Hard-left Greens faction forming in Canberra

A hard-left splinter group of the Greens that rejects capitalism will hold its first official meeting in Canberra next week.

The Left Renewal faction formed in NSW last month, releasing a statement of principles describing capitalism as "a violent and antagonistic relation between workers, and those who exploit them".

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Members have been embroiled in controversy over calls to burn the flag as a different sort of Australia Day barbecue.

Federal leader Richard Di Natale has described the group's manifesto as "ridiculous" and "ill-thought through" and suggested its members consider joining another party.

A meeting at the Food Co-op in Canberra has been advertised online for January 29. Topics listed for discussion include:

• Why should anti-authoritarian leftists be involved in parliamentary politics?
• Class politics of the Greens;
• What does a left-wing Greens look like?
• What have the Greens failed to do so far?
• The Greens as a party of protest and/or a party of government.

A member confirmed the planned Canberra meeting with Fairfax Media by email.

Left Renewal supporters are bound to not reveal other people's relation to the collective, but this does not prohibit members from disclosing their own affiliation.

Members say the Greens have drifted increasingly towards parliamentary compromise.

The group's Facebook page says Left Renewal is "a collective of rank and file Greens ... who believe in the ideals of socialism".

"At a time of gross inequality and a growing far right, it's clear people are desperate for an alternative," the site says.

The 14-point manifesto urges a challenge to "all authoritarian and exploitative economic models, which ultimately requires socialising the means of production".

"This means that we reject the idea that society can truly be changed through 'good people' gaining control of these authoritarian and exploitative power structures and/or do not believe that individual changes to our consumption will create change," the statement says.

The group's emergence has highlighted divisions in the party between pragmatists and the hard Left. Tensions boiled over recently after the so-called "eastern bloc" lost NSW preselections to the faction they dub "tree Tories".

The ACT Greens have been contacted for comment.

The party suffered a 0.5 per swing at the 2016 election, polling 10.3 per cent of the total vote.