As we’ve covered, Reform have been having a nightmare trying to sign up suitable candidates for the local elections. The problem is that anyone who’s suited to Reform is probably not well matched to broader public opinion, which is why we keep getting candidates like this:

Quite the quote. https://t.co/nDZelXynf1 pic.twitter.com/PHWHcGo9aE

— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) April 1, 2026

Reform’s Welsh-Russian axis

John Clark is one of Reform’s candidates for the Welsh Senedd. To be absolutely fair to him, he wasn’t thanking Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine; he was thanking him for engaging in “dialogue”:

There are still a couple of problems, of course. The first is that Putin wasn’t engaging in peace talks; he was chatting with right-wing US political commentator Tucker Carlson. When Putin has engaged in actual peace talks, he hasn’t engaged very meaningfully – hence the war raging on.

The other problem for Clark is that you can’t be thanking politicians for engaging in discussions in the UK. Remember when the media crucified Jeremy Corbyn for five years because he held talks with Hamas and referred to them as “our friends” in an effort to encourage dialogue? The right certainly played that up, so this is the bed they’ve made for themselves.

It doesn’t help that Reform have previous issues with their Welsh politicians being overly favourable to Russia. This was most notable with Nathan Gill (former leader of Reform Wales), who was sentenced to ten and a half years for taking bribes to talk positively about Russia in the European parliament.

Reform Exposed unearthed some more tweets too, including this one:

Look, we didn’t like Rishi Sunak either, but the above phrasing suggests that Clark just wanted to praise Putin. The same can be said of this:

You can’t form your opinions by taking what your opponents say and just thinking the opposite.

Sides

To be completely fair to Clark, he has talked about the war in terms like the below, which is certainly less head-banging than some of the people on either side of the war:

If Ukraine escalates, then Russia will escalate too, and the cycle of violence will continue. Far too many people have died already. It’s time to look for a diplomatic solution.

— John Clark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 (@TJohnClark) March 23, 2024

Digging deeper, he tweeted the following about Trump in 2024, but doesn’t seem to have said anything about Trump’s catastrophic war against Iran:

Trump is the only President in recent history that did not start any wars. Give peace a chance, Trump 2024.

— John Clark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 (@TJohnClark) January 16, 2024

Have the neo-cons been reduced to random name-calling? Are you upset that Trump didn’t start any wars?

— John Clark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 (@TJohnClark) January 16, 2024

Personally, if we’d been taking in by Trump’s ‘peace candidate’ shtick, we would have corrected the record when he started invading other countries, but that’s just us.

Clark also tweeted the following, suggesting his anti-war feelings are really pretty selective, because Trump conducted all sorts of belligerent acts in his first term:

You’re not fit to polish Trump’s boots @campbellclaret. How is that Iraq war going? Remember David Kelly, warmonger?

— John Clark 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧 (@TJohnClark) August 25, 2023

Differences

It’s obviously the case that Western nations’ relationship with Russia became unduly strained as a result of the US maintaining reflexive Cold War politics. At the same time, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was an absolute travesty. As Joe Glenton wrote for the Canary in 2022:

Less than 48 hours into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and so much remains unclear. Will Russia occupy? Will NATO respond militarily? What are the risks of nuclear escalation? But one thing should be very apparent. Looking to either NATO or Russia in search of a good guy in all of this is deeply naïve.

On the one side we have the Russian regime. Viciously illiberal and oligarchic, it’s a model of authoritarian capitalism. Determined to reclaim its lost imperial status, it’s as willing to bomb Ukrainian cities as it is to batter its own courageous anti-war protestors off the streets of Moscow.

Advertisement

In NATO, we have an organisation which today functions as a beard for US imperial ambitions. It comes with a bleak history of supporting fascists in Europe and of the kind of brinkmanship which has brought us to where we are today. It’s also played a direct part in the disastrous wars in – to name just two recent examples – Libya and Afghanistan.

Reform politicians keep giving the impression that they like Russia for the same reason they like Donald Trump; because the imperial powers are the bigger kid, pushing the smaller kid around.

And let’s be real; picking on the little guy is Reform’s policy platform in a nutshell.

Featured image via World Economic Forum (Flickr)

Pro-Palestine campaign group Mothers Against Genocide are among those calling on Dublin’s National Concert Hall (NCH) to cancel a charity event which will raise money for Magen David Adom (MDA). MDA are an ambulance charity based in so-called ‘Israel’. Multiple human rights groups have accused the group of failing to provide medical care to wounded Palestinians, resulting in their deaths.

