GPEx Trade Union Liason Officer

Green Left's questions to candidates - Answers below

1. A Campaigning Party vs Elections?

Within a flawed electoral system, are we focusing on winning elections, one by one seat, above being a Campaigning Party within the mass movement needed to fight capitalism and transform society before the climate change emergency becomes irreversible? Are we paying lip service to the warning from the brave climate change activists especially the youth who recognise time is running out?

2. An accountable Party?

How can the Green Party be an effective campaigning political party, with transparent internal democracy and accountability, supporting local party campaigns with devolved resources? Do we need delegate conferences to ensure policy is properly discussed at local level before conference decides?

3. A party that understands working-class communities?

Many people (with some progress) still see the green movement and subsequently the GPEW as being well meaning but not relevant to the everyday struggles of working people and working-class communities. How can we challenge that idea?

4. Austerity and reversing public service cuts

After over 10 years of cruel Tory austerity which has trashed public services for millions, we must restore those essential services which we all rely on. Not only the NHS and social care but all the local government services like environmental health, trading standards, pollution control, libraries, public toilets, parks etc and the Green Party has not focused on this sufficiently for several years. Do you agree?

5. The Movement for Green Jobs and a Green Socialist future

What do you know of the Trade Union backed Campaign Against Climate Change, Lucas Plan, The Million Green Jobs campaign and the Greener Jobs Alliance of trade unions? How would you work with these campaigns and ensure all parts of the party are engaging with these groups? Do understand and support what Just Transition means?

6. Are you an eco-socialist?

What does eco-socialism mean to you? What links do you see between climate change and the need for social, economic and democratic change?

7. Support native and oppressed peoples

Greens need to expand our world solidarity by working to liberate millions of indigenous peoples in the Americas, Asia: Kurdistan, Middle East, Tibet, and many parts of Africa etc. Internationalism is still too weak in Green culture. How would you improve this in the GPEW?

8.Minority rights

Do you oppose the colonialist oppression of minorities such as Kashmiris, the Uighurs and Tibetans in China, and support the Palestinian-led global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)? Palestine solidarity groups world-wide have opposed the so-called 'IHRA definition of antisemitism' as an attack on Palestinian rights. Do you support or oppose this definition?

9. Making campaigning for PR a Green Party priority

It’s clear the electoral system is holding back Green Party advance at local and parliamentary elections. How can we campaign to convince members of the Labour Party, Trade Unions and Labour MPs to support this left democratic change to bring elections in line with other parts of the UK? Do you see this as a major priority for the Green Party in the next period?

10. Oppose Nuclear Power

Green Left is supporting a motion to the forthcoming GPEW Conference that calls on the Green Party to demand the government abandons the Hinkley Point nuclear project and plans for the follow-up Sizewell C nuclear project, including the regulated asset-based model and any further development of the hazardous and expensive nuclear power programme. The Green Party should also calls for all existing nuclear power plants to be shut down. No power sourced from nuclear should be imported - only renewable. Will you support this motion?

Kefentse Dennis

1.A Campaigning Party vs Elections?

We are clearly both, a party that campaigns on issues on climate change and social justice, but also with the confines of the electoral system. We are far from paying lip service, as we were talking about climate change before it became more mainstream.

2. An accountable Party?

That could be an ideal solution for the future as the party grows, however for now and for the size we are, I think a committee of elected official whose job is to listen it membership, liberation group, trade unions, and affiliation groups and discussion policies to be decided on at conferences makes the most sense. 

3. A party that understands working-class communities?

By actually being present in whose areas, going to religious and cultural events, speaking to them and asking what they want. 

4. Austerity and reversing public service cuts 

No, I don't agree. The 2015 and 2017 election campaigns had a lot to say about public services, it just that 2019 campaign was heavily set on the climate change message.  

5. The Movement for Green Jobs and a Green Socialist future

All of these organisations show the party how to implement the change in the workforce, workplace, and economy in a realistic and environmentally radical way. It can't just be a top down kind of changes but a harmonious relationship between employers and employees and shareholders. I want to strengthen this relationship further. 

6. Are you an eco-socialist?

Understanding how to work, live and play sustainably and equally within a finite world.

7. Support native and oppressed peoples

Understanding the oppressed and listen and learn from the struggle so we can proactively end it. Also growing a green culture that can be communicated with internationally, so it can be worked on domestically. 

8.Minority rights

I am in favour of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism as it states " criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic". I have always and continue to criticise and in favour of any legal action against the Israeli government of it actions to towards Palestine and also criticise any government that is oppressive to its people. 

