Kshama Sawant on the Real Reason for Jacobin Magazine’s “Hatchet Job” on Chris Smalls

I’m currently reading Chris Smalls’s recently released memoir, When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class. It just so happens that within days of the book’s release, Jacobin magazine published what many people consider a hit piece on Smalls.

I appreciate Kshama Sawant’s response . . .

Jacobin magazine, the principal mouthpiece of the leadership of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), released a hit piece on Amazon labor leader Chris Smalls.

It could be legit if Jacobin had had an honest critique of Smalls to clarify what class struggle unionist leaders should be doing. But the article is not that at all.

It’s a hatchet job against a leading labor activist who has refused to toe the line of the DSA and the business unionist labor leaders who give cover to the so-called progressive Democrats and to the Democratic Party as a whole, despite shocking betrayals by them against working people.

The crux of the real reason why Jacobin went after Smalls is contained in this sentence: “[Smalls] blames the two-party system for the state of the American labor movement . . .”

Smalls is spot on about this and the need to break from the Democratic and Republican parties. We need a new party of the working class.

The DSA leadership, on the other hand, sees giving cover to the Democratic Party as job number one. The Democratic Party is the party under whom the genocide in Gaza began and which engineered the breaking of the railroad workers’ strike — both under President Joe Biden. ALL Democrats in the House, including DSA star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) voted to break the strike. The Democratic Party is one of the two most powerful capitalist parties in the world, and in no way represents working people or the oppressed.

Business unionist labor leaders are those who have made peace with the capitalist system and are driven by protecting their careers, which means placating the bosses, not organizing the rank and file against the bosses to win substantive working-class victories. Refusing to fight the bosses also means aligning with the parties of the bosses, like the Democratic Party.

The overwhelming majority of the labor leadership today is business unionist, with some crucial exceptions like Smalls. We need a reckoning in the labor movement.

Brother Smalls has put his life on the line for the anti-war movement in solidarity with the Palestinian people against the Israeli state’s genocide bankrolled by both the Democratic and Republican parties. Smalls went on a Gaza aid flotilla carrying food, baby formula, diapers and medicine in the context of catastrophic levels of mass starvation in Gaza. The flotilla was attacked by the Israeli military, who physically assaulted Smalls, and kicked and choked him.

In contrast, AOC has voted for the Iron Dome which is part of the Israeli state’s genocidal apparatus.

For having the temerity to expose AOC and other self-described “progressive” politicians, Smalls is called “narcissistic” by Jacobin [left], a term the magazine’s editors were apparently forced to retract after they got huge amounts of flak on all social media.

Personal attacks and character assassination like in this case are often used by the political establishment’s spokespeople as proxy for their real objections – in this case, the threat they feel from Smalls openly calling out the Democratic Party’s actual role.

The only way of rebuilding a militant labor movement is to pose a concrete threat to both the Democratic and Republican parties, which in turn requires a challenge to the business unionist labor leadership. That is the basis on which I won the nation’s highest minimum wage and the Amazon Tax during the decade I was the sole socialist on the Seattle City Council.

I am now running as an independent revolutionary socialist against genocidal Democrat Adam Smith. I am calling for an end to all military aid to Israel and an end to all weapons and tech for genocide and imperialist war.

– Kshama Sawant
via social media
June 5, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Chris Smalls Is Still Fighting the Bosses – Alex Skopic (Current Affairs, June 2, 2026).
“Amazon Is the New Slavery”: Chris Smalls on the Labor Fight of a Lifetime – Sara Franklin (The Nation, June 2, 2026).
A Better World: An Interview with Chris Smalls – Annika Bratton (Publishers Weekly, April 3, 2026).
My Interview with Chris Smalls – Marianne Williamson (Transform, July 31, 2022).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Chris Smalls: We Need to Escape the “Two-Party Plantation”
• Quote of the Day – August 5, 2025
• U.S. Labor Leader Chris Smalls Joins the Crew of the Handala

When the “Blue Wave” Is a “Blue Crackdown”

California, brace yourselves and head to higher ground. There is a Blue Wave coming that conceals a Blue Crackdown.

In New Jersey [right], all the liberals, progressives, and labor “officials” lined up behind a new Democrat governor to stop MAGA; instead, Mikie Sherrill stood with MAGA’s most notorious shock troops: private prisons, ICE, and cops against striking prison workers and their supporters rebelling against the new slavery.

In Virginia, new governor “CIA” Abigail Spanberger did the same, vetoing laws that might have placed small obstacles in Red MAGA’s path.

The California crackdown was already foretold when the Democrats kicked the Green Party’s Butch Ware off the ballot, and the progressives, labor “leaders,” radicals, and so-called socialists had nothing to say about it (except the DSA, which piled on).

Behind every Red MAGA chanting “America First,” stands a Blue MAGA repeating “lesser evil” as if a wedding vow. Instead of marriage to the machine, let’s all strive to tear it asunder.

– Richard Moser
via social media
June 2, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
The Democratic Party: Architects of Cowardice, Accomplices to Fascism – Henry A. Giroux (CounterPunch, September 8, 2025).
Liberals Can’t Confront Authoritarianism – Cyrus Gazdar (The Medium, November 17, 2025).
Why the Democratic Party Can’t Save Us From Trump’s Authoritarianism – Henry A. Giroux (Truthout, August 21, 2017).
The Iron Ceiling: Would the Oligarchy Steal an Election From the Green Party? – Dorothy Lennon (Dorothy Lennon Revolutionary, May 28, 2026).
Unions Decry Spanberger Veto of Collective Bargaining Bill as “Betrayal to Virginia’s Workers” – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, May 15, 2026).
“Subversion of Law and Order”: ICE Violence Escalates at Newark’s GEO-Run Jail, Delaney Hall – Democracy Now! (May 29, 2026).
New Jersey State Police Join Crackdown Against Supporters of Hunger-Striking Immigrants at Delaney Hall – Democracy Now! (June 1, 2026).
Democrats Panic Over Green Party Candidate: An Interview with Dr. Butch Ware – Bad Faith (March 30, 2026).
Green Party Candidate for California Governor Butch Ware Kicked Off the Ballot – The Spiritual and Political Podcast (March 27, 2026).
Inside Butch Ware’s Vision For California: Healthcare, Housing, and a Political Shake-Up – Matthew Levitt (Fathom, March 2026).
Why Status-Quo Dems Should Heed the Progressive Earthquake in New Jersey – Martin Burns (Common Dreams, February 13, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Authoritarianism With a Blue Sticker
• The Time for Illusions Is Over: Henry Giroux on the Democratic Party
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”
• Genny Harrison on Brian Tyler Cohen’s Interview with Obama
• Progressives and Obama
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’s Book, 107 Days
• Adam Bates on the Team Blue / Kamala “I Told Ya So” Smugness Tour
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden/Harris Administration
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in 2024
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• David Sirota: Quote of the Day – January 26, 2021
• Progressive Perspectives On an American Coronation
• Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win”
• Nick Cruse: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is the Privileged Position”
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season


BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• Butch Ware on Efforts by the Democratic Party to Block His Green Party Run for California Governor
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on the Hard Knock Radio Show
• Photo of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Butch Ware and the Gatekeepers Within the Democratic Party
• Butch Ware: “I’m Trying to Take Care of People”
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Butch Ware on the Democrats’ “Lawfare” to Keep Greens Off the Ballot
• Dorothy Lennon: Quote of the Day – June 1, 2026

Image: Anti-ICE protesters stand in opposition to a line of New Jersey State Police. (Photo: Julian Leshay Guadalupe / USA Today Network)

Quote of the Day

Tomorrow, California will vote for governor in its jungle primary. One candidate I would love to see triumph has been kicked off the ballot: Butch Ware. The Green Party nominee has resorted to a write-in campaign. Sadly, even with this campaign, there will be ways to cheat Ware.

