City Green Autumn Edition The newsletter of Birmingham Green Party November 2006

BIRMINGHAM GREEN PARTY Inside this issue: QUARTERLY MEMBERS’ MEETING and FUN(D)-RAISING MEAL! BGP Quarterly Members’ Meeting 1 Bournville Date: Saturday 9 December Newsletter Drop Time: meeting at 5.00 pm, followed by fund-raising meal at 7.00 pm BGP 2007 AGM and Location: Phil Simpson’s house, 55 Wentworth Road, Harborne 2 Fund-raising Lunch The meeting: Will include hustings and information on the ongoing Bournville campaign (more info about this on page 3). Also, Rianne C. ten Veen will be speaking on "Muslims and the Green Party". Green Party Makes 3 Rianne is a Muslim and an environmental activist who has recently the News! joined Birmingham Green Party. Among other things, she works in community radio (Unity FM), heading up an environmental Funding of Political programme called Home Planet. Parties BGP Member Under 4 the Spotlight— The meal: It’ll be another of our famous ‘bring and Joe Rooney share’ meals—so, please bring something to share, plus £5 to support Birmingham Green Book review: Party. Good food, good drink, good company—all Market, Schmarket 5 (Molly Scott-Cato) that, plus the good feeling knowing you’re helping to fund BGP! My Days at Conference For more information: ring Phil on 427 2945. 6 Do You Work in Solihull? NEWSLETTER DELIVERERS NEEDED!! Notes from Policy Conference 2006– 7 Alan Murie on Can you spare a couple of hours to help out on the Bournville Housing campaign? We’re delivering a newsletter to every household in the Ward—and that’s a lot of households. The more help- ers we get, the sooner we’ll be done, so please bring a friend (or three!) and meet us. Meet at The Rest House on the Bournville green (it’s the octagonal building in the middle of the green) on Sunday 26 November at 10.30 am The newsletter will provide information about Birmingham Green Party, our policies, and what we’ve been doing around the Bournville Ward. Autumn Edition Page 2

BGP 2007 AGM AND FUND-RAISING LUNCH

Date: Saturday 27 January Location: Welsh Congregational Church, Bath Street (off Queensway, not far from St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham city centre) Programme: 10.00 am Arrival and drinks 10.30 am AGM Agenda Introductions and welcome Written reports from officers: • Secretary (Hazel Clawley) • Treasurer (Phil Simpson) • Membership Secretary (Peter Beck) • Elections Officer (Peter Tinsley) • Media Officer (Barney Smith, plus Peter Beck, acting Media Officer from 28 September 2006) • Newsletter Editors (Anna and Stuart Masters) • Policy Coordinator (Alan Clawley) • Fundraiser/Social Secretary (Anna Masters) Other reports from key (non-officer) activists appointed by the Committee: • Website and e-group (Amanda Baker) • Bournville campaign team (Joe Rooney, Steve Austin) Election of officers for 2007: • Secretary • Treasurer • Membership Secretary • Elections Officer • Media Officer • Newsletter Editor • Policy Coordinator • Fundraiser/Social Secretary Further selection of prospective candidates for 2007 City Council elections. Close of meeting by 12.30 p.m. latest. 12.30 p.m. Fund-raising lunch (shared with folk arriving for the Regional AGM) [1.00 p.m. approx. at same venue - West Midlands Region AGM – all welcome.] EVEN IF YOU CAN’T MAKE THE AGM, PLEASE DO JOIN US FOR LUNCH!

Big thanks to Harry Eyles and Barbara Staples for organising the late- summer barbecue at Martineau Gardens! Their hard work and that of many helpers (especially Vina Beck) helped raise over £90 for BGP. If you missed this event, be sure to come out and support BGP at the upcoming winter barbecue, also to be held at Martineau Gardens. Watch your email inbox, or ring Harry Eyles on 353 2442, for more details. Autumn Edition Page 3

GREEN PARTY MAKES THE NEWS!

