>There are also those like Doug McEachern who have argued (e.g. "Business and
>the Wesley Vale Pulp Mill," in J. Young, Ed., 1990,
>_Ecopolitics_IV_Proceedings_, Centre for Environmental Studies, University
>of Adelaide) that the rise of the Greens in Australian politics _followed_
>the rise of a new stratum of service industry capitalists, especially in
>industries like tourism --- the conflict of interest between them and
>industries like logging or mining is obvious.
There is some truth to that, there are obviously industry sectors which stand to benefit from the rise of environmentalism. These vested interests will support the greens and obviously the greens benefit from such support.
>McEachern's thesis can be seen more explicitly in Western Australia, where
>the Greens WA has always been more explicitly left/socialist; one
>consequence is that we also have a right wing Green party, Liberals For
>Forests, which broke away from the right bloc and probably lost them the
>last state election.
Yep. There's a trend that way here too, with a new Doctors group campaigning against old-growth forests during the Tasmanian elections. Clearly the environment isn't an issue that the left has any monopoly rights to. The greens have always had a strong liberal capitalist constituency as well.
That said though, the greens have deep roots in many sectors of society. I was chatting to a young forestry worker a couple of days ago, asked him where he was working. "Near Campbell Town, felling the old-growth forests," he replied. So I asked him if he'd voted Green, sure enough he had. Even though the Greens main election platform was ending clear-felling in old growth forests, which would put him out of work in a state where jobs are bloody hard to come by. Especially for unskilled workers like him.
This was a young bloke of course, about 20 odd. He isn't all that bright either, but the thing about the young is that they are more idealistic than us older relics. We tend to adopt a self-justifying ideology but the young aren't sophisticated enough for that. They look at things with a fresh eye, can see right from wrong a lot easier than their elders and they tend to opt for what is right, even when it contradicts their own material self-interest.
Most will grow out of it, if they have to. But in the meantime they prefer to try to change the world to fit what is right. In a democracy this is more important than economic self-interest and clearly the greens are a rising force due to idealism more than self interest.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas