When did I become such a Greeny fuck? (and why you should, too)

For those of you who have me on Facebook, you may, MAY have noticed that in the last 6 months or so, I’ve jumped on my Greens soapbox more than once (conservative estimate). There is reason to the rhyme.

The Greens may not take up this line as their official slogan, but here’s the nuts and bolts of it: Aren’t you sick of this shit? Governments that refuse to properly tax multinational corporations, that refuse to acknowledge evidence when “crafting” policy about the environment, the economy, and social welfare? A government that politicises refugees to the point where they’re being raped in detention and Abbott acts like it’s in inevitability we must accept? Constant foot-in-mouth comments abound, more revealing about values and ideology than mere missteps from the person elected to represent us. I don’t know about you, but I am sufficiently embarrassed.

Aren’t you over an Opposition that essentially rolls over and dies on the grave of our civil liberties at great economic cost, in some weird bipartisan effort against the scary terrorists who apparently can only be caught by metadata? (Hint: they can’t). I seem to be hearing a bit recently about how we have to support Labor if we want any real change in parliament. “Change from within”, etc. Now, Greens, myself included,scoff at this line, because it always seems to apply to Labor when it’s used. That doesn’t mean we oppose the sentiment in a general sense. Sure, change can happen from within. It happens in The Greens all the time. Hell, all our policies are crafted through this very system. But mechanisms need to be in place to allow change to occur. The Greens is founded on grassroots democracy, and in NSW specifically, mechanisms are in place (such as reaching consensus amongst ordinary members) that allow the party to be a place of growth and dynamism.

Sing me this song though: When was the last time that the Left faction of Labor had a huge impact on the party? Beyond some tokenistic bone thrown to keep you on the hook? Foley only just came round to accepting marriage equality after what, like a decade of it happening in so many other developed and developing countries globally, and after over 60% of Australians were revealed to support it. That’s hardly brave, paving the way, or standing up for human rights. And the federal government didn’t even bother passing it before they were ousted in 2013.

If we are to examine the facts, if there has been any “change from within” from Labor, it’s been from the right faction of the party. Adopting a “fuck off, we’re full” asylum seeker policy, continuing NT intervention in indigenous communities that has resulted in more children being taken off their parents than during the Stolen Generations , supporting proven ineffective (and astronomically expensive) data retention laws. On the state level, they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves after ICAC investigations revealed how deeply corruption runs in the party. Convinced that Labor will stop CSG mining and stop the sale of public assets? You only need to look at the recent Queensland election to see Labor’s hypocrisy at its height: campaigning on a platform against building a coal port in The Great Barrier Reef, they’ve turned around a month after election and given the ok to the whole plan. I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust them to stick to their word. Whatever you think Labor was before, they’re not now. Gillard herself admitted that Labor are not a progressive party.  This is absolutely correct. If you consider yourself progressive, Labor does not stand for you.

Some people vote Labor because they think they are the closest they will get to a progressive party that has any power; an unhappy strategy vote. Some voters that I’ve spoken to in the course of the Newtown campaign reluctantly believe that a two-party system is the only future ahead for our democracy. This is only true if you vote like it is; a case of thinking it making it so.

There has been a widespread belief that The Greens is only a protest party. Firstly, I want you to think about why you believe this. Who told you? Which media outlets supply this information, and why might it be in their interests to tell you this? We are often told that we have no vision or alternative to offer. To that I call bullshit. For an uplifting, inspiring spiel about the intricacies of The Greens plan for the future, listen to Senator Scott Ludlam’s Welcome to WA speech here, viewed almost 1 million times. Take a look at our kick-ass fully-costed Transport plan for NSW by 2020, and a $20 billion infrastructure and housing plan. Or just wander over to the ‘policies’ section of the NSW Greens website, and have a browse for yourself. We have a vision, mates. And it’s achievable.

I have been getting steadily more involved in The Greens. Honestly, it’s been so goddamn rewarding to be working within a grassroots structure and having intelligent policy discussion and debate. I really believe that there is potential for the party to make a marked difference in the future of Australian politics. We already have in the past when we’ve held the balance of power in the Senate. And we’ve influenced public debate on things like the environment when a decade ago the major parties wouldn’t touch these issues unless you gave them a bottle of Grange.

So wherever you are in NSW this Saturday, from the Western Suburbs to the Northern Beaches, from Newtown or Balmain to Lismore or Ballina, If you consider yourself a progressive, I ask you to give your vote to the Greens. I know I will be.

