Four Pillars of The Green Party - History of The Four Pillars

History of The Four Pillars

The practice of describing Green philosophy via Four Pillars began with the German Green Party in 1979-1980. At its founding meeting in 1984, the Green Committees of Correspondence in the United States expanded these into the Ten Key Values.

For the Australian Greens, they are known as "Ecological sustainability", "Social and economic justice", "Peace and nonviolence", and "Grassroots democracy".

For the German Greens (Die Grünen/Bündnis '90), they are known as "Ökologisch", "Sozial", "Basisdemokratisch" and "Gewaltfrei".

For the Swedish Greens (Miljöpartiet de Gröna), in the 1980s they were called the Four Solidarities: "Solidarity with the ecological systems", "Solidarity with the people throughout the world", "Solidarity with future generations", and "Solidarity with the underprivileged people in our own country". Today they omit the pillar of Solidarity with the underprivileged, leaving them with the Three Solidarities: "Solidarity with animals, nature and the ecological system", "Solidarity with future generations", and "Solidarity with all the world’s people."

On the global level, the Six Principles of the Global Greens Charter - which at the Global Greens conference of 2001 were arrived upon as a compromise of the North American and European traditions - added Respect for diversity and Sustainability. The Green Party of Canada, in 2002 adopted the Six Principles of the Global Greens as its official doctrine.