I still get the minutes of Green Left, despite having asked to unsubscribe about a year ago.
The last email read:
MINUTES GREEN LEFT GENERAL MEETING Saturday 25/1/2014 at The Griffin
[...]
4) Preparations for spring conference (28/2-3/3)
a) Motions
The meeting made the following suggestions:
...
C (vii) Green Wage Subsidy. Oppose
So there we have it. Green Left opposed a measure that takes people out of unemployment and stimulates the Green Sector of the economy.
Some of the "thinking" that went into this extraordinary decision may be found here.
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2 comments:
There are plenty of good reasons to oppose the Green Wage Subsidy. We should not be subsidising companies that are not viable. Public money should be spent providing people with services that are useful or needed, and in doing that new jobs will be created. Doing that within the public sector and making the public sector larger will mean that we can control how jobs are created, etc. If we spent public money on subsidising the private sector we lose all control of how those jobs are created or how those workers are treated.
Some private companies are good and try to do the best for their workers, etc but also a lot of private companies are just purely run for the profits for the directors and shareholders, etc. We have no control over how good or bad a private company is.
It's well proven that spending public money on providing jobs and public services will lead to people having more money to spend in the private sector and the private sector will benefit and be more able to properly pay decent wages. Especially when those public services reduce the living costs for people (EG lower public transport costs, insulated council housing, reduced healthcare costs, etc) so everyone has more spare money which can be spent in the private sector.
That's much better than wasting tax money on subsidising private for-profit companies.
Jake, please try to understand GWS before you criticise it.
It is not there to "subsidise companies that are not viable". It is there to help people get good jobs, and to further stimulate the Green sector of the economy, which is already doing well. It is there to overcome a serious failure of the market system.
You say " Public money should be spent providing people with services that are useful or needed". That is precisely what GWS will do.
GWS will benefit public sector, cooperatives, voluntary, charities and - yes - private enterprise. The only condition is that the work would be green, i.e. benefit society or environment.
If it is your belief that the Green Party should ban private enterprise and go for a command economy, then please feel free to bring it as a motion to Conference. As things stand the Green Party is for a social (I would say, guided) market, mixed economy.
It is simply not true to say "We have no control over how good or bad a private company is." There are many controls. In applying for Green Accreditation, an employer will expose themselves to inspection to make sure they are ethical.
I fully agree with your paragraph beginning "It's well proven that..." That is one of the beneficial effects of GWS.
Then you go on to say "That's much better than wasting tax money on subsidising private for-profit companies"
Please try to understand: *The money is being paid out anyway*. As a dead grudging dole. On condition that people do no work.
I find this puzzling. I also find it puzzling that Green Left and the TU group oppose a measure that could bring about full employment.
Anyway, you won. GWS is not a Green Party issue any more. I have the right to take it to the people, which is what I am going to do tomorrow.
If you do not want to help, please at least do not get in the way.
Thank you.
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