The St. Peters and North Laine by-election campaign has been launched in Brighton. Labour, the Lib Dems and Greens have all selected their candidates. And here commences the scrambling to grab those very few voters that will bother to come out to vote on that day. To be honest, I’ve never much cared for by-elections. These obscure events tend to account for very little, the few voters that will come out to vote will be the same ones who always vote religiously in one way or another. So, I shouldn’t really worry about it. However, real progressives are now faced with a real problem. This problem is the same one that struck a deathblow to the Left in the 20th century – that is, bickering and mindless factionalism. It is a problem that progressives cannot afford to ignore.
The Green Party’s accession to Parliament with the election of their only electable member has to some signalled a positive change in British politics. Some have been lead to believe that this is the creation of some "powerful movement" that will push for Leftist policies hitherto neglected by the Labour and Liberal parties. But this is mistaken. Whilst it is clear that the Greens will never gain enough popular support to enact their own policies themselves, it has been suggested that a progressive coalition between the Greens and the Labour party could be formed through which they could push their eco-agenda. It is unlikely but not impossible, considering recent events.
Sadly, the Greens' actions are quite at odds with this idea. Rather than co-operate with others on the Left, they have sought to “systemically eradicate” Labour from this constituency and at all costs – even at the cost of the Conservative Party taking control of the Brighton and Hove City council in 2007. Likewise their website presents a “How to Convert a Labourite” cookbook for Green activists. Such resentment for others on the Left is also noticeable on Twitter. Liberal and Labour activists were at several points during the general election barraged with tedious insults and jeers from Green party activists. Those with longer memories might detect a certain resonance to the bitter sectarian behaviour of Militant tendency in the 1980s. We have come to see this as par for the course for involvement with the Greens.
What is clear is that the Greens’ opposition is not the Right. It is those on the same page of the political argument (the Left). Their ambition is not at all to contribute to the Labour movement but rather to replace it – and to do that they must first destroy it. Obviously the Greens will never realise that lofty aspiration but that is quite beside the point. This organisation has ludicrous intentions that will have divisive consequences for the Left, thereby condemning the working and middle classes in Brighton and perhaps beyond and elsewhere to a generation of destructive Tory rule.
This by-election is pivotal to both Labour and Green parties – a failure for the Greens will symbolise an incredible slump in support for them here and the emergence of a strong fightback for Brighton Labour. A failure for Labour here will no doubt be disastrous for the working people of Brighton.
We cannot afford another Green councillor.
We cannot afford another Green councillor.
Courtesy of cravenite
