In this section
- Campaigning vs Lobbying
- Making your plan
- Convincing existing councillors to change their mind
- Just short of majority
- Significantly short of a majority
- Building a community campaign
- Develop a list of actions.
- Find allies
- Election time
- Statements of support
- Produce and distribute a scorecard on the candidates
- Run Climate Emergency candidates
- Assess the result
1. Campaigning vs Lobbying
If you completed step 2. Meeting with your councillors you just completed a lobbying exercise.
Lobbying
Campaiging is different. With campaignign you
If you completed step 2. Meeting with your councillors you just completed a lobbying exercise.
Lobbying
Campaiging is different. With campaignign you
1. Making your plan and choosing a path to success
This section of the website assumes you have already spoken to your councillors and tried to convince them of either acknowledging a climate emergency or moving into a full emergency mode. If you haven't done this yet we recommend this as the first part of starting your campaign.
So you didn't succeed in getting your council to acknowledge the Climate Emergency your first round of meetings. You will now need to build a campaign to make the declaration happen.
The first part of building a campaign is to make a plan. The first part of making plan is to understand the goal we are trying to achieve. The second part is making what is the actual mechanism for achieving what we want i.. "How are we going to win?".
1.1 Your goal
At this point it is vital to remember the reason why we are trying to get our council to declare a climate emergency in the first place.
The ultimate goal of the campaign is to get governments around the world to act at emergency speed to reverse global warming as soon as possible. By getting your local council to declare climate emergencies it puts pressure on higher levels of government and normalises this response to both the public.
Your local goal in the context of the meta goal is to get your local council to declare a climate emergency .
1.2 How do win
In this case to win we need:
Path 1. Convincing more councillors is discussed in sections 3.2. Replacing councillors is discussed in section 3.4. Section 3.3 can be applied to both path 1 and path 2.
1.3 If you cant win
This section of the website assumes you have already spoken to your councillors and tried to convince them of either acknowledging a climate emergency or moving into a full emergency mode. If you haven't done this yet we recommend this as the first part of starting your campaign.
So you didn't succeed in getting your council to acknowledge the Climate Emergency your first round of meetings. You will now need to build a campaign to make the declaration happen.
The first part of building a campaign is to make a plan. The first part of making plan is to understand the goal we are trying to achieve. The second part is making what is the actual mechanism for achieving what we want i.. "How are we going to win?".
1.1 Your goal
At this point it is vital to remember the reason why we are trying to get our council to declare a climate emergency in the first place.
The ultimate goal of the campaign is to get governments around the world to act at emergency speed to reverse global warming as soon as possible. By getting your local council to declare climate emergencies it puts pressure on higher levels of government and normalises this response to both the public.
Your local goal in the context of the meta goal is to get your local council to declare a climate emergency .
1.2 How do win
In this case to win we need:
- a majority of Councillors to vote to acknowledge a Climate Emergency and implement a climate emergency response.
- Convince more of the existing Councillors to support a climate emergency response
- Replace those Councillors opposing the climate emergency response with new Councillors supporting it
Path 1. Convincing more councillors is discussed in sections 3.2. Replacing councillors is discussed in section 3.4. Section 3.3 can be applied to both path 1 and path 2.
1.3 If you cant win
2. Convincing existing councilors to change their mind
2.1 Just short of a majority
If you only missed your majority by one or two Councillors your campaign can be just to get the extra one or two votes you need.
You should review your meetings with the Councillors and decide which Councillors would be most likely to change their mind and support a climate emergency response.
When you have decided on who to focus on consider the tactics below and action the ones you think have the best chance of working.
3.2.1.1. Providing them with the missing piece of the puzzle
You should already have some idea of why the Councillor didn't support the declaration from your first meeting. Hopefully you asked them directly why they were not supporting a Climate Emergency Declaration and they gave you an answer. However people don't always give you the real reason they don't want to do something.
A second meeting focused around that part of the climate emergency argument they didn't accept, might be all you need to get them onside.
Was the reason they didn't accept any of the following:
3.2.1.2. Get an expert
Some people only believe things if they are coming from a source of authority or expertise. Perhaps getting an expert to talk to them about their issue of concern is the answer. For example:
- if they didn't believe in global warming science you could try and see if they are willing to read a Breakthrough report or a science based climate book or meet with or talk to a climate scientist from a leading university. You may have one that even lives in your council area and is a local.
- if they didn't understand the role of councils in the Climate Emergency but accepted everything else, a discussion with Philip Sutton from RSTI or Bryony Edwards or Adrian Whitehead from CACE or a Darebin Councillor might help.
3.2.1.3. Re-focus on values
Perhaps you failed to understand their values or didn't succeed in linking global warming to something they cared about. Do some more research into the Councillor and find out what their real interests and values are and re-discuss the Climate Emergency in the context of these values. Try and find a person who shares similar values with the Councillor and get them to meet with them.
3.2.1.4. Come at them sideways
Perhaps you are good friends with a Councillor's husband or wife or a member of their family or one of their good friends or business partners. Try and convince these people about the Climate Emergency and the role councils can play and ask them to talk to the Councillor.
3.2.1.5. Building community pressure on the Councillor
Councillors are elected to represent the community and will respond to varying degrees if they feel there is community concern over an issue. For some councillors this will be the most important thing that will get them to act.
You can apply pressure directly to your target Councillors by asking members of the community to ring, write, email or visit them asking them to declare a Climate Emergency.
You could write letters to the local paper naming and shaming the Councillors that have not committed to declaring a climate emergency or do door knocks and leaflet drops, put posters up on street poles or something similar.
3.2.2 Significantly short of a majority
If you are three or more councillors short of your majority you can still implement the above tactics but you may have to build a strong community campaign to convince councillors to acknowledge we are in climate emergency (see step 3.3 below).
2.1 Just short of a majority
If you only missed your majority by one or two Councillors your campaign can be just to get the extra one or two votes you need.
You should review your meetings with the Councillors and decide which Councillors would be most likely to change their mind and support a climate emergency response.
When you have decided on who to focus on consider the tactics below and action the ones you think have the best chance of working.
3.2.1.1. Providing them with the missing piece of the puzzle
You should already have some idea of why the Councillor didn't support the declaration from your first meeting. Hopefully you asked them directly why they were not supporting a Climate Emergency Declaration and they gave you an answer. However people don't always give you the real reason they don't want to do something.
A second meeting focused around that part of the climate emergency argument they didn't accept, might be all you need to get them onside.
Was the reason they didn't accept any of the following:
- the science
- the impacts
- the role of council
- did you fail to understand their values
- or was it you?
3.2.1.2. Get an expert
Some people only believe things if they are coming from a source of authority or expertise. Perhaps getting an expert to talk to them about their issue of concern is the answer. For example:
- if they didn't believe in global warming science you could try and see if they are willing to read a Breakthrough report or a science based climate book or meet with or talk to a climate scientist from a leading university. You may have one that even lives in your council area and is a local.
- if they didn't understand the role of councils in the Climate Emergency but accepted everything else, a discussion with Philip Sutton from RSTI or Bryony Edwards or Adrian Whitehead from CACE or a Darebin Councillor might help.
3.2.1.3. Re-focus on values
Perhaps you failed to understand their values or didn't succeed in linking global warming to something they cared about. Do some more research into the Councillor and find out what their real interests and values are and re-discuss the Climate Emergency in the context of these values. Try and find a person who shares similar values with the Councillor and get them to meet with them.
3.2.1.4. Come at them sideways
Perhaps you are good friends with a Councillor's husband or wife or a member of their family or one of their good friends or business partners. Try and convince these people about the Climate Emergency and the role councils can play and ask them to talk to the Councillor.
3.2.1.5. Building community pressure on the Councillor
Councillors are elected to represent the community and will respond to varying degrees if they feel there is community concern over an issue. For some councillors this will be the most important thing that will get them to act.
You can apply pressure directly to your target Councillors by asking members of the community to ring, write, email or visit them asking them to declare a Climate Emergency.
You could write letters to the local paper naming and shaming the Councillors that have not committed to declaring a climate emergency or do door knocks and leaflet drops, put posters up on street poles or something similar.
3.2.2 Significantly short of a majority
If you are three or more councillors short of your majority you can still implement the above tactics but you may have to build a strong community campaign to convince councillors to acknowledge we are in climate emergency (see step 3.3 below).
3.3 Building a community campaign
A community campaign has four key goals:
You will need to develop a list of action to undertake as part of your campaign (3.2.1) and seek some allies (3.2.1).
3.3.1 Develop a list of campaign actions and activities.
Decide on some activities to build the profile of the climate emergency in you community and put pressure on council. These campaigns are potentially a lot of work so it is important that your don't overstretch yourself and keep your campaigning in a sustainable way.
There are almost limitless ways you could go about running a community campaign, but here a some ideas you could adopt. You can also read the Darebin campaign page (currently under construction) to see a case study of a successful campaign for an acknowledgement of a climate emergency.
Once you have built up some momentum around your community campaign you could meet again with your target Councillors and see if they now support a climate emergency acknowledgement or going into full emergency mode by council.
Campaign options Include:
Building a campaign team
Get friends, family and community members to help you run your campaign, and be willing to collect emails and phone numbers of people who might be interested in helping.
If running a group outside your circle of family and friends you will need to run meetings to discuss and plan activities, but be careful of difficult people who can disrupt groups. If you need help with group processes CACE is happy to discuss ways you could effectively run your group.
If making a new group come up with your own name that shows you are independent of CACE or consider calling it "CACE XYZ" i.e CACE Darebin CACE Moreland etc if you want to work closely with us.
Social media
Getting a facebook page is a great start. You can manage your campaign through the page, adding members and creating events. Encourage members to share your posts on their personal pages.
