I joined the Northumberland Greenpeace group in January 2010, having lived in the area for the last 8 years I was not aware of the group until I looked for it via the Greenpeace UK website. My first contact with the other activists was to attend the monthly meetings.
In early spring we attended a training session where we were taught how to engage with the general public about campaigns and the do’s and don’ts’s. It was also an opportunity to meet people from other Greenpeace groups around the country.
Soon after this we held our AGM for the Northumberland group and I volunteered to become a joint network co-ordinator. I have enjoyed this post over the last 9 months it has been challenging and very interesting.
On the 15th of May we supported the Green energy fair together with Transition Tynedale, we had a stall and got signatures for the campaign against BP’s Tar Sands plans, in partnership with Transition Tynedale we also offered people the opportunity to find out what their carbon foot print was, this was my first opportunity to engage with the public on issues raised by Greenpeace.
The Tar Sands campaign took the largest chunk of last year’s campaigning and on the 5th of June I helped the Newcastle Greenpeace with the stall at the Newcastle community green festival. This was the first time I had ever attended this festival and it was reassuring to realise that there are so many likeminded people. It was also interesting to note just how many people do not know what Tar Sands are!
On the 10th of July I together with a couple of people from the Northumberland Greenpeace group took part in an action. This was my first ever action, we spent about 2 hours holding “No Tar Sands” banners outside a local BP garage, that is situated on a very busy main road. The reaction from the passing traffic was mixed, but as most people were unaware of what the Tar Sands are and because the Gulf of Mexico spill was taking place at this time our message may have been perceived as being about the on-going problems BP were having in the Gulf of Mexico.
At the end of August I attended the Infest festival in Bradford, and for the Saturday I was allowed to have a Greenpeace stall. This was quite a shape learning curve and interesting experience, I had a very quiet day with only about 12 signatures from about 8 hours.
In September I attended a conference organised by The Co-operative on behalf of the Beaver Lake Cree who have filed legal action against the Canadian government because of the Tar Sands developments. After the conference I produced a blog on the event which can be viewed on the Greenpeace Northumberland webpage.
In the middle of October I attended lobbying training in York, which I found to be interesting; it was also a good opportunity to meet activists from other parts of the country.
In November I attended a Skill share weekend organised by Greenpeace for all the activists in the North of England. Again it was great to meet other activists, but it was also good to learn new skills especially how to try knots!! We were also given brief insights into the experiences of people in other departments of Greenpeace, and the future plans of Greenpeace as an organisation.
In December we had a street stall in Hexham during farmers’ market day, and got a record amount of signatures from the public. The signatures were for the Go Beyond Oil campaign (the Energy bill) and it was very nice to see the amount of people knew who about it and wanted a change.
My Greenpeace Year has been very exciting and also tough in some places, but from being involved I have learned so much about our planet, the organisation and about myself.
Rakesh
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