[Marxism] Green Party Movement Making Gains Worldwide

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The seems to be a useful round-up article on how the Green parties
are doing internationally. The expression "first past the post" means
"winner-take-all" or single representative district as we have in the
U.S.

Brian
___________________

Embassy, January 11th, 2006
NEWS STORY
By Peter Dudley

GREEN PARTY MOVEMENT MAKING GAINS WORLDWIDE

It's an uphill battle for Green Parties to make themselves heard in
countries where politics lacks proportional representation. They've
been referred to as tree-huggers and environmental crusaders. Once
ridiculed as being a one-issue party, Green Party politicians are now
gaining some respect.

Even Prime Minister Paul Martin tried to promote a greener image of
himself last month at the United Nations Climate Change Conference by
admonishing the U. S. for failing to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

In this month's federal election, the Green Party of Canada will be
fielding candidates in all 308 ridings. In the 2004 election, they
managed to get more than 580,000 votes, or 4.3 per cent. However,
that was not enough to get any Greens elected in Canada's first-past-
the-post electoral system.

Furthermore, the party cannot get on the nationally televised
leaders' debates, infuriating Green Party Leader Jim Harris. The
party has filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), claiming their exclusion is
unconstitutional.

Participating in the debates would give the Green Party national
media attention and allow Mr. Harris to get his party's platform across.

So Who Are the Greens?

The Values Party, with a strong environmental platform, was founded
in the early 1970s in New Zealand. It is credited with being the
first national Green Party in the world. While they won 5.3 per cent
of the vote in the 1975 federal election, they failed to win a seat
in Parliament.

In Canada, the Green Party was formed in 1983 under leader Trevor
Hancock. The party ran 52 candidates in the 1984 federal election.
Although unsuccessful at the polls, the greening of Canada had begun.

Environmentalists continue to play a major role in the Green
movement, which has also attracted women's and civil rights groups,
as well as anti-war and anti-nuclear activists.

In Canberra, Australia in 2001, 800 members from 72 Green Parties
gathered to draft the Global Greens Charter. It advocates ecological
wisdom, social justice, participatory democracy, non-violence,
sustainability and respect for diversity. The Green Party of Canada
subscribes to this charter.

Greens have had some success in Europe, as well as in New Zealand and
Mexico --countries that have some form of proportional
representation. There are many versions of proportional
representation throughout the world, but basically if a party wins 10
per cent of the vote, they get 10 per cent of the seats in the
government.

New Zealand went to a mixed member proportional (MMP) system in 1996,
after holding a referendum to change its electoral system.

"Most people wanted to change the system. They didn't care what the
new system was, they just wanted to get rid of first-past-the-post,"
says Graham Kelly, New Zealand's High Commissioner to Canada.

"When you vote for your constituency member of parliament, you vote
exactly as you do now: it's first-past-the-post. You have a second
ballot which is to determine the party vote. It determines how many
seats each party gets. It is the most important vote. Those names [on
the list] come from each party," says Mr. Kelly.

The system has worked quite well for New Zealanders. More voices are
being heard; more political compromises have been reached.

Although no New Zealand Green candidates won a seat in the Sept. 2005
federal election, the Green Party received six list seats as a result
of getting 5.3 per cent of votes.

Jeanette Fitzsimons, co-leader of the New Zealand Green Party, is one
of those six Greens. She joined the original Values Party in 1975 and
has been active in politics ever since.

In an email interview, Ms Fitzsimons says: "I joined the Greens
because it was the first organization that combined the issues I
cared about: ecology, social justice, peace, human rights, democracy.
It seemed so much more complete than single issue organizations."

Where Have the Greens Had Success?

"I introduced and had passed New Zealand's first Energy Efficiency
and Conservation Act," says Ms Fitzsimons. "We campaigned to inform
people about genetic engineering especially of food and have slowed
and stopped its progress. We have introduced legal aid for
environmental court cases," she adds.

"I think [New Zealand Greens] have made a significant contribution
toward policy since we have had proportional representation," says
Mr. Kelly. "We have had a massive injection of money into public
transportation and infrastructure. They got money set aside for
cycleways and walkways. I don't think that would have happened had it
not been for the Greens," he says.

The Green Party has had a similar impact in Ireland. In 1991, when
Greens were first elected to Dublin City Council and became part of
the governing coalition, there were no cycleways in Dublin. There are
now 140 kilometres either in place or at the design stage according
the Green Party of Ireland.

Jean Lambert is one of 33 Greens elected to the European Parliament
in 2004. She notes by email that "A commitment to high quality, non-
GMO food; our non-nuclear peace platform (including our opposition to
the Iraq invasion); our critique of the global trade system and our
commitment to fair trade; our support of universal public services,"
are some of the policies which got her and other Greens elected.

Where Greens have not fared as well are in countries that adhere to a
plurality voting system (first-past-the-post) like Canada and the
United States, which have been traditionally geared for a two-party
election.

Ralph Nader, perhaps the most famous Green politician in the United
States, is a case in point. In 2000, the consumer-rights lawyer and
activist ran for President on the Green Party platform of
environmental justice, universal healthcare, affordable housing and
tax reform. He received 2.7 per cent of the vote -- well short of the
required five per cent to secure federal funding -- but enough to
affect the election's outcome. According to his critics, Mr. Nader
took votes away from Democratic candidate Al Gore and allowed George
W. Bush to win the White House.

In Canada, Green Party Leader Jim Harris is convinced Greens will get
elected on Jan. 23, despite the fact his party is hovering around
five per cent in the polls.

When he introduced his party's election platform last week, Mr.
Harris declined to say where Greens would get elected, although he
hinted he was confident he would win his riding of Beaches-East York
and Deputy Leader David Chernushenko would win in Ottawa Centre --
the riding previously held NDP Ed Broadbent.

The Greens will have to do better than that if they want to lift
themselves out of the "fringe party" category.

Unless a lot of Canadians see green on Jan. 23, Mr. Harris and his
fellow candidates will be left out in the cold.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?C3C12557C


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