9. Making campaigning for PR a Green Party priority

There needs to be that push for PR as we a struggle against the faulted might of FPTP, otherwise we can lose it all, the green party needs to hold the Labour to account about it want to see the end of FPTP and work with any party or organisation that wants that change. 

10. Oppose Nuclear Power

I will 100% support this motion.

Paul Valentine & Matthew Hull 

1. A Campaigning Party vs Elections?

As Matthew has written in Bright Green, we’re proud of the increasing professionalism of the party’s elections machine. Nevertheless, we believe we must build on this with a credible movement-building strategy, setting out what a mass-membership Green Party would look like on the ground in terms of membership, engagement, and political priorities. Then, we need party officers with the experience and dedication to help members deliver it.

As committed trade unionists, we recognise and value the importance of organising large numbers of working people to take action. As your Trade Union Liaison Officer, we will put movement-focused work at the heart of what we do: building strong relationships with unions and social movements; ensuring that Green Party strategy does more than pay lip service to movement politics.

2. An accountable Party?

Devolution of resources has been a priority for Paul in his current term as Trade Union Liaison Officer. For example with his local party, he set up meetings between local Green Councillors and the Lambeth Trade council to better foster links. This is a blueprint going forward, so that local greens really can be seen to be listening to the needs of local working people. Ultimately we want to see a Trade Union Liaison in every local party, who can liaise with both The Green Party Trade Union Group, and the GPEx Trade Union Liaison Officer. Having these open channels of communication encourages internal democracy and accountability. 

3. A party that understands working-class communities?

We think this question is central to how we as a party go forward over the coming months. For us, the point is not merely to try to be “understanding” of or “relevant” to the working class; the point is to be “embedded in” and “accountable to” working class institutions.

The best way to challenge the idea that Green politics is incorrigibly middle class is to offer unwavering support to these institutions, including trade unions and community collectives. We want to see Green leaders and campaigners on the front-line, supporting working people in their struggles. Building the power of working class institutions should be seen as central to the Green mission, since we will not achieve social transformation without them.

4. Austerity and reversing public service cuts

Matthew joined the party in 2014, and Paul in 2015. Each of us were inspired by the Green Party’s commitment to fighting public sector austerity. We wholeheartedly agree that we must see not only a restoration of services that have been cut, but a massive reinvestment to make them publicly-owned and -controlled and fit for a decent society.

The Green commitment to building a world of public abundance, and not scarcity, is as lively as ever. We believe, however, that the party’s tactical and strategic decisions have not always done this commitment justice. Stepping down for Liberal Democrat and even former Tory candidates at the last election - the very architects of austerity - undermined that commitment. This must not happen again.

5. The Movement for Green Jobs and a Green Socialist future

Our vision as radical Green trade unionists has the creation of unionised Green jobs at its heart. We’re committed to a living Just Transition to a zero-carbon economy that centres the security and well-being of workers globally, including those on the frontlines of extraction in the global south. As the Labour Party moves to the right under Keir Starmer, it is more important than ever that Greens are proud champions of trade unions and the workers they represent.

Matthew has built relationships with Campaign Against Climate Change, which sponsored the Young Greens convention in 2018.

Central to our vision of a Green politics with trade unionism at its heart is the belief that we need to assemble a strong coalition of workers institutions that can bring worker power to bear for social transformation. This is why we’ve set out plans to map, develop, and develop trade union activity among Green Party members, among other projects.

6. Are you an eco-socialist?

We are eco-socialists. We believe that confronting and defeating the oppression of people and planet requires uprooting the capitalist social order. Capitalism’s impulse to open new markets and frontiers of extraction is responsible for the climate crisis, and this has to be tackled head-on.

To do this, we need to make clear links between the profit-driven capitalist social order, the abuse of people and the destruction of our natural environment. Capitalism encloses and exploits environmental resources with the same rapacity with which it exploits our labour, our time, and the care work we do in the home. By making these links clear we can build a coalition which can identify a common enemy in this system, and fight to democratise politics, economy, and society for the future.

7. Support native and oppressed peoples

Indigenous peoples and those in the global south bear the brunt of fossil fuel extraction and labour exploitation. They are our natural comrades and our most powerful allies. Our priority should be to amplify their voices; not to speak for them, but to offer them unconditional solidarity.

