The Green Monster
Leaked documents show a new eco-socialist party is in the making. Can it benefit at the expense of Eamonn Ryan’s moribund Green Party?
To say that the tenure of the Green Party in coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has been shambolic would be an understatement. As everyone predicted at the time of the coalition talks last year, Eamonn Ryan and company have become a mudguard for the government. Ire that should have been directed at the two larger partners in this faustian deal has instead been directed at the Greens.
It’s not that the party doesn’t deserve it. It now supports neoliberal policies it once opposed. And one major reason for its electoral success was the vote left/transfer left movement that sprung up.
Ryan’s leadership has been one of betrayal to former Green voters due to his justifying the unjustifiable. He comes across as both autocratic and disconnected from the wider worries of the population. Talking about growing salads on windowsills as the country was headed into its first lockdown wasn’t the political hot topic he clearly thought it was.
A new party and a new deal
This pattern has led to a slow but significant loss of important members from the party. Vote-getters like Saoirse McHugh and Lorna Bogue have left the Greens voicing their disgust at the party’s behaviour in government and behind the scenes in dealing with the legitimate concerns of members. A new green-focused movement popping up was likely on the cards then. And it’s now here. Sort of.
An Rabharta Glas (ARG), also known as The Green Left, is due to launch this year. The apparent brainchild of some disaffected and former Greens, the group intends to be the eco-socialist party of Irish politics in the years to come. Its formation and planning had been a well-guarded secret.
But how do I know this? Because someone, possibly from within ARG’s ranks, leaked a mass of its internal documents. Included in the leak are minutes of meetings dating back to last October, debates over logo designs, discussions of other political parties, as well as details of the group’s proposals for creating an eco-socialist Ireland.
Its aims, though grandiose, are not without merit. In fact, I’d argue that they’re entirely in keeping with the environmental apocalypse that’s upon us. Carbon neutrality by 2030, greater support for farmers, and the conversion of farming to more ecologically sustainable models are obvious and perhaps the most important aims of ARG. It’s rightly pointed out that farmers feel left behind and that the current system of farming is “failing” and “destructive”.
Other obvious goals include immediately outlawing the extraction of fossil fuels and “A massive expansion of state owned offshore wind infrastructure”. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to be shored up and boglands are to come under public ownership. Similar to the latter, municipal services are to be renationalised using “a model of local control with national ownership”.
The economy is to serve the people, with a Green New Deal and National Investment Bank the “foundation” of this new economic model. Polluters are to be taxed as opposed to consumers who often feel the brunt of environmental-related legislation in the form of regressive taxation. Education and healthcare will be free and the housing supply will substantially increased with the rights of tenants strengthened and restrictions placed on evictions.
Being “woke”
Much has already been said on social media of the leaks. In any discussion not meant for public consumption things will be stated that can come across uncouth at best or outright offensive and harmful at worst. ARG is no different in this regard.
At times in the leaked ARG documents there’s a sense of naivety when it comes to farmers and the rural working class more generally. Also, the same groups are treated with a not unnoticeable level of condescension. This isn’t remotely new in Irish politics. Still, you’d hope we’d be past this, especially coming from a mooted political party that’s filled with young and clearly very committed activists.
It’s made very clear in the documents that the party needs to be radical “in order to seem like a real alternative and seem more worthwhile than Labour, the Soc Dems and the Greens”. On the other hand, there’s a concern about being viewed as “too woke”.
Although the party obviously wants to win votes, its concern around “wokeness” will see others on the left treat it with disdain. Green politics in Ireland has already seen more than enough cynicism thanks to Ryan and his acolytes. We don’t need a repeat of this.
Instead, the party should lean into what it sees as something to potentially be concerned about. Voters want honesty and they want change. ARG shouldn’t treat them — and especially the working class — as stupid or uninformed.
People of my generation and the one that followed are those who have felt the brunt of successive economic crises. And our generations will also be the ones dealing with the worst of environmental collapse. If tackling this means being seen as “too woke” by a portion of the electorate and the media, so what?
Regardless, with the Greens betraying their principles ARG will offer many on the centre-left a viable alternative. They have something to offer and are committed to seeing it through. So, let’s see what happens next.