The Meanings of Green: Grassroots Democracy

By John F. Foran, Jr.

This is a short essay on the first of the Greens' Ten Key Values that I wrote a while back for the local Green Scene newsletter

Grassroots democracy

Grassroots democracy is the first of the Green Party's ten core values, and for good reason, for this is the indispensable key to the process of political and personal activism that underlies the rest. One of my favorite quotes about how change comes about comes from Margaret Mead, who said "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." The Greens can draw on a long history of struggles for deepening democracy, going back to such radical moments as the creative self-rule of the Paris Communards of 1871, the May 1968 student/worker movement in France whose most memorable slogan was "Power to the imagination!", the Allende years in Chile with their profoundly democratic movement for socialism, to the present Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas and the global justice and peace movements (these last, it should be said, are the global manifestation of Green politics, for me).

Though the Zapatistas are armed, their dangerousness lies in their nonviolent and radically democratic grassroots political practices, which are being eagerly observed and to a growing degree embraced by the global justice movement in its many forms. Decisions made through consensus, in which every individual present has a chance to "dar su palabra" (express him- or herself), give power and life to the actions that follow, for they are taken on the basis of the collective wisdom of the community, including its objections and reservations, which must be expressed and worked through. The notion that there are no leaders, that every human being has sovereignty and the irreducible freedom to participate, is another aspect of grassroots democracy that Greens embrace. In this way, the goal of "making a world where many worlds fit," as the Zapatistas phrase their vision of an inclusive diversity, is brought closer to realization.

Of course, there is a real tension between the free-flowing democratic process of the face-to-face local scene and larger communities and organizations, whether state, national, or global, and the Greens must live with this, like the affinity groups that emerged in the U.S. in the 1980s to protest the U.S. intervention in Central America, apartheid, and cruise missiles in Europe. Their tactics of nonviolence, consensus decision making and fluid leadership, so effective at the local level in the initial phases of radical mobilization, ran into complex difficulties when it came time to build a national-level movement encompassing diverse groups, and led to tensions at the local level within groups between old and new activists, producing leadership burnout and membership dropout. The Greens, though more structured politically, must work through these problems as well.

This is especially so in a political setting such as our own, where two corporate-backed parties exclude any vision that differs from the cruel free-market ideology of global capitalism (I just attended the UCSB conference on globalization, where Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange said he wished that Congresspeople wore suits like NASCAR racers with their corporate sponsors' logos visible for all to see). The Greens are making gains in each successive election here despite the way the system is structured to prevent this. But the system itself must be radically democratized, so that smaller parties and their ideas can become part of the debate. If the U.S. had the proportional representation found in most European and many Latin American nations, I daresay we would have the largest proportion of elected Greens at the national level of any country in the world. Thus, while it seems utopian, aiming at such a system is in line with Green philosophy and should be encouraged. In the meantime, talking about and struggling for non-reformist reforms such as independent run-off voting (IRV), where voters can express their first preference for a Green candidate without handing power to the dangerous men of the Bush administration, is an eminently practical step forward that can be won, and has been, in certain cities. Campaign finance reform wouldn't be a bad thing either. Or equal access to the airwaves for all political parties. Or voter registration and mobilization of the grassroots citizens of the community nation-wide. Or slates of candidates that reflected the diversity of our society. The strategies are endless, and we need to be working along at least some of these lines. Nor are elections the only arena for Green politics, as we all know. In a film of the Grenadian revolution of 1979-83, I came across a person who reminded me that democracy doesn't consist of "Four seconds every four years," where one votes for a candidate and then goes home till the next election. We need to be part of the many social movements around us + for a living wage, affordable housing, quality education, and health care for all, for human and civil rights, for workplace democracy, for global justice.

The first core value of grassroots democracy is the key that opens up a process that can lead us to all of this, and much more. I hope that these reflections of a single voice can be the start of a conversation among many of us about the ten core values + their bases, their precedents, their meanings, their potential for change.

If you have reactions to this piece, please send them by e-mail to foran@soc.ucsb.edu. Remember, "dar tu palabra." Another world is possible. It's necessary. And it's up to all of us.