The next Green leaders must have a vision for radical local change
Let’s face it – beyond Caroline Lucas, the Green Party of England and Wales is unlikely to be a significant party at the level of national government any time soon. At the very most Greens may win parliamentary seats after another two general elections, which means, nationally, playing the long game.
It’s a different story locally. In the council elections in England last year, Greens saw their best ever results, more than doubling their number of councillors from 178 to 362. This was part of a massive shift that saw particularly Conservative councils ousted from power and replaced with rainbow coalitions. Greens are now part of ruling coalitions in 17 councils, and often form a significant opposition on a further 100 or so councils. That may not sound much, when you consider that the traditional parties still hold 16,000 council seats between them, but the recent wins are impressive and set a trajectory for possible future gains. And, more importantly, Greens often punch above their weight and are the ones bringing about change in their councils.
For example, in York, Greens secured well over £130 million for climate emergency measures, including building passivhaus homes, a large-scale retrofit programme, restoring woodland and electrifying transport. The Green leaders of Lewes District Council have developed an ambitious plan to deliver more than 1,000 new council homes, at a time when most councils are building none at all or are selling off what they do have. In Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Greens have pushed for radical action on homelessness. In Brighton and Hove, in Suffolk, and elsewhere, Greens have won victories on opening roads to pedestrians and cyclists. In Norwich, it was a Green Party motion that sowed the seeds for the council’s building of the now-renowned Goldsmith Street council housing project. And let’s not forget that it was Carla Denyer’s motion to Bristol City Council in November 2018 that kick-started the climate emergency movement in England and prompted a wave of council actions across the country.
The next leadership should be seeking to support and drive forward this momentum that is being generated by Green councillors and local campaigners. Crucially, that will mean bringing together local councillors’ and parties’ campaigns into clearly-articulated demands, as the climate emergency movement has done.
At the same time, the next leadership has to recognise and prioritise the fact that councils are at a critical turning point right now – many are facing obliteration as coronavirus has shattered the fragile remains of local authority budgets after years of cuts. Greens are in danger of losing local power bases if councils get swept up into undemocratic (that is, even more undemocratic than currently) “combined authorities” that are essentially run as public-private partnerships which give contractors and big companies massive influence. The next leadership will have to throw everything into fighting for the life of local democracy, which is also fighting for the life of Green politics.
But what the next leadership must not do is to talk about defending councils as they currently are. I know from personal experience that most people don’t care about councils, or only care when things go wrong. As Adam Ramsay has already argued in Bright Green, there is a great feeling of alienation and disaffection from what is perceived to be “politics” in general in England, and the Green Party has to show a radical commitment to doing politics differently. Nowhere is that more true than in local politics, where voter turnout is usually somewhere in the 30-40% range. But that is precisely where Greens can make a difference.
What Greens are doing through gains on councils is not only winning practical achievements to tackle climate and social emergencies, they also have the potential to change the face of politics. Many people vote Green in local elections because they are sick of the other parties, or, more positively, because they see that “Greens are the only ones who do anything round here”. By delivering on what they promised in election campaigns, elected Greens can start to rebuild trust in politics in a small way. But far more importantly, Greens must show that politics is not only something that has to be done by politicians. The Green Party’s leadership has to champion the message that yes, Greens are the ones who are actively delivering on what they promised in elections, but also that Greens are a party of radical decentralisation and giving “power to the people”.
Participatory local democracy and local autonomy are at the heart of Green politics, uniquely among parties in the UK. Greens have long championed grassroots-based models of decision-making and local action, from community energy companies and gardens to citizens’ assemblies, a form of activism that has been bolstered by the almost unprecedented rise in volunteering during the coronavirus pandemic. In order to “build back better” after covid, Greens must fight to ensure that the grassroots is at the heart of how we do politics, transforming democracy by giving power over local budgets and local government directly to citizens’ assemblies and communities.
If Greens do not maintain a vision of radically overhauling councils in this way, there is a danger that the pressure of trying to get elected and work within those councils’ very bureaucratic culture could lead to a kind of small-c conservatism and activists becoming isolated. I’ve seen that from personal experience of being a local councillor. Thus, the Green leadership must consistently articulate big-picture vision of change and work with activists to keep them inspired and in touch with the wider movement.
And that big-picture vision must draw on other grassroots campaigns at local government level from around the world, especially those that have foregrounded the voices of the most vulnerable. For example, the Fearless Cities movement that took off in Barcelona; or the movement to give people control over their municipal budget in the Durham, North Carolina; or the stories of grassroots union organising that were highlighted in a recent talk by United Voices of the World for the Young Greens. The next Green leadership must provide an internationalist vision as well as a localist one, placing the Green Party of England and Wales within the context of global demands for change.
Of course, a grassroots and local philosophy must by definition be bottom-up, not top-down. But in order to build an effective movement for large-scale change, Greens need a leadership who are in touch with and will champion the victories of local activists and councillors, while at the same time providing a clear and radical vision for how the foundations of local democracy have to change.
This article is the seventh in a series on the forthcoming Green Party of England and Wales leadership election. Bright Green has invited a number of Green Party members and activists to contribute their views on what the next Green Party leader should deliver. The articles in this series can be found here.
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.
Image credit: Cameron Palin
Sian Berry and Caroline Lucas were at the forefront of the change from principle speakers to a leadership model.
The ‘Yes’ campaigns claims were “a leader would help set direction, political focus and make sure the party gets the resources to grow”.
The ‘Yes’ campaigned claimed a Leader is “about empowering the party” and “about accountability”, in that a Leader “will mean we can identify who to hold to account when things need changing”. The ‘Yes’ campaign has been proven wrong. Time to revert back to Green ideals. The experiment has failed.
“This referendum offers us a vital opportunity to demonstrate that alternative models of leadership are possible – not top-down and authoritarian, but inspirational and persuasive. Given the scale and urgency of the Green message, we owe it to ourselves, and to the electorate, to make our Party as effective as we can – I believe that developing authentic leadership models is a major part of that process.”
Caroline Lucas MEP, South East England See video
jean Lambert
“This motion does not concentrate power in a single, all-powerful leader but will give a clearer focus for the public and help to bring the Greens more firmly in to the political arena. I now believe the lack of a clear “face” for the Party makes it more difficult for the general public to identify us and for us to take the next leap in our political development. We have changed our “leadership” structures before to help our political advancement. There is nothing in this motion that prevents other Party members from showing leadership, gaining a public profile and helping to empower ourselves and others. I shall vote for change because I think it is now necessary.”
Jean Lambert MEP, London
Jonathan Porrit
“If ever there was a time when the Green Party needed a formally elected Leader, it has to be now. The Green Party’s analysis and policy proposals are more relevant today than ever before, but with all the major Parties seeking their share of the “green mantle”, the Party urgently needs a clear, passionate and persuasive leader out there, doing the job in a way that both the public and the media can relate to much more easily than is the case today.”
Jonathan Porritt, Co-Founder, Forum for the Future, Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission and Green Party member.
Cllr Darren Johnson AM
“With the threat of climate change becoming ever more urgent we need a strong and successful Green Party now more than ever before. Sadly, the Green Party’s current set-up is hampering our ability to get our vital message across. We need an identifiable leadership team who can really enthuse and inspire the electorate. That is why I support the case for change and will be voting Yes in the party’s referendum.”
Cllr Darren Johnson AM, London Assembly See video
Sian Berry
“We have incredibly talented people in the Green Party but the current set-up of Principal Speakers who have confusing job titles and no vote on the executive simply isn’t working. If the Green Party is to make a real impact we must deal with this. The proposed changes will be an excellent start in providing accountable leadership which can help inspire and lead us to real success.”
Sian Berry, Green Party Principal Speaker See video
Mark Ballard
“It’s a central Green Principle that we hold power accountable.
Experience has shown that elected leaders are much more accountable than unelected ones. In Scotland, having co-conveners has given the party internal focus and means the membership, not the media choose our leaders.”
Mark Ballard, former Green Member of the Scottish Parliament
Beat Boris Johnson to become Rector of Edinburgh University Co-convener, Edinburgh Green Party
The late Mike Woodin
“Individual personalities. We all know that Robin Harper and Darren Johnson are, what shall we say, strong personalities? Leaders? And didn’t it help them and us get elected? And doesn’t it boost our media profile. It’s the same at the local level, I know from personal experience, you do not get to be the person who first wins a target ward without a bit of an ego, without being driven, without pushing yourself forward, and without inspiring a team of people to work their socks off yes for the party, but also for you.
“The electorate relate to personalities not complex concepts, just as complex concepts like Marxism and Thatcherism often take the names of those who invented them. There are problems with modern political leaders, but in going as far as we do to avoid those problems we frequently deny ourselves and the electorate leadership, and force our representatives to walk a tightrope, which in my experience undermines their credibility and denies them exposure.
“I believe there are concessions we could make to the human nature of the electorate and the media that would not involve handing the entire party over to an un-sackable despot.”
The late Dr Mike Woodin, former Principal Speaker, in a speech to Green Party Conference September 2001. Quote by kind permission of Deborah Glass-Woodin.
