Sandra Gauci
As a woman from Qormi, in my younger years I was never part of the Greens’ core vote. Yet now, several years later I not only choose to vote for ADPD, but to be a candidate on the 6 and 12 districts and to lead the party in another election. To this campaign, I bring my resilience and energy. It is much easier to fight for change, when you have seen change happen in action.
As a secondary school teacher of over 20 years, I meet and interact with young people every day. I see and recognise their struggles, and I care deeply. It is this deep care that brought me to ADPD-the Green Party, a place where I did not need to set aside morals, political values, or principles for political expediency, or for get-rich-fast schemes.
The tldr; (summary) of it all is that ADPD-The Green Party does not offer empty promises, electoral gimmicks, and short-term goals. In a time of climate crisis, wars, and global instability, long-term planning and future-proofing are essential. This is what you will find in our manifesto. At the time of writing, we are the only political party to have published its electoral manifesto.
Undoubtedly, it would be much easier to ignore what is going on around us in the world. To silo ourselves off and to leave important global decisions in the EU’s hands. No matter our size, as a sovereign nation with a long history of being a central part of the Mediterranean’s conflicts, we can be world leaders in offering a model on what resiliency and care looks like in practice.
The ADPD manifesto is a manifesto of resilience, as it is built on core values and principles that guide us, rather than a checklist of gifts. Building an electoral programme on core values and principles means that you know where you stand with us. An electoral programme built on core values is resiliency in practice as it allows us to adapt well to any future challenges we are not yet aware of. This will allow us to bounce back from difficulties and actually grow stronger, together.
The ADPD manifesto is a manifesto of care; we advocate for care, in society, in politics, in the economy, in the relationships we foster with each other and between communities. I am so done with the politics of hate, fear, and scapegoating of those we deem to be “other”. It’s time to care. With our voice, and with our vote.
In practice, resilience and care mean that we, as Greens, measure every political issue along various political axes—from sustainability to ecological wisdom, from social justice to non violence, from participatory democracy to respect for diversity.
What does it mean to be resilient in the face of the climate crisis and global economic instability? Two issues which matter deeply to our youth today. It means investing in renewable sources of energy so that we are no longer reliant on an energy grid that is fuelled by countries at war, and that do not respect our natural world or the humans in it. It means recognising that the economy—our material relationship with each other—is ours to manage, and that we can with time change from a material relationship of extraction to one of reciprocity. This means investing in and exploring models like the doughnut economy, or beyond growth strategies.
Global to local. What does it mean to be a caring society, when we are currently surrounded by hate and greed? It means investing in each other, as equal members of society. It means investing time in our family and friends. In building relationships that lift us up. To do this we need to be exploring 4-day work weeks, trialling Universal Basic Income, and by introducing a Bus Rapid Transit system immediately to cut down the amount of time people spend commuting to school, university, or work. These may sound like a utopic vision, but they can become realities if we start working on them today.
This May, vote for a politics of ilkoll; vote for a politics of solidarity. Vote for your future. Vote for a third voice in parliament. It’s time to vote ADPD-The Green Party. You’ll find us on every district.
Sandra Gauci is ADPD-The Green Party chairperson and candidate on the 6 and 12 districts
First published here: https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/opinions/141720/for_a_politics_of_resiliency_and_care
