Real Leadership?

With ballot papers for the referendum on whether the Green Party should have a Leader arriving today, I have decided to write one final post on Leadership in the Green Party.

Leadership can take many forms: inspiration, empowerment and support on the one hand; control and dictatorship on the other. I strongly believe that when an individual is elected to become leader, the environment will favor the control and dictatorship side of the spectrum. This is not because I believe people are essentially evil but because we expect leaders to take the lead, to control things. If we keep a leadership structure which the Green Party has at the moment, of collective leadership, it is much harder to corrupt. Our current structures help empower all members of the party to get involved and participate in our decisions. At meetings, everyone can speak and is treated equally. There is no ‘leader’ who is revered above all others. I also have to ask whether it will stop at just a leader: will we instead develop an entire hierarchy with members who haven’t climbed up a greasy pole sidelined and ignored?

Even if the new Leader were to try to avoid being dictatorial, the media would expect them to come up with policy statements ‘off the cuff’:they will be forced to show leadership at its worst… by making decisions for the entire group of people who make up the Green Party which the party would then find difficult to overrule later through any accountability structures.

In which case, we will be just another political party with little new to add to the structures that dominate our society today. Models based on Leaders have failed to tackle social ills: it is about time the world tried the alternative. Is the Green Party brave enough to continue to push for this?

It is for these reason and others, including those outline here, here, here, here and here, that I support the Green Empowerment campaign and strongly believe that the referendum should have a ‘NO’ vote.

NHS! (again)

NHS demo yesterday was a success with a good number of people from the Greens there. Well done to all those who helped with the Green Party placards: they were out in force on the day! Wish I could have helped with them too!

The following motion in support of the demonstration and against private involvement in the NHS was passed at the Green Left meeting on Saturday last week. I am not sure if it has been publicised since (having been somewhat out of the loop with e-mails, aside from during procrastination time, due to a heavy week on the wards trying to finish off my A&E module! – also the reason I haven’t blogged for a while):

“Green Left notes the attempts at increasing private involvement in the national health service. Recognizing that healthcare commissioning is to be tendered to private companies (including some with a bad reputation in the USA) and that implementation of the Darzi plan for polyclinics will probably involve some private sector companies, we affirm that this is against the public service ethos central to an ecosocialist future.

We strongly encourage involvement and support of the Keep Our NHS Public demonstration on Saturday November 3rd 2007.”

Anyway, best get back to work… Have a dissertation to write and wouldn’t mind getting a bit further on the new edition of Joel Kovel’s book.

A change of design

In keeping with other Green Blogs and after the sadness of not being included in the top 20 green blogs on Jim’s blog (congrats to the excellent blogs that made the top 20!), I have decided to opt for a redesign. Hope you enjoy.

I thought I’d use this opportunity to highlight two very very important dates in the calendar in the remainder of 2007.

1) NHS Together Demonstration, Saturday 3rd November. Click here for details.

2) Climate Change Demonstration, Saturday 8th December. Click here for details.

I am sure there will be a big Green Party presence at both demos.

Also, congratulations to Derek Wall of GreenLeft on being re-elected as principal speaker. Good news and I am sure he will continue his (crazily) dedicated work!

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Whilst I can’t be uncritical of Venezuela, I can’t help but be inspired by some of the actions of the government there. Venezuela’s economy is quite dependent on oil, but the government appears to be trying to look at the most sustainable ways of using it: like selling it to Tfl at discounted rates to use on buses so that those on income support can get half-priced bus fares (only 45p a pop). A great way of encouraging people to ditch the car in favor of more sustainable modes of transport.

Ecosocialist Meeting

Spinning off from the First Ecosocialist International (which I couldn’t go to), there is a meeting in London which I look forward to going to:

Wednesday, October 10, 7:30pm Confronting the Climate Change Crisis by Building a Global Ecosocialist Movement.

Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Sq. Cohosted by Socialist Resistance and Green Left.

Speaker: Ian Angus is a member of the Convening Committee for the international ecosocialist conference in Paris, October 7-8; Editor of the blog ‘Climate and Capitalism.’

Hope it will make for some interesting discussion and perhaps some projects to get involved in long-term (time-permitting!)

Elections elections elections

Green Party Executive elections time again (my second ‘go’ at voting since joining). Male Principle Speaker, Female Principle Speaker, Chair and Local Party Coordinator posts are contested this time round. Like last year I strongly support Derek Wall’s candidacy and hope that he will be able to have a second successful year as male principle speaker. In the election for female principle speaker there are two talented candidates and I am sure that both would be good representatives for the party.

Looking forward to getting the leadership referendum finished so that we can move on to more important targets. General Election fever is hitting the country hard with many reports that Brown will call his election in the next 7-8 days and perhaps even tomorrow. This will be a big election for the Greens, with a good chance of Caroline Lucas and Darren Johnson winning seats in Brighton Pavillion and Lewisham Deptford respectively. Fingers crossed I will be able to make it to both constituencies several times in the run up to any election.

Leader?

Will post soon on immigration and HIV. Perhaps ’soon’ will end up being as part of another HIV series for World Aids Day at the beginning of December…

The fireworks on the Thames were spectacular. Policing was low key and civilized (if only they policed protests like that!). Nice end to the summer Really enjoying Linux (my new operating system) too!

