Alex Phillips rules herself out of Green Party leadership election – UK Green news round up issue 61
Alex Phillips rules herself out of Green Party leadership election
Nominations for the Green Party of England and Wales leadership election open on June 1, as well as for elections to the Green Party executive. And this week, former Green MEP Alex Phillips ruled herself out of the election.
Phillips was asked at a Q+A session at an online event hosted by the Young Greens what her future plans are. She responded by making clear that although she had given thought to the idea of standing for the leadership, she would not be doing so this year. She also revealed that fellow former MEP Magid Magid would not be standing either.
Phillips said that part of the reason for her decision was that she believes current co-leader Sian Berry must enter the London Mayoral race in her current post. Berry has yet to announce whether or not she will be restanding for the position, and no other candidates have emerged either.
Despite no candidates having yet been announced, conversations amongst the membership as to what they want to see from the next Green Party leader have already begun. Bright Green is running a series of articles exploring this.
This week, Young Greens co-chairs Rosie Rawle and Thomas Hazell called for the next Green Party leader to embrace a fresh “Green class politics”. They wrote:
Our party and our leadership must continue to recognise just why social and climate justice must come together. They must emphasise the need for the world to diverge from a dead capitalist consensus and move to a new type of society.
The fight must not just be for an economy that saves the world, but an economy that protects the security of everybody on it, global north and global south. In the face of this, our new leadership should recognise the need for a fresh green class politics.
Additionally, former Green Oxford City Councillor Sam Coates argued for the next Green Party leader to articulate a vision of a post-covid world:
In the midst of a pandemic exacerbated by capitalism’s contempt for the natural world, we need to articulate a vision that protects people’s basic material security from the rentier class and rejects a catastrophic economic recovery plan based on reflating fossil fuels, airlines and consumerism.
Scottish Greens force law change to prevent tax avoiders getting bailouts
With the economic crisis triggered by coronavirus still taking hold, governments around the globe are bailing out companies that could otherwise go to the wall. While many countries have placed few conditions on such bailouts, Scotland has this week taken a different approach, following similar steps taken by countries like Poland, Denmark and France. Scotland will ban bailouts for companies avoiding tax.
This was as a result of an amendment to emergency legislation in the Scottish Parliament from the Scottish Greens. Speaking on the victory, Scottish Green Party co-leader Patrick Harvie said:
This move isn’t the final word, but it marks the beginning of a new approach to tackling the companies which shamelessly avoid paying tax, and we will continue to build on what’s been achieved today.
If we are to build back a fairer, greener and more equal Scotland, then we cannot return to an economy which puts obscene levels of growth before the wellbeing of our citizens.
It’s time for these companies and their owners to face up to their responsibilities. ‘Business as usual’ was causing poverty, inequality and environmental destruction, and it didn’t provide an adequate safety net for people in insecure jobs and homes. That needs to change.
In addition to this, the Green MSPs also won a series of other victories on Covid legislation, including enabling students to get out of exploitative accommodation contracts, and protections for 16 and 17 year olds during lockdown.
Caroline Lucas fights against government’s Trade Bill
The UK government’s Trade Bill passed its second reading in parliament this week – the latest step towards it becoming the new legislation that governs the UK’s trade deals post-Brexit. Campaigners have long criticised the Bill, alleging that it could see the NHS become further privatised and reduce regulation, including on food standards.
Among those to oppose the Bill’s passage through parliament this week was Green MP Caroline Lucas. And writing in the New Statesman, Lucas accused the government of bringing forward a Bill which is a “race to the bottom” on standards:
There is nothing in the Trade Bill that will protect the food standards which keep us safe, nor safeguard the livelihoods of our farmers who follow much higher animal welfare standards. This is a race to the bottom.
She went on to highlight the scale of the threat such a Trade Bill poses. She wrote:
It’s not only food and environmental standards that are at risk. Trade decisions have the potential to change public services, undermine workers’ rights and restrict the ability of governments to address social and environmental challenges.
