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Title: The Greens Author: Anarchist Communist Federation Date: 1995 Language: en Topics: green parties, United Kingdom, Organise! Source: Retrieved on May 13, 2013 from https://web.archive.org/web/20130513005652/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue41/the_greens.html Notes: Published in Organise! Issue 41 — Winter 1995/1996.
Alongside the attempts of any ‘Socialist Labour Party’ to sabotage and
head off struggles , we have to look at the manoeuvres by another form
of social-democracy to do the same. The Green Party has never achieved
the electoral success it had in 1989 in the European elections when it
got 15% of the vote. In the European elections last year it polled only
2%. Membership has dropped to 4,000 and one third of the 200 branches
are moribund or on the verge of collapse. The electoralism of the Greens
has proved to be a failure. Nevertheless, they hope to continue in the
same vein by attempting to win over sections of activists involved in
the anti-roads and anti-Criminal Justice Act movements to ensnare them
in the trap of electoralism and green reformism. Further, they hope to
reinforce the ‘non-violent’ tendencies within these movements by a
proposed Green roadshow which will include workshops on ‘non-violent
direct action’. They still have their eyes on building bases in the
structures of the local state-the municipal councils- where they already
have a number of seats. They have placed an emphasis on this through
their concentration on implementing Local Agenda 21, which came out of
the Earth Summit in Rio and which laid down requirements for the local
State to develop plans for sustainable development. Also, they hope to
pick up people who are disillusioned with Labour- although obviously
they will be competing with Scargill’s oufit in this.
Whether they will be able to exert much influence in the new movements
remains to be seen, and indeed some of the Green Party activists might
themselves be effected by attitudes towards political parties within
these movements. Indeed , if new radicalised movements of struggle
develop within both the workplace and community, then some of the
radical fringe of the Greens may be won to revolutionary positions.
Anarchist communists need to help this come about by developing a
dialogue with this radical fringe.