====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ======================================================================
Nick wrote "To conclude, the Greens today represent much of the leftist end of the social democratic oriented electorate, and in that much of the more educated and skilled sectors of the working class, as well as much of the more progressive sectors of the middle classes. They are a partial alternative to the Labor party, towards which Marxists should adopt a careful, nuanced, united front approach." I don't disagree with Nick here. His article was thoughtful and thought provoking. But for me the reality of the Greens is what I see here around me in Qld and Nick was much too dismissive of my last post on the Greens with a somewhat cavalier remark about it being based on a specific Qld formation or something to that effect. For me the reality of the Greens was captured by Alan Bradley's post on how there would be a major split if Leftists turned up in the Greens en masse. That is an honest remark and from my observation it is a very true one, but Nick is silent on the meaning of it. Lest Nick is tempted to inv9oke Queensland's exceptionality again, I would suggest the history of the Nuclear Disarmament Party is also relevant here. The wiki on it says "In April 1985, Vallentine, Garrett and Melzer, along with 30 other members, walked out of the national conference in Melbourne and resigned from the NDP, claiming that the party had been taken over<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entryism>by the Socialist Workers Party<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Socialist_Perspective>(SWP), a Trotskyist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trotskyist> group.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Disarmament_Party#cite_note-0> [2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Disarmament_Party#cite_note-1>[3]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Disarmament_Party#cite_note-2>In the wake of the split, Vallentine became an independent 'senator for nuclear disarmament' and went on to be re-elected as a "Vallentine Peace Group" candidate in the double dissolution<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_dissolution> election of 1987 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_federal_election,_1987>." Garrett has since morphed into an effectual Labor Party minister. But the Greens remain I suspect ever on the alert against the influence of Marxism. That is for me at least why they will never be anything other than a"partial alternative" to Labor. Having said that of course yes we must work in a united front with them, but the reality is that it is more likely to be the Greens than the Left that reject such a possibility. In addition the experience of the Greens in Germany and in Ireland should be a salutary reminder to not get our hopes up too high for Bob Brown and his merry Green band. comradely Gary ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
