On February 9th, No Water No Life interviewed John Wright, the founder and president of the Wright Group, a lobbying group that lobbies for social justice causes in New York State. He is an expert at lobbying, and we asked to interview him to learn techniques for how to advocate for justice for water issues. He especially recommended to understand the opposition’s perspective, and to make sure that they know that whatever you are convincing them to do will greatly benefit them. For example, in speaking with fishermen and women, we have to understand that they are concerned with any restriction on the amount of fish that they can catch, since they hugely rely on fish for their entire income to support their family and themselves. In order to convince them, we need on impress it upon them that there is an enormous benefit to their fish to have corals, and that when the corals die, the fish that they need will be negatively impacted. We need to remind them that when there are healthy corals, there are more fish. We can also give examples of times and places where coral damage has caused damage to the ocean ecosystem and fishing communities. He also recommended finding a fisherperson who agrees with our perspective, and asking them to speak with the fisher-people who disagree with us. This is because they are more likely to listen to someone whom they are certain understands their perspective completely. He also advised that a way to advance our petition* for coral conservation is to get other schools involved, and for other schools to spread the petition in their networks. He advised to select a school that is located in the same state as a council member of the MAFMC, and for that school to work on convincing their state’s council member. I learned a lot from this interview. I found John Wright to be very friendly and accessible, and also very knowledgeable. I really enjoyed learning from him. Thank you, John Wright, for your help and useful guidance!

Daniela Pierro

John Wright, whom No Water, No Life interviewed in LREI’s school library about lobbying techniques to convincingly advocate for social justice in water issues.