Zack Polanski, the new leader of the Green Party, came to Sheffield to speak about his bold politics and the plan to make hope normal again.
First, he attracted a big crowd of supporters and media at the bus station, where he announced the policy of free bus fares for the under-22s. He said, “We have a choice to make. We can either invest in giving millionaires and billionaires tax breaks, funnelling wealth upwards, or we can invest in people, young people in this instance. Buses are a huge part of our infrastructure, whether it’s for young people to get to training, education, or just to see your mates. It’s outrageous that it is so expensive. The Government were going to do this, it was one of their many U-turns, but it’s not just the Government its the Transport Select Committee who wanted this.” It works in Scotland and many European countries.
For me, it’s such an obvious policy. Bus companies are withdrawing services due to a lack of use, while people can’t afford to use them. Young people understandably desire their own car because public transport is poor. But our roads can’t cope with an ever-increasing number of cars, especially in urban streets where houses don’t have drives. Free fares will encourage people to use public transport and get that habit.
Zack then went to the Town Hall to meet Councillors, before speaking at a sold-out event at Victoria Hall, opposite the Crucible. 450 people packed into the hall. It’s very exciting times for the Green Party when they can’t find a venue big enough for the hordes that want to come.
His speech covered many issues, from taxing the rich (did you know 50 families own more wealth than 34 million people in this country?), the “unhinged” President Trump, the Palestine Hunger Strikers and the government crack down on protest, migrants and asylum seekers, the the importance of door knocking and the forthcoming local elections, backing Trade Unions, defending the National Health Service, Housing and so much more. Throughout the speech, he stressed his politics of care, for the environment, for the disadvantaged, for those with disabilities, for those on benefits or working in Trade Unions for fair wages, and for the LGBTQIA+ community. The video will soon be available on Sheffield Green Party’s YouTube Channel.
What spoke to me most were Zack’s accounts of his recent trip to Calais. Refugees and migrants arrive there for many reasons. Some are fleeing war and persecution, some are fleeing floods or droughts and the effects of climate change, which have made it impossible to be self-reliant where they live. And some are just looking for a better way of life.
Zack said, “Coming to the City of Sanctuary feels particularly pertinent to me because a month or two ago I spent a few days in Calais… nothing prepared me for how shameful the situation is.”
“I’ve never been to a war zone, but the situation that people are living in, the trauma you feel behind people’s eyes when you speak to them, will stay with me forever. Our Government are not just complicit, our Government are actually paying £476 million pounds for a three-year deal on militarisation and securitisation of Calais. What does this look like? When people have set up tents or water pipes to be able to get fresh water, the police come every 24 to 48 hours, slash the tents and pierce the water tanks so people can’t get water. It is nothing but cruelty.”
Isn’t France a safe country? Why don’t they stay there? Zack explained the harassment refugees face. To claim asylum in France, they have to get to Lille, a journey they are unlikely to have the money for. Police stop them and confiscate their phones and passports. Successfully applying for asylum entails 3 or 4 trips to Lille, and if they miss an appointment, they have lost their chance to claim asylum. “The phrase I heard over and over again in Calais is ‘we are not allowed to stay, and we are not allowed to leave. ‘ So when people get on a small boat, this is not their first option. This is the worst and last resort.”
So Zack’s point is, instead of spending all this money to make people’s lives completely miserable, why not spend it on offering hope, safe and legal routes to this country, giving asylum seekers the right to work and stopping the desperation of the small boats.
Sheffield Green Party Chair Kim Perry said “
“Sheffield Green Party is experiencing phenomenal growth. Since Zack threw his hat into the ring for leader of the Green Party, the Sheffield Green Party has increased from around 1300 members to over 3400! We are benefiting from the skills and experience of new members all over the city to help us bring our voice and message to the people of Sheffield. Bringing our bold politics; fighting for economic justice against the monopolies and billionaires, fighting for social justice for everyone in this proud Sanctuary city and environmental justice so that future generations will have a city and community they can survive and thrive in.”
The above is the Telegraph article, but as usual, there is so much more to say than the space in the Telegraph allows.
Here are some quotes from Zack’s speech.
Palestine
Let’s send solidarity to those who have ended the hunger strike, those who remain on hunger strike, and most of all lets send our solidarity to the Palestinians. It’s time to end the genocide.
Margaret Thatcher
Thatcher said “there’s no such thing as society” and both she and decades of Conservative governments sought to shut down our community centres, our libraries, destroy our green spaces, and stop building council housing. When they said “There’s no such thing as society”, they wanted and have been actually acting out, by working to destroy our communities. Now I say working to destroy, because what this room tells me tonight is you can never destroy community. No matter what they try to do, no matter how much they slash, there will always be the resilience of people to come together. And I’m not complacent about this. Not just about the hundreds of people in this room, but we know all the concerned people who are not in this room.
The Labour Government
They talk about the plight of the Palestinians, but they just say they’re really sorry about it. They talk about the fact that we have a climate crisis and a nature crisis. Well, they don’t really talk about the Nature Crisis. They just make war on bats and newts, and they talk about how sorry they are. They have to cut things and make difficult decisions. But why are they always difficult decisions for our working-class communities for unemployed people, disabled people, and trans people? When are we going to see difficult decisions for multi-millionaires and billionaires?
Simple Solutions
The Conservative Government and now a Labour government and their billionaire-owned media have spent incredible amounts of money to try and remove people’s imagination, to tell us that we don’t deserve better, that things can’t be different, that they are sorry that things are the way they are. That’s just the way it is. The number one thing we must do, both at the national level and at these local elections, is to inspire that imagination and people to have creative storytelling, art, music, and conversations, going from door to door to open people’s imaginations. Sometimes we work with the argument in the first conversation. But just given the idea, having that conversation, that things do not have to be this way, but there is mass inequality. So the poor have got poorer and the rich have got richer, is the beginning of that conversation.
Refugees
Say it loud and say it clear, Refugees are welcome here!
And the other thing that gives me more hope than anything is the fact that I know the British public is not cruel. We’re not inhumane. And despite the fact that so much of the media daily tells us “we are just out for self-interest” or “it’s just us, number one”, that’s not the experience. I have, I’m sure you have either. When I knock on doors or go to shopping centres, I meet people who are worried, who are concerned about their local High Street, about their communities, about the direction that the country is going. I also sometimes meet people who are concerned about the safety of their children. But we know that the problems here are not coming over by small boat. The problems here are a government that refused to invest in community services, refused to invest in the High Streets, refused to invest in education or English lessons, or to make sure that we bring people together.
Political Funding
I stand here at this microphone, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt, I have never taken a penny from private healthcare, from oil and gas companies, from arms trade companies, from gambling companies. There are not many front-line politicians who can say that. And that is absolutely outrageous. How has the bar become so low that it’s unusual to say that other Green Party politicians and I are funded by our members? But actually, to be funded by our members. 90% of our donations come from regular donations, so as I say, I’m really grateful that you’re here, and elections cost money. So if you’re able to, after this evening, please do consider donating to the Green Party.
Vested Interests
The Green Party only have two vested interests. To protect people and to protect the planet. And when you have those vested interests, it gives people very little to attack you with. But for the other thing, when you are going to doorknock, you are not going to lecture people on policy, you’re not going to give a speech. You are there to ask people’s opinions. What do you think about your local area? How do you think about voting? Is there anything you would want SheffieldGreen Party to know that you think we should be campaigning on?
Economic Growth
If you marry your babysitter, then the economy has lost a job. None of it makes sense. Until we start to go from the politics of care and the economy of care needs to run through everything we do. Sure, if we get economic growth, great. But what kind of economic growth are we looking for? Does the City of London, the financial market, need more money? Do property developers need more money to destroy green spaces and nature? To go to war with bats and newts. To build more housing that’s unaffordable, that no one will actually ever live in. Or do we actually go, let’build housing which is for people, let’s build council housing. Let’s build actual affordable housing. Let’s make sure we are centring people and putting the politics of care at the heart of everything we do.
The Health Service
If someone has broken an arm or leg, very often that’s taken seriously as it should be. But how seriously is it taken when a young person, not even a young person, an older person, says that they’re struggling with something? Or they need a chat? How can a waiting list be so long, and how did we allow the situation to happen, when funding has got so bad that people need to wait that long?
An Inclusive Party
What you get in the Green Party are people you can trust. People who haven’t made politics their entire life. But teachers, cleaners, nurses, doctors, whoever it may be from all walks of life, all jobs and then the unemployed people. Because unemployed people are people too. People with long-term health conditions. People with disabilities are people too. And in our movement, our movement of the 99%, everyone is included. And by the way, the 1% are also included, if you are a patriotic millionaire and you want to pay taxes more. So it’s about bringing people together with a bold politics and a politics of care. A politics that tells the truth authentically and genuinely, not afraid to call out injustice, does it with compassion, does it with connection and brings people together.
Trade Unions
Workers’ rights need to be at the front and centre of the Party. In terms of making sure that we have a decent minimum wage, but also that the people who are in trade unions are treated with dignity and care. That they have the right to organise, not just to roll back on the anti-trade union laws of the Labour Government but to go ever further back, much, much, further back. Because organising is a fundamental principle of our democracy.
Protest
When this government don’t like something, they ban it. They just take it out and it’s really struck me around the hunger strikers because we know that most of the time when people go to court, for things like Palestine Action, when there’s a jury they’re found not guilty, not just on Palestine Action but also on climate crisis, Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil etc because when a jury hears the basic facts, when there’s been someone standing in a road or handcuffing to something, because we have an existential crisis and politicians from most parties are refusing to do anything about it. They get why they are doing it, so they get let off… So it’s absolute cynicism arresting people for holding up signs saying, “ I support Palestine Action, I oppose genocide”.
And at the same time, they are proposing to abolish jury trials. This is not a conspiracy theory. It’s just quite obvious what this government is trying to do. I was going to say they are embarrassed and ashamed, but they are not, but they should be embarrassed and ashamed. Because when you look at where the polling is on the genocide, obviously, the genocide is bad and absolute. But even when you look at where public sentiment is, and unsurprisingly, people are not okay with seeing children and babies murdered. But obviously, anyone being murdered in a genocide is not okay. So this government know that they have been caught out, so the Government and the people are in a completely different place right now. So what they’ve done is they’ve banned protesting because they are trying to cover up the embarrassment.
Strikes for fair pay
The anti-strike laws are looking to do the same thing. We know that they’re trying to pit worker against worker. We know when people strike, like teachers and nurses, they are much more likely to get support. It’s really important that we also support the junior doctors. These are people who have trained for a long time, who want to look after our health when we might need it and whose wages have not risen in line with inflation. They’ve taken pay cut after pay cut. Obviously its not just Junior Doctors. But my point is that it’s not like there’s a group of people who are the workers. We are the workers. And so try to separate us from each other; this is what they are trying to do: divide and rule. And so when people go on strike, when people organise, people don’t want to strike; they are organising because they are demanding fair pay, they are demanding fair conditions. There is only one authentic response, and the response is solidarity.
Labour MPs are terrified of losing their seats
I think we are making massive progress. Now, that does not mean that everything’s okay. There’s still so much that needs to be changed. But even the latest government’s thinking is already changing. And I don’t think for a second that’s because they’re suddenly finding a conscience. That’s because some Labour MPs are absolutely terrified for their seats. Now I’m going to be discreet but not too discreet. Politicians talk to me all the time. What seat am I going to run in as an MP? And the truth is, I don’t know, but it will be a London seat, just because I’m already elected to the London Assembly, so it makes coherent sense as I represent everybody in London. So I’d just be taking a step as a Parliamentarian. One of the seats I live close to is Walthamstow, which is Sella Creasy’s seat. A left-wing Labour MP said to me, ever since you became leader, Stella Creasy has pushed herself and her politics more and more to the left, including the amendments she is signing, the things she is going to and the protests she is going to. So he said to me, “Could you name some other Labour MP’s?”
I’m slightly joking here But actually I’m being really serious too, that we know where politicians have not had a threat to their seats, well, they’ve not been worried about their seats because they have been in a so-called safe seat, then they never had to worry about representing the left. Now thats not a conspiracy theory, Kier Starmer said it, “the door is open, you can leave”. And he shouldn’t be surprised that many, many people left, and they are not planning to come back. And so the question is, what do we do with that momentum? How do we change it? This isn’t just theory, when you look at the fact that the child benefit cap was finally lifted, and this kind of cynicism of a Labour Government, who constantly say we are taking hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty, this is the right thing to do because it’s not right that children are in poverty. They are convinced this is correct. But what happened in the 18 months, when 18 months ago it wasn’t OK for children to be in poverty. I’ll tell you what happened. Green Party membership tripled, our polling tripled, and we’re becoming a more and more credible, serious electoral threat in seats all around the country. So to come back to the point I was making about not planning for green government anytime soon, as in this Parliament, what we absolutely need to do is make sure that we are winning Green MP’s all across the country, including in Sheffield, and making sure that we are winning those MPs so in the next Parliament, we can be looking either to holding the balance of power, or if we’re in opposition to holding the feet to the fire and pushing the Overton Window to keep growing Green MPs, to get to that next government. And we do that by being really clear about our values, by not prevaricating, obfuscating, not trying to be all things to all people, but actually being really clear about the things we stand for. Now, the flip side of that is that doesn’t mean, not that I would dare do this for a second, me telling you what to do because thats not how the Green Party works. For the people who don’t know, in this room we’re a fully Democratic member led organisation. There’s one member, one vote. So every year we have one or two conferences, both in person and remotely, where any single member can come up with a policy as long as they get together with some other members, put it down, put it into the system, it goes to conference, and it goes to a hand vote, it’s quite…beautiful in its of simplicity. In a room like this, people raise their hands to vote for something, or raise their hands to vote against something. If it’s voted against, it can’t come back for 6 months or a year, but if it is voted for, it is then Green Party policy. What’s really exciting is the rate at which we are growing it means that Green Party policy is not just going in a file somewhere; that’s going to be on the media as the thing we were talking about, and again, it is changing national discourse.
Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions and Anti-Semitism
I was really honoured to speak at the annual conference of the Boycott Divestmesent and Sanctions movement in London. I was on a panel with mainly Palestinian speakers talking about what’s happening, and we were lifting up the work happening in places like Bristol, which has declared itself an apartheid free zone. So they are stopping the goods that come from the settlements or illegal areas. In terms of the attacks, I think there are two answers here. One, it’s probably not escaped people’s attention in this room, but there have only beenfive Jewish people who have led British political parties in our history. And I’m one of those five. Now, that doesn’t mean, as a Jewish politician, I have any extra responsibility to speak out against Israel, but it does mean, as I’ve chosen to, that it does give it a nuance where I’m very, very clear that you can absolutely stand, and must stand with the Palestinians and not be anti-Semitic. And for those of, you who might not have seen in the last 24 hours, I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, the government have an anti semitism zhar, Lord John Mann, who, when Reform made an anti-Semitic cartoon of me, had absolutely nothing to say about it, when the Daily Mail printed an anti-Semitic caricature of me had nothing to say about it, but yesterday the anti semitism Zhar for the Labour Government decided to attack the only Jewish national party leader in ways that claim I am in some way anti-Semitic. Anyway, it’s a serious issue. And the rabbit hole of how weaponised anti-Semitism has become. Now, listen, I want to be crystal clear. Anti-Semitism exists; it’s really serious. I have experienced it. I have experienced it almost every day, in fact, online, where people, you know, I say something, and they go. “He would say that, he’s Jewish”. That’s clear anti-Semitism; there’s no kind of blurred line there. But the use, the cynical use of anti-Semitism to try to silence voices who are standing in solidarity with Palestine, has been deeply corrosive to our political discourse, and indeed has been used to try to silence people. We all have a responsibility to consider the words and phrases we use and to be sensitive. We should always say something or phrase something in a way that doesn’t aim to be offensive. But tell the truth. At the same time, I think the most offensive thing possible is a genocide, and a government that arms a genocide. So, at the same time as always encouraging us to consider our language, we should always be more inclusive because sometimes I think if you use derogatory language or inflammatory language, the point is missed anyway. But actually, if we can find ways of communicating truth and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, I think that that’s the only way we can take on the people who scare us. Stand on our truth, authentically and always tell the truth, even when or especially when under attack.
Is voting Green a wasted vote?
I was in Darlington the other day, in the North East, and a woman came up to me after the Q&A, and she said that her husband had been a Conservative member all his life, and she had joined the Reform Party and was now a Green Party member. My brain was like, what? Thankfully, my mouth didn’t do that! I just said, “Oh, can you tell me a bit more about that?” And she said she’d been watching me on TV, radio and other green Politicians and on podcasts. And they said, “Do you know what, there’s not a single thing you say that they can actually disagree with.
So I think part of it is cutting through and representing a group of people who often feel like they’ve not been seen, feel like they haven’t been represented. They have been left behind, and their communities have been destroyed for all the reasons I talked about tonight. So I think part one is making sure our members feel heard, even by unexpected people. I’m sure many of you who have door-knocked have had the experience where someone goes “It’s between you and the Reform Party”, and you’re a bit like “, I can’t work out where you’re going.”
But it is partly an anti-establishment vote. They don’t want Labour or the Tories. But part two is that they just want people who are going to tell the truth and challenge power and wealth. Now we know Reform are never going to do that. But they’ve done a pretty good job of storytelling and presenting themselves as challenging the status quo. So we know one of the things that a Reform curious voter can’t stand is the fact that Reform has been taking so much money from corporate donors. In fact, from 2019 to 2024, 2.3 million pounds, that’s 95% of Reform’s donations, were from fossil fuel companies, climate-denying companies, oil and gas, all of that kind of bad gang together.
And every time I bring that up with a Reform politician on a TV show, they don’t know what to do with it; they shut it down as quickly as possible. In fact, George Carlin had a famous joke about politicians being like racing car drivers. They should have their shirt with all their sponsors written across it. So I would just have Green Party member written there. Wes Streeting, Healthcare Secretary, with the number of private health care donors, he’d need several T-shirts, with some on the back as well.
Reform Voters are not our enemies
The second thing is that the people who are thinking about voting Reform aren’t our enemies. There’s a big difference between a Reform MP or the leader of Reform and people who are curious about reform. In fact, those are the people we need to care about. The people who have been abandoned by the system, who haven’t had a politics that ever represented them. So as much as I joke about going “WHAT”, when some says they are thinking about voting Reform, I do get it, I get it quite deeply, and I think we all need to feel the compassion for people who have been pushed to a place where you see Nigel Farage saying anything, and think that might be the solution to things.
We really need to make sure that in communities we are reaching out to people, and I say communities, specifically, because I don’t think social media is a place where we are going to win these people. I think that’s just more divisive. But actually having those conversations is how you bring people around. Mothin Ali, Green Party Co-Deputy leader, who was born in Sheffield, and is now in the Gipton and Harewills ward near Leeds. And he tells a powerful story about knocking on someone’s door and being called the P word.
And he would have been quite within his rights to walk away from that conversation. But Mothin, he’s a Yorkshireman, so he carried on the conversation, and by the end of the conversation, he was voting Green. Now, I’m not gaslighting anyone, to say it’s your job to talk to someone who is being racist and turn them around. But I think what Mothin’s story shows is the power of being able to just listen and have that conversation. Finally, in terms of wasted vote, I’d say to anyone who says it’s a wasted vote. It’s so obvious to me, which is never a good way to start a sentence, but it is obvious to me.
It’s so obvious to me that the only wasted vote is to go into a ballot box is voting for something you don’t believe in. Or maybe something you feel is the least of the worst options. But voting for something that supports genocide, child poverty, then U turns on everything possible, that offers nothing but wasted hopes and dreams, that offers nothing but tax subsidies for multi-millionaires and billionaires. That’s a wasted vote. A wasted vote is a vote for the Tories, 14 years of austerity. So the best vote you can ever make is to say, actually, if I vote for this and I convince my friends, my neighbours, and ok, strangers. I can’t say strangers in London, no one would actually talk to strangers and talk to everyone that you know, and thats not a wasted vote because it’s very obvious if enough people vote for a party, they win. So we can overcome this notion. We need to overcome this idea of barriers. And by the way, the best way to do that at a national level is to win at a local level.
That’s exactly what you are doing in Sheffield. Now I’m going to qualify that statement. Sometimes I hear politicians from other parties say, “We’ve got to win at the Council level because we’ve got to win an MP. There’s nothing more important than a local councillor. I really mean that. Most people’s first experience of politics, Prime Minister’s Questions, is them all screaming at each other, and going “that’s not for me”. The second experience, hopefully, is their local councillor, it’s the person they reach out to when they’ve got a problem with mould or damp on the wall, when they are worried about the Library cutting down, or they just want to protect the trees, or they want to make sure the street closes down to make child friendly spaces to play.
To have a local councillor who really cares and turns up, and even when they disagree, treats you like an adult with sensitivity and care. That’s the way to turn these things around, and that can never be a wasted vote.
Involving Young Working Class People
It’s always amazing to see young people, in particular at events like this and then get involved with asking questions. The second thing I’d say is I hear politicians all the time saying I’m so inspired by young people, inspired by the next generation, my argument is always, stop being inspired by young people and help them get into positions where they are able to get elected or to hold people to power and make decisions for themselves. We need to empower young people by giving them the confidence and the training to make sure that they can make decisions themselves. I know plenty of people in this room will know about the Young Greens, but if you don’t, then you will in a minute. If you want to see the Labour manifesto in say 10 years’ time, just look at the Green Party manifesto now, because usually they get round to it. It probably doesn’t work any more in the other direction, but it used to be that the Labour Party would just copy Green Party ideas. But if you want to see the Green Party manifesto at the next election, you can just go to a Young Greens meeting because they’re always talking about those ideas, like the one we had earlier about free public transport. There are those big ideas where we are not just pushing the Overton Window a little bit. They’re pushing me! And the whole party like as far as we can with good, credible ideas. And I think part of that is knowing that this planet is one we are handing to them, but the inequalities that we are facing right now are going to hit young people much, much harder than my generation or the generation before, whether it’s getting on the housing ladder. I mean, thats even a dream for most young people, even being able to rent at an affordable rent, which is exactly why we need rent control to stop the scourge of unscrupulous landlords. Well, it’s about making sure that we have free education so that education is a right, not a privilege. Whether it’s about investing in mental health, not just from around the eco- anxiety of the increasing climate crisis, but far too often, if someone breaks an arm or a leg or a long-term health condition, that’s taken seriously, (maybe) as it should be. But very rarely is the same therapy given to mental health. Particularly for younger people, so that “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” and all that nonsense. And so, in terms of what we can do for young people and particularly young working-class people, is make sure we are tackling inequality, and we can’t do that sustainably until we recognise inequality, like we were talking about earlier, when so much money and power is being hoarded.
That system cannot maintain itself. In fact, that system is close to societal collapse. And so that’s why we urgently need change. The only thing that is certain is that the status quo will not be maintained. So the question we all need in this room, particularly I’m afraid for the young people, those of us who are less young have an extra responsibility to do this for the younger people. If the status quo won’t be maintained, are we going to tip towards the far right, towards fascism, to what we see going on in the USA? Or if we also look at the USA, what Zoran Mamdani has done in New York, which is to show absolute solidarity to minority groups. To never shed an inch on human rights and on making sure we defend our freedoms and always bring conversation back to inequality, because ultimately, a small, tiny group of people have taken our power, our wealth, and they are trying to take our democracy.
The Health Service
I was in Cardiff at the weekend, and there was a woman who had worked at the NHS since 1983. She’d been in the Labour Party for about 28 years and just joined the Green Party. And this was the issue that kind of pushed her over the edge, which made her leap for a better future, because she ultimately said she was seeing people discharged over and over again who were not ready to be discharged. She was seeing people on hospital trolleys in waiting rooms who weren’t being given proper beds. And of course, the answer to this is very obvious. It has been managed decline, over a long period of time, and that’s been devastating. But during the pandemic, we saw the fatal consequences that can happen when we don’t plan properly, when we don’t make sure we are at capacity and resourced, and when decisions are made not by science or by medical professionals, but by Boris Johnson. Or we can replace Boris Johnson with any politician who was ultimately looking at profit rather than people. So, in terms of what we can do about it, but I just want to make this entirely clear, I think also there are lots of other suggestions around what a more holistic approach to this looks like. We know that budgets in councils are struggling because in councils, 80% of the budget is on adult social care. The fact that it is being pushed onto local councils, and then local councils have had their budgets stripped away. So they can’t even run the most basic services, and they are having to juggle adult social care, which also puts a burden on an already incredibly burdened National Health Service. And if this wasn’t grim enough and I’ll try and find some hope in a moment, I’m telling the truth first, it’s all being done for a very deliberate reason, which is for Government to poison the National Health Service and go, oh no, it is still going to be free at the point of use, but we’re going to outsource this bit to a private company. Or we are going to give Palantir this kind of data, because this part isn’t efficient or isn’t working. And all they are doing is taking our public money from the wealth creators. If we talk about wealth creators, lets talk about about teachers nurses, doctors, the people who are actually keeping the country moving, working, and instead they are going to privatise off to organizations that have over and over again been shown to be lacking in some of the most basic, humanitarian efforts when we talk about G4S or, any of the private healthcare companies that have been given these contracts.
I think the hope is that the public isn’t going to stand for it… even Nigel Farage kind of hints around needing insurance systems for private healthcare, but he won’t quite get out there and say it. And that is the reason, because we are all incredibly proud of our National Health Service in this country, I think people recognise that it’s underfunded. But it can be better, but actually it’s better than pretty much any of the alternatives. And when so much of the rest of the world looks to us as having the best healthcare treatment, or has done in the past, it seems absolutely outrageous that these gangsters are looking to dismantle it. Thank you. For anyone who does work in healthcare, thanks for everything that you do. I realise how difficult it must be working in a situation that is so underfunded, and thanks for everything that you do to keep me, our families and our loved ones healthy.
Trans Rights and challenging the narrative that minimises them.
We know in America, the gender critical movement was funded by fossil fuel giants in order to split the left and create conversations that became culture wars. We also know that when they talk about Zohran, it is important that we show absolute solidarity to all minority groups, including trans people. And at the same time, point out the fact that inequality runs right through our society, is affecting trans people and is affecting everyone. So let’s get on with tackling inequality.
In terms of how we challenge it, I think it’s the same question; it’s a different context obviously, but it’s the same question about Palestine, where people are trying to fight violence, you have to stand on your truth. I think you have to be really clear, trans rights are human human rights, trans men are men, trans women are women, non-binary conditions are perfectly valid, and they exist. And also, we need to make sure that we don’t allow trans rights to become an opposition to women’s rights. We know that violence against women and girls is an incredibly serious issue that faces a complete lack of funding, which we’ve talked about several times tonight. We also know that a woman facing domestic abuse or violence is much more likely to come from someone in the home, such as their own partner. Those are not problems caused by trans people, but far too often, the billionaire media has distracted and pointed down or punched down at trans people rather than pointing to the real problem. So externally, I think it’s about telling the truth. Internally I think it’s about making sure that we always organise all together and we’re not just on the rights of trans people, but people of colour, migrants, refugees, working class people, and we always make sure that the people with lived experience, the person who is the most marginalised in that group, shares space at the centre of that, so we are able to hear their voice. This isn’t about pitting groups against each other; it’s saying there is space for everyone here. For anyone who’s trying to divide us, let’s look at what the distraction is, and the distraction is almost always inequality. So again, solidarity to trans people.
You give me hope. What gives you hope?
That’s really kind. And it’s actually a really nice question to end on. I’m really touched by the fact that when I was riding my bike the other day, while I was at a red light, someone from Canada ran over to get a selfie with me before the lights changed. That’s gorgeous, it’s very lovely, but it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough.
No one is coming to save us. I can’t save people; no politician can save people. We can save ourselves. And that’s what gives me hope. That actually this is not about some kind of top-down mobilising or campaigning, but it’s actually about organising. It’s people coming together in their communities to be inspired. I get inspired by people I hear all the time, pretty much every day. Being inspired is great, and that’s a huge part of my role. But it’s what we do with that inspiration? Well, what I think we do is talk to our friends and neighbours, people in ourworkplaces, and we go, we are living in dark times. But it doesn’t have to be dark times. In the same way that it felt maybe a couple of decades ago, certainly when I was younger, that we were progressing, certainly on social justice, it felt like things were getting better. That was never a nemesis. We just talked about trans rights. We know that’s rolling back. Trans rights are the canary in the coal mine. That’s why whenever any minority group is under attack, we always need to stand together. But what gives me hope about this is I know enough people get that. Enough people care, and there is more than enough people power in this room, in Sheffield, around the country, who want things to be different. And that’s what I mean, that idea of mine a year ago that I imagine most people in this room would share. We didn’t quite know, but since September, things are building, and in the last month or two, things have really built; we are soaring in the polls like we never have before. Membership has tripled. What we are hearing loud and clear is that there is a huge and strong appetite for change, but that change cannot come from the top down. That change comes from courage, that change comes from community, and that change comes from the collective. And we are the collective. We are the people who are going to save ourselves. We are the people who can save the people we don’t yet know. It’s the language of care. It’s caring for people we don’t know yet, for no reason other than their people and that we are humanitarian. It’s caring about the fact that if we want peace, there’s nothing naive about talking about diplomacy. If we want a fairer taxation system, there’s nothing too idealistic about saying multi-millionaires and billionaires should pay a little bit more.
I’m gonna end on a strange note, but it feels important in this moment. Community Energy. Community Energy is not going to stop fascism. But far too often, communities feel politics being done to them rather than with them. And I think that’s why we are getting this big gap between where the politicians are and where the public is at. Things like community energy are amazing examples, where you can invest in the community, and that community then decides how the energy and money are spent. Now that’s great in itself. Community Power is great for tackling the climate crisis and great for good, cheap energy. And actually, I think it is a metaphor too, because I think when we have that literal power, whether it is community power in literally renewable power, or the power we have to campaign, that’s the power we can take on the far-right with. And I’m absolutely convinced, more than I ever have, that we are going to take them on, we are going to win, and that is how we are going to make hope normal again.
Dispute between Unite and GMB
The Star report on the day included a focus on demonstrators outside Victoria Hall from Unite and the Trade Union Socialist Coalition (TUSC) who were handing out leaflets complaining that Green Councillors had let them down. As a lifelong Trade Unionist, I was concerned about this, so I went to talk to one of the leafleters. First, I asked what he thought the Green Councillors could do. He explained that Cllr Peter Gilbert had been to meet them but hadn’t done anything since. I asked what he expected Peter to do, but the guy couldn’t tell me. I explained that I believed the dispute was between the two Unions. He said no, it wasn’t. So I told him I was very happy to listen to his explanation of why the dispute was not between two Unions. At this point, he swore and walked off! The Green Councillors have since informed me that their legal advice says they must not intervene in the dispute. I am still none the wiser about what they expect Green Councillors to do, and it is a shame they are kicking out at the Green Party when what is needed is mediation with the GMB. Even their own leaflet says “The Council claim they would accommodate a meeting, but only on the condition that all parties attend. The GMB Union has refused to attend, effectively blocking progress.”
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