cause it wasn't this the completion of a of a campaign promise basically i mean in order to get the green party along with the with the labor coalition the prime minister had you know had committed in advance that this was going. to get election the prime minister actually had said that she wasn't going to embrace a carbon tax this was really an effort right this is really an effort by the green party which was an essential part of. the coalition coming to power that pushed for within the coalition and so i think it shows the power of the green party in australia and the fact that that even though the polls aren't totally favorable for this it shows that there is some groundswell. for leadership on this issue kyle your thoughts on greenpeace you're with greenpeace usa green but you know this is happening all around the world there's many other countries that have done this kind of thing or variations on cap and trade relations. what do you think the prospects are here in the united states well that's a good question i mean i think it's important to talk about the australia legislation because i

coal really fueling china's coal boom and so there was a coalition of parties there led by the green party that really push this through and what's going to be impressive to see is whether it withstands the continued political challenges as the fossil fuel industry fights. to try and repeal this law i think there's a lot of lessons to be learned with the united states it's a similar type of political situation where you have very influential fossil fuel lobbies with very sympathetic lawmakers to their cause it wasn't this the completion of a of a campaign promise basically i mean in order to get the green party along with that with the labor coalition prime minister had you know had committed in advance that this was going. to get election the prime minister actually had said that she wasn't going to embrace a carbon tax this was really an effort right this is really an effort by the green party which was an essential part of. the coalition coming to power that pushed for within the coalition and so i think it shows the power of the green party in australia and the fact that that even thou

eric brooks, representing the sand for cisco green party. -- representing the san francisco green party. talking about the build out fo a clean power csf, -- for clean power sf, when we met with south, we said we would step up to the play to help fight for these increases in. not only because of some kind of cynical tit-for-tat, but because getting renewable energy in the city, getting cca to work properly, is dependent on making sure we are paying cost. conserving electricity is less dependent on getting people to pay real costs for electricity. we have done that on water for decades. we need to do it with electricity. the other key reason that we, as advocates, are ready to step up, and we want to make sure we can step up, is to make sure that the task order for the scoping for the build out of work is fully engaged within the next couple of days so that we are under way. fully fleshing out all of the locations in the city, including city college building, hospitals, etc. where we can get strong efficiency installations, renewable installations, demand response, those things over the

i am a green party activist. i am running because i have become incredibly concerned about what is going on in the world in this country. it seems that we have gone so far to the right. i believe that the values of the green party would make an enormous difference. the values of grass-roots democracy, environmental wisdom, and nonviolence. i feel that the election of a green mayor in san francisco would have an enormous effect. not only on some francisco, but the entire country. it would open political discourse at a time when the fate of our planet is hanging in the balance. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is david schiu. we are going to spend a lot of time talking about what we believe in. i want to talk about who i am a little bit. raised in boston, born in cleveland by immigrant parents, we can to some francisco 15 years ago for what we all love about the city. our commitment to diversity and social justice and innovation. i have been fortunate to work as a civil rights attorney, the founder of

eric brooks, representing the sand for cisco green party. -- representing the san francisco green party. talking about the build out fo a clean power csf, -- for clean power sf, when we met with south, we said we would step up to the play to help fight for these increases in. not only because of some kind of cynical tit-for-tat, but because getting renewable energy in the city, getting cca to work properly, is dependent on making sure we are paying cost. conserving electricity is less dependent on getting people to pay real costs for electricity. we have

. >> germany's green party is celebrating its most successful year in politics. at a party convention, leaders say they are moving well beyond just green issues. the country's nuclear phase-out was top of the agenda. now they are focusing on financial issues as well. and also the plan to rescue the euro zone from its debt crisis. they plan to become the king makers in the 2013 elections. speaking of the debt crisis, italy. not having a good time. >> all fresh ideas are welcome at this point. do you have any suggestions? it is new government that a clear message friday. midmarket expected to move immediately on market reforms. on the bond auction, yields rose further to 6.5%. interest on the longer-term debt soared far above levels that are sustainable for public financing in italy. just one day after the new leader mario monti met with leaders in germany and france but failed to make progress, he received his military affairs commissioner. >> he wasted no time in getting to rome to quiz the new leader on the economic plans. the eu's military affairs commissioner p

commissioners, the board of supervisors, the city attorney, and now the san francisco democratic party, the green party, the labor council, virtually every democratic club in the city, parents republic of schools, all opposed proposition h. >> i cannot have you give an opinion on -- >> and i thought the previous man spoke. >> he was challenging the board on a statement made. >> speaking about a valid arguments, there is a great concern among educators in san francisco that if the school board has to revisit the student assignment policy, it would lead to the kind of chaos we saw a number of years ago. that is not evidence tonight. we do not want to go back to the riotous meetings we had. there was a woman here earlier tonight to said this was an amazingly civil school board meeting, and that is because of the good work of the commissioners here. diversity of our student population would allow parents to choose the best school for their kids. the 6000 educators applaud you for the work you did with the current student assignment policy, and we believe the efforts to overturn the policy will lead to enor

