Turning Glasgow Green
We may not be Brighton or Bristol, but something special is happening in Scotland’s biggest city by Paul Mason, Glasgow Greens Co-Convenor.
I am one of the Glasgow Green Party Organisers in the West of the city and Kate Bell is over in the East End. We live on opposite sides of the city and our constituencies are quite different but we have embarked on a parallel journey for the past few years. My first time out canvassing was in Lana Reid-McConnell’s 2022 local election campaign in Victoria Park. One night Lana called me to introduce herself. She seemed nice, enthusiastic but also determined and I agreed to help her. Fast forward to the local election and she is now Cllr Reid-McConnell. We had gone from narrowly missing out in Victoria Park at the previous council election in 2017 (by 40 votes) to coming in a clear third place and beating the Tories(always a nice bonus!).
Kate had a similar experience helping Anthony Carroll in the East End, an area that might not traditionally be a Green hot spot. However, building up on the hard work of the previous Green councillor Kim Long, Anthony has continued in the vein of committed and effective green politicians in the city who turn up and make the effort to get things done for the people of the city and that has earned us more and more respect.
For me what drives me is that success, if I can get a Green elected I know I am supporting determined and passionate candidates who will improve the lives of everyday people. People think of the Greens as the party of climate justice, but we know social justice is just as important.
Kate’s community view of activism is something we really value: “What we’re doing is obviously good work, but my investment in fellow activists is what drives my involvement; I’m proud of the work, but I also feel valued and am committed to everyone working hard around me.” “We take gender balancing seriously”. The Scottish Greens were the only Party in Scotland to achieve Gender Balance among Westminister Candidates.
There can be hard work involved in spending the time knocking doors. Often responses are positive, even if someone is not going to vote for us. There is the odd day we get only a handful of people who say they’ll vote green, but it’s getting out there and talking to people who’ve never seen us in their area that slowly shifts perceptions and gains us support.
Kate talks about the risks of burn-out that come with having such passion and commitment towards a voluntary role and how to avoid it. “With limited resources, efforts are heavily reliant on individual capacity. And when you get back-to-back elections you’re left drained. But the branch is good at working collectively. Our built relationships promote both self-accountability to achieve tasks, and reliability on each other to step up when someone’s needing a break.”
There’s something really special about spending time with like-minded people that share the same values and a common goal. Canvassing really turns into a fun activity (even despite the occasional door slam!) and we like to wrap up a session with a trip to a local pub or cafe. The more you do it, the more the successful interactions fuel you and it becomes a massive encouragement to keep on going out.
Our success winning our first by-election in Hillhead last March really energized us for the Westminster election campaign, and the results were fantastic. We achieved the Scottish Greens’ best result in a single constituency at a General Election in Glasgow South with 13.1% and our second best in Glasgow North with 12.2%. We came third in all constituencies beating the Tories , the Lib Dems and Reform, quadrupling our vote share in some cases. To put things into context, the Greens in England and Wales went from a notional 9% at the 2019 Westminster election in Waveney Valley, to winning the seat this time around with over 41% of the vote.
Off the back of these results we have had a surge of new members join the party since election day. We hope the success of our grassroot activism will inspire people to come out to help us and see that there’s hope when you get active and involved in local activism. Last Thursday one of our campaigners stood outside a school in the rain for two hours, but when I got there to take over for him, he said he thought it was much better than posting on X/Twitter. It may be less comfortable, but it sure is way more effective!
I wish you and your comrades well.
The recent general election despite Labour’s overwhelming haul of seats showed through the low turn-out and low vote shares for Labour, Tory, LibDem, Reform and SNP, that large numbers of people are disenchanted by electoral politics and politicians. For years there has been a progressive disempowerment of the public and a severe weakening of local councils. It is councils which actually provide the bulk of public services which impact on people on a daily basis.
On the whole, I have found that Councillors of most parties and none are well-motivated and pretty conscientious. However, most of this is done while also working. Remuneration levels are low. Most councillors live locally and, sadly, face harassment by some members of the public and are also subject to bullying by our appalling media.
In my view, we need more empowerment of local people and councils which cover smaller areas so that people can be actively involved. To call Highland a local council is a joke and I do not intend any offence to the councillors and officers who seek to serve that huge area.