Look at other active climate facebook pages such as Save the Planet , Abrupt Climate Change , What will we leave our children?, What I did today to reverse global warming, This week in the climate emergency or CACE's own page to find interesting climate related posts you can use on your website.
Facebook groups, as opposed to pages, are great for building a campaign group. CACE also has a public facebook group for people campaigning on council emergency declaration to help network.
A community campaign has four key goals:
- raise the level of awareness and concern about the climate emergency while linking this to the role councils can play in helping stop the emergency; and
- convince Councillors there is significant concern about the climate emergency and a desire in the community for them to respond by both acknowledge we are in a climate emergency and to then to move their council into emergency mode; and
- as a consequence of the above, build enough pressure on council to get council to acknowledge a climate emergency and then move into emergency mode, while at the same time building pressure on state, federal and international levels.
- create the conditions to either make sure new or old councillors elected to the next council will support an emergency response or support the election of new councillors who will.
You will need to develop a list of action to undertake as part of your campaign (3.2.1) and seek some allies (3.2.1).
3.3.1 Develop a list of campaign actions and activities.
Decide on some activities to build the profile of the climate emergency in you community and put pressure on council. These campaigns are potentially a lot of work so it is important that your don't overstretch yourself and keep your campaigning in a sustainable way.
There are almost limitless ways you could go about running a community campaign, but here a some ideas you could adopt. You can also read the Darebin campaign page (currently under construction) to see a case study of a successful campaign for an acknowledgement of a climate emergency.
Once you have built up some momentum around your community campaign you could meet again with your target Councillors and see if they now support a climate emergency acknowledgement or going into full emergency mode by council.
Campaign options Include:
- building a campaign team
- social media promotions
- using local media
- leafleting
- signature collection
- front yard signs
- stalls
- door knocking
- banner drops
- protests
- ads
- community meetings
- making a speech to council
- using the budget process
- making submissions
- getting other community organisations to back your position
- finding allies outside of climate focused groups.
Building a campaign team
Get friends, family and community members to help you run your campaign, and be willing to collect emails and phone numbers of people who might be interested in helping.
If running a group outside your circle of family and friends you will need to run meetings to discuss and plan activities, but be careful of difficult people who can disrupt groups. If you need help with group processes CACE is happy to discuss ways you could effectively run your group.
If making a new group come up with your own name that shows you are independent of CACE or consider calling it "CACE XYZ" i.e CACE Darebin CACE Moreland etc if you want to work closely with us.
Social media
Getting a facebook page is a great start. You can manage your campaign through the page, adding members and creating events. Encourage members to share your posts on their personal pages.
Look at other active climate facebook pages such as Save the Planet , Abrupt Climate Change , What will we leave our children?, What I did today to reverse global warming, This week in the climate emergency or CACE's own page to find interesting climate related posts you can use on your website.
Facebook groups, as opposed to pages, are great for building a campaign group. CACE also has a public facebook group for people campaigning on council emergency declaration to help network.
Local Media
Use what remains of our local print media and your local community radio station to support your campaign. In country and regional areas these can be very important campaign tools.
Signature collection
Use the CEDAMIA Climate Emergency Declaration template and use these to collect signatures. Once you have enough you can present these to council. They can also be used to develop an email list for your campaign and presented to higher levels of government.
The gold standard of signature collection was used by the Lock the Gate campaign to declares areas and towns "frack free". Campaigners go door to door explain the issue and getting support from each house hold.
Ultimately campaigners and present a report to council state you have, for example 95% of all house hold support and full emergency mobilisation by council.
Stalls
Stalls at your local shops, market or fetes are a great way for the public to see you campaign and for you to spread the message about the climate emergency.
Front yard signs
By putting signs in front yards people can show their support for the campaign.
Leafleting
You can get the message directly to people by putting a leaflet in their letter box. Remember your leaflet is a community notice and not "Junk Mail", so ignore these signs as almost all people are happy to get a notice from a genuine local group.
Door knocking
Door knocking is the next step up from leafleting and allows you to have conversations with people about the climate emergency and getting your council to declare. If no one is home leave a leaflet in their letter box,
Banner drops, posters and stickers
Perhaps there is a good spot to hang a banner. If you can hang a banner over a busy road you will get 100's or even 1000's of more views per hour than any Facebook or Google ad. Posters in shops, in workplaces, at community centers and schools and on poles, while stickers on cars and other places help spread the message.
Protests
If you council is not declaring an emergency take your protest into the council chambers at your next council meeting. I has become traditional to wear RED. Your local Extinction Rebellion group might be able to help you with this or perhaps start one in your area.
Some local climate action groups like to protest the lack of action on global warming or a particular government's support for a new coal mine or fracking outside local state or federal sitting members' offices.
Below is a image of Surf Coast Climate Emergency activists putting some pressure on their local council to declare.
Use what remains of our local print media and your local community radio station to support your campaign. In country and regional areas these can be very important campaign tools.
