Active Citizens Transform was founded in 2004 by

Charles Secrett Charles Secrett is an environmental activist and was head of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1993–2003. He is an author and broadcaster on environmental topics. Secrett was a member of the Labour Government's Comm ...

, former Executive Director of the

environmental organisation An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces. In this sense the environment ...

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...

, and Ron Bailey, as a new non-party political movement in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It aims to mobilise citizens to transform the United Kingdom into a vibrant, participatory and

sustainable Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

. It opposes the "

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

" electoral system. ACT published an advertisement in 2005 criticising Labour party

members of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

who promised to support environmental policies but, under pressure from the Labour party's leadership, voted against environmental measures opposed by the British government. The ''advertisement'' was criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority for making misleading claims. One of ACT's main projects was

Local Works The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a Great Britain, British think-tank that promotes "social, economic and environmental justice". NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a "new m ...

the successful campaign for the Sustainable Communities Bill. ACT inherited this campaign from the New Economics Foundation. In 2006, ACT formally merged with

Charter88 Charter 88 was a British pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform and owes its origins to the lack of a written constitution. It began as a special edition of the ''New Statesman'' magazine in 1988 and it took its name ...

, which in turn merged with the

New Politics Network The New Politics Network was an independent political and campaigning think tank in the United Kingdom, concerned with democratic renewal and popular participation in politics. It was founded as the successor to Democratic Left in 1999, and merged ...

in 2007 to form

Unlock Democracy Unlock Democracy is a British pressure group, based in London. The organisation campaigns for a more participatory democracy in Britain, founded upon a written constitution. Unlock Democracy works to promote democratic reform across the politica ...

References

External links

ACT

Charter88
Friends of the Earth. Press release, 28 March 2003. British activists Electoral reform in the United Kingdom Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom Sustainability in the United Kingdom {{UK-org-stub