Conference Day 1

Just a brief summary of some of the highlights of day 1 for me (must be brief since it is past midnight and I have a full day tomorrow!)

A great fringe meeting was held to show Cuba: The Power of Community. A film about how Cuba survived peak oil and the ’special period’ after the collapse of the soviet union. Well worth a watch. Has inspired me to (hopefully) get involved with a local permaculture group here in the East End. Progressive politics allied with community action…

Ken Livingstone spoke at a plenary session along with Darren Johnson and Tony Travers. Ken told conference that contradictions were inbuilt to New Labour. “When you say we won’t increase tax on the rich and corporations, you just end up shifting the tax burden between working and middle classes, the deserving and undeserving poor, poor people with children and those without etc”. He recommdneded seeing the film due to be released called ‘The Age of Stupid” and mentioned that unless we tackle climate change, there may not be human civilisation at the end of the century. Throughout, I got the impression he was sincere and had truly adopted the environmental cause. Coupled with his other policies, I think he was the best mayor London is likely to see in a decade or two. I certainly do hope he will be re-elected in 2012 if he does stand again.

I also attended an anti-zionism fringe held by Green Left with Tony Greenstein and Simon Lynn. Several important points were raised, including that anti-zionism is a fundamentally a Jewish concept and indeed Zionism was originally described by many as anti-semetic: the idea that Jews could not live equally among other people. It was highlighted that Anti-Zionism is simply a form of anti-racisim and that if one opposes zionism, one must logically oppose all other forms of racism. Zionism has certainly never had a hegemony on world Jewry and dissent from main-stream opinion is growing among Jews. “There is no heirarchy of oppression; the principles apply to all”.

Sadly, today was also the day that we lost the posts of male and female principal speakers and a new leader and deputy leader were elected by the party. I sincerely hope this will not be part of a trend towards greater centralisation and less grass-roots action.

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Tomorrow I look forward to the GPTU fringe on Migration Rights with Teresa Hayter and Bob Hughes speaking. The first plenary to discuss policy will also be held with a motion on Minimum/Maximum wages which I seconded appearing as the second agenda item.

The motion reads:

“British people work some of the longest hours in  Europe, with some 3.6 million people regularly working more than 48 hours a week, yet 7 out of 10 people working over 48 hours per week say they would like to work fewer hours. For many however this is impossible, as they simply cannot afford to do so. Overwork is forcing workers into unhealthy lifestyles as they attempt to reconcile long working hours and family responsibilities, according to a report from the  charity Working Families. Half of the parents surveyed with unhappy with their work and family balance. A majority reported that work dominated their lives, and family life suffered as a result. Working long hours also led to increased levels of stress, resulting in irritability, exhaustion and depression. At the same time, the gap between the most prosperous and the poorest in society has not been as great since the nineteen thirties.
In 2006, around 4 million adult employees were paid less than ?6.50 per hour. Two-thirds were women. 3.8 million children in Britain live in poverty. Since 1980 the poorest quintile of the population has experienced no growth in real earnings. Nearly twice as many people have relatively low incomes as 25 years ago. The average total earnings of FTSE 100 chief executives have doubled over the last five years to a new record of £3.2 million.
The top three per cent of the population own three times as much as the whole of the bottom half of the population.
Therefore, the Green Party will campaign:
A.for the immediate ending of the British opt-out of the European Working Time Directive;
B.for the National Minimum Wage level to be increased to come in line with the Council of Europe Decency Threshold, which is set at 60% of net national average earnings (this would currently mean a minimum wage
of £8.17 per hour);
C.For maximum income limit of 10 times the National Minimum Wage, through the establishment of a 100% rate of income tax on taxable personal income above that level.“

I hope the motion is passed and with a clear majority. It would send out a clear signal of where the party stands when it comes to important issues regarding the distribution of wealth and and equal society.