Many election officials are sticklers when it comes to write-in candidates. If you spell part of the name wrong, if you check the wrong box to signal a write-in, your vote will be thrown out.

If it looks like Ware could advance, I believe the Democratic Party machine will find a way to cheat him out of victory. They rigged it against Cheri Honkala, another Green Party nominee for vice president, when she ran for a state seat in Pennsylvania. You can read about it in my Substack article.

Does this mean you shouldn’t vote or stay home if you live in California? No. Write-in Ware. We just need to be aware of the hurdles anti-oligarchic parties face.

– Dorothy Lennon
via social media
June 1, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
The Iron Ceiling: Would the Oligarchy Steal an Election From the Green Party? – Dorothy Lennon (Dorothy Lennon Revolutionary, May 28, 2026).
The Green Party’s Butch Ware: “I Love a Good Fight” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, April 22, 2026).
Butch Ware: The Green Candidate – The Latino Newsletter (April 6, 2026).
Democrats Panic Over Green Party Candidate: An Interview with Dr. Butch Ware – Bad Faith (March 30, 2026).
Judge Rejects Green Party Candidate Butch Ware’s Bid to Appear on California Governor Ballots – Yue Stella Yu (CalMatters.org, March 26, 2026).
Green Party Candidate for California Governor Butch Ware Kicked Off the Ballot – The Spiritual and Political Podcast (March 27, 2026).
Inside Butch Ware’s Vision For California: Healthcare, Housing, and a Political Shake-Up – Matthew Levitt (Fathom, March 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• Butch Ware on Efforts by the Democratic Party to Block His Green Party Run for California Governor
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on the Hard Knock Radio Show
• Photo of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Butch Ware and the Gatekeepers Within the Democratic Party
• Butch Ware: “I’m Trying to Take Care of People”
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Butch Ware on the Democrats’ “Lawfare” to Keep Greens Off the Ballot

May Vignettes

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• May Vignettes (2025)
• Gifts of Abundance
• Dandelion: A Celebration
• May Vignettes (2023)
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2022)
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2021)
• Spring Awakens! (2020)

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Butch Ware on Why Third Parties Are Crucial

Earlier today Butch Ware, Green Party candidate for California Governor, was a guest on Cam James’s podcast The Fact Check with Cam James.

In this hour-long interview, Butch talks about the difference between liberals and leftists, and why independent people-powered parties (often referred to as “third parties”) are crucial to the health and survival of U.S. democracy. He also shares his percepctive on his removal from the ballot by the Democratic establishment in California, and the differences and similarities between the two major corporatist/oligarchic parties – “Team Blue Genocide and Team Red Fascism,” as Ware calls them.

Says Ware:

A majority of registered voters [63%] say that both parties do such a “poor job” that a “third major party” is needed. . . . The two-party system is a fabrication [and] the “lesser of two evils” argument was actually formulated by the CIA in the 1960s to try to prevent the emergence of genuine leftist politics, and especially of genuine Black leftist politics. It’s a psyop [psychological operation], and we’re living under it. The people who live outside of this constant mental conditioning see through it. . . . What we perceive from the inside as a battle between Democrats and Republicans is actually a factional dispute inside a single capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist party. They alternate power back and forth, and that’s it. What they never do is create space for you to express your political dissent from the capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist framework in its totality. . . . The system is so fragile right now. We can break the duopoly control. A majority of people do not identify with this political system at all. The time is ripe for a third party. And you know who knows it? The Democrats. That’s the reason why they’ve sued to knock me off the ballot in California [and] the reason they spent 20 million dollars trying to knock Dr. Jill Stein and myself off the ballot in 2024.

Following is more of what Dr. Ware says in the above interview.

The relationship between Team Blue Genocide and Team Red Fascism is that one steals while the other holds the bag. So while one can argue that Republicans were responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade, when the Democrats had control over the House, the Senate, and the White House, did they protect Roe v. Wade? Did they enshine and codify it into law?

