“Green Left?” I thought. “What does that mean?”

“Green Left?” I thought. “What does that mean?”

Maybe the term had been used before, but I had never heard it — and it just seemed wrong to me. Either it was redundant (you can’t be left without being green, and vice versa) or it meant adapting socialist principles to the ecology movement, most of which seemed pretty flaky to me. The name broke with hallowed tradition — it didn’t include any proper Leninist newspaper words, like Militant or Vanguard or Worker or Socialist. It was awkward to say — it just sounded silly.

I’m glad to say that my doubts were misplaced. The new name reflected a real shift on the Australian left, a convergence of revolutionary Marxists and a leftward-moving current in the green movement.

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