Green Empowerment Campaign fringes

CONFERENCE FRINGES

Green Empowerment Campaign fringes

Thursday 13 Sept, 19:00 to 19:50
'What do you think of the Leaders Debate so far?'
Facilitated by Sarah Farrow, Chair of Green Left and Ceri Galloway
An opportunity for delegates to share their feelings about the leader debate
and the implications for the Party. This will take the form of a "listening
circle" in which all participants will be given the opportunity to speak in
turn.

Friday 14 Sept, 13:20 to 14:10
'We need more leaders, not fewer'
Speakers: Jenny Jones, Member of the London Assembly and former Deputy Mayor
of London, Derek Wall, Green Party Principal Speaker
Plus Guest Speaker
A discussion of the dangers of top-down leadership and personality politics,
and the need for wider empowerment within the Green Party and society at
large.

Saturday 15 Sept, 18:00 to 18:50
'A different way of doing politics'
Speakers: Jonathan Dixon, Green Party Councillor in Scarborough and Romayne
Phoenix, Green Party Councillor in Lewisham
Disillusionment with conventional politics is at an all-time high. The Green
Party needs to find new ways to appeal to those people who most wish to see
fundamental change in our society, yet who are also usually the ones with
least confidence in a conventional political approach.

Plenary Debate

Sunday 16 Sept, 10:00 to 11:40
Debate and discussion on the proposal for a Green Party Leader
To include nominated speakers for/against, speeches from the floor and
'table talk'

CONFERENCE STALL

If you can offer an hour or two to help with the stall, please see Joseph
Healy, Ceri Galloway at Conference, or anyone on the stall

CONCERNS ABOUT ESCALATION OF THE 'ARMS RACE' BETWEEN THE TWO CAMPAIGNS

There is growing concern amongst members that the campaigns for and against
a leader are using increasing amounts of time, effort and resources that
could be put to better use. Particular concerns are over the money spent and
the fact that this debate is increasingly spilling out into the public
domain.

I can only make a few brief comments for now as I rush to get to Conference,
and obviously I can't speak for Green Yes, the campaign FOR the leader
motion.

Money: So far we have run the campaign on a shoestring - and our expected
expenditure will be a fraction of the £8000 spending cap set by SOC for the
two campaigns. We were completely opposed to a high spending cap and
unnecessary waste of members' money. However, we have spent money on things
we can't provide ourselves. So far this is mainly leaflets, conference
materials and video production.

Media: As said in the a previous email, we have always been in favour of
keeping the debate mainly internal - however, we have felt in necessary in
recent weeks to do 'reactive' and 'defensive' media work as Green Yes has
clearly been doing this proactively.

Conduct of the debate: However, the two campaigns have now agreed a
'protocol' on conduct of the debate and this gives some hope that we can
avoid a greater rift and damage to the Party (see below).


Note on LEADER REFERENDUM DEBATE public opportunities

External Comms and the two campaigns would like to advise
speakers taking public opportunities to

(i) emphasise that we are as a party wanting to look
forward to greater progress and development of the party

(ii) show that we are having a MATURE debate about the
nature of leadership in our movement

(iii) ON JOINT PLATFORMS, SPEAKERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CONFER (AND FOR MEDIA,
REHEARSE) BEFOREHAND TO IDENTIFY POINTS OF CONSTRUCTIVE AGREEMENT THAT THEY
CAN RALLY AROUND.

The two campaigns agree that public debate be conducted in
a mutually respectful manner and will do their best to
ensure their speakers do justice to our Party's good
reputation.

Additionally:

This approach should extend to public forums such as Facebook

We want to see the internal debate similarly positive, constructive and
good natured.

We will as campaigns avoid aggressive/threatening/abusive behaviour at
conference


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