Vote Green, not Brown (1)

The Vestas saga (New Labour duplicity on the low carbon economy) may have some consequences:
1) Union members will demand that many of their compromised leaders change tack and press for an industrial revival based partly on manufacturing renewables
2) We convince them about our vision of a low carbon economy placing industry in the centre – jobs, high technology and low emissions.
3) Among many Labour voters, the credibility of New Labour is terminally shattered as they are found out to be obsessed in kow-towing to carbon-trading multinationals and to Nuclear.

What I would like to see is now:
a) a continuing protest to force the government to step in and save Vestas
b) a practical Green vision of a series of wind turbine plants up and down the country. For example, setting up clean manufacturing in the Thames Gateway and other sites in London – how many Mega watts, how many jobs, and in which locality.

The Green New Deal gave a broad outline. Since then, we have had additions, for example, by Sean Thompson, on embedding that initial document with reducing inequality and wealth mal-distribution, with a firmer commitment towards nationalisation.

I would now like us to draw a picture of what a green industrial renewable landscape actually looks like by region.
For example, if we had the per capita wind energy capacity of Denmark or Germany, how many jobs would we create and how many factories would we have?
Would it ten or twenty Vestas plants in England and Wales?

Farid Bakht

The future for the Left

You may noticed a series of conferences going on, all about a ‘re-alignment of the Left.
Ken Livingstone started off with Progressive London, and returns with one on the economy later this month.
John McDonnell did his own version with LEAP a couple of months ago.
There was another COMPASS one a fortnight ago.
And there will be more. Lots more.
The bright spot is that the Greens are now not ridiculed and indeed sought out.
How times change.
Four years ago, Green politicos were restricted to cycle lanes and climate change.
Now, in its moment of doom, the remainder of the Left have discovered the Green Party as a Left companion…….

Two years after the demise of Northern Rock and the arrival of the credit crunch, the population of Europe has shifted to the Right.
The Left were decimated. We must face that reality.
Inaction: as in blowing trumpets expecting the walls of Jericho to collapse has not proved to be a viable strategy.
At the very moment when free market capitalism has been shown up for what it is, the Left have not only failed to take advantage… it is in full retreat.
The history of the 1920s and thirties show this as the most likely reaction – not universally, and not inevitable… but very likely.
Even Die Linke in Germany did not do well. In France, a new anti-capitalist party failed. Spain, the same. Holland – extreme right… Eastern Europe? Let’s not think about what’s happening there….

The UK?
Well, the UK also shifted right. UKIP now sets the agenda (which is how the Telegraph wants it) while preparing the way for the Conservatives to win handsomely in 2010 and unleash a horrible era of rising inequality and unfairness (basically continuing the Blair/Brown/Mandelson agenda).

The surrender by Labour’s Left this summer, allowing Brown to continue, cannot be brushed off.
After twelve years of invasions…. after betraying their principles … after leading like ‘Thatcher in trousers’, as put by Eric Hobsbaum, ….. is it not remarkable that Left Labour MPs have not resigned en masse and stood as independents?

The gall of some of these self-styled leaders of the ‘new realigned Left’ will be in evidence when they come knocking, suggesting that we ignore their collusion over what will then be thirteen years and line up behind them…..
Why?

There are broad similarities in economic policies (differing versions of the Green New Deal)…
It’s the intention that is in question.
So many union execs… so many Labour MPs…. are going to fight under
the banner of Labour….. for one last time… An election Too Far…

The end result will be 1981 – as the Blair/Brown/Mandy group allies with Clegg’s Liberal Democrats. – the SDP once again.
The rump Left will suddenly become radical…… Diane Abbott etc…. and even Green.. except they will expect to call the shots… and we are meant to be the footsoldiers….

No way Jose……
There has to be a much more equal relationship….. reflecting the spirit of the times…….
All the horsetrading will take place in earnest over the winter of 2010 and early 2011, though I see no resolution for years.
This is the time for the Greens to campaign on its Agenda – Left of Centre in the true sense…. and lay claim to the ground which the Big Three discarded long ago…….. not centre ground, but Left.
This might have been political suicide at the start of this decade.
No longer.
Nationalisation of railways and banks are realistic and popular policies. And Green. I would add nationalisation of centralised energy utilities too, along with education and health.

Don’t worry, I am not going to end by saying ‘the future is green’… but you get the drift…..

Farid Bakht

Say the right thing

Some polls are showing that anything from 6% to 34% of voters would consider voting for the Greens.
The two themes people want to hear from the Greens are:
a) the economy
b) climate change

From now and for years ahead, the Green Party has to lead on the economy, given that i) we are in the middle of the worst economic slump since WW2 and b) because the wider Green Movement is focusing on climate change and c) that if there is one thing we do not have to convince anyone about, it is about our stance on climate change – you could say it’s pretty obvious.

What may have held back people from actually voting for the Green Party is that they thought (and mostly think) of us as a one-trick pony.
Now, instead of climate change sliding down the list of priorities, it is still there as part of a solution to the current economic crisis, as long we explicitly link a low carbon economy to jobs.
This is a very different debate to that of only 12 months ago.

If New Labour, to their infamy, could bang on about education and health in 1997, the Greens must devote maximum exposure to the Green project to create millions of jobs, bring back education, health and railways to full public control and truly nationalise the banks (the latter is still only whispered and not boldly stated enough).

Let’s hope the new videos and emphasis on bread-and-butter issues continues.
Finally, it is time the big NGOs, so long in the limelight, make a strategic decision to move to the economy and back the Green Party.
The original Labour Party would not have succeeded without the wider Labour movement (Unions). Ditto with the Greens today.
The NGOs and ‘friendly media’ now have to get out of their comfort zone and choose sides.
It will not be pleasant – if the likes of Zac Goldsmith can join the Conservatives, it shows the green idea can be twisted in many different directions.
Or perhaps that type of action reflected the era before the credit crunch became vogue. Who believes that blue-is-green nonsense anymore?
I get the feeling that most people today are aware that the Green Party ideal of social, economic and environmental justice is the only way to solve the crisis.
We just have to keep saying the right thing.

Farid Bakht