2011 was an exciting year for East Bristol Greenpeace. Here’s a reminder.
In January we were campaigning on the energy bill for the Go Beyond Oil campaign and delivering cards to our MP Stephen Williams
Throughout the year we did outreach with local schools including this visit to Chippenham College in March.
In spring strange stickers began appearing on certain brands of tuna cans that were fished with unsustainable FAD devices. One of our number participated in a visit to Princes in Liverpool and Greenpeace HQ initiated an email campaign to John West. Eventually all the major UK brands agreed to move to FAD-free fishing.
In May a few of us took a trip to Brussels to the European Business Summit to highlight how multinational companies lobby against important EU climate laws.
In early summer Barbies appeared in miscellaneous locations in Bristol to point out to Mattel how their cardboard packaging contained rainforest pulp. And then strange stickers began appearing on Mattel, Disney and Hasbro products. All three manufacturers got the message and dropped rainforest pulp for sustainable pulp.
In June we pulled triumph from the jaws of soggy disaster when Bristol’s Biggest Bike Ride was rained off. Our plucky sponsored cyclists either braved the deluge or re-scheduled their ride – we raised over £300 for the Rainbow Warrior III.
And then at the end of June many of us worked hard and played hard at the Glastonbury Festival.
In July a couple of Bristolians tripped up to Edinburgh to visit Cairn Energy and encourage them to publish their Arctic oil spill response plan. This plan was eventually published and widely criticised.
We ran many stalls over the late summer to sign people up for the Common Fisheries Reform campaign including Easton, GloRo, Amnesty Garden Party in Clifton, Harbourside, BrisFest and Bemmie. The Best of Bedminster show coincided with the hottest day of the year in October!
In August and September we ran stalls at showings of Just Do It, helped in Bath by our lovely Greenpeace Bath colleagues.
In September we paid a surprise visit to the VW dealership in Brislington to publicise VW’s attempts to sabotage new EU climate laws – and we appeared on the HTV news!
November was a busy month - we ran some local training on Core Values and the like.
Many of us took the opportunity to visit the new Rainbow Warrior III which docked in London.
At the end of November around 50 activists from across the UK, including Bristol, blockaded the Department for Transport in London over ministers’ involvement with Canadian tar sands lobbyists.
In December we did a lot of VW campaigning in Totterdown and Bishopston to introduce the good folk of Bristol to our stormtrooper. And then we did even more VW campaigning at the Stokes Croft Winter Fayre because everyone (above 5’ 2”) in the group wanted a turn to dress as a stormtrooper!
So we asked group members to pick out a highlight of the Greenpeace year 2011. Amused by the results, we then asked the same question of our South Western friends from Greenpeace Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Bath and Bristol. Highlights include both the daft and the deep. The results can be seen below, enjoy!
And if you are inspired to join East Bristol Greenpeace, come to our next group meeting.
Comments