The blame game as to who was responsible for what went so disastrously wrong at the Spring 2026 Green Party on-line Conference has not been long in waiting. A petition with a letter addressed to the Green Party Leadership is already in circulation. The letter calls for an “independent investigation into the Conduct of Spring Conference and recommendations to protect our member-led democracy”.
The Green Light can confirm that 0.4% of the membership took part in this on-line Spring Conference. Participants are self-appointed with no mandate and no accountability to anyone. The vote count for the Standing Comittee A1 report as amended was 637 for and 177 against. This can hardly been construed as an exercise in democracy.
For more on the matter, do visit our recent post entitled “one member one vote is an illusion of democracy” here.
What happened at the event on Saturday 28th March 2026 is most likely to have profound ideological and constitutional consequences for our eco-populist Green Party brand. Observers at the Bournemouth Conference which saw a record number of participants who had joined on the back of Zack Polanski’s leadership social media campaign may not have been aware of a brewing power struggle between the post-modernist new “old guard ” and long serving members. But what has just taken place is much more serious. It feels like the turning point members of The Green Light team anticipated would happen when we got together and published our original mission statement three years ago now.
Whilst the vast majority of younger new recruits will probably remain unaware of the gravity of the fall-out at this Conference, the cohort of committed new members with political or trade union experience soon will.
And if, or when they do, members who have opposed the identinarian’s capture of the Party and somehow avoided being suspended or expelled will be hoping they will join them and be the driving force that will save the Green Party from self-destruction. Alternatively, they may well wonder why on earth they joined such a dysfunctonal organisation and leave in drones as quickly as they joined ! The Green Light team with our established subscribers and regular visitors do sincerely hope they don’t.
The stakes for the Planet, wealth redistribution and democracy are much too high to give up now. The Greens must be part of the transition.
Since E12 motion “Zionism is racism” which was at the heart of the acrimonious procedure originally triggered by an amendment to the SOC report submitted by former SOC chair Tim Reilly from the floor ended up falling off the agenda at the very last minute of Conference, Greens for Palestine have pledged to re-submit their motion at the in-person Autumn Conference.
Saturday 28th March 2026 may be remembered as the day the toxic and divisive game ‘woke’ greens have been playing for a decade in their journey to capture” of the Green Party was finally up.
With such bitter exchanges and excrutiating dispute surrounding the adoption of SOC’s report which went on from 10am to 15.45pm, it is hardly surprising that new members will have felt frustrated. They will also no doubt have been dismayed by a display of such deep and ‘ungreen’ animosity. SOC member Ash Routh accusing highly respected and long serving co-chair of his own committee of being autocratic and “a liar”will be remembered as one of the lowest point in the history of the party.
National press commentarors covering this Spring Conference have focussed on the title of the motion “Zionism is racism” , thus giving the impression that the Green Party is anti-semitic. The parrallel with the demolition of Jeremy Corbyn’s reputation as an alleged anti-semite is too close for comfort. Such allegations will make life difficult for the hundreds of Green Party candidates knocking on doors for the May local elections.
The fact however is that the title of the motion was a huge detractor as there is no agreed definition of Zionism within the Green Party. On the eve of Conference, anti-zionist contributor to post-modernist identinarian Bright Greens Joshua Alston who shared his views on the matter concluded his piece with the following:
“The issue comes when you try to use that mistake to draw the boundaries of a political community, as E12 does. In action point two of the motion, it states that not only is Zionism, defined as the belief in the creation or continuity of Israel, racism, but that all party bodies should act accordingly, presumably through expulsions and discipline against those that consider themselves Zionists, or hold what the party consider to be Zionist beliefs. In short, it is a ban on Zionists being a member of the party.”
Interestingly, Zack Polanski himself had expressed similar reservations about a definition of Zionism and the motion prior to being joined by his two deputy leaders Mothin Ali and Rachel Millward at the joyful ‘Hope not Hate’ anti far-right rally and rave in London.
What Greens for Palestine (which, unlike the new Common Interest Muslim Greens is an unofficial group) were aiming for was not so much to nail down whether zionism is racist or not, but to overturm the Green Party’s long established Two States and UN backed solution to resolve the tradegy of the Palestinian people left with no state to call their own since 1948 with the Nakba.
As advised by SOC co-chair Martin Hemingway, had E12 been approved, current policy would indeed have been superseded. A couple of members from the eco-socialist wing of the Party who understood that the Party could not hold two contradictory policies did call for more time to allow for a debate. But supporters of Greens for Palestine who had joined this conference with the sole purpose of seing their motion approved would have none of it. Many joined the Greens mainly because of the horrors of the genocide in Gaza and Polanski’s support to the Palestinians cause and probably not for much else besides.
We understand that concerns have been expressed from a number of Regions and echoed from within the Leadership team about entrism from far-left organisations and islamists since the last leadership election campaign. Judging by the ‘un-green’ conduct of some members at this Spring Conference, such concerns may indeed be justified.
Should that same motion be re-submitted at the Autumn Conference in Brighton and assuming Polanski will be re-elected as Leader before then, the question is will he take to the stage to speak against that motion ? Now, THAT would be either very brave or commiting hara kiri. Whichever way Zack chooses to go, his stand will be a major turning point for the future of the Party.
So, this is what motion E12 actually called for, as per its synopsis:
‘This motion defines Zionism, recognises its continued harm to Palestinians, and seeks to clarify that the Green Party is opposed to Zionism. It further affirms the right to self-determination and liberation of the Palestinian people and supports the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine‘.
In other words, the end of Israel and one free palestinian state “from the river to the sea” ?
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