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Political Dump

2024 is a year of elections and we can use them to pick up public interest in the climate and nature emergency and show them a new way of doing politics through assemblies.

Engaging in traditional approaches such as letter writing, signing petitions, door knocking etc. are not effective and so not a good use of rebels' time and energy.

Feel like today's politics keeps you in the dark and feeds you bullshit - then think Community Assembly

### Landscape - Candidates will focus on what they believe to be important to their voters. - But we can use Community Assemblies, Hustings and Survey Boards to tell candidates what truly matters. - Elections will be taking place for councils and mayors in England, for police and crime commissioners in England and Wales and London Assembly on the 2nd May. - There are no local elections in Scotland or Northern Ireland for 2024. - Assuming an autumn General Election, it's too early to start election-specific activities - the sweet spot is 4-6 weeks before the election itself when public, media and political attention will be at its peak. - We don't want to risk burn-out and loss of momentum/enthusiasm by starting too soon however what we can do is begin to set the agenda now. - The Action Strategy includes the 'General Election Pivot' during which: - A series of targeted, impactful actions will be undertaken, designed to maximise media coverage and to demonstrate that the current system isn't working. - This will also link with the Political Influencing campaign encouraging political parties to include support for a UK-wide Citizens' Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice in their manifestos. - Local and general elections may provide an effective context to encourage you to redouble efforts around assemblies to highlight local issues of concern. - XRUK is actively encouraging and supporting Local Groups to run assemblies because it's the right way to do politics.

As soon as the date for the General Election is announced, this pack will be updated.

Local elections have 3 levels of significance...

  1. Local government have key responsibilities for the environment. This is a chance for voters to hold them to account for their failure to protect us and our planet.

  2. Many MPs are standing down at the next election due to, amongst other things, changes in the electoral boundaries. It’s time to show the strength of public feeling to those seeking to replace them. Register to vote

  3. They will be the last elections before the general election so will be a litmus test of voters’ feelings, particularly in marginal, blue, red walls and target seats.

Why Local Issues Matter

This year’s local elections provide opportunities to:

  • Mobilise local communities by focusing on local issues through assemblies
  • Cement the alliances that have already been built with like-minded organisations and groups
  • Build coalitions by meeting people where they’re at and find common causes with a broad range of groups
  • Keep up the pressure on local candidates by inviting them to respond!

Demand that all candidates commit to:

Declaring a climate and nature emergency
Involving communities via deliberative assemblies in decision-making about issues that matter most to them
Being led by the outcomes of the assemblies

So, let’s get going!

Here are three questions to help you to get started

  1. Is there an election in your area? Use the VoteClimate Local Elections Finder or view them on a map.

  2. What is your council’s performance on the climate emergency scorecard? Use My Society and the Climate Action score rating websites to find out.

  3. Have your constituency boundaries changed? They will be of particular interest to the media as they could indicate the outcome of the next General Election.  Look for the key battleground seats analysis on the VoteClimate website.

What can we do?

  • You can use the demands listed above
  • Run Community Assemblies on local concerns in-person or online.
  • Run combined Hustings and Community Assemblies - invite expert speakers, then break-out groups to discuss and decide on questions to ask candidates.
  • Record candidates' responses and post them on your social media accounts - hold them to account if they later break commitments.
Guides to running Hustings in-person or online:
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