Mothers Against Genocide say:

The National Concert Hall has reinstated a booking for a fundraising event linked to an Israeli ambulance service with a documented record of denying medical care to Palestinians.

This is a clear violation of medical neutrality and basic human rights. It comes in the context of ongoing violence where healthcare workers and emergency responders have been systematically targeted.

A publicly funded Irish institution must not provide a platform for organisations complicit in apartheid and genocide.

Advertisement

They are encouraging people to email the venue and voice their opposition to the event. Here is the link to do that (it will redirect to your email provider). The fundraiser is currently set to go ahead at an undisclosed date.

Genocide supporting politicians intervene to reinstate Zionist fundraiser

The event is being organised by the insufferable Alan Shatter, a staunchly Zionist ex-TD. He is the current chair of Magen David Adom Ireland. The Irish Times reported that the NCH initially booked the event, then:

…revoked the booking on the basis that the national cultural institution was politically neutral.

However, the fundraiser is now back on, seemingly in part due to intervention from senior politicians. At virtually every turn, the current Irish government has sided with the Zionist pseudo-state. The Times report says:

The disputed event is now set to proceed on an unconfirmed date, but only after NCH board talks and discussions with Irish diplomats and the Department of Culture.

Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan is understood to be annoyed at the way the matter was handled by the concert hall, which said it “misunderstood” the nature of the charity but has since changed its stance.

Advertisement

Serial abuses of ambulance charity

A doctor at the scene said that, with the ambulance at the scene, a paramedic requested an ID card from Musa:

While the patient was in pain. I had never seen anything like it – it was very strange.

Very strange and very illegal. As Euro-Med point out, it is:

…prohibited…under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Article 5 of the convention obligates all signatories to work to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law—including regarding access to medical care.

Media again ignores accusations against Zionists

In another example of the extraordinary deference to Zionism which legacy media continues to exhibit, The Irish Times has no mention of the accusations against MDA. The media outlet instead is happy to parrot the charity’s own propaganda, describing it as:

…a voluntary ambulance service, medical care and treatment for persons irrespective of their nationality, race, religion, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or political affiliation.

Even if MDA were doing their job properly, sending them money is still pumping funds into the settler-colony’s economy. The salaries of their 3,500 staff will be taxed by the ‘Israeli’ government, who will then use that money to buy the weaponry used in the mass murder of Palestinians.

The BDS movement calls for non-association with any ‘Israeli’ organisation that is not avowedly anti-Zionist. Strict adherence to this criterion is one of the few ways of holding the rogue entity to account while our ruling classes and media fail to do so.

Featured image via the Canary

The US has denied that it’s planning a ground invasion of Iran. Despite this, there have been signs that the US is preparing for what will undoubtedly be another catastrophic land war. One of the latest is that US troops are telling strippers that deployment is imminent:

AMERICA DECIDES ‘26: Who do you trust when it comes to whether the troops are getting deployed?

OSINT strippers or manifesto-publishing access journos? pic.twitter.com/BBsIw5Z4Po

— ParaPower Mapping (@KlonnyPin_Gosch) March 29, 2026

Iran ground invasion signs

In the video above, influencer Charm Daze says:

So I work at a strip club next to several military bases and something I have noticed lately is all the military guys are coming in and they’re spending all their money… It’s sad. They’re like kind of depressed, and they’re like just coming in like ‘oh yeah, we’re gonna have fun like we’re getting’ – what is it called? Deployed? – ‘like we’re getting deployed next week…

I don’t want to spread misinformation or anything, but it’s just like, a lot of them are really kind. And to see these young guys that look like my pinky toe, they’re so – they’re like fetuses – coming in and then dancing with them and then being like, bye.

It’s actually making me emotional.

It’s fucked up.

In response to the above, a military commenter advised troops not to tell their secrets to their strippers, barbers, etc:

This stripper has singlehandedly caused an OPSEC crisis and panic amongst ex-military careerists.

OSINT strippers, hold the line! Double your Army brass seduction efforts! https://t.co/iA8g88pIFL pic.twitter.com/8jI0OScRDr

— ParaPower Mapping (@KlonnyPin_Gosch) March 30, 2026

The problem, of course, is that many of these troops will feel like their lives are being thrown away for the benefit of oil executives and Jeffrey Epstein associates. As such, why should they care about keeping the empire’s secrets?

