Saturday, 1 October 2022
Motion passed to support positive charter of worker and trade union rights
The Party pledged support to working people resisting the anti-trade union laws and committed itself to working with unions to establish a charter of positive rights.
Matthew Hull, Chair of the Green Party Trade Union Group, who proposed the successful motion, said: “I’m delighted that the Green Party is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with working people struggling against precarious work, soaring prices and stagnant wages.
“We want to see the repeal of existing anti-union and anti-strike laws.
“They should be replaced with a positive charter of worker and trade union rights, enshrining the fundamental right to organise and strike, drawn up in consultation with trade unions. Those rights must include the right to take industrial action to demand ecological justice.”
Professor Catherine Rowett, Green Party Work, Employment and Social Security spokesperson, added: “The Conservative government is enabling firms to use agency workers to replace striking workers and break strike action, further undermining people’s democratic rights. These laws are the latest in a long line designed to restrict trade unions and worker organisation.
“Trade union rights are fundamental to a free society and enabled us to achieve major improvements in working conditions during the 20th century. It is terrifying to see those improvements being rolled back and the democratic freedoms that secured them taken away.”
The full motion can be read here.
Sunday, 02 October 2022
Greens call for the return of appropriated cultural objects
The Green Party passed a motion for the return of objects obtained “during the period of imperial expansion and colonialism, and in other conflicts and periods”.
The Party said it was time for the UK Government to join the global movement of museums and galleries being critical of the way they obtained objects in their collection. Objects held in institutional and private collections should be referred to an expert Restitution of Cultural Objects Panel.
Depending on the decisions of the Panel, certain objects should be returned to their original owners, descendants of the original owners or the states from which they were appropriated.
Martin Hemingway, who proposed the successful motion, said: “This is as much a moral question as a legal one.
“The universities of Oxford and Aberdeen have already established ways of considering these issues. Other museums, like London’s Horniman, are returning objects taken from Africa.
“We need a proper process in place that enables everyone with an interest to make their case and for objects to be returned to their rightful homes.”
Green Party Culture spokesperson Jack Lenox added: “This model worked well in relation to cultural objects stolen in the run up to the Second World War. It’s time for the same principles to be applied to other collections”.
“We recognise that each case will have to be considered on its merits. There will be issues about legal ownership, but also important moral arguments. This will involve discussion with the individuals and states from where objects were taken and the holding institution or collection.”
The full motion can be read here.
Green Party calls for the prosecution of those most responsible for climate breakdown
The Party passed a motion for a legal process to prosecute those most responsible for the UK having failed to protect people and habitats from climate breakdown.
The motion also called on the Government, the outgoing president of the COP process, to make sure that COP27 is more transparent and that lower and middle-income countries are treated as equals in the negotiation process.
Green Party co-leader, Carla Denyer, said: “News that Liz Truss has instructed King Charles not to attend COP27 in November is a shameful end to the UK’s tenure as COP president.
“It is a sign of what many feared – we have a prime minister willing to dilute UK action on the most important global crisis we face, just at a time we need to step up our game.
“But more crucially, under the UK’s presidency, the COP process has failed to set the world on a path to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees. Today our conference agreed on the need for a legal process to prosecute those most responsible for the UK having failed to protect people and habitats from climate breakdown.
“We need a process which delivers a robust science-based review of every country’s progress towards delivering on their agreed emissions targets and to be held accountable for their shortfalls, and for the losses and damage caused by their emissions.”
The full motion can be read here.
UK must rejoin the EU as “soon as political situation is favourable”, Greens say
The Party voted that the UK should make a speedy return to the EU, including to the free movement of people between the UK and the European Union and rejoin the customs union.
This would also include continued participation in the Erasmus+ scheme.
Molly Scott Cato, Vice Chair of the European Movement and former Green Party MEP, said: “It is also clear that the best way to maintain high standards on workers’ rights, health and safety and environmental protection is to mirror the legislative rules governing the EU single market.
“The proposed Brexit Freedoms Bill is utterly horrific and has fired the starting-gun on a race to the bottom on environmental and social standards.
“Brexit has severely disrupted diplomatic relations with our EU neighbours and undermined the UK’s trustworthiness around the world. The readiness to breach international law and threaten the peace by tearing up the Northern Ireland protocol has reinforced this.
“If acted on, the motion agreed by Green Party members today will help rebuild trust within our country and with partner nations around the world.”
The full motion can be read here.
Greens back £15 an hour Minimum Wage and declare support for trade union campaigns on pay
The Party passed a motion to back a £15 an hour Minimum Wage and declared support for trade union campaigns which aim to achieve wage increases alongside the cost of living increase.
Professor Catherine Rowett, Green Party Work, Employment and Social Security spokesperson, said: “Inflation and the cost of living crisis are having a dramatic negative impact on the real value of the existing National Living Wage, which has never been a real living wage anyway.
“The Green Party recognises the dire levels of in-work poverty created by our low-wage economy, and the overwhelming support from members for a £15 minimum wage will be welcome news to millions of workers.
“Decades of Tory, Labour and Coalition governments have created a Poverty Economy where 14.5 million people are living in poverty. One in ten full-time workers are in poverty, rising to a third of working-age adults in families where there is only part-time work. Today Greens said it’s time to fight back and create a new social contract, where a basic standard of living isn’t a luxury.
“This is one part of a full package of measures we would introduce to deliver a fairer and more equal society. The Green Party has long-standing policies for a Universal Basic Income and legislation to limit the maximum salary in an organisation to no more than ten times the wage of its lowest paid worker.”
The full motion can be read here.