By Varun
The Green Party of England and Wales has been energised by a new leader, Zack Polanski. Polanski secured 85% of the vote in the leadership election, with 20,411 compared to his rival Adrian Ramsay-Ellie Chowns’ 3,705. The result was a clear victory for the left-wing of the party, with Polanski representing a mood desperate for a radical, left-wing alternative – what he’s called ‘ecopopulist’ – after decades of austerity and declining living standards in Britain.
Since taking over in September, the Green Party membership has increased from around 65,000 to over 100,000. A recent opinion poll also put the party on 15%, just 2% behind Labour and the Conservatives, both on 17%, while the far-right Reform UK party leads all on 32%. But it now looks more and more like the Greens and Reform are the parties with most momentum in Britain.
Polanski’s leadership campaign
Zack Polanski has become a popular figure in recent months, and has proven to be a savvy media operator – tapping into a broader and more youthful audience, and distinguishing himself and the Greens from the rest of the main parties and political leaders.
He campaigned on nationalising water services, sanctioning Israel over its genocide in Gaza, introducing a wealth tax, standing up for the rights of refugees and migrants, ending the war on drugs, introducing self-ID for trans people, and building more affordable social housing.
These policies are a welcome change and would have support amongst the majority of the British public. His efforts to offer a left-wing alternative to both Starmer’s catastrophic premiership and Farage’s far-right policies are commendable, and is the reason the Green Party has gained growing support amongst the public. Understandably, young people who have been the biggest victims of the 2008 financial crash and Tory austerity would be enthused by Zack Polanski’s leadership pitch.
But does Polanski have the programme and politics necessary to tackle the multiple crises of British capitalism facing the working class, young and oppressed today? And does the Green Party represent a political vehicle capable of organising a fightback against capitalism?
Greens’ poor track record and the challenges ahead
The Green Party’s record is not one of consistent opposition to austerity and oppression. The party currently has 859 councillors and four MPs and a majority on the Mid-Suffolk district council, 34 out of 70 councillors in Bristol City, sharing committee chairs with the Liberal Democrats. The Green Party leads coalitions in twelve local authorities, and is part of coalitions in two dozen more.
So far, these elected Green Party politicians have been ineffective in fighting back against the cuts imposed by this Labour government. Green Party council leader Tony Dyer even justified the £51 million of cuts imposed on the Bristol City Council.
Polanski himself is an Assembly member in London, where there is a crisis of 366,000 families on council housing waiting lists, fire services have been struggling with massive cuts, and there are thousands of homes with unsafe cladding. Polanski has spoken out on these issues, but to win real change he will need to build active campaigns rooted in working class communities.
The Green Party’s counterparts throughout Europe, including in Ireland and Scotland, have entered coalition governments and oversaw austerity cuts and other right-wing policies. Due to a lack of an alternative socialist vision on how a society could be organised, the Greens have always ended up meeting the demands of the capitalist system, which inevitably means forcing the working class to bear the brunt of austerity. Without an anti-capitalist, socialist programme and strategy, even the most well intentioned left politicians and parties are doomed to repeat these mistakes.
The Greens have also been soft on their opposition to NATO. While their demands for nuclear disarmament are welcome, their suggestion of reforming NATO from within is not good enough. In countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, NATO member states have committed war crimes with impunity. NATO or any other arm of US imperialism cannot be trusted. The existence of NATO is not in the interest of working-class people anywhere, as it defends those of the Western imperialist order. Moreover, NATO’s military carbon footprint rose to 226 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) in 2023 from 196 million tCO2e in 2021. This is directly in contradiction to the Green Party’s climate goals.
Furthermore, when it comes to trans rights, it is concerning that their Deputy Leader, Mothin Ali, has refused to sign even a single pledge out of the ten pledges in the Green Party’s 2025 Executive Pledges for LGBTIQA+ rights. Zack Polanski has been firm in his opposition to the horrific UK supreme court and stood in solidarity with trans people. Yet he must go further and wage a struggle against transphobia within the Greens.
Inadequate climate policies
In their manifesto, the Green Party highlighted that electric vehicles should play a major role in tackling the climate crisis. There has been enough research to prove that this policy won’t work. Climate goals cannot be met without curbing the use of single-occupancy vehicle activity, especially cars. Building an EV can produce around 80% more emissions than building a comparable gas- powered car. The essential metals required for building an EV are lithium, cobalt, and nickel. The mining of these metals requires a huge amount of water and can produce toxic waste. EVs are never a solution to solving the climate crisis, indeed they make things worse.
While the Greens have been vocal about improving public transportation across the UK and have rightfully backed the re-nationalisation of railways, they have said very little about how they aim to achieve it. Where do they stand on road expansion projects, which fuel the fossil economy?
The Greens have also been largely silent about the impact of climate change in the Global South, which is caused by the emissions released predominantly by countries and corporations based in the Global North. There are severe shortcomings in their agricultural policy, too. Despite being a vegan, Zack Polanski has yet to suggest any changes to reduce the emissions caused by dairy farming and the meat industry.
These flawed policies highlight the shortcomings of fighting the climate crisis in a capitalist economy. The first step in solving the climate crisis is to acknowledge that our current economic model of endless capital accumulation is the root cause of it. To solve the climate crisis, we need to bring about radical restructuring of our food, transport, housing, and clothing industries. Such changes can never be achieved in a capitalist system, and the failure of the Greens to acknowledge this will mean their climate goals will be found wanting.
The future of a left coalition
The most urgent task right now is to develop a real working-class challenge to Labour and Reform UK, which is rooted in socialist politics. Zack Polanski and the Greens have acknowledged the threat of Labour and Reform, but they still have many questions to answer, with many current leaders complicit in the party’s murkier record. While many commentators have noted the lack of opposition to Polanski’s radical conference speech, we should not consider the battle over. There are inevitable opportunist pressures to water their politics and strategy and a struggle is likely to open up on these questions.
Crucially the Green Party must turn its members into activists and build a genuinely democratic organisation made up of activists in different movements and struggles.
Many young people on the left will be eager for a coalition between the Greens and the “Your Party” initiative of Jeremy Corbyn and Zahra Sultana, which has signed up over 800,000 supporters, understandably so. But any future alliance with a new left-wing party and the Greens should be based on unity of firm opposition to the establishment political parties and the far-right Reform UK, but also the billionaire class, the mainstream media, and the system they all represent. There must be a non-negotiable agreement on consistent opposition towards austerity, racism, transphobia, sexism, homophobia, imperialism, and wars. This potential coalition should be achieved by establishing a proper democratic setup, which includes rank and file members of both the new left party and the Green Party, with full freedom to express differences. Socialists in and around such initiatives should seek to push them further to the left, and deepen the connection with working-class communities and campaigns.
