Initiative for Catalonia Greens

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Logo of the ICV

Initiative for Catalonia Greens (Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds, ICV) is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. It was formed as a merger of Iniciativa per Catalunya and Els Verds. IC had been an alliance led by Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya and was the referrent of Izquierda Unida in Catalonia. IC later developed into a political party, and PSUC was dissolved.

The youth of ICV is called Joves d'Esquerra Verda (Green Left Youth). It used to be called JambI, Joves amb Iniciativa (Youth of the Initiative).

In the elections to the European Parliament in 2004 ICV ran on the Izquierda Unida list. One MEP, Raül Romeva, was elected from ICV which joined the Green Group.

The ICV forms part of the tripartite coalition (along with the Catalan Socialist Party - PSC and the ERC, a left-wing Catalan Nationalist Party). The coalition has governed Catalonia since the 2004 General Election. ICV was given responsibility for the Ministry of the Environment in the share-out of power in the new government. However, ICV has already angered many of its voters by failing to scrap the outgoing administration's plans to build the Bracons tunnel through an area of outstanding nature beauty. The latest scandal to damage ICV's "green" credentials involves a scheme to build a massive incinerator [1] in the village of Sant Pere de Torelló. Some 90,000 metric tonnes of unsorted industrial waste would be burnt at the plant, giving rise to high dioxin and furane emissions. The village mayor's financial and political interests in the scheme and his close links with the ICV-run Ministry of the Environment (responsible for deciding if the plant should go ahead in the teeth of local opposition) have further dented the Party's credibility, threatening to widen existing rifts in the coalition government. The party has also alienated itself from voters by supporting the routing of Spain's AVE (high-speed train) through Barcelona's 19th city centre, despite a feasible alternative coastal route that would have a much lower environmental and urban impact. ICV's support for Catalonia's new but highly conservative energy plan also casts doubt on the party's avowed commitment to alternative energies and sustainable development.

Ideology

Part of the Politics series on
Green politics

Green issues

Worldwide green parties (list): Global Greens · Africa · Americas · Asia-Pacific · Europe

Ideas in the
Global Greens Charter:
ecological wisdom
social justice
participatory democracy
nonviolence
sustainability
respect diversity

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Iniciativa per Catalunya calls itself an "ecosocialist" party and their members are therefore, the "ecosocialists". This ideology is summarized in the book "The ecosocialist manifesto" (Spanish edition ISBN 84-87567-34-7), co-written by a number of left-wing green politicians. This ideology looks to renew the left and is firmly against communism as practised in the former Soviet Union and against capitalism, as practised by Thatcher and Reagan, but also against social democracy, which is only a lesser evil, but does not respond to the environmental and social challenges ahead. From the ecosocialist point of view, both communism and capitalism are two faces of the productivism "mode of production" (a marxist term), which should be phased out if our planet is to survive. According to this book, this ideology is also deeply feminist and pro "freedom of the European peoples" (i.e. pro self-determination for the Basque country and Corsica).

External links

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