is so strongly worded that it leaves little but a "with us or against us" way of seeing the world. Of course, there are times when we must choose between clear sides, but more often than not there are multiple sides to an issue, and a variety of ways to accomplish the goals of any side.
I also fear that her website's focus on Jamil al-Amin will leave many cold. He was accused and convicted of killing an Atlanta police officer. A group I trust, the Southern Poverty Law Center seems to believe that the evidence is pretty solid. al Amin was once known as H. Rap Brown.
To be frank, I find that very few people identify with the issue of prisoner's rights, even political prisoner's rights. There are exceptions of course, and the anti-death penalty cause is stronger today than in years past, but there are a LOT of folks who say "If you have the son of a bitch nailed down with DNA or video or eye witnesses, kill them." Of course, we don't have to deal with those ideas in the Green Party often, but as we grow, more folks with those attitudes will speak up.
I do welcome her campaigning for the party's nomination. I believe that she can help us build a forty member local here in York county if she's willing to visit three times between now and Nov. 2008. That would *ensure* success in upcoming elections. I believe Ms. Brown has both the credentials and personality to succeeded in ways we never had a chance to succeed with Cobb as our nominee. Of course, this is a HUGE nation, and it might be absurd to imagine her giving that much attention to the Charlotte/Rock Hill/Gastonia metro area, but I do know that the results would far outlast election eve 2008.
I am not excited about running another lawyer either.
I would love it, and will gladly volunteer to make the calls, if Ms. Brown were willing to give me a script and a list of contacts to call to ask to give to her Presidential campaign. There are states who will seriously need a hard working and eloquent spokesperson to win or maintain ballot access. Maybe Rep. McKinney gives us that, but when does she announce? For those who demand a "Pure Green" candidate, McKinney may not work.
I think that the Steering Committee should be talking to Senator Gravel, Ralph Nader, Cindy Sheehan and Michael Bloomberg to see if they can be persuaded to run for our nomination. If the purpose of the race is to help grow the Green Party, wouldn't a Bloomberg campaign with it's accompanying high profile campaign be assured of getting a lot of new ballot lines for us, and infrastructure we can build on post election?
The point, I guess, is that every candidate has liabilities. We must choose the person who gets us closest to reaching our goals, regardless of personalities.
I like to see things first hand and make up my own mind about them.
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I have never called Elaine Brown a government agent.
I really would rather let this whole matter die but I can't afford for these unfounded allegations about me to be out there and remain without a response from me. I'm not sure what purpose it served to post it and leave it up at Green Commons but after reading Elaine's "Open Letter..." the following is what I sent out and it includes my e-mail, what she refers to as 'vitriolic' e-mail. I'd ask once you read this - for the sake of the Green Party - leave this matter alone.
I don't check this site all that often or I would have responded sooner. Many, many of you know how to reach me. I'm saddened that none of you contacted me for a response, but you didn't so here it is now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Contrary to the allegations of Elaine Brown, I have NOT been spreading rumors that Elaine is a government agent. Below you will find a copy of what I did send out, on which I copied Elaine. I sent it to a small number of people precisely because I don't have time or the desire to resort to such melodrama. To the best of my knowledge, Michael Feinstein has also not been spreading such rumors, at least not to me or in my presence. I don't know Michael that well but don't believe he would do any such thing.
I have NO knowledge of what happened between Elaine and the Black Panthers. But you can read below what I did say.
I'd rather not further publicize all this but I will if this keeps up. Read for yourself what I said. Please copy this to any list that you post Elaine's message to.
Sorry for you all to be dragged into this but the vast majority of you were brought into this conversation by Elaine. If there is any slander or defamation, it is by Elaine against me and others.
Nan Garrett
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 21:19:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Nan Garrett"
Subj: What really happened
To: "Nan Garrett"
I want to set the record straight on what really happened
leading up to this year's annual meeting and regarding the
incident with Elaine Brown April 14 in the Red Lobster in
Kennesaw, GA. I'll be as brief as possible and to the
point.
