My review of the Autumn 2017 Green Party conference

Hello everyone. I came back from the Autumn 2017 Green Party conference in Harrogate, one of the most contentious and therefore genuinely democratic conferences in my five years as a Green Party member. It was not the most-well attended conference I have seen so far, but it was very engaging nevertheless. It was also the first Green Party conference I have experienced so far to extend into Tuesday.

The five things I enjoyed about the Autumn 2017 Green Party conference were:

1. The acceptance of the crucial precautionary principle as policy; it is a vital tool in our technologically advanced world when protecting our environment and therefore ourselves.

2. The Green Party also made inspiring calls for the elimination of plastic waste and for gender-based hate crime to be recorded alongside other types of hate crime.

3. A holistic governance review was easily adopted, which is excellently in line with green politics and core green pillars.

4. Members' determination to fight the dirty, greedy disgrace that is fracking all across England, from Lancashire to Balcombe. Fracking is banned in Scotland and Wales (and of course many other countries and several US states); why not England?

5. I had the lovely and supportive company of Emma (who was our parliamentary candidate for Stockton North earlier this year) during the weekend, especially during the difficult moments I faced this conference. I also thank other Green Party members for their understanding and support likewise.

The things I did not like so much about the Autumn 2017 Green Party conference were:

1. Narrow failures to fully turn the tide against "Progressive Alliances" which have let the Green Party down severely and held back the cause of green politics. (The tide is turning but rather slowly.) 

2. A lot of committee slots were left unfilled, even though all Green Party committees are very important to the Green Party in their own way.

3. There was no live-streaming of this conference available, when there has been at several previous conferences.

I give my thanks to everyone who came along and took part.



Comments

  1. Chris Padley13 October 2017 at 11:01

    I wasn't at conference this time, but if I find Alan's experience very encouraging

    ReplyDelete

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