The radical alternative to Labour – Social justice, human rights and ecological sustainability.
Gay and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has joined the Green Party today, Wednesday 7 April 2004.
“The Greens are the only party that integrates policies for social justice and human rights with policies for protecting the environment and sustaining life on earth”, said Mr Tatchell.
“They offer the most credible left alternative to Labour’s pro-war, pro-big business and pro-US policies.
“Greens put the common good before corporate greed, and the public interest before private profit.
“The Green Party has a proven record of success, with candidates elected in the London, Scottish, local and European elections.
“The Green Party’s Manifesto for a Sustainable Society (www.greenparty.org) incorporates all the key socialist values. It rejects privatisation, free market economics and globalisation; embodying a strong commitment to public ownership, worker’s rights, economic democracy, progressive taxation, and the redistribution of wealth and power.
“Only the Greens are serious about tackling the dangers of catastrophic environmental pollution, resource depletion and species extinction. They alone have succeeded in integrating policies for social justice and human rights with policies to preserve life on this planet”, said Mr Tatchell
Background
During the 1980s, Peter Tatchell was a co-organiser of the Green & Socialist Conferences, which promoted red-green dialogue and convergence.
For three decades he has written and campaigned on green issues, with essays on ecological sustainability in Into The Twenty-First Century (Green Print, 1989), and on red-green alliances in Getting There – Steps To A Green Society (Green Print, 1990).
Peter resigned from the Labour Party in 2000, after 22 years membership, in protest at Labour’s abandonment of socialism and internal party democracy.
He was Labour’s candidate in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election – widely regarded as the dirtiest and most violent election campaign in Britain.
In 2000 he stood as an “independent green left” candidate in the London Assembly elections.