A radical - and enjoyable - party democracy

With voting opening for the Scottish Greens’ leadership election tomorrow, I want to expand on some of the ways I’d like to reform the party if elected, turning it back into a radical democracy from the radical bureaucracy many of us feel it has become.

I want the party to be easy and fun to get involved with at every level. That means tackling the kind of problems I’ve written about before, like (far) too many meetings, the reluctance to say no & its resulting capacity problems and the unforgiving nature many volunteers and staff end up at the sharp end of.

More celebrations of good work!

One of the first changes I would push for is to celebrate more victories and recognise good work, most obviously through annual awards at conference for the volunteers and staff doing great things to keep the party running.

I’m sure we can all think of someone to nominate, like the branch treasurer who has agreed to stay on year after year to make sure a vital role is filled, or the organiser who rebuilt an inactive branch, or the volunteer who staffs the registration desk with a friendly face at conference after conference.

This doesn’t need to be anything elaborate, but spending 5-10 minutes during the weekend to recognise good work would certainly be an antidote to the amount of time spent at internal meetings focusing, often unavoidably, on what isn’t going so well.

Call out poor behaviour

Greens tend to find conflict very difficult. We’re attracted towards a consensus-building style of politics. Unfortunately, that has often meant that poor behaviour in our party has gone unchallenged and therefore been repeated.

This often takes the form of ‘criticise first, ask questions later’ and it’s usually directed at massively overworked volunteers in key roles or at party workers. If elected Co-Leader I won’t hesitate to call this behaviour out. 

In most cases I’d hope the individual responsible just doesn’t realise the impact they are having on those they’re criticising and that a polite word is enough. 

The Co-Leader rightly isn’t involved in formal complaints processes, but I would also make a point of providing support and solidarity to those too frequently at the sharp end of unacceptable behaviour, such as staff and committee convenors.

We have lost far too many great volunteers, particularly women, as a result of this atmosphere of negativity. That cycle needs to be broken.

Raise more money

One of our biggest limitations is that we don’t have more staff. That in turn means some volunteer positions are effectively extremely demanding but unpaid part-time jobs.

The prerequisite for growing our staff team is increasing party funds.

Fundraising should be led by professional staff with the right skillset, but heading into the election, I’d like to see the Co-Leaders be more directly involved.

We’re never going to be the kind of party which gets six figure cheques from CEOs and nor should we be, but the reality is that lots of people out there will give a bit more if a Co-Leader makes the ask.

I have fundraising experience going back to when I was the responsible member of staff a decade ago, but as an MSP I’ve also proven that I can bring in money from new sources.

For example, alongside Patrick Harvie I was financially supported by the RMT union for my re-election campaign in 2021. Trade union funding is certainly one area that I’d like to see us work on.

A vigorous fundraising push should pull in enough cash to expand our staff team and provide volunteers at all levels with the extra support they really need.

10,000 members

Through work like the Save Loch Lomond campaign and support for the Kurdish community I’ve recruited quite a few new members to the party. As a volunteer-led organisation our members are the lifeblood of our work, but our membership fees are also the party’s main source of income, making it possible to hire staff for the work volunteers couldn’t be expected to do.

We lack a party membership strategy or proactive recruitment campaign though. There are a range of reasons for that, some of which I hope will be solved by the proposal myself and Lorna Slater are bringing to conference to re-establish the role of Membership Secretary on the party’s Executive Committee.

As the main spokespeople of the party, I think our Co-Leaders should be directly involved in recruiting new members. If we were to hit 10,000 (compared to circa 7,500 at present) it would be transformational for our campaigning capacity at branch level and a huge boost to party income ahead of the major elections in 2026 and 2027.

A radical - and enjoyable - democracy

All of the above should make it easier to get involved in the party and to stay involved. High levels of membership engagement are critical for a radical democracy, whether it be filling every vacant volunteer role in the national party or in the essential work of running a local branch.

It’s not for the Co-Leaders to solve these challenges alone, but if elected I’m committed to taking a proactive role in the essential work of party-building.