watermelon
Conference
Newsletter of Green Left Spring 2016
SWORDS INTO PLOUGHSHARES, TRIDENTS INTO TURBINES:
It’s time for a new Lucas plan
In 1976, the militant workforce
within Lucas Aerospace
were facing t layoffs. Under the leadership of Mike
Cooley, they developed the Lucas Plan[2] to
convert the company from arms to the manufacture of socially useful products,
and save jobs. The plan was not
put into place but it is claimed that the associated industrial
action saved some jobs. It's a model to enact a just transition
from ecologically damaging to ecologically positive employment in a low-carbon economy, where certain industries will have to
shrink- for example, the power generation, aviation and cars. However, instead
of a net loss of jobs, efforts must be put into creating green jobs or
‘converting’ old jobs. to produce the hardware for
harnessing renewable wind and solar energy- employing skilled engineers and
training new engineers for the future.
The Plan, drawn up by workers on the shop floor, contained over 150 ideas with detailed plans. The issue of climate change was not so well known as it is today, but there was a problem of oil supply and the Lucas plan focused extensively on the development of alternative, renewable energy.
Plans included:: Efficient wind-turbines, Solar cells and heat pumps, The “Power Pack” to create cars with 80% less emissions and 50% greater fuel economy, an efficient method for small scale electricity generation and a vehicle like a train but with pneumatic tyres allowing it also to travel on roads.
The Plan, drawn up by workers on the shop floor, contained over 150 ideas with detailed plans. The issue of climate change was not so well known as it is today, but there was a problem of oil supply and the Lucas plan focused extensively on the development of alternative, renewable energy.
Plans included:: Efficient wind-turbines, Solar cells and heat pumps, The “Power Pack” to create cars with 80% less emissions and 50% greater fuel economy, an efficient method for small scale electricity generation and a vehicle like a train but with pneumatic tyres allowing it also to travel on roads.
However, the
importance of the Lucas Plan is not the specific technologies and products but in the
questions iraised about production under capitalism and the vision it offered
of a new society in which human needs come before the blind pursuit of profit.
FRINGE Lucas Plan 40th year anniversary 1830
-Saturday 27th February
Green Left is an
anti-capitalist, ecosocialist group within the Green Party of England &
Wales. Membership is open to all GPEW members, (see back page for
details).
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Green Left at the Socialist Resistance Forum on the Paris Climate Agreement
Camden Green Party and Green Left supporter Dee Searle's presentation, she reflects on what was achieved and where the climate movement goes. Summarised from http://londongreenleft.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/green-left-at-socialist-resistance.html
The Green Party, had a mixed response to the Paris COP, which wouldn't have happened without vast amounts of organisation by NGOs. Even The Economist recognised the importance of bottom-up pressure in getting an agreement at all. Yet it was a flawed agreement with no recognition of human rights, or that richer countries need to help poorer ones. Above all, there were no mechanisms to enforce compliance with the agreement. This was in large part due to public and private lobbying by fossil fuel corporations against a binding agreement.
Many governments, like the UK, are still encouraging fossil fuels through fracking and subsidies. The jail sentences for the Plane Stupid protestors against Heathrow expansion indicate that the state will deal harshly with future climate activists trying to enforce the agreement.
The Green Party needs to bring the struggles against climate change into our communities and everyday lives. Projects such as monitoring air pollution caused by motor vehicles show the link between climate change and our health; they can empower individuals and provide vidence to challenge inaction by the authorities.
But the problems addressed by the Paris COP are rooted in global capitalism and its relentless pursuit of consumerism. Alongside political agreements, Greens must continue to promote the notion that people (particularly in rich countries) should work and consume less if we are to save the planet from irreversible climate catastrophe. A Citizen’s Income could be important to redistribute work, wealth and income away from production and growth. The Green Party needs to work with as wide a range of interests as possible - if we are going to have a hope of implementing even the flawed, limited targets of COP21.
'Green Left believes
it is important to have a democratic anti-war coalition at both a national and
local levels committed to involving all those groups and individuals wanting to
campaign in a pluralist manner that carries the trust of the movement.
The existing national Stop the War Campaign
(STWC) has lost its way and is in danger of being a hindrance to building
maximum unity that is so needed to build the anti-war movements in the UK.
Therefore Green Left would
support a meeting of leading groups and individuals as soon as possible to
discuss how best a pluralist and democratic anti-war movement can be run
and organised to maximise unity and
trust at this important time.'
