> Where and when:
> This is an invitation to come and spend an evening with two Australian Climate campaigners - Ellen and Moira (or you can just drop in for an hour). They are in Berlin for just a few days this month, creating this opportunity to share skills and stories from our movements.
> Wednesday the 9th September
> From 18:00 Uhr.
> Emser Str 7. 12051 near Neukölln S+U.
> Bell: Davison.
> Please share this invite with anyone you think would be interested, particularly if they are involved in climate campaigning/organising.
>
> Ellen and Moira have been implementing North American techniques that at first can feel culturally inappropriate/awkward (door knocking, phone calls, hard-core recruitment strategies) to successfully mobilise conservative, non-traditional, rural and coal-dependent communities. They are also leading a transition project in a coal dependent community.
> There will be food! You can also bring some things to eat if that's easy for you.
>
> Who? Ellen Roberts and Moira Williams
>
> Moira works in rural Queensland (Northern Australia) as a campaigner for 350.org. She is also an Ecologist.
> Ellen is the coordinator of the Mackay Conservation Group. She has qualifications in philosophy and law (asylum seeker law is her specialty), has worked as a industrial officer for the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, and has years of campaign experience including national climate movement organising.
>
> They are members of the now famous Mackay Conservation Group (mackayconservationgroup.org.au *), a tiny local organisation that just one month ago won a legal battle that scrapped (for now) the Adani coal mine licence. This was a massive defeat for the Abbott Governments pro-coal agenda.
>
> Context:
> Australia is facing massive coal and CSG industry expansion. New approaches to organising have been trialled over the last 5 years.
> What experience can they share?
>
> Transition:
> Ellen and Moira are currently working in a coal dependent community in Queensland and are working with community members on transition and experiences of economic change.
>
> Organising approach:
>
> The climate movement in Australia has moved from addressing climate change by attempting to change individual behaviour, online activism and highly professional lobbyists >> to working with strategies that engage people (grass roots/ non-traditional audiences) to become politically active. This is partly about organisational change, a decision to shift to an organising model (first by the Sierra Club in the USA, now also in large Enviro organisations in Australia).
> Long story short: (As you know) no one gives a fuck about light-bulbs anymore.
>
> Please pass this invite onto anyone who might be interested.
>
> It's a bit spontan, but I hope many of you can make it :)