Anything I write now about Birmingham Green Party’s campaign in Bournville will be out of date by the time you read this issue of City Green. Things are moving fast, and it’s the Green Party that is pushing the action along. When you think “Bournville”, you think leafy suburbs, neat gardens, folksy houses, charming streets. But that’s not the full picture. There is also, on the southern edge of the ward, a run-down council estate, neglected for years. Blocks of flats have stairwells with broken windows, trailing electric cables, doors hanging off their hinges, intercom systems that don’t work. I was staggered when I saw the state of it – I didn’t know there was anything so bad still to be found in Birmingham – least of all in Bournville. No one on the estate knows what the future holds. Vague promises of redevelopment have been held out to residents for several years, but no action has been taken. The Green Party’s Bournville Campaign Team has supported local residents in demanding a public meeting to discuss the future of the estate. A promise was extracted (with difficulty!) from local (Tory) councillors to call such a meeting by the middle of November. The Green Party’s policy is to “help tenants and local communities to manage their own housing”, and to “work on bottom-up, community-led approaches to redevelopment and regeneration”. This is what we are doing on the Overbury Estate – watch the email messages (sign-up information on page 8) or phone Hazel (see below) for latest news! In the rest of the ward, the initial full canvass is almost complete. Thanks to all who have joined in, whether for one session or many. The figures look good. If we can keep up the momentum, do some more casework, and get out ward news- letters regularly, Joe Rooney may well be Birmingham’s first Green Councillor next May. What can you do? The next big task is delivering the first ward newsletter to every house in the ward—see page 1. We already have some volunteers recruited as we canvassed – supporters who will deliver to their own street. But we still need everyone who can help to contact Phil – before he contacts you! Email [email protected] or phone 427 2945. Other things you could volunteer for: • follow up some of the queries we’re getting from resi- dents as we canvass; • help with the final section of the first canvass; • write a Bournville Manifesto (based on the Birmingham manifesto – Alan will explain about this at the December Joe Rooney: future Birmingham meeting - be ready to volunteer!); Green councillor? • make green pennants to be carried on the sponsored Easter Monday walk round Bournville; • raise funds for the campaign. If you can help with any of this, contact Hazel by email on [email protected] or by phone on 772 716. Autumn Edition Page 4

THOUGHTS FROM A MEMBER A BGP MEMBER UNDER THE Funding of Political Parties SPOTLIGHT! “Freeriding” is an important principle in public policy. Important for me too—the JOE ROONEY prospect of being a freerider led to my decision to rejoin the Green Party: it What do you do (occupation, was reading about the impact of non- etc.)? renewal of subscriptions on the Labour I’m an organiser for a trade union Party’s budget that prompted my return. called Connect. Freeriding is benefiting from a public good without paying for it. Take the provision of blood for transfusions: How long have you been a Green if blood were collected from donors in return for cash, Party member? there’d be a motive to lie about contamination; relying A little over four years. on the altruism of volunteers reduces this risk. Everyone (potentially) benefits from clean blood, yet not everyone What prompted you to join? volunteers: the rest are freeriders. An article in a music magazine The funding of political parties has the inverse problem. about a Green Party activist in Paying a donation means that favours are expected in Chicago. I found his street-level return. Relying on the altruism of taxpayers to fund the approach to politics really inspiring, democratic process reduces this risk. The Green Party and so I looked into the Greens supports the complete funding of political parties by the over here. State. Others think it’s not so simple. The government’s review What are your main policy into the funding of political parties reports in December. interests? The comments on the review’s online forum include a Education, economics, health and few counter-arguments—that state funding won’t create housing. new parties to exploit current hopes or fears (surely an argument in favour of state funding?); that it is unfair for Which individuals or groups everyone to pay when not everyone votes (but everyone have most inspired you during is affected by elections); that money should be spent on your life? public services (but a fair electoral system is a public Any number of bands, most notably service!). Million Dead and Boy Sets Fire, Party donations give the impression that as some and people like Ian MacKaye and people value democracy enough to pay for it voluntarily, Jonah Matranga. the rest don’t have to worry. The rest are actually freeriding, and have been accustomed to the fact that Are you an optimist, a pessimist someone else pays for accountability. This perhaps or a pragmatist? explains the hostility to state funding of political parties I’m an optimist, albeit a fairly expressed in the online debates. The whole electorate practical one. Things have a engages in elections—even by not voting (it is an tendency to go right if you let them. abstention) - and consequently should contribute to the funding of the political parties that (hopefully!) allow What is your favourite quote? informed decisions at elections. “Forgive your enemies, but never Dan Carins forget their names.” - JFK Autumn Edition Page 5

