JOSHUA FRANK: How the Green Party Slays Their Own - Interview John Murphy

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By Joshua Frank -- World News Trust

John Murphy is running an antiwar pro-civil liberties campaign for U.S. Congress from the 16th District of Pennsylvania (www.johnmurphyforcongress.org). Murphy, a Green, was denied his party’s endorsement last month because, as Murphy believes, he supported Ralph Nader and was critical of David Cobb in 2004. Murphy recently spoke with Joshua Frank about his campaign as well as the future of the Green Party.

Joshua Frank: John, you've been a Green Party member for a while now. Can you tell us a bit about what capacity you've played in your state's Green Party?

John Murphy: I never wanted to get involved in the internal operations of the state Green Party. I thought this was better left to younger men and women. I have, however, been active in helping campaign for Green candidates at the local level. My political activism took on an interesting form in the last few years. I became what some people call a "photo essayist." I simply began by writing to my friends and business associates several years ago asking them to contact their senators to prevent an unconstitutional transference of legislative power to the executive branch whereby President Bush would be given unlimited power to wage war at his discretion.

These simple letters to friends became more and more sophisticated as I began to embellish them with editorial cartoons, articles written by other people and then my own comments often spicing up my essays with my own form of editorial cartoons. Now I have lost count of how many thousands of people receive them.

I have been active in the antiwar movement ever since the 60s but the Nader campaign of 2004 gave me the opportunity to use many of the skills I have developed over the last 60 years as an educator, union negotiator and business owner in support of his campaign. Consequently, when the Nader campaign needed someone to represent Mr. Nader in a series of debate-like forums throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania, they chose me. When they wanted someone to speak prior to his press conferences and fundraisers in Philadelphia, they chose me. When they wanted someone to represent the independent candidacy of Nader/Camejo in the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition, an organization consisting of the leaders of the "minor parties" organized to change the egregious ballot access laws in Pennsylvania, they again chose me.

My organizational and leadership skills coupled with my seniority were put to much greater use in this capacity than serving in any position as an internal officer in the official state Green Party organization. I paid those kinds of dues many years ago when I held several functional vice-presidencies, including chairman of the board, of a prominent professional association in Philadelphia.

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