Neoliberalism at Work
Green Left: Europes political 3rd Party?
Home | Globalization and the Corporatist State-jk | NEOLIBERALISM EXPOSED--jk | what is neoliberalism? | China Economy: insights on globalization | Globalization, consequences, China | Neoliberals and Global Social Democracy--GSD | Who Owns the Federal Reserve | Green Left: Europes political 3rd Party? | Austerity: Why and for Whom? | G20 Meeting & Debt Reduction--Naomi Klein | Anti-tariff spin in the media--article and rebuttal | NAFTA Super Highway | Neoliberals privatize SPYING

COMMENTARY by JK

 

The major opposition to the European Union, a so-called GreenLeft, is not a 3rd party, one which seeks to overturn the existing order, or at least propose Keynesian economic changes. 

 Keynesian economics was what got the U.S. and Europe out of the Great Depression.   This was accomplished by building up the purchasing power of the masses.  A decent living wages is the foundation.   To promote the living wage there must be effective laws to protect and promote unions.  There must be effective laws that prevent the flooding of the labor market—wages are a commodity subject to supply and demand.  There must be laws to protect domestic manufacturing so that manufacturers can afford to pay a living wage; i.e., tariffs.  There must be laws that manage the business community effectively, including anti-trust, banking laws, fair trade laws, consumer protection laws, and in general laws which promote efficiency in the market place, laws that reduce costs such as having standard parts, product ratings on packages, etc.  Finally the government must gain control of its currency.  Otherwise the payments on its borrowing will so strap the government that it won’t be able to afford social programs.  Banking is a boa constrictor that keeps tightening it grip upon the flow of funds through ever increasing consumer, commercial, and government debt payments.  This can only be accomplished by fundamental changes to the banking system.   

            The GreenLeft is a distraction; the global warming scare is a distraction.  The most important issues are the bread-and-butter ones, ones about quality of life.  It is that of global warming.  Its effects are greatly exaggerated—but that is another topic.  The point is that the neoliberals have no serious challenge party either in Europe or the United States, or the orient.

 

The Dutch Party has grown into a pan-European party.  The GreenLeft doesn’t oppose globalization or the flooding of the job market, nor does it support tariffs.  They hold seats in the Dutch Parliament (11 seats) and the European Parliament  (3 seats).  In Dutch elections it receives around 10-12% of the vote.  Its platform appeals to Arab voters, where its support is twice as high as that of the general population. 

 

The Green Left (a total different party in England) is a true anti-capitalist party, and the GreenLeft in Australia is a pro-labor party.  Neither of these, unlike the Dutch party, have a significant political voice.   There are a number of Green Parties around the world.  At the bottom is a bit on the one in England.

GreenLeft (Dutch: GroenLinks, GL) is a Dutch Green political party.

GreenLeft was formed in 1989 as a merger of four left-wing political parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People's Party. After disappointing results in the 1989 and 1994 general election, the party fared particularly well during 1994 and 2002. The party's leader Paul Rosenmöller was seen as the unofficial leader of the opposition against the Kok Cabinets by the media, fellow politicians and academics, even though it was only the second largest party in the opposition.[5][6] In late 2002 Femke Halsema took over the political leadership of the party. She emphasizes tolerance, freedom and emancipation as key values of the party.

GreenLeft describes itself as "green" "social", and "tolerant".[7] It places itself in the freedom-loving tradition of the Left.[3]

Currently the party is represented by ten seats in the House of Representatives, four in the Senate and three in the European Parliament. The party leader, and chair of the parliamentary party in the House of Representatives, is Femke Halsema. The party is in opposition against the fourth cabinet Balkenende. The party has over 100 local councillors and it participates in the government of sixteen of the twenty largest municipalities in the Netherlands.[citation needed] The party's voters are concentrated in larger cities, especially those with a university.

The party has over 21,901 members which are organized in over 250 municipal branches. The party congress is open to all members. It is a member of the Global Greens and the European Green Party. The Party increased its number of seats from 7 to 10 in the recent general election.

Ideology

The party combines green with left-wing ideals.[6] The core ideals of GreenLeft are codified in the party's program of principles (called "Uitgangspunten van GroenLinkse Politiek").[3] The party explicitly places itself in the tradition of leftwing parties that are freedom loving. Four principles form the guiding principles of the party

  1. the democratic rechtsstaat, which ensures individual freedom and equal political rights;
  2. an ecological balance, in the knowledge that natural resources are limited;
  3. a just distribution of power, knowledge, property, labour and income, within the Netherlands, but also on a world scale;
  4. a resistance to exploitation and opposition to the suppression of groups and peoples.[3]

The party's principles reflect the ideological convergence between the four founding parties which came from different ideological traditions: the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People's Party, from a progressive Christian tradition; and the Pacifist Socialist Party and the Communist Party of the Netherlands from the socialist and communist traditions. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s the parties had come to embrace environmentalism and feminism; they all favoured democratization of society and had opposed the creation of new nuclear plants and the placement of new nuclear weapons in the Netherlands.[5]

Halsema, the current political leader of the party, has started a debate about the ideological course of GreenLeft. She emphasized the freedom loving tradition of the left and has chosen freedom as key value. Her course is called left-liberal by herself and observers,[32] although Halsema herself claims that she does not want to force an ideological change. She claims that she places GreenLeft in the "freedom-loving tradition of the left", as the party's manifesto of principles did as well.[33]

Following Isaiah Berlin, Halsema distinguishes between positive and negative freedom.[34] Negative freedom is according to Halsema the freedom citizens from government influence; she applies this concept especially to the multicultural society and the rechtsstaat, where the government should protect the rights of citizens and not limit them. Positive freedom is the emancipation of citizens from poverty and discrimination. Halsema wants to apply this concept to welfare state and the environment where government should take more action. According to Halsema, GreenLeft is undogmatic party, that has anarchist tendencies.[34]

Green Party of England and Wales

The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) (Welsh: Plaid Werdd Cymru a Lloegr) is a political party in England and Wales which adheres to a left wing ideology of Green politics and social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including the semi-autonomous Wales Green Party. The party currently has one Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, Caroline Lucas, who represents the constituency of Brighton Pavilion, and who is also the current party leader.[3] They also have two MEPs in the European Parliament and two members of the London Assembly, as well as 129 councillors in various local councils across England and Wales. The party also had a life peer, Lord Beaumont, in the House of Lords until his death in April 2008.[4]

The Green Party of England and Wales was created in 1990 when the former UK Green Party, which itself had grown out of the 1970s’ PEOPLE party, devolved into separate parties for Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England and Wales. It currently has friendly relations with its Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts, and is affiliated with the Global Greens and the European Green Party. While primarily known as an environmentalist party, it has a history of support for socialist economic policies, nationalisation of public services, electoral reform, euroscepticism and British republicanism, as well as liberal social policies such as animal rights, LGBT rights and drug policy reform.

 

 

Enter supporting content here

Teddy Roosevelt's advice that, "We must drive the special interests out of politics. The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have themselves called into being. There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains."