Great Britain | Eco-left populism as a goal

There's agreement on at least one point: not Labour. Many left-wing voters are outraged by the austerity measures imposed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, appalled by his harsh rhetoric on migrants, and disillusioned by the weakening of climate policy. Under his leadership, Labour has moved so far to the right that a growing segment of the progressive electorate can no longer imagine voting for the nominally social democratic party.

However, there is disagreement about which alternative is best. Should a new national party be founded? Or would it be better to start at the local level, as the Liverpool Community Independents are doing? Or should one first engage in grassroots work, engaging in social movements? Some point to another possibility: the Green Party.

The party achieved a minor breakthrough in the July 2024 elections. The Green Party of England and Wales (the Greens in Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate parties) won over 1.8 million votes, more than double the number it won in 2019. While the British first-past-the-post voting system prevented this from translating into a corresponding number of seats in Parliament, the Greens nevertheless won four seats—three more than previously. They came second behind Labour in 39 of 575 constituencies. Across Great Britain, the Greens received just under seven percent of the vote – four percentage points more than in 2019.

They achieved this success through decidedly progressive demands . In their election manifesto, the Greens promised, among other things, the construction of hundreds of thousands of social housing units, an end to privatization of the state health service, the nationalization of water and energy utilities, tax increases for oil companies and the wealthy, strengthening workers' rights, and massive investments in renewable energies.

The Greens achieved electoral success with decidedly progressive demands.

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With these proposals, the Green Party was able to gain support from a variety of voter groups. For a long time, the party was ridiculed as a bastion of the white middle class—environmentalists with bamboo coffee cups who could afford to vote for a party that would never be in government anyway. But that has changed. In recent years, it has attracted more younger people, particularly university graduates in the larger cities. It has also increasingly won over ethnic minorities and Muslim voters. The latter is particularly due to its clear stance on the war in Gaza: unlike the Labour Party, the Greens were early advocates for a ceasefire and an end to British arms sales to Israel.

But since the elections, things have been rather quiet around the Greens. They have barely managed to intervene in political debates in a high-profile way, their profile remains pale, and their poll numbers have stagnated. This is certainly partly due to the media, which has little interest in the Greens – unlike, for example, Nigel Farage of the right-wing party Reform UK, who is invited to television studios or for interviews at every opportunity. In addition, the Greens have a dual leadership with Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsey, and both are deliberately reserved.

In contrast to Farage, they adhere to the friendly customs of Westminster society; they are well-behaved and shy away from controversy. "Denyer and Ramsay seem like nice people," wrote Joe Todd, organizer and former Labour activist under Jeremy Corbyn, on Novara Media a few months ago. "But that's precisely the problem. People are angry, and they want their politicians to be angry with them." He points to the success of the German Left Party in the federal elections in February; Heidi Reichinnek's "fiery anti-establishment speeches" contributed at least in part to this success. Something like that, he says, is also possible in Great Britain.

This is where Zack Polanski comes in. The 42-year-old deputy leader of the Green Party, who has been a member of the London regional parliament for four years, recently announced that he would run in the upcoming leadership elections in August – he wants to replace Denyer and Ramsay as party leader. His motivation stems precisely from the criticism that many on the left level at his party: it is too lame and too nice. "We need a party that is bolder," he said in the short video in which he announced his candidacy at the beginning of May. He speaks of an "eco-populism" that is directed equally against the climate crisis and social inequality: against big business, the arms companies, and the oil industry – and that makes this clear in an offensive manner. You don't win "by politely continuing with a system that is destroying people's lives," he said in an interview with Open Democracy. Instead, the Greens must "say clearly what we stand for and what we are against – without apology."

For him, eco-populism also means recognizing the reality of life for many people: For those who worry about whether they have enough money for food and heating, the climate crisis is not the highest political priority. He advocates connecting people's concrete problems with the climate crisis, for example, by emphasizing the power of corporations and the influence of the billionaire class.

He emphasizes grassroots work, or grassroots organizing. "People are sometimes obsessed with Westminster," he said. "But winning MPs is the final step in the process. What matters is how you get there, how you engage people." To do this, he says, you also have to talk to people who disagree – including voters from Reform UK. He points to the example of the USA: "Many people who supported [the left-wing Democratic presidential candidate] Bernie Sanders later voted for Donald Trump." These people didn't switch from the left to the right – rather, they saw in Sanders someone who took their problems seriously and spoke passionately. A clear and populist message is therefore crucial to challenge the right and win voters for a progressive alternative.