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“PREVENT” TAKING OUR
LIBERTIES.?
The principle of ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ is threatened
by some media coverage and now the government is eroding it through its Counter
Extremism Bill and the Prevent Strategy;
not only in challenging extremism
The Borough
Commander of Brent Police issued a letter in September 2015 calling some local
black youth to a meeting claiming that police intelligence suggested they were
linked to criminal activity. The letter stated.: ‘If you choose not to attend we will see this as a clear message that
you intend to continue with a criminal lifestyle. As such we will work hard to
disrupt your activities using every legitimate means available to us.’
Unsurprisingly
parents did not see the letter and the threatening tone as legitimate when
their children had not been charged with any crime and no evidence was presented.
Similarly Muslim parents have expressed concern about the way Prevent targets
their children and treats all the diverse Muslim community as potential
terrorists.
Prevent demands
spying of school staff, youth workers, health and social workers, who have a
statutory obligation to report signs of ‘extremism’, including non-violent behaviour,. Their representatives express
concern that this undermines with a whole community and alienates young people.
Teachers,
lecturers and students have challenged the basis of approach based on stereotypes
and a crude concept of ‘British values’. Recently the Daily Telegraph and the
Sun have suggested that teachers who question
Prevent are
supporters of terrorism.
The essence of
education is challenging, free discussion of ideas Prevent Strategy appears to
be impeding this as students censor
themselves for fear of being reported and teachers avoiding discussions so that
they do not have to report students.
Against this
background I helped organise a well attended local meeting in Brent sponsored by An-Nisa, a long
established Muslim Women’s, and others. There were parents, teachers, union
representatives and local activists in
the audience. This led to a Facebook Page (‘Monitoring Prevent in Brent’), and a meeting with the leader of the
Council to express concerns and ask for a statement on Brent’s reservations about
the Strategy and about its opposition to Islamophobia (still awaited at the time of writing). -The Council argued that they were limited in
how much they could change the implementation of Prevent, indeed in how much they could
disclose us about implementing it, due to statutory obligations. Monitoring Prevent in Brent is now
seeking an opportunity to speak to headteachers about their concerns. These are
small beginnings the fringe meeting on Prevent should discuss similar
approaches so that there is unified opposition to an approach, which is ‘Taking
our Liberties’.
Martin Francis
DON’T CHEAPEN OUR LOVE *BY KATY BEDDOE
Don’t cheapen our love on Valentine’s
Day,
don’t cheapen our love today?
Don’t tell me you love me,
should it make me feel special,
when it’s something the shops tell you to
say?
Don’t commercialise our love on
Valentine’s Day,
don’t commercialise our love today?
Don’t put a price and entwine our love,
into the hype of free market,
what does that really say?
Don’t proclaim your love on Valentine’s
Day
don’t proclaim your love today?
With a card reformed from a once
beautiful tree,
with a mass produced verse,
you didn’t write for me.
Please be yourself today on Valentine’s
Day,
just be yourself today.
Be true to you and true to me,
hold me; love me; not for just today,
never any less, every day.
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The Green Party Trade Union Group
The Green Party
Trade Union Group is part of the Green Party of England & Wales, FREE
Membership of GPTU is open to any current members of GPEW. Contact Noel
Lynch:noellynch@tiscali.co.uk or join at the GPTU conference stall. GPTU provides a discussion
forum and aims to further good
relations between GPEW and Trades Unions, by putting forward policy and
campaign proposals to GPEW and to Trades Unions.
 GREEN LEFT ONLINE
Green left facebook
Green left website
green left blog
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 JOIN
GREEN LEFT
Green
Left subscriptions are £5 per year, with a reduced discretionary fee of £2
for unwaged/low waged.
You can join GL by sending a cheque or you
can pay by standing order
Please send cheques to: Green
Left Treasurer, 8 Slatelands Rd, Glossop, SK13 6LH.
Please send the following details with your cheque:
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bank, PO Box 250 , Delf House, Southway, SKELMERSDALE WN8 6WT
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no: 65284751
On receipt of your subscription the Treasurer
will send you an email confirming your membership.
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5 Reasons Why You Should
Join Green Left Mike Shaughnessy
You need to be a Green party member to join Green
Left and it is a good time to restate the case for joining Green Left.
1. Green Left offers a
comradely space to discuss ideas and to organise.
2.