Featured image via Charm Daze (Instagram) 

A heroic activist alleged to have been one of three people who spray painted a US military warplane at Ireland’s Shannon airport has said Palestine campaigners need to escalate beyond “marches, speeches and rallies”. 

Conan Kavanagh has been charged with:

…criminal damage of the main body of a Boeing 737-700 belonging to the US Navy Reserve at Shannon airport on November 22nd.

Police say he and his comrades crashed through an airport barrier before making their way to the warplane used by the United States military for its global terror campaigns. They are then alleged to have used a “modified fire extinguisher” to douse the offensive object with green spray paint. Showing the extent to which the Irish government will go to protect its US master, Irish soldiers aimed guns at the non-violent activists.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Cavanagh said:

I took part in the action out of a general frustration with the Irish establishment and society.

He continued:

For a country that prides itself on a shared history of colonialism and resistance, I think we’re incredibly limited in how we express support for the Palestinian people.

A lot of Palestinian activism in Ireland is centred around marches, speeches and rallies, which while good needs to be escalated upon with more actively disruptive protests if we hope to actually force the hands of the state.

Palestine direct action: Shannon hit several times, but more needed

There have been four incursions into the genocide-enabling airport since March 2024, including three in the last year. In the first one on the 30th of that month, three activists got on the runway with a banner which read “US military out of Shannon”. On 1 May 2025, three activists are alleged to have again used a van to breach the airport perimeter, though a trench prevented further progress. 16 days later, another trio got into the facility and spray-painted a US military-contracted Omni Air International Boeing 767 with red paint.

More must be done to match the scale of criminality, however. The airport has for years been a key refuelling point for the US empire. Shannon Watch details this feeble surrender to American militarism, stating that:

Since 2002 close to 3 million US troops have gone through Shannon Airport.

Shannon is also used as a means to ferry munitions across the world. The Irish government has to grant exemptions for overflights or landing at the airport. Shannon Watch show that 1354 of these were issued in 2024. Al Jazeera quote Irish senator Alice Mary Higgins saying:

…it is known that the largest number of exemptions have been sought by Germany and the United States.

The Ditch has reported the Irish government admitting that Shannon has been used to ferry munitions – the tools of genocide – from the US to so-called ‘Israel’. Lately, warplanes have been landing at Shannon before heading on to Germany’s Ramstein Air Base. It is the main US staging post for its illegal assault on Iran.

The Irish government has been unwilling to carry out inspections of planes to see if they are carrying weapons likely to be used to carry out war crimes. This is unsurprising for a government determined to completely end Ireland’s always imperfect position of neutrality. Taoiseach Micheál Martin has been enthusiastically covering for Trump’s mass murder, including during a truly pathetic display at the White House on St Patrick’s Day.

Promising escalation against Collins and GAA

Al Jazeera also spoke to Aine Ni Threinir, who was arrested following the March 2024 action. She agreed with Kavanagh, saying opposition to the US military presence at Shannon:

…should be something that we all mobilise strongly around.

Ni Threinir said people “absolutely could do more”. She acknowledged the risks when the criminal Irish state is determined to invert reality by prosecuting activists attempting to uphold international law.

The South of Ireland has seen increasing use of direct action in the last year. Activists have repeatedly targeted the Cork offices of Collins Aerospace. The company transferred munitions to the Zionist entity via Shannon. On March 30 campaigners from Palestine Action Éire improved the premises’ facade with the use of a hammer and spray paint can. Two activists from the group are alleged to have caused £100,000 of damage during an action on 13 October 2025. In the supposedly more radical North, those backing Palestine are yet to hit equivalent targets such as Aldergrove airport or the companies Act Now named as helping manufacture F35 warplanes.

The effectiveness of direct action was seen again when campaigners took over a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) conference at Croke Park. They were opposing the continued use of Allianz as a sponsor, who help insure Zionist land thieves taking Palestinian territory. The pressure resulted in GAA boss Jarlath Burns being provoked into making tone-deaf comments comparing the occupation of the GAA building to the occupation of Palestine.

The sporting organisation’s continued resistance to dropping Allianz suggests direct action will be needed again. Similarly, the Football Association of Ireland must be shown they face a cost if they continue with their plan to play the Nations League match against the genocidal apartheid pseudo-state.

Featured image via the Canary

New analysis has raised growing concerns about energy market volatility and its impact on the global economy. 350.org is urging governments to go further and tackle the root cause of rising costs: fossil fuel profiteering.

