Green Party:

The Green Party of Germany

During my study I found out that The Green party is practically a non-violent, environmentalist group that leans to be more pacifists. The pacifism is clearly shown in their opposition toward restrictions on immigration and reproductive rights, support of marijuana legalization, the equality of rights for LGBT peoples, and their "anti-authoritarian" concepts of education and parenting. Principal campaign issues including pollution regulations, the use of nuclear power, NATO military action, and certain aspects of industrialized society proved that The Greens were an environmentalist group. The average person in the group when it first became clear that The Greens existed, were young, rebellious students trying to shake the political establishment. The Greens believe violence can be avoided, while not cooperating with those who commit violence.

The famous Four Pillars of the Green Party:

· Social Justice- the rejection of prejudices based on class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or culture.

· Ecological Wisdom- a need to reduce the negative impact of human life on the planet and to find alternate ways to cohabitate with Earth’s other life forms.

· Grassroots Democracy - create policies that allow a matter to be handled by the lowest level of authority capable of addressing it effectively.

· Non-violence- a policy of rejecting violent acts as a way to defeat our opponents.

A well-known slogan for one of The Greens’ campaigns was, “turn away from the national and international division of labor” in favor of “consumer-oriented production for local and regional economic markets.” This slogan shows a bit of the environmentalist side of the group as well as their ideals of keeping things localized.

Brief History-

The Greens (Die Grünen) was founded on January 13, 1980 in Karlsruhe. It is thought to have started up because the generation at that time was tired of wars and fighting amongst neighboring countries. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Greens entered a number of state parliaments, and in 1983 they were elected to the federal parliament for the first time. In 1985 Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer became the minister of the German state Hesse, which made him the first ever Green minister. In 1998, the Greens joined the federal government under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Today, the Greens rank amongst the most supportive of German militarism. The Greens are ready and willing to cooperate in government with the conservatives.

Peter Schwarz, in support of The Greens, wrote “The intensification of militarism, social inequality and attacks on democratic rights can be opposed only by a party that bases itself on the class struggle, unites the working class internationally, and fights on the basis of a socialist program for the abolition of capitalism.”

Sources:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/pers-j13.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_party
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_%2790/The_Greens
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,5123219,00.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0328/How-Germany-s-Greens-rose-from-radical-fringe-to-ruling-power
http://www.gruene-bundestag.de/service-navigation/english.html