Yesterday I went to Birmingham to help train a group of activists who want to become political lobbyists for Greenpeace. Greenpeace has always gone straight to the source of power when it comes to campaigning, as they are the people who are in a position to force the changes Greenpeace demands. Until recently we had occasionally asked people to lobby their MP for us but now we realise that if we are to ask people to do this we should equip them with the tools to do so effectively, in the same way that we offer training for street campaigning and non violent direct action training.
The training package is new but it has already been warmly recieved by activists who say that they now feel more confident about going to see their MP or writing to them. Jo Melzack and I ran the training event with Matthew Herbert from Rhizome on hand to advise and support. We also had Paddy Tipping, who retired from being MP for Sherwood at the last general election. Paddy was generous in his help and advice to everyone and it is largely through his kindness and advice that the event went so well.
We want to role this training package out across the country in a bid to get (eventually) at least 300 trained lobbyists who will talk to or write to their MP's about environmental issues. We are having a concentrated burst of training in the lead up to the climate change conferencein Cancun in Mexico at the end of the year.
So we will be having a training session in Nottingham (venue to be confirmed) on the 16th October. If you are interested please contact lobbying@greenpeace.org.uk to apply.
Comments