After the announcement of Elaine Brown entering the race
for the GP nomination for President, Greens across the
nation contacted me to inquire of my opinion, to voice
their own, and to ask questions. Some of the comments that
came to me were basic and straightforward, either for or
against Elaine. I suppose that is to be expected, as it is
rare that a candidate is universally beloved by all with an
interest in the matter. Some communicated to me that Elaine
had said 'bad' things about me or trashed my name. Although
unfortunate, this was not all that surprising due to the
previous interaction that she and I had. Actually, the only
real 'surprise' to me was the folks who contacted me to ask
me what I thought about the allegations that Elaine was a
cointelpro agent. Until the last couple of months, I wasn't
familiar with this allegation, hence the surprise.
When the first call came in about the cointelpro business,
I just listened and commented something along the line of
'huh, I hadn't heard that before'. Of course, by the second
call of this nature, I couldn't really say that again, but
I did point out that I had not heard this until recently.
One of you told me to 'research' it for myself, and told to
check the McKinney cointelpro hearing in Congress. I did
and found a transcript on line and I read it. Although I
don't mean to undermine the veracity of those speakers, it
was a mere allegation and, as a former criminal defense
attorney and judge, I guess I wasn't all that impressed.
Anybody can 'say' someone is a cointelpro agent, but so
what?
So I was then directed to read the background of where this
statement came from and I was curious by then. I've read
what appears to be the 'factual' basis for this allegation,
and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I am no
historian on the Black Panthers or their dynamics, but
there was a question raised by the facts as alleged. But I
didn't really have the time - or frankly the inclination -
to spend a great deal of time researching this. I recalled
something from Elaine's speech to our 2005 annual meeting,
where my recollection was that she said something like,
"I've been accused of all sort of things..." and my vague
recollection was that she said some things there, but I
couldn't remember exactly what she said. Since I was pretty
sure this speech was recorded by Al Herman, long time
Georgia Green who happens to be a videographer
professionally, I contacted Al and asked if he recorded
that and if I could review it or have a copy.
When I got to Al's house, I gave him more information about
the background of this request and we watched almost all of
the speech together. He gave me a copy and I brought it
home to finish watching it here. But at the time I left his
house, I guess I was shaking my head, and I recall
specifically telling him, "It's hard to believe she's a
government agent." Since I hadn't made up my mind what to
do about the requests folks had made of me to ask her
questions about this, I asked him to keep this
confidential. I mean, why stir up a big ruckus unless I was
going to take the questions to Elaine herself and get a
public admission, denial, or refusal to answer on the
record?
By the time we got to the Georgia Green Party’s annual
meeting, Saturday April 14, I had focused on wanting to ask
the question about peace and nonviolence [which was another
one brought to my attention by Greens from outside the
state], and then her speech Saturday April 14 raised
another question that I asked.
For those in attendance, I think most would agree that the
day went well, by and large. Some parts seemed to go a bit
long, but Green meetings can be like that at times.
Unknown to me at the time, Al Herman had shared my requests
and the details of it with Heather Mello the same night he
and I watched the video from the 2005 speech, after I left
his house. On Monday, April 16, Al told me that within a
matter of days, Heather had shared this with Elaine,
basically telling Elaine that we were 'investigating'
Elaine! Al also now tells me that Elaine told Heather -
back in March - something to the effect of 'Al and Nan
should just call me' or 'you should tell Al and Nan to call
me' but NO ONE TOLD ME ANY OF THAT UNTIL MONDAY APRIL 16.
No one told me that Al had told Heather, that Heather told
Elaine and referred to it as an investigation, much less
that Elaine had requested a call.
After the day was over, and it was a very long long day, we
made plans for the remainder of us, about 12-15, to adjourn
for dinner. After some frustrations about where we were
meeting, we ended up at a Red Lobster.
I walked into the bar area where folks were congregated
waiting on a dinner table to hear Al Herman sharing details
of what I had shared with him that came from Greens across
the nation, including referring to some people by name and
referral to the Women’s Caucus. I was not at all prepared
for this. Elaine, of course, turned on me and started
demanding to know more information.
Initially, I began attempting to explain how this came
about. But as I tried to explain, every word out of my
mouth was met with more demands and accusations by her,
including demands about who said what to me about her.
At one point, she was yelling at me, saying things like
'You betrayed me!' and 'you’re the reason no one would come
help me!' and even blaming me for her getting thrown off
the ballot! I was taken aback by both the viciousness of it
all, as she had been all nicey nicey all day long. She had
been pushy but she had also been relatively nice to me.
