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Zack Polanski: “We don’t have time for ‘briefcase politics’” [1]

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Date: 2025-05

Ethan Shone: Hi Zack. As people might know, you’re currently the deputy leader of the Green Party, but you’re not an MP. The current party leaders are MPs and the other candidates who’ve announced their leadership bid as co-leaders - one of whom, Adrian Ramsay, is an incumbent - became Green MPs at the last election. Some people are now framing this contest as being between the ‘activist’ and the ‘politicians’ – how do you see that distinction?

Zack Polanksi: The first thing to say is although I came to politics maybe slightly late, through an unconventional route, I've now been elected longer than any of our MPs as a London Assembly member, and I've chaired an Environment Committee for the last three years. So I've got elected office experience.

But more widely, if your politics does not contain activism and radicalism for change you're doing briefcase politics, and we do not have time for briefcase politics. We do not have time for the status quo and business as usual. The clock is ticking on the climate crisis. We're one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. And we've literally had racist riots on our streets. There's no time to rest, we've got to get on with this.

My main job before politics was working as a community theatre actor, working with marginalised groups to tell their stories. This work made me really aware that you can help someone to become the most articulate, empowered person, but if there are systemic barriers in place or if the system is fundamentally broken then you need to change the system, not change the person. I think this has entirely informed my politics, because actually, it really got me to focus on system change rather than individuals.

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ES: This idea of focusing on systems, is that something you think has been missing, or not pronounced enough in Green politics, and is it a way of broadening your appeal to the kind of people who might be tempted to vote Reform?

ZP: I think the opportunity is now for the Green Part to build something bigger and bolder that can really change the country. The way you do that is by winning lots of MPs, but you don't win lots of MPs by politely continuing with a system that is absolutely destroying people's lives, destroying our environment and destroying our communities. You win more MPs, you grow your base, you grow who supports the party, by being unapologetically clear about what we stand for and what we stand against.

Ultimately, the climate crisis is not just about carbon. It's actually about corporate power. It's about fossil fuels. It's also about arms giants and gambling companies! This is relevant because people who might have voted Reform are often the very people who are facing the worst effects of these issues. There are some Reform voters that we won't be able to reach out to because, you know, they're explicitly racist and there isn't any kind of crossover of worldview. But I think there are lots who are just worried about finding a house, worried about getting a GP appointment, worried that when they look at politicians they feel like there's no real leadership and they're all in it for themselves. Those are the exact people that I think the Green Party has to be able to speak to. We can’t blame people for voting Reform; the blame and responsibility lies on all of us who are on the left to present an alternative picture, and a much more powerful story that recognises how people have been screwed over by successive generations of politicians. People haven't felt like there's a strong movement that they could get on board that will really transform this country's politics. I think this is the exact movement that people are crying out for and it is time for the Green Party, and me, to seize it.

Green Party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, and Zack Polanski at Green Party conference, 2022 | Ian Forsyth / Getty Images

ES: OK, so you mentioned wanting ‘lots of MPs’ after the next election. What does ‘lots of MPs’ look like for the Green Party, what is your target?

ZP: What really excites me is that I believe lots of our future MPs haven't even joined the Green Party yet. They're people who are getting excited about my leadership campaign that's happening right now, because they hear about it in their community centre or their food bank or mosque, wherever they might be. They hear about the Green Party for the first time, or they hear about our values for the first time.

So many people know we care about the environment, we care about trees and rivers. Those things are important to me, and I know they're important to lots of people in this country. But I talk about eco populism, which is about recognising that if people are worried about the food on their plate, or heating their homes, then the environment or the climate crisis is not the first thing on their minds. I think we need to be linking people's immediate priority issues to the climate crisis; corporate power, lobbying, the influence of the billionaire class and the oligarchy. I know it's really unsatisfying if I don't give a number.

ES: Yeah, I’m going to have to ask for a number

ZP: I'd love to see us get between 30 and 50 MPs, but that is still very much an open discussion for the party to be having. Labour is going to lose seats. They're either going to lose them to Reform or they're going to lose them to us. We want to make sure that they're losing them to us and before they're even losing them, I want to see Keir Starmer panicking and leaning to the left, because then we can all be winning before we've actually even won those MPs. Do I think he will lean over to the left? No, I think he's too far gone. But I still think it's our absolute mission to do everything we can to turn this country around and stop this cruel government that is absolutely in the pockets of the super-rich.

ES: In order to get those MPs, are you prepared to stand candidates against progressive independents and socialist Labour MPs? Or are you happy for the Greens to be part of a broader coalition?