The organisation’s intervention follows a communiqué written by G7 Energy and Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. The G7 group recently held a meeting online, which reaffirmed the need to closely monitor the impact of surging energy prices on households and markets. But without action being taken on extraordinary corporate profits, these efforts risk falling short.

Profiteering impacts the cost of living

Recent market activity highlights the scale of the issue. Energy giant Total is reported [paywall] to have monopolized crude shipments from the UAE and Oman last month, securing around 70 shipments. By stockpiling oil during escalating tensions in the Gulf, the company is estimated to have made $1 billion in profit in just one month, as Murban crude prices surged from $70 to $170 per barrel.

The analysis by 350.org shows that $100 billion has been siphoned from ordinary people to oil and gas companies due to soaring energy prices. With less oil available on the market, companies like TotalEnergies are able to exert outsized control over supply, selling to the highest bidder, likely overseas markets, rather than helping ease pressure on energy bills for households already struggling with the cost of living.

Fanny Petitbon, France Team Lead, said:

It is obscene that companies like TotalEnergies are making enormous profits from war, while ordinary people’s lives are being shattered and the world faces a spiraling economic crisis. At a time of such profound human suffering, no company should be allowed to exploit chaos and conflict for financial gain. The G7’s deafening silence on these windfall profits speaks volumes, signaling a failure to hold corporate greed accountable while the rest of the world pays the price.

Coordinated international action is needed

Advocates are calling for coordinated international action to introduce windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies benefiting from crisis-driven price spikes. Revenues raised could be used to support vulnerable households, accelerate the transition to renewable energy, and fund recovery efforts in regions affected by conflict.

Petitbon added:

The principle is clear: extraordinary profits made in times of crisis should be redirected for the public good, not concentrated in the hands of a few.

This intervention follows the submission of a letter by 40 UK civil society organisations, who are similarly calling on the government to introduce new domestic levies across various war-profiteering industries.

Islamophobic chants by Spanish fans during a friendly football match against Egypt have sparked outrage. Stadium management were forced to intervene repeatedly to halt the racist behavior.

During the first half, some fans chanted offensive phrases, most notably “If you don’t jump, you’re a Muslim,” and booed during the Egyptian national anthem. The chants were repeated on several occasions.

Islamophobic chants

Observers at Espanyol’s stadium in Barcelona reported that organizers displayed a warning message on the stadium screens during half time, which was also read aloud by the stadium announcer, urging fans to stop the Islamophobic chants. The warning was repeated at the start of the second half, amidst continued booing from attendees.

In its first official response, the Spanish Football Federation condemned the incident, emphasizing in a statement published on its official social media accounts its categorical rejection of such behavior. The statement read:

The Spanish Football Federation stands against racism in football and condemns any act of violence within stadiums.

And Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente called the chants “intolerable” and said those responsible:

must be removed from society, identified, and kept as far away as possible.

The match was part of both teams’ preparations for the 2026 World Cup, scheduled to be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, for which both teams have already qualified.

The match saw the participation of Lamine Yamal, a player of Moroccan descent and a Muslim, in the Spanish national team’s starting lineup. Observers considered the chants to have implications beyond the realm of sports, reigniting the debate about the rise of hate speech in European stadiums.

Featured image via the Canary

A group of young trans activists have used guerrilla gardening to protest transphobic revisions drafted in the Department for Education’s new ‘Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) 2026‘ document.

The activists planted an array of blue, pink and white flowers, carrying soil-filled suitcases to the site, which were displayed to reveal the message:

Let trans kids bloom.

New guidance

This floral protest followed the publication of new guidance from the Department of Education (DfE), which aims to limit social transition in school, prioritising the opinion of parents and teachers over the wellbeing of trans kids.

It is a document that makes little fanfare about children who identity as lesbian, gay or bisexual, but insists that children who question their gender are likely going through a phase, noting:

It is common for children to engage in activities that are less typically associated with their sex… Sometimes young children also go through a period of questioning their gender but for the majority this will not continue into adulthood, while a small proportion may continue to question their gender and this feeling may intensify into puberty.

Although the document recommends that schools and colleges should “maintain flexibility and avoid rigid rules based on gender stereotypes”, it is advised that some forms of flexibility be encased in medicalised bureaucracies.

On this basis, the guidance emphasises that schools “should not adopt any changes relating to social transition unless a decision has been made by a school or college in consultation with parents or carers.” Instead, schools “should ensure that [a child’s] decision-making process is documented and records are kept.”

