Green Party Election Manifesto 1989
Date:1989
Organisation: Green Party
Type:Manifesto
View: View Document
Discuss:Comments on this document
Subjects: General Election, 1989

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Commentary From The Cedar Lounge Revolution

1st September 2008

A guest post from Pidge who is developing a parallel resource to the Irish Left Archive at the Irish Election Manifesto Archive.

I always used to think that the Green Party was crazy. It was one of those lazy, cheap stereotypes that helps mask a gap in your knowledge, and acts as a simple way to dismiss a group. Thanks to a few friendly arguments (largely on Politics.ie – from its current state you’d never guess that anything constructive ever comes of it), I came to see the error of my ways, and decided to get involved in the party. I went to my first meeting with a friend towards the end of 2006, and I’ve been fairly active since. One of the main things I like about the party is the sense (whether justified or not) that it’s simply the initial drizzle of a coming downpour. I often get the impression that the widespread adoption of the broader Green agenda is inevitable (although, I can’t help but wonder if the Labour Party in the late sixties thought the same about their own agenda).

Reading through the 1989 Green Party manifesto, I can find justification for both views I’ve held about the party. There’s certainly a healthy dash of oddness in the document, but there’s a surprising amount of foresight too.

Take, for example, the half page discussion of climate change. In 1989, I can’t imagine that many people were talking about climate change, on any part of the political spectrum. Yet, there’s a half page which outlines the primary causes of anthropogenic climate change, the basic mechanisms involved and loose solution. There’s also stuff about recycling, cycle lanes, CFCs/Ozone, acid rain and urban conservation. Issues which have, by and large, entered into the standard political lexicon in Ireland. For example, every manifesto in the last general election mentioned climate change, recycling and renewable energy. That’s quite a shift.

The more interesting and zany parts of the manifesto can be found mainly on page 8 in the section entitled “Work”, which doesn’t really acknowledge any of the pitfalls of removing all disincentives to not working. The tone of the section “Women & Society” seems out of place and over-aggressive. The line at the end of the section reads “This section is being reviewed by the Women’s Group”, which strikes me as one of the compromises which were apparently typical of the early Greens.

I won’t keep prattling on, but it’s an interesting document to read. Many of the issues have been taken into the political mainstream (albeit in a watered-down way), and some have fallen by the wayside. All the same, it provides an interesting backdrop to where the Greens currently are, and how much the party has changed since those days.

On an aside, I scanned this document as part of the Irish Election Manifesto Archive, a project I started working on out of sheer boredom. I’m attempting to create a single site where you can access digital copies of party political manifestos from throughout Irish history. If anyone has any documents which they think might be suitable (either on paper or digital), I’d really appreciate a copy. All contributors will, of course, be credited fully.

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  • By: Forrestreid Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:15:57

    The fact that the manifesto had a bibliography was impressive!

    What struck me is how much they had to say about agriculture, it seemed to be quite a priority for them then, or perhaps (like the minimum income) they just have less of a chance talk about it now.

    The bit about being firmly opposed to coursing and blood sports raised a wry smile, I must admit. Ah, the realities of being in government!

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  • By: Starkadder Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:46:49

    The section in the manifesto about big cities like Dublin
    lacking a sense of community-that struck me as being
    in the vein of Irish Nationalism’s ruralist tradition
    (Dev’s dancing at crossroads speech, etc.). Not sure
    about some of the “neither Left nor Right nor Centre” stuff
    either-that’s a fallacy that blighted early
    Green movements. You have to pick one
    of the three.

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  • By: Pidge Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:12:57

    I think soubresauts is taking some of my points and running with them. My criticism of the section “Work” wasn’t of the aspirational idea that work should be interesting to the person, but rather that the section neglected to look at what happens with jobs which just aren’t interesting to some people. I’ve got a job in a newsagent, which isn’t by any means bad work, but I’d drop it fairly quickly if there weren’t consequences to me stopping.

    As for the comment on compromises, soubresauts assumes a criticism which just isn’t there. I wasn’t claiming that the Greens used to compromise but don’t any more, just that the nature of that paragraph seems characteristic of the kind of compromise engaged in. Instead of actually tackling an issue, a bland, pointless statement is included to point out that the position is under review, which, to me, says more about the way in which the policy was formed, as opposed to the policy itself.

    As for the final question soubresauts poses, I’d say that a large, large majority of that text is still a big priority for the Greens. The style and tone has changed, and the GBI has dropped into the background, but it all remains much the same. Outside of the economics section, I don’t see much of a change in policy.

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  • By: joemomma Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:12:36

    By all accounts nobody was more surprised by her election than Sadhbh herself. It’s a bit much to blame your lack of electoral success on another candidate who didn’t specifically campaign against you – in this case she didn’t campaign at all!

    Conor, your reference to the Irish Times is quite exact, although the result you quoted isn’t correct. What’s the story?

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  • By: Sadhbh O Neill Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:25:57

    Hello there guys. Funny to read about all that now! My name is Sadhbh O Neill (congrats to 2/3rds of you who got spelling correct) and let me confirm that yes I did get elected to Dublin City Council in 1991 but failed to win a Dail seat in 1992. I beat the FG candidate not the WP candidate to win the council seat, which I held for 5 years before retiring. My election was facilitated though not engineered by the WP and Labour guys at the count, who were about to leave when they realised I was giving FG a big challenge. They stayed back to fight over spoilt ballots and I won by 8 votes thanks to Pat McCartan and Sean Kenny. Was I surprised to win? Most definitely. It was actually a huge shock. I had been persuaded to stand on the basis that there was no hope of me winning, and that the absence of a campaign was not a problem – the greens just wanted to field a candidate to see what kind of baseline support might exist. Anything else you need to know?

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  • By: Joe Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:02:43

    Hi Sadhbh, I think I kind of started this with comment no.4. It’s time to move on so I forgive you for winning that seat! Since you ask is there anything else we need to know, I’ve a question. What was it like being a councillor on Dublin City Council for those 5 years? Did you feel like you were making a difference on anything?

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