The result is a crushing defeat for continuity candidates Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay, two of the party’s four MPs, and represents the dissatisfaction from many members over the Green Party’s traditional orientation. While it has positioned itself to the left of Labour on many issues, the party has also tended to position itself as a ‘sensible’ middle-class party, able to make deals with the mainstream pro-capitalist political parties, and work within the confines of the system.
When in power in local government, the Greens have been largely indistinguishable from the other capitalist parties. The party oversaw vicious attacks on refuse workers during their tenure in Brighton & Hove City Council and it is currently implementing cuts in Bristol where it is the largest party, for example.
In Scotland, the Green Party of England and Wales’ sister party, has followed in the footsteps of many Greens in Europe and entered a coalition government with a capitalist party. There, the party joined the SNP government from 2021-2024, which meant helping to oversee austerity north of the border. In addition, the Greens have recently dropped their previously-held opposition to NATO, under the pressures of a world increasingly riven by conflict and imperialist war.
Ultimately, it is this pro-establishment orientation that has meant that despite a huge vacuum in the political situation for a left-wing alternative, they have been unable to become a major political force. Despite some progressive policies, the Green Party is not a clearly left-wing, working-class organisation with roots in struggle, which is so urgently necessary in the current situation.
Greens and the new left party
It is this vacuum which the huge popularity of the announcement of ‘Your Party’ by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana speaks to. The arrival of a mass left political alternative represents a historic shake-up in British politics. This has all taken place in the time that has passed since the beginning of the Greens’ leadership race just a few months ago.
It poses the question: in a world where such a party is in the process of being established, what role does the Green Party play? Even just in terms of numbers, the process developing around Your Party represents a much larger political movement than the Greens, who even after a surge in membership stand on only 68,000 members. Over 800,000 have signed up to be part of Corbyn and Sultana’s party. And this is before the party is even launched.
Clearly, it has the potential to mobilise the support of millions more by taking a clear stance against the hated mainstream parties and the politics they represent. This is why the key task for socialists, anti-war activists, trade unionists and other campaigners remains the building of this force – to make it a mass party, rooted in the struggles of the working class, and with bold socialist policies to take on the capitalist system.
While Zack Polanski’s campaign has emphasised a leftwards rhetorical shift for the Greens, he campaigned on the vague slogan of “Bold. Leadership. Now.” and has proposed little concrete change to the Green Party’s political programme. He has made welcome statements against the genocidal war on Gaza, and in favour of taxing the rich, but has also emphasised that he thinks the main challenge the Green Party faces is in effectively communicating its already existing policy platform. Turning the Greens into a party with genuine roots in working-class organising and struggle is not something Polanski has suggested.
Many activists, including Green Party members looking for radical change, will undoubtedly wonder if an alliance is possible between a new left party and a left-led Green party in the run-up to the next rounds of elections. Of course, we support maximum unity on a principled basis against the billionaire class who are destroying the planet, and their political representatives. But genuine unity can only be political unity.
Any alliance between a mass party of the left and other forces, including the Greens, must be on the basis of clear agreement on a minimum programme which includes opposition to all austerity (including a commitment to refuse to implement cuts in local government), consistent opposition to war and imperialism, racism, oppression, and so on. The basis for this would need to be agreed democratically following a discussion throughout the membership of the new party, and presumably among members of the Green Party as well. This is something which can be discussed in due course.
However, right now, the most urgent task facing all those looking to develop a real working-class challenge to Labour and Reform, is to build “Your Party” and fight to root it in working-class struggle and socialist politics. This is the focus of Socialist Alternative members who are engaging in this process wherever we are organised. All those who want to fight for this approach within the new party should join us and get involved.