The document also defers to the widely criticised Cass Review, published in 2024.

Trans kids speak out

One of the suitcases displayed by the activists contained testimonies from trans kids about the life-changing benefits of being able to socially transition in school:

Social transition, especially at school, has heavily impacted my life. Before I socially transitioned, my school attendance was awful, and when I was in, I avoided all interaction as much as possible.

I hated school, and I hated feeling forced to be reminded of my dysphoria at every second.

I socially transitioned at school multiple years ago now, and I am doing so much better. I feel more able to express myself, and going to school feels significantly less terrifying. Now that I’m not worried about being misgendered and deadnamed, I can actually think about my future with comfort.

It is such a simple improvement to the quality of my life, and I’m so grateful that I could have a school experience where I got the respect and support that I deserved.

There were also quotes from trans adults on how being unable to socially transition negatively impacted both their childhoods and later life:

Social transition as a kid would’ve let me be a kid – figuring out what kind of person I was and how I related to the world around me.

Instead, I only knew that I was different and weird, isolated and stunted. It took me a full decade of self-loathing in adulthood to begin unpacking everything and growing into myself in the way I should’ve been allowed to so much earlier.

Setting hoops for trans kids to jump through

Commenting on the document, a spokesperson from Trans Kids Deserve Better said:

This guidance would restrict trans kids’ autonomy to socially transition in school by questioning our knowledge of ourselves. The guidance would set hoops for trans kids to jump through in order to socially transition, taking a default stance of doubt (especially when a child is neurodivergent) and forcing meetings with parents, teachers, and potentially clinicians, to decide for a child whether or not they are able to socially transition.

This does not centre the wellbeing of trans kids, rather this puts us through scrutiny and invasive questioning when we need support. The guidance of course neglects to mention the negative mental health effects for being denied a social transition…

This guidance has been in the works for quite some time now – first proposed under the Tories in 2024. But this iteration is even more harmful… Coming alongside the recent ban on HRT for trans kids, this is an alarming escalation of policy, designed to prevent trans kids accessing even the most basic forms of gender-affirming care.

Advertisement

If this guidance were to pass, it would amount to state-mandated conversion therapy.

Trans kids want to be able to live carefree. Access to a social transition gives us space to develop and grow, rather than feeling trapped and isolated. To the Department for Education: show us that you hear our voices, axe the guidance, and LET TRANS KIDS BLOOM!

Consultation period

The revisions implemented in the new document are currently under consultation, with the DfE seeking feedback to be reviewed in April.

The consultation period began when DfE first posted the document online in February 2026. At that time, the Canary‘s Alex/Rose Cocker described how it “treats vulnerable kids as a threat”.

Featured image via Trans Kids Deserve Better

This article was updated at 8pm on Wednesday 1 April to reflect a response from the Green Party.

Hamza Egal, chair of Global Majority Greens and convenor of the Greens’ racism policy working group, has sent a searing open letter to the leadership of the Green Party, calling on them to address “racialised harm,” governance failures, and what he describes as the weaponisation of party processes. Egal also serves as an elected member of the Standing Orders Committee (SOC), demonstrating a wealth of experience with the party’s internal governance structures and procedures.

Addressing the letter to Harriet Lamb and Zack Polanski, internal governance branches, and the Green’s Parliamentary group, Egal states:

The Green Party of England and Wales has a racism problem. Not a perception problem. Not a communication problem. A racism problem — structural, documented, and sustained.

Egal goes on to say that he has exhausted attempts to address this “racism problem” in private and in clear frustration, he has brought this serious issue to the public’s attention.

Discussing actions already taken, he writes:

I have raised concerns through the party’s own channels, used its rules and structures, submitted evidence, and waited for responses that have not come. What I have received instead is exclusion, misrepresentation, and the weaponisation of process against me.

Egal repeatedly raises concerns throughout the damning letter about inaction and ignorance from leadership. This suggests that, whilst the party portrays itself to be anti-racist, it hasn’t been behaving as such towards its minoritised members and elected officials.

A pretty damning accusation for a party that portrays itself as acting in solidarity and that apparently celebrates its diversity.

Green party racism furore

Speaking to the recent Spring Conference which saw repeated filibustering and delay tactics to block the vote on landmark motion “Zionism is Racism”, Egal said he chose not to attend due to fear of suffering harassment for being a “racialised member”. A concern which was seemingly proven well-founded by members actively working against the anti-Zionist motion.

