If you want the Green Party to succeed, you need to show up
The Green Party conference passed a motion opposing energy nationalisation with just 0.2% of members voting for that. If progressives want the Greens to succeed they need to show up and do their part. Obviously some people are working hard but they could get a better long-term deal on that if they engaged with democratic process.
Idolisation is not enough
It’s not enough to leave it to Zack Polanski to solve issues. The idolisation of figureheads, however much what they say resonates, is a lacklustre approach to politics.
There’s a lesson from history here. Former UK prime minister Clement Attlee initially opposed some of the nationalisations of his 1945 government. It was a 1944 Labour conference and “conscious mass participation” from members of the public that solidified and advanced the changes.
At its conference, the Greens watered down previous commitments to energy nationalisation. Now the party has voted to bring only the energy infrastructure (grid and distribution) into public ownership.
The motion essentially stated that competition is a better mechanism for energy providers.
Politics and identity
You can have a political dimension without that becoming you’re entire identity. In fact, it’s quite critical that you do given politics is what determines the cost of essentials, the legislation you live under, and the freedoms you have.
The Green Party have over 215,000 members yet only a handful of them are choosing what could become government policy one day.
The fourth industrial revolution, if approached with public equity, will bring similar questions of identity. No longer will people identify with the job they had.
Worth it
With such potential on the cards, it’s crucial that people do their part. Movements that rely only on figureheads rarely make actual change, even if it’s bringing back and improving policies older generations already enjoyed (free tuition fees, public ownership of essentials, affordable housing, etc).
If you’re a progressive, make your voice heard.
Featured image via the Canary
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I take the point about not relying on figureheads, but I think there’s a wider question here about why so few people voted.
A huge number of us are brand new members — some have never been in a political party before. Was the conference communicated clearly enough to all those new members? Were reminders sent? Was the information as digestible as it could have been? When you’re faced with a 227-page final agenda and you’ve never done this before, where do you even start with that?
There were also reported technical issues with the voting system on the day, and procedural disruptions that ate into conference time. How much did that put people off?
I think there’s a more constructive angle to explore here — not just telling members to do more, but asking what the party could be doing to make participation realistic for the thousands of us who are still finding our feet.
There was a tabled amendment to a policy proposal by the Energy Policy Working Group. The EPWG is made up of Green Party members and they produce policy to be voted on by conference. The amendment was rejected because the wording was problematic. It specified nationalisation, which is only one form of public ownership.
Calling for blanket nationalisation without considering the potential unintended consequences, or if there are other common ownership options that would be more suitable is just shooting yourself in the foot.
The leadership do not make Green Party policy, the members do. All Green Party members are able to join any of the Policy Working Groups to be involved in formulating and developing policy, conference is only a small part of the process of deciding policy.
It’s really important for readers desperate not to let the Left overthrow the capitalism from which you benefit so comfortably to join the Green party in its mission to mildly reform the nasty bits of that economic system. Your Great Leader Zack Polanski is bravely facing Leftist agitators and proclaiming his adherence to a nicer form of Zionism that will keep Israel going on the land and corpses of Palestinians… just not in so obviously brutal a fashion as now. Yay for the lovely, smiley Greens!