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Sarah Wakefield, the Green Party’s candidate in the forthcoming Makerfield by-election, responds to our leader on Gen-Z socialism and prosperity, rejecting claims about climate policy and a zero-sum mindset.
- Wakefield rejects the claim that climate change has become a “peripheral concern” for the Green Party, calling it the most pressing issue of our time.
- She rejects the “zero-sum mindset” description, pointing to green-economy jobs, energy security, free education and a strong social safety net.
- She argues the politics of hope reconnects people’s aspirations with future opportunities.
We will be publishing more letters on this topic soon.
Climate “at the heart of everything we do”
Your leader on “The rise of Gen-Z socialism” (June 6th) suggested that climate change has become a “peripheral concern” of the Green Party. That is not so.
People and the planet are at the heart of everything we do, as they always have been. The growing impact of the climate crisis on how we live, from heatwaves and floods to food security, makes it the most pressing issue of our time.
“Creating” versus “taking”
You claim that Gen-Z socialists, which you lump the Green Party under, have “a zero-sum mindset, where a better outcome comes not from creating but from taking”. This is a cheap rhetorical point with little substance.
The green economy continues to create thousands of jobs while strengthening our energy security. Free education and a strong social safety net similarly expand opportunity, not to mention ambition. These are policies rooted in value creation, unlike the penny-pinching short-termism of austerity.
Private sufficiency and public abundance may not be the most exciting sell to the wealthy, but everyone would benefit from better public services, improved green transport infrastructure and greater social mobility.
Aspirations, hope and young people
Fundamentally, your leader misses the point because it is reductive about people’s motivations and dismissive of the challenges young people face. People have aspirations and desires that are not wholly economically rational, but they are reasonable nonetheless.
The politics of hope reconnects people’s aspirations with future opportunities rather than crushing them with the claim that nothing can change.
Sarah Wakefield
Green Party candidate in the Makerfield by-election
Greater Manchester
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