Signature collection
Use the CEDAMIA Climate Emergency Declaration template and use these to collect signatures. Once you have enough you can present these to council. They can also be used to develop an email list for your campaign and presented to higher levels of government.
The gold standard of signature collection was used by the Lock the Gate campaign to declares areas and towns "frack free". Campaigners go door to door explain the issue and getting support from each house hold.
Ultimately campaigners and present a report to council state you have, for example 95% of all house hold support and full emergency mobilisation by council.
Stalls
Stalls at your local shops, market or fetes are a great way for the public to see you campaign and for you to spread the message about the climate emergency.
Front yard signs
By putting signs in front yards people can show their support for the campaign.
Leafleting
You can get the message directly to people by putting a leaflet in their letter box. Remember your leaflet is a community notice and not "Junk Mail", so ignore these signs as almost all people are happy to get a notice from a genuine local group.
Door knocking
Door knocking is the next step up from leafleting and allows you to have conversations with people about the climate emergency and getting your council to declare. If no one is home leave a leaflet in their letter box,
Banner drops, posters and stickers
Perhaps there is a good spot to hang a banner. If you can hang a banner over a busy road you will get 100's or even 1000's of more views per hour than any Facebook or Google ad. Posters in shops, in workplaces, at community centers and schools and on poles, while stickers on cars and other places help spread the message.
Protests
If you council is not declaring an emergency take your protest into the council chambers at your next council meeting. I has become traditional to wear RED. Your local Extinction Rebellion group might be able to help you with this or perhaps start one in your area.
Some local climate action groups like to protest the lack of action on global warming or a particular government's support for a new coal mine or fracking outside local state or federal sitting members' offices.
Below is a image of Surf Coast Climate Emergency activists putting some pressure on their local council to declare.
Ads
If you have a lot of money you can run ads in your local paper, on social media. pay people to leaflet, pay Australia Post to deliver letters to local household or even hire billboard space.
Community meeting
These can be a really good way to encourage people to act. CACE has run a series of meeting in Darebin focusing on the
climate emergency, the role of council, how people can help the campaign and how they can change their own lifestyle. CACE is more than happy to speak at your local event.
If you are running a community meeting, consider framing as what your can do locally to help accelerate emergency action locally and by higher levels of government rather than asking how we can reduce our emissions - hence why we want our council to make a declaration or go into emergency mode. You may end up focusing on an emission reduction campaign but you might consider how this can be run / framed / focused to accelerate change at higher levels of government.
If you have a lot of money you can run ads in your local paper, on social media. pay people to leaflet, pay Australia Post to deliver letters to local household or even hire billboard space.
Community meeting
These can be a really good way to encourage people to act. CACE has run a series of meeting in Darebin focusing on the
climate emergency, the role of council, how people can help the campaign and how they can change their own lifestyle. CACE is more than happy to speak at your local event.
If you are running a community meeting, consider framing as what your can do locally to help accelerate emergency action locally and by higher levels of government rather than asking how we can reduce our emissions - hence why we want our council to make a declaration or go into emergency mode. You may end up focusing on an emission reduction campaign but you might consider how this can be run / framed / focused to accelerate change at higher levels of government.
Making a speech to councils
You may wish to make a speech to your council and argue that they adopt a climate emergency response. Some councils allow community members to address the council formally as part of the discussion of a motion and some will invite community members to speak from the floor without notice.
Here is a example of a speech given with notice given by Jeff Barlow to Yarra Ranges Council Meeting on Tuesday 10 September 2019 at the Shire of Yarra Ranges Declaration meeting.
You may wish to make a speech to your council and argue that they adopt a climate emergency response. Some councils allow community members to address the council formally as part of the discussion of a motion and some will invite community members to speak from the floor without notice.
Here is a example of a speech given with notice given by Jeff Barlow to Yarra Ranges Council Meeting on Tuesday 10 September 2019 at the Shire of Yarra Ranges Declaration meeting.
| jeff_barlows_presentation_to_yr_council_support_of_motion_climate_emergency_declaration_10_sept_2019.pdf |
Invite Youth
If you are able to invite or encourage a young person to speak to the council about their fear for the future and their desire for council to take meaningful action. CACE is seen many incredibly powerful presentations by youth to council or the community.
If they put a positive motion that is weak
If you council does something positive but does not go far enough you can always speak against the motion and demand they do more, for example this was done by Andrew McKernan at the Shire of Yarra Ranges council when they declared in relations to a proposal around renewable energy.
If they need to do more
If you council doesn't declare or fails to go into emergency mode you can ask to speak to council at a later date. This was done by YCAN and Kerry Echberg on February the 22nd 2017 who sought to encourage the City of Yarra Councillor's to go beyond their acknowledgement of the Climate Emergency (2/8/2017) and implement a climate emergency response.
"...So recognition of Climate Emergency is no longer enough: Councils, along with every level of government, must develop stronger policies and actions to attempt to deal with the problem and to protect the community, particularly its most vulnerable members, from the impacts already present...." See Kerry's full speech here.
