by DIANA MILLS – IN A political landscape marked by shifting alliances and ideological realignments, the recent trajectory of The Greens has captured significant attention.
Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, there has been a conspicuous Leftward pivot within the Party, underscored by a newfound camaraderie with revolutionary socialist groups, such as the Socialist Alliance.
- This growing ideological affinity exposes The Greens’ “anti-capitalist” radicalism.
- Such public dialogue and collaboration between these two groups marks a departure from past hidden dynamics.
- Hard Left activists and The Greens have become friends, perhaps even, comrades.
Socialist Alliance, publishers of Green Left Weekly, is as extreme as it gets.
It supports the abolition of democratic capitalism, the elimination of Israel, and nothing short of world-wide revolution.
ENTRYISM
This is the group of which The Greens has traditionally been wary. The Socialist Alliance, after all, has formerly been a practitioner of “entryism”, the tactic of surreptitiously joining organisations in order to shift polices to the Left and to recruit members.
The revolutionary Left has likewise been suspicious of The Greens, as they didn’t see them as being radical enough.
How things have changed.
This was shown on the March 17, 2024, when former Greens MP Lee Rhiannon publicly expressed support for Socialist Alliance regarding its relationship with Leila Khalid.
Socialist Alliance had invited the Palestinian refugee to their Perth Conference in June.
This is the (now elderly) woman who took part in the hijacking of a passenger plane on route from Rome to Tel Aviv in 1969.
Rhiannon’s support for allowing Khalid to visit Australia was not an isolated example of solidarity.
Given the Socialist Alliance’s invitation of a terrorist to its Conference, Facebook decided to close the Socialist Alliance Facebook group.
On cue, Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong publicly criticised Facebook while commending the Socialist Alliance’s “staunchly anti-capitalist stance”, indicating a growing ideological affinity between The Greens and “anti-capitalist” principles.
Another significant indicator of this shift is the unprecedented level of engagement between The Greens and the Socialist Alliance on matters of strategy and political discourse.
TENSION
For instance, on April 10, 2024, Socialist Alliance published an interview featuring a discussion with Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather on the tension between parliamentary politics and grassroots movement-building.
The Greens MP employed the usual buzzwords familiar to those on the hard Left: the need for a “dual strategy”, “contradictions”, and “key organisational questions”.
Such open dialogue and collaboration between the two groups marks a departure from past dynamics.
Further evidence of this emerging alliance can be found in tangible displays of solidarity.
Greens MP David Shoebridge recently appeared in what can only be described as a love-fest photograph alongside well-known members of the hard Left, including current Socialist Alliance veteran, Pip Hinman.
The on-going protests against Israeli actions in Gaza have provided, these past six months, the heat necessary for hard Left activists and The Greens to become friends, perhaps even, comrades.
We do indeed live in interesting times.PC
The Greens need to be politically eliminated. There should be no room for any political party – whether extreme left-wing or right-wing – that fosters hatred and division in the way they do.
The only way to stop them is to not vote for them at elections and to do everything possible to encourage others to do the same.
The Greens are Domestic Terrorists and the man who started them (Bob Brown) is a tax dodging hypocrite. If it was not for hypocrisy they would have nothing to stand on.
5th sentence: ‘weary’ should be ‘wary.’