On yer bike - be a fisherman’s friend
by Alicia Craw, Oceans Campaigner
Greenpeace volunteer networks in the Southeast and Southeest have already taken to the streets with their “Be a Fisherman’s Friend” stalls; there are some wonderful blogs and photos whilst the network in Canterbury produced a video with a giant fish as the star of an instrumental flash mob. Overall, the feedback from the first two weekends of campaigning has been good, with volunteers receiving really positive responses and support from the public. And the giant fish costumes are going down a treat, we hear!
Loads of fish cards have been signed already, including 250+ at the Southdowns Green Fair, and 687 by Bristol East over two days in the Greens! Thanks to everybody for getting the campaign off to such a great start.
The official launch on 29th May is coming up fast. The full web platform will feature a brilliant sea shanty petition targeted at the Fisheries Minister, Richard Benyon and a fantastic film, ‘The Last Fishermen’. Please check it out and encourage everybody you know to go online and become a fisherman’s friend, by signing the petition and “liking” the facebook page. Our fish and our fishermen need all the friends they can get!
Greenpeace volunteers from across the Southeast and Southwest will be campaigning at a range of local fish festivals in May and June – please visit the Portsmouth, Southampton, Plymouth, Worthing, Brighton, Cornwall, Bournemouth or West Dorset webgroups for details.
This summer, come with us to the Arctic
by Richard George, climate campaigner
The summer is fast approaching, and as the sea ice at the top of the world has begun its annual retreat Shell has headed northwards to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic. Shell has hired a pair of icebreakers to support its brace of drillships, although it promised MPs in the UK parliament that there wouldn’t be any ice.
In February, Greenpeace activists boarded the first drillship in New Zealand. In May, dozens of activists from Greenpeace Nordica stopped the second ship three times as she sailed from Finland towards Alaska. Our campaign to protect the Arctic (is far from over) will be building so look out for more exciting activity over the summer, and to get involved in loads of different ways with your local campaign network visit the Greenpeace Getactive website
Get Active!
Download and display a Stop Shell - Save the Arctic poster in your front window
Show Shell there are people active locally, who think they should scrap their plans to drill in the Arctic this year.
Campaigning top tips
by Richard Martin, network developer
- Organising a stall – build yourself a campaigner’s bag. Include everything you’ll need from pens to string to gaffa tape to generic materials like leaflets advertising your meetings and supporter sign up forms. Keep your bag near the pasting table, ready to grab and go.
Opening lines – for a new campaign, ask everyone to try out new opening lines, e.g. ‘are you a fishermens friend’ – after 20 minutes get everyone together and compare notes as to what lines are working best.
Please post your top tips as comments here.
Finally in case you were wondering, the fishy chap on the bike is the heroic coordinator of the Southampton Greenpeace network on his way to a local campaign stall. If you've ever fancied dressing up as a giant fish, then please get in touch with your local coordinator.
Thank you for all your hard work campaigning with Greenpeace - it's going to be a busy summer.
Tim, Rachael and Malcolm
Outreach team
P.S. Greenpeace (with Platform and FairPensions) have launched a new campaign report 'Out in the Cold: investor risk in Shell's Arctic exploration' aimed at the investment community
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