Local Party Support Coordinator
Click the candidate name below to see our questions and their responses!
This candidate did not provide responses.
How do you think the party should improve its relationship with trade unions and the labour movement?
If we’re to win the change we want to see in the world, the Green Party must firmly put its weight behind worker-led movements and campaigns for progressive change. Building relationships with trade unions and the labour movement isn’t just about setting up key meetings between individuals, but ensuring that our party, our membership and the wider Green movement is acting in real solidarity with workers. This means officially backing national campaigns in party policy and communications, giving a platform to workers and their campaigns once we get elected to positions of power, and mobilising our members to put strategic support behind strike actions, rallies, demonstrations and campaigns for decent work, pay and social security. Where we can add power to the labour movement, and put pressure on the bosses, is where we will find ourselves building the most important relationships with trade unionists and the wider labour movement.
The Green Party Trade Union Group has delivered some incredible work towards these ends in the last year alone, especially regarding the fight for fair pay in the NHS. From getting the party to back a 15% pay rise for NHS workers in policy, to coordinating a Green presence at the NHS Anniversary protests, and from working with London Assembly Members to back local campaigns for decent work and pay, to running online talks and events that bring members closer to these struggles is all absolutely vital work.
How do you think your role could help Greens to become more active in and engaged with the labour movement?
A key priority for me if elected, will be to work closely with the staff team to deliver an effective membership recruitment and engagement plan. For me, this means thinking about what building a truly empowered, active and effective membership looks like. As Greens, we know that change happens through building power inside and outside the ballot box. Therefore our activists ought to be empowered to build powerful campaigns behind Green principles and policies not only in the chambers, but also in their communities, workplaces, colleges and universities. The latter will always lend power to the former and vice versa. If elected then, I would be keen to see us: deliver training and support to activists on how to build effective campaigns for change; to map, connect and organise our trade union members active within the party; and put power and resource behind the Green Party Trade Union Group who are building education and organising members already in such a way.
How would you support local parties to build relationships with local union branches, and workers organising in their areas?
As a former National Organiser of the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, I have a strong history of forging meaningful relationships with trade unions and working with local groups to build these on the ground in their communities too. I’d be thrilled to work on this in the role of Local Party Support Coordinator and am really glad to have been asked this question.
One of the first things I hope to do if elected is map our local parties, their status, capacity and relationships with other local progressive organisations and trade unions. I would be keen to use this and work with the Green Party Trade Union Group on working out what kinds of support and training could be offered to local parties to help grow relationships with local union branches and organised workers. I have stated in my campaign that if elected, I will devise several bespoke training packages for different types of local party, (e.g. ones which are just getting their foot on the ladder, those with national target seats, and those already in power). Therefore the training and support can be varied and specific to the local landscape. On one hand, a project could involve political education on how local trade unions work and how to get behind these movements, or on the other, training and support to local councillors in collaboration with the AGC on how to build relationships with trade unions, and use the power of local government to make local wins on national campaigns for decent pay and work.
How do you think the party should improve its relationship with trade unions and the labour movement?
How do you think your role could help Greens to become more active in and engaged with the labour movement?
How would you support local parties to build relationships with local union branches, and workers organising in their areas?
This candidate did not provide responses.