Environmental activists in the Hunter will be given the skills to mobilise in the face of empty political handshakes thanks to a new initiative being rolled out nationally by the Wilderness Society.
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The local branch, the Wilderness Society Newcastle, will hold a series of free workshops designed to teach the skills required to effectively expand the movement.
The Wilderness Society launched a video sardonically taking aim at politicians for failing to commit to their environmental promises.
It showed politicians throughout the last century shaking hands and committing to environmental safeguards while forests were cleared and mines were opened across the country.
“Handshakes don’t save the environment. People do,” the video’s tagline reads.
Wilderness Society Newcastle’s Maitland-based launch co-ordinator and volunteer Odette Lawler, said the program, called “Movement For Life”, inverts the traditional method of social movements.
“It’s about capacity building in a community,” she said.
“[It’s] about getting new people on board and rallying people together for one issue.”
In other words, Ms Lawler said, Movement For Life is about teaching a community to go beyond signing petitions. It’s about learning the skills used to rally and advocate for a central cause. Active, rather than passive support.
While the momentum for the strategy was born from frustration with politics, the design of the strategy has its roots in politics as well.
The Wilderness Society’s national community organising manager worked on the “Obama ‘08” campaign team – the campaign that gave birth to the hugely resonant “CHANGE” slogan.
Ms Lawler said an empowered, organised community would be better poised to accomplish change locally.
Anyone interested in joining the workshops is encouraged to attend the Movement For Life launch at Cooks Hill SLSC on Monday April 11 from 5.45pm.
They can also follow the Wilderness Society Newcastle on Facebook.
