The fragmentation of interests and forces in progressive politics has led to a decreasing identification and engagement with political parties. That does not mean people are not interested in campaigning for progressive policies.
But there are a raft of organisations starting to emerge which work in different ways, under different concepts, from the traditional methods of campaigning. That does not mean just the new political must-have, “Obama method”, although the blogosphere, once seen as a domain in which the right was overwhelmingly dominant, now has a large number of progressive and left-wing bloggers with large numbers of daily readers.
For example, Liberal Conspiracy and Left Foot Forward have both gone from strength to strength in the past 12 months. Other organisations experiencing rapid growth in the past year include Hope Not Hate, the anti-fascist group which has offered people the chance to articulate their opposition to the rise of far-right parties at the last European Parliament election. This suggests core progressive values of tolerance are still thriving in this country, although perhaps it needed a crisis for them to be brought into the light.
38 Degrees, the campaigning organisation that brings people together to take action on the issues that matter to them, has also had some big successes. Our calls for a windfall tax on bankers’ bonuses were heeded towards the end of 2009 and we’ve recently heard that our London campaign to ensure Boris Johnson keeps his promise of funding four rape crisis centres of London was kept has also been successful. Our membership has also grown far in excess of what we had anticipated and is now close to 120,000.
This should be a huge encouragement to those who believe that traditional progressive left-wing values are in decline. Our campaigns are unashamedly concentrating on progressive issues, such as stopping cuts to vital public services, supporting green jobs, and defending the BBC from the attacks on its funding and independence. 38 Degrees is a member-driven organisation with a small staff team that makes genuinely responsive campaigning possible. We constantly ask our members what issues they want us to work on and we have dynamic discussions about our planned and current campaigns happening in various places, including on our Facebook page. More than 3,000 members logged on to help write our election strategy. Further, 38 Degrees is not party political. Party politics is a huge turn-off for large numbers of 38 Degrees supporters. Although some of our members are members of progressive parties, including Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens and the nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales, and others may have been in the past, the majority don’t associate themselves with organised politics. For many, 38 Degrees is their first step into engaging in political issues at all. Respecting the fact that it’s possible to be political without being party political is a central part of how 38 Degrees engages with our members.
Being pragmatic about working across party divides to win our campaigns is another part of the picture. What drives people towards fighting for social change is, in large part, not the chance to belong to a “tribe” or political party, but the chance to help to shape society. Finding the fastest route to doing that in a progressive way means 38 Degrees can make a real claim to being the start of a movement.
There is a final, critical challenge to which 38 Degrees may be one part of the answer. Over the past 50 years, politics has become increasingly dislocated from the everyday patterns of people’s lives. Where once people’s political identities were expressed through their workplace via the union movement or through their place of worship or via social clubs that served their local community, politics has now become a hobby indulged in isolation. Cut off from people’s real lives, it becomes easier to believe that politics doesn’t matter.
It’s easy to imagine that offering people the chance to take political action online would pander to that trend. But the stereotype of the lonely internet geek is no longer relevant. The internet now reflects the prevailing tendency of most human beings to be social: through social networking sites such as Facebook and through interactive spaces on outlets traditionally more concerned with giving information offering a chance to answer back – such as Comment is Free on The Guardian. Much of our social lives happens online and, while it is easy to overstate that trend, we increasingly rely on online tools to maintain geographically diffuse social relationships.
Online organising gives people a chance to reconnect their political lives with the everyday business that they have with their friends and family, as well as creating new, semi-social relationships with people they meet through taking part in those activities – such as on Facebook fan pages. It offers the possibility of a return to political involvement where the rest of people’s lives don’t have to be left at the door. Reinstating that connection can bring people back to fighting for the politics and the society we want.
About The Author
Hannah Lownsbrough is campaigns director at 38 Degrees
Actually it was the left who took the early lead on the internet. But it was political opposition that allowed the right to then take a lead, that’s all. Only when Labour was threatened with losing, as John Harris and others have pointed out, did the left finally take advantage of the internet. It’s going to be a very interesting time from here on in.