GRÜNE JUGEND - The Green Youth Germany
The GRÜNE JUGEND (Green Youth) was founded in 1994 and is the political youth organisation of the german Greens. We`re taking our own, progressive positions within and outside the green party. Although we are officialy part of the Greens, we're completely independent in our political opinions.
Anybody can become a member of us, until he/she is aged 28. You can be an active member within the Green Youth, without being a member of the `old greens`, as we call them. At the moment we have about 5500 members (June 2004, membership is steadily increasing). By the way, we're having an office in the same building as the old greens, with one office coordinator and some students working for us. What we want
We are ecological, social, very critical towards globalisation, democratic, emancipative, antiracistic, international and peaceful. Some of our main political issues are:
- An exit out of nuclear energy
- Priority for environmental protection
- Peaceful solutions where conflicts occur
- High-quality education for everybody, independent of their
- social background More direct democracy for young people
- A globalisation which isn't solely led by economic and geoplitical interests
- A humane drug policy
- The right for asylum
- At least half of the power for women
- A multicultural society without racism
- A fair division of work and income
- Access to internet and the new media for everybody
- Constitutional rights for everybody
Structures
The Green Youth is basic-democratic and is structured in a bottom-up way:
Basis-groups are active on the local level and present in towns and villages. In each german `bundesland` (province our county), a `Landesverband` (regional department) exists; in total 16 in the whole of Germany. These regional departments connect local groups and are in contact with regional politicians. The national `Gruene Jugend` is connecting all these activities.
Twice a year we have our annual congress, in which between 300 and 400 young greens participate. Each member can influence the policies of the Green Youth there. Apart from discussions, decisions and actions, during the congress a new Board for the Green Youth is chosen once a year, which takes care of all the running activities during the year, in cooperation with our Berlin office.
Further, the Green Youth is running an educational programme; we're having about eight different working groups which meet twice a year, during which these working groups organise seminars on issues like gender, peace, racism, economy, education, etc.
Finally, on the european level we take our role in FYEG serious: apart from our annual financial support, we always appoint one Board member to be responsible for international affairs within the Green Youth, and we try to attemd some of the activities of FYEG.
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