Diane Fieldes
Many left-wing people look to the Greens as a progressive alternative to the Labor and Liberal parties. The Greens won their greatest parliamentary representation this year off the back of a campaign which centred the climate crisis and rising inequality, winning the support of a significant share of young voters alienated with the ALPs conservatism on climate and social issues. Yet as they’ve come closer to power, they’ve often accommodated to the system, abandoning a strategic orientation to protest, propping up the neoliberal Gillard government in 2010, and chasing Liberal votes in Toorak to try to win office. Can the Greens be a force for radical change? And how should socialists relate to them?