Chris Johnston: The election as viewed from Leeds
Global justice activists in Leeds have not let the general election pass quietly. What started with an open meeting to discuss how we might work together on the election has evolved into a fully-fledged campaign – the Fair 10 Challenge. The idea is simple; we’ve created a 10-point manifesto with ambitious and specific pledges we’d like Leeds’ candidates to make. We’ve asked them to sign up to as many of the pledges as they wish, and will publish the results on a constituency by constituency basis a few days before the election.
It’s an ambitious plan for what is essentially a group of volunteers, but luckily we have a large coalition of local groups working to pull it off, including Leeds Friends of the Earth, Leeds Oxfam Group, supporters of Christian Aid, Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supporters of CAFOD, Leeds SPEAK, local group Living in the Age of Stupid and TIDAL.
The first task was to agree a joint platform. We invited the city’s global justice activists to submit points for the manifesto, and once these had been collated we invited people to vote on them. In the end over 100 people cast their votes, and and the top ten points became our manifesto.
Second, we set out to get the campaign on the radar of candidates. With so many people vying for their attention, we wanted to do something that would really stand out. We came up with the idea of delivering chocolate-filled Easter baskets to the offices of the candidates; this way we would provide a physical reminder of the campaign that all the people in the office would interact with.
We’re now at the stage of getting people to show they support the campaign by signing an online petition. We’re hoping that by demonstrating public support for the manifesto, candidates will be more inclined to be ambitious in their pledges.
On May 1st this phase of the challenge will close and the results will be promoted to as many people as we can reach. As well as raising the ambition of candidates in the run-up to the election, we aim to use the challenge over the next parliamentary term to hold the next generation of Leeds MPs to their word.
We’ve had a positive reaction so far, but there’s still plenty work to do before we get to polling day. To find out more about the campaign – and maybe even to promote it! – check out www.fair10challengeleeds.org.uk
Chris Johnston is Coordinator of TIDAL, an organisation working to support global justice activism in Leeds.
