Caroline Hoffman - a tribute

Dr Caroline Hoffmann (1964-2011) was a member of the Scottish Green Party and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, an ecologist, a sailor and an LGBT rights campaigner. She died on the 4th December 2011 after a long struggle with leukaemia.

In 1998 the Scottish Green Party hadn’t got much in the way of assets. Most of the party membership had become disillusioned and burnt out after a succession of electoral false dawns. What it did have, alongside the irrepressible Robin Harper, was the steely determination of a German PhD student called Caroline Hoffmann that the party could and must do better. Together with her then partner, Philine Gaffron, she helped give the party the hard shove that was required to get it ready to fight an election campaign in 1999. The result of that campaign was the election of Robin, and the creation of a new green space in British politics. Caroline played a massive part in this success. 

Caroline moved to Edinburgh to do a PhD at the Napier University Pollution Research Unit, with the catchy title “Investigation into the use of the Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence assay as a direct toxicity assessment (DTA) tool in the activated sludge environment”. The research side of of the PhD – assessing tools for measuring the toxicity of of sewage before discharge – appealed to Caroline’s attention to detail, her love of the sea and her life long passion for environmental protection. When not measuring the light output of V. fischeri at different levels of pollution, the other great draw of Edinburgh was the excellent sailing from Granton Harbour. Caroline had taught sailing in Southampton and quickly got involved in the Forth Corinthians yacht club.

However, coming to the Scottish Green Party conference in 1998 in Edinburgh, she was stunned to find a party that was seriously considering folding itself back into the Green Party of England and Wales, so low were the levels of energy and enthusiasm. Caroline, together with a few others, recognised that despite appearances, the introduction of PR for the Scottish Parliament elections meant the party stood on the brink of a massive opportunity.

Caroline threw herself into getting the party ship-shape and ready for the election. As Convenor of the National Executive and as Euro Election Campaign co-ordinator she gained a fearsome reputation for cutting through the waffle common in green circles. Her broadcasts from boring old realityland were vital in grounding the party and focussing its efforts on what actually needed to be done.

Opinions differ as to whose idea it originally was, but Caroline was a fierce advocate of the ‘Second Vote Green’ slogan. She recognised that the greens would only get a small window of opportunity to get their message across so it needed to be focused. Constant emphasis on a single clear message, she believed, should be at the heart of a campaign – and took the successes of 1999 and 2003 vindication of this.

She was also a passionate feminist and LGBT rights campaigner, and served as a role model for many new female members of the party. The campaign in 1999 to support the repeal of Clause 28, the homophobic regulations that forbade teachers and other local authority staff from treating gay and lesbian relationships as equally valid, was a bitter one, but Caroline maintained her principles and humour, as well as her passionate commitment to equality, throughout.

After a stint working for the Centre for Human Ecology, she returned to Germany, and after working for the Green Group in the the Bundestag and as Senior Advisor to the Council of Baltic Sea States she became the Head of the Environment and Transport Unit at the German Federal Environment Agency. She maintained her commitment to Green campaigning, working hard to get Bündnis 90/Die Grünen candidates elected in Berlin and Brandenburg.

It was in Berlin that Caroline married Katarzyna Nowak last year – in her own words “never give up hope – true love exists after all”.

However shortly after their wedding Caroline was diagnosed with leukaemia, the latest of several bouts of cancer. Despite two separate bone marrow transfusions, associated radio- and chemotherapy and a huge amount of struggle and bravery Caroline died in hospital on December 4th.

There are the ‘Bs’ I will always associate with Caroline. First, birds: she persuaded me that birdwatching could be fun, and her tales of how her group of ‘gay birders’ shook up the almost asexual world of birdwatching in Edinburgh always got a giggle. Secondly boats: I have a vivid memory of sailing across the Forth with her, and Caroline suddenly ducking down to put the radio on. Lo and behold, just as she had predicted, up popped a seal to see what the noise was. Finally (Werder) Bremen – her hometown football club and a source of pride, passion and disappointment in equal measure.

In love, in joy, in memory.

Mark Ballard was a Green MSP from 2003-2007 and ran the 2003 Scottish Parliament campaign which elected 7 Green MSPs.

KICKING OFF NEW DEBATES

The fourth session of the Scottish Parliament is now in full swing and Alison Johnstone and I have been doing everything we can to promote the fairer, greener agenda for Scotland that thousands of you voted for back in May.

If you've been following our news releases on this page, you'll have seen some of the areas where we are providing a distinctive Green voice in the Parliament - challenging the consensus of the other parties.

For instance, while we want to see more tax powers for the Parliament, we're making a clear argument against the SNP's campaign to cut corporation tax at a time when funding for local public services is being cut, and we are determined to see more action by the Scottish and UK Governments to tackle the scandal of tax avoidance by some incredibly wealthy individuals and companies in Scotland.

We've also been making the case for far more publicly-owned and community-owned renewables projects. There's a real window of opportunity here to bring about a steady and sustainable income for communities but we need to act to make sure that big business doesn't take all the economic benefits of the renewables revolution.

The need for more Green politicians at all levels remains very clear and as a Party we're working hard to increase the number of Green candidates that get elected in May's local elections. There may only be two of us in Parliament but we are confident that we can achieve a great deal over the coming years, supporting local and national campaigns that build Green support across Scotland. We're really keen to hear from party supporters and members about what issues you think we should be championing on a day to day basis, so please get in touch!

Holding our ground

In the Scottish election of 5 May 2011, the Greens were the only opposition party not to lose seats in the face of a tidal wave of SNP support but it's of course disappointing that expected gains did not materialize.

Green support grew in Glasgow and Lothian, and I retained my seat and Alison Johnstone joined me, replacing retiring Robin Harper as an MSP. In Highlands and Islands, the party was less than 400 votes short of returning former MSP Eleanor Scott to Parliament. The Green vote also increased in Mid Scotland and Fife and in North East Scotland but we fell a bit short of gaining new MSPs for those regions

While Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats all lost seats, the Greens remain on two, but our final vote share of 4.5% was disappointing in light of a succession of polls predicting the Green vote at 6-8% and up to 8 MSPs.

I think we ran our most professional campaign to date, and we had both great candidates and hard-working local teams. I am pleased to be back in Parliament, with Alison, making sure the Green voice is heard loud and clear. But I am also disappointed that we weren't able to capitalise on the opportunity to improve our position at Holyrood.

However, even in those areas where we have fallen a bit short, we have done some excellent ground work for next year’s council elections when I am confident we will see more Green councillors elected across the country. A wee break - just this weekend probably! - and then it's back to the hard work.