Greens conference in Swansea: call for localisation

I joined over 10 Green party members from Gloucestershire for the Green party's national conference in Swansea - I only made it yesterday as feeling too tired to manage more - a great pity as it was a wonderfully positive atmosphere and I would loved to have stayed longer.

I got to several different workshops like the key one on localisation mentioned below and one with Dr Chris Busby who has been studying the uranium found in the Lebanon - he showed a shocking film - how on earth could anyone use this stuff in battle?? And why on earth aren't our authorities taking these issues more seriously - Green MEP Caroline Lucas has been trying to get to the bottom of this at the EU but much appears to be covered up.

Photo: Delegates voting

There was also the usual voting on various motions and much coffee drinking and catching up with others.

Photo: Derek Wall delivering his speech

Derek Wall, one of the Green party's Principal Speaker opened the conference on Friday with a great speech (some of it on BBC website here and in full on Green party website here). In my view worth a read - he will be coming to Stroud on 11th April - did manage to talk at some length with him about how to organise his visit - he was also kind enough to say this blog is one of the best Green blogs - mixing local politics and the wider issues. Mind he gets 80 hits a day on his blog - I still haven't got around to adding a counter but know I get at least a couple a day as I get daily at least 2 emails from people about items posted!!

I missed London Mayoral Candidate and Principal Speaker Siân Berry's key note speach where she urged people to rise to the challenge of being the only party with the right ideas and necessary courage to tackle climate change. She said: "Like a political fashion show, party leaders are strutting down the catwalk showing off their latest clothes. And we know whose designs they are copying. Whose clothes they are trying to steal? But the reality is they haven’t changed. They don’t understand that Green isn’t a sharp new suit you can wear for a few days." See Sian's speech here.

Other parties are starting to talk green but they still don't understand. If they did, how could they still support more road building, doubling our airports, Trident, nuclear power, lower taxes for polluting industries, waste incineration and more? As we go into this May's elections we need to get across that there really is only one authentic Green voice: The Green Party.

According to a survey carried out for the Guardian on Saturday, March 17th, 13% believed the Green Party had the best policy onclimate change. The party of government, Labour came out with 16%, David Cameron's "green" Conservatives managed 14% and the Lib Dems were bottom at only 8%. No one can dispute that the political scene is changing rapidly. The Green Party is setting the agenda and others are following.

Locally also things are looking good - already this year we got our first seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly. We now have a new West Gloucestershire Green party that plans to have candidates for the first time - and they are very serious about winning. I think they have more than a chance of a few seats there. In Stroud we'll be standing in a good proportion of the 17 District seats and have candidates for the Town Council - across in Gloucester Greens will also be standing in seats there but not Cheltenham as they don't have local e;lections this year.

Anyhow Swansea had great talks, great discussions and great music but most important of all great politics - as Principal Speaker Derek Wall said at conference: 'Green politics cannot fail - we have a world to save.'

Call for localisation

In a key workshop on the politics of localisation Stroud Green, Molly Scott Cato, the Green Party economics spokesperson, was a speaker with David Boyle of the New Economics Foundation and Carl Schlyter, an MEP for the Swedish Greens Party.

Molly started the debate by dismissing the current economic status quo and went on to criticise the perceived benefits of material wealth. She said: "Personal wealth accumulation means that money has a claim in the present against a stake in the future, generating generational in-balance. The average child born now would have needed psychological therapy if they were born in the 1950's. Levels of mental problems and stress have never been higher."

Molly also used examples from Stroud like the exciting Transition Town project which includes the Stroud Community Agriculture project and a new textile group looking at everything from weaving, spinning to growing hemp locally.

Photo: Localisation panel with Mollys talk and Stroud Community Agriculture getting a plug

In the presentation David Boyle started by celebrating that nef had been founded out of the Green party some 10 years ago then dismissed outright the notion that industrial centralisation contains any benefit and also decimates social cohesion: "A recent study showed that towns in the US containing a Wal-Mart have fewer amenity groups, fewer local activities, less scout groups and a lower voting turn-out than places that don't. Why? Because these giant, rational, centralised systems suck the life out of places and the people that live there."

Swedish Green MEP Carl Schlyter despells the argument of globalisation still further. "When people think that companies are outsourcing all the jobs overseas, they're wrong to think that countries like China are benefiting from this globalisation. In the last 10 years, China have lost 15 million jobs in manufacturing, compared to a further 10 million jobs lost globally."

A localised economy was called for, with the benefits of zero food miles, a genuine ownership of production, and a greater emphasis on seasonality and community co-operation. The Green Party's Lord Beaumont's wise words from 2006 were repeated: 'Such a vision offers greater community and personal satisfaction: a world where conviviality replaces consumption, where local identity replaces global trade, and where community spirit replaces brand loyalty.'

Much more I want to say but think I'll leave it at that for now.