I’m a Green Party member. I am going to be up front when I talk about this.
I think Your Party is a waste of time. With Reform on the rise and Labour clearly wanting to be their lapdog. The left needs to unify. And before someone plays another clip of The Life of Brian. I do think it was unwise for the 3 Scottish Greens Councillors to have defected.
With the election of Zack Polanski. It is starting to feel like the Green Party has momentum. Its membership numbers have increased far beyond what I expected. And there is a considerable lack of infighting. It is feeling like a unified front. Especially when the previous infighting that had happened, was about transphobia that was in the party. Something which seems to have mostly sorted itself out . And we went into detail within our Green Party Election Special so I will let that episode do the talking.
But we all can easily say inside of Your Party, this problem is clearly an ongoing issue. And will continue to ripple through, even after their first conference. Not because they might not adopt policies which are trans friendly. But because of how deeply embedded transphobia is inside the party’s leadership that could then undermine it.
Lets take Adnan Hussain for example. Now the party’s Nominating officer according to the electoral commission. That is a senior position. He has a strong influence in the party. And in a tweet he said that trans women aren’t women. He then advocated for a “Third space” or segregation.
To me that is transphobia. And encouraging those who are transphobic that they might have a bridgehead inside the party. Adnan is no Ally.
But it does not end there. because in the Welsh branch of Your Party. A new notable leader inside of that party who is important in the formation of that group is Mark Serwotka. A person whose wife is a key founding member of anti trans group Woman’s Place. An organisation which directs large amounts of vitriol towards trans people. Now her husband is someone Zarah Sultanah called a comrade. Mark hasn’t exactly been one to denounce his wife’s org. Which would indicate he doesn’t disagree with her either.
And for Zarah, someone who was such an “Ally” towards us. All I see is her allying with people who want to undermine our rights and our existence. So when she goes out and says “trans rights are human rights” And that she “Won’t let anyone, whoever they are, get in the way of this fight”. It seems highly hypocritical.
Calling Mark a comrade doesn’t look like she is practicing what she is preaching and clearly indicates that her stance and feelings seem to be performative. And makes me feel very distrustful of her. And whenever we look at Your Party’s communications. They always avoid clearly talking about LGBT+ people whatsoever.
When we reached out to them about their policies on trans rights. All they said was:
“There are deliberations on a number of policy issues taking place at local regional assemblies before the founding conference members is held in Liverpool end of November”
They clearly avoid the question and show they have nothing. Even when pressed.
And despite having good policies already announced about Gaza and other socialist policies. One glaring omission is trans and LGBT rights. And any talk of it is relegated to debating about it in their conference. As they want it to be something up for debate.
I’m sick and tired of debating about my existence. And if a party needs to even think about whether or not they want to let me go to the toilet. Then that party is wasting any LGBT+ member’s time and is leading them on.
So when the Scottish Greens voted against working with them. It leaves me with very little surprise. The notable reasons they disaffiliated from the England and Wales Greens was because of their handling of transphobia and notably their handling of Sharar Ali.
So when the people who defected left in a huff. It’s perplexing as to why they were so surprised that the Scottish greens voted against Your Party. The Party is of little substance and leaves us with no reason to trust them when the makeup of their party clearly signals that they would be incompatible with Green values.
And on the note of their substance. They don’t have a lot of policies. And for Scotland, Your Party still hasn’t decided their stance on Scottish independence either… Another thing for their conference… So the new councillors don’t have anything concrete to even promise on if they can even deliver independence inside of Your Party.
So whilst those councillors are willing to compromise on trans rights with those who are fine to undermine it. And whilst they are looking to “Shape that policy”. It is already formed and shaped inside of the Greens.
The Scottish Greens and the Green Party of England and Wales seem to be looking at forging closer ties. Because unlike your Party, when they were called on to deal with transphobia inside the party. The England and Wales Green Party addressed it. And that’s a party that is making good use of the limited time we have in fighting Reform.
The Greens are getting shit done. Your Party is not.
