POLITICS MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Bob WF wrote recently,

"I am not opposed to members of the Breakthrough Party attending branch meetings but I would like to see a joint meeting with them to see where commonalities and differences exist.

"I am not going to write letters to people in power as this is not how I see politics making a difference."

My own practice is that I join with anyone of any and of all political persuasions to stop what is blindingly obvious a mistake and to put it right.  Like joining with Sandra and Bob WF for step free access at bus stops that we already have at tram stops.  To be specific, like that campaign of theirs and, indeed, Bob's Fare-Free Public Transport.

To target, for decades one obvious stupidity and its disastrous offshoots - and to concentrate on that blindingly obvious blunder that is an easy win.  You don't wait to get elected.  You join with any old bod who wants to make a difference and then bombard the decision makers to educate and inspire them to change the obvious idiocy and to do the right thing, instead.  It is called political and ecological education.

EXAMPLES:

We won over getting lead out of petrol.  "The U.S. began phasing out leaded gasoline in 1975 not for health reasons, but because it fouled catalytic converters, which were just then being mandated to reduce emissions."     https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1133434_why-did-the-world-use-leaded-gas-and-why-did-it-take-so-long-to-phase-out

Rachel Carson was outstanding.  She "swayed public opinion and led to a reversal in U.S. pesticide policy, a nationwide ban on DDT for agricultural uses,^[2] and an environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.^[3][4]  " Wikipedia

"In 2006, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time."

The green movement that includes all ecologists, the Green Party, FoE and Greenpeace have been right from the very beginning over replacing finite fossil fuels with renewables.  We have been shown to be correct.

We were right over insisting on nuclear disarmament - and winning that one.  Right over the link between nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

We were right over the hole in the ozone layer.  That was an easy win last century for ecosocialists and environmentalists.

We were right over economic growth/greed/GHG emissions and wanting a more sustainable or steady state economics as if people and the future mattered.

I think I have been right since I took up the cudgels in the 1980s over fighting the Kidderminster, Blakedown, Hagley motorway standard bypass (KBH) and, insisting instead that passenger and freight trains be reinstated on the partly used railway alongside or near to the KBH - the one I'm still working on, for trains, over the full 120 Kms (74 mls).  40 years so far and winning is as far off as my getting to the moon!

We were proved right when, last decade, Metro was finally banished from the Kings Norton, Kings Heath, Balsall Heath line and the years of building three railway stations began.

We won when we stopped most of the E arm of HS2.  It is expected to end at East Midlands Parkway.

All this is exactly what Bob WF is wanting - only "politics making a difference."  But it starts and ends with individual and group activity, with the individual activity involving writing, phoning, listening and learning, speaking here, there and everywhere and using persuasion to eventually win the day.  Asking questions, attending forums, meetings and surgeries of the decision-makers.  And, individuals supporting and encouraging one another in their individual concerns, if at all possible.

Group activity would be writing press releases that are agreed by all, sent out and, then meeting with the decision makers to get feedback.  Partnership working.  Working together.  Showing solidarity and encouragement.

Tim