Relations With The Green Movement
Respect co-initiator George Monbiot, a left-wing writer and activist, left the project before its launch, because Respect intended to stand members of its party against existing Green Party members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Respect had offered to form a pact with the Green Party standing on joint lists in the European elections, but this was rejected by the Greens.
For the 2004 European Parliament election, an attempt was made by Respect to present a joint slate with the Green Party as articulated in a letter by then Respect councillor Michael Lavalette in the Guardian (5 May 2005). However, the response from Green Party politician Prof John Whitelegg (Guardian, 6 May 2004) claims that this would not have been legally possible as electoral law does not allow for joint slates. The Greens also said that they had selected their candidates months previously by postal ballot, and were sceptical of the SWP influence.
In a newspaper interview Hugo Charlton, Green party chair, said that he had "always argued for some sort of understanding with them, not least because we are both 'fellow travellers' on the left"; however he also noted that "any agreement at a local level, in the Green spirit of devolution, is up to local parties, but a formal, national alliance is out of the question".
After the 2005 results, Peter Cranie, the Greens' election co-ordinator called for further discussion about how to further build the left of Labour vote, but did not advocate forming a Green-Respect alliance.
During the European elections in 2009 many Respect members supported a vote for the Green lists, especially in the north of England. This included prominent Respect supporter Salma Yaqoob.
During the 2010 General Election the Green Party stood down in favour of Respect candidates in Birmingham Sparkbrook and Manchester, Blackley and Broughton indicating the beginning of a tentative cooperation.
Read more about this topic: Respect Party
Famous quotes containing the words relations with the, relations with, relations, green and/or movement:
“I only desire sincere relations with the worthiest of my acquaintance, that they may give me an opportunity once in a year to speak the truth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Major [William] McKinley visited me. He is on a stumping tour.... I criticized the bloody-shirt course of the canvass. It seems to me to be bad “politics,” and of no use.... It is a stale issue. An increasing number of people are interested in good relations with the South.... Two ways are open to succeed in the South: 1. A division of the white voters. 2. Education of the ignorant. Bloody-shirt utterances prevent division.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“It is commonplace that a problem stated is well on its way to solution, for statement of the nature of a problem signifies that the underlying quality is being transformed into determinate distinctions of terms and relations or has become an object of articulate thought.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“they stand so still
in the thunder air, all strangers to one another
as the green grass glows upwards, strangers in the garden.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“You watched and you saw what happened and in the accumulation of episodes you saw the pattern: Daddy ruled the roost, called the shots, made the money, made the decisions, so you signed up on his side, and fifteen years later when the women’s movement came along with its incendiary manifestos telling you to avoid marriage and motherhood, it was as if somebody put a match to a pile of dry kindling.”
—Anne Taylor Fleming (20th century)