The Green Party’s democratic processes need to change. As chair of the party executive, I’d deliver this.

I spent several months wondering about standing for Chair of the Executive. “It’ll be a lot of work”, I told myself. “Will it fit in with your council work, running the smallholding, commitments to your local party…?”. (I’m good at finding excuses!)

But I kept coming back to my original motivation: the governance and internal procedures of the party are creaking, and need someone with experience and skill to sort them out. No mean task, especially as governance hadn’t formerly been within the remit of the Chair of the Executive. But with new staff appointments and updated job descriptions the responsibility is properly defined: the key purpose of the Chair is to oversee the governance and functioning of the Green Party. And when the party is functioning smoothly we will be able to operate as a unified team and concentrate better on our objectives.

So, what’s wrong with the way things are working at the moment?

The structure of the party was formed thirty five years ago when our membership, including Scotland and Northern Ireland, was about 10,000. We had two full time and two part time members of staff and most of the work was done by members of the then new Party Executive. Since then bits have been added and adapted to suit a growing party, but the speed of our growth has put strains on key planks of that structure.

Conference is the heart of our democracy, but only a tiny proportion of members attend. Factions often dominate, with outcomes seldom representing the views of the wider party membership, thus casting doubt over legitimacy and giving rise to resentment. Furthermore, a number of guidance documents have been produced, some of which, while being well meaning, are impractical and probably not legally compliant.

So, the questionable legitimacy of these policies and their interpretation has caused bitterness, and a huge increase in complaints against any individuals falling foul of them.

It’s no secret that our disciplinary system is in disarray. The Disciplinary Committee (DC) has been unable to cope with the rise in complaints, although several people elected to serve on the committee complain that they have not been given any cases to reside over. Some cases have never been heard, many years on, leaving respondents and complainants abandoned. Meanwhile, sanctions on many other individuals have appeared overly harsh, with more suspensions and expulsions than had ever previously been applied. In many of these cases legal actions have been brought against the Green Party, at huge financial and reputational cost to the party.

It’s all a damaging and debilitating spiral of dubious practises that is costing us dear and pulling us away from our strategic and political objectives. Yet I firmly believe it’s not a hopeless task to pull things back, if we all want to do so.
So what makes me the right person to turn things around?

In the first place, I have total confidence that this is a problem that can be fixed, relatively easily, if we work together and talk.

Conference is still the supreme forum and decision maker, and any lasting change to its format must come from Conference itself. So I will work with GPRC and GPEx colleagues, with Conferences Committee, Standing Orders Committees and our new Chief Executive to develop a joint and sustainable proposal for delegate voting at conference, one that doesn’t detract from the best bits but that improves our internal democracy.

Meanwhile, I will work with all the governance bodies, Disciplinary Committee, the Regional Council and Standing Orders Committee, first of all to ensure our guidance and policy documents are legally compliant and have the support of the wider membership, but also to help our disciplinary system to work for the common good of the party and all its members.

The Party Executive (GPEx) is responsible for the day to day running of the party. This can be a lot of work and some Coordinators have particularly heavy workloads. But everybody elected to GPEx has a mandate to fulfil their role, which can prove demanding, especially during frantic election campaigns. I have served several terms as Elections Coordinator, and understand the stresses of multi-level project management. Everybody must pull out all the stops in order to achieve the objectives, and a strong Chair needs to be on hand to support the teams and help untangle any knots that seem impenetrable.

As I am writing this our magnificent Lionesses are building up for their final match of the EUEFA championship against Spain’s excellent team. Our brilliant women have battled through massive challenges to reach this point, sometimes looking as if all odds were lost. But led by the wonderful Serena Weigman the team never gave up, they battled on together, stuck to their roles and triumphed.

And whatever happens in the football match tonight, I know that the Green Party can achieve its challenging objectives because we will also pull together. When we work as a team, concentrating on the goals ahead, we will win, together!

Judy Maciejowska is a Candidate for Chair of the Green Party Executive

Image credit: Jon Craig – Creative Commons