 Affordable housing – not executive homes in dead zones!
Dear Green Party campaigner This month, we have one urgent call to action, on the government’s hugely destructive Planning & Infrastructure Bill. This is a property developers’ charter that strips away vital protections for the natural world without helping to provide the affordable social housing we so desperately need. But it can still be amended to remove its most damaging aspects – and our Green peers are busy trying to do this right now! Our flatpack campaign gives you tools to bring pressure on your local MP to support positive amendments that are likely to be introduced by the House of Lords. We know that many of you will want to take action to protect the natural world from a Bill that the Wildlife Trusts describe as a “licence to destroy”! In solidarity, Green Party Campaigns Committee
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 Dear Green Party campaigner
When people hear about Green policies to address the housing crisis and stop landlords exploiting their tenants, they really like them. So let’s make sure more people know about these! That’s the idea of this month’s campaign flatpack. It includes an eye-catching ‘Housingometer’ tool you can use to engage the public in conversation on housing and highlight local support for rent controls and other measures. As well as model press releases, council motions and lots more! Big news on Zane’s Law This month brings a major development in the campaign for a ‘Zane’s Law’ to make toxic landfill safe – an issue powerfully dramatized by the recent Netflix series Toxic Town. A parliamentary summit on 11 June, convened by Baroness Natalie Bennett, will bring together campaigners from around the country along with trade unions, scientists and legal experts. Real pressure is mounting for a change in the law – big thanks to all who have taken action using our flatpack from last year! Very best wishes, Green Party Campaigns Committee PS: Many Green councillors are picking up casework from tenants facing poor housing conditions and exploitative landlords. If you’re taking action using our housing flatpack, do also use local newspapers, radio and TV and Green Party newsletters to tell these stories and highlight how active we are in helping people facing these issues in our communities!  Campaigns Committee is looking back on a busy year, which has included campaign material for you to use on toxic landfill, the housing crisis and the growth of the racist far right.
Thanks so much to all who have taken part in these campaigns! We have more in the pipeline for the new year, but this month we’re focusing on the terrible situation facing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This Christmas, nearly two million people – almost the entire population of Gaza – face the most desperate of circumstances. Refugees crammed into makeshift ‘tent cities’, whose homes and communities have been devastated by over a year of relentless bombing that has killed nearly 45,000 people – the majority of these women and children. Witnessing horror and cruelty on such a massive scale can make us feel powerless to help. But there are things we can do – and Green Party Conference has re-iterated the party’s support for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the state responsible for this genocidal violence and companies that are facilitating it. You’ll find resources to campaign on this in this month’s campaign flatpack: 10 things you can do about the genocide in Gaza. Our thoughts this Christmas are with these people, and with all the hostages and unjustly imprisoned in both Gaza and Israel. Our hope is that the new year will bring progress towards peace and justice for all those who have suffered so much for so long. In solidarity, Green Party Campaigns Committee PS: One other (easy) thing to do over the Christmas break: The Climate and Nature Bill first introduced by Caroline Lucas will have its crucial second reading in Parliament on Friday 24 January. This Bill would make a huge difference to efforts to address the climate emergency. Please take a moment to write to your MP asking them to support the Bill. Zero Hour have made this easy to do, here.  We’ve all seen the violent riots staged by far-right thugs in towns from Southport and Hartlepool to London. What can you do to combat this? There’s no easy answer. Combatting the rise of fascism is one theme that Campaigns Committee is now working on. We have just launched a "Greens Against Fascism” flatpack with advice and ideas you can use, including a placard/poster that you can download and print off. We also warmly applaud the leadership shown by Green councillor Mothin Ali in Leeds in bringing his community together in the face of those who seek to divide it and inflame violent unrest. Laughter is the best medicine The worst thing we can do is respond to violence with violence. Fascism feeds on violence and chaos. Politicians of the far right aim to use fear of violence to win votes on the promise to “restore law and order”. By contrast, your best bet is to keep your sense of humour. You may have read that the leader of the French Greens fought the French far-right with humour. The extreme right hate nothing more than being laughed at. Download your flatpack now  Green MPs bring fresh energy to Westminster
Meanwhile, it’s been an incredible month for the Green Party – the biggest Green vote ever at a general election and four brilliant new Green MPs at Westminster! They’re already making a big impact, speaking up for climate, environment and social justice. After 14 years of Tory misrule, a new government opens up exciting possibilities for positive change that our Green MPs will be pushing for at every opportunity – as will Campaigns Committee. Carla Denyer And it was great to see several of our campaigning themes mentioned in their maiden speeches in Parliament. Follow the links to access campaign materials on all the issues they've spoken about. Bristol’s first Green MP, Carla Denyer, highlighted the housing crisis and the need to give councils the power to introduce rent controls. As she noted: “Private rents in Bristol have increased by 52% over the last decade, while wages have not even increased by a quarter. This is an untenable situation, but one that around half my constituents find themselves in as private renters.” Carla also looked forward to a future where the UK can rejoin the EU, and deplored the damage to the UK’s reputation caused by our government’s refusal to clearly condemn the Israeli government’s war crimes in Gaza. Adrian Ramsay Fresh from winning Waveney Valley in Suffolk – a feat many imagined to be impossible – Adrian spoke of the horror his constituents feel about the state of their rivers, and called for our campaign for tackling the sewage scandal to be made a top government priority. Like Carla, he also underlined the extreme urgency of the climate emergency and the insanity of opening up new North Sea oilfields. Ellie Chowns Ellie achieved one of the biggest swings of the election when she unseated a seemingly impregnable Tory MP in North Herefordshire, spoke of the desperate need for new social housing, and for this to be “accompanied by the right infrastructure so that health, education and transport services are not put under yet more strain”. She also highlighted the need to repair and properly fund our NHS, and to reward public-spirited health workers “not just with warm words and applause, but with training bursaries and salaries that keep pace with inflation”. Sian Berry In her maiden speech, Sian paid tribute to the remarkable legacy of Caroline Lucas, her trailblazing Green predecessor in Brighton Pavilion: “I know that all of us sitting here today are humbly aiming to live up to the high standards, values and work ethic that she represented, and to serve here with the same energy and enthusiasm.” Sian particularly noted “Caroline’s steadfast and long-standing opposition to threats to the public’s right to protest” – another of out long-standing campaigns - and a threat that was very much underlined by the savage jail sentences meted out to peaceful Just Stop Oil protesters earlier this month. In stark contrast to both Labour and Tory governments kowtowing to roads being blocked by farmers and truckers, protesting against fuel costs and food imports. It will be interesting, too, to see how the sentences handed to peaceful Green protesters compares with those given to the far-right thugs arrested last week. Yours – nevertheless - with renewed hope for a Green future! Campaigns Committee |
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