Norwich Greens slam Labour council’s £6 million of wasted cash
This week, the Eastern Daily Press revealed that the Labour run Norwich City Council has lost £6 million of taxpayer’s cash on setting up a property company. The council was also accused of covering up the scale of the losses.
One Green Councillor accused the council of “catastrophic mismanagement. Norwich Green Party Councillor Nannette Youssef made the comments on Twitter. She tweeted:
Incredibly damning report into the Labour led @NorwichCC running of #NRL Housing Company
£6million of council tax payers money was lost due to catastrophic mismanagement, serious conflicts of interests and an alarming lack of accountabilityhttps://t.co/EVgNNz4pQl
— Nannette Youssef 🥦🥬🥑 (@NannetteY_95) May 23, 2020
She was joined in this condemnation by fellow Councillor Jamie Osborn, who released a video in which he accused the Labour council of entering into a “dodgy contract”:
PS. Bright Green has big plans for the future, but we need your input. Take 2 minutes to see what we’re planning and tell us your thoughts.
Although this bulletin purports to include “All the latest news from the UK Green Parties,” Bright Green seem to have omitted to mention the apology they have made to Population Matters for publishing an open letter signed by 200 Green members objecting to Population Matters presence at the recent Green Party conference.
I think Green Party members may find this of interest:
Editor’s Note: Following publication of the open letter below, Population Matters (PM) has provided Bright Green with a detailed rebuttal of the claims made in the letter. Bright Green now accepts that a number of serious allegations made in the letter against PM are false, in particular the claims that PM:
i) values some human lives above others;
ii) blames women and families in the Global South for the climate crisis and environmental destruction; and
iii) fails to confront the racist, sexist and exclusionary agenda of the far right.
Bright Green acknowledges that PM’s unambiguous position is that racism has no place in the debate on human population, and that it strongly opposes and actively challenges all forms of discrimination. We also acknowledge that PM emphasises that carbon emissions are overwhelmingly the responsibility of the rich world, and calls for a more just global system with more equitable distribution of resources. We apologise to PM for publishing these false claims.
We also wish to make it clear that Bright Green does not believe or allege that PM and its staff and trustees are motivated by racism, sexism or xenophobia, and apologise for the fact that the letter implied otherwise.
We have agreed to publish a response to the open letter by PM here.
Population Matters response to the open letter:
bright-green.org/2020/05/19/achieving-a-fair-just-green-society-requires-upholding-those-principles/
Population Matters response in full:
Achieving a fair, just, green society, requires upholding those principles
Alistair Currie 19 May 2020
Achieving a fair, just, green society, requires upholding those principles
2020-05-21T23:35:25+01:00
Green Parties 5 Comments
Population Matters’ vision is of a future in which our population co-exists in harmony with nature and prospers on a healthy planet, to the benefit of all. To achieve that future, we believe that it’s vital to address the impact that the sheer number of human beings on the planet has on our lives, on the struggle for global justice and equity, and on the natural systems on which we depend (and which are of value in their own right). We know that the solutions to this challenge are positive and empowering, providing people with the freedom, opportunity, means and desire to freely choose small families. Those solutions improve lives and make our world better: eradicating poverty, ensuring everyone is able to use effective modern family planning, empowering women and girls, providing good quality education for all, and providing people with the information they need to want to make that choice. We’re proud to stand for that vision, those values and to work for those solutions.
The open letter published in Bright Green in March was disturbing for many reasons: firstly, because it entirely misrepresented the values, aims and motivations of Population Matters; secondly, because it contained very serious accusations that were unfounded and untrue; and finally, sadly, because so many people were willing to sign it so readily.
