Welcome to Green Left - now help us grow

Green Left Scotland kicks off highlighting the fabulous work of councillors and what we can learn from past election campaigns.

Newspaper or magazine editorials have traditionally been a rallying call - an attempt to put a spin on the stories they tell, contextualising them for an audience they hope to influence.

It’d be untrue to say Green Left Scotland doesn’t have a political agenda - it absolutely does. I can’t say my own politics won’t shine through in the stories Green Left Scotland tells - they absolutely will.

But like all projects, Green Left Scotland will be influenced by those involved, and those engaging. As we move past today’s launch, I’m hoping that voices other than my own will come forward, speak up, and help tell the stories that need to be told to help our party grow.

In outlining what Green Left is, I said Scotland needs a vehicle for the left, and that the Scottish Greens can provide it. In my view, that statement is aspirational, and not (yet) entirely true.

But, as I also said, there are steps we can take to get there. Trust must be built, both in working class communities and also in radical spaces such as trade unions - where Labour have always been the dominant political force.

Can one Green transform a community?

Councillors Shona McIntosh (left) and Kirsten Robb (right).

Councillors - and good ones - are key to building those relationships, engaging grassroots voices. They can be the hope that is needed for many who are feeling increasingly hopeless with the state of politics.

That’s one of the major reasons Green Left has chosen to highlight the work of our excellent councillors in it’s first article - Can one Green transform a community?

We speak to Shona McIntosh and Kirsten Robb, two councillors who made history by becoming the first Greens to be elected to their local council. Both are the sole Green representatives in their council chamber, and both are building community power in their own ways.

They talk about their work, the challenges they face, and why it is so important for other Greens to run - so that areas without a Green councillor get one, and so those lone councillors across Scotland are a little less loney come the next local elections in 2027.

Holyrood 2003

L-R: Former MSPs Eleanor Scott, Mark Ballard, and Chris Ballance

As it’s launch week at Green Left towers, it would be unfair to just give you one story to get you hooked. And with 2026 and the Scottish Parliamentary election on the horizon, we took a look back in What can Greens learn from the 2003 election?

Green Left spoke to three MSPs elected in the 2003 Green surge, which swept our own MSPs in to a Rainbow Parliament that was the most radical since devolution.

A massive thanks to Eleanor Scott, Mark Ballard and Chris Ballance for offering their time and wisdom on what we can still do to maximise Green support and elect a radical group of MSPs in 2026.

Comparisons between our current political climate and that which we faced 22 years ago are numerous, and worth pondering before we go headfirst into another election campaign - especially one in which we’ll be looking to grow.

Looking forward

As for Green Left, keep an eye out for more content later this week. I’m very serious when I say I hope others get involved - we’ll need ideas on how to develop Green Left beyond a set of articles, others that can be writing, and maybe even building a network of likeminded socialist and leftists within the party. Share this with anyone you think may be interested - only with your help can we grow.

Green Left will be unashamed in its attempts to influence, both within the Greens and outwith. We must be better, we must be more radical, and we must be organised. If we get that right, the next few years could be transformational for our party, and give hope to left-wingers in Scotland that have largely been frozen out by centrist hegemony and centralisation.

But it’s up to us to do that. Get involved. Get organised.

In solidarity,

Niall

Green Left Scotland