[ssf] Fwd: ACT

[Alan Dawson]

Any body got clue on this

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    Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 18:55:17 +0000 (GMT)


Do you all know about this?

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PRESS NOTICE
LAUNCH OF NEW POLITICAL MOVEMENT IN SHEFFIELD
Monday 31st January
 
“Politicians think there are no votes in the environment, no votes in democracy
and no votes in a new constitution.  ACT aims to change that.”



On Monday 31st January, at 7pm in the Friends Meeting House, 10 St James Street,
Sheffield, a new non-party political movement - ACT – Active Citizens Transform
– will be launched. ACT’s aim is to kick-start a democratic revolution in
Britain – The Reasonable Revolution. 

 

ACT’s 400 founding members want to see a fundamental transformation in the way
Britain is governed, and in the priorities on which the running of society is
based. The British way of life and our economy are simply not sustainable.
Fundamental economic and social inequalities, and degrading environments,
divide our world – splitting countries, communities and citizens apart, and
ruining the places in which we live. As government ignores the problems, and
gathers ever more powers for itself at the expense of our elected
representatives in parliament, so people feel increasingly isolated and
marginalised. There is widespread public concern about these failures of
government, cynicism about politicians and distrust of party politics. 

We need politics to work and be seen to work, and deliver justice in the present
and for future generations. This is what sustainability and democracy mean for
us. ACT believes that only citizens and communities can drive these changes.
This is what we call The Reasonable Revolution.


In short, ACT is about building up political clout from the grassroots.  We have
the backing of Charter88, and are initially building support in 18 public
launch meetings and campaigns.   ACT’s agenda is to:


1. secure new planning and development powers for communities and local
authorities, including over public services, housing, energy, transport, waste
and High St. development schemes

 

2. win new powers for Parliament to hold the Prime Minister and Cabinet to
account for delivering manifesto commitments and Department policy


3. build up public and cross-party political support for a range of new laws,
tax codes and public spending priorities to tackle problems like climate change
emissions, polluting and resource wasting industries and the plight of poor
families and neighbourhoods who suffer the worst effects of environmental
degradation and pollution


4. secure new political rights for individual citizens and communities,
including: to participate meaningfully in setting national as well as local
public policy priorities; to choose their own local electoral voting system; to
be able to hold government and companies to account for causing avoidable harm
to public health and the environment; and, to determine local economic and
market trading conditions to favour local businesses. ACT is also campaigning
for a written constitution that will empower individual citizens and
Parliament. 

5. motivate and mobilize a nation-wide network of voters, tax-payers and
constituents, and unite a wide range of national organizations and community
groups, into an effective political movement driving this democracy and
sustainability agenda. We will publicly support those politicians who back this
agenda, and expose those who do not.


ACT’s four launch campaigns are: 1) The Representation of the People (Local
Electoral Systems) Bill; 2) Statutory Carbon Reduction Targets, and Supportive
Tax Codes; 3) a Bill of Sustainability Rights, supported by a written
constitution; 4) The Sustainable Communities Bill. (See Launch Pack for
details).


Charles Secrett, Co-Director, stated: “Britain’s economy and way of life are not
sustainable. We consume too much, pollute too much, and government tolerates
too many environmental, social and economic injustices. Politicians think there
are no votes in the environment, no votes in democracy and no votes in a new
constitution. ACT aims to change that.”


Ron Bailey, Co-Founder and Co-Director of C88, stated: “ACT is flagging up two
of the fundamental flaws in our democracy: the increasing inability of
parliament to hold the executive to account ,and the complete lack of any
facility by which electors cans hold their own MPs to account.  By trying to
build a non-party citizens movement around those two issues, and by linking the
issue of democracy to sustainability, ACT is filling an important political
vacuum.  It must succeed!”

For further information, please contact:


Charles Secrett, Co-Director ACT: (w) 020-7833-9898; (m) 079770-16119


Ron Bailey, Co-Director ACT: (w) 020-7833-9898; (m) 07951-761229


Stephen Shaw, ACT Network Coordinator: (w) 020-7833-9898; mobile 07788-646933 

ACT website: www.actnetwork.org.uk

E-mail contact: info at actnetwork.org.uk


NOTES TO EDITORS:

1) ACT has been founded and set up by Charles Secrett , Ron Bailey, and Martyn
Williams.

Charles Secrett, Co-Founder ACT: Director, Friends of the Earth 1993-2003.
Started peaceful direct action campaigns with communities to protect threatened
nature reserves in Britain (1981); began the first Rainforest campaign (1985),
including widespread consumer boycotts and constituent political lobbying; and,
at FOE, prioritized the development of citizen action, consumer/shareholder
pressure and constituent campaigns, including on environmental justice issues,
GM foods, fuel-poverty, habitat protection, and traffic reduction (1993-1999).

Ron Bailey, Co-Founder ACT: From his initiation of the squatters’ movement in
1968 to the present day, Ron Bailey has always been a keen advocate of citizen
mobilisation.  He set up the Parliamentary Units at FOE and ACE, and has been
responsible for over 20 successful campaigns to change legislation on
environment and democracy issues.

2) ACT’s Board members are: John Jackson (Chair of Countryside Alliance and
Board of openDemocracy); Judy Ling Wong (Director, Black Environment Network);
Stuart Weir (former Editor New Statesman, and founder of Charter88); Helen
Furtado (London First); Richard Sandbrook, (former Director of International
Institute for Environment and Development); Martyn Williams (co-founder ACT,
and Parliamentary Coordinator for Friends of the Earth) and Andrew Warren,
(Director, of the Association for the Conservation of Energy).

3) ACT has agreed campaign partnerships with Charter88 and the New Politics
Network, and is jointly running campaigns with them for a written constitution,
the Bill of Sustainability Rights and for Local Electoral choice.

4) ACT Launch Meetings: 10 January, London; 12 January, Cardiff; 13 January,
Norwich; 17 January, Birmingham; 18 January, Tunbridge Wells; 19 January,
Leeds; 20 January, Truro; 21 January, Bristol; 24 January, Plymouth; 25
January, Oxford; 26 January, Brighton; 27 January, Southampton; 31 January,
Sheffield; 1 February, Newcastle; 2 February, Manchester; 3 February,
Cambridge. Launch meetings in Edinburgh and Belfast will take place later this
Spring.
 



PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF ADDRESS 
Sheffield Community Recycling Action Programme  - SCRAP promotes recycling
schemes to benefit local communities in Sheffield. 
40 Earsham Street,Pitsmoor, Sheffield, S4 7LS. 
tel: 0114 2755055 / 0114 2755599, fax: 0114 2755055. 
Company limited by guarantee no. 2236177, charity no.1002780
Registered office 127 Spital Hill, Pitsmoor, Sheffield S4 7LD.


		
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