Why Corbynmania is a Win for the Green Party

It's difficult as a Green not to feel a little conflicted about the rise of Jeremy Corbyn. After all the policies he is espousing are pretty much identical in many cases to those the Greens championed during the General Election. Against austerity and fracking; in favour of state ownership of the rail network; cancelling the renewal of Trident; a humane and intelligent response to immigration. Indeed Jeremy's latest soundbite about education is lifted straight from the strapline of the Green Party Manifesto: 'For the Common Good'.

Not only did the Labour Party not stand on this manifesto (far from it), but they also received a lot of votes from the very people who are now excited about Corbyn. Much of this may be due to the electoral system which favours the big parties and the breadth of 'tactical' voting which went on across the country ( in the end to no avail). In Bristol we estimated about 18,000 people may have split their vote, electing Green councillors but 'playing safe' in the national elections, even in seats which were nowhere near marginal such as Bristol East or South.

There is also a wariness in the party that now that Labour's failure to oppose the Tories has been made crystal clear, the people who might have turned finally to the Greens are hanging in with the Labour Party in the hope that Corbyn will be the new leader. It must be true that the Greens are losing out here on potential new members and supporters.

Nonetheless I see the enthusiasm for Corbyn as a success for the Green Party. The Greens (along with the SNP and Plaid Cymru) held the torch of opposition to mainstream neoliberalism and the  austerity programme throughout the General Election. For all the criticism of Natalie Bennett's technique, people on the doorstep told us they liked what she had to say. That torch is - for now- in the hands of a man who might actually be able to set something on fire.

The point of the Green Party is to see its policies implemented. We can achieve this directly through electoral success or through shifting political discourse towards the environmental sustainability and social justice which are our core values. Electoral success and the agenda shift are of course interconnected and voting Green certainly turns the heads of the parties who lose votes in the process. In Bristol City Council the Liberal Democrats demise has co-incided with the Green's rise but the Tories and Labour are also finding it harder to hold their seats.

I am in no way suggesting we should not stand for election. The Green Party is not simply a pressure group. However we have to recognise, with the electoral system we have, that success may not always come in the form of winning seats. Watching a major party shift its position towards our own has to be viewed gladly. After all it is the policy not the party that counts.

MiguelB https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

A Green-leaning woman asked me at a stall today about our immigration policy.

She was concerned about the impact a growing population will have on the countryside.

Unfortunately a growing population will risk creating negative environmental impact wherever it happens. As soil degradation and sea levels increase, the population pressures on the land are going to be greater. The greater the poverty in a region, the greater the risk of conflict. Both contribute to migration.

We need to stop thinking ‘us’ and ‘them’; ‘our’ country and ‘their’country. The essential point of ecology is that the world is a single unit, that what happens in Antartica or Syria or China happens to us all.  We have become accustomed to think of countries and nations, but these are not natural occurrences. When we are concerned about environmental impact we need to think across borders.

At a philosophical level too, every human being is born on Earth and surely has a right to be anywhere on this planet.

As Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader, says over and over, we need to solve the environmental crisis first and foremost. We also need to spread consumption evenly, so that the poor consume a little more and the rich consume a lot less. These two achievements will have a much greater impact on migration than a few laws about who can and can’t cross a particular political border.

Voting Green is not just 'Nice' - it's Necessity

I've been thinking about the messages that we can put out on our campaign to elect a Green councillor for Windmill Hill Ward here in Bristol. Underneath the simplicity of slogans such as 'Better Public Transport' and 'Living Wage' there are some deeper and more critical issues which make me realise that voting Green is not just another option, or even simply a 'nice' option, which is often the way we are seen (and perhaps present ourselves).

Behind Caroline Lucas' smiling face, Natalie Bennett's tweed suits and even my own apparently innocuous campaign photograph, there are some hardcore radical politics which have come of age.

We are facing some deep crises in this world. One of the world's largest cities, Sao Paulo, is facing a disastrous water shortage due to drought and rising water use. In the Middle East and Africa we see terrible violence and conflict which relates at least in part to power struggles over key resources such as oil and gas. In the UK we are being repeatedly beaten with the stick of austerity measures in an attempt to dismantle public infrastructure and local democracy.

The perilous threats to the welfare of people here and across the globe cannot be remedied with 'politics as usual'. Voting for a party with a 'peg on your nose', for a party which has already failed you repeatedly in the past, a 'tactical' vote, is no longer sufficient. The economic systems of the last 300 years are worse than redundant - they will lead us into the final stages of environmental and social catastrophe.

We need radical reform of our institutions and of policy objectives. We need people to take the system into their own hands, to be assertive in taking power from those who are holding on to it for the benefit of a minority. I don't mean random looting and arson - those pointless actions of the angry and impotent which harm the wrong people and create fear, inviting a conservative backlash. I mean voting for policies which will support everyone - such as putting public transport provision back in the hands of those who use it (the public!) and finding ways to run an economy which does not suck the value we all create into profits for the few.

At the same time we need to ensure that individual creativity and freedom is preserved and that everyone has opportunities to thrive. These are the values of The Green Party. All our policies are to that end, and if we need to change them to fit or add more, that can be done. Ideas are welcomed and the internal  processes are democratic and friendly.

It's refreshing and feels good to be part of a party which is so nice. It feels even better to be campaigning for values which are vital for our future.