Jennifer Smith, 27 January 2019, Tags:
I became involved in the Green Party because it is the only party that truly has the protection of our environment at the very core of its being. Equally, I believe that as an organisation, it is primed for creating the necessary environmental, social, and political change required for the 21st century.
Ultimately, this is because at the heart, there is a dedicated and innovative membership who are responsible for driving through the ideas and views that form the backbone of the Party’s Policies and Campaigns. There is no point, however, in having this groundswell of ideas if we can’t make it count and we need a political mechanism to make this happen.
The Green Party have recognised that they need to be more politically adept to help force through the changes that we want and they recently announced a Holistic Review of their structure, which was recently passed by the membership.
It aims to allow the Party to operate more effectively in a fast moving, digitalised, political environment, whilst still respecting true member democracy. In particular there has been a recognition that internal structures were too complicated and that there was often confusion about who had the final say. Additionally, it was felt that decisions were simply taking too long to make, and there have been a thrust of the changes to rationalise the number of councils and committees.
The main body behind policy generation will still be the Members at the Party Conference; a compulsory annual conference held in the Autumn, and variable options for the Spring Conference.
Underpinning this, will be a Council consisting of 45 members, including representatives from all the regions, young greens, affiliated groups, elected councillors, and directly elected members. The role of the Council will be to make strategic decisions on policy and campaigns between conferences. The group will meet a minimum of 4 times a year. Importantly regular two-way communication with the wider membership is proposed via on-line forums, Q&A’s as well as minutes of meetings.
There will also be a Political Executive who will meet on a weekly basis to make relevant political decisions; this will consist of our MP’s, MEP’s (depending on our position in Europe), Leaders and Deputy Leaders, representatives from affiliated groups and four directly elected members.
Please see attached link for more info.
https://my.greenparty.org.uk/sites/my.greenparty.org.uk/files/HRReportAsAmendedFully.pdf
Is this the right move? I think so, and whilst nothing is perfect, I believe this strikes the right balance between members retaining their influence, whilst also allowing the party to create the change we all need.
Please support us and if you haven’t already please join us.
https://join.greenparty.org.uk/
