Green Party Watch

Aida Edamariam at The Guardian has an interview with Caroline Lucas, who recently became the Green Party of England and Wales’ first member of parliament:

Whatever you think of the Greens, it would have been hard not to feel that one of the few truly inspiring moments in last week’s election came at about 6am on Friday 7 May, when, in a hall on the cold seafront, Green party leader Caroline Lucas was declared MP for Brighton Pavilion, with a 1,200 majority. Jeremy Paxman immediately demanded which side she’d back if there was a coalition (neither, necessarily, she replied politely; she would approach all issues on a case-by-case basis), but an amateur video posted on YouTube gives more of a sense of the enormity of what she achieved for her party of more than 11,000 members, in a first-past-the-post system stacked against them: the camera, dipping and weaving erratically around the room, is trained on the audience as well as the podium. When the results are announced, it catches a supporter wiping away sudden tears. read more »

Peter Tatchell, a UK human rights campaigner, gay rights activist, and former candidate for Parliament for the Greens has an excellent piece at the Guardian that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It pertains to Thursday’s elections, and is a call for Labour voters to stop voting for party leaders that have abandoned the principles of Labour.

When a Labour government pursues anti-Labour policies it no longer deserves respect or loyalty from Labour members and voters. Arrogant, out of touch, complacent and authoritarian, Labour is not Labour any more. It’s time has passed.

You can almost substitute the word “Democrats” for “Labour” and apply it to the U.S.A.

What I really like about this piece though is that he backs his argument up with actual policy – programs that the Green Party is supporting but Labour is not.

Labour’s great, historic achievement was the creation of the NHS and the welfare state, but Blair and Brown sought to dismantle them. Their commercialisation and semi-privatisation of health and education is something that not even Margaret Thatcher attempted. They have out-Thatchered Thatcher.

While the Labour government has promoted a stealthy privatisation of public services, the Greens oppose privatisation and defend public services as essential components of a just society and a decent quality of life for all citizens. We reject Labour plans to close post offices and to privatise the Royal Mail.

Read the entire article here.

Bits found around here and there:

According to the Providence Journal Bulletin (June 26: “most incumbents to seek re-election”), the Green Party is running Jeffrey Johnson against U.S. House of Representative Democrat James Langevin in the Second CD.

At Ballot Access News, interesting discussion in the comments following the story about the UK Green Party out polling the British Labour Party in a House of Commons Special Election.

The Albuquerque Journal reports on June 25 that New Mexico Green Rick Lass submitted over 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot for a seat on the Public Regulation Commission:

“For too long, these big corporations have been given a free ride by the commission,” Lass said in a news release. “I will be an unwavering advocate for ratepayers, small businesses and our local economies.”

Ralph Nader’s campaign has filed 50,000 signatures to get him on the ballot in Illinois, one of the most difficult states to both get on the ballot and stave off ballot challenges from Democrats.

And finally, the Catholic News Agency is going after the Green Party and Socialists in Spain for supporting the “Great Ape Project”, which the article states will grant Great Apes rights equal to humans. Don’t worry, I’m sure the chimps won’t be given a right to vote. (But if they could… )