JS

Yes. In my view, the struggle is a win in itself to be standing up and refusing to be silenced in the face of a predatory corporate, capitalist political system which is destroying us.

The differences between the two parties are not enough to save your job, your life, or the planet, and that’s clear. We need another base from which we can truly organize.

In the words of Frederick Douglass, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” We need to build a political party that can build power and build demand.

As far as I’m concerned we’ve already won in that there are thousands of new people pouring in who are hard workers. Our challenge now is to grow our organization as a political party.

We have established many new chapters, and we have tens of thousands more volunteers and donors. We now have a funding base.

And we now have the commitment of, I think, the most activist layer of the Bernie Sanders campaign. They really understand that we need a politics of resistance, and they see the Green Party as the umbrella that can help build those politics.

Building our organization for the long haul, to me, is a win. We’ve already made significant strides in that direction.

If we get to 5 percent we then have funding. We have, I believe, $20 million worth of funding between now and the next election, which is quite a game-changer. Already I think we have a funding base so that we can continue the work.

We have made enormous inroads with the social movements, and that includes some of the indigenous movements.

I don’t know if you saw Democracy Now! yesterday. Winona LaDuke was on with the indigenous movement in North Dakota resisting the Bakken Pipeline there, and expressed support. I’ve been invited to come and support them, which I’m going to try to do in time for a particular hearing that’s going to happen there.

Many of the Black Lives Matter constituencies, like in the Twin Cities where I just went, were extremely supportive — they haven’t formally endorsed, but many of the organizers are now moving over into our campaign.

But I think just as it’s important to join forces with social movements, it’s also important for social movements to understand that it’s not enough to simply build the movement — we also have to fight for collective political power.

In the same way that Syriza represented a new joining of forces politically, or Podemos or Jeremy Corbyn really represent the emergence of a much more principled and radical political force, that’s happening in this country.

The Green Party is providing the foundation to work with other small and independent parties of the left through Left Elect. I think things are underway right now, which are extremely exciting, and which are not going to stop.