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Rise of the Green Left

Here’s an interesting fact I learned in the pub last night. The Green Party’s membership has increased by about 30% in the last year. For a while now I’ve been saying to anyone who’ll listen that if Caroline Lucas positions herself as the most consistent anti-cuts MP that they can expect to grow still more.…

Liam
1–2 minutes

DJH Here’s an interesting fact I learned in the pub last night. The Green Party’s membership has increased by about 30% in the last year. For a while now I’ve been saying to anyone who’ll listen that if Caroline Lucas positions herself as the most consistent anti-cuts MP that they can expect to grow still more. Apparently though there is resistance to this approach inside the party.

imageThe happy campers in the photo are Derek Wall, Jeremy Corbyn and Hugo Blanco. They were speaking at the launch of Derek’s new boo The Rise of the Green Left which he describes as a toolkit for building an ecosocialist movement. Being a man of flawless judgement Derek had several nice things to say about Socialist Resistance. His speech was videoed for future generations and I’ll link to it when the Green Left’s multi-media empire has finalised the European release rights.

Jeremy Corbyn is one of the tiny number of MPs who is always on the right side and he has a long track record of socialist internationalism, particularly around Latin American issues. He took more of an environmental tack last night and made a good critique of both Stalinist and capitalist conceptions of productivism.

No disrespect to Jeremy or Derek but Hugo Blanco was the star of the show. His fifty years of militancy have seen him elected to parliament, exiled from Peru, imprisoned and on hunger strike. He may be hardcore but he laughs easily and still has the passion of a twenty year old. In Europe and North America he is probably the best known advocate of indigenous rights in Latin America. His politics weaves together a Marxist’s critique of capitalism with a deep understanding of and sympathy for the original inhabitants of the Americas.

(Time permitting I’ll add more detail from Hugo’s talk later today.)

You can get your ticket for the Socialist Resistance and Green Left seminar at which he’s speaking here.

17 responses to “Rise of the Green Left”

  1. Dave Riley Avatar
    Dave Riley

    in contrast, you may find this perspective by Socialist Alternative here in Australia — A Marxist critique of the Australian Greens — interesting reading. I think it aggregates a lot of left schemata in regard to green party politics and maybe reflects many attitudes on the left there in the UK.

    http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46:a-marxist-critique-of-the-australian-greens&catid=34:issue-1-spring-2010&Itemid=77

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  2. Mark P Avatar
    Mark P

    Does Derek’s book deal with the rapid collapse of the Green Parties internationally into business as usual right wing politics as soon as they had a sniff of power? And how, other than good intentions, the “Green Left” inside the GPEW intends to avoid the same pattern repeating itself?

    That’s a serious question by the way. I’ve seen Derek and other GL types make entirely correct criticisms of, for example, the Irish Greens. What I have yet to see from any of them is a serious explanation of why the GPEW would be any different, or a serious plan to make sure that the GPEW remains different.

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  3. tamworthalternative Avatar
    tamworthalternative

    An interesting question, Mark, and one which could also be asked of Marxist tendencies operating within Social-Democratic parties. There are no simple answers but I am sure Derek does have some insights in his book and will be open to dialogue with others on the left about this.
    If I finish reading the book before you do, I’ll post a review here (feel free to do the same).
    Of course, as socialists outside the Green Party it is surely our duty to offer what help and support we can to those comrades in the Green Party- not to poach a few members but to move forward together in pursuit of common goals- on the environment, on the cuts, against the war etc.
    However, it does seem a little premature to pose that question when the Green Party (E&W) is decidely on the left, has a left-wing leadership and is growing on that basis.

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  4. Rachel Avatar
    Rachel

    And speaking of politics, let me be the first to congratulate you on Respect’s decision to back Lutfur Rahman for Mayor of Tower Hamlets! He did such a great job as Council leader, he’s probably the best person to lead the fight against the cuts.

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  5. martin ohr Avatar
    martin ohr

    Rachel,

    Well at least Liam and others will be able to join the green party when Respect votes to fold in the autumn -when Galloway and Yaqoob join Labour- it will give them something to do trying to sell papers to the beardy nutters. Can’t imagine how Stuart Richardson will take to vegetarianism though.

    As for this nonsense: “I’ve been saying to anyone who’ll listen that if Caroline Lucas positions herself as the most consistent anti-cuts MP that they can expect to grow still more. ” It seems highly-unlikely that Lucas would do such a thing. After all she already believes that trades unions have too much power.

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  6. Liam Avatar
    Liam

    Rachel I think our views on this matter may be pretty similar and if you buy me a cup of tea I’ll happily go on at some length about them.

