Grassroots activists

Last Thursday night, one thousand meetings were held in livings rooms across Australia to discuss climate change. I was part of one of those meetings.

As part of the non-party aligned GetUp group, this GetTogether was about climate change. Our agenda was to create awareness about this issue at a local level. Our group of nine had to come up with a climate change action and make sure it was covered in the local newspaper. With one GetTogether already taking place in Dulwich Hill and one held in Petersham our targeted paper was The Cooks River Valley Times.

Over homemade Tzatziki and a bowls of Twisties we brainstormed ideas. We came up with a simple idea that included Mick Mazza’s bicycle store and a plasma TV. This was not an extreme action. But then again, we are not extremists. We are just ordinary people needing a voice on issues in an era where mainstream political parties are too preoccupied with wedge politics. With one hundred and eighty thousand people already registered with GetUp, this makes us larger than the membership of the Labor and Liberal Party combined.

Forget Parliament and branch stacking. Real political change will be coming to a livingroom near you..