GREEN EMPOWERMENT -v- YES! to leadership

[Please note the transcript of the speech I gave "How to Americanize the English and Wales Green Party" will be posted tomorrow... lol]

So anyhow… The last two days of the conference I took a little less notes, particularly Saturday in which I felt that some of the workshops were boring and didn’t attend some to actually talk to people about politics and work on the speech I needed to give… And Sunday is pretty short so not much went on… So this blog post will not be as long as yesterdays (Can I hear some cheers).

By the way before I start todays date is Sept. 24 and I was told it looks like I lost weight without instigating or looking for the comment. Go me!

At 1000, Derek Wall gave a speech talking about Ecology and Power. It seemed like a college professors rant instead of a political speech but I found it fascinating. It talked a lot of power, and defined power in different ways than I have heard before which was interesting as you Poly Sci junkies know power is the main term in political scientist.

Here is the speech:
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/speeches/59

Then I attended a workshop on the future of Europe dealing with the new EU Constitution proposed and a general fear that Great Britain would lose its sovereignty and that it would create a “United States of Europe” without a clear, concise and effective constitution that the United States of America has. They admired the US Constitution in this and complained about how there is no voter referendum to let the British people say if they want this new Constitution or not.

Apparently should the treaty be passed EU police have the right to search British peoples homes and arrest them, the United Kingdom would rely on the EU for foreign policy and major issues would be decided on a supranational rather than national and local level which goes against the Greens libertarian viewpoints of the best government is local government.

It was interesting and it was thrown out that the Liberal Democrats, Labour Party and Tories all seem to want a refrurendrum as well… Though the cabinet in the Labour Party and Gordon Brown(the PM) do not want it and seem out of touch with their parties and 80% of the British public that wants a refrurednrum.

In 2004 when the issue of a constitution came up France vetoed it due to things like a European flag and anthem that would erase the French identity. With those things out and France unwilling to veto this time it seems like it will pass and the people of England are extremely worried… The pound could become the euro in due time with the EU controlling the banks… Basically the British parliament gives Brussels the final say in 80 important issues… and they fear a British identity being lost.

A German member of the English and Wales Green Party mentioned that he thought it was unfair of the British to try and hold up a Constitution that the rest of Europe wants, and that one country shouldn’t be able to hold up the inevitable. He was basically booed out of the workshop…

Even the two Green MEPs are opposed to this extended power of the EU.

Anyhow today’s (as in current date, a week or so after the conference) Sun newspaper cut out the porn (yes this newspaper has Porn on page 3 every day) to use it to promote the issue that the English will lose their power and identity and had seven pages of articles why the EU needs to be pushed back not expanded.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004240000-2007440318,00.html

All major newspapers in London are opposed to the expanded EU Constitution and basically it was promised their would be a referendum to let the voters decide if it happens and its in Gordon Brown’s hand to decide if this referendum happens.
I don’t have an opinion per say, but I can tell you that the British are the least responsive to this idea of an expanded EU than the rest of Europe that is overwhelmingly for it. I just don’t know if the Green Party and Sun have over-exaggerated the issues but a European Union Army and unelected courts seem like a bad thing for Great Britain whose law system seems to be at odds with much of the rest of Europe. Its interesting to see how this will play out though.

And yes when I said the daily sun has porn in it, this newspaper actually advertises the fact that page 3 has a fully nude girl everyday and puts ten pents over each breast in the advertisements and says only twenty pents… I think its stupid to have porn in a newspaper but whatever sells it I guess.

So after being in the jam packed workshop on the European Union and hearing people vent about the United Kingdom losing its sovereignty and how on this issue the Greens are even willing to work with other parties (even the fundamentalists) to block this new, what they feel, overbearing and vague constitution.

One of the major issues is that the British gov’t denies that is is a new Constitution but rather a treaty that does not legally bind the British people but the rest of the European leaders openly say it is a Constitution and one even mentioned “even the UK will have to follow it” when asked about the UK and its situation.

This was one of the best workshops but it was def. not an unbiased view. I can say if what they are saying is true I’m against the new EU Constitution because it would give Brussels more power over London than Washington D.C. has over Harrisburg if everything they say is true… I think they may be exaggerating though.

