Young Greens

The Young Greens society is part of the youth branch of the Green Party. They discuss what they think the government at all levels should be doing. I spoke to Joel Smith from Young Greens and asked him about their aims, ideas and plans for the society.

How do you go about ‘organising students and young people to fight for a fair economic system, for good and free education and to stop global warming’?

We organise a wide range of events from film screenings to talks and discussions right through to political campaigning for the issues we are passionate about. We believe society can work better and that we can make it better if we work for it.
Our society was formed last year and we had many successes. For the local elections we campaigned for seven students to become Green councillors and came second in three, which was fantastic. We organised the food co-operative collaborating with other societies as well as lobbying the council to provide recycling bins to all homes. We also campaign with local green candidates in elections and believe we can get a seat in Manchester at the next council elections.

Do you have any other plans for the near future?

We are hoping to send people to the Demo2012 march in London along with many other students from Manchester protesting for a better future, so check that out. As a smaller party the Greens listen to the youth wing meaning you can have a real impact on the direction of the party.
 Also on the 6th December we will be hosting a talk and discussion called “Can the Free Market save the planet?” which should be a really interesting evening.

Who are you looking for and how can people get involved?

We want people to check out the Green Party website policy page (tinyurl.com/greenpolicy2012) and if you think that sounds like a better system then come along to some of our events! We promote and organise everything that’s going onto Facebook and Twitter and if you don’t use either of them then drop us an e-mail, we’re looking for energetic people who want to get more engaged with politics and meet some fun people. It’s free to join and you can come as little or as much as you want.
www.facebook.com/youngandgreenmanchester