Green Party

With the dawn of a more insistent ecological movement in the 1970’s, a generation saw the havoc the human race had wrought on the planet. Global warming, acid rain and over population were only some of the concerns that those who came of age in the 1970 are had. Groups such as Greenpeace, and the Sierra Club would sweep the world, and curry favor in a number of countries. While there was no question that these organizations were making a difference, they had no representation in the political arena. Never was this more evident then in 1985, with the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland (Greenpeace Album 103). With no legitimate representation on the world level, the environmentally aware soon realized that the next step in the war to protect the environment would have to move to the political level. In Europe, they would be met with success, while in North America, they would have to bide their time.

The Green party is a unique political organization, where the platform is based upon “environment first, development second”. The successful emergence of the Green Party in Germany during the 1980s, made clear the arrival of a "

While no one looked on the Greens as a serious threat, the addition of Nader forced the American public to pay attention. Nader had single-handedly forced the automotive industry to revolutionize their safety procedures, after his reports brought the president of General Motors before a Congressional hearing in the 1970’s. A firebrand who exuded charisma, Nader was a presence that would be felt on the campaign trail. While the 1996 campaign would bring the GPA onto the national stage for the first time, it would be 2000 that would see them make a difference. The GPA learned from their first national campaign, and ran a polished drive in Election 2000. By focusing on issues that mattered to the working-class American voter, the Green Party hoped to gain more of the popular vote. But due to their policies, the GPA was not getting the corporate support their more established counterparts were. Without the blank cheque other parties had to advertise and win over voters, the GPA would be stuck receiving only token coverage in the media, despite the voracious campaign run by Nader and his team. Sadly for Nader, American voters were often unwilling to give him their vote in a close race between Gore and Bush. Green support in many states was negligible, or unchanged from 1996. But in Florida, where the 2000 election would be won or lost, the GPA captured enough popular support to cut into the Democratic vote. Still, many simply saw this as an aberration, a sign that frustrated voters had chosen to, as one commentator put it “throw their vote away”, instead of a real shift towards the GPA. Again, the Green Party would be disregarded as a party that was one dimensional (thanks in part to a campaign by some corporations, to ensure it came across as such), focusing only on the environment.

Come election time, in the US/Canada, voters rarely care if the government has helped ease conditions in a foreign locale, or is preserving endangered flora: The North American voter is most concerned with their own personal situation –by extension, the domestic economy- and whether or not they can put food on the table (perhaps afford to take a family vacation). Until North American voters see the global picture, a virtual two party system will reign in both Canada and the USA. Unaware of conditions outside of their own continent, these constituents will continue to be swayed by economic interests, until conditions become severe enough that a Green government is more palatable.

The Manifesto had attracted attention globally, as the environmental movement was gaining more support. With the advent of Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, the global powers-that-be were put on notice, that their wasteful ways would no longer go unnoticed. But while drastic actions (such as tying themselves to trees) attracted media attention for these new radicals, they had no legitimate representation in the political arena. Especially in Europe, which was undergoing mass industrial growth in the late Cold War, there was no voice for the ecologically aware: Enter the West German Green Party.

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