Jonathan Tyler poster
“After over 30 years in green politics I am getting impatient. I don’t think having a Leader will of itself transform our situation, but I do think good leadership could be instrumental in energising and pushing forward our agenda at this crucial time. And it is quite wrong of the No camp to suggest that the change will somehow degrade our methods of working: do we have so little confidence in our own values?”
Jonathan Tyler, National Chair of the Ecology Party (1976 – 1979)
Gina Dowding
“I can understand that some people might have reservations about having a leader because some of the role models that we’ve had have been very autocratic leaders, but it doesn’t have to be like that, and I’m absolutely confident that the Green Party can and will do it differently. We’ll have a leader that will be responsible to the rest of the party… who is serving the party. And we’ll have mechanisms in place that if that doesn’t work we can change things.
Gina Dowding Lancaster Green Party (and former councillor) See Video
Hazel Dawe
“We can stay shouting in the wilderness where no one can hear us or we can join the political fray and put the green message in the mainstream”
Hazel Dawe Chair, Kent Green Party
Jason Kitcat
“I believe we need clear leadership, and the accountability that it brings, to helps us achieve the success that can deliver meaningful change. We can have leaders without authoritarianism and centralisation, and this is what the current proposal being put before members offers.”
Jason Kitcat Brighton & Hove Green Party
Roger Creagh Osborne
“Has a political party or movement without an identifiable leader ever succeeded anywhere in the world?
“Can you point to a successfully functioning organisation or social entity which does not have a leader?”
Roger Creagh-Osborne Cornish Green Party / Bagas Gwer Kernewek
Sue Paskins
“Way back I joined the Ecology Party, cos that seemed the only political party that knew the way forward, and I have been waiting all these years for us to get there. When it came to converting people to our way of thinking we had, I believe, two problems. One we were telling people they couldn’t have their cake and eat it! (We must be the only political party seeking to be elected on such a manifesto!) And secondly ‘we’ were telling them; ‘we’, not an enlightened individual with sparkling eyes and an inner vision that the media could relate to, but a ‘we’ an amorphous group of people, usually portrayed in green wellies by the media, and therefore easily ignored as right thinking but not in the real world types.
“To get people to believe us, be converted to our way thinking and to join us on this route, we can only ask one step at a time, ‘we’ are asking for two simultaneous steps. To cut back on their greedy lifestyle and to believe people who don’t have a leader. It’s too much. But for the sake of the planet we must convince them to rein in their lifestyle and I believe we must sacrifice our leaderless stance in order to help achieve this.”
Sue Paskins, former Councillor, Brighton
Steve Dawe
“Green leadership would mean being present more often in the media. We must raise our profile to challenge the complancency of the other parties towards climate change”
Steve Dawe Press Officer, Kent Green Party
Mark Hill
“This country is crying out for a radical, environmentally-entred party. We are not yet trusted to be that party.
We trust in our arguments – we trust our elected representatives – we are a trustworthy group of people. We now need to show the electorate, the people, that they can trust our leaders because we trust our leaders.”
Mark Hill Hebden Bridge (former councillor on York City Council)
Claire Plamer
“I back the campaign for a Green leader. I was elected as a Green Councillor for St Clement’s in Oxford, twice. However, as a Green Councillor, despite our considerable success in Oxford, I was often struck that on a national level the fact that voters could not put an identifiable face to the national party was a great hindrance.
“All three major parties have recently jumped on the Green bandwagon and adopted Green policies they once reviled and scorned, whereas the Green Party itself rarely gets a look in on a national level, cast off into a grey area or ‘other’ on the ballot paper and voting results. This seems extremely unfair to me. And I truly believe a lot of people would love to vote Green, but they really don’t know who they’re voting for! I do not think a Green Party leader would fall foul to the trappings of power as leaders in the main parties have – one of the things about being Green is that you have to live by your beliefs and standards.”
Claire Palmer, Newcastle Green Party (and former Oxford councillor)
John Matthews
“Having stood as a candidate at local, regional and parliamentary elections, I believe if there is one thing that overall holds us back in the mind of the voter it is our lack of a leader; someone who the voter can identify with as speaking for our party, its values and principles. We have held to our principles and policies whilst other parties have been ditching theirs at a rate of knots. At this crucial time in human history we need an inspired leadership, that puts co-operation before competion, justice before greed and selfishness, and peace before war.”
John Matthews Chair, Cardiff Green Party and 15 years a member
“I have been knocking on doors for fifteen years every week. If we had proper accountable leadership and a better profile that door knocking wouldn’t be so bloody hard.”
