Interestingly enough, the German Green Party is in quite a state, after a succession of bad election results have led some to suggest that it will be dumped by the SPD as coalition partner.
On one level this seems absurd since Joseph Fischer is considered a very successful Foreign Minister (bearing in mind that success here means making the case for bombing Serbia and Kosovo).
However, the Green Party, looking at its dwindling support amongst the young is asking itself whether it is the movement of a single generation, rather than a movement with continuity.
In some ways the Greens are victims of their success. They have introduced values into the political arena (ones I deplore, myself, such as austerity and irrational anti-science motifs, but, I'm not the issue here). These values are now adopted by all the major parties, costing the greens their distinctiveness.
The German case is all the clearer, where the Green party effected a reconciliation between the orthodox SPD and the wayward 68 generation. Once returning to the fold, who needs the Green party?
I agree with Yoshie then that Nader's candidacy is something of a dodge on the Green's part. They did particularly well in local elections on the West Coast in the seventies, I seem to remember reading. But haven't made a huge splash electorally since I think.
Consumer activism, on the other hand, is a movement whose time has come: with the closure of the political debate over production (free market or plan). Then the only remaining area of debate is consumption (more or less). Nader is for less. Maybe he should be renamed Nada.
-- James Heartfield
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