Afterwards the main conference room was packed for more of the same but first their was an address from Represntives from the Kurdish National Congress and talked about issues that Kurdish people are having in Iraq and more so Turkey. I was honestly appalled to hear what these people go through and honestly felt bad… They talked about a lack of rights to embrace their culture, teach their children their language, have good medical care and a right not to be raped and murdered… That Turkey isn’t working towards being a better country but towards a country of intolerance. He said Kurds want to give peace a chance. Here’s a paraphrase:

“Kurds do not think there is a answer to the Kurdish question within existing boarders unless their rights, culture and identity and language must be recognized by the Turkish government. Kurdish students must be allowed to explore their culture.”

“The right to free political activity must be protected for all”

“Kurds deserve a life of no violence… Turks deserve the same.”

“A political solution should be encouraged. Kurdish question cannot be served by military only but by dialogue that represents the concerns of all sides.”

Powerful stuff. You need to feel bad for how Turkey treats the Kurds after hearing this speech.

Before I went into this I did go to a Palestine table where their was a lot of anti-Israel propaganda calling Israel a terrorist state and a rogue state and this isn’t a Green view but a general view of Europeans it seems. They aren’t anti-Israel but they aren’t pro-Israel like in America. It was interesting to see things from the other side of the debate but I decided not to touch that one as all I want is peace and equality for everyone in that region regardless of religion, race, creed, gender or whatever and didn’t want to defend either side as a peace should have been reached by now… So now both Europeans and Americans can jump on me because I stated the obvious… That both sides fuck up, but oh well (so much for not touching that one, but I didn’t at the conference).

At some point during this day I went to some other workshops on women’s rights, on climate change and other issues but perhaps the most interesting outside of the European Union debate and the YES! debate I talked about yesterday was the opposite side of the YES! debate, the Green Empowerment.

The Green Empowerment movement feels that the Green Party’s strength is that it is different and that there is no need for a leader. It seems the more “socialist” leaning of the party, along with those who want a true utopian society where everyone is equal with little or no structures except for local government are for the Green Empowerment movement as well as the older people of the party.

Green Empowerment isn’t against leadership but against formal leaders. And their was a lot of hate brewing in this room as both the YES! and Green Empowerment are pushing each other to each others limits… The YES! feel the current structures aren’t working and they need internal elected leaders to gain new members while the Green Empowerment feel that focusing on only two leaders shy’s people away from being true leaders in the fashion of MLK Jr. and Gaundi.

I remember asking a question along the lines of what if YES! wins or if Green Empowerment wins, how do you close the rift in the party… And their really wasn’t a clear answer as many of the Green Empowerment people fear a leader so much I feel some would leave the party… The answer given to my question by one of the Green Empowerment people was something along the lines of “The issues we are working towards; climate change, social equality, are too important to let this ruin the party”, but it didn’t close my fears that this rift could get out of control.

You see a voter refruredum of Green Party voters is going to occur in November to decide if their will be official leaders of the party… So both sides attempted to court as many votes as possible with both sides lobbying, handing out leaflets, making websites and politicking and giving well crafted and well scripted political speeches to make both seem like the most practical and most obvious solution.

Their were then GPEX elections… (I know I got this out of order a little bit but whatever) where members of the party attempt to run for the Executive Board (where no one leader exists)… The people running for principal speaker, which could become called leader were scrutinized and questioned by both sides and it became a political show with both sides trying to prove their legitimacy.

At one point, Jean Lambert who was running for Principal Speaker was asked that since she is MEP (Member of European Parliament), running for MP (Memember of British Parliament) and running for Principal Speaker is she trying to be their leader to which she replied that she was not and that that was an ignorant question. Personal attacks to people running for every part of GPEX seemed to exist. But because of the following each side has it seemed like both sides had 1/3rd the room on their side with the last 1/3 undecided… It was truly a debate to be had… And the best part, Sunday’s mainly dedicated to the debate.

Anyhow because my notes aren’t in the best order for Saturday and Sunday let me tell you I attended a good many more workshops though, I really want to focus on this Green Empowerment/YES! to leaders debate that occurred on Sunday…
So anyhow, things were rough on Saturday, people were stressed out as it was the longest day of the conference so their was a “revue” planned where people do comedy sketches… I did a standup act called how to Americanize the English and Wales Green Party… And also had an interesting trip home that night as I was staying in my hotel instead of hostel and it was 10 pounds to get their so after I checked in I stayed in the one night I had planned on doing some crazy drinking and the way back on Sunday I tried to take a Bus, got close to where I needed to be but got off one stop to far and the taxi I grabbed took me to the wrong Liverpool Hope University, apparently their was more than one which I was unaware of but the other 3 cab drivers from the previous days always took me to the right one… Whoo! Anyhow the reason why I skipped the revue is I’m going to do it as a separate post because I think people who will not enjoy my political analysis/rant here would enjoy reading about the revue as my speech just kicked ass. Anyhow because of me being taken to the wrong University and being on a long ass bus ride on the slowest bus ever I missed the first workshop of the morning on Sunday and got their just in time for the leadership debate… And this debate, as I observed, it was the first time I felt like a political scientist.

