Farewell to a Californian Green
The Maori whakatauki to mark the passing of a great leader reads ‘Ka hinga te totara i te wao nui a TÄ?ne’ (a totara in the great forest of Tane has fallen) and so this week it seems a Californian Redwood has fallen in in the green forests of the US West Coast, with the passing of Californian Green Party founder Peter Camejo.
Interestingly Camejo was, like John Key, a investment financier who learnt his skills at Merrill Lynch.
Matt Gonzalez, a former San Francisco supervisor who is running for vice president with Nader as an independent, said that Mr. Camejo once told him that when he interviewed for his job at Merrill Lynch, “the only thing that was true on my resume was my name and phone number.”
Gonzalez said Mr. Camejo was a success at Merrill Lynch, but was pushed out after the firm found out that one of its star employees had been arrested for protesting and had run for president as a socialist.
During that time he created one of the first environmentally screened, socially responsible investment funds. He then formed his own ethical investment company.
But as well as that he was “a perennial candidate for state and national office” including Ralph Nader’s vice presidential running mate in the 2004 presidential election. He was a watermelon socialist who campaigned on electoral reform, workers’ rights, civil liberties and social justice. he also sailed for Venezuela at the Olympics and was on then Gov. Ronald Reagan’s list of the 10 most dangerous people in California.
