Green Left is an association of Green Party members which started in June 2006 when 36 Green Party members agreed its launch statement (the Headcorn Declaration), as Sarah Farrow GL co-convenor said then: "Activists in the Green Party have founded Green Left because many Greens believe the only path to an ecological, economically and socially just and peaceful society has to be based on an anti-capitalist political agenda." As well as the Headcorn Declaration Green left supports the ECOSOCIALIST MANIFESTO.
Green Left is not a part of the Green party of England and Wales, it is not funded by GPEW and does not stand candidates in governmental elections in its own right.
To find our more about the Green party and the aims of Green left, please follow the links below:
Green left holds public meetings at appproximately monthly intervals. Minutes of our AGM are on the meetings page. Video Clips from the Green Left summer event 16/8/08 at Headcorn,'Greening Latin America', Thursday 4th September 2008,and the Manchester meeting on the Recession and Welfare rights (25/1/2009) are posted on the blog.
Next Steering Committee meeting April 7th 2009 6.30 pm , Royal festival Hall (level 3 above nelson Mandela statue), South Bank, London SE1 (nr Waterloo station).
It has been agreed by GL meetings for several months that GL should become a subscription based organisation, but the implementation of this has been postponed mainly by delays imposed by our bank in allowing GL to open a bank account. One reason for becoming subscription based is that we have minimal funds and are dependant on members donations for income. We don´t ask for or get any money from the Green Party because we are not subsection of it, but an organisation of GP members who wish to influence all its policies in a certain direction and it follows, that GL has some disagreements with some parts of existing GP policies and/or their emphasis relative to one another. If we were party funded our independence in this respect could be compromised.
The decision to initiate GL subscriptions is also influenced by a degree of mystification as to why some people who have joined the GL mailing lists did so. This is especially so since some of the statements of principles that GL supports are now easily publicly accessible on this website,. If someone holds the perfectly respectable belief that Green politics has in some way totally superceded older left/right political divisions and that there is therefore no need for GL, then surely a GL list is not the place to argue this.
So it is hoped that a subscription might give slightly more political coherence to GL membership as well as providing a modest income for things like a banner and some leaflets and maybe even the little enamel badges that the more ambitious GL steering committee members dream about.
The simplest way to start this off is with a single rate subscription of £5 p.a to cover 1/10/2008 to 1/10/2009, naturally additional donations from those who can afford them would be welcomed. Existing memberships will continue until 1/10/2008.
If you wish to join GL send a cheque for £5 (or more) made out to 'Green Left' to:
Peter Murry (Acting GL Treasurer)
18a Oxgate Gardens
London NW2 6EB
Please also complete and send the following with your cheque
NAME
Address
GREEN PARTY MEMBERSHIP (name of Party)
PHONE/s
On receipt of your subscription the Treasurer will send you an email confirming your membership.
HEADCORN DECLARATION