Taking Action: Principles for a Municipal Green New Deal
The GPOAC has assembled a policy committee to develop the local programs and actions necessary to address the climate crisis.
Climate scientists around the world tell us we have fewer than 10 years to significantly reduce carbon emissions enough to lessen the effects of climate change. The Green Party of Allegheny County (GPOAC) has heavily considered our local role in offering solutions. The national Green Party’s signature plan, the Green New Deal (GND), has been catching on rapidly the past few years as celebrated media figures and even several Democratic candidates felt the need to acknowledge and address the climate crisis. While it’s terrific the plan is gaining widespread support, the GND is a national strategy that currently faces an uphill battle in Congress.
The Green strategy for change has always been a decentralized political revolution — that is, that change comes bottom-up from the grassroots, rather than top-down via national legislation. So, while the GND is a national vision we should all work toward, we believe we should set an example locally and chart a path forward for the GND even if the fact of national and state inaction. In that effort, the GPOAC has assembled a policy committee to define what a Municipal Green New Deal looks like for Southwestern Pennsylvania. We’ve begun with a conceptual question. What is a good agenda of policies and actions that can be taken by concerned residents of any small or large municipality to advance us toward our goal of a national Green New Deal? Multiple possible solutions to the problems facing us may exist: some better than others, some dead ends, so we need a guide to help us determine which are the best actions to take in the precious time left to make a difference.
Our Municipal Green New Deal (MGND) relies on five important principles based on the Green Party’s key values: ecological wisdom, social justice, non-violence, grassroots democracy, and decentralization. Every proposed municipal action we suggest should be in line with these principles; alternately, we should be very skeptical whether a proposed action is actually the right solution if it does not fully embrace these principles.
Let’s briefly discuss each principle and why they are critical to finding real, long-term solutions as part of a MGND.
Ecological Wisdom, at a simple level, recognizes our need for clean air and water to live — to breathe, to drink, to grow food. But deeper than just environmentalism, it tells us that humans are a part of nature, that humans and human society are the result of natural biology and evolutionary forces, and therefore we can live better lives by better understanding nature and applying ecological principles to our lives. We therefore reject the idea that humans are somehow separate from nature, or as skeptics would say, “a virus on nature.” Humans, more so than any other animal, have the potential to understand their actions and make wise decisions for the benefit of all nature. We recognize human society itself should be built on ecological principles of adaptability, diversity, cooperation, and mutual aid, and promote a sustainable economy that respects nature rather than attempts to exploit it. Humanity’s future is closely intertwined with the future of the planet; the best way to save the planet is to save humanity, essentially.
Murray Bookchin, an activist and early influence on the Green Party, made an important observation that our ecological problems are rooted in systemic social problems. As such, Social Justice becomes an important principle to ensure every action we take increases the recognition and protection of human rights. Only by defending human rights can we learn how to better protect the rights of all life. In particular, we are mindful to “an assurance that the poor and working class will not get hurt” during our transition to an ecological economy, which requires recognizing the irreducible minimum — that is, all people have a right to life irrespective of the amount of work they may perform. To deny anyone the right to food, shelter, clothing, or medicine, for any reason, is an unacceptable attack on their right to live.
True social justice requires the presence of peace, and therefore a society structured around Non-violence. Every action we take should support “the cessation of both personal violence and structural violence”. Ecological wisdom tells us that nature is also anti-hierarchical; for freedom and the protection of human rights, we must oppose hierarchical, patriarchal thinking that tends to oppress and inflect violence on others, especially women, children, and minority groups. We must also take action against racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination that exploit humans. Institutionalized, structural racism and sexism must be clearly identified and rooted out of our communities. We also must learn non-violent methods for settling disagreements and injustices — not with retribution and violence, but with openness and restorative justice practices.
No one chooses poverty for themselves; instead, decisions are made by others, without their input, that infringe on their human rights and result in poverty. Social problems therefore often stem from a lack of agency and self-determination. The principle of Grassroots Democracy demands all people have a direct say in all decisions that impact their lives, whether those decisions are made in government institutions or in the economy. In general, we should always seek to invert the usual power structures — the people should directly propose and vote on laws, ordinances, and rules, and elected officials should strictly handle administrative roles that simply carry out the wishes of the people. Elected officials shouldn’t be able to unilaterally create and enforce arbitrary new laws on the people. Direct democratic consent should always be required, not assumed.
Relatedly, we recognize true grassroots democracy requires that the people of the community be able to directly take action without seeking the permission of a central authority. Decentralization requires that decision making always be made at the smallest, most local levels possible. One-size-fits-all plans from a centralized authority generally have difficulty adapting to regional and local diversity, and so communities must be able to custom tailor solutions to individual needs, so long as those solutions are in keeping with our other values and principles. It’s ok to have a template, which is what we intend to create with our Municipal Green New Deal, but individuals municipalities should be expected and even encouraged to customize the template for specific needs — a centralized insistence on uniformity hurts our ability to be creative and solve problems, and in worst conditions, can even become authoritarian.
Considering these five principles together reminds us that “green capitalism” will be insufficient at really addressing ecological crises. Capitalism does not follow ecological principles — instead of cooperation, it promotes competition; instead of mutual aid, it promotes exploitation; instead of diversity and adaptability, it promotes uniformity and fragility (look how quickly the supply chain is collapsing under COVID-19). Capitalism does not recognize an irreducible minimum or a right to life; nor does it recognize grassroots democracy, instead only allowing investors with money to vote on business when such decisions may affect communities, regions, and even the whole planet. Clearly, a Green New Deal based in a capitalist system will still be exploitative of people and planet and continue to overproduce, pollute, and create poverty while destroying the planet. We conclude that our five principles require that our Municipal Green New Deal also be anti-capitalist in order to be successful.
The Municipal Green New Deal based in our five key principles must by necessity create a new type of economy that works for the people and public benefit rather than corporations and private profits. In future posts, we’ll explore some specific policy actions we can take to fulfill these principles, and not just save the world, but make it a better place for everyone.
Folks interested in learning more about this critical work can contact the GPOAC policy committee at policy@alleghenygreens.org.
Note to Readers: The Green Party of Allegheny County needs your support to continue our pursuit of people and planet over profits. Please consider making a donation. We also encourage you to get involved in Green politics.
