Martyn Shrewsbury, Swansea West, Green Party 

Link / contact details for potential supporters

mjs@headweb.co.uk
07702 917987
01792 411139



i.
what do you think is the most important issue in this election?

Peace, planet and people


ii.
why did you make the decision to stand in this constituency and for this party (as an independent)?

We have been working the constituency since 1999. We have built a radical , campaigning effective Green party that offers the only way for progressive and left supporters to move in. This election is part of that campaign but our campaign is not just the election.

We are the only party that offers a way out of the traditional left ghetto.

iii.
what kind of vote are you expecting on May 5th?

5% to 10%

iv.
aside from the vote what are you hoping to get out of this campaign?

To build the Green party in preparation for breakthrough into the Welsh Assembly in 2007 and to raise Green issues for ordinary people. To demonstrate that the only way left is to vote Green.


v.
in your view what is the greatest threat to our civil liberties at the moment?

Globalisation , corporate activity and anti terrorist legislation


vi.
Blair has taken us to war three times since coming to power (not including the occasional ad hoc bombing raid) in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Can war ever be justified?

War can only be justified when fighting Fascism and Racism.

vii.
There is very little left to privatise in this country, if you had your way what would be brought into public hands?

The railways and the banks. I would also want a Tobin tax levied on currency speculation

viii.
Some environmental campaigners have started talking about nuclear power as a way to bring down CO2 emissions - what do you think of this?

I am horrified there can be no return to Nuclear power. You cannot support Nuclear power and be an environmentalist. Nuclear power is incompatible with an open democratic society. Renewables offer sus a way out and to gave ordinary people control over the means of energy production.

We need alternative and renewable energy. We must take on board the aim of Contraction and Convergence. The left must examine seriously the issue of economic growth and work out how we can share what we have. Bahro said that Marx was not materialist enough. The true material base is the biosphere. Marx was a 19th century thinker - eco-socialism  or eco Marxism is is the only path we can follow in the 21rst century.

ix.
Asylum and immigration will be central issues in this election. What action on this issue would you like to see the next government push through?

If we continue to prop up dictators sell arms around the world we will contribute to an unstable world. As climate change bites we will have  soon environmental refugees in greater numbers than refugees from war and famine. We need to welcome refugees to our country but we also need to build  a stable world. A Green outlook is the only way to build stability. We must welcome all who contribute to a multicultural society-if capital can move rapidly across the world why cannot labour?

x.
What question do you wish was on this list but doesn't appear?

When will the left seriously examine the issue of economic growth and climate change?



Martyn Shrewsbury
Speaker Wales Green Party Plaid Werdd
07702 917 987
01792 455 364

Visit my blog at www.swanseagreenparty.org.uk 

"America will never be destroyed from outside.If we falter. and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves" ( Abraham Lincoln)
"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper.Half never voted for President.One hopes it is the same half." (Gore Vidal)
 

April 2005