    I’m in no position to speak for anyone in the Green Party but my impression is that some of them take the same view towards it that people in outfits like Respect or the Labour Party hold. They’ll stick with it till something better comes along and fight what battles they can in the meantime.

    Martin, given what this site seems to do to your blood pressure is it wise for you to visit it? Most organisations have their less sensible fringes and aren’t some of your comrades heavily involved in Climate Camp with obligatory veganism, plastic shoes and composting toilets. Very unproletarian.

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  7. Mark P Avatar
    Mark P

    Tamworthalternative:

    1) I fully agree that the same sort of questions should be asked of Marxist tendencies with social democratic parties. To be fair though, even the most myopic and dogmatic of such tendencies (Socialist Appeal springs to mind) tend to have quite detailed plans or perspectives for changing those parties and moving them to the left. Those perspectives may be nonsense, but they aren’t just ignoring those sorts of issues.

    2) By contrast I think that a time when the GPEW is presenting itself as a left force is precisely the time to ask these sort of questions. And were I a Green Left member I’d be even more convinced of that. It’s too late to start dealing with those issues when and if the party takes the road of the Irish/German/etc Green Parties.

    The Irish Green Party was once mostly left led too. But the convinced leftists tended to assume that it would always be the way, and never made serious, organised, attempts to grapple with the temptations of power and “pragmatism”. And they never organised themselves in a way that would leave them capable of fighting a battle for the soul of the party. Now those people are outside the Greens, trying to start from scratch, and wondering how the hell that happened. Or they are inside the GP and have made their peace with the new direction.

    If not now, then when?

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  8. Rachel Avatar
    Rachel

    yeah ok. need to catch up on some even more local gossip too.

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  9. Dave Riley Avatar
    Dave Riley

    Hey there: matter and motion.Matter and motion — regardless of where the green parties may end up . It’s not a game of sectarian moralism. And the GP of England and Wales has been around a long time (and egads had conservartive roots!)and seemingly hasn’t yet morphed into Irishness.

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  10. martin ohr Avatar
    martin ohr

    “And the GP of England and Wales has been around a long time (and egads had conservartive roots!)and seemingly hasn’t yet morphed into Irishness.” except where they joined coalitions with the tories and lib dems -eg in Leeds.

    Liam, thanks for your concern to my health, no issues with my blood pressure, if anything it’s on the low side for a man my age.

    My impression remains that your organisation having set out it’s stall to be the bagmen for Galloway find him now without any bags to carry. Respect is clearly finished in any recognisable form and all the other electoral lashups have petered out. Dissolving peacefully into the green party would make some sense and doesn’t require a major programmatic re-think that rejoining Labour would entail.

    In fact you could just take all your recent publications and do a ctrl+f. Replace Respect with GPEW, and Galloway with Lucas.

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  11. tamworthalternative Avatar
    tamworthalternative

    Excellent idea- that would give us articles about “George Lucas” which might appeal variously to semi-literate members of Counterfire or to space cadets (yourself excluded, of course).

    Rob

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  12. martin ohr Avatar
    martin ohr

    🙂

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  13. mark anthony france Avatar
    mark anthony france

    I fully concur with tamworthalternative…. now is the time to liquidate into the GPEW…. Respect already uses ‘Green’ as the colour of it’s leaflets in it’s key bases in Hall Green and Bethnal Green… [both have ‘Green’ in the respective place names… Salma did a recent video leading figures in the Birmingham Irish [ie ‘Green’ ] community…
    even leading ‘fashionista’s’ like Gok Wan have questioned the old adage that ‘Red and Green should never be seen’….
    come on all you old pabloite’s lets get behind the Green bandwagon…for the sake of St George and the Dragon…. no time to lose!

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  14. tamworthalternative Avatar
    tamworthalternative

    I have to thank Martin for his comment “Well at least Liam and others will be able to join the green party when Respect votes to fold in the autumn -when Galloway and Yaqoob join Labour- it will give them something to do trying to sell papers to the beardy nutters. Can’t imagine how Stuart Richardson will take to vegetarianism though.”

    which I quoted in full today at a Derek Wall meeting I chaired. This example of neanderthal marxism was greeted with much mirth- not least from comrade Stuart “Happy Meal” Richardson.

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  15. Adamski Avatar
    Adamski

    You can catch Hugo Blanco in WALES –
    Wednesday 13 October at 7pm, Main Building, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff. Email – CardiffCCC@hotmail.co.uk for more info

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  16. Liam Avatar
    Liam

    He’s speaking in about a dozen towns in the next few weeks and we’ll be posting the final details in a day or two.

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  17. The Prince Avatar
    The Prince

    Hugo Blanco will be speaking in Birmingham on Tuesday 18th October 7:30pm at Bennetts Bar, Bennetts Hill, City Centre.

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