TONY AFFIGNE

Candidate for Steering Committee

BIOGRAPHY

Tony Affigne has been an urban political activist since the 1970s, and was a co-founder of the Green Party of Rhode Island in 1992; he was one of two people who organized GPRI's very first meeting.

He has served on several national party committees, was a standing committee co-chair, and served on the Steering Committee once before, in 1998-99; as Treasurer that year,

he drafted the national party's original fiscal policy.

"I've always been very fortunate," Affigne says, "to be working with many talented and dedicated people. This is true in the Green Party of Rhode Island, on the Accreditation Committee, on the International Committee. That's my secret, and it's the main reason I've been able to accomplish whatever I have in the Green Party. Good people all around me, sharing leadership."

Born in North Carolina, raised in Pennsylvania, and a Rhode Island resident since 1972, Tony's family heritage is both Puerto Rican, and southern "Scotch-Irish." He has lived in

the segregated South, rural Appalachia, and the industrial Northeast. He has three children and two grandchildren.

As a college student in the early 1970's, and in inner-city neighborhoods of Providence, Tony has been an organizer and leader in multi-racial communities, as well as among Latinos. He was a founder of the Rhode Island Political Awareness Coalition (RIPAC), and served as RIPAC's communications director. He was community board member for the Puerto Rican Political Action Committee and El Desfile Puertorriqueño de Rhode Island, among others. He is currently the elected statewide vice-president of the multi-ethnic, multi-partisan Rhode Island Latino Political Action Committee.

Tony holds a doctorate, and teaches at Providence College, where he is a member of the faculties of political science, Black studies, and environmental studies. He has authored

several dozen research articles in these fields for college textbooks, scholarly journals, and academic conferences. Before studying to become a professor, Tony worked as an

adult educator, community journalist, and neighborhood organizer. He spent seven years in the building trades, as a unionized construction laborer and labor foreman.

Within the political science profession, Tony was the first elected co-chair of what has grown to be the 600-member Section on Race, Ethnicity and Politics (1995); helped

form the Latino Caucus for Political Science (1998); and is presently national Selection Committee chair, of the APSA Fund for Latino Scholarship.

FACULTY WEBPAGE:

CURRENT PARTY OFFICES HELD

State Committee, Green Party of Rhode Island, 1992-present

Delegate to the Coordinating Committee, Green Party of the United States, 2001-present

Miembro de la Asamblea General, Federacion de Partidos Verdes de las Americas, 2002-2004

Member of the USGP International Committee, 2001-present

FORMER PARTY OFFICES HELD

U.S. Delegation (Alternate), Global Greens 2001, Canberra, Australia

Accreditation Committee Chair, Association of State Green Parties/Green Party of the United States, 1997-2002

Delegate to the Coordinating Committee, Association of State Green Parties, 2000-01

Member of the ASGP International Committee, 2000-01

Steering Committee, Treasurer, Association of State Green Parties, 1998-99

ELECTORAL EXPERIENCE

Candidate for Governor of Rhode Island, Citizens Party, 1986

Candidate for Providence City Council, Independent, 1982

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

"Environmental Crisis, Green Party Power: Chernobyl and the Swedish Greens" in _Green Politics One_, Wolfgang Rüdig, ed. Edinburgh Univ Press 1990.

"Black Voters in Urban Regime: The Case of Atlanta" in _Race and Politics_ James Jennings, ed. Verso 1997.

"Latino Politics in the United States: An Introduction" in _PS: Political Science and Politics_ APSA 2000.

"Green Parties, U.S." in the _International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics_ John Barry and E. Gene Frankland, eds. Routledge 2002.