NEWSLETTER of GREEN LEFT Spring 2015
Green Left is right!
Green Left members are proud of our role from the very top
of the party to local parties in promoting an ecosocialist way forward for our
party. It was clear to us many years ago that the Green Party could not hope to
fully engage with ordinary people without a clear commitment to economic and
social justice including direct support for workers And communities in
struggle, as well as pursuing its ecological agenda. Green Left also supports
moves by many in the party to ensure that all elected representatives are fully
accountable to local members in recognition that democracy is a core value of
our great ethical party.
Roy Sandison
Solidarity with the Greek People
As Watermelon goes to print it is unclear how much room for
manoeuvre the new Greek government has in its dealings with other Eurozone
governments, who imposed the harshest version on Greece of the austerity being
dished out across Europe, in order to bailout their own banks. The conditions
that Syriza has had to sign up to appear to be similar to those that led to the
previous government’s downfall.
The Greek people, led by Syriza, are in the frontline of the
battle against austerity, and deserve our support. Swept to power on a wave of
hope, with the collapse in support for the grey parties (for the fraudulent ‘
socialists’ in particular!) Syriza provide an alternative to the message of
fear being spewed out by Golden Dawn, the Greek Nazis. The new government is
being subjected to enormous pressure by Europe’s financiers, and the
governments that do their bidding, whose essential message is that ‘ There is
no alternative’.
Syriza in Greece like the Green Party here are saying, on
the contrary, that there is an alternative to austerity and that the price for
the failures of international capitalism should no longer be paid by Europe’s
poorest and most disadvantaged. Speaking to parliament after his stunning
election victory Alexis Tsipras declared that, “the Greek people gave a strong
and clear mandate to immediately end austerity and change policies”.
The economic ‘model’ in the UK, Europe and across the
planet, based on unsustainable debt and rampant inequality, is broken. An
alternative can and needs to be built based on a recognition of the finite
nature of the earth’s resources and of the fact that sustainable and truly
prosperous societies have to be more equal as well as more carbon light.
Governments need to act in the interests of the 99% rather than the 1%.
In the meantime we must stand alongside the people of
Greece, and their brave new leaders. We agree with the GPEW’s newly elected MEP
Molly Scot Cato who, on a recent BBC Any Questions panel, was asked to
summarise her political beliefs in a few words. “Liberty, equality and
solidarity” she said. The Greek people need our Solidarity now, in their fight for
Liberty and Equality, which is a fight for us all.
Peter Allen
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Peter Pinkney president of the Rail and Maritime Transport
union is standing for the Green Party in Redcar and Cleveland.
Peter joined the Greens last year after a meeting with GP National
Trade Union Liaison Officer, Romayne Phoenix. Peter’s reasons include the
Greens’ commitments to renationalise railways, to invest in the NHS and
education, to build social housing, increase taxes for those who can afford it,
and progressive policies on immigration. Peter is disappointed by Labour’s
failure to offer real opposition to austerity policies, in essence offering a
slightly watered down version of Conservative economics; he sees them as a sort
of reddish Conservative Party. Peter’s candidacy reflects a growing awareness
of the similarity of the majority of the aims of Green politics and the labour
movement.
The RMT have been attending GP conferences since 2004, recently
joined by the NUT and the PCS; and the union backed Campaign For 1 Million
Climate Jobs matches Green thinking on investing in a carbon neutral society.
The growing involvement with the labour movement is very important Trade unions
represent over 6 million working people, and indirectly represent millions
more. Though not perfect (no human institution is), they are the largest set of
democratic organizations in the UK.
Trade union campaigns for the living wage, for social housing, for
renationalisation, and against discrimination match many of Green core aims and
involvement of unions is essential for transition to a carbon neutral society
to be accomplished in a just and equitable manner.
In summary Peter says: “I am a left wing socialist, but
pragmatic. I have seen what Syriza have done, and we can learn from that, (…)
there is a need for the left to redefine itself. There needs to be a broader
alliance. Young people need to be given hope. (…) we have to create a more
equal society (…) and create a fairer system. Social Housing, NHS, Re
Nationalisation, investment in education, are all major themes in the Green
Party, and they are saying what Labour Party should be saying. We, (…), need to
rethink our whole approach regarding party politics.”
Acknowledgements
to William Quick
Still the Enemy
Within provides an insight into one of history’s most dramatic events: the
1984-85 British Miners’ Strike.
Thirty
years on the events are recalled by those who lived through Britain’s longest
strike. In 1984, a Conservative Government under Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher declared war on Britain’s unions, taking on the strongest in the
country, the National Union of Mineworkers. Against all the forces the
government could throw at them, 160 000 coal miners took up the fight and
became part of a battle that epitomised class war in the U.K.
Still
the Enemy Within tells the story of a group of miners and supporters who were
on the frontline of the strike for an entire year. These were people that
Margaret Thatcher labelled ‘the Enemy Within’. Many of them have never spoken
on camera before. Using interviews and a wealth of rare and never before seen
archive, the film draws together personal experiences –tragic, funny or
terrifying – to take the audience on an emotional journey through the events of
that year. We are bound to reflect on the tactics used by the Government, the
miners, other unions and the Labour Party. Before the miners were provoked into
calling a strike they were paid overtime to stockpile coal, the miners refused
to hold a national ballot, the Nottingham miners refused to support the strike,
the TUC offered financial help but no industrial action. The Labour Party under
Neil Kinnock stayed out of the dispute. The miners were isolated and eventually
defeated.
From
the infamous Battle of Orgreave, where miners found themselves in a brutal confrontation
with over five thousand police, to the hardship endured after almost a year on
strike – their story is not just one of personal drama but one that shaped the
world we live in today. The Police tactics used at Orgreave have been
experienced over again by people attending many demonstrations and public
protests – ‘kettling’ protesters and using excessive force against unarmed and
unprotected individuals. Still the Enemy Within is ultimately a story about
ordinary people standing up for what they believe in. It challenges us to look
again at our past so that in the words of one miner, “we can still seek to
do something about the future”.
The Filmmakers Director &; Producer – Owen Gower,
Producer – Sinead Kirwan, Producer – Mark Lacey.
This review by Dave
Eatock is an edited version of information available from the website
the-enemy-within.org.uk
A Picture of a Poppy
Picture me with my poppy red.
Picture me as I honour the dead.
Picture me and my patriotic adore.
Picture me as I barter in war.
A picture of a poppy that tells a
tale,
the blood of our forefathers up for
sale.
A flower of remembrance defiled in
vain,
an illusive symbol assisting ecomonic
gain.
Yet in honour of those who fought for
peace,
a poppy of hope that the war drums
will cease,
is a poppy of love and not of spite.
Picture me with my poppy white.
by
Katy Beddoe
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