Money, capitalists, climate change and religion

This is from the BBC: "The two most senior figures in the Church of England have condemned the behaviour of City traders, and questioned their value to society." and comes as I have just watched Dubya showing us that he hasn't a clue what is going on or what to do. Hardly surprising from someone whose whole ideology is based on competition rather than coorperation. Anyway he wants to spend $700bn bailing out the banks in the US rather than canceling foreign debt.

Meanwhile it seems Kent Police wasted £6 million on obstructing the peaceful protest at Kingsnorth last month. I'd ask what planet they are on, but of course it is the same one that our 'Business As Usual' politicians are trying to drown.

Fellow Green, Geoff Meaden from Canterbury was on the telly this week demonstrating which bits of Kent will drown as climate change accelerates.

These rather depressing messages are hard to swallow in one go, but the future can be so much better. There is absolutely no need for a boom and bust capitalist economy, there is no justification for wasting taxpayers money on disrupting peaceful protests and Kent doesn't need to sink beneath the waves if decisive action is taken now.

Music!

Went to a Day for Heroes yesterday... a fund raising event for soldiers injured in Iraq / Afganistan. Cheryl Baker was the main compare and said a couple of times that she didn't want to talk about the politics of war but that the charity was a good one and deserved support.

While not talking about the politics of war there were videos of injured soldiers and how they need rehabilitation, hence the need to raise money. This seems to be quite a political statement, i.e. the government isn't caring for our troups so lets raise some cash...

Trying to keep politics out of the day was a bit pointless. My daughter had a Peace One Day wristband on and was asked about it by someone in the queue. There were plenty of army stalls trying to recruit people while on the stage videos of soldiers with limbs missing were played. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking it wasn't a great advert for recruitment.

The music wasn't for me although Legend (Bob Marley tribute band) were excellent. My daughter seemed to like McFly...

Anyway my friend Rob sent me a link to this great song:

In town without my car - difficult without alternatives

Recent press release from Maidstone Green Party on Maidstone Goes Green Week: "In Town Without My Car"

Maidstone Green Party have called for positive action by Kent County County to back up Maidstone's green transport week. The Greens said that most people who attempt to travel without their car in Maidstone will quickly learn how difficult it is with the current infrastructure. They suggest that with very few facilities for cyclists and poor levels of public transport, trying to get individuals to change their behaviour will not work.

The Greens are calling for investment in alternatives to encourage people out of their cars, including a massive expansion in the cycle network; a blanket 20mph speed limit in Maidstone; significant investment in public transport; pedestrianisation of the High St and across the gyratory system to Hart St; abandoning the All Saints link road and Leeds/ Langley bypass allowing savings to be invested in cycling and public transport; the creation of a bus station at Maidstone East; and the creation of more local jobs, services and shops.

Stuart Jeffery, Green Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Maidstone and the Weald: "We cannot expect people to change the way they travel without providing them with the means to do so. The councillors and MPs are to blame for the high levels of traffic in Maidstone, not individuals. Many of those taking part in the week will find out just how hard it is to live without a car in Maidstone.

"With deaths on Maidstone's roads having doubled last year and around one million car journey each week in the town, it is clear that Maidstone needs both safe and sustainable transport. Reducing car travel must be supported by proper infrastructure through a massive expansion in cycling facilities, public transport, plus making jobs, services and shops local. People can't leave their cars at home unless politicians make it possible for them to do so.

KM letter on hypocrisy

Letter in this week's Kent Messenger:

Dear Editor,

In last weeks letters page, former LibDem council leader Mick Stevens stated that the public no longer trust politicians, citing conflicting conservative opinion on migrant workers (KM 12 Sep). However in the same week, the Lib Dems were berating the Tories for abandoning election promises for a park and ride in south Maidstone, while being responsible for closing the nearby South Park park and ride just last year.

It also seems that the Tories want to plough the money into road building in Maidstone, putting the All Saints Link Road and Leeds / Langley Bypass back on track rather than supporting people to leave their cars at home. Building more roads at the expense of public transport is contradictory to trying to encourage people to be 'In Town Without Your Car'.

Perhaps hypocrisy is another reason that the public have stopped trusting politicians? Fortunately we still have some excellent role models such as those fantastic year 5 pupils from East Borough!

--
Stuart Jeffery
Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Maidstone and the Weald

Progress on Ethical Investments at Kent County County

The Superannuation Fund Committee of Kent County Council met last week with part of the agenda to update their statement of investment principles. Greens across the country have been lobbying for ethical investments by councils with varying degrees of success. In Kent we have exposed KCCs investments in arms, tobacco, oil and companies supporting Mugabe. Kent CC's branch of Unison passed a resolution calling for adoption of the UN Principles of Responsible Investment by the committee and an end to the arms investments.

A report went to the committee which showed that there was pressure from a variety of sources:

It seems to be an appropriate time for us to update our position on ESG issues in light of a number of general factors including:
(1) The Merseyside Pension Fund has decided to ballot scheme members on whether to invest in armaments companies.
(2) For the last few years we have provided information to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) which has been published as part of a national survey.
(3) There has been recent local press coverage of “investments in Zimbabwe”, this actually refers to stocks we hold in companies which as part of their business activities undertake business in Zimbabwe such as Toyota. [n.b this was Kent Green Party highlighting this]
(4) CAFOD an agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales contacted us in May in connection with concerns about the mining sector.
(5) The Kent Green Party have been in touch with the Kent Public Health Director on investment in tobacco companies.

And this was the Unison motion:

Ethical Investment - The Arms Trade

This Branch notes the resolution passed at UNISON’s national delegate conference in 2007 calling for an end to investment by local authority pension funds in the arms trade.

This Branch is aware that Kent County Council’s Superannuation Fund Committee currently has a very weak policy regarding ethical investment, and particularly does not prohibit its Fund Managers from investment in companies that are known to produce and export weapons and / or instruments of torture.

The Branch notes that KCC’s Superannuation Fund, along with those of scores of other local authorities, invests in BAE Systems, the UK’s largest arms company, which supplies weaponry to countries including Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe.

Investment by the Superannuation Fund in the arms trade means that our members’ money is used to fund unscrupulous international arms dealers to the ultimate benefit of oppressive regimes.

Accordingly, this Branch will campaign at every opportunity for the Superannuation Fund Committee to:

Recognise the UN principles of ethical investment.
Monitor and report investments made in its name in manufacturers and traders in weapons and related products.
Withdraw from or prohibit the Fund’s investment in any organisation which (upon investigation) is identified as carrying out such sales and production.

This Branch will also develop a detailed policy on socially responsible and ethical investment, and seek to apply this policy to the Superannuation Fund through its representation on the Fund Committee.

In the face of this they have decided to adopt the UNs principles - which which is definitely progress! I can't see that we will stop campaigning until at least the arms investments are withdrawn, but for now we can say a small victory has been had, thanks to the united position with Unison, CAAT and CAFOD .

Its just a lurch to the right...

Fantastic piece by Cruella on the Tories going lap dancing, the photo from the Daily Mail is particularly enlightening! As the economy crumbles, we will know where to find the Tories...

Meanhile, the LibDems seem to be trying to position themselves to the right of the LibDems with their latest tax promises. Their new health tax will give tax breaks to the rich while punishing the poor - regressive taxation. They reiterated their support for PFI yesterday too!

Vince Cable, the oil man, seems to be pushing their tax plans which are clear attempts to win votes at the expense of policy substance.

Kent on Sunday

Two pieces in the Kent on Sunday today. Firstly a news item on an emergency motion passed by the Green Party conference last week for an investigation into the policing at Kingsnorth. Hazel Dawe gets the credit for organising the motion. Secondly a letter from me on the Maidstone Goes Green:

Dear Editor,

Putting the blame and guilt on individuals for using their cars is what I expect from the Tories and LibDems mentioned in your article on Maidstone Goes Green Week (KOS 7th Sept).

