More liberal critics have attacked the practices of the big corporations, low pay and appalling working conditions, the sacrificing of safety to profit in the production of everything from cars unfit for the road to heart valves that explode and kill their unfortunate recipients, and called for solidarity, as well as for more intervention and regulation.

While greens have pointed to the damage done to planet and people in the pursuit of economic growth, argued for more local economies, taxation of the making of money from money, reform of the banking system, and a citizens income. There is clearly an alternative to the chaos and violence unleashed on the world by the economics of the Washington Consensus.(cont)

In ecosocialist terms it is the forging of a common life outside of market and state, defence of and extension of free space, the healing of a society broken by economic inequality in redistribution. It is, as the autonomist argues, the creation of marginal as much as mainstream figures, of the unemployed as much as the workers, of the piqueteros as much as of the trade unions and political parties.

Critics of all persuasions can benefit from the realism of the revolutionaries when it comes to assessing approaches based on the existing institutions of a system that only pays lip service to freedom and democracy. When metropolitan county councils demonstrated there was another way of doing things, central government shut them down; the miners were defeated in 1984-5 by government political violence.

But there are things we can do: a green society will be a result of little things lots of people have done not a few heroic activist gestures, there is an alternative we can all be a part of. Derek Wall's 'Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements' is a brilliant short summary of where we are now and suggests some ways forward.

NSWF

Even if we doubled the amount of nuclear power in the UK there would only be an 8% reduction in greenhouse gases. Nuclear power is neither carbon emission free nor would new power stations come on stream for at least ten years.

The use of nuclear power threatens the environment and people's health. No safe solution has yet been devised to store its carcinogenic toxic radioactive waste, some of which is dangerous for thousands of years. It also leaves us vulnerable to the possibility of nuclear accidents or even terrorist attack.(cont)

Embarking on the creation of a new generation of nuclear plants also sends the wrong message internationally, where building a nuclear reactor is a necessary step in the creation of a nuclear weapon. If we want any credibility in discouraging the proliferation of nuclear weapons, we cannot discourage others from building reactors whilst we construct many more of our own. An energy mix of renewable energy sources, cleaned up fossil fuels and energy efficiency measures - all of which are safe, effective and proven technologies - is available now.

Nuclear power is not the answer to climate change:

Nuclear power is not carbon emission free. The whole nuclear cycle from uranium mining onwards produces more greenhouse gases than most renewable energy sources with up to 50% more emissions than wind power. Even if we doubled nuclear power in the UK it would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8%. This is because nuclear power only contributes to electricity generation which only accounts for up to a third of all carbon emissions (transport and industry account for most of the rest).

Climate change is happening now. A new nuclear power station will take at least 10 years to build and longer to generate electricity. Wind farms can be up and running in less than a year.

It's expensive. The nuclear industry is massively subsidised by the British public. Sizewell B, the UK's most recent power station cost the taxpayer around £3.7billion just to install Decommissioning and cleaning up all of our current nuclear sites is costing more than £70 billion.

It's not sustainable. The reserves of uranium ores used to generate nuclear power are going to run out. There is only 50 years worth of high uranium ores left in the world. There may be only 200 years left of all uranium ores including poor uranium ores which take more energy to mine and process and thus release more carbon emissions.

Nuclear power is dirty and dangerous:

Nuclear power threatens the environment and people's health. It produces enormous amounts of carcinogenic toxic radioactive waste, some of which is dangerous for thousands of years. No safe solution has yet been devised to store it. In particular, there is evidence of cancer clusters linked to nuclear power production. Building new nuclear power stations would increase the most toxic high level waste five-fold.

Uranium mining kills. Uranium mining is the first step in the nuclear power cycle; it has taken the lives of many miners all over the world causing environmental contamination, cancers and nuclear waste.

Nuclear accidents. The risk of terrible nuclear accidents like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Windscale (Sellafield) will plague a new generation of power stations as it did the first.

A terrorist target. Nuclear power carries with it the risk of nuclear terrorism. In this age of uncertainty, dirty bombs and attacks on power stations are a terrifying threat.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons is inextricably linked to nuclear power by a shared need for enriched uranium, and through the generation of plutonium as a by-product of spent nuclear fuel. The two industries have been linked since the very beginning and a nuclear weapons free world requires a non-nuclear energy policy.

We need a safe, genuinely sustainable, global and green solution to our energy needs. A combination of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency measures which are safe, effective and proven technologies are available now. The government must live up to its Kyoto agreements and invest in sustainable clean solutions to climate change.

CND

The election will run until Friday 5th September, when hustings will be held at the Green Party's autumn conference in London. The final ballot papers will be collected and counted that evening.

The announcement of the result will take place on Saturday 6th September, and will be followed by the new Leader's first speech to the party.(cont)

The election is the first for Leader and Deputy in the Green Party's history. Up to now, the party has elected two Principal Speakers instead (one man and one woman) and their role has been limited to representing the party in public.

However, in a referendum of party members last November, the party voted for the change by a majority of 73%.

The two candidates for Leader are Caroline Lucas and Ashley Gunstock.

One candidate Adrain Ramsay has put himself forward for Deputy Leader.

GPEW

But the Green Party is not only an environmental party. It sees the main cause of environmental crisis as being the way businesses and governments treat everything on the planet (including human beings) as things to be exploited for profit.

All Green Party policies mean major changes in politics and economics. Anything less won't do. Piecemeal reforms may make things better for some people in some areas (often the richest people in the richest countries) It is far too easy for businesses to move themselves around the world where labour is cheaper and regulations on workers' rights and pollution are weakest.(cont)

The TU group and the Green Party have supported unions in dispute such as the FBU, PCS and Unison. Our elected representatives have fought for workers' rights from local level to the European Parliament. Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEPs, have campaigned against the anti-worker provisions of the European Services Directive , and for the reduction of working hours.

The Labour Party opposed the introduction of Thatcher's anti-union laws, but New Labour in government now enforces most of them. The Green Party has consistently opposed such laws and will seek their repeal at the earliest opportunity. The Green Party Trades Union Group is affiliated to the Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti-Trade Union laws.

The Green Party opposes privatisation and PFI schemes, campaigns for fair pay and decent conditions, opposes the sale/privatisation of council housing and demands affordable social housing, and campaigns for investment in public transport within a publicly controlled, integrated transport system.

It supports public services such as health and education funded through taxation, with the well off paying their fair share, campaigns for fair trade, supports a basic income for the unwaged which would remove means testing, Job Centre bullying and pressure to take low paid jobs and encourages unorganised, temporary and migrant workers to join a union

GPTU

Sophie was a goth killed for being a goth. Last August at the age of 20, she and her boyfriend Robert Maltby were set upon one Friday night as they walked through the park in their home town of Bacup, Lancashire.

They were stopped and momentarily engaged in converstaion by a group of teenagers before a vicious kick from nowhere felled Robert. Sophie tried to stop them raining more kicks and punches by cradling him in her arms.(cont)

It didn't work. As the court later heard, by the time the paramedics arrived the pair's faces were so battered and swollen they couldn't immediately identify either's sex.

Her family and close friends have set up a memorial fund, S.O.P.H.I.E., which stands for Stamp Out Prejudice Hatred and Intolerance Everywhere.

It aims to provide an appropriate memorial, a lasting legacy to raise awareness of the injustice perpetrated against Sophie Lancaster and to work towards a more tolerant, less violent society.

NSWF