What are your ‘desert island discs’? BOOK REVIEW AlexisOnFire: Crisis MARKET, SCHMARKET by Molly Scott Cato (2006) Boy Sets Fire: After The Eulogy Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Although she is an academic economist (as well as the Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Green Party’s Economics spokesperson), Molly has, on Antennas To Heaven the whole, written her new book in language that most of us will understand and find easy to read. There are PJ Harvey: Stories From The City, cartoons by Polyp and lots of funny anecdotes to go with Stories From The Sea her serious message about the rapacious impact of Rise Against: The Sufferer & The capitalism. Much of this will be familiar to Green Party Witness members who have grappled with “green” or “new” economics Sleater-Kinney: Dig Me Out for the last decade or so, but Molly offers some refreshing responses. I like her way of answering critics who think Thrice: Artist In The Ambulance greens want to “ban everything”. In her world, she writes, Thursday: War All The Time “You won’t be able to drive your car as much or have a new sofa so often, but you can have as much massage What about your best books for and as many trips to the local theatre as you like.” bedtime? It’s Chapter Six, in which Molly explains how the banks Paul Foot: The Vote create money out of thin air, where the going gets harder Umberto Eco: Foucault’s for me. I’ve heard the monetary reform case made many times Pendulum before and still lack the leap of faith to believe it. The ability to create money like this sounds too good to be true, What would you have been but for Molly it’s bad because it results in “us” borrowing doing if you hadn’t had to and spending more money than is good for the planet. answer all these pesky questions? Although the problems described in the book are Cooking dinner and then going to enormous and global in reach, we are offered few the cinema... solutions on a commensurate scale. The best we can do is to subvert capitalism by personally opting out of the system as much as we can – don’t borrow from banks, use local shops, make your own furniture and travel by train. In support she cites Ghandi and his successful “home-spun” resistance to the British Empire’s forced imports of Lancashire cotton into India. And, of course, vote Green. Co-operatives or mutuals are Molly’s preferred type of economic organisation but she worries that small housing co-ops that take over council housing may be picked off by large players once their “public protection” is lost. As a member of a small housing co-op I am anxious to know more. The book exudes Molly’s and the green movement’s growing confidence in opposing and resisting an economic system that is, after all, only a couple of hundred years old. There is plenty to encourage us here. Alan Clawley (Chair, West Midlands New Economics Group) Autumn Edition Page 6

MY DAYS AT CONFERENCE—A REPORT FROM AUTUMN 2006

As my last conference was in Wolverhampton a few years ago, the trip to Brighton was going to be exciting. I took the train like a good greenie and sat back to read the papers – conference papers of course! They’re a sort of complicated word game in 3 columns. After an hour or so I gave up. The Final Agenda is the most difficult thing about conference. Finding Hove Town Hall was easy – I walked along the beach until I was fed up and there it was in all its 1960s finery. Plenary sessions still start with the minute’s attunement and then the fun begins. Thursday morning had seen a major problem with Keith Taylor’s nomination being technically incorrect. The global warming was still apparent when I walked into the main hall at 2pm! Throughout the next two days I was there it kept coming up as a constant source of rancour. It was good to see Penny Kemp still leading the charge. I recognised many faces from the conferences I attended in the 1980s like Brig Oubridge, Caroline and Penny; like me, a little older, maybe wiser, but as fun as ever. The days were filled with arguments over procedure and policy as well as philosophy, with the fervour of the discussion never betraying which was which! I attended a workshop where someone wanted yet again to put in place a “Leader” for the Green Party. I remember the arguments with Sara Parkin and Jonathon Porritt over that one. It was rejected – again, but why do they keep trying? Then we cheered our councillors, particularly one of 20 years’ standing. My high spot was the Workshop run by Jean Lambert on the Greening of the Tories. She told us of her contacts and urged us to take them seriously. Certainly they are really trying on the environment. It was interesting to see folks trying to come to terms with this new sincerity. She suggested the difference was now in Social Justice and the Economy. The Tories are still trying to grow their way out of trouble. My low spot was when the press officer had to appeal to members not to harass folks doing interviews with the press. I thought courtesy was the bedrock of the Green Party. I left on Friday night with things in full swing. It was enjoyable to see the passions rise, the food as terrible as ever and the smiles, networking and children running around still. Conferences are good things to go to – just don’t think they’ll change the world! Phil Simpson

