The midterm elections in the US have delivered the House of Representatives to the Democrats. And, across State races, there has been a decided shift left. The results aren’t perfect – the Senate remains in Republican hands. But it’s a landslide 9% nationwide swing against Trump and what he stands for. Why did this happen? You won’t hear the truth from conventional sources. The Democrat party representatives will give you the line that it was because Trump is so unpopular. The…

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Who knew that TV could teach you how to change the world! But then again it’s not every day that a police comedy takes on police racism. Embedded in Brooklyn Nine Nine’s approach to sitcom writing are a few lessons about how we can successfully communicate important, difficult issues to a wider audience. Get the team right First step in any communication strategy is – who is doing the talking! For Brooklyn Nine Nine, it was all about who was…

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The refugee debate has dramatically shifted in Australia – it is possible that the camps might be cleared on Nauru and Manus Island. We might actually see the concentration camps that Australia runs – closed. What has made this happen? 1. The refugee movement never gave up This is no quick, fast battle. The movement exploded in 2001 in response to the so called “Tampa Crisis.” There were big rallies, over the following ten years there was some movement inside…

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With Scott Morrison careering from one disaster to the next, it’s hard to remember when the games that pass for politics in Canberra were last done well, or at least competently. When I co-founded GetUp! back in 2005, the big issues were: refugees, instability in the Middle East and climate change. For all of GetUp’s success at annoying the far right of the Liberal Party, not a lot has changed on the big issues. Australia feels a bit stuck. So,…

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Episode 1: Brooklyn 99 What can we learn when a Hollywood TV show gets into ChangeMaking? Comedy show Brooklyn 99 took on police racism. How did they do it in a way that people didn’t turn off? Listen to the episode on Podcast One, Stitcher or Apple iTunes (or click the episode link to stream here). Episode 2: Umbrella Movement In 2014 Hong Kong hundreds of thousands of citizens staged a mass street occupation demanding the vote. Why did it happen?…

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Get ready to be inspired by some of the best people on the planet – Series 2 of the ChangeMakers launches on Monday 29 October 2018. We will be releasing 9 story based episodes: 5 on 29 October then a further 4 at the end of November. The stories include: Episode One – an inside look at Hollywood TV show Brooklyn 99 and its story on systemic police racism. Episode Two – the 2014 Umbrella Movement from Hong Kong when…

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Have you ever clicked on an online petition and wondered whether it worked? In 2016, GetUp – a digital campaign organisation best known for its online petitions and email campaigns – decided to go offline. They came up a strategy to remove extreme conservative politicians from the Australian parliament. One of the places they went to was the seat of Bass in Northern Tasmania – a seat not known for being welcoming to out-of-towners. What did they do, and how…

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What would you do if someone wanted to bulldoze an oil pipeline through your country, threatening not just your land, but your water and air? And what if the nation backing them had a history of playing dirty? That’s the situation the people in today’s episode found themselves in. The battle over building an oil pipeline in Standing Rock in South Dakota, USA. Should they take the high road? Or respond in kind? Click the play button above to stream…

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On the western side of Cape Town’s downtown are a string of what looks like unused buildings. From the outside they appear like they must be empty. Broken windows, damaged roofs. If you were a tourist here you wouldn’t “see” them – just a haze as you enter the city on one of the major highways. But today my 9 year old son and I came to find one of those buildings because we were there for a meeting about…

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What would you do if someone wanted to illegally concrete over your local park, and build an apartment block on it? And what would you do if the authorities supported the illegal construction? Today episode looks at how to organise genuine opposition in a place where the one thing they hate is genuine opposition. How a small protest against destruction of a local park turned into a mass movement that’s sweeping Russia. Click the play button above to stream it…

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