Just ask yourself a set of questions about what function the Democrats are actually playing. . . . They have preferred to weaponize issues and rights [a woman’s right to choose, the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action, and DEI) as ways to activate their voter base in “lesser of two evils” arguments rather than just securing and protecting [all of these rights] because their job is actually to weaponize your fear of Team Red in order for them to undertake identical policies.

[For instance] I push back strongly against the idea that the Republicans are [solely] responsible for ICE. The Democrats massively funded and escalated ICE. The Democrats were the ones responsible for starting the policies of family separations, for pioneering putting kids in cages. Trump, despite the theatrics of the [recent] escalation, and the visibility and the fascist violence we see in the streets, is still chasing Obama’s deportation record. He can’t catch the “Deporter in Chief.” . . . The problem is when Rebuplicans do it, liberals resist; and when the Democrats do it, liberals applaud.

. . . Voters are constantly fear-mongered about the other side being worse. . . . It’s a toxic relationship. The Republicans do the same thing with Democrats that Democrats do with Republicans. It is a game of mutual recrimination and fear that is built on stoking a fake culture war that does not affect the money flow of the corporations and the billionaires that are at the top of the system. They want you identifying with those parties because they know that those parties serve their interests one way or the other.

[A major study from 2014 showed] that there is “little or no” correlation between what either the Democratic voting base or the Republican voting base want and what our elected officials do. But there is a 100% correlation between what the donor class wants and what the political parties do. And the reason is simple: who funds you runs you.

. . . My colleague at UC-Riverside, Dylan Rodriguez, says that "the Democrat Party is the most effective counter-insurgency organization ever to come into existence in human history." They are where real possibilities for change go to die.

If you remove the Democrats from the equation, American fascism becomes virtually impossible because that hard white supremacist core that is driving the extreme right is actually a small fraction of people. But people are so disaffected with the Democrats and do not see any possibility of any emancipation coming through their corrupt capitalist imperialist practices, that they disengage. If we had an actual opposition party rather than just two factions of a single white supremacist party, coalitions which are possible would [form and] drown out this small hard core kernal of white supremacy. [That core] would become vastly outnumbered once the Democrats are out of the way.

But the Democrats are in the way of a real opposition party emerging, and they have to continuously weaponize identity politics in order to keep that position of material privilege where they control the access to resources. As long as they are there, no liberation is possible.

– Butch Ware
May 31, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
The Green Party’s Butch Ware: “I Love a Good Fight” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, April 22, 2026).
Butch Ware: The Green Candidate – The Latino Newsletter (April 6, 2026).
Democrats Panic Over Green Party Candidate: An Interview with Dr. Butch Ware – Bad Faith (March 30, 2026).
Judge Rejects Green Party Candidate Butch Ware’s Bid to Appear on California Governor Ballots – Yue Stella Yu (CalMatters.org, March 26, 2026).
Green Party Candidate for California Governor Butch Ware Kicked Off the Ballot – The Spiritual and Political Podcast (March 27, 2026).
Inside Butch Ware’s Vision for California: Healthcare, Housing, and a Political Shake-Up – Matthew Levitt (Fathom, March 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• Butch Ware on the Democrats’ “Lawfare” to Keep Greens Off the Ballot
• Butch Ware on Efforts by the Democratic Party to Block His Green Party Run for California Governor
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Butch Ware: “I’m Trying to Take Care of People”
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• Butch Ware on the Hard Knock Radio Show
• Butch Ware and the Gatekeepers Within the Democratic Party
• Photo of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”: Butch Ware on the Gaza Genocide
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis (2024)
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”


GREEN PARTY
• “Green Wave 2026 is Global”
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”
• Jill Stein: “Americans Deserve Choices”
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Third Parties and the Historical Record
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Cornel West: “The Next Step Is a Green Step, a Progressive Step”
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making? (2016)
• Voting Green: Hope Over Fear


THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Authoritarianism With a Blue Sticker
• The Time for Illusions Is Over: Henry Giroux on the Democratic Party
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”
• Genny Harrison on Brian Tyler Cohen’s Interview with Obama
• Progressives and Obama
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’s Book, 107 Days
• Adam Bates on the Team Blue / Kamala “I Told Ya So” Smugness Tour
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden/Harris Administration
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in 2024
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• David Sirota: Quote of the Day – January 26, 2021
• Progressive Perspectives On an American Coronation
• Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win”
• Nick Cruse: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is the Privileged Position”
• Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season

How the Green Party Gained Power in the U.K.