Australia: The Apathetic Nation Protests

Growing up in Australia, I always thought we had it pretty good. From hearing the repetitious “the lucky country” slogan throughout school, to a life undisrupted by war, and to what appeared to be an overall contentedness in Australian society, it seemed that the attitude was widely shared. Sure, there was always this politician or that politician that did something outrageous (WorkChoices comes to mind), that would make people change their mind when voting time came around, but on the whole there wasn’t much that could mobilize Australians out of our collective apathy.  It became frustrating as a young adult to see successive governments do little about minimizing our carbon emissions, or change their conservative stance on gay marriage. But while these issues anger myself and many in our generation, the apathetic way in which we grew up made us feel powerless to do anything besides sign a few petitions online. We feel insignificant in the face of massive corporate power, which is all most of us have ever known, so we have collectively shrugged our shoulders, thrown our hands up in the air and said, “what are you gonna do?”

How times have changed in recent months. I, like many other young Australians, was positively crestfallen after the LNP victory in September last year. In fact, the whole election process was disillusioning because of the lack of choice. It seemed that both major parties were in a race to the bottom on morality, pandering to the lowest, racist, homophobic common denominator in Australian society. Egos and the right to rule were prioritized above the good of the public and intensive policy debate. The dreaded Abbott was voted in by a convincing majority. A man who has passed innumerable remarks that reveal him as sexist, racist, homophobic and simply fucking stupid ( i.e disputing the science of climate change), it was actually impossible to prepare myself for how much worse it could get. After the first few weeks following the election, I could no longer bring myself to read the news daily. It was simply depressing, story after story of Abbott landing on the side of corporate interests and corporate greed, on the side of the rich, on sheer human cruelty. I despised what Australia was becoming, and I was happy to high-tail it out of the country on student exchange.

But something strange has been happening in the last month or two. Tempers are rising. Australians are getting fed up. I was blown away to read about the massive turn out of “March in March”, against Abbott and his many policies, which brought out between 10,000-12,000 people in Sydney alone.  I’m glad that it wasn’t organized or supported by the ALP, or even by a single agenda, because the ALP is just as guilty of cruel asylum seeker policies and of pandering to the lowest common denominator, rather than having a political backbone. No, this was a protest of so many things that Australians are fed up about. As it turns out, there are a certain number of atrocious things one can do to stir us out of our apathy. From his government’s disgustingly inhumane treatment of asylum seekers, to his stance on gay marriage, to his disregard for Tasmanian forests, to his self-appointed status as Minister for Women, to his vendetta against the ABC, to his attack on low-income workers, Abbott has proved he is capable of bringing out passion in ordinary Australians that have grown up in a culture of apathy. Fiery, passionate anger, directed at none other than himself. Many of the signs at the March in March rally are simply priceless. From the sobering:

To the poignantly funny:

And to classic, Aussie straightforwardness:

Another sign, simply featuring the word “Noted”, harks back to a recent Abbott backlash, an eloquent yet scathing speech by WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam. Here is the video in all its unadulterated glory if you haven’t yet come across it. In it, Ludlam slams Abbott for the numerous times he has firmly and irresponsibly landed on the side of “predator capitalism” and corporate interests at the expense of ordinary Australians and marginalized groups. He simply thanked Abbott for pushing voters that would have never considered voting Greens to support them, because of the “blundering and technically illiterate assistance of your leadership team”.

I first viewed this video when it was at 80, 000 hits on YouTube. Over the next week I kept a check on the video, and today it stands at a hefty 784,000 views; not bad for a speech given by a Greens member to an almost-empty Senate chamber in WA. Something in this political commentary, or many things in fact, resonated with an Australian audience. Ludlam stood up to the plate and represented those among us who are horrified at Abbott’s cruelty and complete lack of regard for human life, the environment and so much more. Discussing his misdeeds in such detail was proof to ourselves and to others that we are not simply fear-mongering, hippy left-wing nuts, but that we have legitimate reason to be appalled and righteous.

We are in for a long three years, there’s no doubt about it. All of the things that Abbott and his government have done has been in the space of six months, so we can probably expect that things aren’t going to take a turn for the better for some time. But the fact that six months has stirred so much passion for justice inspires hope. As an expatriate my heart is positively swelling with pride right now to be Australian. Finally, I am being represented in a way that is congruent with my values as a left-wing feminist who believes in equal access to healthcare, education; who believes in the fundamental human right to safe haven in our prosperous nation; who believes that renewable energy is the future and protecting our environment is in the best interests of all of us. Australians stirred out of their collective apathy by passionate justice is an Australia I am proud to represent overseas.