David Ford, former Bradford councillor
“The key claim of the status quo position is that the lack of a leader is an expression of a non-hierarchical, truly radical vision of politics, and a guarantee of participatory politics. It might be interesting to compare us with other political parties, but I have a sense that we are not very participatory at all. Our members are mostly inactive, with probably one in five even of the best-run local parties such as our own actually getting round to doing anything concrete. So does our present set up guarantee or even enable greater levels of participation than those of parties with elected leaders? No. It just makes us feel different, without actually making us different. In other words it encourages smug inaction, the very very opposite of participatory politics. This inaction undoubtedly increases the sense of distance between the governing bodies of our party and the membership and with it a creeping hierarchy. The only guarantee of a radical participatory politics is surely greater engagement and vigilance, not the empty badge of radicalism that is our present leaderlessness.”
Jeremy Hicks, Lewisham Green Party
“I believe that the Green Party should have an elected leader as it sends out a clearer message about the parties policies and agenda. One leader enables the party to appear more united in their presentations and less convoluted. In addition one leader ensures that a distinctive and effective message is communicated across and not a herd of voices.”
Priscilla Cotterell, Lewisham Green Party
“How can we ask the electorate to trust us if we do not trust ourselves?”
Joe Hulm, Richmond & Twickenham Green Party
“We, that is people, look to leadership. We want leadership in our bosses at work, in our wives and husbands, in our doctors, even in our holiday reps. Just to function we need to trust others to make decisions and in all walks of life we all look to ‘leadership’. A political party that does not recognise peoples desire for good leadership is a party that does not recognise people’s desires at all.”
Dave Lane Leicester Green Party
“Simply having spokespersons has not proved adequate in attracting members and getting our public message across. It’s time for change.”
Jack Stride Greenwich Green Party
“A long overdue referendum which could be a major turning point in legitimising the GP in the eyes of the electorate and getting the GP agenda into the public domain.”
David Ives Wirrall Green Party
“Leadership has done no harm to the Scottish Green Party, and has proved instrumental in making Greens into an established parliamentary party.”
Peter McColl Scottish Green Party
“I was delighted to find this website and agree that we need a higher profile to promote GP policies urgently and having a leader would be an effective way to do this.”
Chris Sciberras Croydon Green Party
“I am a socialist and environmentalist and joined the green party 4 years ago because I believe it offers the only hope for the radical left in Britain. I am serious about bringing about real and lasting political change in Britain and the world – I’m not interested in being part of a mere discussion group! The outdated old structures have only hindered the development of the Green Party in England and Wales. I see the election of a single leader as being part of that process! If we are not properly organised why on earth should anyone take us seriously? How can we campaign for political change if we are not prepared to change ourselves?”
Leigh Richards Swansea Green Party
“A Green leader is essential if The Green Party is to make a realistic challenge to the mainstream parties on their own turf. We cannot be so blinkered as to ignore the reality of modern politics, in which a visible, dynamic leader is the focal point for an electorate. Without a visible leader, we might as well remain marginal and overlooked”.
Polly Lane Hackney Green Party
“This process is long overdue, but extremely welcome. The seriousness of our situation requires that the party elect a leader. The current arrangement just isn’t sufficient to meet the challenges we will have to face in order to make the changes vital to our continued survival.”
Robin Whitlock, Bath Green Party
“Whilst egalitarian principles are all very well (and need not be abandoned by electing a ‘leader’) the primary aim of the Green Party at this crucial time must be to spread our message via the media. Well may we lament the fact that the media concentrates on personality politics, but we must work with what tools we are given. In my opinion, this means an identifiable leader.”
Tracy Lee-Newman Wivenhoe Green Party
This very positive article is inspiring, and full of life with the examples of green achievements through LA’s.
There are, however, big buts:
Local Authorities are largely administering central government policy, with little power to raise revenue for moving in our direction. So by by going in hard campaigning with high hopes is in the long run going to lead to disillusion and demoralisation both among our activists and our supporters, if nothing else changes.
We should be clear about this, and constantly be clear about the long term social and economic preconditions for trying to avert climate disaster in our own thinking and in our message to voters, however much it might not seem relavent in the immediate situation facing us.
I have in mind the small question of reversing the whole system of accumulation of wealth at the top of society, and the frantic consumerism which drives our economy. Universal Basic Income set at a level with a strong redistributive effect should be our message.
And alongside electoral politics, we should pick a target for a protest campaign on ecological lines which links all these themes. I give as an example Oak Furnitureland, which uses scarce timber resources from dubious origins, which it does not declare although it is supposed to, but it would not be difficult to find targets. The unspoken message from this would be that it is not sufficient to elect leaders to do the job for us.
I’m in full support