Earlier today Ash Sarkar, British journalist and Senior Editor at Novara Media, discussed with Briahna Joy Gray of the Bad Faith podcast the U.K. Green Party’s recent (and significant) electoral gains under the new leadership of Zack Polanski (pictured at right).

Notes Gray in introducing her interview with Sarkar:

After winning big, Polanski declared that Britain’s two party politics are “dead and buried,” and that Green vs [the far-right] Reform has replaced the old Labor vs Conservatives dynamic. What techniques might translate into lessons for the U.S. Green Party which hopes to displace Democrats in our two party system, and what obstacles are unique to the U.S.? Will Polanski succeed where Corbyn failed? How should the left handle bad faith attacks from establishment media?

Related Off-site Links:
“Two Party Politics Is Dead” in U.K. Says Green Party Leader After Labour Thrashed – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, May 8, 2026).
Green Party Wins Its First Mayor in London – Novara Media (May 8, 2026).
On-Air Meltdown: Green Surge Is Driving British Media Insane – David Doel (The Rational National, April 28, 2026).
Green Party Scores Upset Win in U.K. Election in Blow to Labour and Far-Right Reform Party – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, February 27, 2026).
Green Party Wins U.K. By-election in Blow to Labour and Prime Minister Starmer – David Broder (Al Jazeera, February 27, 2026).
Keir Starmer Richly Deserves This Defeat – David Broder (Jacobin, February 27, 2026).
Labour "Safe Seat" Taken by Greens' Hannah Spencer in Stunning Result That Brings Back Hope – Council Estate Media (February 27, 2026).
Hannah Spencer: The Green MP Speaking to Everyday People’s Frustrations – Josh Halliday and Alexandra Topping (The Guardian, February 27, 2026).
From Plumber to Parliament: The Green Party’s New MP – Richard Wheeler and Joe Pike (BBC News, February 27, 2026).
Spencer’s Victory Speech an Object Lesson in Grace While Reform’s Man Rages – John Crace (The Guardian, February 27, 2026).
Celebrations, Selfies and Crowdsurfing: Greens Relish Seismic Night in British Politics – Hannah Al-Othman (The Guardian, February 27, 2026).
The Green Party Has Been Accused of Sectarianism. This Is Why That’s Wrong – Imran Mulla (Middle East Eye, February 27, 2026).
What Does the Greens’ Victory in Gorton and Denton Mean for the Future of British Politics? – Polly Toynbee, Adam Ramsay, Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Diane Abbott, Henry Hill and John McTernan (The Guardian, February 27, 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

ZACK POLANSKI AND THE GREEN PARTY OF THE U.K.
• “Green Wave 2026 is Global”
• The Rational National’s Take on U.K. Green Party’s “Brilliant” New Ad
• Zack Polanski’s Christmas Message
• Zack Polanski’s Message of Hope
• “The Answer, Actually, Is Hope”


GREEN PARTY OF THE U.S.A.
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• Jill Stein on the Importance of the Green Party
• Dayvon Love: “You Actually Don’t Care Where Jill Stein Is”
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”
• Jill Stein: “Americans Deserve Choices”
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Cornel West: “The Next Step Is a Green Step, a Progressive Step”
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making? (2016)
• Voting Green: Hope Over Fear

Butch Ware on the Democrats’ “Lawfare” to Keep Greens Off the Ballot

Earlier today Butch Ware, Green Party candidate for California Governor, was a guest on the Due Dissidence podcast.

In this 15-minute interview, Butch talks about his removal from the ballot in March by the Democratic establishment in California, and this establishment’s ongoing campaign to keep him off the ballot for the November election.

