The importance of a green left.

• Author: Hill, Forrest
• Position: Thinking Politically - Essay

The formation of the Greens for Democracy and Independence (GDI) was a reaction to what many members perceived as the hijacking of the 2004 National Convention by conservative forces within the Green Party. This concern was held by many Greens who felt the National Coordinating Committee (NC) had betrayed the trust of the party by developing a voting system that led to the nomination of a presidential candidate supported by a minority of Green Party members.

The growth of GDI has been fueled by the desire to ensure that what happened in 2004 is not repeated. To correct the problems of the past, GDI has put forth a series of proposals aimed at improving internal democracy and ensuring the Green Parties' independence from the two corporate parties.

The need for a green left in America

Green politics will not work without a left critique of capitalism, both in terms of its dependence on the perpetual destruction of the natural resource base and its exploitation of workers. Moving to a sustainable economy necessarily requires a radical shift away from a growth economy, and all that entails, to a steady state economy where the aggregate throughput of natural recourses is within the limits of the ecosystem.

Our economy has grown so large that its demands are overwhelming our planet's ability to generate resources and absorb waste. If you consider that our economy grows at about 3% per year, then it is predicted to double in size every 23 years, to grow 16 times in size in 100 years, 250 times in size in 200 years, and 4,000 times in size in 300 years. If history is any guide, competition for resources to fuel such exponential growth will accelerate hostilities between capitalist nations, leading to bloody wars that could threaten the very existence of humanity in this nuclear age.

Obviously, the path of economic progress must shift away from quantitative expansion (growth) to qualitative improvements (sustainable development). Such a path is only possible in an economic system that strives for a fair distribution of economic and natural resources for this and future generations.

In order to facilitate this critique and put it into action, GDI should:

* Develop a written analysis of the economic conditions that are destroying our ecosystem and the causes for the increasingly radical division between the haves and have-nots, both domestically and internationally.

* Get serious about developing systems of internal membership education, so that we...