Why the Green Party doesn’t need a leader
by Irene Willis
At a time when our planet is dying, the Green Party yet again is debating the leadership issue. If I believed that having a leader would in any way stop the suffering of people as our world collapses or help the Greens, I would cease to have this stance.
Surely leaders are part of a system that disempowers people and should not one of our main aims be to change this and help people to believe in themselves? I have no problem selling the idea of not having a leader to the public. We have to be vigilant as the lazy media will invent a leader for us, as they have done in the past to our detriment. When the media do it to me locally, this enables me to write a letter stating our principles of no leader, which is of course unique. It is said journalists will contact us more. I think this is a red herring. Journalists will contact us more when we have more power such as an MP in Westminster.
The leadership disaster reveals itself best throughout the conference season. There is little news about policies or future plans, just about the in-fighting to achieve the most powerful position in the party. Then there is the big conference speech. The leader, and also the Party, can sink or swim on this high profile occasion. Do we want this media hype in the Greens? Think of the demise of Ian Duncan Smith. I am so proud when our elected members sit with their respective local parties. We do not have a top table on a stage with people to worship and adore. In debates everyone has equal weight and time.
Look at the structure of the Green Party - we still maintain independent parties and do not have a whipping system. The proposals give this so-called leader no power. We therefore have a mix of independent, non-whippable parties being led by someone with no power, surely opening us to ridicule. Bear in mind also that the media loves building up politicians and then revealing a “devastating” story about them. Have we anybody squeaky clean enough to withstand this?
At the moment we are a small party with few activists and, as so few posts are contested, we do not develop the qualities that a leader needs. I feel that if we change our philosophical basis, we will destroy the essence of what we have left after the upheaval of the Green 2000 changes in the early 1990s.
How much of our fundamental beliefs and vision of this better world do we lose on our way to achieving (eventually) a Green government? The journey is as important as the goal and we should be constantly assessing how much we are prepared to lose otherwise we become the same as the rest. This change, if and when it comes about, will be of no importance to anyone except us Greens. The Labour Party ditched their principles to get elected and many ex-Labourites are joining us. Where I wonder will our activists go?
PRO LEADER - read Darren Johnson's case
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