Democracy
Democracy, Peace, Social Justice
The Threat Of The Far Right: Why Take It Seriously?
The recent white supremicist rally and murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia have brought attention to the rise of far right groups in the United States. The Australian journalist Jason Wilson, who now lives in Portland, has been reporting on the rise of these groups since the election of Donald Trump. Prior to attending a far-right rally hosted by... Read More
Democracy
The Trouble With Consensus Is … We Don’t Do It Enough
Co-founder of the Victorian Greens Facilitators Network, Jim Buckell, responds to Sarah Maddison In her interview with Clare Ozich in Green Agenda, Sarah Maddison puts consensus decision making under the spotlight. In doing so, she perpetuates some common myths: it’s too slow; makes for bad decisions; marginalises dissent. Then she advances a new one (to me anyway): it can apparently... Read More
Democracy, Environment
International climate agreements: useful or useless?
Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement has put the status of the international processes on climate change in doubt. In this discussion Green Agenda editor Simon Copland and researcher Felicity Gray debate whether Trump’s withdrawal should mean the end of the international climate process. [...]
Read More... from International climate agreements: useful or useless?
... Read MoreDemocracy, Environment
Is Social Democracy Ever Coming Back?
As labour parties and their political projects appear to recede deeper into irrelevance in every election around Europe, we might wonder whether the death knell ring has rung for social democracy. But what remains to be seen is whether this trajectory will continue, whether the political landscape is in the process of shifting irreversibly – and if so how Greens can... Read More
Democracy
“A vibrant clash of passions”: exploring agonistic democracy
The nature of democracy is an age old question. We are currently witnessing a crisis in representative democracy. Times of crisis present opportunities for questioning assumptions and asking fundamental questions including about our conceptions and practice of democracy. Green Agenda spoke with Associate Professor Sarah Maddison about the concept of agonistic democracy and what it offers for the practice of... Read More
Democracy, Peace, Social Justice
Fairness To Fascism: Trump’s Bait And Switch
“Forgotten men and women”. “Struggling families”. “Mothers and children trapped in poverty”, not “sharing the wealth” of “the establishment”. On one reading, Donald Trump’s inauguration speech is full of left wing imagery and ideas. So much so that I have seen it explicitly suggested that it was the kind of speech that Bernie Sanders might have given. Following his rejection... Read More
Democracy, Social Justice
Building Momentum for Change
Does strategic community organising create and lead sweeping social change? Or does social change momentum arrive from disruptive actions and sweep individuals and organisations along with it? This is the question tackled by US labour, civil rights and immigration rights activist brothers Paul and Mark Engler in This is an Uprising; the answer, of course, is ‘both’. [...]
Democracy, Social Justice
Understanding the anti-elite Trump vote
The aftermath of the stunning victory of Donald Trump to the White House has left many asking the same question: how on Earth did he do it? While the analysis is still fresh, and formulating, one can highlight three theories as to why Trump will be the next President of the United States. The first, and probably most common among... Read More
Democracy, Social Justice
Rebuilding the Public Sphere
For decades there has been concern in social and political theory about ‘the decline of the public sphere’. According to many prominent writers on the issue, an effective role for the public sphere in the exercise of political power is something that we have lost. For Hannah Arendt in her work The human condition (1958), societies in the modern age... Read More
Democracy, Environment, Social Justice
Reflections on Green Values
Gösta Lyngå has been involved in Green politics for over 30 years, including as a Greens MP in Sweden. In this essay he offers his reflections on the ongoing relevance of core green values and their importance in meeting the environmental, social and economic challenges of today. [...]
Read More... from Reflections on Green Values
... Read More