Commissar Camejo's Firm Grip on California Greens

The very first of the Ten Key Values of the US Green Party is

GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect their lives and not be subject to the will of another. Therefore, we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them.

Therefore you'd think the Greens would be sensitive to powerful cliques forming inside their party, particularly if those factions were linked to organisations well known for authoritarian ideologies and tactics.

Ironically it appears that the California Green Party which has roughly 50% of the party's national membership, has come under the control of such a faction.

Peter Camejo is undisputed power broker in the California Green Party. His allies (the Marxist International Socialist Organisation) and supporters (many of them old Trotskyists, or employees or directors of his company, Progressive Asset Management) dominate the Party at its highest levels.

Here's some of the proof.


The above book, "California Under Corporate Rule", serves as a promotional tool for Camejo's campaign for the California governorship and is a guide to the Party's programme.

Besides Camejo, the authors are Todd Chretien, Sarah Knopp, Rachel Odes, Don Bechler, Mehul Thakker, Forrest Hill and Donna Warren

Todd Chretien, Sarah Knopp and Rachel Odes are all members of the International Socialist Organisation.

Don Bechler, a San Francisco based health activist, was a member of Camejo's former Socialist Workers Party from at latest the early 70s to at least 1996.

Peter Camejo heads a Green Party MVP slate into the California elections scheduled for November 7th. MVP stands for "Million Votes for Peace," a campaign in which these candidates aim to garner one million votes from California voters that are against the war in Iraq.

Some of Camejo's key MVP team members are;

Mike Wyman Green candidate for California Attorney General


My involvement in the Green Party began in 1993, when I returned to the Bay Area from Washington, D.C. I served as the Treasurer of the Green Party of California from 2000 thru 2005. I have been involved in the.... Ralph Nader Presidential campaigns in 2000, the Peter Camejo campaigns for Governor in 2002 and 2003, and the Nader/Camejo Presidential campaign in 2004.

Before I joined the Green Party I was active in the Central American solidarity movement for thirteen years, first as a member of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and then as the editor of the newsweekly, El Salvador On Line, which was published in Washington, D.C. by the Center for Central American Studies.

In the sixties and seventies I was, as you might guess, involved in the anti-war movements, the movement against apartheid and Portuguese colonialism in Africa, and other issues too numerous to mention.

Wyman was also active in the early '90s, with Camejo, in the Committees of Correspondence, a Marxist-Leninist group formed as an offshoot of the Communist Party USA. He travelled in March 1993, with CoC leaders Camejo, Carl Bloice and Malik Miah to the International Green Left Conference in Sydney, hosted by Australian Marxist-Leninists, the Democratic Socialist Party.

Incidentally, future NZ Green Party leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons also attended that conference.

Wyman is am a member of the board of directors of Peter Camejo's company, Progressive Asset Management

Mehul Thakker Green candidate for California State Treasurer


Mehul Thakker is an Investment Advisor in Oakland, CA with a focus on Socially Responsible Investment and Community Development. He is passionate about securing Economic Justice for low income and minority groups in the U.S., and strives to educate on how to use the power of investment to create positive social change locally and globally.

Mehul has served as Treasurer of NetIP-SFBA (Network of Indian Professionals) and is active in the movement for shareholder rights and corporate social responsibility. He is also a member of the CA League of Conservation Voters, The Sierra Club, and The Gujarati Cultural Association of the SF Bay Area.

Thakker is an investment advisor for Peter Camejo's company, Progressive Asset Management.

Forrest Hill Green candidate for California Secretary of State


For the past 30 years, Dr Hill has been involved in grassroots politics. He has served as an officer in the Michigan chapter of Ralph Nader’s Public Interest Research Group, coordinated several local and national political campaigns, and traveled to Nicaragua in support of coffee growers during the Reagan-sponsored Contra war.

Dr Hill...served as an elected official on the Green Party of California coordinating committee, chaired the committee on Green campaigns and is currently a national delegate to the Green Party of the United States.

Interestingly Forrest worked as a trackman for Conrail in the 1970's and was a member of the United Transportation Union.

This manual labouring stint is suspicious as in the late '70s, Camejo's Socialist Workers Party ordered all its college educated cadres in labouring jobs in order to connect with the working class. Combined with his trip to Nicaragua, it indicates the possibility that Hill was also a supporter of the Socialist Workers Party.

I quote from an article that Forrest Hill co-authored with Todd Chretien, The Importance of a Green Left from Synthesis/Regeneration 39(Winter 2006)

Green politics will not work without a left critique of capitalism, both in terms of its dependence on the perpetual destruction of the natural resource base and its exploitation of workers. Moving to a sustainable economy necessarily requires a radical shift away from a growth economy, and all that entails, to a steady state economy where the aggregate throughput of natural recourses is within the limits of the ecosystem.

Hill is a financial advisor for Peter Camejo's Progressive Asset Management.

Todd Chretien Green candidate for US Senate


After graduating from Gray-New Gloucester High School, he entered Middlebury College in 1988, but after a year, left to spend eight months teaching English in El Salvador and Nicaragua. He returned to school in 1991, entering Columbia University. He left Columbia before graduating, after having been suspended for a semester for involvement in the protest occupation of a campus building. In 1994 he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he graduated from San Francisco State University in 2003 with a B.A. in history.

In 1988, Chretien was elected as a delegate for Jesse Jackson to the Maine Democratic Party convention. Soon after entering Columbia, he became active in the movement to stop the first Gulf War, and joined the International Socialist Organization.

Since 1994, Chretien has worked as a writer and a full-time activist and organizer for the International Socialist Organization. He has been active in movements defending affirmative action, promoting global justice, and opposing war in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. He organized a 2005 tour of the U.S. by antiwar British MP, George Galloway.

Chretien is a member of the National Writers Union, and writes regularly for Socialist Worker, the International Socialist Review, Counterpunch and other publications.

Since 2000, he has worked with local Green Party activists and campaigns, including organizing large student meetings for Peter Camejo's campaign for Governor of California in 2003 and volunteering for Matt Gonzalez's 2003 campaign for Mayor of San Francisco.

He then served as the statewide field coordinator for the Nader/Camejo 2004 presidential campaign.

Chretien does NOT work for Camejo's Progressive Asset Management.

So Peter Camejo's key people are almost all current Trotskyists, former Trotskyists, or dependent on Camejo's company for their income.

A very healthy example of Green Party "democracy" at work.