First of all, can you
tell me a bit about yourself and your Green Party activism?
Having been a Green
Party supporter for many years, I became an active member about 10 years ago
when I moved to Somerset and joined the Bridgwater and West Somerset
branch. I've stood as a candidate in two
district council elections and supported our candidates in two general
elections. I've been the Co-ordinator of
the Bridgwater and West Somerset group for nearly two years.
You and your colleagues
from your local party are on ‘strike’ (your letter is reproduced below), can
you tell me why you decided to take this strike action?
Like many local groups we generally focus more on local issues, but some of us had been becoming increasingly concerned about what we saw going on in the Green Party at a national level. There was a series of events. I had attended last year's Autumn conference, held on Zoom, and had been alarmed by the aggressive behaviour of some of the trans ideology supporters and disturbed by some of the motions proposed at that conference, including gender self Identification for trans people, which were either very poorly thought through or a blatant attack on women's rights. It was also worrying to observe that so few voters were present that it was easy for a small single-issue group to have a disproportionately large influence.
Then came the disgraceful incident in which a man who wishes to be identified as a woman became Co-Chair of the Women's Group. At this year's Spring conference, again on Zoom, there were similar problems with aggression from trans rights extremists and low voter turnout, and this time the gender self ID motion was passed while a motion to protect women's rights was voted down.
When
I reported on the conference to my local colleagues there was unanimous alarm,
with three people saying they would resign in protest. So you could say we were on the brink of
insurrection when we received the news of Emma Bateman's suspension! The idea occurred to me to go on strike rather
than resign, because I believe it is better to stay in the Green Party and fight
for it; I am not prepared to let a small group of extremists hijack our
party. So we all agreed to strike – but
then our Acting Secretary received an aggressive communication that he found so
offensive that he resigned from the Party.
What does it mean
practically, what kind of party activity has been halted by the strike?
Having been rather
quiet over the past year, due to the Covid restrictions, we were looking
forward to resuming local campaigning, and all the things that entails. Somerset local government is undergoing
change, with the creation of a new Unitary Authority to replace the existing
County and District Councils, and we were all set to join other Green Party
groups across Somerset in preparing for the local elections due to be held
early next year.
What are your demands
to call off the action?
As a minimum
requirement, we want Emma Bateman's suspension withdrawn. More than that, how the Green Party officers
respond to our letter, whether or not they take our concerns seriously, will be
a big factor. We are angry, and we are
determined.
I have received dozens
of emails from representatives of Somerset Green Party branches supporting our
action. Two people have said that they
share our concerns but are worried in case publicity about the problems in the
Green Party adversely affects our local election results. I agree with this fear – it is a risk, and it
would be a great pity if it were to happen.
At the branch level, the Green Party is wonderful; all over the UK
communities are benefiting from the contributions of Green Party members who
are County, District, Town and Parish councillors. The fact that Green Party members are doing
such positive work in their communities gives me hope that we can turn the
Party around and get back to focusing on what matters – the planet is in crisis
and environmental issues should be everyone's priority.
Reports from the recent
Green party conference suggest that it was acrimonious with attempts by the
party leadership to cynically manipulate what was allowed to be debated. What
is your take on this?
I know this is being
said, but I am not sufficiently knowledgeable about the inner workings of the party
at a national level to be able to comment on this.
Given the ecological
crisis at present, do you see the Green party’s focus on identity/lifestyles
issues as a distraction?
Yes. The Green Party matters. It's the only party that challenges the prevailing dogma of economic growth. Labour is all about business as usual, the same old model that has brought us to the brink of catastrophe: pro-growth, pro-nuclear, pro-Trident, and pro-first-past-the-post voting. The Tories are the same but even more so – just this week we've seen them promoting GM food and nuclear weapons and of course they are championing the eco-disasters of HS2 and Hinkley Point nuclear power station. The Greens offer a true alternative. At the grass-roots level the party is still great, but at the top of the hierarchy and in the internal democratic systems there are problems. I care about the Green Party. If I didn't, I'd just walk away. We can't let a bunch of 300 or so single-issue extremists hijack a party with 50,000 members. We need to get our party back.
Letter sent to Green party regional officers
To: Ewan Jones,
Guy Poultney, and representatives of Green Party branches in Somerset
Subject:
Bridgwater and West Somerset Green Party Strike
Date: March 18th 2021
Dear Ewan, Guy,
and everyone
Thank you for
an excellent zoom meeting of Green Party Somerset groups on Saturday March 13th. I came away full of enthusiasm for helping with
whatever local elections we have in the new Unitary Authority Somerset next
year. I reported about this to our
meeting of Bridgwater and West Somerset officers and key member activists on
Tuesday March 16th, and we were all set to take part in the
campaign.
