Lev Lazinskiy

Rudolpf Barho - Building the Green Movement

I am currently reading a book called Building the Green Movement it is by a German named Rudolf Bahro who was one of the pioneers of the green movement in western Germany in the 1980’s.

A lot of the ideas proposed in this book tend to be rather radical. At the same time they bring up some interesting points and perspectives. I do not believe in any political party that leans to far to any side. I believe that moderation and compromise is the only way to succeed. Compared to the Green Party that Bahro describes and the United States Green Party things are a lot different. They share many ideologies and roots but I feel like the United States Green Party’s platform and 10 key values, find a way to realistically state the goals and moderately propose ways to accomplish their mission.

Despite the radicalism in the book there were some interesting things that I came across:

Many people think that the Green strategy will be impossible to finance. Americans are too caught up in this capitalist materialistic society that they can not let go of their belonging and latch on to things that are truly important.

The book had this to say regarding the financing of the Green Party’s initiatives:

“We are devoting a small separate section to this because the cooks who have stirred the crisis broth they have found say, as a result of the material constraints in which their interests are tied up, that many of our proposals are quite good, but sadly just not feasible.

This is said by the same people who have committed the money for arming us to the teeth for nuclear holocaust, for industrializing the world to destruction and for the state and police apparatus which must provide cover for all this. We do not accept their “material constraints”, and therefore don’t accept either the small play areas in their fully booked budgets where they want to tire us out.

Financing of the ecological and social investment programme, including the minimum income, is possible if we can gain priority for it in the budget.

The main areas from which we want to redistribute are armaments, the nuclear programme and the other projects of insanity. Let us take the money away from death and give it to Life! "

I could not have said it better myself. I am always saying that instead of spending billions on this endless war, why not spend the same money on education, healthcare, and investing it into the people of this nation?

The Green party wanted to “prevent the broad-band cable network and computerized data gathering as instruments of increasing the isolation, control and intimidation of the citizen.” It is interesting that even in the 1980s when computers, media, and technology were not at the height that they are at today, still posed a threat to society. In todays world the threat is real and escalating at a level beyond our control. It is almost as if the Green Party predicted the impending doom that was upon us way back then.

I am just now diving into this fantastic read and hope to pull some more excerpts out soon for your reading pleasure. This has opened my mind to a lot of new ideas, some good some bad, but all worthwhile.