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Extinction Rebellion recruitment
June 2019
Extinction Rebellion needs people to act in the face of the climate emergency.
They seek 3 or 4 people to take on the co-ordinator role, to share the work of organising actions in Sheffield. This means bringing the Actions Working Group together, maintaining contact with the members, liaising with other Sheffield Working Groups (like media/messaging, and the arts group), progressing agreed proposals for actions, and reporting back to all XR Sheffield members to encourage their participation.
The Finance/Fundraising Working Group needs help to manage XR Sheffield’s bank account and requests for spending, and take a leading role in organising fundraising activities. These are mainly social events, so there’s a lot of fun involved too. No prior financial experience is necessary.
The Recruitment Working Group are looking for someone to co-ordinate in the aim of mobilising 3.5% of the population to achieve system change. Members of this group talk to the public and give out leaflets at various local events, creating a calendar of events, organising members to do the leafleting, keeping leaflet text up to date, and liaising with the Diversity/Outreach Working Group on events
The Media/Messaging Working Group publicises actions on social media and in the local press. They need more people to help with this work. As a member, you would write press releases and liaise with local/regional media.
The Training and Talks Working Group seeks members to organise talks for members of the public and training for members (eg non-violent direct action, and being a meeting facilitator).
Extinction Rebellion Sheffield
Co-op Group job vacancy
Fulwood: June 2019
A vacancy for a Member Pioneer, paid £8.75 per hour plus benefits for 4 hours per week has been announced by the Co-op Group. The work is home-based in the Fulwood area, the successful applicant will need to live in or very close to this community.
The role involves inspiring people, showing them the power of co-operative values like self-help and solidarity, and introducing them to local projects, charities and causes. Full details at the link below.
Closing date 25th June 2019.
jobs.coop.co.uk
Extinction Rebellion success in Sheffield?
14th May 2019
Activists from Extinction Rebellion Sheffield have engaged in protests that saw more arrests than the poll tax riots but were entirely peaceful. The movement is favour of a sustainable world free from the impending threat of climate breakdown and full of new possibilities. The following is taken from the Sheffield City Council news website
Councillor Lewis Dagnall, Cabinet Member for Climate Change at Sheffield City Council, has today (14th May 2019) invited Extinction Rebellion and other climate change groups to meet with him to discuss the global climate emergency and how Sheffield can become a zero carbon city.
Councillor Dagnall spoke at Extinction Rebellion Sheffield’s rally and demonstration outside the Town Hall on 15th May before the annual full council meeting. He said: “Sheffield was one of the first major cities to declare a climate change emergency following last year’s major wake-up call by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“We are working urgently with partners to understand the implications for Sheffield, and will soon revise the city’s deadline for carbon neutrality to take account of our obligations. It is likely our target will need to be brought forward by decades, such is scale of the emergency.
“Sheffield can be proud of its track record. The city has long pursued progressive policies towards the environment and embraced new, cleaner technology – from introducing district heating in the 1970s to trialing the largest fleet of hydrogen vehicles outside of London today.
“However, we must now go much further and much faster to avert irreversible damage to our environment and climate. It must be a joint task for the city as a whole, and in my new role as lead member for climate change at the City Council, I want to invite Extinction Rebellion and other groups campaigning on climate change to meet with me to discuss how we can work together.”
In January, Sheffield brought forward its carbon neutral targets and declared a ‘climate emergency’ after new research warned of the catastrophic consequences of global warming. It is now the largest city in the UK to declare a ‘climate emergency’. Updated plans for how they will tackle the crisis were discussed as a motion at a full council. The city council wants to ensure that as a local authority and as a whole city we are doing everything we can to limit reduce carbon emissions and limit man-made climate change.
The council already has plans to become carbon neutral by 2050 but it is now working with partners to bring it forward by years, if not decades.
Green City Sheffield builds upon the ground breaking work of the Sheffield Green Commission. Sheffield City Council has already been leading the way to becoming a low-carbon economy.
Sheffield is testing the largest fleet of hydrogen vehicles outside of London and is the first large city to introduce anti-idling measures to stop people leaving their engines running outside schools.
Sheffield was one of the first cities in the UK to introduce district heating and implement clean air powers in the 1970s and private sector investment has created a further two biomass-powered decentralised energy plants in the city.
During 2015 Sheffield City Council facilitated the city’s first Green Commission. This independent commission was made up of key leaders and stakeholders from across the city, including business, industry, our universities, the public sector and the voluntary and community sector.
The final report of the Sheffield Green Commission – Sheffield’s Green Commitment – was published in 2016, and set out a vision for how, working together as a city, Sheffield could become a smarter, more sustainable, more competitive ‘future city’.
