Political background of Green Party members

[Eddiepops]

Taking Pidge's idea behind this thread, I thought it might be interesting for Green party members to talk about where we came from politically. Our party is younger than FG, FF and Labour and didn't emerge from a split, such as DL, WP or the PDs. So what's your party background?

[Pidge]

I used to be convinced by the PDs (I've just finished a long shift (not in the Cork sense), so I'll explain that later), but the Greens were the first party I became involved in. A lot of the older people seem to have been non-political before joining.

As for my family, they wouldn't be all that political.

[Gombeen]

I'd come from a politically aware, but not politically active, FG background. My mam would be a Green voter now but my Da is still a big FGer and has a strong dislike for the Greens now, for obvious reasons (They'll not be getting his nineth preference next time!). No one else in the family is politically active but myself.
I think I also had a few ancestors who were county councillors for the Farmers Party early in the 20th century.

[Macchiavelli]

My background is in the left wing struggle against capitalist oppression. Now I realise it's a struggle against a wider global oppression.

I started out with the Workers Party prior to Uni. Then I joined Labour Youth when I was in UCD. After leaving Uni and getting a full time job I drifted out of politics.

My interest was reawakened during the 2002 general election when I was pregnant with my first child. I suppose by then I started thinking about the future generations which is why the Greens made sense.

I canvassed for Trevor Sargent who was then my local TD. I bought my first house on the southside (well, west side really) but maintained an interest in the party. I was really actively involved for a few years before I joined, but since I had my second daughter I have had to take a back seat.

I do think that the Green Party is my final political resting place, so to speak. But like many others, I started out in left wing politics.

[Eddiepops]

Suppose I should have gone over my own history. Great grandfather was nationalist but also heavily socialist, grandfather was a one term CnaG TD for Meath but don't think his heart was in it, Dad would be left liberal but suspected of throwing a preference to McDowell on occassion. Mum is Welsh so not tied to any political legacy here but would be liberal left again. I've only been in the Greens but was a paper member of labour youth in college as well as the young Greens

[soubresauts]

I used to be convinced by the PDs...

Were you ever aware that Dessie O'Malley had the main responsibility for trying to build a nuclear reactor in Carnsore in the late 1970s?

... A lot of the older people seem to have been non-political before joining.

You could say that Friends of the Earth, the anti-nuclear movement, the peace movement, the feminist movement, and various other movements were non-party-political, but it was natural for those people to become active in the Green Party in the old days, especially given the way the GP operated -- consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical, no leader, and so on.

These days it's hard to see differences between the GP and the other parties.

[Pidge]

I used to be convinced by the PDs...

Were you ever aware that Dessie O'Malley had the main responsibility for trying to build a nuclear reactor in Carnsore in the late 1970s?

Yes, I was. A party's policy in the 1970s isn't really relevant to that party in 2005/'06, though. Besides, I didn't previously care all that much about the environment.

... A lot of the older people seem to have been non-political before joining.

You could say that Friends of the Earth, the anti-nuclear movement, the peace movement, the feminist movement, and various other movements were non-party-political, but it was natural for those people to become active in the Green Party in the old days, especially given the way the GP operated -- consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical, no leader, and so on.

Thankfully, those self-indulgent days are over. And you're right, I didn mean non-party-political: my mistake.

[Auditor #9]

Pidge and other greens - politicians who admit they change. What a relief.

[Fnarr-Fnarr]

Neither of my parents were in anyway political, but both vote Green now.

Trevor nabbed me with I was just a little lad and I've been involved one way or another ever since.*
Couldn't really see myself in any other party - as I've grown up the things that the Green Party has been advocating have always just made sense to me.

*[size=7]This sentence is perhaps open to a number of interpretations that I wasn't intending![/size]

[Gombeen]

But like many others, I started out in left wing politics.

That's the stereotype certainly, but I have my doubts about that to be honest. Especially after reading the book on the party's history, A Journey to Change by Dan Boyle (available in all good bookshops at €17.50 ). I've found it interesting how broad and politically moderate the background of many high-profile members of the party are.