Encouraging people to travel to work without using their car is a worthy goal but KCC have repeated failed to invest in alternatives to car based travel. The implementation of the traffic management system in Maidstone has coincided with a doubling of road fatalities, the bus services in Maidstone are infrequent enough to be non-existent and the tiny number of cycle lanes simply don't work.

How can people be expected to do 'do the right thing' during Maidstone Goes Green week, when Kent County Council refuses to invest in the changes needed to support people?

Individual changes are vitally important to tackling climate change and the rising cost of living but local and national government must ensure policies and infrastructure are in place to make these changes possible.

Stuart Jeffery
Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Maidstone and the Weald

Fairtrade in Maidstone

Gave a speech on Fairtrade at the Peace One Day festival in Maidstone yesterday (in my role as chair of the local Fairtrade sterring committee). About 500 young people in Watman Park, 6 hours of bands a few speeches and stalls, and great weather, made for a great afternoon. I was only there for an hour but Poppy went for the whole afternoon and enjoyed it (it was organsed by the Maidstone Youth Forum and aimed at the under 18s which I can no longer claim to be in).

The Fairtrade group will also be at the Mela in Mote Park today. We do our biggest stall of the year, Fairtrade chocolate fountain, coffee, petition collecting etc.

The speech went down quite well so I thought I'd publish it:

Tshirts for a quid
Sweat shops
savers tea and coffee
people trying to live on one dollar a day
children having to work 14 hour days
all in the name of free trade
all in the name of globalisation
all to bring the west t shirts for a quid and cheap tea and coffee

are you happy with this? Would you be happy to work for a pittance, not even enough to live on?
In the name of free trade and globalised markets?

Peace one Day is about Global Unity, and goes beyond the ceasefire of violent conflict and building a world where we can respect each other.

and Respect is key. We do not gain respect unless we give respect. Continuing to drive down the price of goods and food we buy from developing countries does not earn us this respect. We have seen the immense power of the multinational corporations, organisations driven by the need to maximise profits and the effect that they have on people.

Fairtrade says different. Fairtrade says "lets pay producers a fair price for their products". Fairtrade means that growers get more for their produce than through FREE MARKETS. Their good are sold in a fair market.

The fairtrade label means that both small farmers and workers on farms and in factories get a fair pay for their work. It also ensure that factories meet health and safety standards, minimum environmental standards and allow workers to join unions.

Currently, more than 1300 retail and catering products from coffee to wine carry the FAIRTRADE Mark in the UK. Retail sales of Fairtrade certified products are increasing by over 40% each year. Most importantly five million people farmers, workers and their families now benefit from Fairtrade.

My message today is when you see the fairtrade mark, buy fairtrade. When you go into a shop and don't see the mark, ask if they have got any fairtrade products.

This is consumer power! Embarrass them! Ask them why the don't stock fairly traded goods!

The only way to change the system is to make a noise!

The only way to stop the exploitation of the developing world is to make a noise and insist on Fairtrade. Let's earn the respect of these people, lets pay them a fair price for a fair day's work.

Brown restores power to energy companies

Brown's deal with energy companies to roll out energy efficiency to home owners could be cost neutral for them and the government, but not for consumers. Brown has ruled out the ideas of a windfall tax to support struggling people, that would be far too, er... socialist? Surely a windfall tax is the way to pay for this otherwise excellent scheme (as championed by Green councillor Andy Cooper in Kirklees no less).

Perhaps this is a way of balancing the hegemony after it was upset by the Kingsnorth decree this week. The Kingsnorth Six were found not guilty of criminal damage as they had just cause: saving the world for our children's future. Clearly Golden Brown was worried by this appalling affront on big business and has handed them a new money making scheme which allows them to pass even higher bills on the the working classes.

In an equally right lurching move, it looks like the LibDems are vowing to decrease taxes. Personally I'd like to decrease taxation, but only on the poorer people in society and balancing this with more taxation for the rich and for big business.

Direct Action history in Maidstone

Non-violent direct action on climate change history was made in Maidstone yesterday with the acquittal of the Kingsnorth Six. Other green direct action has had similar grounds of lawful excuse to be found not guilty of criminal damage, but these seem to be against GM crops, arms and nuclear.

