THE global coronavirus pandemic has thrown out politics as usual. 

Governments across the world have crafted responses ranging from bumbling incompetence to opportunistic and ideologically driven attempts to further privatise public health systems. 

The consequent needless and preventable loss of life has dominated column inches and broadcast hours.

In this context, the public at large would be forgiven for thinking that the Green Party of England and Wales had fallen off the face of the Earth. 

But the Greens actually started this year from a position of unprecedented strength. 

In 2019, the party had its best ever results in local and European elections — doubling its representation in local councils and the European Parliament. 

This was followed by the second highest Green vote share ever in the December general election — in spite of the bizarre decision to form an electoral alliance with the austerity-peddling, tuition-free trebling spineless charlatans in the Liberal Democrats.

2021 could be similar. Next year, there will be a higher volume of elections taking place than in any other. 

The 2020 local and mayoral elections were postponed to next year, meaning they now coincide with elections to the Welsh Parliament, Scottish Parliament and another crop of local councils. 

With thousands of seats up for contention, there is an unprecedented opportunity for the Greens to establish themselves properly as major force in British politics.

2020 could see the first Greens elected to the Welsh Parliament. It could see the Green Party taking control of — or becoming part of a ruling coalition — in a handful of councils throughout England. 

And it could see Greens vying for second places in mayoral elections throughout the country — including in London.

While that wouldn’t change the country overnight, it would begin to shift the balance of power in politics and open the door to the radical politics our country desperately needs.

In some senses, there’s fertile ground for this, beyond just the sheer number of elections being contested next year. 

But there’s also major challenges the Greens will need to overcome.

In 2019, Green Party electoral success was predicated on three things. 

First, the burgeoning climate movement that emerged in the early months of that year — typified by Extinction Rebellion and the school strikers — which put climate change high on the political agenda and pushed the electorate towards prioritising it at the ballot box. 

Second, the distorting effect Brexit had on British politics — with left-leaning Remain voters drifting from the Labour Party’s perceived triangulation on the issue. 

And finally, an electoral strategy based on heavily localised highly targeted campaigning with volunteers mobilised on the ground in key target seats.

None of these factors look likely to be a driver of political behaviour in 2021. 

The Brexit culture war appears to have run out of steam as the pandemic took over at the start of this year. 

Mass climate mobilisations look untenable with coronavirus restrictions limiting the ability for people to organise in person and take action on the streets. 

Similarly, co-ordinating dozens of volunteers to knock on doors and speak to voters directly has become near impossible throughout the various iterations of lockdown — which seem likely to run at least until the middle of spring.

But on the other hand, the political context has also fundamentally changed this year. 

The defeat of the Labour left and Keir Starmer’s ascent to the Labour leadership is a devastating blow to all of us who are fighting for socialism, for climate justice and a world beyond imperialism — whatever political party or organisation we find ourselves in. 

But although it is devastating, it is also a reversion to the norm. 

Throughout the Labour Party’s history it has more often than not sold out its members, sold out the trade union movement and sold out on socialism. 

It did so under Ramsay MacDonald, under Neil Kinnock, under Tony Blair. So too will it under Keir Starmer.

While the demise of a radical Labour Party is nothing to be celebrated, it nevertheless is the foundation on which the future of the Green Party will be built. 

The Greens’ policy platform and political vision is of a world that protects both people and the planet, that recognises the need for rapid and radical action to curb the worst effects of climate change, but that such action must place workers and communities first.

It is a vision in the tradition of the socialist left, where people are empowered through the democratisation of both our politics, but also our economy. 

It is a vision that would end the scourge of privatisation, that would invest in good, unionised jobs in the industries of the future, and that would develop pioneering projects of decentralised, democratic municipal socialism. 

It is that vision that the Greens must harness and articulate to deliver electoral success in 2021.

In occupying the space vacated by Labour — and doing so through effective use of digital technology and social media, working with alternative media outlets and making every mainstream media appearance count to reach a mass audience — the Greens have the potential to turn electoral ambitions into reality.

If there is any year that should happen, it ought to be 2021. With unemployment rocketing, the economy collapsing sector by sector, and the state being hollowed out by the Tory Party’s ideologues, the country has never needed a radical change more. 

With the Labour Party under Starmer offering the status quo with neater hair and less bluster, it is the Greens who should be seizing this moment. 

They have just five months to do this. The question is if they don’t, will they ever?

Chris Jarvis is editor of Bright Green (bright-green.org) and a Green Party candidate for Oxford City and Oxfordshire County Council.