ZP: I would really like to see the Labour MPs who align with our values to join the Green Party, and to be honest I don't understand why they're still in the Labour Party.

They are having to deal with their conscience with the winter fuel payments, the two child benefit cap [tax credit cap], the treatment of the WASPI women [women who lost out on pension payments due to the increase in retirement age], how they're treating some of the most severely disabled people in the country, the genocide in Gaza. The list is long. And seeing Keir Starmer this week echo Enoch Powell [in his speech on immigration policy], at what point do they recognise that their presence is complicity in the programme? I think that has to be an untenable position. I'd much rather those people join the Green Party now so we can have conversations about defending their seat and making sure that they win next time as a Green MP, which we absolutely know we can do. Ultimately, I want any MP to join the Green Party who has represented their constituencies in the best interests of their constituents rather than the corporate class.

ES: You presumably have specific people in mind?

ZP: Well specifically I'm talking about – and this is not an exclusive list – Zara Sultana, Clive Lewis, Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, Nadia Whittome. People who define themselves as socialists and have a record in parliament of voting against the billionaire class, against corporate wealth and power and for the people. I think it's really important to say though that it’s not my decision, there’s an elected group of people within the Green Party who make decisions about defections, but of course, as leader, I would have a say. But in places like Norwich South [a marginal seat between Labour and the Greens] it would make a huge amount of sense for Clive to join the Green Party, and the same with some other seats.

With the independent MPs it's complicated, because you have people who say they're independent and they all stand for different things, but if you start to unite, you're basically creating a party. And if you're creating a party, then the Green Party is a ready-made, fully-democratic party. Having spoken to some of the independents who aren't elected yet, sometimes there's a fear that on the doorstep, people really like to hear that they’re independent candidates. But on that, the Green Party doesn't whip its MPs, so as long as our MPs are aligned with our values and they're taking decisions that are aligned with those values, they’re free to vote within the interests of their community, and not because anyone in the leadership tells them how to vote.

My other worry is that talking about building alliances seems to accept the idea – which I don't accept – that the Green Party is for white, middle class, educated people, and anyone outside that has to go elsewhere, or independent. Because I think that's a real schism in what could be a united left, and actually recognizing there are loads of working class Green Party councillors and members, there are loads of people of color who are elected for the Green Party and in the membership. Of course I want more working class people. I want more people from diverse communities. But fundamentally, the party has the opportunity to grow and to develop by people joining us.

When people try to separate us into the working class versus people who are running their small businesses, what they're doing is dividing us. It is the same with rural versus urban; whether you live in the countryside or whether you live in the city, inequality hurts you, the farmers are being screwed over by the same oligarchy and billionaire class as someone who is calling for rent controls in Birmingham or London because their rent is too much.

We need to recognise that we are the 99% and they are the 1%. I think 99% of people can unite under the Green Party umbrella, and I think that's exactly how we'll grow in the same way that Reform has. We need to grow faster. The right didn't mess around with creating little different parties or independent groups, the right just got on with it. And I think it's time for everyone to put the differences aside and get on with it, in the Green Party.

ES: I want to go back a bit. Obviously you are standing to be the leader of the Green Party, that’s the contest, but it feels like your pitch is intended to be wider than that and is actually aimed at the whole progressive movement, and putting the Green Party forward, under your leadership, as the vehicle for the whole movement; to become the party of the left?

ZP: I'm not just campaigning to be the leader of the Green Party. I'm campaigning to make sure that at the next general election, there is a very strong block of Green MPs who are ready to turn this country around and make the change that we need. I believe we'll only do that by widening out the people who are involved with the Green Party. I’m not breaking from Green Party policy in any way, but I think what I'm doing is being bolder, I think I'm being unequivocal about the things that our members care about, because many people share those concerns beyond our movement.

The other point is, yes, I'm running to be the leader of the Green Party, but my vision is about communities and about grassroots organising. People can obsess about Westminster, and winning MPs is important, but that's the end of the process.Actually the means by which you get there is arguably the most important part. How do you do genuine, authentic community engagement? How do you make sure that people are really heard, listened to and consulted, rather than notified. How do you make sure that people who have never engaged with the political process before get inspired by a party and want to get campaigning? These are the questions I want to answer with my leadership. One thing Farage and Reform have done is get people involved with politics who have never been involved before. We can't cede that ground to the right. We need to make sure we're not just talking to people who already agree with us.