However, on
Tuesday evening we received the news about Emma Bateman's suspension from the
Green Party, allegedly for making the unremarkable factual observation that
transwomen are not female. As I'm sure
you are all aware, Emma is / was Co-Chair of the Green Party Women's
Group. Her fellow Chair is Kathryn
Bristow, who is a man who wishes to be identified as a woman. Because the Women's Group had been forced by
Green Party HQ to accept men who wish to be identified as women, Kathryn was
able to join the group, whereupon he put himself forward for election as
Co-Chair, was elected, and took up the position. Kathryn has been criticised for his role in
working for Gender GP,
the company that was exposed by a recent Daily Telegraph investigation published
in the paper version on 27th February (see below) that demonstrated it was selling puberty
blocking drugs to children, with no medical supervision. (The company is run by a doctor who was
struck off in the UK and is now based in Spain, and the prescriptions are
issued by a doctor in Romania; the only check the company makes on the children
is to ensure they can pay.) Kathryn has recently stated that he intends
to lie on the census form, which is an offence liable to a fine of £1000. Kathryn is enthusiastically supported by the
Green Party leadership. Emma is
suspended for telling the truth; Kathryn is applauded for practising deception.
This was the
last straw for me.
It follows the
debacle of our Spring conference, which demonstrated the catastrophic state of
internal democracy within the Green Party.
Out of a membership of over 50,000, very few vote in internal elections
or at conferences. Fewer than 1% of the
members voted at the recent conference.
This lack of member involvement allows any determined single-issue
splinter group to form the majority of the voters, so they can not only push
through contentious motions, they can also elect their preferred officers and
control the elected officers whose positions depend on their votes.
At the recent
conference, a gender self ID motion was passed: only 493 people voted, of whom
281 were in favour of it. 281 people out
of 50,000 have imposed a policy supporting gender self ID on the entire
party. What would the 50,000 have said?
A motion
proposing that the GP should support women's sex-based rights, in accordance
with the United Nations CEDAW agreement (Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women) was voted down.
Only 491 people voted, or whom 289 people voted against women's rights,
and the motion failed. What would the
50,000 have said?
Because so few
people vote, a splinter group can control elected officers, who need their
votes to keep their positions. Whatever
their personal views may be, none of the Green Party leaders dare to say or do
anything to displease the members of the faction. The views of the non-voting 50,000 are
disregarded because the 300 or so members of the splinter group must be
appeased.
At a national
level, Green Party democracy is so catastrophically compromised that it permits
the leadership to be kidnapped and the party hijacked by a single-issue
group. The system is flawed: it is
vulnerable to exploitation by any such group – just now it is the trans rights
lobby, but it could have been a pro-Brexit group, or a pro-nuclear group; anything. One solution to this problem might be to raise
the quorum for conferences to a higher percentage of the total membership;
there could be campaigns at the local branch level to encourage more members to
engage in the democratic process.
Many of you
will have read the resignation letter from Dom Armstrong, our only Councillor
in Sunderland. I am including it below
for those who have not yet seen it because it sets things out with admirable
clarity and because I share his views.
As a result of
all of this, I am going on strike. Not
just me: the officers of the Bridgwater and West Somerset branch, along with
those active members with whom we work closely on a day-to-day basis, are going
on strike. Our acting Secretary, Tony
Seaman, has this morning taken the further step of resigning altogether from
the Green Party. We are not willing to
represent the Green Party in its current dysfunctional state; nor are we
willing to ask others to stand as candidates or to take part in election
campaigning for the Green Party. This
strike will last until, as a minimum requirement, Emma Bateman's suspension is
lifted.
With all good
wishes to all of you
Co-ordinator,
Bridgwater and West Somerset Green Party
Agree with most of what's said here.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear. Rock on to these marvellous people for standing up for what's right. I cancelled my Green membership last year. The 'gender' ideology nonsense compounded with the Aimee Challenor scandal was just too much. The Greens have been infiltrated by a misogynistic and homophobic ideology.
ReplyDeleteMaterial reality and objectivity don't care about 'feelings'. Environmental policy, equality and equity should be based on reality, empirical evidence and fact. Not feelings, mental disorders, and social contagions that perpetuate harm.
This is aggressively bullying behaviour by anti-trans extremists. I'm glad that I left the party long ago and I've no wish to rejoin. The letter here and the comments below it should have no place in a party which supposedly welcomes people excluded by mainstream society. Trans men and women are not dangerous and their wishes to be accepted for what they are - and what they choose - should never be seen as harmful. Yet there is a growing conservative movement against trans people, of which this is a disturbing example. I hope the strikers come to understand how hurtful, damaging and un-green their actions are. Unless this is the essence of Green politics?
