Our members have their say

Our members have their say

eleanor-williams

By: Eleanor Williams
Date: 31 August 2017

130617_agm_064I’ve been reading over the responses to our members’ survey. They gave me food for thought, challenged my opinions and were really inspiring. For example,

“Treating people forced to migrate because of war, oppression, environmental disaster, gender related and poverty with dignity and compassion is vital for a just and sustainable future for all.”

It is individual people, like the member commenting above, who push our campaigns forward. Local activists, members, supporters and allies all make change for a more just world possible. As a democratic organisation we asked our members to take our survey and have their say on the direction of our campaigns, and over 950 responded. Here are some results and learnings we’ll be taking forward:

We’ll be doing more to make sure everyone feels like a member and part of Global Justice Now because a significant amount of people did not define themselves as members even though they are.

Q. “What do you think is an important objective for Global Justice Now?”
To ‘challenge corporate power’ was the most popular objective members voted for. We will strongly embed this focus in our campaigns.

Q. “How much do you support this campaign?”
We were really encouraged to hear that our members strongly support all of our campaigns. One member said about pharmaceuticals, As a retired GP I know of the ridiculous prices demanded for drugs under patent rules.”

Q. “How easy is this campaign to understand?”
Our pharmaceuticals and migration campaigns were voted the easiest to understand, with Brexit and trade the hardest. Some commented these were the most complex areas of work. We’ll be focussing on making the trade campaign and our work on Brexit clearer, which is an important part of broadening our network.

Q. “Which campaigns should we prioritise?”
While the climate and trade campaigns came out top, our separate local groups survey strongly suggested we prioritise trade. Trade is likely to be our main focus in 2018, but we will look at ways to bring out the climate implications through this work.  As one member said, Trade relates to poverty, inequality and human rights, with terrible things being perpetrated by corporations.

There were also lots of useful comments on each of the individual campaigns – these have been passed on to the relevant staff.

The survey also emphasised the importance of diversifying our movement. Of those who responded very few considered themselves to be from a Black and Minority Ethnic background and the majority said they were 60 or older. While the sample may not be representative of members as a whole, this does highlight the importance our youth network and diversity strategies for growing our movement.

A big thank you to all our members and group members for taking the time to have your say on the future of Global Justice Now.