Greens: the myth of the “new left” debunked

Kittysjones here attacks the idea that the Greens are a left-wing party, showing the strong basis of much of Nazi ideology in environmentalism. She also shows how the Greens, when in power in Brighton and Hove council, worked with the parties of the Right to introduce policies that made conditions worse for the poor and the working class.

This is controversial stuff, but it needs to be said. I’ve heard it from others. A friend of mine also has the same views, and genuine Fascists have tried to infiltrate the Green movement. Back in the 1990s the anarchist publisher, AK Press, published a pamphlet by two German comrades detailing the way Neo-Nazi organisations were attempting to enter and take over the environmental movement. The American Anarchist thinker, Murray Bookchin, for example, walked out of a German environmentalist conference when Rolf Bahro, a former East German dissident, announced that ‘ We need a Green Adolf’. When Rudolf Hess died in the same decade, his funeral was disrupted by Neo-Nazi biker gangs, who took the occasion to declare their manifesto, which included concern for the environment. Nazism was based partly on the ‘blut und boden’ views of early German scientists, such as Goethe, who believed that the natural environment also affected the biological character of the humans who lived there. Hence the Nazis launched vast projects to return parts of Germany and conquered nations like Poland to primeval wilderness, in order to recreate the environment that they believed had spawned the primeval Germanic tribes that they idealised. In his Table Talk, Hitler discusses the necessity of finding a replacement for oil and for establishing wind and tidal power.

This does not mean, of course, that there is anything intrinsically Fascistic about a desire to preserve the natural environment in and of itself. Many of the early 19th century socialists were keen to preserve the beauty of wilderness and country areas for the working people, who actually lived there, rather than the aristocracy who owned it. The National Trust was originally set up with precisely this in mind, but its aims were subverted as it was taken over by members of the upper classes, until it reflected their concerns of preserving their heritage, such as stately homes and country houses. Indeed, leading members of the National Trust were deeply concerned to keep the hoi polloi out of areas of unspoilt natural beauty.

In Germany, the Green movement has a dual nature. In most of Germany it’s actually very left-wing. One of its leaders was the lawyer for the Badder-Meinhof gang, the 1970s Communist terrorists. In Bavaria, however, the movement is more Right-wing.

Where I differ from the article is on the subject of Dave Cameron. I don’t honestly think he has any Green credentials at all. Yes, he made a show of announcing his support for environmentalism when campaigning, and declared that his would be the ‘Greenest’ government of all. That soon went after he took office, along with the windmill on his roof. It was all a piece of radical rhetoric and propaganda, like the stuff about ring-fencing money for and not privatising the Health Service. He lied, and the policies were discarded as soon as they had served their purpose. The Tories have always been concerned to trash the environment, and nothing has changed that.

Politics and Insights

The Green Party has philosophical roots that may be traced back to the thinking of the Reverend Thomas Malthus. He was a political economist who believed that the decline of living conditions in nineteenth century England was because of three elements: the overproduction of children; the inability of resources to keep up with the rising human population; and the irresponsibility of the lower classes. Malthus’s narrative in the nineteenth century fueled the rise of Social Darwinism; the eugenics movement and resulted in the extremely punitive Poor Law Reform Act of 1834, which included the introduction of workhouses for the poor.

The Green Party have the following listed amongst their aims regarding population:

In the short-term, to promote debate on sustainable population levels for the UK. In the long-term, to achieve consumption and population levels that are globally sustainable and respect carrying capacity – the term used to describe the population that…

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