To win hearts, minds, campaigns and elections

Helen: Our next speaker is Jo Bird who is a councillor in Bromborough for the Green Party.

Jo: Thank you very much. I was also the Green candidate for Birkenhead in the general election just gone. We won 20% of the vote. We’re really pleased with that. It’s a great base for next time.

In my opinion, we need to do 4 things politically to defend Gaza and human rights. We need to win hearts, win minds, win campaigns and win elections.

1. So to win hearts,

we distributed over 100,000 leaflets to every household across Birkenhead, talking about Gaza and the Green position.

Because people came to me all the time as a candidate and said, “What’s the Greens position on Gaza?” and I said, “Firstly, immediate bilateral ceasefire. Secondly, release all the hostages. Thirdly, negotiations for long lasting peace. And we’re also saying we should end the arms trade with Israel.”

I said it on BBC Politics North West to Labour’s Lisa Nandy. I said it in our leaflets. I said it on the doorsteps, one to one, reaching deep into our communities. It’s a top 3 issue that people talk to me about. Gaza is really important to loads of people.

2. Winning minds

We need to free our minds from the idea that this new Labour government is going to change meaningful for Palestinian people. They’ve found plenty of money immediately last week, for the arms trade. But they are not finding money for our public services or the wages of doctors so far.

We need to free our minds from that coercive relationship. If you know anyone that is still a member of the Labour Party, please help them to leave. Its not good for them. Its only be leaving a coercive relationship that your mind is free to think about anything else.

3. Winning campaigns

The campaigns that Helen’s talked about for example, pensions investments, the University programmes that Souhana talked so well about. We need to stop arms companies, like Teledyne on the Wirral, making weapons that are for sale to Israel. Because one win leads to another.

4. Winning elections

At the end of the day, politicians are elected to help lead our communities. Politicians decide whether to make war or to make peace.

One in five people in Birkenhead voted for me, which is such an honour. That’s up from 3% last time. MPs across the country – 9 were elected in England on an explicitly pro-Palestinian, human rights platform, like Carla Denya in Bristol.

Hallelujah!

Since the general election, thousands of people have joined the Green Party. They see it as the best way to make political change including for Palestinian people. We’re already building for the next local elections.

After the last general election in 2019, I spoke in Liverpool about 4 things we needed to do then. Defend, attack, build and create. The Labour Party expelled me two years later for that very speech. Thank goodness for that!

I know that the Party I’m in now won’t expel me for this speech. Its we, the people of Merseyside, we started chants like, “Oh Jeremy Corbyn”. The Green Party defends people like me and dozens of others who have been attacked and bullied by the media and by politicians for criticising Israel. The Green Party is the only one that defends its representatives, to the hilt.

It’s been 40 weeks (9 months) since we’ve been marching every week in Liverpool. Let’s hear it for Liverpool Friends of Palestine for the work they’ve done, week in, week out.

We come because we care, because it matters. Because it matters in our hearts, as well as our minds, our actions, our campaigns and our elections. I love that we come. I love every single one of you.

Thank you. Keep it up.