Blue-green alliance
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Core topics
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A Blue-green alliance describes an alliance between political parties and other organizations. It has several different meanings that may be evidence that green politics is "neither left nor right", and can ally with either in a given context.
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[edit] Canada
The Green Party of Ontario and to a lesser extent, the Green Party of Canada are considered "blue-green" because they are more economically centrist or even right wing. See Blue Greens.
[edit] Ireland
On 13 June 2007, the Irish Green Party / Comhaontas Glas agreed to a coalition with Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, going into government for the first time in their history. However, although they are a centre-right party, Fianna Fáil use green (Ireland's national colours) to represent themselves, the PD's do use blue, but they are economic liberals.
[edit] New Zealand
The now defunct Progressive Green Party was a political group with a strong environmental focus. It was closely aligned with the centre right National Party. The "blue-green" Progressive Greens were contrasted with the better-known "red-green" Green Party, which generally takes a left-wing position. (A third group, the Green Society, rejected both "blue-green" and "red-green" politics.)
[edit] United Kingdom
In the context of United Kingdom politics, it refers to a possible alliance on certain issues between the Conservative Party and ecologists or environmentalists such as those found in the UK Green Party. This alliance may occur as a result of the Conservative view that market economics help preserve the environment and a tendency toward Deep England views of pastoralism, and the Green view that profit is not anywhere near as much of a threat to natural systems as debt. However, the UK's various green parties are usually considered to be leftist greens, and coalitions with the Conservatives such as on Leeds City Council have proved unpopular with the parties membership and voters.
[edit] United States
In the context of the politics of the United States, the term refers to alliances between labor unions and environmentalists, and sometimes specifically to cooperation between American Greens and blue-collar labor activists. The core issue of this alliance is opposition to globalization and to free trade, and it was significant in the candidacy of Ralph Nader in the 2000 Presidential election, as Nader was endorsed by some labor organizations (the overwhelming majority of labor unions and environmental organizations are loyal to the Democratic Party and endorsed Al Gore).
It also continues to be used more generally to refer to any efforts at coalition-building between environmenalists and labor, as with the famous "teamsters and turtles" politics of the WTO Meeting of 1999 and the continuing anti-globalization movement.
The BlueGreen Alliance (BGA),[1] a national, strategic partnership of environmental groups and labor organizations working together to promote clean energy jobs in a green economy. Launched in 2006 by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, BGA has since grown to include the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Wildlife Federation (NWF), Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), United Auto Workers (UAW), and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The Blue Green Alliance unites 14 million members and supporters in pursuit of good jobs, a clean environment and a green economy. Other relevant organizations include the Alliance for the Sustainable Jobs and the Environment and the Apollo Alliance, a subsidiary of the Blue Green Alliance that promotes green jobs based on alternative energy.
The first use of Blue-Green Alliance as a political affiliation in a US election was during the 2005 City Council Primaries in Minneapolis, MN. Tom Moore ran in the primaries, earning 2.65% of the vote.[2][3]
[edit] See also
Non-environmental:
- Pan-Blue Coalition and Pan-Green Coalition, which refer to political constellations in the Republic of China on Taiwan; the colours here have different meanings
[edit] References
- ^ bluegreenalliance.org
- ^ Scott Russell. [1] Lacking incumbent, Ward 10 race is wide open. SouthwestJournal.
- ^ City of Minneapolis. [2] 2005 Official Primary Report. September 13, 2005.
