But the dispute, fuelled by a heavy dose of racialist identity politics, has been picked up by broader sections of the privileged middle class and small-l liberals around the Toronto Star to bolster their reactionary narrative that race and gender, not social class, are the key divides within contemporary political, economic, and social life.
In unison, the media hailed the “historic” character of Paul’s victory, even though this former Canadian diplomat and “human rights” lawyer had no discernible political differences with May, whose close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s big business Liberal government and support for Canadian rearmament and imperialist wars in the Middle East are widely known.
In early April, the Star ran a sensationalist “investigation” claiming that Paul was the victim of “systemic racism” within the Green Party.
He could point to no concrete racist incident, and no political issue—only the skin colour of Paul’s political opponents! “I want to be very clear that I’m not trying to paint this organization as overtly racist.
For representatives of the prosperous middle class like Yo, who aspire to leadership positions within the political and corporate elite, this most certainly does “mean something.” Accusations of the disproportionate number of white people on leading committees or boards, whether they be in the Green Party or a major corporation, are one of the mechanisms by which privileged members of the black and other minority middle classes weaponize the charge of “racism” for their own personal advancement.
On the contrary, both factions have supported the continuation of the Green Party’s right-wing course, including by supporting the ruling-class drive to keep nonessential businesses open amid the pandemic, lavishing praise on US President Joe Biden and providing very vocal support for the Canadian ruling elite’s vicious anti-China campaign.
Matthew Piggott, a Paul loyalist, was also terminated as national field director for the upcoming federal election campaign under unclear circumstances in early March, and Dana Taylor was appointed by the Greens’ federal council as the party’s national executive director over Paul’s objections.
The “ecosocialism” advocated by Lascaris had nothing whatsoever to do with socialism, amounting to “Green New Deal” type calls for timid social reforms and economic protectionist measures aimed at promoting “green capitalism.” Lascaris’ strong result in the contest, finishing with little more than 2,000 fewer votes than Paul, triggered absurd claims among various pseudo-left groups that the Greens could become an instrument for radicalizing workers and even fighting for socialism.
The ruling class’ criminal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has included the mass infection of the population by keeping businesses and schools open, the funnelling of hundreds of billions of dollars in “bailout” funds to big business and the financial oligarchy, and the provision of little more than emergency rations to workers and the health care system has deeply discredited the entire political establishment.
Senior columnist Bob Hepburn urged Paul’s opponents to resign their leadership positions within the party, no doubt to ensure that they be “equitably” occupied.
While the eventual outcome of this unsavoury spat remains uncertain, what is clear is that the Greens are marching in lockstep with the rest of the political establishment ever further to the right.
Green Party lead candidate Annalena Baerbock has made a name for herself as a vociferous proponent of NATO’s and Germany’s military rearmament to confront “Russian aggression,” and along with the rest of the Greens’ leadership has fully endorsed the German ruling elite’s COVID-19 policy of prioritizing business profits over saving lives.