- EGC
delegate 1985 - 1986, 1987 - 1989
- first UK Green elected to European Parliament
The Ecology Party (originally founded in 1973 as “People”) owes its change of name in 1985 to the influence of mainland European politics. In this particular case it was because of the German Greens, “Die Grunen”. “Green” was a word short enough to appear in headlines and less scientific than “ecology”: positive coverage of the rise of the German Greens as a new, less formal and visually imaginative party, meant that the word now had a political currency which could be separated on mainland Britain from the “green” of the Irish republican cause. For many Party members it also carried a strong feminist and social dimension which we felt our own Party did not reflect strongly enough.
As Europe’s oldest national ecological party, we have found election at the national level more difficult than most, due largely to our majoritarian electoral system based on single-member constituencies. It was therefore very important to us to be seen to be linked to sister parties which had people elected and to use that to demonstrate we were part of a new political force, which was worth voting for.
Hosting the international Green Congress in Dover in ‘85 was a major event for us. The media loved the photos of knitting Irishmen; Petra Kelly and our own Jonathon Porritt (now Chair of the British Government’s Sustainability Commission) were featured on the front page of a national paper; we heard about the work of the Swedes, Belgians, French etc. It was an amazing occasion which I think helped all Green parties to really believe they were part of something much bigger than their national political scene.
We tried to learn from the experiments of others, for example: rotation was nice in principle but likely to be ineffective in practice. Ensuring the selection of women in electable positions was crucial in helping to change the face of politics. Do we really think there would be so many women in Parliament now if the Greens had not introduced “zipped” lists? We introduced Party Speakers, rather than leaders and we experimented with Co-Chairs.
Developing common campaigns and platforms proved more problematic. I became responsible for pulling together a 1985-1986 peace campaign entitled “From 2 Blocs to One World”. This was probably because the mother-tongue English speakers usually got pulled into any enterprise involving texts!
The 2 Blocs campaign was to illustrate that a new Europe and a new world was possible, without the enormous military expenditure involved. We agreed to publish a poster, an accompanying leaflet and a booklet of essays from different Green parties about their policies and vision. In a rare creative flash, I sketched out a poster of two icebergs littered with weapons melting under a sunflower sun (a common Green symbol). It was turned into real art by UK Green, Alec Ponton and printed. The leaflet text was agreed upon but my Party could not ( or would not!) find the £100 to get copies printed in English. The essays duly arrived after much arm-twisting and they were typed up in a common format ready for printing (I have them still!) but the money was not found for that.
We did an imaginative launch: Per Gahrton and I (as a woman available on a Monday morning!) went to the embassies of the USA and the USSR to discuss disarmament while our colleagues stood outside with copies of the posters and 2 large pillars of ice.
But the campaign had missed its time: perestroika was under way and disarmament was in process of agreement. The Chernobyl nuclear power station virtually melting down also meant that there was another serious campaign to engage in and where the Greens were to be seen as highly relevant and necessary.
Personally, I am convinced that my time spent with the Greens at an international level has been extremely important in helping me to understand that there is no monopoly on Green thinking and behaviour in any one party.
P.S. I also learnt one thing of great practical use: never be the last one in the restaurant when a large group is paying individually unless you are rich enough to pay for the bits other people forget they ever ordered or shared!