By 2020, the Council will have achieved a 30 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, and, in the next seven years, the Council and its partners will have substantially increased the level of low carbon and renewable energy generation in the city
By 2030, a majority of the city’s energy will be supplied from low carbon and renewable technologies, with work already being progressed to determine how the Council can use its own assets to generate renewable energy, and develop its existing energy networks.
Extinction Rebellion Sheffield invites all those interested in ensuring action is taken to join in planning future disruptive and collaborative non-violent direct action on the streets of Sheffield. Meetings are every Monday evening at Union St. Cafe. Meal at 6pm (£3 suggested donation); Meeting/Induction 6.45-8.00pm.
Extinction Rebellion
Free cycle training
2019
CycleBoost is delivered on behalf of Sheffield City Council, promoting sustainable travel and encouraging more people to replace shorter car journeys by travelling by bike.
They run free Cycling Courses, whether you are a complete beginner or just want a confidence boost, they can provide a course for you through Pedal Ready. Learn to Ride, Cycle Confidence, Road Confidence, and Electric Bike courses are available. To book your place email admin@pedalready.co.uk.
2019 course details
Housing co-operative vacancy
June 2019
Brambles long-established vegetarian/vegan housing co-operative in Burngreave is looking for a new member. To maintain a good gender balance they specifically request applications from females, non-binary or couples.
To find out more about Brambles, and the joining process, see the documents at the link below, or email questions to brambles@riseup.net. Open for applications until Sunday 30th June 2019.
Brambles info & vacancy details
Disabled people call for trashing the Metro
May 2019
In the face of a government propaganda campaign supporting the new Universal Credit scheme, Sheffield DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) are urging people to dispose of misleading articles.
Please take as many Metro Newspapers with DWP Universal Credit advertorials and reuse them or put them in recycling bins, they say. Put the action on social media with the hashtags #BinMetroDWPlies, #StopandScrapUniversalCredit, and #DisabledMilitant. The new system has increased poverty, homelessness, food bank use, and suicides.
DPAC Facebook page
Do you want an air pollution monitor?
March 2019
A new group called Clean Air for Sheffield, in collaboration with Univesity of Sheffield are installing air pollution monitors (measuring particulate matter) across Sheffield - these link up to a citizen science project called luftdaten.
So far there are about 20 monitors installed in Sheffield and some show up on the map (it takes a few weeks for them to register).
If you want to get a monitor for your house, workplace or other site, they cost £30 (by PayPal to Graham Turnbull and you need to power them (from a USB cable) and connect them to WiFi.
Graham will make it and bring it to you, making sure that it works. Or people can build it themselves (but it may involves more work and cause delay in getting data). A kit costs £40. The parts take 2-4 weeks to arrive from China.
Graham can be contacted via cyclesheffield@googlegroups.com
Sheffield People´s Petition
Autumn 2018, petition open until Sep. 2019
A petition is aiming to improve the system Sheffield Council uses to make decisions. It urges a referendum to move from the current undemocratic "strong leader" system (just 10 councillors have the power to make nearly all decisions) to a modern committee system where all councillors have real power to represent the communities that elected them. This is a big issue for local democracy, it was covered in an Alt-Sheff article in Now Then magazine.
The petition is being run by It´s Our City, a non-party-political community network in Sheffield.
UPDATE December 2018
Feedback shows there is a big gap in people’s knowledge of how the Council works under the strong leader. Virtually everyone does not know that the power to make nearly all decisions is in the hands of just 10 out of the 84 elected councillors. People are genuinely shocked, and about 80%+ support and sign the petition for change, which is heading towards half of the total necessary signatures.
What can you do?
SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER help on the campaign Communities, Social Media, Publicity or IT teams: www.itsoursheffield.co.uk/get-involved
DELIVER LEAFLETS in your local area/on named streets, email info@itsoursheffield.co.uk if you can do this.
INVITE "It’s Our City" TO YOUR COMMUNITY GROUP to talk for five minutes and to have a discussion about Sheffield People’s Petition, email: info@itsoursheffield.co.uk.
GET PAPER PETITION SHEETS by emailing, and gather signatures from your friends, street, neighbours, colleagues.
JOIN in ongoing street stalls, events, signature collecting all around Sheffield (details posted on Facebook group “It’s Our City! Sheffield”).
SPREAD THE WORD as much as you can, and keep spreading it - ask questions, and stay informed!
A Christmas Single has been made by ‘Jumping’ Jason Leman! youtube.com/watch?v=rP0TvMKQ2a8
It´s Our City Petition