Using the budget process
Councils have an annual budget process which they invite community input. Unless you council is in full emergency mode using ALL their discretionary budget they can always do more. Making a budget submissions usually allows you to present to the budget panel.
You can use this opportunity to demand a council makes a declaration or goes into full emergency mode. Also bring up that failure to respond to the emergency will result in councillors and senior staff facing potential legal action in future.
Here is Adrian's speech he delivered to Darebin Councils budget hearing after Darebin staff refused rejected the budget proposal of the Climate Emergency Darebin (advisory committee to council).
"I ask, will you be able to look back on your decisions around this budget in ten years time and say to your children or even a court that YES your these decisions were the best you could make." - final line of Adrian's verbal submission to council.
Making a submissions
Responding to relevant opportunities for community submissions is another action your groups can undertake. At council level submissions around any of the areas relevant to climate change could be a focus.
At a councils the annual budget is an excellent opportunity to raise issues with your councils. The more submissions on the climate emergency the more the council will feel need to response. Putting in a submission also give an opportunity for a verbal submission in many councils. See above for a discussion on making a verbal budget submission.
Below is a copy of the CACE submissions made to the 2019/20 Darebin budget process
Responding to relevant opportunities for community submissions is another action your groups can undertake. At council level submissions around any of the areas relevant to climate change could be a focus.
At a councils the annual budget is an excellent opportunity to raise issues with your councils. The more submissions on the climate emergency the more the council will feel need to response. Putting in a submission also give an opportunity for a verbal submission in many councils. See above for a discussion on making a verbal budget submission.
Below is a copy of the CACE submissions made to the 2019/20 Darebin budget process
| cace_submission_to_darebin_budget_process_in_2019_20.pdf |
Why bother?
Many Councillors need to know people care about an issue before they will act. If a council proposes some new parking restrictions and doesn't introduce the concept to the community well, they might get 100-200 angry people showing up to a meeting.
If no one shows up to a meeting about global warming or no one makes a budget submission on the climate emergency they will believe no one cares.
In this two minuted video Geelong Councillors, Cr Sarah Mansfield and Cr Stephanie Asher, make an excellent argument about how powerful making a direct presentation to council can be. https://youtu.be/Pokft8nAFx4 Big thanks to Mik Aidt who was conduction the interview and Geelong Sustainability Hour Feb 2019.
Many Councillors need to know people care about an issue before they will act. If a council proposes some new parking restrictions and doesn't introduce the concept to the community well, they might get 100-200 angry people showing up to a meeting.
If no one shows up to a meeting about global warming or no one makes a budget submission on the climate emergency they will believe no one cares.
In this two minuted video Geelong Councillors, Cr Sarah Mansfield and Cr Stephanie Asher, make an excellent argument about how powerful making a direct presentation to council can be. https://youtu.be/Pokft8nAFx4 Big thanks to Mik Aidt who was conduction the interview and Geelong Sustainability Hour Feb 2019.
3.3.2 Building Allies
Getting other community organisations to back your position
Are there groups you can ally with or form coalition with? Approach them and ask them if they will from an alliance or coalition or act as a ally taking on a specific task or tasks for your campaign.
Try getting groups that are not focused on global warming to get involved. It might be your local church, school, business association or even sporting club. The boarder the range of focus of the groups you have supporting you the more likely council will support your demands.
For example in the Knox campaign the key players are bush re-generators and friends of groups because they realised unless they stopped global warming all their work to protect their local ecology would be in vain. Are relevant groups involved in your campaign?
Consider running a public meeting - you can start by calling a public meeting and invite members of local groups. CACE is more than happy to help by speaking at your even in person or remotely, or provide you with materials to deliver an on-message presentation yourself.
Set up some coordination or communication channels - once you have had your meeting you will need to consider some form of coordination assuming you have established a desire for these groups to work together. Below we list are three models you can use.
Be alert for potential negative influences - when forming alliances and networks you should be aware that these can be undermined or destroyed by people with toxic personalities (this might be you!), groups wanting to take over your work and are occasionally infiltrated by spies and agents of the people we are campaigning against (see the ABC Four Corners on Amcor's A team and its relation to the Victorian Forest campaign for a discussion on corporate infiltration of environmental groups).
Alliance / Coalitions - alliances form between groups who want to work collaboratively on a shared campaign i.e. getting your council into emergency mode. Groups maintain their own existences but meet regularly. Often different groups within an alliance focus on different sub campaigns, work in different ways i.e protest verses community engagement, or work in different physical locations. An alliance could chose to be formal, in which case it would have a name and brand which member groups would acknowledge. An alliance could chose to set up a shared working group to run the campaign on behalf of the other groups. This might include a separate website, mailing list and newsletter and would likely make announcements / media releases in its own right and have a formal spokesperson. Occasionally this form of an alliance is formalised at some point into a separate organisation particularly if the campaign drags out (try to avoid this).
