New Green Party chapter for Valley-Shore in Connecticut

From left Shoreline Green Party members are Keith Foster, Alex Foster and Cynthia Hyland at the meeting in Deep River. From left Shoreline Green Party members are Keith Foster, Alex Foster and Cynthia Hyland at the meeting in Deep River. Photo: Contributed Photo Photo: Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close New Green Party chapter for Valley-Shore in Connecticut 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

DEEP RIVER >> Thirty-five people from a cluster of shoreline and Connecticut River valley towns spent last Sunday afternoon in Deep River listening to speeches, singing, eating...and cheering the news that they had attained chapterhood. It was a big day for the Green Party in Connecticut.

Chapterhood in the green Party (it requires a certain number of registered Greens) means the chapters can now run candidates and, said Owen Charles of Madison, chapter chairman, “get involved in important issues and legislative political advocacy and upturn the status quo of a troubled political system”

As a side note to upturning political practices, the strengthened Green party chapter also will be taking its place in Connecticut’s history as one in a long line of minor parties, and minor parties that Charles said he believes can bring about major changes. (The Republican party was in fact a minor party until Abraham Lincoln transformed it into a major party, Charles says.)

Chapterhood in the Green Party means chapters can run candidates for public office, and, said Charles, “get involved in important issues.” (A major issue is “to get the big money out of politics and put the people back in.” said Charles.)

Getting involved in issues and trying to upturn them has often been the goal of minor parties. Through the years, their names have shown their inclinations. There are or have been the Peoples Party of Connecticut, the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist Labor Party and the Libertarian Party.

As for the Green Party, its origins go back to 1984, and Connecticut’s Ralph Nader was the party’s first presidential candidate in 1996. Disturbing the status quo is the usual aim of a minor party.

Charles has been, he said, a Democrat for 40 years, and was until last fall, when he resigned from the Madison Democratic Town Committee. He campaigned for Bernie Sanders, and, borrowing from Bernie slogans, wants people now to “feel the Green.”

Next step will be regular chapter meetings, and, said Charles, getting “involved in important issues and legislative advocacy...Now the work really begins.”