DO YOU WORK IN SOLIHULL?

Solihull Green Party went from nothing to putting up 7 candidates in May's local elections. While this was positive progress, this still left 10 wards with no candidate. We are concentrating on finding fresh new talent within Solihull to fill these vacancies but finding this is a tall order to achieve. You may not know it, but if you work in Solihull or own property within the Borough, you are eligible to stand in the local elections, even if you are also standing in Birmingham at the same time. We believe every voter in Solihull deserves at least the option to vote Green on that ballot paper! If you work or own property in Solihull and would be willing to be a back-up paper candidate, please do get in touch. Contact Chris Williams on 07811 428 682 or email [email protected] Autumn Edition Page 7

NOTES FROM POLICY CONFERENCE 28 OCTOBER 2006

ALAN MURIE of Birmingham University, and Chairman of Optima Housing Association. Ten years ago Lee Bank was a failing Council estate. Could it have been rescued from the effects of neglect and poor management just by changing the way it was run by the Council’s Housing Department? Those who were involved in planning its regeneration thought not. Its problems were considered too deep-rooted and had been going on for too long. Some types of accommodation on the estate were no longer wanted. Changes in management would not by themselves make a big enough impact on the problem. There was need to dramatically alter everyone’s perception of Lee Bank as a place to live. The factors that were considered crucial to success were: 1. The involvement of the residents in planning the future of the estate. This gave them ownership of the outcome and made it harder for outside agencies, such as the City Council, to water down or block their aspirations. 2. A clear shared vision from the start in the form of a 10-year plan. 3. A bottom-up process in conjunction with top-down professional judgement that carried the residents when necessary. This process can be called “co-production”. 4. Major government funding to start the development process and pressing the Council to reinvest its capital receipts in the regeneration of the estate, not elsewhere. 5. A partnership approach involving the public, private and third sectors in which there was an open co-operative relationship between them, rather than the traditional adversarial one. 6. A good location next to the city centre close enough to attract private housing investment. Other locations need to find some other asset, such as closeness to the green belt. 7. Time. After 10 years’ work there is still another 4 years to go. The risks that had to be considered were: 1. Outside interference from those wanting to claim credit for the success of the regeneration (political parties?) or those defending the status quo (unions?). 2. “Anti-privatisationism”. An easy jibe that could be ignored as long as the results are what was wanted. 3. “Gentrification”. This will happen but steps need to be taken to ensure that low- income residents do not suffer as a result. 4. Loss of attention. The staff in the agencies that supported the project at the start have left and new staff had to be reminded of the aims and origins of the project. A question was asked about the importance of scale. Lee Bank is obviously a big estate. Scale is a factor because it determines what staff can be afforded. Today the Housing Corporation would consider Optima too small to register as an independent housing association. Optima had to ask another housing association (Bromford) to do its development work, as it did not have in-house staff that could do the work. A question was asked about how many of the original tenants now live on the estate and whether they can afford the higher rents. Before the regeneration, a third of the tenants were moving out as quickly as they could anyway. Another third wanted to return after regeneration. Rents have not caused a serious problem yet. Optima is bound by government policy to charge between 95% and 105% of the market rent. A question was asked about the City Council’s approach to its own properties on the Ley Hill estate in Northfield. The City was only improving its housing to the Decent Homes standard. The economics are different. Where social breakdown and crime is bad, developers are not confident to invest in an estate, as the land value is nil. Optima’s approach was to build confidence gradually by inviting private developers to invest in the infrastructure at first, as they would do with a cleared site. But Optima has not yet got shops onto the estate, as there are too few customers at this stage. A question was asked about energy efficiency. Optima has only met current Building Regulations because to do better would add 10% to the construction cost. [When they began the project, the zero-carbon BedZed scheme had not been built.] Optima is now considering how it can best share its experience outside Lee Bank. Alan Clawley Autumn Edition Page 8