Network - a network consists of groups campaigning in the same area i.e. climate emergency but focused on different campaign outcomes, for example shutting own the local aluminium smelter vs getting diary farmers to reduce their emissions vs organising community solar. A network would meeting regularly (monthly/quarterly/ yearly) do discuss and share what member groups have been doing in order to inspire each other and highlight opportunities to work together. Networks also often set up group emails or Facebook pages where members can communicate. Networks may be formal or informal. If formal it would have its own name / brand. Networks can chose to make public statements on behalf of the network usually developed as part of a regular meeting.
Communication links - these are the simplest form of coordination. This might be a simple email list of interested people who gave their emails at a public meeting or representatives from local campaign groups. Another form is campaigners sharing information with each other though a very informal network of communication links that pass information along a series of 1-1-1-1 connections. This works well if you have campaigners who chose not to work directly with each other for some reason i.e. personality /ideological clashes.
Getting other community organisations to back your position
Are there groups you can ally with or form coalition with? Approach them and ask them if they will from an alliance or coalition or act as a ally taking on a specific task or tasks for your campaign.
Try getting groups that are not focused on global warming to get involved. It might be your local church, school, business association or even sporting club. The boarder the range of focus of the groups you have supporting you the more likely council will support your demands.
For example in the Knox campaign the key players are bush re-generators and friends of groups because they realised unless they stopped global warming all their work to protect their local ecology would be in vain. Are relevant groups involved in your campaign?
Consider running a public meeting - you can start by calling a public meeting and invite members of local groups. CACE is more than happy to help by speaking at your even in person or remotely, or provide you with materials to deliver an on-message presentation yourself.
Set up some coordination or communication channels - once you have had your meeting you will need to consider some form of coordination assuming you have established a desire for these groups to work together. Below we list are three models you can use.
Be alert for potential negative influences - when forming alliances and networks you should be aware that these can be undermined or destroyed by people with toxic personalities (this might be you!), groups wanting to take over your work and are occasionally infiltrated by spies and agents of the people we are campaigning against (see the ABC Four Corners on Amcor's A team and its relation to the Victorian Forest campaign for a discussion on corporate infiltration of environmental groups).
Alliance / Coalitions - alliances form between groups who want to work collaboratively on a shared campaign i.e. getting your council into emergency mode. Groups maintain their own existences but meet regularly. Often different groups within an alliance focus on different sub campaigns, work in different ways i.e protest verses community engagement, or work in different physical locations. An alliance could chose to be formal, in which case it would have a name and brand which member groups would acknowledge. An alliance could chose to set up a shared working group to run the campaign on behalf of the other groups. This might include a separate website, mailing list and newsletter and would likely make announcements / media releases in its own right and have a formal spokesperson. Occasionally this form of an alliance is formalised at some point into a separate organisation particularly if the campaign drags out (try to avoid this).
Network - a network consists of groups campaigning in the same area i.e. climate emergency but focused on different campaign outcomes, for example shutting own the local aluminium smelter vs getting diary farmers to reduce their emissions vs organising community solar. A network would meeting regularly (monthly/quarterly/ yearly) do discuss and share what member groups have been doing in order to inspire each other and highlight opportunities to work together. Networks also often set up group emails or Facebook pages where members can communicate. Networks may be formal or informal. If formal it would have its own name / brand. Networks can chose to make public statements on behalf of the network usually developed as part of a regular meeting.
Communication links - these are the simplest form of coordination. This might be a simple email list of interested people who gave their emails at a public meeting or representatives from local campaign groups. Another form is campaigners sharing information with each other though a very informal network of communication links that pass information along a series of 1-1-1-1 connections. This works well if you have campaigners who chose not to work directly with each other for some reason i.e. personality /ideological clashes.
3.4 Election time
If you community campaign has failed to get a majority of Councillors to support a declaration by the time a council election approaches, 6-12 months before the election date, it is time to change the focus of your campaign.
The goal now is to get a new council elected who will support the declaration of a Climate Emergency and move into emergency mode. To do this we need to:
All the work you have done so far on your community campaign now provides you with the foundation for an election campaign but you will need to use additional tactics.
The include:
You may consider splitting your group in two for the duration of the election campaign period (6-12 months prior to the election) with one half continuing you existing campaign work including tactics 1 and 2 mentioned above and the other focused around running climate emergency candidate.
3.4.1 Statements of Support
Try and meet with as many candidates as possible and get them to sign a Climate Emergency Declaration statement of support. If they sign make sure you get a picture of them holding it and promote it on your Facebook page or newsletter and send a copy to the Cedamia so they can use it on their website.
This is also your opportunity to educate the candidates about the Climate Emergency and convince them to act. See our page on meeting your Councillors to help you manage these meetings.
You may not be able to meet with all the candidates because their are too many or some are difficult to contact. So you will need to prioritise who you speak to. We break down the types of candidates you might meet below.
If they are difficult to contact some candidates are likely be dummy candidates and not genuinely running for election.
