If you’ve signed online or on paper and you don’t really have the time or the interest to do more than that, well, a) thank you for signing and b) we will be here with open arms and specific/doable jobs if you ever change your mind/have more time.

This page gives a list – from “simple and quick” to “complex and long”  – of other things you can do to get the “Respond to climate change with more democracy and more money” petition up to and beyond the necessary four thousand signatures.  If you have additional suggestions, please email us and we will include anything that isn’t illegal, immoral or unsanitary. Our email is petition@climateemergencymanchester.net

BUT WE DO OTHER STUFF TOO.  The petition is a means to an end.  We exist to connect folks, to offer skills, to create dialogues, to learn.  We need researchers, web monkeys, graphic designers, interviewees, bloggers, “ordinary people”.  If you don’t want to do the petition, but you do want to be involved, please email contact@climateemergencymanchester.net

Simple and quick

Announce to the world that you have signed and that you think other people should

  • say it on Facebook (on your own timeline but also in any groups you are a member of)
  • say it on Twitter, and please tag us – @ClimateEmergMcr
  • say it on Snapchat, Tiktok and all these Young People platforms we have read ‘moral panic’ denunciations of in the quality press (Daily Mail)
  • if you’re really keen, even change your image/avatar for a bit?!
  • add it to any email signature you have – something like  “I’ve signed the petition for more democracy and cash for local climate action. If you live, work or study within Manchester City Council’s boundaries, you can too.”
  • while we are on the subject of email, individual/personalised emails to friends, family, acquaintances, work colleagues, asking them to consider signing would be great.
  • mention it to friends

Simple but more time consuming

  • write a letter to your local newspaper saying you have signed
  • get a short item about the petition into any bulletin (written or email) that is circulated at your place of work (if it’s within the City Council’s boundaries) or study
  • download copies of the petition sheet and go around your place of work/study collecting signatures. When people sign, give them a thank you flyer with more info.  If they don’t want to sign on paper, give them the flyer anyway, it has the website details. There’s a sheet of information about how to collect signatures here.
  • Tell us about upcoming events, meetings etc where we could collect signatures. Criteria – a high percentage of the people there will be a) eligible to sign and b) sympathetic to the idea of signing

Complex but quick

  • Make a short video selfie about the fact you’ve signed and why you have, encouraging others to do the same. Stick it on your youtube/vimeo/whatever.
  • Do an interview with us about who you are, why you signed, what needs to happen next, which we can publish when we hit a ‘milestone’ (100 signatures, 500 signatures).  Here’s an example from last time around
  • Contact your three councillors and tell them that you have signed, and ask them if they are going to sign (they ARE allowed to).  Report back any answers (or lack of answers) you get to petition@climateemergencymanchester.net
  • Wrack your brains for people to contact. If you know any celebrities who might be up for endorsing/signal-boosting the petition campaign, please contact them and give them our email and website details.

Complex and long -Get involved in the campaign more deeply

We need people to help us with further developing and implementing strategies  both the online collecting and the paper collection. Even a few hours would be SUPER helpful.

  • Read our strategies (once they’re a bit more complete – give it a week) for online and offline collecting, and tell us what you think, what is weak, how it might be improved.
  • Collect signatures (ideally in pairs) on your street/neighbourhood, at your community centre, at your mosque, church, synagogue etc (n.b. somebody has to live work or study within the boundaries of Manchester City Council to be eligible to sign. So if they live and work in, say, Trafford, but worship at a church within Manchester City Council’s boundaries, they would NOT be eligible).
  • Keep an eye on our weekly updates about the petition – there will be specific tasks for people with specific skills (graphic design, public speaking etc)
  • Tell us about people who are active in communities – esp in North Manchester – who we could ask to engage with
  • Host a meeting in your community about climate change and the need for local action. We will happily come along and speak, (or suggest other speakers!), run a workshop, sit at the back with our petition forms. Whatever works best for you.

 

Ultimately we want to do this as quickly as is possible (in a sustainable way – no blackmail, no burnout) because it will

a) boost our morale and that of other groups/supporters/allies

b) send a loud signal to the City Council that the existing set up – of not enough time for scrutiny and not enough cash for action – is not acceptable

c) mean that we can devote our time and energy to building networks for local action, rather than getting the Town Hall’s behaviour up to scratch

Through this process of getting the four thousand signatures, we want

  • to collect signatures in all 32 wards – at least 32 per ward, but in some wards we want to get into triple figures.
  • to increase the skills, knowledge and relationships not just of our own group/supporters, but everyone’s. Whether it is public speaking, signature collecting, letter writing, event hosting, whatever, we need more people who can communicate well about the climate emergency.
  • to find out what each of the 96 (well, 95 until 27th February) councillors think about a seventh scrutiny committee and more cash for climate, and have them make some sort of public declaration – “yes”, “no” or “maybe- I want to know x/y”
  • to build our own contacts and thicken the networks generally, throughout the city (beyond the infamous Hulme-Chorlton-Didsbury triangle”) and also beyond the university-educated eco-ghetto of “progressive” types.