Of course part of the unrealness of these allegations by
Elaine, as many of you know, is that I raised money for
Elaine, including soliciting funds at the 2005 GP annual
meeting in Tulsa and also throwing a fundraiser for her as
part of our 2005 state annual meeting here in Georgia.
She also accused me of hanging up on her and that part is
at least partially true. In late September 2005, she had
basically told me that I was 'useless' and one of her staff
members told me that money I had convinced Georgians to
send down there was useless for the intended purpose as it
had already been spent. Now I don't raise money for many
folks, and you don't have call me useless 3 times for me to
get the message. So I stopped making financial
solicitations on her behalf.
In addition, I had spent several nights on the telephone
with Elaine, only to be berated. Despite all that, I had
made plans to travel down to Brunswick late in the campaign
to help on the ground so to speak. I had limited leave
available to me from work and I knew that I would only be
able to make one trip. One of the Lyde brothers had
arranged some type of panel discussion and invited the
candidates for mayor's race and I think city council too.
By the time it got to this last week in the race though,
the Court had thrown Elaine off the ballot. Harry Lyde
asked me to stay in Atlanta, because, he said, they might
need me to file appellate papers with the courts in
Atlanta. So I cancelled my trip to Brunswick to await
instructions from Brunswick, instructions that never came.
The other part of this that was unreal was hearing Al
Herman refer to this as ‘coming from’ the Women’s Caucus
which was patently untrue. The Women’s Caucus hasn’t
discussed Elaine Brown so I wanted to clear the air on
that.
Of course some of the irony of Elaine's accusations from
that Saturday night was that she accused me of being 'all
about me' and that I was too into drama. Drama? She was
screaming at me in a bar. Drama? I walked into a set up,
where she and Heather and Al all knew that they had shared
this information with her but none of them told me.
But yes, my life *is* about me. Since I did not stay to
refute any of this on the spot - I don't 'break bread' with
someone who has just been screaming at me - and since I’ve
heard from so many of you about things Elaine has said
about me across the nation, I just wanted to set the record
straight about what really happened. I have limited this
e-mail to folks who have an interest in this matter and
will hope to keep this as a private as possible as I don’t
see the good it does to spread this around. I *will* defend
myself, my name and my reputation. I’d rather let this
matter ‘go’, i.e. not be an ongoing matter. Maybe others
will also just let this matter drop and be done with it. We
have enough work to do without fighting each other.
Thank you for reading this.
Sincerely,
Nan Garrett
--- Elaine Brown wrote:
> May 1, 2007
>
> ELAINE BROWN¹S OPEN STATEMENT TO THE GREEN PARTY
>
> Vicious Rumormongering Will Not Deter Me
> from My Campaign for the Green Party Presidential
> Nomination
>
>
> The vicious rumor being floated among Green Party
> members that I am or
> ever have been a government agent is a lie. I have never
> consorted with the
> U.S. government or any of its myriad agencies against the
> interests of black
> people, the Black Panther Party‹of which I was a leading
> member‹or any other
> people. I have dedicated my very life to the freedom of
> all oppressed
> people. Because these rumors are unfounded, unsupported
> by one scintilla of
> evidence or any citation to any specific act, they are,
> in the end,
> indefensible and, therefore, all the more insidious. I
> stand on my history
> of struggle in the Black Panther Party and since that
> time as the strongest
> refutation of this lie.
>
> On the occasion of my announcing my candidacy for the
> Green Party
> presidential nomination, Mike Feinstein, a ranking
> California Green, and Nan
> Garrett, chair of the Georgia Green Party, launched this
> sinister campaign
> to discredit me‹Feinstein, in a series of telephone calls
> to key Greens
> across the country after meeting me in March, and
> Garrett, in a recent,
> nationally-distributed, vitriolic email. It is
> particularly ironic that,
> while neither Feinstein nor Garrett has any history of
> involvement with the
> cause of the freedom of black people, they would
> challenge the credentials
> of the former Chairman of the Black Panther Party. This
> dangerous
> rumormongering is especially egregious as to Garrett,
> who, as a lawyer,
> makes her accusation without even the appearance of
> presenting evidence.
>
p.s. from Nan: I make no accusations, hence, no need to present evidence. I did delete the remainder of Elaine's e-mail.