Let me set the stage… Its in a room with about 300-400 people in it… I’m sitting with the “Young Greens” who mostly are older than me or my age and seem split on the issue themselves… A debate is about to take place with one person from each side getting three minutes to speak and then someone from the other side getting a chance to speak… No one is allowed to speak twice… A straw poll before it was started showed about 1/3 in favor of the Yes! to leadership referendum and about a 1/3rd in favor of Green Empowerment with the remaining third undecided. For the YES! to leaders to pass in November it needs to win by a 2/3rd vote… To show the intensity of the debate I wrote down what every person said (though did not get a chance to record names) but it is paraphrasing and not perfect, but you can see what the Green Party says/thinks… When someone who spoke was on the YES side, it will say YES before the quotations and Green Empowerment before the quotations of someone on the Green Empowerment side and Undecided before the Undecided side… Please note these are paraphrases of the main points of each speaker and not their speeches in their entirety. I could never articulate as well as some of the speakers for both sides… Enjoy

So as best as I can present it in a nutshell, being as tired as I am here is the YES-v-Green Empowerment debate and my analysis of who won the debate… The three of you who will actually read this part enjoy.

YES!-“We have outstanding people in the Green Party… And we should be proud of that. Having the option to call upon these leaders is vital. This motion allows the public to elect two ‘coleaders’ or a leader and coleader of gender balance.”

GREEN ENPOWERMENT-“It is a good thing we are having these debates. I don’t think we need a leader but we need to have the two sides come together and heal the rift. Theirs this idea if you don’t want a leader you don’t want power and that is a myth. What you need is to get media attention to get elected and its not a leader that does that its outstanding policy and being elected that does that.”

YES!-“It gives us a chance every time we are choosing leaders, but not a single leader. I ask you to consider that this is the best way of moving forward for the party.”

GREEN ENPOWERMENT-“This isn’t about a leader its about getting on the tele. One person cannot represent the diversity of our party image.”

YES!-“20 years ago this debate came up and no leader was selected. And with no leader their have been two decades of no progress.”

GREEN ENPOWERMENT-“Since when has the Green Party made policy on what the media thinks?”

YES!-“Bottom up democracy means that someone is at the top as well. We have leaders and we are publicly scaried to call them leaders. We need to compromise. More important we need to look at how we come across to the public. Without a leader they think we are a bunch of nutters. It is a shame if we lose votes because we don’t have leaders.”

GREEN EMPOWERMENT-“The Green Party is nothing if not critical. Wearing a suit doesn’t mean your smart underneath. Being elected a leader doesn’t mean you have leadership qualities. We need more leaders not less.”

YES!-“In Scotland they put coleaders to put more accountability to their leadership. Its not going to change things over night but it’s a step in the right direction.”

GREEN EMPOWERMENT-“I’m opposing it based on the philosophy on politics where this party is ideologically. You Cannot impose structural form on a voluntary forum that is this culturally diverse. Our activists are the heart of this party.”

YES!-“I’m a volunteer, I’m a member and I want a leader. Because it is not the empowering party everyone thinks it is. It is disempowering. We are not very good at generating leadership, the truth is our leadership is externally generated because we are not very good at internal leadership. The leadership will grow, create more leadership and we will embrace it.”

GREEN EMPOWERMENT-“We all have to be our own leaders. I don’t like how this debate has gone. It is our strength that we have this diversity and it’s a very refreshing alternative to the status quo. The media molds and changes popular politicians to unpopular ones, why do we want to do that to our leaders?”

YES!-“This Motion is not about changing the amount of power, that doesn’t change. What changes is the word leader, we are using a more accessible word and reinventing it and that takes courage. And we have a gender balance and this measure shows more accountability to our own leaders than ever before. It empowers women and out future leaders.”

