On Sunday 27th September Caroline gave a speech to he Green Party autumn conference.
The full speech is below:
In 10 weeks’ time, the world’s leaders will gather in Paris for the next round of international climate talks.
We’re at a crossroads: climate change is accelerating,
the daily lives of millions are already being devastated by the
consequences, and time is running out.
And we are under no illusions. For more than 20 years,
governments have been meeting at global conferences to talk endlessly
about the crisis, yet greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise.
For those of us who remember Copenhagen and Kyoto, Lima
and Nairobi, it’s easy to be cynical. World leaders jet in. They fail to
do a deal – then either pretend they’ve saved the world, or break down
in bitter recriminations.
What will be different this time? Well, it being Paris,
I’m sure the champagne will be properly chilled and the canapés second
to none. But the fear is that once again our leaders will put their own,
short-term political interests above those of their citizens.
Once again, the main winners will be the corporations and their lobbyists. The stakes are high and the obstacles even higher.
We know that global corporations and governments will not
easily give up the profits they reap through the extraction of coal,
gas and oil reserves. The brilliant 350.org tell us that just 90
companies are responsible for two-thirds of recorded greenhouse gas
emissions worldwide.
Genuine responses to climate change threaten corporate
power and wealth, threaten free market ideology, threaten the structures
and subsidies that support and underwrite them. But resistance is
fertile. And Paris is as much a beginning as it is an end.
Because in 10 weeks’ time, Paris will also be home to the
world’s largest non-violent direct action civil disobedience. It will
be home to a mass mobilisation from global movements that aim to leave
political leaders no other choice than to change everything.
Conference, the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out
of stone. It ended because we had a vision of something we thought was
better.
And so in and after Paris, we will be articulating a
vision of a fairer, more compassionate world, where energy is in
people’s hands, not the hands of corporations, and powered by the sun,
the wind and the waves. And sending a message, loud and clear, as we do
from our own conference here today, that we need to leave fossil fuels
in the ground.
That the era of fossil fuels must end.
That change also requires a transformation in the way we do politics.
The future we want for our children is not going to be
created through the politics of the past. When everything has changed so
much, and the threats we face as a society and a planet are so deep and
complex, we need a new kind of political life.
From Obama’s first election, to the Arab Spring, from
Spain to Greece, from Scotland to the Green surge, and now Corbynism –
politics is increasingly defined by waves of energy that swell up –
seemingly from nowhere – and coalesce around people, parties and
decisions.
These waves are not, sadly, the monopoly of those who
believe in a better world. The future can also be more brutish and
authoritarian, if we let it.
But by being open to doing politics differently, we can
ensure the future is about change made by and for people, in places and
ways that make sense for them.
Of course, we need an effective state to intervene on
many issues such as the regulation of global financial markets. But more
than anything, the politics of the future must be about the creation of
platforms, spaces and spheres in which people can collectively change
the world – from workplace democracy and self-management, to civic
engagement and generating our own community renewable energy.
But these efforts will be fatally undermined if the
neoliberal deregulating zeal of the Tories remains the dominant force in
British politics.
Slashing public services; stamping out trade union
rights; and environmental vandalism on an epic scale – ripping up energy
efficiency measures, privatising the Green Investment Bank, and taking a
wrecking ball to what was once our thriving solar industry.
Conference, we say enough. We are working for something better.
And Conference, being in a position to actually deliver
that vision of something better is what, I believe, makes it so
imperative that we see a realignment of progressive votes to maximise
electoral impact.
Finding and cooperating with others with whom we share a belief in a much more equal, democratic and sustainable world.
Of course we will have differences. But we also know that
no one individual, no one party, has a monopoly on wisdom. Cancelling
out each other's votes is bad enough, but fighting in essentially the
same terrain for the same issues and fundamentally the same belief set
is madness, when it simply lets the Tories in.
