The Green Party has dramatically taken power on Brighton and Hove City Council. On May 5 2011, fifteen years after winning their first seat on Brighton Council, the Greens are the largest party with 23 seats and will govern as a minority administration. It is clearly an historic moment and many on the left will be watching carefully to see what happens.
In its manifesto "A Fresh Start for a Fair City" it set out an ambitious programme for a local council administration. The party stated that it would "resist, to the greatest extent possible, the service cuts and privatisation imposed on local councils by the Conservative and Lib Dem Government". This put clear water between it and both the main parties. However they did add that they would have to "prioritise" certain services if the Coalition "left them
Also in the manifesto are bold commitments around such important • the building of 1000 new affordable • a universal home insulation programme • a massive devolution of power, through neighbourhood councils with local budgets and decision-making powers • a sustainable transport with emphasis on integrated public transport, cycling and 20mph zones in residential areas. • a living wage of at least £8.10 an hour for council workers, and a move to ensure that the highest council wage is no more
The Green victory in Brighton and Hove was partly propelled by the election of Caroline Lucas as MP for Brighton Pavilion last year, which had a clear ripple effect. But the Greens had been gradually making headway for some years in any case.
Lucas has built a reputation locally as a hardworking MP who has allied herself with the left on both local and national issues. She has campaigned against benefit cuts, imperialist intervention in Libya and racism and fascism. She has clearly identified herself as being opposed to cuts and privatisation in public services and the NHS and she also came out in favour of AV in the reterendum. She has built up a large amount of respect and goodwill, even from others on the left who do not support the
Clearly, as the Green Party's only MP, Lucas has also provided the national focus for the party, and this had its effect locally
Traditionally the Greens had been seen as the replacement for Labour in the young, public sector professional areas of the city (somewhat disparagingly dubbed the "muesli mountain"!). But on May 5, the Greens took seats in a whole range of places - traditional working-class Labour fiefdoms, well-heeled "safe" Tory wards, and they wiped the Lib Dems out of their last seats on the council for good measure. They also now have six seats in Hove, where previously they had none. Even where they did not win they polled well in nearly every ward.
So how have they done it? Local Green
"One lesson for the left is that the Greens in Brighton & Hove have achieved electoral success through consistent hard work. They have also built a significant layer of support amongst trade unionists and campaigners with their swift and unambiguous backing of the right causes."
It is certainly the case that the organisation of the Green Party is in marked contrast to the "coalition" model pursued by much of the far left, whereby various groups come together under an electoral flag of convenience and hope that the "right" message will somehow garner
As Player says, the Greens have built up a considerable amount of credibility on what might generally be called left, progressive politics. They have, of all the parties represented on the Council, most clearly and unequivocally opposed the neo-liberal agenda being advanced by the Coalition and largely signed up to by New Labour. They have also managed to avoid the fate of many smaller parties in that people in Brighton and Hove believe that
The Greens have also succeeded in overcoming the old perception of them as a single issue party.
If one looks at the politics of the Green group of councillors it is clear that there is wide range of perspectives. Broadly they can be seen as a left social democratic force - some of the group were previously in the Labour Party, and some had been active in far-left politics. Others have a more apolitical background or a tradition more to the right politically. A small number of their candidates and one elected councillor identify as Green Left.
The Greens have taken power in Brighton and Hove at a time of unprecedented attacks on social spending. We are into the first year of huge cuts in the council budget - the first year of 4 years of austerity which could see £80 million slashed from local services. So the key question is the extent to which the Greens will lead a fight against this, or whether they will attempt to adapt to it.
Brighton and Hove has a growing broad and active anti-cuts campaign - the Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition (BSTCC), and Green Left activists and some Green councillors have been involved in it. Prior to the election there was debate within the coalition about what was expected of candidates in terms of fighting cuts in return for BSTCC support. It was clear early on that for most Green councillors at that time a policy of defiance, of setting a needs budget rather than implementing cuts, was not on the agenda. The leader of the Green Group on the Council, Bill Randall, declared that "we have to set a legal budget".
BSTCC prepared a statement on the cuts which it invited local candidates to sign. The statement called upon councillors to vote against cuts and not to implement them if they were part of an administration. A small number of Green candidates (one of whom was subsequently elected), the candidates from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and a couple of Labour candidates did sign, but no sitting Green
At March's Council budget-setting meeting, the Greens did vote against the Budget, although the appalling decision of the Labour Group to abstain meant that the then Tory administration were able to get it through. Had that vote gone the other way, however, it is unclear what the Greens' strategy was going to be in the time before another budget meeting was convened. They talked about trying to win concessions from the Tories and "opening the books", but there was no apparent perspective of mobilising the community and the council workforce to resist implementation of the cuts. Of course, this is not the early 1980's and there is no serious move in any council in the country to emulate what Lambeth and Liverpool councillors did then, but it does illustrate the limits of what they are prepared to do.
However, they did successfully move amendments to the budget which stopped the Tories closing a council nursery, they got more money diverted into young people's services and stopped the Tories ripping up a cycle lane in Hove.
Essentially the Green Group on the council seem to be advancing a variant of what was in the past called the "dented shield" policy - the old Labour policy of making the best of the cuts and trying to
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shield the least well-off from the worst
The first major test of the Green administration is likely to come in how much control they can exert over the management regime put in place by the Tories. In their initial budget plan before the election the Greens proposed sacking the four highly paid "strategic directors" of the Council, but they have since dropped this idea. More importantly, and worryingly, Bill Randall has, in his first communication to the workforce, appeared to endorse the approach of the council's Tory-appointed
The CEO has turned the council into a vast internal market with services divided into businesses called "delivery units". Services will be delivered through a process called intelligent commissioning" - widely interpreted as meaning competition and contracting out of services. Randall has endorsed intelligent commissioning as "help[ing] us to achieve
The danger is of an officer-led agenda being pursued, and council workers and their unions will be concerned that elected councillors rein them in.
The new administration has also announced a review of the budget set by the outgoing Tory administration (they cannot spend more but can change how it is spent). This will inevitably raise people's expectations and it is unclear how the Green administration will react - will they do the Con Dems' work for them, or
Whether or not anyone on the Left agrees with the Greens' political approach, it is undeniable that their triumph in Brighton and Hove does demonstrate the possibilities available to a political formation which is prepared to put in the hard work over a period of time. Importantly it also shows that a party which stands against the austerity agenda and is prepared to put down some serious roots in the community can gain serious support - and not just in Brighton and
Of course, the really difficult work is ahead of them. Can they deliver on what they have promised? Andy Player says -"To deliver on the local party's manifesto is not going to be easy. But the
local Green party has not got to where it is by being strategically naive, vain or politically cowardly. We may have been handed the poisoned chalice, but no-one is forcing us to drink it". Scottish Elections: break-up of British state now closer Ralphie de Santos