Green Left's First Year

The Green Party of England and Wales Green Left current have our Annual General Meeting this weekend. The first year has seen the current establish itself as an important part of the GPEW and a mobilising force for events and demonstrations that have taken place over the year. We have established dialogues with various left forces outside the Green Party and have been able to defend the Party from attacks from the left by clarifying policy and showing that the Party is not monolithic and contains a significant radical element. We have been able to demonstrate to internal critics the value of the work we are doing and to counter some of the fears about splitters and factionalism. The founding statement was quite widely circulated and commented upon and the discussions around it were useful in establishing a baseline and some direction. The best part of this is that Green Left faces both outward and inward - it is both a network for strengthening and deepening the radical policies and activities of the party and communicating the left unity message outside the party. To Green Left's credit it does not present itself, or the GPEW as the be-all-and-end-all of left politics in England and Wales, but argues that Greens have a specific and indispensable role to play in the broad movement for social, economic and political change. Without the Green element that broad movement will be incomplete and not fit for purpose. Without recognition that politics is about more than electoralism and that real lasting change requires a coalition of forces on the left, the Green Party is diminished.
The tasks ahead for Green Left are to seek to develop the internal life of the Green Party locally, nationally and internationally; to develop and disseminate practically relevant theory and analysis and media to facilitate this, to recruit more of the required activist base; to network and co-operate with the broad non-sectarian left nationally and internationally and to publicly intervene in important manifestations of protest and resistance to neo-liberalism and war.
Green Left has come a long way in one year - from a good idea to a growing network and forum for vital debate, a base for interventions and an organisational tool.
The political situation in England and Wales is if anything now even more ideal for the type of politics Green Left is developing.