Greens are at the vanguard of a new global politics
19 February 2008
The Green Party Spring Conference at Reading hosted an international panel of guests at the weekend, with speakers from Venezuela, Nigeria and Palestine gathered with UK Green activists to discuss international human and environmental rights and the fight for global social justice.
Samuel Moncada, the Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the UK, discussed several aspects of Venezuelan policy that have sought to repair the ecological and social devastation caused by two decades of IMF and World Bank imposed economic liberalisation.
"Participatory politics was crucial to the promotion of basic rights, to let the people decide for themselves how to run their lives. International solidarity of natural resources, a democratised UN and World Bank and a sustained growth in public expenditure - in health, education, public transport - all are crucial in achieving real democracy."
Mr Moncada told how one of the first acts of the new Chavez administration was to re-write the constitution of Venezuela to promote environmental rights, the right to breathe clean air, to enjoy living in the city and drinking clean water. "These rights were previously denied ordinary citizens," he said told conference, "but the Chavez administration has linked environmental rights with human rights as the basis of national policy." He went on to explain how the Government is under constant pressure from multinational corporations, and mentioned that the Government had rejected the pressure to press ahead with GM crops. "We have forbidden it because it is unnatural to profit from humanity."
The Ambassador continued, "Green politics is the politics of human rights, of peace, of freedom, of sustainability and of democracy."
The next speaker was Dr Abdullah, resident of Abu Dis, a Palestinian West Bank village that has been cut off from Jerusalem by the Israeli 'apartheid' wall. He spoke passionately about how the wall, combined with several military checkpoints per mile, has "turned many Palestinian towns into prisons,with the keys held by the Israeli Defence Force who decides who comes and goes."
Dr. Abdullah spoke about how Israel has taken 800 million cubic litres of water from Palestinian rivers, giving each Israeli 2400 litres a year for drinking and bathing, and leaving each Palestinian citizen with just 50 litres.
He went on to contradict the established bias of Israel under constant attack by Palestinian militants. In comparison with attacks on Israeli settlements, Israeli attacks on Palestine has increased exponentially in the past few years, the majority of which goes totally unreported.
Dr. Abdullah ended by making an impassioned plea - "We hope we are not alone in our struggle - with your help, I know we will win our freedom."
Last of the international speakers was Patrick Okonmah, a human rights lawyer from Nigeria. He told Conference about the conflicting roles Nigerian Government agencies play within the oil industry.
He talked about the human and environmental rights abuses committed by the oil companies - Shell in particular - but then made it plain that the Nigerian Government were as complicit in Shell's actions as the oil company.
After a law signed by the the Government in the 70s, Nigeria is now owns a 80% share in Shell actions in Nigeria. This mean that the country is obliged invest 80% in any venture that Shell embarks upon. With this closeness and cooperation between Government and business, it is difficult for any Nigerian to make a civil complaint against the environmental degradation.
Mr. Okonmah told how, because of laws to prevent such happening, so few law cases ever actually made it to court, as the executive and judiciary are so entwined with the oil companies.
He finished by appealing for greater clarity in defining human rights abuses in Nigeria. "Everyone knows when something is polluted, when the environment is dirty. It's when the Government crosses the line with tanks and guns to quell social uprisings that the problems and abuses become crystalised."
The Green Party delegate to the inaugural global Green conference on May 1st Dr. Richard Lawson and Green Principal Speaker Dr. Derek Wall rounded the session up by talking about the new kind of politics emerging from the global social movements. Dr Wall said
"All around the world, new Green parties are emerging. From India to Albania, people are realising that when the earth dies, so humanity dies with it. The new political philosophy of combining socialism and individualism is creating new ways to define the world, and it is this new philosophy that will preserve the environment and everything that depends on it. We are at the vanguard of a new global politics, the Green politics.