Some candidate are more likely to win than others either because they have run successful campaigns in the past, are backed by a major party or have lots of money behind their campaign. Try and make sure you get a majority of winnable candidates to sign a Statement of Support.
TYPES OF CANDIDATES
Type 1 - Winners - These candidates are trying to win and should be your first priority to meet with:
Genuine Independent - these are people who are running for council because they want to make a difference or are interested in public office or some combination of both. Genuine Independents don't use supporting, fake or dummy candidates to help them win. Genuine Independents will sometimes swap preferences with each other in order to get more votes.
Dodgy Independent - these are candidates lacking support of a political party and using some of the same tactics as major parties, such as running supporting candidates and fake Independents or dummy candidates to help them win. Their motives for running are also often less clear.
Party Candidate - these candidates are backed either officially or unofficially by a political party such as Labor, Liberal or the Greens or even a faction within a party. Sometimes these candidates will not have any mention of the party they are running for and will pretend to be genuine independents. Lead party candidates are often very driven as they have their eye on pre-selection for a winnable state or federal seat at some point in the future and are trying to make a name for themselves.
Second Party Candidate - in some multi member electorates a party can win two or more positions. Hence parties run candidates in the second or third position on the ballot in a multi member ward who either will win or have a good chance of winning.
Issue Based Candidate - issue based candidates are running to promote a single issue. For example Save the Planet candidates are single issue candidates focused only on climate emergency issues. Most single issue candidate would like to win.
Type 2. Supporters - These candidates are not trying to win and should only be met with once you have met with the above candidates:
Supporting Candidate - these people are very unlikely to win but are running to support another candidate, such as through preferences on their how-to-vote card. Usually they are selected to appeal to a different section of the community than the lead candidate i.e. male vs female, young vs old, etc. Sometimes supporting candidates win by accident.
Fake Independent - these people are actually running on behalf of a party or a dodgy independent candidate. They will pretend to be a real candidate by attending forums, having posters, etc. Sometimes these people win by accident.*
Dummy Candidates - these people are actually running on behalf of a party or dodgy Independent but, other than putting a name on a ballot and a blurb on a postal ballot or in the paper, they usually don't do anything. Often the dummy candidate's profile is a complete fake and designed to simply take votes away from another candidate or party. Dummy candidates may not even respond to your attempts to contact them. Sometime there may be 2-4 dummy candidates supporting a party candidates or dodgy Independent.*
* In the past fake Independents and dummy candidates have been used to corrupt our local government elections and have had a particularly significant impact on postal elections with many dummy candidates being put forward.
Type 3. These candidates can present us unhinged or angry
The Crazies - have a few key issues they get really upset about and are unhinged to varying degrees. Probably don't bother meeting with these people.
3.4.2 Produce and distribute a scorecard on the candidates
Once you have interviewed candidates you can assess them using a scorecard which rates their response to the climate emergency.
You need to find ways of differentiating candidates, bad from worse and excellent from good, to make sure you get the best candidates elected.
We discuss how to make a score card here.
In recent years some groups have used climate emergency language on their scorecards but they appear to have been designed to rate the group's favoured candidates highly. The scorecards rated non-climate emergency candidates as equal to climate emergency candidates and thus undermined the climate emergency campaign and our efforts to avert a climate catastrophe.
Once you have produced your scorecard you must distribute it and get as many people to see it as possible. Options include:
3.4.3 Run Climate Emergency Candidates.
Running Climate Emergency candidates is an excellent way to promote the climate emergency issue in your local election. It cost much less than running federally and, if you have a postal ballot, you will be able to send a message about the climate emergency to all voters interested enough to read the candidates' blurbs.
Save the Planet is a political party and campaign organisation set up to promote the issue of the climate emergency and its solutions and is happy to help people interested in running as climate emergency candidates.
3.4.4 Assessing the result.
Once the election is held you will either have a majority or not have a majority. If you have a majority get them to acknowledge the climate emergency as the first motion of a new council.
If not you will need to meet with the new councillors not yet supporting a climate emergency declaration to convince them to do it (see Step 1 ) or run a community campaign mentioned above.
If you community campaign has failed to get a majority of Councillors to support a declaration by the time a council election approaches, 6-12 months before the election date, it is time to change the focus of your campaign.
The goal now is to get a new council elected who will support the declaration of a Climate Emergency and move into emergency mode. To do this we need to:
- Re-elect Councillors willing to support a Climate Emergency Declaration
- Replace Councillors who are refusing to support a Climate Emergency Declaration with ones who do
All the work you have done so far on your community campaign now provides you with the foundation for an election campaign but you will need to use additional tactics.
The include:
- Getting ALL (as many as possible) candidates to sign a Statement of Support (see Cedamia's website)
- Produce and distribute a scorecard on the candidates
- Run climate emergency candidates.
You may consider splitting your group in two for the duration of the election campaign period (6-12 months prior to the election) with one half continuing you existing campaign work including tactics 1 and 2 mentioned above and the other focused around running climate emergency candidate.
