What I like about the Greens [...] is that they've dared to be more socialist than Labour.
I think that being an environmentalist is pretty much guaranteed to make anyone opposed to neoliberalism. The idea that if you have enough money you can pretty much do whatever you want because fines - if they are ever imposed at all - are just "the cost of doing business" is antithetical to protecting the environment. Nearly all (if not actually all) the major environmental problems we have are caused by giant multinational corporations trying as hard as they can to maximise shareholder value at the cost of everything else.
Legally restricting how corporations can exploit the environment for their own gain, and using tax money to preserve and restore the environment because that is something you implicitly care about is conceptually similar to restricting how corporations can exploit people (employees, customers, bystanders) for their own gain, and using tax money to protect and look after vulnerable members of society because they are what you implicitly care about.
I'd be very surprised to find any green movement anywhere that wasn't at least strongly socially democratic, if not further left than that.
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ninetydegrees
(no subject)
I think that being an environmentalist is pretty much guaranteed to make anyone opposed to neoliberalism. The idea that if you have enough money you can pretty much do whatever you want because fines - if they are ever imposed at all - are just "the cost of doing business" is antithetical to protecting the environment. Nearly all (if not actually all) the major environmental problems we have are caused by giant multinational corporations trying as hard as they can to maximise shareholder value at the cost of everything else.
Legally restricting how corporations can exploit the environment for their own gain, and using tax money to preserve and restore the environment because that is something you implicitly care about is conceptually similar to restricting how corporations can exploit people (employees, customers, bystanders) for their own gain, and using tax money to protect and look after vulnerable members of society because they are what you implicitly care about.
I'd be very surprised to find any green movement anywhere that wasn't at least strongly socially democratic, if not further left than that.