At Netroots UK, British progressives plant seeds for future online struggles

In the wake of the largely publicized student demonstrations of November and December against the tuition fee increases, progressives in the United Kingdom are now striving to organize themselves not only on the streets but also online. To that effect, and for the first time ever, numerous left-leaning movements and individuals met in Central London on Saturday the 8th of January to discuss online strategies at the Netroots UK conference. Progressive American organizations, like Media Matters and Blue State Digital – responsible for Obama’s online campaign – joined to share their experiences. The conference itself was inspired by similar events taking place in the United States.

Sunny Hundal, editor of the blog Leftwing Conspiracy, columnist for The Guardian and co-organizer of the conference explains: “the plan is to bring people together, veteran campaigners from trade unions and new, more tech-savvy campaigners to establish the best way to fight the government’s strategy.” Hoping to transfer knowledge between generations, Hundal also underlines how useful social media can be for more locally-focused movements.

Carolynne stands tall among the new generation of activists Hundal mentioned. Sympathetic to the students because, she states, “I had friends involved in the London and Oxford student occupations”, she could not attend the students’ demonstrations because of her job. However, she attended two other protests in Brighton. Once there she “live-tweeted an account of the events and posted photos from both protests and picked up a couple of hundred followers as a result. The local paper even used the tweets as part of their live-blog covering events.”

In the same way, activists tied to current social movements have been making a deft use of social media. Occupied colleges opened Twitter accounts gathering thousands of followers. Activists also set up Google maps to monitor in real-time the positions of police forces during demonstrations, in fear of police kettling.

After attending the protests, Carolynne still felt like “a lone protester unallied to any group, and unsure how to capitalise on [her] new experiences.  So when the opportunity to attend the Netroots conference presented itself, [she] jumped at it”. She wasn’t alone. In terms of attendance, the day was no doubt a success. Entrance tickets were sold out in advance to the more than 500 people who crowded the sturdy-looking rectangular-shaped building of the Trade Union Congress; Britain’s national federation of unions and host of the event. There, Carolynne met with bloggers, unionists and activists. They sat down for a day of networking, lectures and workshops dedicated to improving online campaigning. Although the organizations involved had different causes, the dominant theme of the day was clearly the growing anti-cuts movement opposing the budgetary policies of the Cameron-Clegg government.

“We first talk[ed] about such an event about a year ago, before the government even changed” says Hundal. For him the conference is happening at ‘the perfect time’. The recent unifying atmosphere of anti-governmental anger coupled with the upsurge in activism, such as students and tax-avoidance protests, means this is now the zeitgeist. “There’s a lot of energy we need to tap into, there’s more protests coming up in January and March so now is like a breathing period”. A time open to reflexion and discussions, but also a time for progressive activists to reach out to the least politically engaged and train activists who are not as digitally engaged about Twitter, blogs and videos. “Otherwise, they won’t be as effective”, notes the co-organizer.

Mixing traditional Labour elements with more left-wing components did not go smoothly. Several voices called out the Labour concerning the Iraq war or tuition fees, originally put into place by Labour. “There was a palpable mistrust of both mainstream media and politics – the Westminster bubble – as having failed the people they are supposed to serve.” Carolynne explains, “but there was also a determined will not to give in to in-fighting on the left, and to resist being ‘led’ in the traditional sense.”

At the conference, Carolynne tweeted all day long “This seems to be becoming my role in the movement, live reportage from events, and I am glad to do it – even on my day off!” The hashtag #netrootsuk rapidly became a trending topic. Conservatives who were trolling threw some barbs at the event. @OldHoborn tweeted “We don’t want any filthy capitalists near our Macbooks, iPhones and iPads, thank you very much.”

But an uprising acknowledgment of the importance of this day came from the right side of the political spectrum. The Guardian’s Tim Montgomerie, a conservative blogger and guest-lecturer at the conference said that “the right has dominated the blogosphere for a number of years and I would not say I am anxious to see a gathering such as this but I am fascinated by it. If you plan it right it could be a huge expansion of the left wing, the labour movement.”

Carolynne expresses with a careful enthusiasm the potential of the movement she saw on Saturday. “We have the tools and we have the will” she says, but sees that British progressives as lacking a common goal, such as electing a particular candidate.

“We are not ‘for’ Labour or ‘for’ the Libdems, we are ‘for’ something that does not yet exist.  This is our challenge, to find out what we are ‘for’. If we do not do this we will fall into the trap of merely being ‘against’ the cuts, which, whilst valid, will not ultimately achieve our aims.”

Nevertheless, she concludes, hopeful, “the Netroots conference was a great first step in the right direction.”

Bloggers have taken the debates in their own hands, here, here or uploaded their presentations online.

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Photo Credits: MyDavidCameron.com