I want to make it clear -- belatedly, I admit -- that publishing Elaine's statement here did not and does not indicate agreement with or endorsement of it. The document was mentioned in another post at GC, but without linking to it or quoting it. That created something of a mystery for those of us not otherwise aware of the situation.
I posted a copy of what I found at Elaine's site in the interest of open discussion. But, considering the content of the statement, to do so without at least giving Nan and Michael a heads up about it was wrong, and I apologize.
We all, myself at the top of the list, need to make sure that when we make statements, here or elsewhere, about Greens or Green parties, we have and present some substantiation, in the form of solid facts, links to sources, etc. And/Or we make an effort to give a fair representation of the contrary view.
There is no advantage to us or our common goals in repeating rumors, fomenting disagreements or misunderstandings, or promoting bias.
Thank you, Nan, for being willing to address the issue here. Sorry it had to be in the form of defending yourself.
What the real story is re Elaine Brown's accusations may only ever be completely known by the parties directly involved (maybe not even all of them). But I hope that hearing from those folks first hand will help put the matter in some perspective, and let the rest of us get past it. "We
have enough work to do without fighting each other," as Nan says. Anyone who can't act on that simple principle should be fairly easy to discern as the political season proceeds.
Ahhh rumor. It would seem here that folks are only too willing to believe the very last thing they read or heard. To really get at the truth of this, and any other event based on rumor, one would need to talk to ALL persons involved, not simply post a letter posted somewhere else and then a reply from ONE of the persons involved and choose as if those are the only choices possible. But, that would make sense and take a bit of time.
How about this....all in-party gossip and public postings of that gossip be banned? Radical, I know.
Commoner posted text from the most prominent announced candidate seeking our Presidential nomination on this site. She posted no "rumors", but rather posted text drawn directly from Ms. Brown's website. She did the right thing. All of us Greens need to know, as best we can, what is going on in our party.
As to Ms. Garrett's assertion that Commoner or any of the rest of us "owed" her a heads up...get real. Anyone, including Lawyer Garrett, can set up a Google Alert to notify them whenever their name appears in a blog post or news article. That she has chosen not to do this is not anyone's fault but hers.
To be clear, I can't imagine either Garrett or Feinstein doing what they are accused of. I also can't imagine Lawyer Brown being a government agent. I do think that we all should try to pull in the same direction. That does not mean, however, that we must ignore anything negative about our party and it's leaders.
Jam Boi has taken me to task for complaining long and loud that G-PAX, the "Peace Action Committee", still has not complied with internal party regulations that require that all standing committees must have Policies and Procedures approved by the Green National Committee. He told me here that I should cut that committee some slack, and that he would encourage that committee to get it's Ps & Ps submitted and approved. How's that coming Jam Boi? How long should I wait?
The bottom line is, making fundamental changes to our society via the political process is tough work, and none of us should be surprised or insulted if our ideas, opinions or actions are taken to task by other party members. If we can't be fully aware of what is going on we cannot make valid decisions. This is not bad. We are not a social club, nor are we children.
Finally, the wisdom of posting Ms. Brown's "Open Letter" to this site is affirmed by pointing out that Ms. Brown has removed that same "Open Letter" from her website.
The issue in these postings, this 'dustup' as its been called, is that only two persons involved have posted publicly, but other persons' names are used as part of the gossip going on. So, Nan Garrett posts about two people gossiping about her to Elaine Brown. Elaine Brown posts about two people gossiping about her to others. In all of this, we only get more and deeper rumor, who knows what really happened, but for sure, these two persons have presented this as 'THE TRUTH'. Is there a point to the posting - is the informal internet court really able to even give an accurate account? What about the perspective of those who haven't weighed in?
My original point above was that no one will ever really know what happened from piecemeal posting like this, but what really happens is that folks get half the picture, but almost inevitably take sides from that incomplete picture and so, candidacies are harmed, reputations ruined and even those who say they don't pay attention to such things will meet Al Herman, Heather Mello or Mike Feinstein or even Elaine Brown and Nan Garrett and part of the impression formed will include data from this report.
What social justice got served here? How is this non-violent?
I didn't say anyone "owed" me a heads up. I said, "I'm saddened that none of you contacted me for a response, but you didn't so here it is now."
And I only said that b/c JamBoi's comment asking for my response went 11 days before I got around to this.
SHAME.
What is the root of airing this "dirty laundry" on the internet?