3.4.1 Statements of Support
Try and meet with as many candidates as possible and get them to sign a Climate Emergency Declaration statement of support. If they sign make sure you get a picture of them holding it and promote it on your Facebook page or newsletter and send a copy to the Cedamia so they can use it on their website.
This is also your opportunity to educate the candidates about the Climate Emergency and convince them to act. See our page on meeting your Councillors to help you manage these meetings.
You may not be able to meet with all the candidates because their are too many or some are difficult to contact. So you will need to prioritise who you speak to. We break down the types of candidates you might meet below.
If they are difficult to contact some candidates are likely be dummy candidates and not genuinely running for election.
Some candidate are more likely to win than others either because they have run successful campaigns in the past, are backed by a major party or have lots of money behind their campaign. Try and make sure you get a majority of winnable candidates to sign a Statement of Support.
TYPES OF CANDIDATES
Type 1 - Winners - These candidates are trying to win and should be your first priority to meet with:
Genuine Independent - these are people who are running for council because they want to make a difference or are interested in public office or some combination of both. Genuine Independents don't use supporting, fake or dummy candidates to help them win. Genuine Independents will sometimes swap preferences with each other in order to get more votes.
Dodgy Independent - these are candidates lacking support of a political party and using some of the same tactics as major parties, such as running supporting candidates and fake Independents or dummy candidates to help them win. Their motives for running are also often less clear.
Party Candidate - these candidates are backed either officially or unofficially by a political party such as Labor, Liberal or the Greens or even a faction within a party. Sometimes these candidates will not have any mention of the party they are running for and will pretend to be genuine independents. Lead party candidates are often very driven as they have their eye on pre-selection for a winnable state or federal seat at some point in the future and are trying to make a name for themselves.
Second Party Candidate - in some multi member electorates a party can win two or more positions. Hence parties run candidates in the second or third position on the ballot in a multi member ward who either will win or have a good chance of winning.
Issue Based Candidate - issue based candidates are running to promote a single issue. For example Save the Planet candidates are single issue candidates focused only on climate emergency issues. Most single issue candidate would like to win.
Type 2. Supporters - These candidates are not trying to win and should only be met with once you have met with the above candidates:
Supporting Candidate - these people are very unlikely to win but are running to support another candidate, such as through preferences on their how-to-vote card. Usually they are selected to appeal to a different section of the community than the lead candidate i.e. male vs female, young vs old, etc. Sometimes supporting candidates win by accident.
Fake Independent - these people are actually running on behalf of a party or a dodgy independent candidate. They will pretend to be a real candidate by attending forums, having posters, etc. Sometimes these people win by accident.*
Dummy Candidates - these people are actually running on behalf of a party or dodgy Independent but, other than putting a name on a ballot and a blurb on a postal ballot or in the paper, they usually don't do anything. Often the dummy candidate's profile is a complete fake and designed to simply take votes away from another candidate or party. Dummy candidates may not even respond to your attempts to contact them. Sometime there may be 2-4 dummy candidates supporting a party candidates or dodgy Independent.*
* In the past fake Independents and dummy candidates have been used to corrupt our local government elections and have had a particularly significant impact on postal elections with many dummy candidates being put forward.
Type 3. These candidates can present us unhinged or angry
The Crazies - have a few key issues they get really upset about and are unhinged to varying degrees. Probably don't bother meeting with these people.
3.4.2 Produce and distribute a scorecard on the candidates
Once you have interviewed candidates you can assess them using a scorecard which rates their response to the climate emergency.
You need to find ways of differentiating candidates, bad from worse and excellent from good, to make sure you get the best candidates elected.
We discuss how to make a score card here.
In recent years some groups have used climate emergency language on their scorecards but they appear to have been designed to rate the group's favoured candidates highly. The scorecards rated non-climate emergency candidates as equal to climate emergency candidates and thus undermined the climate emergency campaign and our efforts to avert a climate catastrophe.
Once you have produced your scorecard you must distribute it and get as many people to see it as possible. Options include:
- leafleting
- door knocking
- posters
- social media
- market or street stalls
- handing out on election day - if you have an attendance election and are allowed to by the relevant electoral authority.
3.4.3 Run Climate Emergency Candidates.
Running Climate Emergency candidates is an excellent way to promote the climate emergency issue in your local election. It cost much less than running federally and, if you have a postal ballot, you will be able to send a message about the climate emergency to all voters interested enough to read the candidates' blurbs.
Save the Planet is a political party and campaign organisation set up to promote the issue of the climate emergency and its solutions and is happy to help people interested in running as climate emergency candidates.
3.4.4 Assessing the result.
Once the election is held you will either have a majority or not have a majority. If you have a majority get them to acknowledge the climate emergency as the first motion of a new council.
If not you will need to meet with the new councillors not yet supporting a climate emergency declaration to convince them to do it (see Step 1 ) or run a community campaign mentioned above.