Greens can begin by building strong relationships with groups in the diaspora, and offering direct material support to these groups; we should build strong channels of communication with international labour groups. In the post-Brexit environment especially, we should be highlighting the importance of embedding democracy and transparency in the global trade system. As another example, we should also ensure that materials necessary for the development of new Green technologies (e.g., lithium) are obtained in partnership with and with consent of communities in the regions where these materials are found.

8. Minority rights

Greens should loudly and proudly support national liberation struggles, including for the peoples of Kashmir, Palestine, and East Turkestan. We believe that Greens can open a new chapter of support for human rights and respect for international law, by supporting organic campaigns with roots in diaspora communities and occupied territories. These campaigns may use a variety of tactics, including using boycotts, divestments and sanctions, as a legitimate means of applying pressure.

We take inspiration from such groups as Na’amod, If Not Now, the Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign and many others, as they organise their communities against injustice. We want our effort to be focused on amplifying their voices and addressing oppressions, making sure collectively their voices are too loud to be ignored.

9. Making campaigning for PR a Green Party priority

Yes, the First Past The Post voting system is dated and not fit for purpose. Paul has already started the process of identifying which unions use Proportional Representation in their voting structures, whilst simultaneously proposing to his union’s (Equity) conference that they should do the same. With this knowledge we can engage with Green Trade Unionists on how to change their own unions democratic structures.

10. Oppose Nuclear Power

The future of power is renewable. We back a Green New Deal for the economy, this involves increasing investment in renewables, not in nuclear energy. Many union members will work in nuclear or non-renewable energy, and our historic task is to secure a Just Transition for all from fossil capitalism into the Green and sustainable energy model that is needed to tackle the climate crisis. 

Theo Simon 

1  1. A campaigning party vs elections
If we’re fighting in the right places alongside the right people, it’s more likely they’ll vote for us to represent them.  But we must tell the truth about the emergency.  We seek election to get  the resources and legislation we need to make our communities resilient, and to defend life.

2.  An accountable party

 Conference participation is a big stretch in time and money.  As a result, many members and community voices are currently excluded and disengaged from national policy making.  I DO believe we'd be better served, and better reflect society, if branches and interest groups discussed policy and then delegated to conference. 

3.  A party that understands working class communities

A very good question, especially for the Trade Union Liaison role.  Working class communities and people in their workplaces will be struggling for jobs, rights and survival like never before.  We should listen to them, learn from them, and actively support them. We have a map, they are the drivers.

4.   Austerity and reversing public services cuts

I can't say nationally.  But this - and climate resilience - was the focus of my two campaigns as General Election candidate in Somerton & Frome, and also of Dr Andrea Dexter’s last year.  The NHS must be restored and wealth redistributed to ensure all basic care and infrastructure needs are publicly met.

5.   The Movement for Green Jobs and a Green Socialist Future

As an active supporter of the CACC, I raised the call for a Million Green Jobs at the Vestas factory occupation, alongside union members and Climate Camp activists. I think we should now actively support people in designing Just Transitions for their workplaces and sectors, as Lucas Aerospace workers did. 

6.   Are you an eco-socialist?

Not sure how to define that, or my own vision, in 50 words!  The main levers of production, transport, land and infrastructure need to be publicly owned and democratically managed, along with financial institutions, This to support an ecology of co-ops,  businesses, and community ownership,  with a maximum earnings limit.

7.    Support native and oppressed peoples

We’re not doing so bad, considering.  But to improve it, I’d encourage you to assist our International Coordinator in raising awareness of First Nation and indigenous community struggles.  As TULO, I hope I’d find opportunities to link us in with international labour networks which could potentially co-ordinate global workplace campaigning.

8.    Minority Rights

I support the rights of all peoples to self-determination. I’ve stood with Palestinians and jews in Ramallah resisting Israeli occupation.  I also defend jews and challenge divisive anti-semitic lies, which exist to deflect attention from hurts inflicted by capitalism.  The IHRA is too ambiguous regarding criticism of the Israeli state. 

9.  Making campaigning for PR a Green Party priority

As a candidate, I’ve experienced the desperate log-jam of the system first hand, and I also know that many grass-roots labour people now agree about PR.  I don't know the best strategy, but developing our relationship with active trade unionists may be one way to help influence the Labour Movement.

 10. Oppose Nuclear Power 

As a local campaigner and former press-officer with “Stop Hinkley”, I would support your motion.  Unions like my own, (Unite), have strong membership  in nuclear construction, maintenance and waste management, so they support the industry. Along with de-commissioning work, the skilled workforce must be offered redeployment in a Just Transition.