Zack Polanski addresses striking Science Museum and Natural History Museum security workers represented by the United Voices of the World (UVW) trade union on a picket line outside the Science Museum on 26th October 2024 | Mark Kerrison / In Pictures via Getty Images

ES: So thinking about your party compared with Reform. You both did very well in the general election and in the local elections. But the primary narrative in British politics right now is the ascendance of Reform. Do you have a sense of why Reform has been able to better capitalise on the results they’ve had and been able to cut through much better than your party?

ZP: I think the media is a big part, and we have to accept that, we can’t complain about it, but as an example I was really interested in research recently that showed more young women are voting for the Green Party than young men are voting for Reform. That doesn't mean I’m complacent about the fact that young men are voting Reform, but the kind of national conversation around it has been about young men in particular turning towards the right and Reform, but we never hear about the other side. It’s also on Net Zero; the view is always that people don't care about it, but actually there's lots of evidence now to show we frequently underestimate how much other people care about it. And they do that because they have the media constantly telling them that politicians can't act on the climate crisis because people won't like it.

More widely, we cannot wait for the media to tell the stories that we want them to tell. We have also struggled to put ourselves out there in the media as a party. But this week alone I’ve spoken to a range of media outlets and streamers such as Jimmy the Giant. This demonstrates the broad scope of media outlets that we can talk to when we have something absolutely unambiguous to say, we're really clear about our values, and we center inequality at the heart of everything we do.

I have no doubt that the number one thing holding the Green Party back is that people sometimes think that we're a one issue party, and I couldn't be clearer that the climate crisis is at the centre of everything we should care about because without a livable planet, then everything else is immaterial, but at the same time, if you're struggling to put food on your table or heat your home, or you don't know how you're going to get to work, or even if you know you can hold a job down to support your family, then the climate crisis feels very abstract. This is why I've put eco-populism at the heart of the offering, which is about saying we need to be talking about things in a way that resonates with people and speaks to people in a way that feels urgent and interesting.

ES: Are you planning on targeting Reform voters specifically? Do you see ways that you can win around people who are thinking of voting for Reform, and what are the issues you think Reform are vulnerable on?

When it comes to Reform, they are a party of millionaires representing the interests of billionaires, but claiming to be the voice of the working class. With the right message, we can absolutely speak to Reform voters. If that seems odd to people, there's lots of evidence that many people who supported Bernie Sanders in America ended up voting for Donald Trump. Do I think people went from the left to right? No. What happened was that those voters saw in Bernie someone that they perceived as addressing the problems they cared about, speaking with passion, laying out a clear direction for the country and, it’s worth saying, someone who is a patriot in their own way. So what I say to those Reform voters is, I'm just as much of a patriot as Nigel Farage or anyone else. I care about this country and its communities. And actually I think there's a real mission there, in the same way that the Attlee government did with the National Health Service when we had a crisis after the Second World War, that we have a crisis right now with inequality. To tackle a crisis we need to grow our communities. We need to have a green industrial revolution. We need to protect jobs, roll back the anti-trade union laws, and make sure that people have dignity and fair pay at work.

ES: Looking ahead, when we think about the next election, there are likely to be three parties – unless the Conservatives completely fall off the map, which I think is unlikely – that are able to fund their campaigns in part through big donations from very wealthy donors. Presumably that won’t be the case for the Green Party - which is basically entirely funded by your membership - how can you compete with those campaigns?

We are primarily funded by our membership, and that will forever remain the same. I saw Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez give a speech last week on the Stop the Oligarchy tour, where she was talking about something similar and the frame she used was that donating that is what enables us to free ourselves from not taking corporate donations, it enables us to free ourselves from not having to go to wealthy individuals and ask for money.

Unfortunately big money does go a long way in politics.t is important, but actually people power is even more important. At the last London elections, I saw a survey that said how much each campaign was worth per pound – how much was spent per vote, basically – and the Green Party, consistently for the last few elections, has had the best ratio. I think we absolutely have learned to squeeze out every value we can from the limited money we have, and to get the bang from our buck.

Ultimately we will need more members, but I want to grow the membership anyway, regardless. The central plank of my campaign is that I want to build a mass movement. And I want the next general election to be our most ambitious campaign ever. I'm absolutely convinced that we have the policies, we have the messages, we have the people power. The one huge barrier at the moment to us winning a huge bloc of Green MPs is fundraising, and I think this is for our national executive to look at as well. Because I think by investing in social media, by investing in community organizing, that is also a way where that then brings in more members, brings in more donations.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/green-party-leadership-election-zack-polanski/

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