On 19 August, Eleanora Foran — perhaps better known as online political analyst ‘Stats for Lefties’ — announced her election to the Green Party Council. Foran is one of two representatives for the Eastern Region, itself one of the 10 areas of England and Wales represented on the council.
This is noteworthy for two reasons. First, Greens for Palestine backed Foran as a candidate. The campaign group is one of the driving forces behind the “Zionism is Racism” motion at the Green Party conferences – both back in March and upcoming in the autumn.
The March vote on the motion never took place. The chair claimed that the vote couldn’t proceed after Palestinian speaker Lubna Speitan’s highly emotive speech on the devastating effects Israeli violence had on her family.
‘I welcome their hatred’
Eleanora Foran herself posted a message of support for the anti-Zionist cause following her election. She wrote on social media that she was “so grateful” to both party members and Greens for Palestine for their support, before stating:
I know there will be Zionists reading this who are utterly furious that I won. I welcome their hatred.
That latter sentence is a direct quote from Roosevelt’s 1936 speech at Madison Square Garden. FDR referred to the businessmen and war profiteers who seemed to consider the government “a mere appendage to their own affairs”. However, the parallel to Israeli interests in the UK government is more than apt.
The Financial Times was particularly quick to come after Foran. It quoted her June post reading:
Glory to the Iranian resistance, whose courageous fight against the imperialist dogs of the USA has utterly humiliated the Great Satan.
The FT felt compelled to contextualise this statement alongside the fact that the UK recently designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. Likewise, it helpfully explained that:
The party, which has grown rapidly since the election of [Green Party leader] Zack Polanski as leader last year, has been accused of failing to tackle extremism among its members.
Of course, the article failed to mention that Foran mentioned the IRGC precisely zero times. It is, after all, a proscribed group, and we know how the UK government feels about those.
Likewise, the Financial Times also managed to forget the fact that both the US and Israel illegally attacked Iran, sparking the war in the first place. Oh, and then Trump only managed to lose it anyway.
Green Party ‘has changed’
Foran’s election to the council is also notable because she’s openly trans. At a time when the UK political landscape is actively hostile towards trans people, and even the Green Party itself has barely left behind its transphobic leanings, Foran’s election is a sign for celebration.
In fact, given that the Green Party Council allows one ‘male’ and one ‘female’ seat for each region, it’s also an important fact that Foran was elected to the female seat. In her social media statement, Foran wrote that:
Our party has changed, and my election as a proud anti-Zionist trans woman symbolises that change. I look forward to working with my comrades on GPC to build a radical anti-imperialist Green Party – one that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with queers, Palestinians, disabled people, migrants, refugees and activists enduring state repression.
Congratulations to Foran from us here at the Canary — we just hope she doesn’t give up her work as Stats for Lefties at the same time!
Featured image via the Canary
By Grace
