GPEx Campaigns Co-ordinator candidates

As voting opens for the Green Party of England and Wales’ (GPEW) internal elections, candidates for the position of GPEx Campaigns Co-ordinator explain why party members should vote for them.

GPEW candidates 2020 GPEx Campaigns Coordinator
GPEW candidates 2020 GPEx Campaigns Coordinator
Green World
GPEW candidates 2020 Hannah Graham

Hannah Graham

For an experienced and radical campaigner, elect Hannah for evidence-based, relevant campaigns facing threats head-on and mobilising people for a progressive alternative. 

From its very start, our party emerged from powerful social movements and campaigns for progressive change. Campaigning is and always has been a vital thread in the fabric of our party and movement. My name is Hannah Graham, and I am standing to be the Green Party’s next Campaigns Co-ordinator.

I have been a member for six years, I’m a former Young Greens Co-Chair and parliamentary candidate. I’m from Lincolnshire, but live in London, where I’ve stood for local elections, and am on the list for the London Assembly elections. 

It was defending free education on my university campus that inspired me to take action against the growing divides in our society. After being elected to the role of Vice President of my Students’ Union, I led the free education strikes on campus, then stood as the first ever Green Party parliamentary candidate in Middlesbrough in 2015. 

I’m an experienced policy specialist and campaigner, with eight years’ professional campaigning experience. Currently, I work as an International Advocacy Manager, working with young women and girls at the grassroots level to give them the tools they need to influence decision-makers on issues that disproportionately affect them.

I believe that Green Party campaigns must be evidence-based, relevant and formed through interactions and partnerships with pressure groups and civil society. I am a progressive and radical campaigner, a believer in direct action, and an advocate for diversity and inclusion of marginalised groups. 

Recent attacks on our basic human rights have shown that more than ever we need campaigners to face threats head-on and mobilise people for a progressive alternative. It’s important our campaigns are spearheaded by people with lived experience. I will make efforts to bridge the gap between the party and campaigning groups, ensuring we are on the right side of history.

GPEW candidates 2020 Daniel Laycock

Daniel Laycock

Vote Daniel Laycock as 1st Preference for Campaigns Co-ordinator – let’s build the campaigns we need and win.

With my extensive knowledge and experience in campaigning, I have what it takes to be pragmatic, passionate, and the driver to see campaigns at the heart of the party once again. 

Campaigns are inter-related to elections and we know they are the bread and butter of any political party. For nearly 10 years, I’ve worked extensively on local, regional and national campaigns across the country and overseas. 

These have ranged from lobbying county councils for better services for young people, working towards same-sex marriage being legislated, being a political advisor and spokesperson for RemainerNow to leading campaigns to see more Greens elected in local and national elections. 

We need to be campaigning on the pivotal issues of today and tomorrow. From a Green New Deal, that will transform society and the country while also tackling the climate crisis, protecting LGBTIQA+ rights, Proportional Representation for better representation, having black history on the national curriculum and much more.

For the first 12 months, I will:

  • Have the Campaigns Committee up and running within the first 60 days, as this hasn’t been functioning for some time. 

  • Launch a campaign consultation with members for campaign priorities for the party and launch a campaign ideas portal. 

  • Hold monthly calls with liberation groups, local and regional parties for updates on campaigns and build the infrastructure needed to win campaigns across the country. 

I’ll work with every part of the party and outside organisations to ensure our campaigns are not only aligned with our strategy, but we see campaigns that will be effective, transformative, inclusive, powerful and winnable. 

This is our time to push the Green future, we desperately need. If not now, when?

Vote Daniel Laycock as 1st Preference for Campaigns Co-ordinator – let’s build the campaigns we need and win. 

GPEW candidates 2020 Britta Goodman

Britta Goodman

For a strong campaigning Green Party, leading on climate change. 

I have been Campaigns Co-ordinator on GPEx for the past two years, in a job-share. We have developed and delivered the Action on Climate Emergency (ACE) Campaign. This mobilises our membership and strategically grows further electoral success: Green councillors have been the driving force behind Climate Emergency declarations across the regions. However, where there is only a lone councillor, Greens can struggle to get heard. The ACE campaign maximises their impact by starting and growing support groups for our councillors. Where we have no Green councillors elected yet, it supports members in building groups that become drivers of local climate action.

We have very little time left to act on the Climate Emergency. We need to work much closer with campaigning environmental groups and other allies, locally and nationally. Despite our long grass roots tradition, campaigns have been neglected for a very long time. Over the next 12 months, I will get the ACE campaign to all regions, and use this opportunity to rebuild a proper campaigning infrastructure to support a growing campaigns community. 

And there is more to it: we need to think of campaigns as a platform – to display our diversity, and a way to give the stage for future new leaders of our party: A new generation that has close ties to politics because they know they can make change happen. So that we do not lose momentum, I will start a ‘Campaigns Fest’, modelled on our successful ‘Policy Fest’

On a more general note, I am hoping for a significant reshuffle at these elections. Over the past two years I have witnessed that we are facing a significant governance problem, where some people follow their own agendas instead of working to enable every Co-ordinator to make the most out of their position.

Voting for the GPEW internal elections for leadership positions and the Green Party Executive (GPEx) will run until 31 August. If you are a GPEW member, you can cast your vote on the GPEW members’ site.