After a long break due to work commitments, see my e-interview with John Barry of the Green Party, over at Irish Left Review.
3 comments:
LeftAtTheCross
said...
Good interview. Sounds like an ineresting guy, and hopefully he and his like will gain ground in the Green Party after it is massacred in the next general election down here in the south, and move the party back to its radical roots and away from FF/PD economic orthodoxy.
As ever though, when looking Green-wards from a Left perspective, it does all seem so terribly middle-class and right-on. If the future really is to be eco-socialist I fear there's still a lot of ground to be made up, by both sides admittedly, before the ideologies can co-exist harmoniously and morph into something which can win over the masses.
In thje meantime I'll have to keep an eye on his blog...
Thanks Lefty - and I remember similar discussions about class politics in the Green Party in England in the 1980s. Of course, those with very little will suffer the most as food and fuel prices rise - they can't afford to insulate their homes properly or install solar panels (or even a bike).
Being a Labour person, I wish the Greens well and would be happy to be in a coalition with them up here, e.g. in the new councils. And in the 1980s, several of the most socialist people I knew were in the Greens not Labour.
Just to follow up, I had a look at John Barry's contribution to a TASC forum a few months back (http://vimeo.com/7146738). Maybe his talk was geared towards his audience but there's plenty of sense in what he says and not much that people on the Left would disagree with, although as with most things the devil is in the detail rather than the broad strokes. He doesn't seem to be listed as a speaker at the GP conference this weekend unfortunately (http://convention.greenparty.ie/?page_id=50).
3 comments:
Good interview. Sounds like an ineresting guy, and hopefully he and his like will gain ground in the Green Party after it is massacred in the next general election down here in the south, and move the party back to its radical roots and away from FF/PD economic orthodoxy.
As ever though, when looking Green-wards from a Left perspective, it does all seem so terribly middle-class and right-on. If the future really is to be eco-socialist I fear there's still a lot of ground to be made up, by both sides admittedly, before the ideologies can co-exist harmoniously and morph into something which can win over the masses.
In thje meantime I'll have to keep an eye on his blog...
Thanks Lefty - and I remember similar discussions about class politics in the Green Party in England in the 1980s. Of course, those with very little will suffer the most as food and fuel prices rise - they can't afford to insulate their homes properly or install solar panels (or even a bike).
Being a Labour person, I wish the Greens well and would be happy to be in a coalition with them up here, e.g. in the new councils. And in the 1980s, several of the most socialist people I knew were in the Greens not Labour.
Just to follow up, I had a look at John Barry's contribution to a TASC forum a few months back (http://vimeo.com/7146738). Maybe his talk was geared towards his audience but there's plenty of sense in what he says and not much that people on the Left would disagree with, although as with most things the devil is in the detail rather than the broad strokes. He doesn't seem to be listed as a speaker at the GP conference this weekend unfortunately (http://convention.greenparty.ie/?page_id=50).
Post a Comment