The Green Party is largely a part of activists. While this may be one of our strengths, it has also meant that the party has long struggled to establish a coherent identity and politics. That is not because of a lack of clear transformational poliitcs in the party. There has always been a strong socialist current in the party, Murray Bookchin's social ecology came up alongside and inspired many early party members, and since 2016 the GPUS has been an explicitly ecosocialist party. As ecosocialists we seek to establish an "eco-socialist economy based on large-scale green public works, municipalization, and workplace and community democracy." But how did we get here, what does that mean in practical terms, and how does our ecosocialist orientation come into play in our local organizing?

This workshop will provide a history of the left lineage that led to and diverged into Green Socialist thought, look at some key ecosocialist policy pieces related to the Green Party's key values, the foundational differences between ecosocialist policy and that of progressive capitalists, and discuss how ecosocialist ideas and tactics intersect with our movements and can be deployed in our communities. Through this workshop, we hope to make the case for why the Green Party's ecosocialist orientation is not just a label, but a fundamentally transformative and liberatory foundation that permeates through to Green strategy, organizing, and policy, Whether on a global scale or in our own community.