1. Campaigning Party vs an Election Machine?
Within a flawed electoral system, are we not focusing too much on winning elections with some success in local elections with a few seats gained (but no gains in General Elections) while the planet is burning instead of urgently building a mass movement? One bad election could wipe out gains. Are we running out of time? What is your strategy?
It's not an either/or. We absolutely agree that there is more to politics than electoral politics, especially given the time we have left. But electoral politics is what the Green Party was set up to do, and it’s our unique strength compared to other parts of the environmental movement. Getting Greens into Westminster, into the Senedd, and into more positions of real influence in local government is vitally important so that we are in the room shaping the decisions that will determine our economy and environment for decades to come. You only have to look at Scotland to see that electoral politics can be a vehicle for genuine power and influence.
But more than that, there is no either/or between building a party and building a movement. The Green Party is now a permanent mass membership organisation, even outside of election-period surges. And by standing on a platform that represents a framework for a decarbonised economy grounded in social justice, we provide a model for radical change to which people can and will rally. With the party frequently third in the polls and growing public concern about the climate and ecological emergency, we have the opportunity to put powerful Green ideas at the centre of the debate. This is about clear and prominent communications – challenging the other parties in the media and being the political voice of the wider green movement - as well as an ambitious and well resourced electoral strategy.
2. Removing toxicity and healing splits?
How can the Green Party be an effective healthy political party, with transparent internal democracy and accountability based on fairness and unity? Are members expected to sign up 100% to everything that the leader(s) or the Party is perceived to support at any given time? Is it not the role of a leader to ensure that party members rights to disagree are protected? Be it the rights of women, transrights, the IHRA or the failed holistic review. What will you do to heal division?
We want to improve the internal culture of the party. We can do that by centering compassion in Green Politics - for each other and our communities.
We will work to encourage greater transparency in the party, and accountability to the membership.
We’ll play an active role in discussion on party governance, ensuring our structures and processes are fit for purpose for the current and future size and ambitions of the party.
And we will create spaces where people can learn and engage in a respectful way. We want to support the party’s liberation and policy groups to facilitate workshops and training that help members understand each other, party policy and our shared mission, engaging at a human level.
Jewish Greens have provided a model for how this can be done: their online roadshow showed how we can frame constructive workshops, in which there are no stupid questions and members can have the opportunity to learn and heal.
Members are not expected to sign up 100% to every party policy and there must be room for respectful discussion on policy.
However, we are clear: harassment, abuse and hate speech have no place in our movement, in any context. We must properly resource our party’s disciplinary process, ending the long delays in decision-making and providing adequate training to those volunteering for this incredibly important committee. The current complaints process seems to be open to abuse via vexatious complaints. We need a fair, transparent and consistent process that everyone can have confidence in.
3. A party that understands working-class communities
Many people still see the green movement and GPEW as being well meaning but not relevant to the everyday struggles of working people and working-class communities. How can we challenge that idea?
The Green Party has policies to raise living standards of working people across the UK and globally. We are getting this message across effectively in the growing number of working class communities where we are winning council seats, but we acknowledge that the party is not managing to do this loudly and clearly enough nationally.
We want to see the Party work more closely with unions, especially those not affiliated to Labour. This means cooperation at a leadership level and supporting members to organise within unions – we are already having discussions on this.
We both have a track record of working with unions. Carla is a member of ACORN community union, organising with them for campaigns on renters’ rights, and has supported the Deliveroo riders strike, NHS Nurses Say NO and the UCU strike. Adrian, as deputy leader and a Norwich councillor, campaigned alongside PCS on opposing privatisation, and with a variety of unions on campaigns for climate jobs.
We must demonstrate how our policies benefit people here and now, whether it’s retrofitting homes, better public transport or replacing Universal Credit with a Universal Basic Income. To get people to vote for us, we have to show that we address all the issues they’re concerned about.
Finally, we want to see our membership diversify and thrive. The Greens of Colour ‘5 Demands’ campaign showed how the party can work with its special interest groups to champion change and recruit members. Perhaps the next campaign is around working class communities?
4. The Movement for Green Jobs and a Green Socialist future
What do you know of the Trade Union backed Campaign Against Climate Change, Lucas Plan, The Million Green Jobs campaign and the Greener Jobs Alliance of trade unions? How would you work with these campaigns and ensure all parts of the party are engaging with these groups? Do you understand Just Transition and support it? Does the Green Party have a distinct action plan for COP 26?
We totally agree with the need to prioritise a just transition to sustainable and socially useful jobs in the context of energy transition and nuclear disarmament. We must build an economy for tomorrow that has improved quality of life at its heart, and leaves no-one behind.
Within the party we would support the GPTU Group & TU Liaison Officer to move forward on cooperation with trade-union-led campaigns for just transition, and as spokespeople for the party we would enthusiastically promote these campaigns
One of our priorities in our first 100 days is to work with the party’s COP26 working group to deliver a robust communications strategy around COP26. We want to be on the ground in Glasgow working with a team to ensure our plan for system change is heard clearly - taking the opportunity to put a Green recovery and Green New Deal centre stage in the debate.
5. Are you an Eco-socialist?
What does eco-socialism mean to you? What links do you see between climate change and the need for social, economic and democratic change?
The climate crisis cannot be solved without social, economic and democratic change. We need to radically reframe the nature of work and the relationship between citizens, businesses and state.
Green economic and social policies clearly position the party in the left. In terms of labels, however, we both think of ourselves first and foremost as Greens, which we see as a distinct political philosophy that goes further than the traditional socialist/Labour approach in several areas, e.g.:
● we value grassroots decentralisation rather than Labour’s top-down control
● we challenge aspects of the current economic model that Labour and the unions generally don’t challenge: i.e. unlimited economic growth, and go further than many traditional socialists on the transformation we want to see to the economy, e.g. UBI.
● we think about justice in global terms as well as in national terms,
● we think about compassion for other species and the natural world, as well as for all human beings.
But obviously the Green movement and socialists are aligned on many issues, so we want to work together on our common causes including workers’ rights, well-funded public services and a Green New Deal.
We see pushing for a Green New Deal as particularly promising because it is an economic plan that works within capitalism but is a stepping stone towards a fairer future.
6. Making campaigning for PR a Green Party priority
It’s clear the electoral system is holding back Green Party advance at local and parliamentary elections. How can we campaign to convince members of the Labour Party, Trade Unions and Labour MPs to support this democratic change to bring English elections in line with other parts of the UK? Do you see this as a priority for the Green Party in the next period?
It is no secret that the systemic bias in favour of FPTP is difficult to break because no party elected under it would be advantaged by abolishing it.
Labour has yet to come to terms with the political realignment of 2015. When they lost 40 seats in Scotland, the party’s already slim chance of achieving a majority in Westminster became nearly impossible. However, change may be on the horizon.
According to polling from immediately before the 2019 general election, 76% of Labour members want the party to back PR as policy, with just 12% opposed. A Labour List survey found almost identical results in August 2020. Now, more than 38% of all Constituency Labour Parties have committed to Proportional Representation. Over 96% of the CLPs that debated PR supported it.
Make Votes Matter is backing a joint campaign to secure a commitment to PR from Labour at this year’s Labour Party conference. As Make Votes Matter supporters we fully support this campaign and will be watching the Labour Party conference later this month with interest.