Inspirational Action
Digital demonstrations have enabled those with little time, or the inability to travel freely, to connect with activists and celebrated organisations across the globe: Cutting down on taxing emissions, as well as improving upon our means of accessing information.
Our team and national leaders took the environmental fight online. This year’s digital revolution was embraced by many, with the full schedule of training events and talks, the North Staffs Greens connected with various parties and Green leaders across the UK.
The monthly Staffordshire Sunday Social, hosted by Peggy Wiseman, has been a great way to connect with our neighbouring parties. These gatherings inspired a series of training events; preparing our Green candidates and local teams for the coming elections.
Caroline Lucas, Amelia Womack, Molly Scott Cato, Jonathan Bartley and Sian Berry dedicated themselves to countless current news events, discussions and debates. Including the Green New Deal, the support for refugees, the urgent need for Universal Basic Income, transport, HS2 omissions, housing rights, financial support for independent businesses and artists, as well as the call for people’s assemblies.
Furthermore, with the cross-party and NGO support, Caroline Lucas aided the launch of legal action against the UK government over Covid-19 contracts. The Greens have actively challenged the decisions and actions that have failed so many of us.
"When billions of pounds of public money is handed out to private companies, some of them with political connections but no experience in delivering medical supplies, ministers should be explaining why those companies were awarded the contracts... It’s completely unacceptable that, as an MP, I’m prevented from being able to scrutinise those decisions."
Caroline Lucas,
MP, Brighton Pavilion
NSGP Events 2020
Looking back on this year, is very emotional. Together the North Staffs Greens have learnt so much and it’s great to see our team members flourish in their roles. The NSGP’s first virtual-speaker, Councillor Andrew Cooper, inspired us with both his local and northern victories. He is now a distinguished Kirklees politician, but his roots follow us back to Stoke, he’s proud to be one of the city’s earliest Green candidates.
In 2008, Cllr Cooper successfully obtained funding for the Kirklees RE-Charge scheme, which provides householders with renewable technology for their homes with no upfront costs or monthly payments. In 2009, he was recognised in the Independent on Sunday’s list of the top 100 Environmentalists and was the only Councillor on the list.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, his successes haven’t stopped there. It was inspiring to learn how Cllr Cooper challenged our UK Government at the United Nations. Local policies regarding the ban of fracking in Yorkshire were at risk, he and his team’s efforts were greatly successful. He delighted us in the knowledge of how important local policies really are to national decision making.
Peer Green and Baroness Natalie Bennett, along with Senior Field Organiser Peggy Wiseman and Stafford’s Candidate Emma Carter, celebrated regional and national successes at our June discussion. Year on year, the green wave is ever growing and we’re having huge impacts all over world. Here in the West Midlands, we’ve gone from just a hand-full of supporters to gaining 75 councillors; and with the recent announcement that the Green Party is now the UK’s 3rd largest party - it’s new sight of our future in government.
Working with these amazing women has been inspiring to say the least. It’s important that members from all backgrounds contribute to decision making. Knowing the successes of Greens across the UK and the globe is evidence that we can have our cake too. We can have an empathic, compassionate, honest, fair and equal government. People-politics is to be embraced, the system is changing, and it’s changing quick.
I’d also love to personally thank Jenny Hancock, Mike Jones from Staffs Moorland Climate Action, Thomas Guilbert-Newell from Youth Strike 4 Stoke, Will Maxwell, Vicky Gerrard and Emily Batkin from Stoke-on-Trent Animal Rights (S.T.A.R), Cllr Tony Pearce and Annie Nelligan from Green Party Boycott Diverse and Sanctions working group, for contributing to our topical talks.
Connecting with local activist groups enabled us to understand the various forms of protest and using this information – how to challenge our governing bodies; how to engage local residents by building new communities with mutual interests and concerns.
"From environmental campaigns, race, gender and sexuality, to the iconic #MeToo movement, these rallies all have two things in common, they seek to rightfully gain equal status as well as to end abuse; whether it’s regarding our planet or people, adequate protection is needed to unite against the underlying message of our unjust society and government."
Jade Taylor,
NSGP, Co-ordinator
Many organisations are facing the same challenges, I personally believe in co-operation, especially when it comes to matters of urgency and severity. Working with common-interest groups has allowed us to support each other’s messages and campaigns effectively.
Autumn Conference
Unfortunately, this spring’s annual conference was cancelled. Following the NSGP’s Palestine & Covid-19 discussion, I was honoured to be asked to chair the BDS working group discussion, the national autumn online conference was to be my first for both attending and facilitating.
It has been very distressing to know how deprived regions, either from war or severe poverty, have endured the global pandemic with very little outside assistance.
Like any other matters of human-rights inequality, it’s important to know the realistic situations that are shaping our modern world, and prepare for the consequences yet to come.
North Staffs Rewilding
Most of us can agree that the lockdown experience has allowed for us to really appreciate the little things in life. Many of us spent more time outdoors this year than before. It’s amazing to see how many communities pulled together to reclaim gardens and allotments across Staffordshire. Local members joined forces with Stafford & Stone Greens to help clean local woods, ponds and walks of waste.
Inspired by our fortnightly topical talks, we saw that there was an urgent need to help rewild our local communities, and so we formed the North Staffs Rewilding campaign.
Reaching out to local community groups, gardeners, labourers and artists, we’ve sourced a plot of land behind the North Staffs Hospital on Oliver Road, Stoke. This abandoned patch of concrete is surrounded by care facilities as well as NHS and caregiver’s occupants and family homes.
The North Staffs Greens thought this was the perfect way to give thanks to our wonderful NHS services, giving both caregivers and patients a sanctuary for peace. Aiding local wildlife by planting native and practical species of trees, wildflowers and grasses.
To also lower carbon emissions, improve upon local air quality, health and well-being; and with the expert’s valuable knowledge, we also plan to educate local communities with flora maintenance tips and biodiversity understanding.
By developing these small green spaces, we hope to enrich community strength by connecting and reclaiming these communal patches.
"There’s no doubt the Potteries have been neglected. This project offers something positive and worthwhile without costing a huge amount of money in these difficult times. It’s been well documented how therapeutic gardening is and how important it is to encourage wildlife and biodiversity. Making an area more attractive for the residents and helping wildlife at the same time is a project worth supporting."
Janet O’Malley,
Lead Gardener
Currently, our team is conducting a community consultation to let local neighbours know of our plans, as well as giving them the opportunity to let us know what they’d like to gain. The land will be required to be transfered back to the community, when complete, our busy bees are ready to get building. If you’d like to get involved in this exciting project, please fill in our form.