Tony Waterston, Newcastle Green Party writes:
When I read the leaflet given out by the tented ‘occupiers' at Monument in Newcastle, I thought this looks very like the Green Party position. So down I went and the first person I met there was a student who had just joined the party!
Some thought is needed to grow a full-fledged political strategy out of the worthy aims of the occupiers, but...
The protest movement calls themselves ‘the 99%'. Many of their views on banking and the economic crisis are certainly supported by majority. There are certainly very many in the country who agree that:
• The bankers who caused the crisis should not be rewarded
• There should be much greater regulation of the banks
• The current level of income and wealth inequalities is scandalous and should be remedied
• The political system is corrupting and is not working to the benefit of the majority
However, how many (outside the Green Party) agree that:
• There should be voting reform towards a system of proportional representation
• There should be higher taxation for all to fund the health service and education
• There should be lower consumption
• Capitalism is the cause of our economic problems
• Increased growth is unsustainable and fuels global warming
They intend to be a visible (though non-violent) assault on the centres of corporate greed, increasing political pressure for change. They want an open dialogue on the harm being done by the present system. And they mean to demonstrate that democracy can work in a different way.
As Caroline Lucas says:
"This is real politics in action - and the voices of those ordinary and extraordinary people who want a fairer, greener system to replace the stocks-and-shares house of sand that sustains corporate capitalism must now be heard.
"As the public becomes more aware of the injustice and unsustainability of our economic system, more and more people are taking to the streets for a different kind of society - one which puts the interests of the many before those of a powerful minority.
"That the leaders of the mainstream political parties have completely failed to engage with what is happening down at St Paul's and at protests across the country shows just how painfully out of touch they are with the public mood for change."
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