For instance, Egal informed that a timely complaint had been sent by an ally of Polanski, Andrée Frieze. Conveniently, it came immediately prior to conference taking place. This complaint targeted him for a “conflict of interest” regarding an email sent out requesting members support the motion when it came to a vote. This apparent attack came despite Egal having no involvement in said email, reinforcing the suggestion that tactics are afoot in the Greens which are hostile to anti-Zionist members.

Addressing the “repeated use of accusations of antisemitism” within the Green Party, Egal wrote:

A serious dimension of this pattern has been the repeated use of accusations of antisemitism — deployed not only against me but against many members of this party who oppose Zionism and its racist ideology and practice. For a Black Muslim man raising concerns about racism, governance, and Palestine solidarity, these accusations have taken on a particularly targeted character.

Adding:

Attaching accusations of antisemitism to a Black Muslim member raising concerns about racism and Palestine is not incidental. It is a racialised tactic — one that conflates political opposition to Zionism with hatred of Jewish people, deployed repeatedly to delegitimise my voice and my roles in this party.

Consequently, this situation draws strong similarities to the period under Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership. Corbyn’s Labour saw anti-Zionist socialist members expelled or sidelined due to a politically motivated antisemitism witch-hunt.

This heightens concerns that some within the Greens may be using unfounded allegations of antisemitism to discriminate against Muslim members.

Islamophobia concerns

Furthermore, Muslim members are increasingly facing toxic identity politics in the UK. Labour and right-wing parties have used Muslim communities as a political football, attempting to divide growing grassroots solidarity by portraying them as opposed to LGBTQIA+ people.

According to this open letter, it appears the Greens are not immune to hateful political game-playing either.

Critics have levelled allegations of transphobia against Egal, seemingly because he is a Muslim man:

I am also aware that SOC members who defended the constitution at Spring Conference are being publicly described as transphobes. That characterisation is false. It is another example of identity-based smearing deployed to silence those who challenge power inside this party.

The pattern is consistent: when process and procedure fail to silence dissent, identity-based attacks are deployed instead.

Advertisement

The letter further strengthens the suggestion that he is being targeted for being Muslim, detailing how transphobia allegations were directed at Egal after Joe Hudson-Small, co-chair of the Green Party Council (GPC), told approximately 900 members at the Spring Conference that Egal is “gender critical”:

That is not a neutral description. It is a politically loaded mischaracterisation by a senior party figure that causes direct harm to those named. By the party’s own legal standard, that should have triggered immediate accountability.

Instead there is silence. There is too often silence.

The Green Party says…

The Canary asked the Green Party about the letter. A spokesperson stated that firstly, they were checking to see if the leadership had received Egal’s correspondence. The spokesperson also noted that they were ‘looking into’ a request from deputy leader Mothin Ali for an investigation over the serious issues at play, here.

We also specifically asked the Green Party the following:

Egal highlights that whilst the messaging in statements from the party is antiracist, but institutional will to reinforce that antiracism within the party is lacking. How do you intend to confront this apparent racism with the Greens?

The spokesperson told the Canary:

We agree that we need to be confident that that we are matching our anti racist principles with fit for purpose internal processes. We know these can be improved.

This includes the collection of diversity data and this matter was discussed just yesterday by the Green Party’s Executive team. Data will be collected and analysed on staff members, councillors and candidates. When new members join the party, we will encourage them to register ethnic background. For candidate selection, when the latest round for the May elections are completed, we will analyse this data.

There are also plans in place to improve training on antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti racism.

A new Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion manager has been appointed.

Advertisement

Repair before it is too late, or explain why you won’t

This damning letter drew attention to how these behaviours are increasingly pushing out Black and Brown members, who “no longer believe this party means what it says”. Pointing out that the membership of the Global Majority Greens has reduced, Egal pleaded with the Greens to act:

Trust is not rebuilt with statements. It is rebuilt with action, accountability, and the willingness to confront power internally rather than only performing that confrontation in public.

Opposing the party’s exclusion practices, Egal issued a list of proposed actions, insisting:

The Green Party must now choose what it is. It cannot speak the language of justice while practising exclusion. It cannot claim anti-racism while ignoring the people building anti-racist policy inside its own structures. It cannot call itself a democratic party while treating the decisions of its own membership as advisory.

Egal powerfully finished with a pleading call to action that Green Party leadership must now heed:

Choose justice. Or explain, publicly and in detail, why you will not.

The Green Party had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. 

Featured image via the Canary