What is "The Activist Inside"?

What? I'm not sure. For me, it something that I think exists for me, but I only discovered it when I thought that my life had come to a fork in the road: to be an activist around ecological matters... OR... to be involved in local politics.

The fork occurred for me, when in Spring of 2006, I decided to stand in the local elections because I wanted to push for action on climate change. During the campaign, I considered what I would do if I failed, and I decided that I'd put my efforts into environmental activism.

I won, and that is when I discovered the possibility of "The Activist Inside". I found myself engaging with my fellow councillors, the council officers, local residents, and fellow political party members, in a way that I hadn't considered was part of the role of a councillor, but an activist.

With this, I realised that engaging with political parties and councils from the inside is a far more powerful approach than being confrontational from the outside.

And... you don't have to burden yourself with the responsibilities of being a councillor to become a worthy contributor to national party policy (something I didn't really realise before!)