We share a commitment to a much more equal, democratic
and sustainable world. It is beholden on us to find a way to make the
desirable feasible. In a world as complex and rich as ours, we need an
equally complex and rich political response. To create a different mood,
culture and sentiment to our national politics – one where we see that
our differences can become a source, not of division, but of strength.
Conference, the truth is, we need a progressive Labour
Party – if that's what Jeremy Corbyn transforms it to be – to do well.
Because, like you and me, it’s part of the movement for change.
Progressives are spread about the political battlefield –
often more intent on fighting each other – and not the real enemy. But
things are changing fast. Old tribal loyalties, that are blind to the
good in others, are dying away. We can – we must – respond to that
change.
And conference, I’m about to say something a bit controversial!
Who has been one of the most effective advocates of human
rights in Parliament? Conservative MP David Davies. Who has pushed the
case tirelessly for a reformed voting system? UKIP MP Douglas Carswell.
If we can make common cause, on a case by case basis,
even with those with whom we most profoundly disagree on most issues,
then why not with those with whom we have so much in common, in other
progressive parties?
There is here a simple truth. We are stronger when we work together.
We know this in our own lives, as families, communities,
amongst our friends and in our workplaces. This is one of the inspiring
principles of the co-operative movement, of the trade union movement.
And I believe it should guide us as a political movement –
strong and self-confident in ourselves, but also ready to reach out to
work with others. With 1.1 million votes we Greens have a vital place
in shaping that future, and a distinctive responsibility to the politics
of people and the environment, over the politics of individualism and
greed.
We don’t have forever to get this right, and I don’t say
it will be easy. But Conference, if we’re serious about the urgency of
our task, I believe we have no other option.
As in politics, so in Europe. The same underlying principle that we are stronger when we work together.
That doesn’t mean closing our eyes to what is wrong with
the European Union. Too much power is in the hands of the elites. Too
little democracy and accountability. Ordinary people feeling closed out
from its decisions.
But the same can be said about our own British Parliament. Concentration of power, corruption, remoteness.
Our response to that is not to say, ‘let’s do without Parliament’. It’s to say we must reform it.
The same can be said of the United Nations. But would the
world be better off if there were no international institutions to try –
yes, failing much of the time, but still trying – to solve the world’s
problems?
From the climate crisis to the refugee crisis, from air
pollution to workers rights, consumer protection to hazardous waste, we
face so many challenges that can only be tackled at a European level.
We need institutions where we can meet as Europeans and
try and resolve these issues. And as with the realignment of progressive
politics, we have a duty to engage, and to recognise that much for
which the EU is criticised is the responsibility of the individual
member states.
Greece is, in the main part, suffering because of the intransigence of free-market national governments.
TTIP – the deeply damaging Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership - is simply an extension of the free-market logic
that pervades all trade relationships negotiated by right-wing
governments like our own, and others across Europe.
The way we can free Europe from the forces of
globalisation and elitism is not by walking away, but by fighting at the
ballot box at general elections in every member state.
As Greens we are committed to the principle of EU
existence, to working internationally on the shared issues we face, and
to making Europe better from within.
If we want the kind of future we believe is possible,
then we need to harness the amazing energy, passion and skills that can
be found throughout our party.
Our members have always been the life-blood of our
organisation. Democracy, participation and giving people a voice is at
the very core of our identity.
And at a time when other political parties are looking to
us, to try and rediscover radical ideas such as a party conference that
is there to make policy, not look good on TV, it seems right to take
some ideas from them in return.
One of these is how we can best nurture our talent,
including bringing on the next generation of Green MPs: potential
leaders and opinion formers who have the judgement, commitment and a
propensity for the incredible hard work that it takes to get elected
under our first past the post system.
We will be asking an awful lot from them in the years to come. We must do everything we can for them in return.
That’s why, today, I am proud to announce the launch of Generation Green – a new programme to nurture talent within our party.
It will start by giving five of our election candidates
the kinds of training and preparation that their rivals in the other
political parties have always accessed. It’s part of a vision to make
our party stronger from the grassroots up; to amplify the voices setting
out why we are distinct. Leading by example. The party of the future.