. >> eric brooks with the san francisco green party, chair of the sustainability working group as well as the local grassroots organizations. first just to back up what looks like a whistle-blower just said, also remember that it was the firm that was in charge of the asbestos in the first bayview hunters point development and was culpable for not turning those monitors on and maintaining them property. there are triangulations here, and i want to mention that it needs to take a long second luck. that gives me to the next point i want to make, just the folks from the southeast that have come up and said -- i have done some work on environmental issues at the southeast part of this community that was ground zero. i know that as a white greeney from the western side of the city, i had listened to them and let them die the process. please take what they are saying as gold, because if that community doesn't run the process, it is not going to be a sustainable community. the people there need to be foundational to the process. the other thing i wanted to bring up is that i noticed in the ge

the green party will have their challengers in 35 or 40 states and maybe more. arty and it will be similar to past elections where small parties will try to challenge the two-party dictator ships that freezes them out of the debates and challenging. >> and the argument would be you have to hold your nose with the lesser of the evils. a third party entry on the left would tip to the republican nominee. you agree with that? >> not necessarily. my votes come from hispanic and libitarians. look at the convergance that we talked about for between ron paul and myself on things like criminal wars of ark gression. >> there is a commonality there. >> and you know, whether the people agree or disagree on the issues, you and i chatted about this. you were ahead of them and saying this stuff long before other said them. you did have an extra jump on them and so why not jump in the race? >> i did warn about excessive corporate power and over government and corporate state, and that certainly borne out. that was part of the teparty revolt. you can't get anywhere if you ever no

i'm with the san francisco green party. i want to throw back this comment to the communications. i thought there was going to be a verbal presentation on the composting toilet tissue and hopefully you all saw that presentation and it was really exciting to see such an excellent report that shows it to the extent you're going to do major sewer improvements, it could actually cost effective to install composting toilet systems even in large buildings. that is a really exciting piece of work. every time i have run into tommy in the halls -- it's great to see this come forward and it's very exciting. i have a couple of suggestions. in bed basis and a couple of months ago, there was a news report about a contractor in the east bay that is going to make a presentation to some agency which was never specified in the san francisco government doing new outdoor toilets because we all know how successful the french ones were, and that is not very. these new toilets would be ego toilets, well design, open-air toilets, a lot like some of them in europe. very cutting edge stuff. even though th

. >> eric brooks representing san francisco green party and the local grassroots organization. our city, which has 4000 supporters in san francisco, most of whom vote. i want to start out with a really positive sign that we're here with you after four years. we passed an ordinance in 2007, and now for the first time in four years the san francisco public utilities commission, local wait-and-see information commission and community advocates are together, before you moving forward with this program. sfpuc needs to be thanked for getting us there, and especially general managing -- general manager harrington who did the heavy lifting to get is on the same page where we could get to this hearing date. that is the big pot appeared in another positive is really tell the kickstart plan. they have given us a way to start this thing in motion. what we need now is to get back to the original vision that started in 1999 when the supervisor and local power first introduced a resolution in san francisco for community choice aggregation asking the state of california to institute it. the re

eric brooks, representing san francisco green party and the grass-roots organization our city. i want to concur with all the speakers, and add a little more to that. i am involved with various grass-roots organizations in the city. everyone of them i know of, and every grassroots and neighborhood organization involved in parks that i know of, is utterly outraged with the behavior of rec and park right now. rec and park has spent many years privatizing, raising funds, bringing in restaurant chains, and turning -- aiming at turning our public spaces that are free and open to the public for general use without cost into a virtual -- into a proto disneyland. that is not what the people of san francisco want to happen to our public spaces. we want to reverse privatization and defend the public use of spices. because the sfpuc has a long history with had ceci -- hetch hetchy, you understand the importance of watersheds and habitats at a place like lake merced. these places are primarily watershed have the parents that not places where rec and park makes money off of. whatever agreeme

a member of the green party who heads the gative committee has run into obstacles. >> i call on the ministries to deliver the documents to us as soon as possible uncensored and in the greatest possible detail. >> the amount of work is enormous. the committee wants to clear up at least six corruption scandals, but the wheels of justice grind slowly. >> things should be going much faster. the cases stretch out over years and that leads to anxiety among the population because people get the impression those concerned will get away with it somehow. and that's not the case. >> to curb nepotism in usia, democratic structures will have to be ainge -- anchored on much stronger foundations. >> all over britain, homeless people fell big issue, earning a little money and a lot of self-respect. it was the third such specialized paper and has been celebrating. there was a nighttime walk that few see and as the crisis kills off well paid city jobs, more and more people are joining their ranks. >> her place is in the middle of the garden in london's theater district. but her stage is in front of the theater