When Green New Deal Rising launched in August, we had a four step plan to take us to 2024:
- Disrupt the political system
- Force politicians to choose a side
- Make the GND an era-defining issue
- Elect inspiring Green New Deal champions.
In the few months since then, we have:
- trained and welcomed more than 500 young people into our movement as part of 9 volunteer teams
- challenged more than 40 MPs on video, which have been viewed more than 3.1 million times on social media – forcing them to publicly choose a side
- reached out to thousands of new young people inviting them to join our movement.
we’ve laid the foundations – now it’s time to build the house
In just a few short months we’ve built the foundations for a powerful, volunteer driven movement of young people fighting for a Green New Deal with the potential to cause real disruption to the political system, and we’ve forced politicians from all over the UK to choose a side.
Everyone who has played any part in the movement so far should be so proud of this. Starting a movement to win such huge change is incredibly hard work, and already people are starting to take notice.
Time to build the house.
This year we’ll continue to build on what we’ve created – creating political disruption and forcing politicians to choose a side. But 2022 is also the year that we begin to make the Green New Deal an era-defining issue.
That means reaching out to young people online to bring them into the movement, as well as talking to as many people as we can in person about the Green New Deal – this year we’re going BIG!
It also means focusing our energy on key battleground constituencies which have the potential to elect new GND Champions at the next election, and winning support there so that when an election comes, we’re ready.
And finally, it means breaking through into the media to shape the debate about climate change and bring the Green New Deal to the widest possible audience.
this year we’ll go big, break through, and get election-ready
We need to go big
We need a movement big enough to meet the scale of the challenge we face.
We know that the kind of change we are calling for is immense — and our work needs to match the scale of the challenge in front of us. We need to get bigger if we want to influence the next election, disrupt the political system, break into the press and ultimately win a Green New Deal. That means more people who can do politician challenges, more people who can run trainings, more leaders, more volunteers, more activists.
The good news is that there are literally millions of young people in the UK who are terrified by the climate crisis but don’t yet know about the Green New Deal. Millions of young people who could take action for the climate but haven’t been asked to step up. We need to reach those people and ask them to join our movement.
The way to reach these millions of young people? Digital Canvassing. This is our new experimental tactic of reaching out and messaging people directly on social media based on the people/organisations they follow, where we think they live, or something else.
We’ve done some trial runs, and we think it will work – we’ve got a plan to scale up this operation so that an army of volunteers could DM every young person in the UK with an Instagram account, talk to them about the Green New Deal, and invite them to join the movement.
You can help! Look out for Digital Canvassing calls in the new year on this page, and make sure you’re on Slack in the meantime.
We need to break through
We’ve had some amazing viral moments in 2021. From Emma’s incredible challenge of Keir Starmer, to Fatima chasing down Rishi Sunak. Now we need to up our game and be laser focussed on taking disruptive action that challenges politicians and grabs the media’s attention.
Why? Because to make the next election all about the Green New Deal we need to start defining the narrative right now.
Climate change is already the number 1 issue for most voters – above the economy, the pandemic, and everything else. Our job is to make the Green New Deal the only answer in town.
To break into the mainstream we need to commit to taking big, bold actions together that grab attention and define the debate. Up for it?
big change only happens when you break the rules and disrupt the status quo.
We need to get election ready
If we are serious about changing the system, we have to be serious about power. Electing Green New Deal Champions is essential for our strategy. We need political allies in the halls of power if we are going to see our demands enacted.
We have to be smart about where we concentrate our people power. We need to identify the people that can become GND champions, the places where they can win, how many of our champions need to win in order to tip the balance of power in our favour.
We can’t wait until the official election campaign six weeks ahead of a general election. We need to get to work in key communities now. So we’re choosing three or four battleground seats to focus our energy in the next 18 months.
We are the generation that will win the Green New Deal. We have no time to waste.
