The Green Party of Alameda County

There are currently over 12,000 registered Green Party members in Alameda County, with over 10,000 living in the Oakland/Berkeley area.  We have been continuously active since the Green Party was formally founded in California at the beginning of 1992, over 15 years ago. One of our noted activities has been publishing a Voter Guide for every major election since 1992, with articles analyzing each race and ballot measure, and providing voting recommendations.  We mail a copy of the Voter Guide to each address with a registered Green Party member and distribute thousands of additional copies around town, for a typical print run of 20,000 copies for each election.
 
For over four years we have held monthly "Green Sunday" programs on a wide range of activist issues, for which we often feature outside speakers.  We also publish a newsletter several times a year, and of course we work on election campaigns, to help Greens become elected officeholders, as well as to pass progressive local ballot measures. As examples, last year we were part of a victorious coalition to pass an Instant Runoff Voting measure for Oakland, and we also played a major role in a referendum campaign to change the plans for the largest Oakland development project in the past 50 years, the outcome of which has yet to be determined by the courts.
 
Our volunteers have a wealth of skills and backgrounds, and also include several who have previously helped coordinate conferences or gatherings, for up to 1000 people. Our members regularly volunteer for Green Party and other activist projects, with as many as 100 Greens working on a single project at the same time.
 
The work of the Green Party of Alameda County is governed by our ten-member County Council.  County Council members are elected by the registered county Green Party members every two years, in the Spring Primary primary election. Brief information about our current County Council members, and three other key local volunteers who are helping with our application to host the convention, is as follows:
 
County Council members:
 
Jan Arnold is a long-time activist who has worked on a wide range of issues, such as the Nuclear Free Zone efforts in the 1980's and the struggle for single-payer health care.  Jan's commitment to an electoral alternative included the Peace and Freedom Party from 1968 until she joined the Greens in 1992.  She currently serves on the county Green Party's outreach committee, volunteers on election campaigns, and has served for several years as an alternate member of the Green Party National Committee.
 
Victoria Ashley is a psychology researcher and has been a Board member of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in Berkeley and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. She is currently a volunteer research consultant with the website 911research/wtc7.net and committee member of Scholar for 9/11 Truth & Justice.  She has researched and written many articles for our Voter Guide, and she was recently elected to the Green Party of California State Coordinating Committee.
 
Wendy Carson has been an anti-war and union activist, and she is an active member of the National Black Justice Coalition (an African American LGBTQ civil rights organization).  She currently is the Development Program Coordinator for the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. She served as the Chair of the Progressive LGBTQ Caucus for Aimee Allison for Oakland City Council, and she is helping to coordinate our recently-formed Greens of Color group.
 
Greg Jan has held posts with several nonprofit organizations, such as Co-coordinator of Berkeley Earth Day, Operations Director of the county food bank, and President of Oakland's Ohana Asian Cultural Center.  Active with local, state, and the national Greens since the late 1980's, he was Co-coordinator of the 1988 "Greening the West" gathering, which had an attendance of over a thousand   He has worked on many election campaigns and has served for over five years as a member of the Green Party National Committee.
 
Tahan Jones was a conscientious objector to the 1990 Gulf war and served 7 months in the brig for his beliefs.  He has been an activist ever since, on issues such as police brutatlity, military base conversion, and anti-recruitment in local high schools.  He is a professional cabinetmaker, and is currently helping the Green Party with outreach, focused on diversity and youth.
 
Khurshid Khoja is a Muslim-American attorney and chair of the civil rights and pro bono committee of the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California.  He is a member of the Wind Energy practice at Thelen, Reid, Brown, Raysman and Steiner, LLP.  He is the 2007 Conference Program Committee co-chair for the National Association of Muslim Lawyers, and he regularly serves as a National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer at progressive political demonstrations.  He has volunteered for the Green Party as editor of our newsletter and in getting local Greens more involved in the civil rights struggle on behalf of the Muslim, Arab and immigrant communities.
 
Bob Marsh has traveled to Africa seven times in the past two years in his role as a computer consultant for a non-profit organization that is helping to install solar-powered communication and computing networks in poor rural communities.  He has served for many years as the county Green Party's Treasurer, and has also previously volunteered for many other local and state party tasks. In addition, he was recently elected to serve on the Green Party National Committee.
 
Patti Marsh is a musician and a volunteer for several non-profit groups, such as Food Not Bombs.  She coordinates email communications to our 800-person county listserve, is active with the county Green Party outreach committee, and with coordinating our monthly 'Green Sunday' speaker programs.  She has also volunteered innumerable times for tabling, phone banks, hosting events, and many of the other tasks that keep our county Green Party functioning.
 
Wilson Riles was a member of the Oakland City Council from 1979 to 1992, and served as the Pacific Mountain Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee for ten years. He ran for Mayor of Oakland against Jerry Brown in 2002, and then became Principal of Oakland's High School for Social Justice. In 2006 he was a member of the Aimee Allison for Oakland City Council campaign team, and he is currently active in our recently-formed Greens of Color group.
 
Kate Tanaka has volunteered countless hours for many social and environmental justice campaigns, as well as for Ralph Nader for President and Matt Gonzalez for Mayor of San Francisco. During the past year, she has been one of the leaders of the Better Oak-to-Ninth Committee, which has been working to qualify a citywide referendum on the largest single development project in Oakland in the past half-century.  She was also recently elected to serve on the Green Party National Committee.
 
Key other volunteers:
 
Leslie Bonett has been a Green Party member since 1992 and she served for 5 years on our County Council.  She is on the GPUS Platform Committee, Lavender and Women's Caucuses, has served since 2002 on the GNC, and in 2004 was the Cobb-LaMarche National Fundraising director. She's lived in Oakland, the lesbian hub of the Bay Area, for 20 years, and is very active in that community. This year she started monthly Singalongs, combining her organizing skills and love of Broadway musicals.

John Morton joined the Green Party during the Nader campaign in 2000, then worked on Peter Camejo's campaign for California Governor and Aimee Allison's for Oakland City Council.  He has served on both the Alameda County Council and the California State Coordinating Committee, attends Oakland Greens meetings and did logistics organizing for the statewide Green Gathering in Oakland in 2005. He also sits on the board of a local non-profit group helping Burmese refugees.
 
Pamela Spevack is an activist who first worked as a feminist with Berkeley NOW in the 70’s as their Legal Representative. She has held posts with Women Organized for Employment, Options for Women Over Forty, and the Lyon Martin Health Center. She has worked on several Green Party election campaigns including those of Ralph Nader, Wilson Riles, Audie Bock and Amiee Allison. She served a term on the Alameda County Council and was recently elected as an alternate member of the State Coordinating Committee.
 
 

The Oakland Greens are a local of the Green Party of Alameda County (GPAC),
the county organization of the Green Party of California (GPCA).

We welcome people with a Green perspective relating to the Oakland area (Oakland, Emeryville, Piedmont, Alameda)
www.cagreens.org/oakland | oakland@cagreens.org | 510-436-3722 | P.O. Box 3727 Oakland, CA 94609.

Register to vote! Register Green, and remember to reregister whenever you move