Conference appears to have gone well and the leadership debate is now in full swing with ballot papers out next month. It hasn’t been a good debate at times but it has made me certain that a Leader is not a good idea for the Green Party (he says, as he wades into the debate). It is not about not trusting other Greens, it is not about not wanting us to be successful. It is about providing an alternative vision for politics in this society: showing that people can be empowered decision makers without delegating those decisions to a leader. It is also about recognizing that people are fallible and leaders are easy to corrupt: and I believe that a party without a leader is more likely to have open and frank internal debate.

Let’s keep ourselves leaderless so that each member of the party can be a leader in her own right and we can work collaboratively rather than under the direction of a ‘manager’.

Mmmmmm…

Interesting meeting at the London Federation of Green Parties last night. Important decisions were made, in particular with regards to ethnic balance on our candidate list for the next euro election which is a great step in the right direction. It is vital that politics in London represents the capital’s great diversity.

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Green politics is a fantastic mode of politics which has a truly refreshing vision for our future. However, I do not and cannot agree with everything all people who identify as ‘Green’ say. One recent occasion has been with the Israeli Green Party. Not only do they oppose boycotts against Israel (similar to those used to bring an end to the apartheid in South Africa) but they attempt to mount a defense of some inexcusable government policies. The following link will take readers to a press release which gives a flavour of their views on the matter: http://www.green-party.org.il/public_statement.htm

To me, this makes the party very un-Green indeed.

I have never been one to condone suicide bombings. I detest violence wholeheartedly. This, logically, compels me to abhor violence on both sides: whether committed by the state or by the individual or other groups. To not remember the huge number of atrocities committed by a state is to twist facts unfairly.

Back

Right, after a long hiatus (far too long, sorry), it’s time to get back to this. I can only hope that people still stumble upon my blog!

A summer of very rainy weather doesn’t seem to have been fully shaken off. Was this caused by global warming? It is impossible to tell. What we can say is that global warming will make unusual weather more commonplace in the UK. Interestingly, the UK might become cooler since the gulf stream will no longer warm us as warming changes weather-patterns the world over. I was interested to see the public’s reaction, including some commentators saying that the conditions were like the ‘third world’: a statement that completely undermines the suffering that people living in abject poverty experience. If only the ‘third world’ quality of life was that good…

Interesting posts from Peter Tatchell, Jim Jay and a (hopefully) good debate due tonight between Derek Wall and Caroline Lucas on whether the Green Party should have a Leader. You can listen to it for the next seven days here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/westminsterhour/

Below is the video of the Green Party’s Budget for 2007, enjoy..,

Scottish Greens Open Formal Talks with SNP on Political Co-operation

Mon., May 07, 2007. 17:17.

Statement following today’s meeting between the parties

Scottish Greens today met with the leadership of the SNP, opening formal negotiations on political co-operation.

Robin Harper, Co-convener of the Scottish Greens, said: “Today the Scottish Greens’ senior negotiating team have explored issues both of common ground and of difference with the SNP, with a focus on policy during our wide-ranging discussions. Our team went into these discussions constructively, while asserting our determination that any Green co-operation with a new government of any makeup would need to be built on increased commitment to positive green action, particularly on climate change. (1)

“There is a duty on all parties to seek to secure a stable and progressive government for Scotland. Our top policy priority is to deliver the necessary effective action on climate change and transport. More discussion is required on these issues before any agreement can be reached and we are looking forward to engaging in those constructively.

“In addition, the clear preference of the Scottish Green Party is for political cooperation short of formal coalition, based on a model of governance known as “confidence and supply”, although we have not ruled out formal coalition.” (2)

Notes to editors

(1) In the 2007 election, for the first time Scotland’s political party manifestos have been scientifically assessed for their overall environmental impact, revealing that Labour, Libdems, SNP and Tory would all fail to reduce Scotland’s ‘footprint’ over the next four years – and in the longer term would make matters even worse. This was the second ‘green’ report on party manifestos. The previous assessment by Friends of the Earth gave the Libdems, Labour and SNP only three out of ten, with the Tories trailing on zero. For those assessments of the various manifestos, see: http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/press/pr20070402.html http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/scottish_manifesto_footprints.pdf

(2) Confidence and Supply delivers policy concessions to the Green Party agenda, ensures joint working on policy where there is common ground, but also allows Greens to take a principled stand on issues where they disagree with the Executive. Greens say such a model would ‘bring to life’ the original vision for the Parliament and require the Executive to win debates on the floor of the chamber. It is a political agreement where a non-executive party agrees to support a government (or ‘executive’) party or parties in any votes of confidence (hence confidence) and the budget (money supply). This ensures government stability where the Executive parties do not have a majority of votes in the Parliament. In return for this assurance, the Executive makes specific policy or legislative concessions to the non-Executive party. All other matters are dealt with on an issue by issue basis.

(taken from www.scottishgreens.org.uk)

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Good news which will hopefully mean some policy concessions to the Green Party on some important areas.

Just been out canvassing. An interesting experience since it was my first time – the candidate is excellent, like many green candidates and councillors around the country now.

 I saw many posters up and handed out several too. Fingers crossed this year will be a good year for the Green Party – we have a great opportunity to get active in local councils across the country.

 Sorry for just a short post but I’m completely knackered from a long day!