CITY GREEN newsletter is published four CLASSIFIEDS times a year and is free to all members and sub- scribers. Local newspaper readers?? THE COPY DEADLINE FOR THE NEXT We need someone who regularly reads any Birmingham newspapers to monitor them for any items published about ISSUE OF CITY GREEN IS 13 JAN 2007. or by the Green Party. You could also keep a look out for Contributions to the Editors, 207 Bournville Lane, any items, articles or letters which beg a Green response. Birmingham B30 1RA, tel 451 3369. Any help would be very welcome. E-mail: [email protected] Please let Peter Beck know if you can do this. 422 6975 or Submissions (articles, news, cartoons, photo- [email protected] graphs, questions, letters, poetry, etc.) are welcome. Green Lunch @ Café One Disclaimer: the views expressed in City Green are those of the individual contributors, and not 1.00 pm, the last Friday of every month necessarily those of the Green Party. We're continuing the ‘Green Lunches’ at Café One in Five Ways for new members and anyone else ELECTIONS interested. Food's cheap and good, atmosphere's Birmingham Green Party puts up candidates relaxed, location's central. in Birmingham City Council and Parliamentary elections. European elections are contested It’s a great way to meet other Greens! by the West Midlands Green Party. For more info, call Alan on 0121 772 7165.

Find BGP online at www.birminghamgreenparty.org.uk or sign up to the email list at: lists.greenparty.org.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lp-birmingham-members If you have any technical questions or difficulty, Amanda Baker can help you sort it out. E-mail Amanda at [email protected]. BIRMINGHAM GREEN PARTY DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Ongoing Canvassing and leafleting in Bournville ward (contact Peter Tinsley for details) Late November Major leaflet delivering in Bournville (see p. 1 for details) Saturday 9 December Quarterly Members’ Meeting and fun(d)-raising dinner (see p. 1 for details) Sometime this Winter… Winter Barbecue, Martineau Gardens (contact Harry Eyles on 353 2442 for details) Tuesday 16 January Committee Meeting, 7.30 pm, Heather Ramsden’s, 161 Mary Vale Road, Bournville Saturday 27 January BGP AGM and fund-raising lunch (see p. 2 for details) Easter Monday 2007 Alan Clawley’s Annual Sponsored Walk (contact Alan for details)

MEMBERSHIP is open to anyone who is not a BGP OFFICERS member of another political party. We accept applications for membership to the England and Secretary: Hazel Clawley (772 7165) Wales Green Party. Subscription rates are: Treasurer: Phil Simpson (427 2945) GREEN PARTY (England & Wales) Elections Officer: Peter Tinsley (472 6003) Single £31 (Low income rate £10.50); Membership Secretary: Peter Beck (422 6975) Joint £41 (Low income rate £14); Student £5 Acting Media Officer: Peter Beck (422 6975) BIRMINGHAM GREEN PARTY ONLY Single £4, Joint £8 Policy Co-ordinator: Alan Clawley (772 7165) City Green Editors: Stuart & Anna Masters (451 3369) Applications to: Peter Beck (Membership Secretary) Fund-raising/Social Secretary: Anna Masters (451 3369) Birmingham Green Party POSTAL ADDRESS 440 Ridgeacre Road West Birmingham B32 1AS C/O Hazel Clawley, 26 Taywood Drive, Birmingham B10 0DB