Fossil Free Campaigns Manager

About the role

For the past five years, Platform’s fossil free work has focused on the coordination of the activist network UK Divest, with the aim to disrupt the financing of the fossil fuel industry through local government pension schemes. In the past two years, the remit of our work has expanded, to include new campaigns focused on exposing and disrupting fossil fuel industry sportswashing and the lobbying of Parliament. Now, with new campaigning underway on new targets in the pension sector, we are re-organising and growing our team to resource this exciting work.

Working alongside three Fossil Free Campaigners at Platform - and partners at Friends of the Earth Scotland - you will build on the strengths and learnings of past years to lead the strategic development of this important programme of work, incorporating UK Divest, Fossil Free Parliament, fossil free sports work, and new pensions work.

Our fossil free campaign is also inextricably tied to other movements for social justice. We are specifically seeking someone to develop the international solidarity potential of this work, understanding how fossil fuels are intertwined with the defence industry, colonialism, and global extraction more broadly. We want to target investment in and political support for fossil fuel companies because we believe it is intricately linked to broader global justice, such as the UK Government’s role in supporting destructive energy projects worldwide. The best divestment and anti-fossil fuel campaigning has been, and your future work will be, informed by and responsive to the BDS movement, the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine and anti-apartheid and arms trade work.

As a permanent member of Platform staff, you will also participate in the collective decision-making and running of Platform as an organisation, as well as having fundraising responsibilities alongside your project work. 

Details

Hours: 4 days (32 hours per week based on a 40 hour week)

Contract: Permanent contract, subject to 6 months’ probationary period.

Salary: Baseline salary is £42,248 pro rata (£33,791 at 4 days a week) and is subject to Platform’s Socially Just Waging System.

Location: Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, London E2 6HG. Many Platform staff members choose to work primarily from home: flexible remote working can be negotiated to suit circumstances.

Responsible to: Management Group and Trustees

About Platform

Extractive energy, food and financial systems are driving climate breakdown, the defining issue of our time. At Platform, we’re tackling this by exposing who owns and controls these systems, mobilising impacted communities and envisioning sustainable and socially just alternatives.

Drawing on Platform’s unique 40-year history, our team of campaigners, researchers and artists are working across the UK to transform the political, cultural and social conditions in which polluting industries operate.

What we are looking for

You are an experienced campaigner and organiser, with experience in inter/national campaigns, and a track record of developing impactful strategies with strong theories of change. You thrive on movement building and supporting networks of activists to do their best work. You have strong connections in climate and social justice movements at large.

You understand how change happens, and are experienced in practical approaches that secure small but consistent wins. You understand how political institutions work, particularly local councils and/or UK and Scottish Parliament. You may have experience in insider advocacy, and have worked with policymakers to make change happen. Ideally, you also have a working understanding of how financial institutions such as pension schemes support the fossil fuel industry.

You are deeply motivated by Platform’s visions and values, and feel enthusiastic at the prospect of operating within a flat-structured organisation. You have a strong understanding of climate justice in relation to a wider context of capitalism and white supremacy.

You are interested in creative campaigning that makes use of arts and culture, and have a strong track record of developing trusting relationships. You have experience engaging with press media in a strategic way.

You enjoy working in a team, take pride in and responsibility for your work, and believe in collaborative, consensus based decision-making.