To Green conference, where the party is thrashing out its policy platform ahead of next year’s general election. All too often in British politics, the smaller parties are distracted and held back by internal rows and feuds. So Mr S was intrigued to hear how the Greens would walk the delicate line between broadening the party’s appeal and retaining their tradition of internal party democracy.
Upon entering the Brighton Centre, one of the first leaflets thrust in Steerpike’s direction expressed concern about the lack of ethnic minority representation within the party. Kefentse Dennis, one of the candidates for the party executive earlier this year, has previously accused the Greens of being ‘institutionally racist’. That came after the leadership of the party’s subgroup ‘Greens of Colour’ last year admitted it ‘was divided on whether’ the Green party is ‘institutionally racist. One side felt that this is obviously evident within the structure and process of the party, but others saw no evidence.’
Given all of this, Mr S felt duty bound to ask Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay in an interview what his response was to the allegations made by certain members in his party. Did he reject the idea that the Greens are ‘institutionally racist’? He replied thus:
Yes, er, I mean, like all organisations we strive to continually improve the work we do on equality and diversity. And that has to be an ongoing piece of work for any organisation, no one should be complacent about that. But, um, you know, we work with Greens of Colour, with Green party women, with Disability Greens, with all of the different groups we have that represent the different protected characteristics and different members’ groups in the party to promote policies that make sure we are accounting for the needs of different sectors of society and working to make the Green party as representative of society as it can be.
Will this afternoon’s ‘Greens of Colour’ speech see any further drama on this front? Steerpike looks forward to finding out…
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