Left-ish environmentalist political party. Ralph Nader ran as its Presidential candidate in 1996. Their "ten key values" are Social Justice, Community-Based Economics, Nonviolence, Decentralisation, Future Focus/Sustainability, Feminism, Personal and Global Responsibility, Respect for Diversity, Grassroots Democracy, and Ecological Wisdom. Part of the ruling coalition in Deutschland.

To the few Americans who still care about politics nowadays, the Green Party is obviously a manifestation of pure evil from the planet Alpha Pinto, and its members on Earth part of a sinister conspiracy to wrest control of the world from its currently leaders for the purpose of establishing a dystopian hell.

Led by the evil Ralph Nader, an alien from the said planet, the Green Party has managed to seize power in Germany and is currently installing their twisted schemes there. The Green Party has many agents working for it, such as Jello Biafra and Gerhard Schröder. It is a certainty that the Green Party, working in the dark, will release its army of insane flying monkeys from the jungles of Brazil and a massive horde of giant killer moose from the flatlands of Canada to catch the United States in a crushing pincer movement, destroying the current leadership and installing Ralph Nader as the new Overlord of Naderland.

The Green Party's expertise in infiltration, espionage and minsinformation should not be underestimated. If not for the concerted actions of the Republican Party and the Liberatarian Party, Ralph Nader would have seized power long ago from the corporate illuminati, who work tirelessly against Nader and his host of beastial cronies. His election to the Presidency in the year 2000 will be disastrous.

That has been a Ford Motors public service annoucement


TWAJS, BTW

Green Party in Germany

The Green Party in Germany is called Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance '90/The Greens). It's part of the current (1998-2002) government coalition, with the vice-chancellor and secretary of state Joschka Fischer as most prominent party member. It has roughly 50.000 members. In the last federal elections, the Greens got 6,7% of the popular vote. Because Germany is using a more or less proportional voting system, that means 48 members in the German Bundestag, out of sixhundred and something.

The Green Party was founded in 1979 as Die Grünen. After the German unification in 1990 it fusioned with the east german citizens movement Alliance '90. It is represented in most communal, regional and state parliaments (Landtagen) and in the federal (Bundestag) and european parliament. There are even some cities with green mayors.

The history of the german Green party is a history of political development. Starting with Petra Kelly as an anti-party party, it nowadays is part of the established party system. In the beginnig there was a strong eco-national faction inside the party, which moved out quickly. In the 80ies, the Greens were seen as a leftist party. In the 90ies, the more pragmatic and "real-politische" faction ("Realos") gained weight and is now dominant.

More information can be found at http://www.gruene.de (german).

The Irish Green Party glories in the bilingual name "Green Party/Comhaontas Glas". The Irish language version of the name actually translates as "Green Alliance", which was the party's name prior to 1987. One of Ireland's youngest parties, they nonetheless have a respectable representation in the National Parliament (6 TDs), and in the European Parliament (2 MEPs).

The party traces its origins back to the Ecology Party of Ireland, formed in 1981 by a Dublin schoolteacher who was active in the Vegetarian Society, the Esperanto movement, and Friends of the Earth. Although the party is much changed from those days, it was still known as the EPI when it defined its core principles:

The EPI changed its name to the Green Alliance/Comhaontas Glas in 1983, and assumed its current name in 1987. Some founding members left as the organisation directed its efforts towards the electoral process, rather than grass roots campaigning. The party won its first Dáil seat in 1989, and have had at least one deputy ever since. Their success in 1994 of having two candidates elected to the European Parliament was a major breakthrough, and both of these MEPs successfully defended their seats in 1999.

The Green Party are certainly going to play a greater role in Irish politics in the future, as environmental and European issues become more important (the Greens being one of the largest groupings in the European Parliament). However at present their support base is not strong outside of middle class areas, and the larger urban areas. In order to achieve their electoral potential, they will need to get their message out into the world of agriculture (organic farmers notwithstanding), and broaden their appeal to the urban working class.


Since I wrote this I've actually become a member of the Green Party. As yet I don't have any reason to revise anything above, but I may add an insider's perspective some time in the future.

As a partial response to CapnSponge, some Finns have given Green League of Finland a nickname "Watermelon Party" i.e. green cover, red inside. Sure, there are some leftwing elements in the party -- they even had a former stalinist as a party leader until recently -- but also some libertarian-minded people have sneaked into the party, especially after the vanguard party of neo-liberalism (the Young Finns) was dissolved.

As an anarchist I think I'm disqualified to say anything about their leftyness but to give some idea what they are all about, here's the headlines from their manifesto:

* A limitless material growth is impossible - towards a solid welfare without taxing nature
* The total employment society has run its course - basic income system as a solution
* Inequality grows - let us build a new solidarity
* Losing grip on power - towards a democratic information society
*Problems exceed the capabilities of a nation state - towards a new kind of international co-operation

We may conclude that they are one of the most federalistic element in the European Union and have some progressive views about new organisation of society, work and state. As a relatively new party it may be easier for them to diverge from the prevailing hegemony because they really haven't stabilized their support on ageing people but on the young who have more radical potentiality.

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