Four Pillars of the Green Party 44427 205193727 2008-04-12T20:57:25Z 208.179.109.162 /* Explaining the Pillars */ {{primarysources|date=February 2008}} {{Greens}} The '''Four Pillars of the Green Party''' are a foundational statement of [[Green politics]] and form the basis of many [[worldwide Green parties]]. The ''Four Pillars'' are: * [[Ecological wisdom]] * [[Social justice]] * [[Grassroots democracy]] * [[Nonviolence]] Different Green Parties that list the ''Four Pillars'' phrase them somewhat differently. In general, the four pillars define a Green Party as a political movement that interrelates its philosophy from four different social movements, the [[peace movement]], the [[civil rights movement]], the [[environmental movement]], and the [[labour movement]]. ==History of the Four Pillars== The practice of describing Green philosophy via ''Four Pillars'' began with the [[German Green Party]] in 1979-1980. At its founding meeting in 1984, the [[Green Committees of Correspondence]] in the United States expanded these into the ''Ten Key Values''.[http://www.gp.org/tenkey.shtml] For the Australian Greens, they are known as "Ecological sustainability", "Social and economic justice", "Peace and nonviolence", and "Grassroots democracy". For the German Greens (Die Grünen/Bündnis '90), they are known as "ökologisch", "Sozial", "Basisdemokratisch" and "Gewaltfrei". For the Swedish Greens (Miljöpartiet de Gröna), in the 1980s they were called the ''Four Solidarities'': "Solidarity with the ecological systems", "Solidarity with the people throughout the world", "Solidarity with future generations", and "Solidarity with the underprivileged people in our own country". Today they have merged them into ''Three Solidarities'': "Solidarity with animals, nature and the ecological system", "Solidarity with future generations", and "Solidarity with all the world’s people." On the global level, the ''Six Principles'' of the [[Global Greens Charter]] - which at the Global Greens conference of 2001 were arrived upon as a compromise of the North American and European traditions - added [[Respect for diversity]] and [[Sustainability]]. The Green Party of Canada, in 2002 adopted the ''Six Principles'' of the Global Greens as its official doctrine.[http://www.greenparty.ca/en/about_us/green_values] ==Explaining the Pillars== * [[Ecological wisdom]] encapsulates the diverse [[teaching]]s and [[philosophy|philosophies]] represented in numerous environmental movements. Central tenets include a recognized need to reduce the negative impact of human [[civilization]] on the [[natural environment]], the [[biosphere]], and the [[planet]], and to find new, alternate ways to cohabitate [[harmony|harmoniously]] with earth's other [[life form]]s. The principles endorsed go deeper than a mere superficial change in policy, suggesting a qualitative shift in ethical norms and prevalent [[paradigm]]s, but the precise character of views advocated range considerably over a spectrum of beliefs that include ecological [[utilitarianism]] on one side and [[Deep Ecology]] on the other, reflecting different degrees of innate value ascribed to humanity and other parts and levels of the larger biosphere. Notable proponents of the and less [[anthropocentric]] views include [[E. O. Wilson]], Daniel Quinn, Donella Meadows, E.F. Schumacher, etc. * [[Social justice]] (sometimes "[[Social equality]] and [[economic justice]]") reflects the general rejection of discrimination based on distinctions between class, gender, ethnicity, or culture. Green Parties are almost universally [[egalitarian]] in their outlook, seeing that great disparities in wealth or influence are caused by the perversion of or total lack of social institutions that prevent the strong from plundering the weak. * [[Grassroots democracy]] or [[participatory democracy]] is embraced by Greens as the only reliable governance model for achieving social change. Many Green parties have rejected or constrained the traditional role of leaders as "party boss", in favor of having figurehead leaders or spokespeople. Many Green party constitutions are configured to prevent the party [[bureaucracy]] from accumulating too much power in the organization, in favor of more decentralized or member driven processes. * [[Nonviolence]] reflects the Green movement's policy of rejecting violence as a means to overcoming its opponents. Green Philosophy draws heavily on both [[Gandhi]] and the [[Religious Society of Friends|Quaker]] traditions, which advocate measures by which the escalation of violence can be avoided, while not cooperating with those who commit violence. ==The Pillars as an ethical system== The four pillars are generally considered interdependent, comprising an internally consistent ethical [[system]]. None of the four pillars can be regarded as a means to an end, as compared to "Respect for Diversity" in the Ten Key Values, which can be evaluated as a means to achieving both social justice and ecological wisdom. Greens believe that progress to achieving each one of the four pillars is dependent upon progress to achieving the other three. For example: Ecological Wisdom requires social justice, grassroots democracy and non-violence. Anything other than a just distribution of the earth's finite resources can not be sustainable as an international agreement; unjust distributions lead to violence and a breakdown of the political process. Furthermore, traditional political structures - which are based on patronage, partisanship, and brinkmanship as their internal governance model - have proved themselves generally incapable of negotiating international agreements even while facing the threat of self-extinction. [[Arundhati Roy]] describes the connectedness of Democracy, Peace and Non-Violence: "Where there is oppression, it will always be challenged... I don't believe that there can ever be peace without justice... The two go together. And there cannot be peace in the world with full-spectrum dominance."[http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1219838.htm] This approach arose from shared concerns of the [[peace movement]] and [[ecology movement]]. ==See also== *[[Earthlife Africa]] *[[Green politics]] [[Category:Green political parties]] [[fr:Quatre piliers des partis verts]] [[it:Quattro Pilastri del Partito Verde]] [[nl:Beginselen van Agalev]] [[ru:Четыре столпа Зелёной партии]]