On the Greens was Re: [Marxism] My blog

[<g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Tried to post a comment Lou, but there is some gremlin 
stopping me from enlisting.

I was going to say that the current fiasco in the Green Party 
might remind you of Browder and FDR, but truly when the VP 
candidate announces she is not going to vote for her own 
party then surely history has re-entered the arena as the 
purest of farces.

It seems to me that there are two tendencies within Green 
politics.  First of these is the lobby tendency and the 
second the political party.  They both can co-exist, but 
there is a tendency for the lobbyists to see the political 
party people as pissing on the bed and making life difficult 
for them to approach âsympathetic â politicians.

Within the party faction there are the radical and the realo 
tendencies- reform or sell out.

I think these tendencies are pretty universal but of course 
local circumstances dictate which tendency will be realised.

What has happened with the USA, I think is that the lobby 
tendency has staged some kind of coup within the Greens and 
outflanked those like Camejo who were serious about Party 
building.

So we never even got to the Realo sell out stage.  Perhaps 
the nature of the American voting system, with its winner 
take all approach, means that the impulse to build a party is 
that much more difficult.

Cobb and La Marche might argue that in their case they are 
simply keeping the Fascist Bush at bay, but in truth they 
seek to prevent a third party developing out of the previous 
alliance with Nader. That was easily the best chance to break 
the Rep-Dem monopoly and David Cobb knew it. But of course he 
has no interest at all in party building or as he would put 
it âgrowing the Greens.â  What he has done is in effect to 
apply the Zero wand to the shoots that were springing out of 
the peace movement and the Nader campaign.

As things now stand the American Greens return to the level 
of the pressure group seeking funds from sympathetic govt 
departments.  That is a step well below the Realo option and 
surely there will be a very bitter backlash from within the 
Greens to the Cobb/La Marche.  The damage will of course have 
been done.

Regards

Gary

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