A Rose By Any Other Name: Why The Green Party Will Never Gain A Foothold in North America.
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 "new'" form of political movement. In North America however, the Green Party has met with far less success. Big industry controls much of the vote in North America, and the Green Party has struggled to transfix American constituents. Suffice to say; while the Green Party's star will continue to rise in Europe, it will take a paradigm shift for North America to "Go Green-.
It was 1972 when the world's first "Green Party- (The National Values Party) was launched in Wellington, New Zealand, and they were considered radicals. The Values Party contested the 1972 general election, putting forward radical new policies such as Zero Economic Growth, Zero Population Growth along with abortion, drug and homosexual law reform.
