Meeting the US Greens

Last Friday, together with Rebecca Johnson, I met Justine Mc Cabe, Co-Chair of the International Committee of the US Green Party, and her husband (photo above). Rebecca and I as members of the international committee welcomed Justine to England, which she was visiting because her son was at university in Cambridge. She and her husband live in the New England state of Connecticut, not far from New York and she often spends time in the city, where she is in regular contact with the New York Greens.

We explained the way that things were conducted at international level in our two parties. Ours, with only 5 members on the international committee, whose responsibilities cover the entire globe, although in reality, mainly deals with Europe, the European Green Party and fellow European Green parties. The US Green Party on the other hand, has technically two representatives on its committee from each of the US states. This could amount to 100 members, but in reality amounts to only about 48, not all of whom are active. They divide up responsibilities on a global level amongst various sub committees - Latin America, Europe, Asia etc. Justine, as Co-Chair of the committee has overall responsibility but her main interests are the Middle East and she is a strenuous campaigner for the rights of the Palestinians, having been living on the West Bank several times. She also explained that the US Greens are also campaigning against the wars in Afghanistan and Libya. Indeed the anti-war movement is an important element of the US Green Party.

We discussed the role of Obama and she explained that many on the Left, including many Green voters and those in the anti-war movement had been initially seduced by his rhetoric but were now deeply disillusioned and ready to vote against him. Bush, she explained, had been a clearly conservative and reactionary president, but Obama was far more dangerous as he spouted liberal rhetoric, while still being the tool of Wall Street and the Pentagon. Indeed I pointed out that the recent Stop the War conference had shown that statistically there had been more drone attacks and more military actions under Obama's presidency than under Bush's.

We spoke about the relationship between the US Greens and the Canadian and Mexican Green parties. The Canadians were seen as somewhat more conservative, especially under the leadership of Elizabeth May, who was far more reluctant to deal with controversial issues around the Middle East than the US party. We also discussed the Global Greens, where Justine was a keen enthusiast and had attended the Global Greens Congress in Brazil in 2008. I explained that I had tabled a motion to our party conference to allow delegates from GPEW to attend the next one in Senegal next year, which Justine strongly approved of. Justine believes, as I do, that the Global Greens need to emerge from under the shadow of the European Greens and become much more of an independent global force, particularly in the global South.

Finally, we agreed that contacts needed to be strengthened between our two parties, especiall over issues such as the Middle East and the wars in North Africa and Central Asia. We parted with an invitation for us to visit New England and New York in the near future and for regular channels of communication to be opened between our two parties. Justine admitted that she had watched broadcasts of Caroline Lucas and was a big fan, and that Caroline was truly representing a radical Green agenda. It was a really refreshing and postive exchange of views and I reported back on it the following day to our own international committee. I am sure that it will be the first of many contacts with the US Greens.