“[Democrats] spend more in [suing] to keep Greens off of the ballot than Greens usually spend to run,” Butch says. He calls such efforts on the part of the Democratic establishment, “lawfare.”





Related Off-site Links:
The Green Party’s Butch Ware: “I Love a Good Fight” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, April 22, 2026).
Butch Ware: The Green Candidate – The Latino Newsletter (April 6, 2026).
Democrats Panic Over Green Party Candidate: An Interview with Dr. Butch Ware – Bad Faith (March 30, 2026).
Judge Rejects Green Party Candidate Butch Ware’s Bid to Appear on California Governor Ballots – Yue Stella Yu (CalMatters.org, March 26, 2026).
Green Party Candidate for California Governor Butch Ware Kicked Off the Ballot – The Spiritual and Political Podcast (March 27, 2026).
Inside Butch Ware’s Vision for California: Healthcare, Housing, and a Political Shake-Up – Matthew Levitt (Fathom, March 2026).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• Butch Ware on Efforts by the Democratic Party to Block His Green Party Run for California Governor
• Hey, Liberals! We Need to Talk
• Butch Ware: “I’m Trying to Take Care of People”
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• Butch Ware on the Hard Knock Radio Show
• Butch Ware and the Gatekeepers Within the Democratic Party
• Photo of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”: Butch Ware on the Gaza Genocide
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis (2024)
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”


GREEN PARTY
• “Green Wave 2026 is Global”
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”
• Jill Stein: “Americans Deserve Choices”
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Third Parties and the Historical Record
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Cornel West: “The Next Step Is a Green Step, a Progressive Step”
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making? (2016)
• Voting Green: Hope Over Fear


THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Authoritarianism With a Blue Sticker
• The Time for Illusions Is Over: Henry Giroux on the Democratic Party
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”
• Genny Harrison on Brian Tyler Cohen’s Interview with Obama
• Progressives and Obama
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’s Book, 107 Days
• Adam Bates on the Team Blue / Kamala “I Told Ya So” Smugness Tour
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden/Harris Administration
• Progressive Perspectives on Where Democrats Went Wrong in 2024
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
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Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026

Part 7: Brisbane, Montville, and the Sunshine Coast

I’m back in Gulmarrad for one night having spent the past five days in southern Queensland and before heading tomorrow to Guruk to see Mum one more time before my return to the U.S. on May 11.

As I did last year, I stayed while in Queensland in Brisbane with Enid, my dear friend from uni days in Armidale (1984-86). It was a very relaxing few days in Australia’s Sunshine State, a stay that included a visit to the Glass House Mountains and the town of Montville, and a lovely dinner in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast with my friends Jeremiah, Kristy, Frankie, Sonny, Raph, Millie, and Collette.

Following are images of my time in Brisbane, Montville, and the Sunshine Coast.

Above: Enid in Montville – Saturday, May 2, 2026.

Above and below: Scenes from the Brisbane neighborhoods of Manly and Manly West – Friday, May 1, 2026.

Above: Port of Brisbane – Wednesday, April 29, 2026.

Above and below: Montville – Saturday, May 2, 2026.

Above: The Glass House Mountains – Saturday, May 2, 2026.

Above: A night out on the Sunshine Coast – Sunday, May 3, 2026. From left: Collette, me, Kristy, Sonny, Jeremiah, Raphael and Millie.




Right: With Collette – Sunday, May 3, 2026.

Above: A real highlight of my April-May 2026 Australian sojourn was meeting for the first time my late dad’s cousin Moya Bayly. We had a lovely visit in Tweed Heads on Monday, May 4. And, yes, I learnt some new things about my Dad’s side of the family.


NEXT: Return to Guruk

For the previous posts in the Australian Sojourn – April-May 2026 series, see:
• Sydney and Newcastle
• Gulmarrad
• Guruk
• Gunnedah
• Armidale
• Gulmarrad, Maclean, and Brooms Head

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast (2025)
• Townsville (2016)
• Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast (2010)
• Travelin’ North (2006)

Images: Michael J. Bayly.