ReplyDeleteSorry I attended the Green Party conference for the first time. I was joined by a friend who is trans and a male friend. We were present at the workshop and the vote for the trans self id and women’s rights and were horrified at the misogynistic bullying, manipulation and the lies told about the process of obtaining a GRC and the process of getting married. These gender ideologists have no mandate to speak for trans people. They were bullying and misogynistic. The upshot is that we have all left the party, this included my trans friend. If trans people are leaving the Green Party because of gender ideologists then you need to reassess your opinion of who is bullying who and yes I did raise the misinformation given in the workshop and when proposing the motion with the chair in plenty of time before the self of motion was discussed and this was ignored.
DeleteThis is ludicrous and biased rubbish which in no way represents the overwhelming majority of Green Party members.
ReplyDeleteReally? So do you think it's fine to suspend someone just for asking if transwomen are female? Do you think it's fine that Green Party Women is chaired by a male who prescribes puberty blockers to children & encouraged trans people to lie on the census? And where do you get your idea from that the overwhelming majority believe in illogical, Orwellian nonsensical genderideology and prioritise this over the environment? Have you done a survey of all the members? To dismiss this as rubbish without engaging with the content suggests that you don't have an argument.
DeleteThe Green Party needs a new way of making policy. Maybe a more democratic system of "branch and delegate" rather than "who's in the room".
ReplyDeletei agree entirely with the strikers. this doesn't mean i am opposed to adults choosing a gender ID thats different from their birth sex.
ReplyDeleteIt does mean that i deplore the way the party's internal democracy has been manipulated by a minority of the membership and the elected leaders, willingly or not, controlled by that minority.
Solidarity with the strikers! And thanks & congratulations for standing up for sanity and women's rights. It is ludicrous that women are being suspended and expelled for stating the reality that males are not female. The hyperbole and threats used by gender identity proponents mean that the vast majority of people are too intimidated to even ask questions about this issue, which in turn mean many people do not understand the implications of gender identity ideology. This article helpfully explains that while it might appear progressive to support gender self identity, actually GI reinforces sexism rather than breaking it down.
ReplyDeletehttps://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1330/a-world-without-gender/
An interview with somone who has a specific stance on trans people and no right-of-reply. The ascertation that the party is 'controlled' by a 'minority' of 'extremists' is unsubstanciated, without evidence and uses conspiracy theory creating terms. Voting at conference is a process that has been formed democratically over years by members. Simply because the point of view of one side of the debate lost doesn't make it a conspiracy, unless you wish to employ the same logic that Trump and his supporters used to create havoc around their loss in the US election. A delegate system of voting is, in my view, less democratic as it gives greater power to those who have more confidence, more time to attend local meetings and more combatative styles of engagement. In practice this means better educated, higher earners and those with greater social capital i.e. predominantely white middle class, non-disabled, cis-gendered persons. The one member, one vote system is a democratic strength of the GP in my view. You only have to be aware of the strategy of trotskyist ex-SWP members in the Labour party who try to dominate the floor of meetings and bore and oppress others into submission to get a taste of this. When GC members repeatedly refer to a trans woman as a man that is hate speech and should be called out. If members repeatedly use hate speech and provoke and intimidate trans members then other members will complain and they will be suspended. That is a logical and coherent disiplinary process. Just as Labour neglected to act with speed or urgency on anti-semitism and suffered greatly for it so the GP should not be split apart by hate. A key takeaway for a transformation to a green society is 'no one left behind', so debate your point of view by all means but do so respectfully and attempting to relegate a minority group as less-than-human doesn't seem to me to be a legitimate route. If a majority doesn't share your view that does not mean there is a conspiracy.
ReplyDelete"Labour neglected to act with speed or urgency on anti-semitism" is a strange comment. When Mr Corbyn was leader, he tried hard to act against anti-semitism but, as the leaked report showed, he was blocked by right-wingers using it as a weapon to destroy him and the socialism he represented. Whilst I don't support the Green party strikers and I do support full rights for trans people, I hope that the Green party doesn't begin to use the tactics of the Labour centre and right wing.
DeleteHas Caitlin Collins or anyone else done an assessment of how the 'strike' went? Specifically, how many Green Candidates stood in May elections, compared to how many seats were up for election, as compared with other years?
ReplyDeleteI think Chris Rose and Chris Williams keep these kinds of historic records. I can’t ask them myself because I’m one of the ones on an endless suspension for my gender critical views.
Does anyone know where these records might be found?