Let’s start by saying, we understand why people have concerns about raising the population issue. There have been some dark episodes and dark motivations in the history of population concern and population action, from forced sterilisations in India and Puerto Rico, to China’s one-child policy, and a disturbing crossover in the past with eugenics, colonialism, racism and the control of women’s bodies. While Population Matters has always stood resolutely against these abominations, we’ve made our mistakes in the past too (although those are sometimes misrepresented or misunderstood, including in the letter). We understand, therefore, that many people’s concerns about this agenda come from the good place of wanting to defend the vulnerable, confront the repulsive, and secure justice. But the fight for justice isn’t enhanced by living in the past, holding onto ideological preconceptions, and assuming that all those with whom you disagree have sinister agendas and malign motivations.
As the Editor’s Note now published above the letter all too belatedly recognises, far from being complicit in or motivated by repugnant ideologies, Population Matters actively promotes humane and progressive values and confronts and condemns the repellent right wing agenda which is sometimes falsely associated with our concerns. Far from blaming people in the Global South for climate change, we explicitly hold overconsumption in the North responsible. We call actively for a more just and equitable global system, and for people here to recognise the responsibility on them to change, and to seek change. Far from seeking to control women’s bodies, the part of our work which makes all of us who work for PM most proud is where we have helped empower women to take control of their own lives. The evidence of all of this is laid out in our comprehensive rebuttal document here – from the tweets in which we condemn anti-immigrant sentiment, to the graphs showing grotesque imbalance in CO2 emissions, to the emphatic and passionate assertions of women’s rights.
Such a document should never have been needed. Any open-minded person acquainting themselves with our website, our social media, or us as human beings, can see and learn that we represent and are driven by the progressive, compassionate, pro-human values which motivate members of the Green Party of England and Wales and, we’ve no doubt, the vast majority of people associated with Bright Green.
Hundreds, however, didn’t. Instead, they took as a given that the things they’d heard and the willingness of their peers to join in, were sufficient reason to endorse grotesque accusations and allegations which are simply untrue. Many went far further, with our two staff members (I was one) in the virtual Green Party of England and Wales Conference “chat room” subjected to an intense verbal assault, and what felt like a witch-hunt on Twitter, in which accusations of “ecofascism”, “deep racism” and the contemptuous dismissal of respectful and reasoned responses (“fuck off ecofash”) were all too prevalent. Even the interventions of my colleague, a former Ugandan TV journalist – who, in contrast to most of those making accusations, has authentic personal knowledge and experience of the reality of restricted choice for people in the Global South – did nothing to stem the tide of hostility and judgment.
In these pages in 2016, rebutting accusations made against him, Peter Tatchell described his fears about a new Left-wing McCarthyism, describing “a bigger, wider problem that is infecting and damaging left and green politics: the decline in civility and honesty, and the rise in sectarian attacks on other activists.” We understand that some people on the Left and in the Green movement may not see us as part of their community – and as a charity, we are non-political – but we belong firmly in the community of those who seek justice, equity, respect for all and a secure future for all people, in harmony with the planet we live on and the other living beings we share it with.
Be in no doubt: if those of us who seek those things do not recognise the importance of achieving a sustainable human population – among much else we must collectively do – the chance of humankind overcoming our environmental crisis are vanishingly small. To find out why, explore our website, evaluate the evidence and judge for yourselves. This article doesn’t seek to make that case. The case it does make is that unless what we all do is informed by principles of fairness, respect, reason, critical thinking and scepticism of conventional wisdom, our chance of securing the future we all seek are vanishingly small too.
Alistair Currie is head of campaigns and communications at Population Matters. This article is in response to an open letter published in Bright Green on 21 March 2020, which objected to Population Matters being given a stall at the Green Party of England and Wales Spring Conference in 2020.
Very good to see the Young Greens’ position recognising that green goals cannot be achieved without egalitarianism. This may seem impractical, but it is way less impractical than the GP’s current electomania, which without changing the social and economic structure, will do nothing to address the big issues.
The basic aim the the Party is to get members elected to gain the power and influence to be able to implement the changes we want. That is what a political party does. If we could change the social and economic structure beforehand, we wouldn’t need to bother with elections.