I hope Gordon Brown is worried. I think the question is what next? Al Gore couldn't understand why young people weren't besieging coal power stations across the world and I share this sentiment. Having just finished Mark Lynas's Six Degrees - a truly scary and well researched book detailing likely scenarios for each one degree rise in global average temperature - I suspect that young people would riot if they really new what trouble we were storing up for them over the next 40 years.

I don't want people to act out of fear, but the alternative to business as usual is so good that we have possibly the biggest carrots and sticks temping us all to go off in a green direction and yet the media and popular culture are wedded to stopping it.

Things are changing though. Even in the last few months noticable changes have happened. Yesterday I was at Maidstone West station and saw that the number of bicycles chained up has double in the last year. There are far more people cycling round town and people seem to be cutting back on consumption generally (just look at the recent fall in oil prices as consumption has dropped).

Let us hope that society is ready for a change of direction!

Nationalising money creation

Hopefully tomorrow I shall be proposing a motion at Green Party conference. The motion is radical and controversial, it amends our detailed Manifesto for a Sustainable Society. It has had two hefty challenges to get through so far at conference and seems to have passed the test. As long as conference doesn't run out of time it will be discussed in full in a plenary tomorrow afternoon.

It is not perfect (no motion or policy ever is), and given the discussions of the weekend so far I have some great ideas on how to improve it.

This conferences notes with concern the recent developments of financial crises involving the 'credit crunch' due to accumulating debts and the exclusive dependence on debt to maintain output and employment within the economy.

This situation arises from the undue influence that the creation of such debt places on the banking and financial sector. This conference further notes that the amount of money created by the state has now reduced to around 3% of Sterling M4, and that this proportion has fallen from around 40% in the immediate post-war years. A return to the proportions of state seignorage prevailing in that period would be a means of reducing the dependency upon debt to maintain economic activity.

Delete and replace EC662 with:

EC662 The current banking system enables commercial banks and financial institutions to exert an unacceptably large influence on the economy as a whole due to their virtual monopoly on money creation. These commercial banking institutions work to a purely commercial agenda in which the desirability of making loans is assessed only in terms of its financial viability to the lenders. The proportion of state seignorage will be increased to 40% to bring it in line with post-war years enabling a greater ability to diret money as required in EC661 and to give greater financial stability to the economy.

------------------

EC661 The emphasis in monetary policy will be to control and redirect the creation of money towards socially and environmentally sound areas of the economy, and away from unsustainable and consumption-driven areas.

EC662 The current banking system enables commercial banks and financial institutions to exert an unacceptably large influence on the economy as a whole. These commercial banking institutions work to a purely commercial agenda in which the desirability of making loans is assessed only in terms of its financial viability to the lenders.

EC663 The banking system should be largely brought under democratic control, preferably at a local level. This will allow the process to work in the best interests of the community as a whole, rather than principally in the interests of commercial banks and their shareholders.

EC664 The Bank of England will continue to be the institution for the regulation of the national currency and the setting of base interest rates. However, it will not focus on narrow economic indicators such as the rate of inflation, but instead will take a broader view on the impact of its decisions on the economy as a whole. Final decisions on the setting of base interest rates will be made by a democratically accountable committee made up of representatives selected from the different regions of the country.

EC665 In order to help bring about the democratisation of the banking system, and in pursuit of our policies to support the growth of local economies, a network of local Community Banks will be established. These will be democratically accountable non-profit-making trusts, which will be able to provide low-cost finance both at district and regional levels. Any operating surplus arising from these Community Banks will be reinvested in their local communities. Community Banks will be empowered to create credit in the same way that commercial banks currently do, and will be given favourable conditions for doing so by the central bank. They will also be able to create their own local currencies, to operate alongside the national currency, where this is supported by the local community.

EC666 In order to bring about a more socially equitable society, it is important that poorer citizens have access to affordable credit, which can give them an opportunity to increase their basic living standards. Alongside Community Banks, measures to help facilitate this will include the promotion and support of credit unions and micro-credit schemes in which small groups of people cooperate to provide guaranteed small loans to each other.

