ANALYSIS:The democractic nature of Green Party rules, despite recent pragmatism, makes predicting the result of today's votes difficult., writes HARRY McGEE
THE NATURE of the Green Party is very different now than when it was founded in the early 1980s. It has journeyed a long way from its radical, non-conformist roots and jettisoned many of its well-meaning (but ultimately counterproductive) principles such as having no leader and requiring 100 per cent consensus from the membership before any policy could be changed.
The party still claims, with some justification, to be the most principled and democratic of all Irish political parties. But it is also more pragmatic and more worldly-wise, which fully understands (especially since going into government) the nature of compromise and realpolitik.
For many years, there was a divide between the two groupings (though it has been overplayed). They were known as the ‘fundies’ (or fundamentalists) and the ‘realos’ (realists). In 1998, the ‘realos’ won a significant victory, which led to the Greens taking on many of the characteristics of a conventional party.
Unlike other parties, the Greens retain a system whereby the membership decides on major policy decisions. And it sets itself a high bar. For any major departure or change a two-thirds majority is required.
That means that in the current situation, a blocking minority of 34 per cent can effectively thwart the will of the party’s leadership, as happened during the first Lisbon referendum. That makes the composition of the membership an important factor.
There has been a perception that the party’s membership profile has been younger and more conventional in recent years, and that a lot of the more radical, principle-first members have been sidelined or have left the party.
That impression has been exacerbated by the departure of prominent dissidents like Patricia McKenna; former Clontarf councillor Bronwen Maher and Cork City councillor Chris O’Leary in the past 18 months.
However, the internal dissent, particularly on Nama, shows that at least some of the younger membership are not as compliant as some critics would say.
The charge against the bank rescue plan has been led by younger activists like Gary Fitzgerald from Dublin Central and James Nix from Limerick. They have been part of a concerted campaign to get the party to withdraw from Nama and many of them are likely to vote against the programme for government today on the basis of their fundamental objection to the bank rescue plan.
Fitzgerald sees himself as a realistic party member but says: I object to to Nama because it is fundamentally wrong and it will not work.”
“The Nama vote is not going to get 66 per cent. But all that is needed is to get 34 per cent to object to the programme.”
Fitzgerald, who is highly regarded within the party, says it is impossible to ascertain the strength of the opposition. He points out that he, too, can be persuaded to change but only if the programme is extraordinary.
In his early 30s, he is representative of a party that has a very young demographic, with a lot of members in their 20s.
In 2008, 500 people left the party, but 400 joined, many of them young. The party’s former press officer Steve Rawson, who left the Greens on points of principle, says there are several groups of members.
The first are clustered around the party’s leading TDs, including John Gormley, Eamon Ryan, and Ciarán Cuffe.
“The second group could be described as the ‘bright young things’ who may have joined the party for reasons not solely to do with party politics and policy but would view a Green Party in government as ‘the right association’.
“Thirdly are the members who are definitely geared toward policy formulation but who would not necessarily have hard political nous,” said Rawson.
He said most were quite happy to go along with the direction of the party until they got a wake-up call in the local elections. He said that this has now spawned a fourth grouping who feel that Nama is the final straw: going against everything the party stands for policy-wise.
According to Rawson, besides the public resignations, the party has lost many members who have just given up. He says this is most significant in Munster.
One of those who resigned, Chris O’Leary from Cork, says he would not call himself a fundie, but rather as a politician who is “principle-oriented”.
“The composition of the party has changed. It seems to be very much the Ministers who dominate.” He said more people “have joined the party primarily because it a party of power”.
Indeed, there have been rumours of over 100 animal welfare activists joining in the past year, but that has not been confirmed.
About 40 people applied to join around the time that the Nama debate began in earnest but some of those withdrew when they discovered that a six-month probationary period must be served before a member is entitled to vote.
“Some of the older components in the Green Party find it very hard going. In my opinion, the party has lost its goal in government,” he says.