"The spiritual content of Green politics - which unfortunately is not expressed,
and is almost opposed, in the party structure - means understanding how everything is
connected and understanding your relationship with planet Earth in daily life.
We've become so divorced from our ties with the Earth that most people don't even
understand what the Greens are fighting for. With the holistic sense of spirituality,
one's personal life is truly political and one's political life is truly personal.
Anyone who does not comprehend within him- or herself this essential unity cannot
achieve political change on a deep level and cannot strive for
the true ideals of the Greens." - Petra Kelly

"I propose that each individual, both alone and in his/her immediate circle, cultivate
the sense of restlessness and readiness for the general change in consciousness.
Let us withdraw not only our votes from the Great Machine and its servants.
Whenever possible we must altogether stop playing that game, and we must gradually
incapacitate everything which runs in the old direction: military installations
and freeways, nuclear power stations and airports, chemical factories and large
hospitals, supermarkets and factory-like educational institutions...
Let us reflect how we can feed, warm, clothe, educate, and keep ourselves healthy
independently of the Great Machine. Let us begin to work on it, before it has
total control of us, concreting us in, poisoning us, suffocating us, and sooner
rather than later subjecting us to total atomic annihilation." -Rudolf Bahro



To return to the beginning for just one moment, I suggested in the context of "What Is Green Fundamentalism?" that we are faced today with three basic issues that must be considered in concert with each other - that is to say that they are interdependent. These three are: The Five Limits, the need to go beyond anthropocentrism and patriarchy, and the ultimate necessity to make a fundamental transformation in one's own being.

So far, there is nothing overtly political about this agenda - except insofar as it rejects "politics as usual" on the highway of Industrialism. What might be a truly fundamental Green political response to all that we have discovered?

In an article titled: "Implications of Industrial Collapse for Green Politics", Patrick Eytchison (Redwood Coast Greens) makes these recommendations for "changes in Green strategy adaptive to the new reality he says is:

"characterized above all by global ecological crisis of production. Several interlocking factors
of deterioration are involved in this but primary will be a world depletion of fossil fuels.
Inevitably, this will be a period of turmoil and trial, but it can also offer significant
opportunities for the Green Movement, but only if the true nature of the crisis is understood."

Mr. Eytchison continues:

"Since the fate of both modern industry and the world's human population rest; ultimately on petroleum energy, what awaits us over the coming century is a disintegration of the present industrial system and a die-off perhaps equivalent to the Black Death of Europe's 14th century, but on a global scale. This may sound grim but it should be kept in mind that it was the 14th century plague deaths in Europe that brought about the restructuring of social/labor dynamics that was in part responsible for the rise of pre-industrial capitalism. It is certainly possible that the social and economic democracy for which the left has been struggling for the past 200 years may only be possible through such a catastrophic ecological crisis. This can never happen spontaneously, but only with human initiative.

"In his last published work, Avoiding Social and Ecological Disaster, Rudolf Bahro, anticipating a world crisis on the scale indicated above, called for a "Salvation Council " an elite ecological-spiritual leadership which would guide world governments through a period of biospheric breakdown. This notion has, obviously, all of Bahro's well-known faults but it does possess two profound merits:

1. Open recognition of the crisis in its full force; and,

2. Recognition of the need for some guiding political instrument during the crisis.

No one else has had the nerve to say these things as directly as Bahro did, bringing the issues to center stage for open discussion and debate. This is a considerable gift Bahro left a movement he helped found. After all, during an extended social catastrophe, individuals and families caught up in it typically do not experience crisis as crisis. Rather, it becomes everyday life, to be dealt with as best one can. But this is the lack of a broader awareness that leaves the masses vulnerable, an exploitable labor resource regardless how bad material conditions become. This vulnerability of the people at large is only countered by the existence of a radical party around which suffering can rally. This is a fundamental organizing fact that should be recognized.

Of course, the point I am leading to is that the Greens can, if we have the political skill and courage, become the guiding council Bahro called for... a tough, democratic, radical party ready to articulate the disaster and offer leadership through it."



So we must ask ourselves some important questions:

As Greens, how are we doing?
Has the "rank and file" grasped the nature and seriousness of our predicament?
Is our Green political leadership willing and able to articulate the fundamental issues we face? Are they doing so?
Have we fully grasped the nature of the transformation we need to make, for the survival of
our species and perhaps all life on earth?
What is our vision of the new world?



* Highly Recommended *


"On Revolution" Hannah Arendt The Viking Press 1965

"The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex" Dr. Helen Caldicott The New Press 2002

"Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire" Chalmers Johnson Henry Holt and Company 2000

"Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond" Rahul Mahajan Seven Stories Press 2003

"The New Crusade: America's War on Terrorism" Rahul Mahajan Monthly Review Press 2002

"Our Word is Our Weapon: Selected Writings" Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos Seven Stories Press 2001

"Stupid White Men... and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation" Michael Moore Regan Books 2001

"The Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis" Bill Moyers Seven Locks Press 1988


"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" Greg Palast Pluto Press 2002

"A People's History of the United States: 1492 - Present" Howard Zinn Perennial Classics 1999