Landmark day at Green Party Conference

On Friday Caroline Lucas and Adrian Ramsay were elected the first leader and deputy leaders of the Green Party. Yesterday Caroline gave one of the most rousing speeches that I have ever heard.

She told the conference: "Just three companies - BP, Centrica and Shell - together made £1,000 profit every second over the first six months of this year.

"These corporations are robbing from the poor to give to the rich and they know it. And it's about time they learned that, in a progressive democracy, there is no place for robber barons."

Gratuitous photo of Caroline and me:

There are still a few people in the party who don't like leaders, but I have never been more certain that The Green Party has done the right thing electing Caroline and Adrian.

Caroline's speech came straight after a panel session on the Green New Deal with Ann Pettifor, Colin Hines, Jeremy Leggett and Tony Juniper. Amazingly inspirational, the deal calls for nationalisation of money creation (currently in the hands of banks) and the rapid creation of a green industry to reduce our carbon dependency.

Keeping people warm, reducing their fuel bills, providing jobs and stabalising the economy are just a few of the many positive outcomes suggested by the GND.

Kent MEP to lead the Green Party

At 8pm at the Green Party Conference at SOAS, Caroline was elected the first leader of the Green Party. The ballot was unequivocal with Caroline getting 90% of the vote.

I was in the audience and watched the announcement happen (history in making???). Certainly Caroline has an excellent chance of being the first Green MP at the next general election.

Just listening to Caroline on Radio 4 and it is great to hear her talk about the need for a windfall tax on energy companies to support people who are struggling and to hear her talk of the current 'Victorian levels of inequality' that needs to be tackled.

Also great to watch was the discussion with Ken Livingstone, clearly a nice guy but he hasn't got his head around Green politics!

Green Party Conference start today

In the next hour I shall be off to possibly the most exciting GP conference we have had. This evening at 8pm our first leader and deputy leader (hopefully Caroline and Adrian) will be announced. We already punch above our weight in the media and this bold step, that has had a few vocal opponents, should help us get the message across even more:

BUSINESS AS USUAL CANNOT CONTINUE!

The right wing politics of our three major parties has continued to widen the poverty gap. Food and fuel prices are sky rocketing hitting the poor and middle income families the hardest while the rich get richer.

We need social justice.
We need community values.
We need an effective government.
We need a sustainable future.

We need Green politics and we need Green leadership.

Conference and Kingsnorth Six

Tomorrow sees the start of the Green Party conference in London. I love these conferences anyway, but this one should be especially exciting as tomorrow the party elects its first leader.

We also have a panel with Ken Livingstone, a showing of the Age of Stupid, a fringe with Peter Tatchell, a blogging fringe with JimJay, and a host of policy to discuss. It is open to members and visitors so I'd encourage everyone to make an effort to get there.

I will also try to follow the Kingsnorth Six on trial here in Maidstone too. Yesterday my friend Geoff Meaden gave evidence for the defence followed by James Hansen. The trial's defence is based around reasonable cause for the direct action against Kingsnorth and could be ground breaking progress if Greenpeace win. I think Al Gore is on record as saying that he can't understand why the young people are not all marching in the streets and blockading coal powerstation for the destruction of their future.

Green politics has never been more necessary.

Kingsnorth Six on trial in Maidstone

Maidstone seems to be turning into a hotspot for progressive politics and exciting issues. Last month was the new NO2ID group, Kent's first under 18s LGBT night tonight, Palestinian rights campaigners a few doors up from me, and yesterday the Kingsnorth six went on trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

The Greenpeace direct action team painted GORDON on the chimney at Kingsnorth power station (the words BIN IT were to follow) last year and they are being prosecuted for criminal damage. The defence is that it was to protect lives, a worthy defence. There are some high profile defence witnesses lined up for the trial.

The trial stated yesterday and Greenpeace are blogging on its progress and local Greens will be visiting the trial over the next two weeks. Good luck Greenpeace!

The trial could make legal history and be a welcome boost for non-violent direct action.

Non-violent direct action is so much more exciting than non-vilent direct mail!