How the Greens are changing the political environment

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/30/greens-changing-political-environment

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I invite Suzanne Moore (G2, 29 January) to come to a local party meeting in Stoke so she can check her claim that the Greens are a party of “middle-class do-gooders”. Meet Jan Zablocki, a Communication Workers’ Union activist who will be standing against Tristram Hunt in Stoke Central. Greens have long championed the idea of a telescopic state: big in some areas and small in others. There’s nothing “incoherent” about that – we want it big where it’s a guarantor of security for the poor and vulnerable, and small when it comes to surveillance, for example. Her claim that the Basic Income “falls to pieces when properly examined” would be more persuasive if she’d properly examined it. And her claim the party is anti-science is risible; it’s the only party that takes climate science seriously. But if the charge is that we don’t believe we should do things just because we can do them (eg genetic modification), then we plead guilty.

Green politics is about much more than attracting the disillusioned Labour voter. It’s about environmental as well as social justice; about rewriting leftwing politics, not tearing up the rule book altogether. Professor Andrew DobsonKeele University

• As Suzanne Moore argues, the Green party is trying to step into shoes that should be filled by a genuinely left alternative, like Syriza in Greece. It is precisely the task of growing such an alternative that the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition – which aims to stand 100 candidates in this year’s general election and 1,000 in the local elections – has set itself. The coalition includes the RMT union, a host of trade union fighters, community campaigners and socialists. Unlike the Greens, we are anti-austerity not just in words, but in deeds. Our conference last weekend was addressed by rebel councillors from Hull, Leicester, Warrington and Walsall, all of whom have taken a defiant stand and voted against cuts – facing expulsion from their Labour groups as a result.By contrast, Brighton’s Green councillors have obediently passed on millions in central government cuts to ordinary people in the city – with devastating consequences for many lives. The Greek elections marked a turning point in the battle of European workers and young people against austerity. The task of building a real alternative to the mainstream parties of the 1% is urgent. In this year’s elections, it will be TUSC that represents the opportunity of a clean break with the cuts consensus.Claire Laker-MansfieldTrade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

• Where has Suzanne Moore been while the Socialist Alliance, Respect and numerous others have fizzed and faded and the Greens have made steady progress? The Marxist left in Britain couldn’t grow bacteria in sour milk. Suzanne’s inability to support the only viable anti-austerity party illustrates the sectarianism that scuppers every effort. I am an advocate of green economics and happy to be a non-Marxist Green. But I am delighted by Syriza’s victory. George HeronManchester

• Far from being anti-science, puritanical and incoherent on economics, the Green party is the one which takes climate science most seriously and links that to corporate exploitation of the Earth’s finite resources, challenging the corporate power to which the mainstream parties are so wedded – witness how none of them will oppose the TTIP outright, despite massive and growing public rejection of it.

The Greens are often in the lead in fighting austerity locally, and that means alongside working people, and the workless, groups such as Taxpayers Against Poverty, and claimants who are punished by the state and vilified by the media. The utopians are those in the Labour party who still believe, against all the evidence of increasing inequality, that bowing to the mantra of deficit reduction and corporate investment on the owners’ terms will benefit working people. We need public investment and a million green jobs, and an end to cuts which go so far as to kill some of the most vulnerable.Gordon PetersLondon

• As George Monbiot says (Opinion, 28 January), the Greens’ policies are more equitable and socially responsible than those of Miliband’s Labour. But they have one dangerous electoral blind spot: immigration. Green policy is for unrestricted immigration, from inside and outside the EU, apparently with no questions asked. This is madness for a party that is supposed to be fighting for long-term sustainability and an end to the pursuit of endless growth, and it makes no sense in terms of the ordinary perceptions of voters.

The UK, and especially England, is by world standards very densely populated. There needs to be a serious debate on the long-term numbers of people we want in this country. Food security, agricultural sustainability, balance of urban versus rural land, the needs of wildlife and ourselves for open green spaces, and simply the total impact of human density on our well-being and infrastructure all need to be properly discussed, not brushed under the carpet. One would expect the Greens to be the party integrating these issues into a broader socioeconomic framework, yet they have no coherent population policy. Yes, vote Green, but many of us will be holding our noses, even so.Anthony ChekeOxford

• George Monbiot makes the case for politics with a clear message: back what you believe and vote Green. But at what cost? In our constituency – Morecambe and Lunesdale, a Conservative-Labour marginal, the cost of not supporting Labour would be another four years of a Tory MP, contributing to the terrifying prospect of a government further hammering benefits, with cuts in basic services and increasing privatisation. So I shall work to see Labour returned. Nor shall I be holding my nose, as we have an outstanding candidate.

But there is a message that Labour must heed: people get involved in political debate when they sense that the debate is relevant to their lives. The votes on Scottish independence and in Greece show what happens when there is a politics of passion and belief. We want positive statements that our world does not have to be like this, and resources found for the fabric of our society – libraries and youth work, the arts and sport, school buildings and social care. We want core services – water, electricity, gas, railways – brought back into public ownership, and a benefit system that does not demean the people whom it should be supporting.

Lord Oakeshott’s support for a Miliband-led progressive government is the best solution on offer. Each of us should vote for the local progressive candidate – and those candidates have four years to find a way to work with us to transform the political landscape.Emeritus professor Roger CloughLancaster University

• Here in west Lancashire, a constituency which is as far from revolutionary as you could imagine, the red flag is flying in the local Green party. We are a radical, comprehensive and socialist party, more than the Labour party ever was. Maurice GeorgeOrmskirk, Lancashire

I was a school boy in the impoverished 1930s, working in bomb alley (Croydon) 1943-45 then RAF Middle East, enthusiastically supporting Labour’s rescue of a true community for the next 30 years while working in industry and education, deploring the devastation by Thatcheron (partly rescued by Blair & Brown) over the next 35. • Now in my 90s, I plead with old and young to vote for the parties of the future to rescue fair pay and secure jobs, state-run health, essential services and public transport. Fairer taxation is vital to pay for that future. Many voters will recognise these essentials in the philosophy and aims of the Greens, Plaid Cymru and SNP. I ask my party, Labour, not just to espouse these same essentials, but to make it clear a vote for these parties (lead by three highly talented women) will not be wasted, as they will be welcomed into a socialist government, as will those clearly on the left in Northern Ireland.Mike Scott ArcherBrecon, Powys