Exclusive: Matthew Hull to stand for Green Party trade union liaison officer
This summer, members of the Green Party of England and Wales will be electing a new deputy leader. However, this isn’t the only election taking place at the moment. Nominations are also open for one of the party’s two major governing bodies – the Green Party Executive Committee (GPEx).
Elections to GPEx take place every year, with half of the seats up for election.* Each elected post-holder serves for two years, and share collective responsibility for the party’s day to day management and financial health. In 2022, the positions up for election are:
- Chair
- Campaigns coordinator
- Elections coordinator
- External communications coordinator
- Management coordinator
- International coordinator
- Trade union liaison officer
Today, Bright Green can exclusively reveal that the first candidate to publicly announce they are standing is Matthew Hull, who will be standing to be the party’s next trade union liaison officer.
Hull is currently the chair of the Green Party Trade Union Group (GPTU), a position he has held since 2020. During his time in the role, he has prioritised supporting trade unions in their public campaigns and working to shift the Green Party’s positions on workers’ issues.
Hull’s work has seen GPTU mobilise Green Party members behind campaigns for pay rises for NHS workers, behind striking workers – including in the UCU dispute earlier this year – and behind national demonstrations such as the TUC’s cost of living demonstration on June 18.
In addition, Hull has worked with other members to push the party to adopt policies including a £15 an hour minimum wage and opposition to anti-trade union laws.
Speaking on his candidacy, Hull said he wanted to make the Green Party the “natural home” for working people. He told Bright Green,
I’m standing to be the next Trade Union Liaison Officer because I believe the Green Party has the commitment, creativity and policy programme to be a natural home for the working people of England & Wales.
We are living through a cost of living crisis, and the Tory government at Westminster is taking a sledgehammer to our democracy and human rights protections. More than ever we need to be a clear, radical Green voice that offers solutions to the problems people face and hands them control over their future.
Hull went on to argue that the party should be “communicating clear policy demands that will put money in workers’ pockets and power in workers’ hands”. He said,
Building on the best of our party’s traditions, I want to build lasting relationships with trade unions from local parties to the leadership team. I want to see Greens working together in trade unions to push for social and ecological justice. I want to see our party focusing on communicating clear policy demands that will put money in workers’ pockets and power in workers’ hands – demands like our £15 minimum wage policy, strengthening rights at work, and repealing the anti-trade union laws.
Our trade union movement needs a strong Green voice for social and climate justice, and the ecological justice movement needs an empowered trade union movement in order to win.
Hull has stood for the trade union liaison officer position once before. In 2020, he stood on a job share ticket with Paul Valentine, losing out to Kefentse Dennis in that year’s election.
Nominations for the GPEx election close on June 30.
*Author’s note – the exception to this is for the position of Wales Green Party leader, and Young Greens co-chair. Both of these positions have a seat on GPEx, but are elected through the rules set out in each organisation’s constitution.
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