Sexism/other issues in the Green party England & Wales - Discussion Thread 3

[fromorbit]

Zack Polanski is making things bigger yet again so another thread needed.

Well things have developed rather a lot since the start. ZP started out as being another sexist guy in politics - no shortage those around, but he thought he could take it to a new level and he proved he could do it.

The Green threads have followed his rise from the start of with the Hypnoboobs scandal and much more. There is also:

Mothin Ali as deputy Leader who clearly doesn't believe in trans thinking, but cleverly sidesteps round talking about it, has always had a issues with encouraging racist violence and is now encouraging people to sue the Green party if they attempt to stop them saying racist stuff.

The other deputy Rachel Millward represents the posh rich faction of the Greens who manages to sounding like Reform when opposing Asylum Seekers in her area, but at the same time saying we are too harsh on immigrants in general. Obviously she also doesn't believe women are a thing. Yet she is the least crazy when violence is concerned compared to ZP, and Mothin.

Hypnoboobs scandal got worse recently when it became clear from BBC footage ZP actively believed in the Hypnoboobs thesis rather than being tricked into it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn9enygvezeo

Alongside all this there is constant ongoing attacks on biological reality from the party in interviews and in policy.

Now in the last week or so after a longstanding spate of antisemetic rhetoric from some Greens during the election campaign and ZP downplaying it. We have synagogues, schools, ambulances attacked, two Jewish people dead and ZP berating unarmed police for risking their lives in fighting a violent killer who was still armed with a knife things have come to a crisis point.

The Greens are becoming ever more sinister with dozens of candidates sounding like they are seventies NF supporters with comments about uppity women and Jewish power. The huge drama over a crazy motion which they were trying to pass against Israel at conference alongside a motion to prevent women having sports will surface again their September conference.

It seems likely after next week The Greens are going to be running a bunch of councils which doesn't bode well after their antics in Bristol.

Yet there is hope, in Bristol women are fighting back_: www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5455053-bristol-council-is-about-to-be-sued_

The fight back from Green Women's Declaration, ( https://www.greenwomensdeclaration.uk/ ) continues and the court cases against GPEW from Emma Bateman and Shahrar Ali are developing, both getting through legal delaying tactics as they move to trial. Gardening is needed. These cases if successful could be dramatic in their impact.

First thread - where you can follow the rise of ZP and lots of other scandal
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5328986-greens-internal-drama-warms-up

Second Thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5456759-sexismother-issues-in-the-green-party-england-wales-discussion-thread-2?

Note the Scottish Greens which are a separate party to the Green Party England/Wales have their own thread for all their sexist drama. They split off because GPEW didn't hate biology and women/gays enough at the time.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5313420-scottish-greens-being-sexist-again?page=1

Is your irony klaxon ready?!

Noa Hoffman AT hoffman_noa
BREAKING: Bridget Phillipson responds on behalf of Labour to the racist and antisemitic motion today. It’s strong and she doesn’t mince her words to be fair.

Bridget Phillipson MP, Chair of the Labour Party, and Minister for Women and Equalities, responds to the Green Party’s vote on Zionism at the Green Party Conference, said:

“It is shameful to vote against a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine and to condemn the vast majority of British Jews and Jews around the world as racist for supporting Israel’s right to exist. It is fundamentally wrong and the leadership of the Green Party must make clear that this will not be their position moving forwards.

“The Labour Party has always been clear that criticism of the policies of the Israeli Government is not antisemitic, and the Labour government has condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. But today’s vote at the Green Party Conference crosses a line and should be condemned across the political spectrum.

“This vote underlines how important it was that we changed the Labour Party from top to bottom and ripped out the scourge of antisemitism from within the party.

"The Labour Party and the Labour Government will continue working every day to ensure our Jewish communities are safe, feel safe and have their rights upheld, as well as making sure we rid our society of antisemitism once and for all.”

Meanwhile on twitter Hypnotits completely ignores the elephant in the room vote and instead just posts this.

I’ve seen them too! Waterstones seems to be a popular hangout.

Other possible significant implications...

Lewis Goodall AT lewis_goodall
The Greens have a Labour PM committed to electoral reform at precisely the moment they’ve essentially made it nearly impossible for that same Lab PM to go into coalition with them.

Over on Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ec4ocjzt53cytl42amsbpxbp/post/3mx2qvlhuq22w

It's the 90th anniversary of the battle of Cable Street today

Sounds reasonable until you remember Ed Miliband's recent antics

Jewish Greens remain split on motion

The Jewish Greens - a Jewish group within the party - remain split on the Zionism is Racism motion. Ahead of the conference, the group answered a survey about key conference issues.

