No Balloons, but Lots of Talk as Greens Gather

There are more beards than ties, more shorts than suits at the third and final national political convention being held in Southern California this week. And unlike at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, there are actually more delegates than reporters.

The Green Party’s five-day, national conference, “Building Critical Mass--Green Gathering ‘96,” has pitched camp in Westwood and will culminate Monday with the nomination of the party’s first presidential candidate, pioneer consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

“It’s more substantive than all the balloons flying around at the Republican convention,” said Mike Feinstein, a Green Party member and candidate for the Santa Monica City Council.

There were, in fact, no balloons at all visible as about 350 Green Party activists from 30 states and seven countries gathered Friday at the UCLA campus. Balloons, after all, would be bad for the environment, and the Greens say that they--unlike a lot of other political types--believe in practicing what they preach.

Even the press passes were printed on recycled paper.

“Ours is a real conference where we come to exchange ideas and to learn from each other,” said Jana Cutlip, a woman from West Virginia who puffed on a pipe and wore a hat festooned with buttons.

The Republican convention, she said, was “made for TV and not real.”

Green ideals, Cutlip and others said, include the defense of the environment and support for affirmative action and social equality.

“My belief is that everyone is really a Green,” she said. “Everybody wants clean water, clean air, clean food and a safe place to raise their kids.”

Those attending the conference will be able to attend panel discussions on a variety of topics unlikely to be touched upon at either of the major party conventions, including: “Eco-Feminism,” “Lawless Logging of Ancient Forests” and “Ending Corporate Rule in America.”

At a panel discussion titled “Green Visions,” activists shared thoughts on what a Green world might look like. John Rensenbrink, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Maine, imagined a nation without rampant poverty in its cities.

“We have to get across the notion that we don’t have to have homeless people on the streets,” Rensenbrink said. “It’s absurd. It’s just a disaster what’s happening in our society on this issue.”

There were no television-network cameras present to capture Rensenbrink’s impassioned comments. Nor did the networks cover any other convention events Friday, as the gathering entered its second day.

MTV and C-SPAN are expected to arrive later, for the briefest of visits. Only a handful of reporters covered Friday’s proceedings, most them of them representing “alternative” newspapers and radio. (By contrast, there were 15,000 reporters, covering the work of 4,000 delegates and alternates, at the Republican convention in San Diego).

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Still, most of the Greens seemed delighted to be getting any coverage at all.

“We’ve had more press than we’ve ever had before,” Feinstein said. “This is a breakthrough for the Green movement in this country.”

Those few reporters present Friday were treated to some old-fashioned, radical political theater courtesy of Jed Whittaker, a 38-year-old longshoreman and Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate from Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Enlivening a midday party press conference, Whittaker opened a plastic bag and produced a beautiful (if somewhat malodorous) specimen of Alaskan pink salmon. The piscine protest, he explained, was meant to dramatize the fact that fisheries discard millions of pounds of salmon in the production of salmon eggs.

“Does anybody have a barbecue?” he asked as the fish dripped on his shoes. “Because I’d like to feed some people with this fish.”

Earlier, Whittaker had given a Times reporter the only copy of his press release. A few minutes later, he asked for it back.

Unlike the highly programmed and choreographed Republican fete in San Diego, the Green Party convention operates on a more relaxed schedule. “No rush,” one organizer said when a press conference began a few minutes late Friday. “We’re on Green time.”

Organizers eschewed the usual red, white and blue bunting for green and white flags, including an earth-tone version of the American flag with sunflowers in the field where the stars would otherwise be. A vase with real sunflowers adorned the table at Friday’s press conference.

Still, for all their counterculture trappings, the Greens share one key element with the Republicans and Democrats: The outcome of their nominating convention is a foregone conclusion.

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Consumer activist Nader is already on the ballot in 12 states across the U.S., and activists say they hope to have him on the ballot in at least 25 states by November. Most importantly, Nader is already on the ballot in California and New York, where his presence might help the Green Party take crucial votes from President Clinton.

Greg Jan, chairman of the California Committee to Draft Ralph Nader, said he believes the Green Party and its candidates will provide another choice for voters weary of the two-party system.

“If you’ve got 30 or more flavors of soda to choose from,” he asked, “why can’t you have more than two parties?”