Fw: [diggers350] Voting Green?

Thu Mar 11 21:02:36 GMT 2010

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Bangs" <dave.bangs at virgin.net>
To: <diggers350 at yahoogroups.com>; "Andrew Pratt" <andyprattt at hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 2:11 AM
Subject: Re: [diggers350] Voting Green?


> There are lots of other options as well as voting Green. Respect is 
> standing in a number of seats and has a strong chance in at least two of 
> them. Their positions on green issues are good, and make far more robust 
> links between the anti-capitalist struggle and the green struggle. TUSC 
> (The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) are also standing in up to 60 
> constituences and have good and robust green positions and strong links 
> with the RMT and some other militant unions. They are standing in Brighton 
> in my constituency neighbouring the one that Caroline Lucas is standing 
> in. Additionally, in a few places there are excellent surviving 
> ecosocialist Labour Party candidates, such as John McDonnell, who has been 
> so outstanding in his opposition to the expansion of Heathrow...and folk 
> like Jeremy Corbyn, of course.
>
> The issue is not even that simple in Caroline Lucas's constituency, becos 
> the Labour candidate, Nancy Platt, is on the left and is robustly 
> pro-trade union.She is supported by the RMT. I would, despite that, vote 
> for Caroline if I was in that place, but it is not a cut-and-dried 
> decision, becos Caroline's politics are not clearly socialist, despite her 
> calling herself one, at least recently. The local Greens did not support 
> us in our long struggle against council housing privatisation (except in a 
> half-hearted way, just before the ballot) and the green cllrs (except for 
> one) took a decidedly un-green position recently (in a vote on the council 
> budget) vis a vis building on the South Downs adjacent to the new National 
> Park .
>
> Don't make the mistake of flopping from a position of abstention from all 
> bourgeois democratic electoral processes to one of voting carte blanche 
> for an option which takes up the green agenda, but without making a clear 
> link between those struggles and struggles against capitalism. Climate 
> change and the mass extinction event we are going through cannot be 
> addressed without the most drastic anti-capitalist re-organisation of 
> society.
>
> "Vote as left as you can", as Bob Crow (the RMT Gen Sec) said at our rally 
> yesterday to kick off our local TUSC election campaign...
>
> Dave Bangs
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Andrew Pratt" <andyprattt at hotmail.com>
> To: <diggers350 at yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 8:17 PM
> Subject: [diggers350] Voting Green?
>
>
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>> I would ask people alienated from the main political parties to consider 
>> voting Green.  Yes they are not perfect but I think in a different 
>> dimension from the rest and about the only radical Diggeresque choice at 
>> the polls this time.  We urgently need proportional representation in the 
>> UK to improve democracy but even under the current system we might get a 
>> Green MP in Brighton (etc) which would be a big step forward.
>> I used to believe  that I was too radical to vote.   But I don't think we 
>> have very long to address the key issues of environmental and social 
>> change.  I think we should use all the tools  we can, including voting 
>> for the options that are best/least negative
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>> With thanks
>>
>> Andrew Pratt
>> 07980 602088
>>
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>> To: diggers350 at yahoogroups.com
>> From: crisscross at evendine.eclipse.co.uk
>> Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 12:03:27 +0000
>> Subject: [diggers350] Landless Peasants Party
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>>      I admit to not having come across this before....but
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>> A political party in the current travesty of representation seems an 
>> inapropriate route. It strikes me that it might be more sensible to 
>> somehow mobilise the 40% of people who don't vote, more than ever do vote 
>> for any of the parties who then dominate everything without a twinge of 
>> conscience, (I am hoping it might go above 50% this time) towards a 
>> citizens constitution. But until someone works out a non-violent way of 
>> getting the rich to give up their wealth and power, even that is a waste 
>> of time.
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>> ------------------------------------
>>
>> Diggers350 - an e-mail discussion/information-share list for campaigners 
>> and members of THE LAND IS OURS landrights network based in the UK 
>> http://www.tlio.org.uk
>>
>> The list was originally concerned with the 350th anniversary of The 
>> Diggers (& still is concerned with their history). The Diggers appeared 
>> at the end of the English Civil war with a noble mission to make the 
>> earth 'a common treasury for all'. In the spring of 1999 there were 
>> celebrations to remember the Diggers vision and their contribution.
>>
>> TASH FROM THE HILL
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWk9rRJsk5I
>>
>> You can find out more about the Diggers and see illustrations at: 
>> http://www.bilderberg.org/land/
>>
>> Brendan Boal from the Climate Camp would like me to remind you that 
>> Bilderberg.org is my private web site and as such is not officially part 
>> of The Land Is Ours.
>> And neither is this web site: 
>> http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memos.htmlYahoo! Groups Links
>>
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