I am blogging from the Green Party Conference main hall. The Party has just decided not to go ahead with a ballot of all members for the post of External Comms Co-ordinator, a post for which I had wished to stand.
I am not willing to participate in a sham of democracy. So I am not now going to stand. I wanted to campaign before all members, not the the small fraction who can come to Conference. I am deeply saddened that my effort to become involved more in the national party through subjecting myself for democratic internal election has been stymied, because this Party has not as yet been willing to come out clearly FOR internal democracy.
There is one chance left for the Party to prove that we still care deeply about the democratic culture of our Party. One way left for us to give ALL members a chance to vote. One remaining way in which Party members at Conference - for others now do not have a voice - can resolve this situation. It is this: Jason Kitcat and I are urging any Party members at Conference who read this post to support democracy: Please vote Re-Open Noms (RON) for External Comms co-ordinator, to force a postal vote of all members. (If RON wins the election here at Conference, then Jason and I WILL go ahead and stand in a ballot of all members for this post.)
I have long been an active supporter of Medialens ( http://www.medialens.org/ ). Like many others, I have supported them with money, time, tips, and I have been proud to have done so. For they have done very important groundbreaking work over the years challenging the inanities and distortions of the 'mainstream' media. They have for example written important critiques of mainstream media coverage of dangerous climate change, of Iraq Body Count, of the corporate nature of most of our media, and much more besides. They have held the corporate media to account time and again. They ought to be saluted for all of that. It is therefore with a sense of deep regret (as well as of some foreboding) that I have finally to write to address the ways in which, lately, some of the wheels seem to be coming off their wagon. An early warning sign perhaps was their long-running spat with George Monbiot, over the Rwandan genocide and the terrible atr...
Comments
When less than 100 people have the power to cut 97% of our 9,000 members out of choosing who runs our media and communications, things need to change!