Green Left stands for an ecosocialism which champions the interests of the
99%., we address issues that are important to working class and ethnic
communities
3.
Green Left is about outreach, for the Green party, to socialists and other
radicals We aim to give such people the confidence that they are joining a
party of the left, where their political thinking will be welcomed.
4.
Green Left strives to increase and improve the international links of the Green
Party, links with radical greens and ecosocialists
5.
Green Left’ aims to to raise Green party politics to meet the demands of its
radical policies., Green Left helps the Green party t to focus on its
fundamentally radical philosophy.
In short, Green Left works to enable you to live in
a society based on peace, ecological balance, economic equality and inclusion.
Some
FRINGES at this conference–
Zak Bond Tower Hamlets Green Party National
Campaigns Officer
EU Referendum Campaign Launch
Shan Oakes Harrogate and District
Fracking - building resistance in your area
Amelia Womack Cardiff Green Party Deputy Leader
The refugee crisis: What will summer bring?
Andrew Cooper Colne Valley Green Party Councillor/Regional Campaigns Coordinator Yorkshire and Humber
What next for community energy?
Can the Greens work with the Labour Party?
Ecosocialism IS the future. The Green Party plays an important part in politics, but also engages with other Left activists to campaign on issues where there is common ground. How can we work with Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Left and other appropriate Left thinkers and activists in future?
EU Referendum Campaign Launch
Shan Oakes Harrogate and District
Fracking - building resistance in your area
Amelia Womack Cardiff Green Party Deputy Leader
The refugee crisis: What will summer bring?
Andrew Cooper Colne Valley Green Party Councillor/Regional Campaigns Coordinator Yorkshire and Humber
What next for community energy?
Can the Greens work with the Labour Party?
Ecosocialism IS the future. The Green Party plays an important part in politics, but also engages with other Left activists to campaign on issues where there is common ground. How can we work with Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Left and other appropriate Left thinkers and activists in future?
The Government’s Prevent
Agenda and Islamaphobia
The Government's 'Prevent' Agenda is supposedly aimed at addressing Extremism. It has come in for heavy criticism for having a negative impact and for fuelling Islamaphobia. A speaker from Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) will speak on how Greens and Muslim groups can respond.
The Government's 'Prevent' Agenda is supposedly aimed at addressing Extremism. It has come in for heavy criticism for having a negative impact and for fuelling Islamaphobia. A speaker from Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) will speak on how Greens and Muslim groups can respond.
Lucas Plan 40th year
anniversary
40 years ago Lucas Aerospace workers planned to avoid defence industry job cuts by producing socially-useful alternatives, from wind turbines to kidney dialysis machines. See the film of the 1976 plan and discuss how we can Stop Trident and create green jobs to transition our economy from austerity to hope.
40 years ago Lucas Aerospace workers planned to avoid defence industry job cuts by producing socially-useful alternatives, from wind turbines to kidney dialysis machines. See the film of the 1976 plan and discuss how we can Stop Trident and create green jobs to transition our economy from austerity to hope.
GREEN PARTY TRADE
UNION GROUP AGM
#StickItToTheTories is a UK-wide
sticker distribution campaign that is LAUNCHING NOW!
‘Stick it to the Tories’ is a sticker
campaign that West Wales People’s Assemblies are launching in to distribute
anti-austerity, anti-cuts, and
environmental stickers of the left movement. The concept is simple.
Individual activists, local campaign organisations across the UK can not only
source all their political stickers from #StickItToTheTories cheaply at www.stickittothetories.org.uk but they can also request designs and
contribute to the creative design of new stickers which everyone will be able
to access. For this purpose we have set up a Facebook page: “Stick It To The
Tories (Sticker Design Page)” can be found here: www.facebook.com/groups/1649695695309745/ where anyone can come and request or
help to create new stickers.
‘Stick it to the Tories’ is, and always
will be, a not-for-profit organisation. We will sell these stickers at the
cheapest possible price we can get them out for.
We must get our message out so that
people en can see that we are not beaten. that a movement is rising, people are
organising and we will not be beaten down no matter how many laws try to
silence our dissent.
We are launching the campaign with ten
designs to get the project off the ground, they are all available on the
#StickItToTheTories website now here; www.stickittothetories.org.uk, in time we hope to have hundreds of
designs all available on the website at the click of a button. Please visit and
get involved on the design page, share this on social media, publish this in
your outlet or website follow us on Twitter @StickaTory & email us at stickatory@gmail.com
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