On a 0–10 scale measuring whether Jewish Greens should collectively oppose the motion, the average was 5.1, indicating an almost exact split. Consequently, Jewish Greens said it will not take an official position on the motion.

Most Jewish Greens (81%) identify as anti-Zionist or non-Zionist. Of the Zionist respondents, 80% of Zionist respondents oppose the Zionism as Racism motion. Interestingly, however, the anti-Zionist Greens were divided on the motion too.

A majority of 70% strongly support de-proscribing Palestine Action, and 64% strongly support Palestinians' right to "resist apartheid, occupation and genocide through all available means within international law.”

Exactly half support criminal prosecution of UK citizens who fight with the Israeli military.

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-910550

Noa Hoffman AT hoffman_noa
BREAKING: Zack Polanski has now been formally barred from ever entering Israel.

I'm not sure pissing off Israel to this degree is a smart move tbh.

@DrBlackbird yes, she said it was quite male dominated but beyond that there was pressure to vote for the motion, so a mixture tbh. Sounded horrible and she is pretty hardened to these types of political gatherings.

There’s a lot in the less fringe Labour groups basically saying that the party has to rule out any future coalition with the Greens because of this motion passing.

(edited to apologise for how clunky that sentence is)

It will play quite well for him with the anti Israel faction though, which I think he's more bothered about

I think this is where he sees his votes coming from. He’s probably right. They see him as the most useful of all the useful idiots. It’s a bit alarming this continued lurch to ever more finger pointing, accusatory, divisive politics. I imagine Reform and Restore will make a noise about the motion.

He’s going to have to go some to out Israel-hate Gorgeous George.

And will just make him a hero to others.

Given the impact on the Labour vote in the last election, it isn't surprising that some Greens (as I am sure some Labour Party members) think they have more than a toe hole in shifting the UK agenda.

This assumption that this will have the same impact on everybody just doesn't even match reality.

As in the extract I posted from the Jerusalem Post who somehow managed to get information from with the Green Party that Fleet Street couldn't or just preferred to churn out their usual cliches, there is no one position that everyone holds.

Including the Jewish population in the UK and Israelis themselves.

Many of whom do not support Zionism for instance.

Or subscribe to the "official" definition of antisemitism.

Some of whom' rather than the UN (I think it is) 2 state solution, think a one state is the solution is appropriate, as happened in South Africa.

Judging a situation as complex as this through the paraochial lens of UK party politics and Fleet Street doesn't achieve anything.

We will see as Galloway is directly up against ZP in Holborn.

There is a political market for this kind of extremism.

The thing is as much it claims to be against the far right it actually creates the situation for it to thrive.

Time will tell how it will play out. Though I think the internal fighting over this seems to indicate the Greens are heading towards Your Party type dysfunction.

There could be attempts to reverse this vote every year. All the normal Greens need to do is get an extra few hundred people from their side to conference.

Tbh I am not thinking of this in terms of public opinion and Fleet street journalism. We are talking about Israel here and at the point Israel bar you from entry you are deemed a threat to the state of Israel and that's not a place I'd choose to be. Regardless of whether it made me popular in certain circles. I would be looking over my shoulder wondering...

Daniel Laycock AT laycock_daniel
After speaking with contacts in the European Greens, I’ve been informed the Green Party of England and Wales may be removed as a member of the European Greens following the Zionism is Racist motion.

https://x.com/Moriartyseventy/status/2106777937240338586

Oz Katerji AT Oz Katerji
As Far-Right Flávio Bolsonaro is on course to win round 1 of Brazil’s presidential elex, it’s worth reminding everyone that Zack Polanski’s argument for leaving NATO was that the US was an unreliable ally under Trump & that we should build a security alliance with Brazil instead

The current President Lula is a left wing socialist.

Ooh errr

I think there's lots of fall out here many don't fully appreciate and understand tbh.

The US just pulled it's bombers out of Fairfield citing an ongoing security risk. It was done at speed apparently based on intelligence. The US is not happy with the UK government handling of the incident and the optics of this Green vote to the Trump administration which is pushing a narrative that the UK has fallen to the Muslims and has it's own policy of any opposition to Israel being a reason to defend or send in ICE isn't remotely insignificant.

It has implications for future UK politics and elections in a way that's more significant than is being noted just yet.

I think it's best to describe this as a political earthquake.

There's a hell of a lot to digest and to process how exactly the dust is going to settle.

We will hear a lot more about this over the next few months and probably years.