New Green Deal
Are the Greens the new left party?
Some people who were enthusiastic about Labour’s anti-austerity position in the 2017 and 2019 general elections now intend to back the Green Party.
But in the past, the Greens rejected proposals to work with the left.
So what kind of party are they building today?
Green growth
The Greens experienced significant membership growth in 2014 after the Scottish independence referendum – in Scotland and across the rest of the UK – and then doubled both their vote share and total support in the 2015 general election. They did this by clearly expressing opposition to the austerity programme of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government, alongside their traditional concern for the environment.
Green voters in 2015 might have expected that there would be another coalition – the Tories campaigned warning of a “coalition of chaos” with Labour dependent upon the pro-independence Scottish National Party to govern. But what transpired was a majority Tory government and Labour losing seats overall. The Greens remained stuck with just one MP.
Two years later, the Greens’ advance in vote share and their total vote was reversed as Labour took a bold anti-austerity position.
The road to ecosocialism?
In Scotland, the Greens are an independent party and are in coalition with the Scottish National Party, with ministers in the government.
This breakthrough happened because the electoral system in the Scottish Parliament, unlike the British Parliament, does not use the unrepresentative “first past the post” system.
The Scottish Young Greens are, according to their constitution, ecosocialist. And they have won the Scottish party as a whole to this position at the party’s conference.
But in England and Wales, the party’s identity is less obviously tied to an explicit anti-capitalist ideology. Its programme is lengthy and detailed but does not have an analysis of class society in Britain or view the organised working class as the force capable of bringing about progressive change in opposition to the state-monopoly capitalist class.
The Greens are, however, allied to the organised working class in their public statements. They can be relied upon to back strikes by workers and demonstrations for peace. But in office, and in particular, running local councils and managing austere budgets, they are no less likely to run into direct conflict with workers than Labour.
Left in the Greens
The Green Left was formed in 2006 and describes itself as an “eco-socialist, anti-capitalist current” in the Green Party of England and Wales (similar networks exist within the Scottish Greens).
Its launch statement, the Headcorn Declaration, affirmed:
“Green Left (GL) is based on the assumption that capitalism is a system that wrecks the planet and promotes war. A green society must be based on economic, political and social justice. GL in short works to promote ecosocialism as a solution to our planetary ills.”
On the organised working class, they state:
“An orientation to organised working people through the Green Party Trade Union Group (GPTU) also requires maximum support from GL, with the emphasis on supporting radical and rank and file currents in the unions. Likewise, GL should seek to promote organisation and solidarity amongst currently unorganised and marginalised groups.”
Left reformism
The politics of the Greens in Britain are best described as left-reformist. Beyond the particular appeals to addressing the climate question – which ultimately concerns the whole of humanity – the Greens’ offer of an electoral route to progressive social change is appealing to some class-conscious working people who might otherwise back Labour.
But the Greens do not organise in a fashion which would allow for previously Labour-affiliated unions to participate collectively – this is arguably a specific barrier to the Greens preventing an advance in Britain which would allow them to overtake Labour.
The Greens do not have a programme which points to the working class and its allies winning political power, despite the efforts of the Green Left. That said, a left-reformist strategy of the kind pursued by the Greens is not at odds with the creation of a left bloc of MPs in parliament – which is required if immediate demands for legislative changes (abolition of anti-strike laws, for example) are to be won.
In a different context it has been observed here that “just because a left-reformist strategy may be required to empower the working class, it does not mean that the left-reformists have the best ideas about organising and that we should therefore tail them politically, liquidating our organisations into theirs.
“On the contrary, because left-reformists lack a coherent programme for socialism – and this approach to building power will be essential if the working class is to win political power – independent revolutionary organising is essential.”
The politics of alliances
The Greens in England and Wales have announced their intention to stand everywhere at the next general election. And though it might not be unthinkable for a pact between the Scottish Greens and SNP to take place north of the border, elsewhere the Greens may not be minded to do deals with other parties.
In 2017 they participated in a “progressive alliance” electoral pact with the LibDems. Again in 2019, there was a “unite to remain” deal again focused on the issue of Britain’s membership of the EU. On both occasions, the main beneficiary seems to have been the LibDems as the Greens came out of both elections with a single MP.
In 2001, the Greens rejected the idea of working with the Socialist Alliance, which brought together two large left-of-Labour groups, the Socialist Party of England and Wales and the Socialist Workers Party.
Since then, the Socialist Alliance has ceased to exist. The Socialist Party established the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) with the involvement of the RMT union and the SWP – though neither is formally involved today.
Another left-of-Labour electoral effort was Left Unity, which merged with other groups to become Transform. It remains to be seen if they, TUSC, the Workers Party of former Labour MPs George Galloway and Chris Williamson, and other independent former Labour MPs standing for election or re-election can all unite to (at the very least) avoid candidate clashes.
What seems unlikely is that the Greens will be returning to this question any time soon. If the Reds aren’t speaking with one voice over several election cycles, why expect the Greens to listen?
The left outside of Labour should endorse, fundraise, and campaign for the candidates of the four seats the Green are targeting: Siân Berry in Brighton Pavillion, Carla Denyer in Bristol Central, Adrian Ramsay in Waveney Valley, and Ellie Chowns in North Herefordshire. The election of Berry and Denyer appears possible, but Ramsay and Chowns seem like long shots.
Towards a left bloc in parliament
So far, the limitations of the Greens have been alluded to only briefly. Greens in other states have joined governments of the right and implemented austerity policies. At this stage, it seems unlikely the Greens will be in a position to repeat these mistakes in Britain, though Brighton council and the junior partnership with the SNP demonstrate on a small scale what might happen. In a sense, though, these issues of coalitionism and ministerialism are common across the broad left.
There is now a good number of former Labour Lefts in the Green Party of England and Wales. They can think through their political trajectory and organise as ecosocialists in the Green Left network.
But in terms of a breakthrough by the Green Party in the UK parliament, that will depend largely upon forces beyond its direct control – such as a reformed voting system of the kind backed by most unions but rejected by the Labour Right.
The leadership of the Greens, when pressed, will concede that a Labour-led government is the preferred outcome. Rank-and-file Green Lefts can afford to be more explicit about this and spell out the goal of a hung parliament in which the Labour Right leadership needs the votes of the Labour Left and Greens to form a government.
A “left bloc” approach, despite being the path of least resistance, will take a huge amount of pressure from outside parliament and outside the formal structures of parties if it is to be achieved.