For several years, Socialist Resistance has worked closely with a number of members of the Green Left, a group of socialists in the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW). We have cooperated in anti-cuts work in the Coalition of Resistance and in a number of dayschools on climate change, Latin America and other key issues, as well as in the production of this magazine. Below we print a debate between Romayne Phoenix and Joseph Healy, founder members of the Green Left, outlining their differing responses to the cuts budget recently passed by the Greenled Brighton and Hove council. We are publishing these two views, as they illustrate some of the issues that have come up as a result of this decision. Why I stayed in the Green Party Romayne Phoenix
The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW)
voted at Autumn Conference 2011 to affiliate to the Coalition of Resistance (COR). Such a decision was in line with our philosophical basis and received overwhelming support
"Electoral politics is not the only way to achieve change in society, and we will use a variety of methods to help effect change... " GPEW constitution.
Involved as I am with CoR organising, I have been asked why I have chosen to stay with the GPEW when others have chosen to leave. Why did I join? In February 2003 I had marched, with my young family, along with hundreds of thousands of others, to protest against war on Iraq, and decided soon after that I could probably do more than just march. I didn't know what exactly.
Meeting campaigners from the Green Party I found an organisation with a non-hierarchical structure, a party with Conference as the decision making body, organised as a federated structure, with localism and 'subsidiarity' at its heart, decision-making made at the most local level appropriate. It was recent local decisions in Brighton and Hove that had caused some members serious concern.
From one councillor to six, then twelve to twenty three, the Green success in Brighton and Hove had been built on credibility. But in administration as the largest political group, they were without power, unable to vote through any decisions without support from another
Green Left met with Greens in Brighton and they acknowledged that decisions made there would have serious consequences for the rest of the party. They had worked hard to find ways of reducing costs in some areas, but their proposals still reduced spending by around f17 million, and that included cuts to services and job losses.
They had been the first to realise that the one-off subsidy offered by Pickles to freeze council tax was a con trick. Instead they proposed a council tax rise of 3.5% to offset some of the government funding cuts and to ensure that there was more money to protect services in the following years. Other councils around the country soon followed the example of the Greens.
Brighton and Hove Greens had gained trade union backing and local support for the council tax rise proposal. Labour could have stepped up and supported the rise, but they were determined, along with the Tories, to destroy the Green Party. The decision by Greens to vote for the Labour/Tory-supported amended budget, without the tax rise, with the Pickles council tax freeze bribe, was wrong both strategically and in principle and surprised local members. ClIr Alex Philips alone voted against.
The councillors had failed to explore other options. They could have delayed their decision and returned to their members, the trade unions and the local community, while exposing the story of the Labour/Tory collusion. They could have created a "needs budget". In the end, if the people had asked them to stay in office, they could have still voted the amended budget through, but have come out with a fighting stance and a promise to take a more active role in building the anti-cuts movement.
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Cllr Alex Philips defended her position as one of integrity and principle. She wanted to be true to the electorate who had supported the council tax rise and she understood the importance of local party democracy. Her voting decision was supported by many in GL. But some considered that the budget she had been defending was still too much of a compromise for an anti-cuts party. A few resigned.
George Galloway's dramatic election victory aroused immense interest. While there remains any possibility of making serious political changes through the ballot box, then we all need to consider how to use our votes.
With Caroline Lucas MP offering the only genuine voice of opposition to the coalition government, I have chosen to remain in the Green Party and GL, and to work within the party, through the democratic processes, and to build a party that is anti-cuts, anti-privatisation, anti-war and anti-nuclear: a party for social and environmental justice, that supports people and planet - and not profiteers. ( Why I resigned from the Green Party Joseph Healy
In his now famous speech at the election rally on
the eve of the Bradford West by election, George Galloway, quoted Malcolm X : "If you do not stand up for something, you will fall for anything." This has always been my view of radical politics and it always applied to my membership of the Green Party.
I was a founding member and an officer of Coalition of Resistance, and am also a founder member of Green Left. As such I resisted the austerity and cuts policies from the outset and was a signatory to the motion at the Green Party conference in spring 2011, calling for the setting of an anti-cuts and, if necessary, an illegal budget by any Green council. This was, of course, before the Greens gained control of Brighton. Others in Green Left, including some who are now Brighton councillors, supported the same position. We argued that Labour councillors, backing the vicious attacks on the poorest and most vulnerable in our society were a disgrace, and that a radical Green council would be different..
Furthermore, our MP, Caroline Lucas, stood shoulder to shoulder with Occupy LSX's resistance to cuts and austerity. She called for "a different sort of politics" and said that they represented how politics 23