GREEN ENPOWERMENT-“Our responsibility is to the local level and local councils and our party isn’t their to lead people but to empower people and show leadership to involve people and increase participative government. Theirs a different between a single leader and leadership. We do have a collective leadership called the Executive Board and we should work on making that more effective then getting singular leaders. I don’t see any accountability in this[having leaders] at all.”

YES!-Scottish Green Party has a democracy and accountability. Today what you choose is that you choose your leaders democratically and formally or informally and unaccountably. The best way to make those leadership structures work is to make them open, democratic and accountable. We are challenging the definition of party by calling ourselves a party. You choose party to choose leadership. Leadership being democratically elected is also more accountable than unelected.”

GREEN ENPOWERMENT-“Because the leader will only have a 1/12 vote on GPEX it’ll look weak and the media will slam how we have the weakest political leaders.”

YES!-“Our leaders will not have the power to make policy, appoint ministers, ect… In negotiations they will have leverage as a recognizable figure. More media coverage. It’ll help us get the message across.”

UNDECIDED-“Yes or No? People do’t know what to do. What do people do who can’t choose Yes or No?”

GREEN ENPOWERMENT-“I joined the Green Party because it didn’t have a leader. A national leader is going to dilute attention from national and local parties. The Green Party doesn’t have leadership it has initiative. I wish we would have had this debate before we took it to refrurendum. I hope we keep local, stay local, be local and smush national.”

YES-“We heard power corrupts and we are a political party. My view is that power doesn’t corrupt it is the system that corrupts people; power is neutral. People are disillusioned w/the other parties because they say one thing and do another. The people out there are desperate for a new form of leadership. We may change things when we get their but we got to get their first.”

GREEN ENPOWERMENT-“The proposal before us is not a big change. I’m not bothered by the way things goes but what I’m worried about is when you get elected MPs and they have a large media profile and leadership role how do you keep them accountable. The party should be focused on them and how to keep them accountable.”

YES!/Sian Berry-“The title principal speaker is rubbish. Confusion in the media, and is a waste of time. Takes away from our elected representatives. We are not communicating with the public the way we should. It is about changing a name and giving the speakers a vote-that’s it. People are making it out to be a lot more than it is. If you don’t trust one of our own how can we expect the public too. We need to say ‘We’re really different and we can make a different!’”

GREEN ENPOWERMENT-“Electorate tired. Look at last turnout. We need a new way of doing politics and to do this we need a radical political party. We are a radical political party, our radical party brings radical policy. We do want to push forward, we do need to push forward. To quote Gandi ‘the means is the end in the making’. We are strongly in favor of leaders, we need leaders in every region. We need to empower people, we need many leaders. We need to bring grassroots politics from the ground up.”

OKAY… WOW… That was a long debate (and for all intents and purposes the end of the conference except for some more motions I had to sit through and clean up and other stuff.)

My personal opinion is that the party remains in rift. The Green Empowerment I predicted to lose because of how well the speakers on the YES! side would be because they all have the professional politician aspect to them and are good speakers but Green Empowerment really showed up and brought many valid points and standing ovations.

Both sides really did an equal job in presenting their cases and I feel that Green Empowerment actually did a better job of courting the undecided though they haven’t convinced me. I feel that YES! to leadership is the best direction for the party as the public tends to be out of tune with what the Green Party of England and Wales stands for. I feel that the party is in a bit of trouble either way.
If Green Empowerment wins there is likely to be more acceptance from the YES! people but I feel the party has less chance of moving forward, winning major elections and having healthy growth over the next few years. However should YES! win I feel some of the Green Empowerment people are unlikely to accept it and two scenarios can happen… 1. A huge exdious of the utopian people of the party or 2. A constant recall of leaders to keep them from getting anything done to show that one or two leaders cannot show the entire diversity of the party.

I mean I honestly think the rift can be filled either way but the party is starchy divided and needs to come back together to be successful… My prediction for the Nov. refruredum…

YES! brings in almost 65% of the vote but is unable to get the necessary 66.6% it needs to cause the YES! to leadership into effect. Its hard to predict though because theirs 2 months of campaigning to go and both sides are really dedicated and there is no way to tell how the 95% of the party that wasn’t at the conference feels about it… Could be interesting…

Anyhow, next post I am going to go over the “REVUE” which deals with my speech I gave in Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert style… Check back later tonight or tomorrow for the transcript of the speech…